Popular Reviews of Metaphysical Milkshake

Hi, Rainn & Reza and the whole MMP team! Love the podcast and have been subscribed (via Spotify) since before episode 1, when another podcast told me it was going to be premiering. But we'll circle back to that. ;)I listen religiously because I love the fact that you're tackling these huge questions, things that I think really unite us as humans the same way laughter, sorrow, and music do. (Oxford Comma 4eva!) We all, across cultures and across religions, wonder about life after death, where creativity comes from, how to be good, etc. So thanks for just opening up the conversation, bringing humor to difficult subjects, and just, in general, making it OK to be human when it sometimes feels like something we should be ashamed of. I have two things I'd like to share with you, a question and an outlook.First: For the longest time, I have been a hobby conspiracy buff. Being human, I'm an imaginative creature, arguments can be made that imagination is WHAT defines being human...but that's not my point. It's fun to imagine "what if the aliens really DID crash at Roswell?" or "what if the abandoned house across the street really IS haunted?" or "what if giant ants really do live in secret caves in the Grand Canyon?" But it's always just been an exercise of imagination, the sort of daydreaming and giggle-inducing party talk that you have after a cocktail and a gummy. (Or....while listening to podcasts about audiobooks about radio shows.... like ya do.) But I grew up in a time (the 80's) when art and imagination were still fostered in public schools, before The Great Arts Funding Collapse of the '90s. So I was instilled with a strong education in the fundamental differences between Fact vs. Opinion, and Reality vs. Imagination. Having shepherded my own 2 children through public education, I have a visceral and graphic understanding of how devastating it has been to an entire generation of Americans to lack these two skills. So my question is this: Given the General State of America in our current cultural and political and social climates, do you see any correlation between the lack of fostering imagination, and the difference between imagination and reality, and the frighteningly large portion of the population that seems unable to discern truth from obvious and easily discredited lies?Second: my outlook. I've been involved in not one, but TWO high-control religious cults in my life. The first, my family was disfellowshipped from when I was a small child, and the second I was able to walk away from when what I was told at the beginning no longer started matching what was going on around me, and my questions about the open levels of misogyny were not looked kindly upon. So I enjoy very much the belief that I've become particularly observant of when people are trying to manipulate and control me, and extremely mistrustful and skeptical of most forms of organized religion.Because of this, my younger son grew up outside of church and religion. Once he started school, I began to check in on what sorts of beliefs he was developing, lest someone with an...overly developed sense of religious certainty try to offer him some FlavorAid. When he was in middle school, he presented me with this Mansa Musa's fortune of wisdom: "Mom, I believe in four things, and four things only. Choice, Change, Chance, and Wonder. That...is life."Are you feeling it, right now? That struck to the core feeling? I've felt that way every day for the last six years. I cannot unlearn what I have learned from this, and it has entirely changed my way of looking at the entire universe. After all, if there are lizard people, they too deserve peace, comfort, safety, and happiness.Reza, loved you on The Opportunist when you were interviewed there! Thanks for contributing everywhere you do.Rainn...sorry, I've never seen your show, "The Office," but I hear great things. It was big in England, yeah? I do however, think that we share a close, personal, deep connection through a mutual friend. Well, I say friend, but really, he's more of a soul mate, even though we've never met, or even spoken. And by soul mate I mean...I think we might have a Past Life Connection, as though we were possibly lovers, or maybe he was like my beloved and precious lap dog or something? I don't know, you know how these past life experiences go, I'm sure. Anyhow, I think by now that you know I can only be speaking of the great, the amazing, the handsome, debonnaire, dashing, charming, dare I say Artistic GENIUS that is...Terry Carnation. THE Terry Carnation of Dark Air with Terry Carnation. Which I was also a fan of, even before it came back on the air after being off the air, from his visit to And That's Why We Drink for their 4/1/21 episode. Where Terry Carnation did...an adequate impersonation of you, Rainn, for like, 2 seconds. It was so-so. But TERRY was BRILLIANT otherwise. So if you see him, please, please, tell him that Mumsy-wumsy still wuvs her snuffle-wuffle. Er...I mean, Hello, great job, and never trust court-ordered ANYONE.Seriously, though, thanks for opening the conversation, for tackling the tough questions, and for putting out a quality show that I look forward to every week.