Hallelujah: The Prettiest (And Most Abused) Song In The World

This amazing song took 7 years to write and was then roundly ignored. Only after a cover version and the untimely death of an artist did the song finally become popular.

Since then, Leonard Cohen’s masterpiece has been covered at least 300 times and was used in The West Wing, Scrubs, Watchmen, Shrek and much much more. Everybody treats it like a sad song, but it’s not – Cohen’s intention was much more joyful.

BTWs include death of the author, communication in relationships and ice cream chords.

In the moment of meta, Katie talks about a challenge that enthusiasts everywhere must face: When someone says that you’re “too much”.

Links

Cynthia and Hatsune: Fictional women who became real

Cynthia Gaba was a celebrity in 1930s high society in New York. Hatsune Miku is a singer with a global fan base who has even gone to space. But here’s the twist: Cynthia was a mannequin and Hatsune is 100% digital!

How did two women, who are clearly not “real” in the traditional sense, become so successful and what does that say about the nature of celebrity and even of reality? What is real?

BTWs include William Gibson’s 1996 novel Idoru which predicted Hatsune Miku, men who fall in love with fictional women, Thor Ragnarok and ragging on Game of Thrones. As usual.

The moment of meta

In the moment of meta we propose the next enthusiandment: You don’t have to participate in something to be enthusiastic about it.

Links

Ultramarathons: Extreme running and the nutcases who enjoy it

Mark Dowds was out of shape and nearing 40 when he discovered ultra-marathons and has now run several dozen of them. Mark tells us what it’s like to run 50km (or 75 or 100 or more!) in steep terrain and challenging conditions, the extreme emotions you experience and how he maintains his enthusiasm for both training and competing.

Mark originally hails from Belfast and built a career as a tech entrepreneur in Toronto, Vancouver and Silicon Valley.

BTWs include Guinness, gummy bears and the monarchy.

Moment of meta

In the moment of meta Katie gives three tips for how you can enjoy being bad at stuff.

Links

Cosplay: Going Hard With Hot Glue And A Dream

Our guest in this episode is Agent Colbert, a very enthusiastic cosplayer who’s known for her vintage aesthetic, rocking Agent Carter and the marvelous Mrs Maisel cosplays but who has also done everything from Ty Lee from Avatar the last Airbender to Velma from Scooby Doo.

Learn what it takes to cosplay, what it’s like to go to conventions with 1000s of other cosplayers and how to find out what character you should cosplay as!

BTWs include perfectionism, badass Asian women and The Lake Wobegon Effect. Also – The Muppets!!!

The moment of meta

In this episode we talk about being enthusiastic about yourself even though you’re not perfect.

Links

Niels Bohr: The Man Who Played Dice With The Universe… And Won

Alex gets his hometown pride on and celebrates the life of fellow Copenhagener Niels Bohr, a man who revolutionized physics twice over. He may be the smartest person in physics… and he was definitely the nicest!

Hear about Bohr’s epic feud with Einstein (drama!) and get a very short intro to the weird and freaky world of quantum physics.

BTWs include:

  • Nerd humor
  • The world’s smartest cat
  • Dead people. So many dead people.

This episode was co-written by FDC Willard.

Moment of meta

In the moment of meta we talk about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation and which one is better for enthusiasts.

Pics

Links

Dune, The Novel: 1000 Times Better Than The Movie(s)

Now that Villeneuve’s Dune movie is finally coming out in America, it’s time for Alex to try to convince Katie to read a book that is notoriously long and complex… but ultimately worth it.

Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time. It was written by American author Frank Herbert, and came out in 1965, over 50 years ago, but contains themes and ideas that make it relevant to this day.

This episode has NO SPOILERS for either the book or the movies.

BTWs include:

  • What Tolkien thought of Dune
  • Connections between Game of Thrones and Dune
  • What went wrong with David Lynch’s AWFUL 1984 Dune movie
  • Why it’s a good thing that Ridley Scott’s attempt to film Dune failed

In the moment of meta we talk about the concept of FLOW and how it relates to enthusiasm.

Links


Hong Kong macaroni soup is surprisingly good

The Hong Kong food Katie described in our Cha Chaan Tseng episode sounded so good and so weird that I just had to try to make some. Above you see the macaroni soup which I was honestly skeptical about. It’s just some chicken noodle soup that’s made creamy with condensed milk… and then served with fried eggs and spam.

IT WAS SO GOOD. Tasty, satisfying and super comforting. I can see why this is Katie’s mom’s favorite midnight snack.

I also tried the Hong Kong french toast and that is one decadent dish. Loved it!

Listen to the episode here… but be warned, it might make you hungry!

Cha Chaan Teng: Hong Kong’s Bizarre East/West Fusion Diners

In this episode we talk food and that gets Katie REALLY excited as she shares her enthusiasm for Hong Kong’s Cha Chaan Tengs – cheap informal eateries that serve a bizarre but delicious Asian take on the western food that the British served in their restaurants.

Hear about the pineapple buns that contain zero pineapple, the deep fried peanut butter french toast and Katie’s mom’s favorite midnight snack: macaroni soup.

Katie even gets Alex to make some Hong Kong milk tea and try it on the show… hear if he likes it.

BTWs include:

  • The most disgusting food Anthony Bourdain ever tasted
  • Why you never drink the first tea they bring you in a Cha Chaan Teng
  • Impulsive tattoos
  • How to make straight people come out as straight

Moment Of Meta

In the Moment Of Meta we talk about the research that shows that enthusiasm is good for you and can lead to more happiness and a better sex life. Katie and Alex also take a test that reveals their top strengths and biggest weaknesses.

Links

And now we’re enthusiastic on YouTube too

In our quest to make the entire world more enthusiastic we have decided to also release our podcast episodes on Youtube – in addition of course to all the regular podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and so on.

That’s awesome because on YouTube you can see us while we talk. If that is not your thing, we perfectly understand 🙂

Also, in some of our earlier episodes, we hadn’t figured out that whole video thing yet, so those are only going to have sound… but NOW we have it. We hope 🙂

I think having video is especially awesome for something like the guest episode with Jonathan Stout where you can actually see his amazing 1920s guitars and watch him play them:

Watch Electric Enthusiasm on YouTube – and please consider subscribing.