Are Generations Even a Thing?

Summary

Stuff You Should Know – “Are Generations Even a Thing?”

Hosts: Josh Clark & Chuck Bryant
Date: April 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Josh and Chuck dive into the concept of generational labels—where they come from, how meaningful (or not) they are, and the social and marketing forces that have shaped how we talk about Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and the newly coined Gen Alpha. They trace the origins and evolution of these labels, challenge their validity, and highlight the problematic ways they’re used to divide and stereotype. Throughout, Josh and Chuck use their signature humor and personal anecdotes to bring the discussion to life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Even Are Generations? (02:24–06:32)

• Opening Banter: Josh and Chuck introduce themselves as Gen Xers and joke about generational stereotypes.
• Key Insight: Generational labels aren’t rooted in scientific fact. They’re more a product of sociological debate hijacked by marketers.
  • Chuck (04:36): “It was this sociological, almost intellectual debate that got somehow manhandled and taken over by Marketing who now use it to make money, essentially.”

2. Where Did The Labels Come From? (06:32–15:02)

A chronological tour of the generations (mostly in the U.S.), including name origins and cultural contexts.

The Lost Generation (1883–1900)

• Came of age during WWI; name popularized by Gertrude Stein, referenced in Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.”
  • Josh (07:57): “Specifically in this case, it was from the book The Sun Also Rises. In the epigraph, Ernest Hemingway quoted Stein saying, ‘you are all a lost generation.’”

The Greatest Generation (1901–1927)

• Lived through the Depression, fought WWII. Name coined by Tom Brokaw in his 1998 book, but earlier called “GI Generation” by theorists Strauss & Howe.

The Silent Generation (1928–1945)

• Wedged between the Greatest Generation and Boomers—less celebrated, dubbed the Silent Generation in a 1951 Time essay for their caution and conformity.

The Baby Boomers (1946–1964)

• Noted for the massive postwar increase in birthrate, the only group recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Marked by significant internal divides—early vs. late Boomers, and the idea that U.S. focus ignores global generational differences.
• Chuck (16:34): “We should say generations…we’re talking almost exclusively about the United States here.”

Generation Jones (mid–late Boomers)

• Coined by Jonathan Pontell for the anonymous, common aspect of late Boomers.

Generation X (1965–1980)

• Labeled after the Douglas Coupland novel and possibly after Billy Idol’s old band. Characterized by irony, anti-corporate attitudes, and cynicism.

  • Chuck (17:15): “Gen X is very much bordering these days on being labeled as obnoxious about how much we talk about how awesome we are.”

• Sub-divided by pop-culture: Atari Wave (early) and Nintendo Wave (late Gen X); “Xennials” are on the Gen X–Millennial cusp.

Millennials (1981–1996)

• Also called Echo Boomers or Generation Y, but “Millennials” (name coined by Strauss & Howe) stuck for its optimism.
• The largest living U.S. generation (as of 2019).
• Characterized by coming of age post–2000, experiencing 9/11 and the Great Recession.
  • Chuck (25:27): “There’s something to say about straddling that line…completely different realms of technological development.”

Generation Z (1997–2012)

• First fully digital natives, nearly named iGen or Generation K (for Katniss Everdeen, referencing a more dystopian, apocalyptic pop-culture context).

• Also briefly considered Generation C (for Covid).

• Stereotyped as “extremely online,” authentic, socially conscious—sometimes unfairly described as coddled, entitled, or “snowflakes.”

  • Chuck (32:23): “You can take any of these and turn it negative, and that harms the group that you’re talking about…but also, more importantly, a social harm…a socially acceptable form of discrimination, which is ageism.”

• Notable political stat: 53% of Gen Z women self-describe as feminists, vs. 32% of Gen Z men—a much larger gap than in earlier generations.

Generation Alpha (2010–2025)

• Term coined by Australian researcher Mark McCrindle, suggesting future generations use Greek letters (Gen Beta, etc.).
• Even more “online” than Gen Z—many Gen Alpha kids see technology as their default environment, raising concerns about tech impact on development.

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3. What’s Actually Behind This? (38:15–41:18)

• Generational thinking began with sociologist Karl Mannheim’s 1920s essay “The Problem of Generations,” suggesting that people are imprinted by formative events.
• Later, Morris Massey argued it’s shared “values” that distinguish generations, especially as these values are shaped during specific historic events.
• Marketers latched on in the 1970s, recognizing generational cohorts as valuable targets—especially when Boomers hit their 20s.
  • Chuck (42:52): “That demographic of 18 to 24…That’s when you have money to spend maybe for the first time…And so they want to sell to people.”

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4. Critiques and Limitations (46:42–54:54)

The Three “Effects”:

1. Life Cycle Effects:

   • People change with age, not because of cohort—e.g., Boomers were radical youths, then became more materialistic (yuppies), then politically active seniors.
   • Chuck (47:27): “When you’re younger…you want to change things…the yuppies of the 80s…one of the ways you can make yourself more relevant is to become politically active.”

2. Period Effects:

   • Historic events affect all ages, not just the young, though we focus on their impact on youth.

3. Cohort Effects:

   • The actual definition of generational difference—a combo of age plus shared formative events.

Criticisms of Generational Labels

• Stereotyping: Group traits are based on a small, loud, media-visible minority within the cohort. (Example: Only ~10% of 20-somethings smoked weed at Woodstock’s peak.)
• Intersectionality Ignored: Generational talk often only applies to a white, middle/upper-class, U.S. perspective—downplays or erases differences in race, class, location, and context.
  • Chuck (51:38): “The media highlights…the most extreme segment of a group of people.”
• Ageism: Generational labels can feed discrimination in both directions—older against younger (“snowflakes,” etc.), or vice versa (“OK Boomer”), and can create real harm.
  • Josh (33:11): “It gives somebody permission…It’s no different if you’re like, hey, you’re not like other Gen Zs…Just stop.”
• Generalization Problems: Not all generational assignations are accurate—many people born on “cusps” don’t identify with their supposed cohort.

Fun Fact:

• Josh (53:27): “People 65 and over average 10 hours of screen time a day compared to 7 hours a day for 18–34-year-olds.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Josh (03:18): “...the whole idea of generations fascinates me.”
• Chuck (06:18): “But it's still interesting to talk about.”
• Josh (17:47): “Breaking rules without causing harm. …That's a great way to put it, Chuck.”
• Chuck (32:23): “That harms the group that you’re talking about…but also, more importantly, a social harm…it allows for essentially a socially acceptable form of discrimination, which is ageism.”
• Josh (53:27): “People 65 and over average 10 hours of screen time a day compared to 7 hours a day for 18–34 year olds.”
• Chuck (54:15): “You want to not watch TV during the day and not watch it in bed at night.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:24 – Episode start and premise: Questioning the reality of generations
• 06:32–15:02 – The origin and tour of generation names and boundaries
• 21:06–21:07 – Break before Millennials
• 24:13–29:35 – Millennials and changing technological/cultural divides
• 29:35–36:47 – Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and contemporary tech/social impacts
• 38:15–41:18 – Sociological foundations (Mannheim, Massey) and the role of marketing
• 46:42–54:54 – Critique of generational thinking and its consequences

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Tone and Language

• Friendly, skeptical, self-aware, and deeply humorous.
• Plenty of personal stories, self-deprecating jokes, and real affection for each generation—even while critiquing the concept.
• Language is conversational, sometimes irreverent (“flippity jibbity”), but informative and insightful.

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Conclusion

Josh and Chuck demonstrate that while talking about generations is entertaining and sometimes useful shorthand, it’s mostly a marketing construct that often relies on stereotypes and ignores real diversity. They urge caution in applying generational labels—and remind listeners of the real harms that can result from broad generalizations about huge groups of people.

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Memorable Takeaway:
Generations are more story than science—fun to talk about and occasionally useful, but too blunt a tool for understanding people as individuals.

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For further reflection:
If you catch yourself stereotyping a generation, maybe, as Chuck says (32:23), “Just stop.”

Transcript

[Josh Clark]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

Welcome to Stuff youf Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. And there's Chuck, and Jerry's here. Just a few Gen Xers hanging, doing our thing, being too cool for you, Drinking Mountain Dew, Code Red, and that's it.

[Josh Clark]

Wow, look at you on fire already.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know about that. I could have done a lot better, but that was off the dome.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, off the dome. That's probably a millennial or Gen Z

[Chuck Bryant]

saying, I got that from you.

[Josh Clark]

Well, I got that from Noel.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, well, Noel's definitely a millennial. Yeah, he is a millennial through and through, as we'll see. The birth cohort that Noel and every one of his age cohort was born into are exactly alike, and they're different from everybody, older and younger, and it's pure science. That's proven that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And by the way, we're talking about Noel, co host, obviously, of stuff they don't want you to know, among other great things that he done, including former Mini Movie Crush co host.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I didn't know if you were going to say that for a second. And I was going to jump in and be like, don't forget Movie Crush.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah, he hosted those minis with me.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. And he was. He produced them too, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, he produced them for a while. And then I think Noel even took the reins and hosted two great episodes by himself. If anyone is a fan of John Cameron Mitchell or Ke$oh, wow.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like, Ke$ha was on.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Two of the bigger gets on Movie Crush were Noel episodes.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wow. What was Kesha's favorite movie?

[Josh Clark]

You know, I'm pretty great at remembering all of the guests that I had, but I don't remember Kesha or John Cameron Mitchell's.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay. Well, we'll look it up someday.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it was something great.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I remember when Noel, when you made him producer, he let that go to his head. He started wearing, like, pastel blazers with the sleeves rolled up. He was always, like, sniffing and, like, touching his nose. He was an uber producer for a while. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

He got an ascot, which was a little much, but

[Chuck Bryant]

started hanging with Bronson Pinchot. So we're talking today about generations. That's why I mentioned that we're all Generation X. And I was being facetious earlier when I said this is all proven by science. Apparently, it's not at all proven by science. It's really not particularly scientific. And the whole thing, actually, when you start to dig into it, was this sociological, almost intellectual debate that got somehow manhandled and taken over by Marketing who now use it to make money, essentially.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

See what I found interesting about this and I commissioned this one. Cause it just. The whole idea of generations fascinates me. But you'll hear us say things like, well, it was all a marketing thing basically to sell people stuff. And it's really. People feel commonalities or there are commonalities in people around the same age because of these reasons. But that's also sort of being a part of the generation that you're dubbed.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. There are actual like decent explanations that sociologists have come up with, but they're not. The problem is that you can't paint an entire group of people with that same brush. And that's what people try to do.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And then also those same market researchers that always hype, and they're generational researchers, even though they're not really scientists, they're market researchers. It would be so much more honest if they were like, here's what a lot of kids, the cool kids are into today. Start selling to them like that. Not like this entire generation is like this specific group of, well to do, white suburban kids, essentially.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly.

[Chuck Bryant]

But it's still interesting to talk about. So let's talk about it a little bit because there are generations that seem to have really, like, are paying attention to them really kind of started in the beginning of the 20th century. That's when people started thinking about this kind of thing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. So we're going to kind of go through. Since they've been dubbing generations, specific generations here in the United States, we're going to go through them to begin with. And I think it's a good. Just sort of primer for when you're hanging out and talking about this kind of thing with other people. You'll know all this stuff because there was one or two that slipped in there that I kind of forgot about.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like the Lost generation.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that was the first one, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So they were born between 1883 and 1900. They came of age during World War I, which was like a massive catastrophe for the entire world, for everyone. Like nothing had ever happened like that before in the history of humanity.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And it was just a really big deal. And this was the group that came of age during that time. And they're called the Lost Generation. Gertrude Stein called them that. But there's they. They had a loss of friends and family to. To death in the war, loss of limbs to landmines, loss of faith in institutions and the traditional values that got everybody to World War I. It was a big deal. And those kids were the ones who went on to become the rebellious Jazz Age people.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And I'm glad we're saying where these came from, because that was one of the big kind of curiosities I had, was like, who even thinks of these names? And in most of these cases, we can trace it back to when a person said it first, like in print. Usually that doesn't mean they're the people who dreamed it up.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

But specifically in this case, it was from the book the Sun Also Rises. In the epigraph, Ernest Hemingway quoted Stein saying, you are all a lost generation. So that one looks pretty clear cut.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. The next sentence was, too bad. So sad. Your dad Hemingway had a way of turning a phrase. Yeah. Who was next, Chuck? Who is after the Lost Generation?

[Josh Clark]

Well, the greatest generation from 1901 to 1927. And you're also going to notice that the years are going to fluctuate a little bit because there's not a set science to any of this, as you said, even though there's this one dude that we'll learn later is like, we should just make it 15 years moving forward.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right? Yeah. Because the first Joe One was 17 years and then this one's 26 years.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, exactly. This is obviously the generation. I guess it would be like our grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and were, you know, defended freedom against the Nazis in World War II. And this is one name wise that came about. The name came about much later. Well, I'll go ahead and say who ended up naming it, and then maybe you can take what the original name was. But Tom Brokaw wrote the book the Greatest Generation, and that was 1998, and that really took off and kind of stuck.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah, that was a big deal. I remember when that came out. I can hear Tom Brokaw saying it. I can't do an impression of it, but I can hear him saying it and talking about it. But essentially he wrote this book about just profiling different veterans, I think mostly everyday people, and essentially collectively said, like, these are the people who grew up in the Depression. They faced genuine deprivation in many, many cases, collectively, too. And then they went on and were called to, like, go fight the Nazis in World War II. Right. So there's nobody before or since that's done this kind of stuff. Hats off to you, Greatest Generation. And they sat back and were like, we'll take this. Sure, keep going, Brokaw.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And since you didn't do what I set you up to do, I'll do that part. They were not always the greatest Generation. There were these two generational theorists. Theorists or theorists. Neil Howe and William Strauss, and they actually coined the term millennial. But they had previously labeled that generation the GI Generation, the Greatest Generation. And then Brokaw came along. I used to do a bro call, weirdly.

[Chuck Bryant]

Can you try?

[Josh Clark]

Now, I don't remember. It was more about cadence than the actual voice because he always sounded like he was just out of breath or something like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, that's pretty good. Not bad at all.

[Josh Clark]

It was a breathing thing for him. It always felt like he was just about to inhale, but he couldn't quite get there, which is sad.

[Chuck Bryant]

Enough of that GI Generation, though stuff. Or the GI Generation. I said it wrong. Let's get back to Brokaw and his book.

[Josh Clark]

I mean, what do you need to know? It was a huge book.

[Chuck Bryant]

Came out in 1998.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I already said that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay, good. I just wanted to make sure all of our T's were crossed and our I's were dotted.

[Josh Clark]

Sure. We could say it a third time if that really, you know, if you want to drive book sales.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hit it up.

[Josh Clark]

1998, everybody.

[Chuck Bryant]

Very nice.

[Josh Clark]

Still the year.

[Chuck Bryant]

So let's move on to the next generation. This is called the Silent Generation. This is when my dad was born, and he actually fits this bill pretty well.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think my mom. I can't remember the year, but I'm pretty sure she was the Silent generation as well.

[Chuck Bryant]

Mm. It makes sense. We're of that age. That. That would make sense.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I mean, just on the cusp of boomerdom. But Silent Generation is, I guess, maybe so dubbed because they're between the greatest generation and the baby boomers, who got way more attention. And the Silent Generation was just sort of wedged there and, like, kind of quietly wedged there in the middle, doing their thing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. Also, though, they. They. I guess the whole thing comes from a Time article or essay written in 1951. Anonymously, weirdly, I guess, because this person was criticizing their own generation.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, maybe.

[Chuck Bryant]

But they said. They called them the Silent Generation. They said it does not issue manifestos, make speeches, or carry posters. It has been called the Silent Generation. And I think they mean by me. And, like, they were just basically saying, like, that our parents did all this amazing stuff, and we're just. We don't do anything. We're the Silent Generation. So that makes sense. And then also, I guess this. The Silent Generation describes them. They're. They're supposed to be Cautious conformist. That's another reason they're called the. The silent generation. So that's, you know, I guess it all kind of adds up.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, but again, there, you know, I think Dave put this together, and he points out, you know, Andy Warhol and Nina Simone and Gloria Steinem and Bob Dylan were all from this generation. So that's where the generation thing kind of falls apart a little bit, because you can always pick out individuals and say, well, they're nothing. Like, they're categorized, you know?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's definitely gonna be a recurring theme in here. I saw there's this New Yorker article by Louis Menard. It's time to stop talking about generations, where he says, essentially all of the. The most important figures in, like, the flower power, anti war, 60s hippie movement, almost all of them were from the silent generation. You know, like, almost none of the people who were the important figures driving this were actually baby boomers.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, of course, that's an X from 46 to 64. Pretty wide swath there. And this they have a pretty interesting distinction, is they're actually recognized by the U.S. census Bureau. The only generation to be kind of independently recognized.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

And they're the baby boomers. I think everyone knows this because there was a big baby boom after World War II. And this isn't something that was just like, oh, the media just got ahold of it. Like, there were a ton of babies born after World War II. In 1945, there were 2.9 million. It went to 3.4 the next year. And by 1964, they peaked. Oh, actually, they peaked in 57 with 4.3. But 64 was the last year in the United States, which is kind of crazy to think about with more than 4 million births.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it is. Which is strange because I think the millennials, didn't they have more than the boomers, or were they just barely second? Maybe they were second. Regardless, that is quite a baby boom. I think it's a fit. It's an apartment.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I mean, there are more millennials living millennials now, but I think that's just because of boom or die off.

[Chuck Bryant]

Gotcha. Okay, so there's. We talked about this before. I don't remember when. Oh, you know what? We did a whole episode on baby boomers, so I guarantee it was in that.

[Josh Clark]

Did we?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, we did. Huh. I think it was called Leave the Boomers Alone. I don't know.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, wow. All right.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't think that's what it was called. I think we called it. How Baby boomers work because I don't think we were in that mindset.

[Josh Clark]

I think it was give him hell.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. But there's like a whole. The later section of boomers because it's like a 20 year, basically like 18 year group.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

A lot changed in between the 60s and the 70s. And the ones that, that were born later on in the baby boom who grew up in the 70s had a much different formative age than the older boomers who came before them and were like dropping acid and everything. These are the people faced with like America becoming super cynical.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I mean, my sister is six years older than me and she's a year. She was 65, so she was a year off from being quote, unquote boomer. And she's. I mean, she's solid Generation X if you ask me.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, yeah. That's another problem too. What about people on the cusp, like Xennials?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I mean, supposedly cusp. Cusp born. People identify with both to a certain degree. But I don't know, my sister doesn't have much boomer in her.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, right. So that, that group that your sister just barely missed the second half of the baby boomers, they have been dubbed Generation Jones by an author named Jonathan Pontel. Jonathan Jones. He basically said that he dubbed them that because they're a large anonymous generation. That makes sense. Jones is kind of a common last name in the United States. That's another thing too. We should say generations. The. The other reason why they seem kind of flippity jibbity is because we're talking almost exclusively about the United States here.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, of course.

[Chuck Bryant]

At the most, the. The western English speaking Western world at the most. Right. So it's a large anonymous generation Jones, or this one's so weird that they are the generation that's jonesing after their unfulfilled expectations. They're jonesing for meaning or whatever.

[Josh Clark]

I thought it might have been Keeping up with the Joneses.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's another one too. But it's almost like every time he said one of these, he was like, huh, what do you think of that one?

[Josh Clark]

Fresh? Yeah. Testing the waters for sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Who's up next? Chuck, would you say the best is up next?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I mean, here's the deal, man. I feel like Gen X is very much bordering these days on being labeled as obnoxious about how much we talk about how awesome we are.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I think so too.

[Josh Clark]

I think we're kind of tipping the scales in the wrong direction. So I'm not going to tout the Benefits of being Gen X, because we've talked about it before.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, also, that's super Gen X to just be like, well, we're treading into uncool waters here. We better cool off.

[Josh Clark]

You're totally right. I didn't even think about that.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's as Gen X as it gets.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I mean, that's one of the things about Gen X is we supposedly shunned and we did labels and we're very sort of jaded and cynical and anti corporate. Obviously we think of the grunge era of the 90s and rejecting capitalism and stuff like that before a lot of them became capitalists. But there's still, you know, plenty of Gen X, true and true through and through, both of those who are still like that. I don't know if you've seen that great Netflix documentary, the Secret Mall Apartment. Have you seen that?

[Chuck Bryant]

No. That sounds great.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And it's a pretty well known story that these Gen Xers built an apartment inside the guts of a shopping mall where they weren't found. Highly recommend it. It was a pretty cool story. I remember reading about it kind of years later when it was, I guess, got a little more media attention. But the documentary is really good. But it could have been called Ode to Gen X because all of these people, I was like, man, these were my people. I could have seen my friends doing something like this.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Pretty creative. Breaking the rules, but also not really doing anything that's genuinely antisocial necessarily.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Breaking rules without causing harm.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. That's a great way to put it, Chuck.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. We got our name, Generation X did. From the Douglas Copeland book, Generation X Colon Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which is a great read. I urge everyone to read it. Copeland apparently one time said he named it after the Billy Idol, Billy Idol's original band X. Yeah. Then he later took it back and said he got it from an obscure sociology book and that in the book it was a reference to a group that the sociologists labeled X. And this group wanted to basically exit the traditional American class pursuits. And I guess preoccupations didn't want to have anything to do with that. So he thought that was kind of a good name for it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And I think X has long been a stand in, whether it's Malcolm X or just signing your name with an X when you don't want to put your signature as just sort of a almost act of civil disobedience of like, this is not me. This is not my label. I'm just gonna put an X here.

[Chuck Bryant]

Are you allowed to do that?

[Josh Clark]

I mean, I don't know if it's legal, but that was always. I mean, I think initially it was like if you couldn't write, you would sign your name with an X as well. But I don't know.

[Chuck Bryant]

So maybe the Gen Xers are being ironic when they're doing that.

[Josh Clark]

Maybe. But Gen X is better than Baby Busters, which was the original idea for our name, because after the post war baby boom, birth rates dropped a lot.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's a terrible name. I also saw, just like the baby boomers were divided into a couple of groups, I saw the older Gen Xers are called the Atari wave. The later Gen Xers are called the Nintendo Wave.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

[Chuck Bryant]

And then carrying it on, the Xennials, the ones who are on the cusp between Generation X and Millennials, they're also called Elder Millennials. They're called the Oregon Trail Wave.

[Josh Clark]

I love it. I thought we could get through all these before our break, but there's still several generations to go, so maybe we should take a break and hit up the Millennials after this.

[Chuck Bryant]

Let's break it up.

[Josh Clark]

All right, we'll be right back. That is Josh. I'm Chuck.

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[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, well, anyway, now you're on ebay. And there it is. Same tea from the same tour, still living in your memory. Rent free forever.

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[Chuck Bryant]

Huh.

[Josh Clark]

I wonder if this can beat the market.

[Chuck Bryant]

Everyone's talking about the NASDAQ 100, but

[Josh Clark]

let's get more specific. Software actually, too broad. How about software that's already profitable? Companies that beat the last five quarters. Oh, and I want founders who are marathon runners. That's discipline.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, let's see what that looks like.

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[Chuck Bryant]

and then you came along and it was like,

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, we were work pals.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, now we're on to millennials. I feel like this is a, a great generation if you ask me.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I agree.

[Chuck Bryant]

Maybe not the greatest, but they're a great generation. They put up with a lot more than our generation and more than Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I think they just had. They took the brunt of recent history and they've just kind of plotted along and been like, fine, we'll be the ones. It's fine. You know, they haven't complained too much. Well, I should say they stopped complaining. They used to complain a lot and now they've just kind of grown into this respectable and I think self respecting group as a whole. If generations were real.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I totally agree. That's people that were born from 81 to 96. And again, there's a pretty big difference between. And you can say this for a lot of the generations, obviously, but the ones that were on the cusp of either end. I think millennials may be the most pronounced as far as how different people born in 81. And people born in 96 are. But that might just be me in my brain.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Well, I think especially if you're coming of age in the time before computers or the time when computers are starting to be a thing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

That is definitely. I mean, that's a pretty big dividing line, for sure.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I agree.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think those elder millennials, too. Yeah. I think there's something to say about straddling that line. I think it's a cool. It's just a neat thing to be able to have experience in both of those completely different realms of technological development. But even more than that, I saw that millennials are divided between whether as a younger person, they watch Saved by the Bell or Saved by the Bell of college years.

[Josh Clark]

Well, there's definitely a thing. We ran wild in the streets and knocked on doors and called people on the phone. But we also can understand young enough to understand all the tech that we're explaining to our parents and grandparents. But I think elder millennials definitely sort of identify with that life as well.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes.

[Josh Clark]

They were first dubbed the Echo Boomers. Obviously, it's the children of boomers. They created a little bit of a baby bump on the population charts. And like I said, they're the largest living generation right now. They took over in 2019. Took over the boomers at 72 million millennials in 2019. That's a lot of folks.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And just a little bleak note on that statistic. It wasn't because they kept being born up to 2019, if you what I mean.

[Josh Clark]

They were originally Generation Y, or at least that was the early consideration editors at Ad Age. And as you'll see, there's a lot of marketing people that have their thumbs in this pie. But they were the ones that were trying to call them Generation Y as, like, a more extreme Generation X. But our buddies Neil Howe and William Strauss, again, in 1991, they published a book called Generations Colon, Colon. The History of America's future, 1584-2069. And that's where they came up with the millennial generation for pretty obvious reasons.

[Chuck Bryant]

You left out the comma. There's a colon and a comma in there.

[Josh Clark]

There is, yeah. There's a comma after America's future.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Chuck Bryant]

So we need a jingle for commas, the rare comma.

[Josh Clark]

You know, they should have finished it off with 1584 to 2069.

[Chuck Bryant]

You're right. And then the zero in 2069 is the ampersand. Let's just keep it going. What's the one in 1584.

[Josh Clark]

Has it got to be punctuation? Because the first thing I thought of was an I with a heart above it. That's an I, though.

[Chuck Bryant]

They can actually program anything they want to into a keyboard. I found that out when Prince changed his name to a symbol, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

[Josh Clark]

And you could type that?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. They sent it out to all of the media and press to basically insert it into their font catalog. So they can do that.

[Josh Clark]

I thought that was pretty funny.

[Chuck Bryant]

They can make an I with a heart above it if you want them to.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think so. And by the way, I said, I think it's pretty obvious, but we'll say it out loud. It's the first generation to be the first to graduate high school after the year 2000.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

So there you have it.

[Chuck Bryant]

And sorry, I realize I'm being a little squirrely today that you keep setting me up and I'm like, no, let's talk about this instead.

[Josh Clark]

That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

So the other thing about it, I think the reason why millennials stuck and overtook Generation Y, which I fully remember, that was really close to being that generation's name, and I'm really glad it turned into Millennials. It has, like, an optimistic, kind of hopeful feel to it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think so.

[Chuck Bryant]

So one of the things that characterize Millennials, as far as generation researchers go, is that they came of age during 9, 11, as young kids. That was an enormous thing to learn at a young age, that things like that can happen in the world and that an entire, like, culture can lose its innocence in, like, one morning. And then also, as they started to enter the workforce, they got smacked with the Great Recession and couldn't find a job for five years. And they were the first to start moving back in with their parents because they had to. So who's up next, Chuck, after Millennials?

[Josh Clark]

Well, everybody knows Gen Z. They're staring at you silently but not judging, I don't think. Or maybe they are. No, they are 1997 to 2012. The reason is Gen Z is just from when it was supposedly going to be Gen Y before them. Igen, lowercase. I was going to be the initial name because of obvious reasons again, for, you know, Apple stuff. They were the first digital natives, is what they say, that were literally all born and raised in the Internet age.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I like Igen. That could have been good. I'm sure Apple was like, yeah, let's call them that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, let's sue everybody as well.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. They were also almost called Generation K, which this is astonishing to me.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

The K is for the K. And Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games.

[Josh Clark]

Who thought of that? I mean, it had to be the movie studio that made that, Right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Probably. Or a publicist they secretly hired. But the reason why is because it's just such almost a dystopian era that these kids are growing up in or grew up in.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

You know, I mean, but still, first of all, you don't want to name an entire generation after the doomiest thing you can think of. Yeah. You want to kind of have at least put some sort of a positive spin on it, and we'll see why it matters in a minute.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

What about Generation C? Surely that's got to be upbeat.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Generation Covid or Coronavirus. That was a consideration for a little while as well. Luckily, that didn't make it. And we got Jen Z, who is known for what Dave calls, quote, being extremely online.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

As opposed to just online a lot, I guess.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. They're also known for curating their online images. They were the first to really start paying attention to this. They also put a lot into a lot of stock, into being authentic and socially conscious. They're also on the negative side, frequently called coddled, entitled snowflakes. That kind of stuff. Again, all of this stuff, you're like, Yep, totally, totally, 100%. Just stop for a second and remember you're talking about millions of people from all walks of life. They're all coddled. They're all snowflakes. They're all entitled. Like, think about what that's actually saying. Right. So, and the idea is that this is all made up. So you just got to remember that because. Well, we'll just cut to the chase real quick. Right now. There's, like, a real harm that can be done in calling entire groups of kids or dismissing entire groups of people as snowflakes or woke or whatever. God, I hate that word.

[Josh Clark]

You could barely even say it. It even sounded funny coming out of your mouth.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Like, you can even deride their, you know, focus on authenticity or whatever. You can take any of these and turn it negative, and that harms the group that you're talking about, but it also makes that group present you.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Probably the older person who's criticizing them and what they care about and what they're interested in, because you weren't. Or it doesn't make sense to you and your values that there is actual individual harm, but also, more importantly, a social harm that can be done because it allows for Essentially a socially acceptable form of discrimination, which is ageism. Whether it's going up upward in age or downward in age, it doesn't matter. It still is harmful.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it gives somebody permission to do something like that. And it's no different if you're like, hey, you know what? You're not like other Gen Zs. You're the real deal. You're not like an entitled little snowflake. Like, just stop. That's even worse almost.

[Chuck Bryant]

It is. Stop being the uncle at Thanksgiving. Just stop. But simultaneously stop being the millennial who says like, okay, Boomer. Although I know no one says it anymore. But that was harmful too, even though it was totally accurate.

[Josh Clark]

Interesting thing about Gen Z, they found some research on some of the politics. There was a survey on gender and 53% of Gen Z women apparently describe themselves as feminists compared to only 32% of Gen Z men, which is the largest gap, I believe, I don't know about, of any generation. But that's a 21 point gap compared to an 8% gap. Same question for Gen X, I thought was super interesting.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And very concerning too. And that's legitimate because they're using Gen Z as just a shorthand for an actual age group that was legitimately surveyed. So that is a troubling value. Change in values, I think.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. What's next?

[Chuck Bryant]

Next up, Chuck, is the latest generation. Not greatest latest. Who knows whether they're going to be great or not. History will tell us eventually. But that's Gen Alpha. And I think it's very reassuring that we're not on Gen Z anymore because that's a little troublesome that you've reached the end of the Alphabet as a group. Goes like a population of human beings goes, now we're back to Alpha. And that's great. I'm glad for that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Well, and earlier when I mentioned there's some guy that wanted to say, let's just make it 15 years moving forward. That's a guy named Mark McCrindle. He's an Australian social researcher and he is the one who coined Generation Alpha again, just starting over after Z. And he said, and also he sounds a little grumpy. He's like. And also, can we just make him Greek letters from now on and like, go Gen Beta after this?

[Chuck Bryant]

And everyone said, no, you're not the boss of us. We come up with our own willy nilly and we decide as a group what we like and what we don't like. So no, we'll go with your Gen Alpha for now. But don't get above your station, McCrindle.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah, slow your roll, buddy. Although it'll probably be Gen Beta, which would be kids born this year starting this year.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I predict it's not going to be Gen Beta, Chuck.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I agree.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think it's going to be. They'll start with that and I think it'll be something else. I think humanity just wants to spite Mark McCrindle.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And Beta has such a negative connotation now just from those alt. Right weirdos that, you know, beta male stuff.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Plus also Beta Max. No one liked that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, exactly. Betadine. That stuff was the worst because that means you have a nasty cut.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Or betta fish. They're always fighting the mirror.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Who wants a betta fish? Boring.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I know. It's sad for the beta fish though because they their prizes at county fairs very frequently.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that's true.

[Chuck Bryant]

So apparently Gen Alpha is even more online than Gen Z. So much so that they don't even really realize. Well, they're also still pretty young right now. They're born between 2010 and 2025. They, their cutoff just happened last year. They, they're not even aware that there is anything, that there's other stuff out there.

[Josh Clark]

From what I understand, there's an alternative.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, exactly. Thank you. That like this is just what people do because that's what they grew up doing and there's a lot of concern about what effects that's having on them. Gen Z, the big concern is social media and the devastating effect that can have on a developing mind. With Gen Alpha, it's like all technology now is just gunning for those little tiny brains and people are like, what's, what's going to happen with this?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, trust me, I'm a parent of one and I wonder sometimes.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean it's got to be so preposterously hard to raise a kid these days compared to 30, 40, 50 years ago.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I mean there's more raising of a kid, if that's what you mean. Like more active parenting.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, oh, definitely. For sure.

[Josh Clark]

What I think's weird and you know, I'm getting a little off track, but Gen X was like we were wild in the streets and our parents ignored us. But we were the first helicopter parents.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes.

[Josh Clark]

I'm not, of course, but that was kind of where it came from.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Gen Z has turned out to be really weird and really weird as far as that goes compared to how we were raised and then how we're raising kids, our own kids. It is very surprising. It's a surprising turn of events, if you ask me.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah,

[Chuck Bryant]

yeah. I guess that stranger danger finally got through to us, but not until we were, like, 40.

[Josh Clark]

So this generation thing is, like we said, mainly made up. I mean, the term generation obviously comes from biology. And, like, when a parent has a kid, that offspring is the next generation. But as far as, like, generations goes, as we're talking about them, there was a sociologist, I think, kind of the first guy to write about this. His name was Carl Mannheim, and he wrote an essay in the 1920s called the problem of Generations. And he was just sort of trying to look at, like, how do groups of cohorts or groups of people change over time? And that's where he. And, you know, he was in his book. And, you know, I think generally when people talk about this stuff, they're talking a little less about, like, back then, the factory workers and farmers and a little more like intellectuals and writers and artists.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, 100%. Manheim was like, people who aren't, like, intellectual or artistic, they're probably not changing that much as a group over time. But tastes in art and culture change, you know, pretty distinctly over relatively short periods. A decade, two decades, that kind of thing. He's like, why? And, I mean, I'm sure other people have noticed this too. But Mannheim was the first to stop and try to figure out what was going on. And what he came up with was essentially what most the average person believes generations come from today. Average person on the street who thinks about this kind of stuff. And that is called the imprint hypothesis. And it essentially says that some event, some process, something big of historic proportions that happened during your formative years as a kid made an impression on you. It imprinted on you and made you kind of who you are, gave you your outlook on life. And because there was a whole other cohort of kids your same age, the same thing happened to them.

[Josh Clark]

And.

[Chuck Bryant]

And that's why people within a generation resemble one another in a lot of ways, especially with trends and values and outlooks and stuff.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, and we talked about all these as we've gone along. You know, the depression, Covid, 9, 11. All these things, those are generation shaping events, according to him, being imprinted with those. There are other sociologists that say, you know, it's not really outside events that's causing this stuff. It just sort of organically happens when groups of young people are all just hanging out and growing up together.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So it's a chicken or the egg situation. Like, does society change because New people grow up and just change society because there's new people and new ways of thinking? Or do people change because society changes? Like, eg through Covid or the Challenger disaster or something like that, or the fall of the Berlin Wall? That has these huge imprints on people. And there's actually a guy named Morris Massey who basically combined the two. He said that there's. That it's values that separate the generations, that that's really what it is. And that the reasons that the values are different among generations is because of that imprinting process. Happens to hit at a time when you are in a formative, I guess a formative place where you're figuring out what your values are. And when that historic thing happens that helps shape your values, that same historic thing isn't going to have the same effect on older people because their values have already been shaped, but it will on that one generation. So that's essentially what his jam was. He was kind of merging everything for sure.

[Josh Clark]

We promised talk of advertising because that's in marketing. That's where a lot of this comes from. And it does, because no one really talked about this stuff until the 1970s, when baby boomers were getting into their 20s. And if you know anything about just marketing and selling things to people, that demographic of 18 to 24 is what they always say. But basically, people are in their 20s. It's a big. That's when you have money to spend maybe for the first time. If you're out from under the thumb of your family and your parents and you've gotten your first job, maybe, or at least in the old days, you probably did. And so they wanna sell to people. They always have. They still do. That are in their 20s. And those are also the people that are shaping the taste of generations and influencing people around them in age. And when the baby boomers were coming into their 20s in the 1970s, companies went wild and they started doing all this sort of market. Generational market research. That is a very big deal. I know this is an older stat, but in 2015, Dave found out that American companies alone spent $70 million just on generational consulting.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, Those people that essentially who've made up generations or say that it happens every 15 years or something like that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

So. Yeah. You want to take a break and come back and talk about some criticisms of this?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

That is Josh. I'm checking.

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[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, well, anyway, now you're on ebay. And there it is. Same tea from the same tour, still living in your memory rent free forever.

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

So it kind of feels like there's

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, we were work pals. All right, we're back talking more about generations, and we're gonna talk about some criticisms in a second. We should say that, you know, obviously the media plays a part in all this. It's not all just like a marketing scam. But when the media picks up on these names especially, and, you know, all of a sudden there's people writing books, and technically that's selling something, but that's producing a, you know, your take. Like, everyone's got their take on this stuff, so there's gonna be plenty of people writing books about all these generations.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

But the whole idea is like, is this even a real thing at all? And sociologists look at three different effects that influence how people think and behave, and they're the life cycle effects, the period effects, and the cohort effects.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, the life cycle effects makes the most sense to me in that you are likely to essentially not change your personality, but change your outlook, your values, that kind of thing as you age. And so entire cohorts of people age generally the same, so they're all going through the same life stages at roughly the same time. So they, like the baby boomers are a really pronounced example of this. When you're younger, you're more rebellious. You question the system. You want to change things. Hence the 60s, hippies. As you get a little older, you become much more materialistic. You become, say, more grounded. You abandon your earlier idealism, in a lot of cases, the yuppies of the 80s. And then as you get older and kind of get put out to pasture, one of the ways that you can make yourself more relevant is to become politically active. Hence the older current today, baby boomers. So, like this, this whole idea is that we confuse that for generational effects, that people are actually just going through life stages together en masse.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, exactly. Or that, you know, millennials were like, no, we're not having babies and we're moving to the suburbs. We're living in the city and we're staying single or at least getting married and shunning kids and While plenty of them did and still do as they got a little bit older. And this is the life cycle effect. A lot of them did get those kids and families, and a lot of them did get the house in the suburbs. And it's just, you know, it's an age effect thing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. The same thing with period effects. It's basically saying, no, there's no such thing as generations. Or we confuse the generational effects or differences for actual period effects. And what that is is that those same historic events happen, but they impact, like, everybody. We just happen to focus on the group that it tends to impact the most, the younger generation, because, again, they're going through a formative time. So Covid affected everybody in all sorts of very deep ways. Right. It affected, like, kids. People were preoccupied with kids because those kids, like, basically had a whole year of very important schooling that they didn't get. And that was a huge focus of society. And so that kind of became looked at, focused on, and kind of. That. That was hung on that generation. Whereas really, everybody got affected by Covid in a bunch of different ways.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. And the last one, cohort effects, I don't really see the difference and why this is even broken out, but it sounds just sort of like the other two combined in a way.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's exactly right. That was that Morris Massey thing, basically. And this is what we think of as generational effects, combination of life cycle and period effects producing groups where you are different from people who are older than you and different from people who are younger than you. Yeah, that's generational differences or generational effects. That's what people are saying. Like, that's no. Life cycle effects. Sure. Period effects, sure. Cohort effects. We don't really think so.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, exactly. As far as criticisms go, we've lobbed a few out there. As far as what generally people think, how they think critically about dividing people up like this. But one big problem is that you sort of touched on it earlier, that these are really broad generalizations, but it's from small sample sizes. So the media has a lot to do with how this plays out. And Dave makes a great point. If you're. You know, when you talk about the 1960s, like, the first thing that comes to your mind is, like, Woodstock and the hippies and sticking a daisy in the barrel of a rifle. And there were very few people like that. If you look at, like, percentages and you base it on things like drug use and premarital sex and feelings like that, like, apparently almost 90% of Americans 20 somethings did not smoke pot in 1969. And if you look at movies and TV and the media, you think, like, kind of that was what everyone was doing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, like 112% of 20 somethings in 1969. Exactly. And that's the thing. Like, the media highlights the most extreme segment of a group of people. And that still happens today. The loudest people get the most attention, essentially.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. Another big criticism is the. When you. And you touched on this a little bit too, like when you group people up in these huge cohorts and say everyone's kind of like this, you're really, really ignoring everything within that group of people. Like, all the little differences, like, oh, race and class and income and privilege and stuff like that. And you really nailed it when you said, like, when people talk about generations in broad terms like this, they're kind of talking because it's a marketing thing about, like, you know, middle to upper class white America in a lot of cases.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. It ignores intersectionality, essentially. Which ironically, is something that people say that Gen Z is preoccupied with.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Although, you know, there's. I totally believe this is a thing, but I remember when I saw the movie Crooklyn, Spike Lee's great movie about his life growing up in the 70s in Brooklyn, New York. I remember watching that movie and being like, oh, my God, that was my life growing up in suburban Atlanta in the 1970s as a white kid. Like, we're all the same.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, Right, right. So there were similarities. He also had much. He faced a lot of differences that you didn't face too, I'm sure, and vice versa. You guys have different challenges, for sure, but that's more of like a society was like that at that time. That's what parents in general were like, okay, this is cool. This is what we're doing. Let's just have latchkey kids. It's what we have to do. Because both parents are working now and we're still figuring it out. That's what society was doing. The question is, did that have an impression on this whole group of kids the same way to make them unique in that way? That's what generations are saying.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. And one of the other criticisms you were talking about earlier is when you've given people permission to sort of drag and dunk on a whole generation for being, like, on your phone too long or addicted to your screens or this or that or snowflakes. If you dig down and look at actual statistics for some of this stuff, Dave found out, and this doesn't surprise me at all. I've talked about the fact that baby boomers are on their phone, at least in my life, more than anyone I know. People 65 and over average 10 hours of screen time a day compared to 7 hours a day for 18 to 34 year olds. And that is not just on your phone. That's also due somewhat to the fact that when, very sadly, when some people retire, they start watching TV during the day, which is the death knell if you ask me.

[Chuck Bryant]

It is. You want to not watch TV during the day and not watch it in bed at night.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, I love watching TV in bed.

[Chuck Bryant]

I do too. But in hotels.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, I love it. Man, there's nothing better than watching a movie in bed.

[Chuck Bryant]

What do you. Oh, you watch movies in bed? You don't watch TV or whatever?

[Josh Clark]

Whatever.

[Chuck Bryant]

You don't watch Jimmy Fallon?

[Josh Clark]

No, no, no, I don't watch any. I mean, I love Jimmy Fallon, but I haven't watched late night talk shows since Conan left.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, that's a pretty good reason to stop actually.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Chuck, you got anything else? Because I'm hoping you say no. I feel like this is a nice little package that we put together.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

No.

[Josh Clark]

And that means long stuff is out.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, wait, no, no, no.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Sorry.

[Josh Clark]

How do we end this thing?

[Chuck Bryant]

We say it's time for listener mail.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

But instead of listener mail, we are going to reiterate that we are performing, I believe, tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin. Isn't that right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, we're going to be there April 16th. So if this comes out April 15th. 15th. You're right on the money.

[Josh Clark]

No, it's coming out on the 14th, so in two days we'll be in Madison.

[Chuck Bryant]

Either way, if you're in the Madison area, come see us. Or in Chicago, come see us. Akron. I think it's like too late because we basically have sold out. Akron.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I gotta say, Akron strong. That means a lot that Akron is one of our best selling cities on this tour. So we're looking at you, Madison. We're looking at Uchicago coming out and see us nowhere. At the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Where are we in Madison?

[Chuck Bryant]

The Orpheum.

[Josh Clark]

The Orpheum. So two great theaters. We're going to have a good time. It's a fun topic. Get to do some audience Q and A, going to share some laughs. You get to be in a big room with a bunch of cool, like minded, smart people.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, we're reasonably sure that you will like having gone.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

And I think early showtimes. I think these are both seven o' clock or so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yay.

[Josh Clark]

Like responsible aging Gen Xers. Yeah, we want to get everybody home in a decent hour.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes we do. Before your babysitter can even get in the fridge, you're going to be home.

[Josh Clark]

That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Great. Well, if you want more info or tickets to come see us, we'd love it if you did. You can go to stuffyouchouldknow.com and click on the tour button and that will bring up all the info you need and you can buy tickets through there like I said. And I guess in the meantime you can also to send us email. Send it off to Stuff podcastheartradio.com

[Josh Clark]

Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Josh Clark]

this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.