Where Are They Now - Experiment Week 5087

0:00Jennie Josephson: Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com. Meet Amazon Ads rising star Daryl Spencer, who set out to redefine men's self-care with his brand Crown Skin. Amazon Ads helped him grow.

0:38Jennie Josephson: I walked away from big tech to build a luxury brand in a category that no one was paying attention to. With the help of Amazon Ads, I'm reaching relevant audiences and competing with the biggest names in men's grooming. We've scaled to over$500 ,000 in monthly revenue. Watch Crown Skin's story at advertising.amazon.com slash rising-stars.

1:01Rich Stroffolino: Where's your playlist taking you? Down the highway? To the mountains? Or just into daydream mode while you're stuck in traffic? With over 4 ,000 hotels worldwide, Best Western is there to help you make the most of your getaway.

1:15Jennie Josephson: Wherever that is. Because the only thing better than a great playlist is a great trip.

1:22Rich Stroffolino: Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Book direct and save at bestwestern.com.

1:32Jennie Josephson: This episode is sponsored by Morning Brew Daily.

1:35Rich Stroffolino: If you're anything like me, you wanna stay informed about what's happening in business and finance, but you also don't have an hour every morning to sift through headlines. Morning Brew Daily is the go-to business news podcast for millions of people. It's a daily business news podcast that's a quick, fun, and easy way to start your day Whether it's the latest in tech, markets, or the trends shaping the economy, the show breaks it all down in a way that's clear, engaging, and actually enjoyable to listen to. Hosts Neil Freiman and Toby Howell make the show feel like you're catching up with two

2:06Jennie Josephson: friends while giving you the context you need to feel smarter and more confident throughout your day. New episodes drop every weekday wherever you get your podcasts. Tune into Morning Brew Daily wherever you get your podcasts.

2:18Amos: Welcome to DTNS Experiment Week. Yes, it is back again all this week.

2:24Jennie Josephson: We are preempting our regular programming to try out some new show ideas, explore cross-show opportunities, give you some exclusive content we wouldn't do at other times of the year. So after you listen, please let us know what you think. Feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com. On with today's experiment.

2:53Amos: Hello and welcome to the Rich One Misery Podcast. Oh, no, that's not it. Hello and welcome to Experiment Week on DTNS. This is Amos. I decided that I was going to just have an experiment of catching up with some people that used to work on DTNS and have since moved on to maybe bigger and better things. Nah. Or just different. Different. So today I have Jenny Josephson, the original producer, editor, all around person to help Tom.

3:28Rich Stroffolino: Yeah, person.

3:31Amos: And Rich Straffolino, who carried headlines for years and also helped out with the main show for quite a while and sporadically as well. So like both. Mainstays. One time mainstays. of the DTNS universe. Yes.

3:48Rich Stroffolino: Yeah.

3:50Amos: So I figured I'd get you guys on the phone. One, because I love you guys, and I really miss you, and we haven't talked in a while, but also because I think the audience would love to hear what you've gone on to do since leaving the DTNS first.

4:03Rich Stroffolino: Okay. A lot.

4:07Amos: Well, we'll just start with you.

4:10Rich Stroffolino: All right. All right, let me go through it quickly, and then I'll hit the good stuff and the bad stuff. Okay. I think in 2015, that's when I-ish left. And I got a job at the public radio show Marketplace thanks to Ms. Molly Wood. Everything I'm going to say is thanks to someone. Let's just put it that way. And if I could say their names, I will. And I had this incredible three years at Marketplace where I just learned really how to edit and really how to produce at a public radio level. and it was awesome. And then I did a thing called Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly, this podcast that was fun.

4:53Rich Stroffolino: I launched that. I found out I'm a launcher. I'm a launcher and not a producer. Like Tom's done 17 ,000 episodes of the same show, and I can't do that. And so once I launched and did Make Me Smart for a year, I wanted to do more. and so I started a podcast production company in 2018 and that was so great truly like life-changing I got to work with Amos this Amos guy some guy named Amos I got to work with Rich I did my favorite thing which is farm out terrible jobs to other people not naming the shows i kept the good ones for myself i loved running a like a podcast production company the only problem was i was not good at running a business um tom uh is one of the most diligent and responsible business owners i know like it's very impressive right like he knows exactly what he can afford to do he's got a consistent funding source from these amazing patrons like he's got it down to the nickel and i did not i did not and so the moment that my intern that i had free for a year needed to be paid and the moment that i lost like one consulting gig i was toast and i like could not even speak out loud and so that was i guess that was november of 2019.

6:29Rich Stroffolino: And I got a job through Mary Haynes, saved my life, at Roku, of all things. I got to work for six months as a maternity replacement at Roku.

6:40Amos: I remember that, yeah.

6:41Rich Stroffolino: I loved Roku. It appealed to the, you know, there's like the creative side of any person and then there's the side that likes to make buckets and lists and categories and code things and look up analytics. Like that was Roku. And I loved it. It was like so satisfying. But I didn't want to stay there forever because you didn't actually at that time make anything, right? You weren't doing anything. Like you just were in meetings all day and then you were typing. But I loved it. It was like good kind of typing. So then you're ready for the big save. This is the and this is the last job. the big save in March of 2020, in which you may recall some other things were going on.

7:26Rich Stroffolino: Someone who would not want me to name her but knows who she is saved literally my life and got me a job at Intuit QuickBooks, where I've been for the last five years. And it's a grown-up job, and you make actual dollars, and it's a good company, and I really love it. I did not think I would belong at a company that is known primarily for accounting, but there we have it. And also, it's really a job where, at least in my job, I get to help and promote and give money, some money to small businesses. And that really, it turned out, failing at a small business is really good for working at a place that helps small businesses.

8:09Amos: It's weird how that works.

8:11Rich Stroffolino: So that's my arc. We can get into all that stuff later, but that's my arc.

8:15Amos: All right. Well, then let's move on to you, Rich, real quick. What have you been up to? What have you been doing? So my career in podcasting has taken many varied turns in that in 2015, I think, 20, yeah, around there. Tom asked me, hey, can you help me get started on this daily tech headline show? It's like a five minute tech headline show. And as you mentioned, I did that on and off and then did it kind of full time for a couple of years starting in 2020 and left in 2023 over the summer of 2023. After we're kind of in between there, I worked for a company called Gestalt IT, and they mostly hired me because they wanted me to do a enterprise IT new show that ran 10 to 15 minutes.

9:05Amos: And then someone that Tom introduced me to, David Spark, asked me to help with the CISO series and get their cybersecurity headline show started, which is a five to 10 minute show daily for cybersecurity news. So I've really spanned a huge delta here in terms of that. You really conquered the five to 15 minute market. If you want to start a micro podcast that is about news headlines, I may have some experience to lend you. This is also – I could get into the whole thing. But basically, I've been doing that since 2020 with David Spark on CISO Series. And he kind of came to me and said, hey, we need – we're expanding and we need like a full-time producer and kind of an overseer – someone to move into more of an oversight role with cybersecurity headlines.

9:56Amos: because we had a bunch of producers on there. And it was all kind of, it was kind of like how we've done headlines before, not to reveal the curtain too much, but it's like you own that show when you're producing that day. And we just had enough people touching it on a daily basis that he wanted someone to kind of look over top. We had sponsorships and stuff.

10:12Rich Stroffolino: I feel like you're saying you're a manager without saying you're a manager. Are you a manager?

10:16Amos: I don't like it. I'm the wimpiest manager possible. I'm more of like the, did we check that guy? Which is a producer. No big deal.

10:25Rich Stroffolino: But if you get a second, do you think that you could? Okay, great. Thanks.

10:30Amos: Yeah, pretty much. It's like the most low-key Midwest Slack messages you will ever get. Be like, did you link that ad banner? So, yeah, I've been doing that. I helped. I've been working with CISO Series. So we've launched a couple of new shows. I'm hosting one called Security You Should Know, which is all about kind of digging into vendor solutions and stuff like that. I've been hosting a show we have called Super Cyber Friday, which is a live show that kind of delves into kind of more broader topics. I've been doing a week in review show, which is more of a DTNS style show every Friday, 3.30 p.m.

11:05Amos: Check it out. You can watch that and then go right into DTNS as long as it's still on at 4 Eastern, which I don't know if it is. So if it isn't, prioritize DTNS audience. But if you want to, you can learn about cybersecurity news week in review. But basically, that's what I've been doing. It's all Tom's fault. He introduced me to David, and then because Tom is the most gracious human being ever alive, he was thrilled when I said, oh, I'm taking a full-time job with David. He's like, I'm so happy for you. And I'm lucky enough that I get to produce It's a Thing with Tom and Molly. So I'm not entirely out of the broader DTNS orbit.

11:39Amos: I still – I'm chatting with Tom and Molly all the time, which is awesome, which is like a dream job. and you can hear me on that show for$5 a month on our Patreon. I'm just kidding. I'm on the bonus content. So if you ever want some Rich Tamale or a Rich Tamale, we have a t-shirt you can buy with that on it as well. This is all plugs. This is all just me plugging stuff at this point. Yes, I've been expanding my podcasting and podcasting producing and managing career over the last two years or so. So that is quite the turn. Yeah, it's pretty wild. And then Jenny's the – I can blame Jenny entirely for getting me into all of this.

12:23Amos: She was the ultimate enabler. She didn't tell me to shut up, but I kept emailing into the show and suggesting to do stuff. And so I was like, all right, I guess I got a – That's right.

12:30Rich Stroffolino: I thought you were a lawyer.

12:31Amos: I guess –

12:32Rich Stroffolino: In 2014, Rich would always write in on legal issues, Rich from lovely Cleveland. And I was like, oh, this guy's a lawyer. Oh, and he wasn't.

12:42Amos: I worked at a law firm.

12:43Rich Stroffolino: You're not even out of college, I think.

12:45Amos: No, I was definitely out of college at that point. But I was working a miserable data entry job at a law firm, which means I had lots of time to listen to podcasts and write emails into podcasts and send way too much time on those emails. Sorry, Reimer, Arnovitz, Jernick, and Jeffrey.

13:02Amos: Come back. What do you got? Yeah. Where's their podcast? Believe me, I probably pitched them. But anywhere I've worked, I've pitched them.

13:11Rich Stroffolino: It's like, you love me doing a podcast? But what I can tell you is that doing a podcast for lawyers has a downside.

13:21Amos: I'm not going to say anything more.

13:26Yeah.

13:28Amos: Yeah, doing podcasts for lawyers is definitely – it's a great place to learn the good and the bad.

13:38Rich Stroffolino: Yep. Yep. By the way, Anthony, can I call you Anthony? Yeah, that's fine. Amos Anthony? Amos Anthony Anderson? No, that's not his last name. So, wait, I was going to say something, but I have brain fog all the time now for a variety of reasons. What I was going to say was Anthony has also been doing cool things in addition to being at DT &S. Do you want to briefly touch on those?

14:05Amos: uh well my dcness story has started with me being an intern as jenny mentioned um at the end of my air force career because that was an option that it was given to me and i took him up on it uh then i worked for jenny directly uh at uh infinite game productions yeah i remember yeah barely i have to look it up i think i still have the slack channel just pasted forever on the side of my slack.

14:34Rich Stroffolino: Yeah.

14:35Amos: At that time, I also had a great chance to work with Rich on several different projects. We tried a photography podcast, for example. A couple times, actually. I would do it right now. That's one of those shows, I could just do it right now. You want to talk about the A1 or the R1X3, whatever, two,$5 ,000 point and shoot? Let's go. I'm ready. I have thoughts. First story, can we complain about these naming conventions again? as long as the number gets bigger this is my thing the new thing needs a bigger number okay i'm sorry apple has ruined me the number the best thing should have the biggest number okay that's that's very anti-canon of you i know i hate your r1 get out of here losers um so i went on from that i worked uh worked with jenny on several several podcasts which led me to a few other opportunities to work with some other producers on some podcasts um and then i kind of shut all of that down during the just after the pandemic uh just because i didn't have a whole lot of time but i stayed with tom working on different projects working on know a little more and a few other things and now i am the lead producer of dtns briefing which is kind of the main show um and i'm also employed outside the home for the first time in quite some time uh working asset protection at Walmart, one of my local Walmarts.

16:00Amos: That is my primary gig at this point.

16:03Rich Stroffolino: Do they consider it full-time where you get benefits? Good, good, good.

16:09Amos: Is it because you look good in a vest? I don't have to wear a vest because of asset protection. Damn it. Oh yeah, that's right. But you do have to say your asset protection if you're asked, right? I do not. Or is that just a movie? No. oh okay i can go into it there's there are there are no rules do you wear do you wear do you wear like a black leather blazer when you do it i could but i'm not going to because that would be very out that'd be a very uh and like a henley that'd be great if you could just do that i have to look like every other alaskan up here oh oh it's undercover yeah i'd have to blend in

16:48Jennie Josephson: You're a pro at running your life, at committing to your workout, at showing up every day. At Bombas, we're pros too. Pros at making socks. Our sport assortment has specialized socks for whatever sport you're committed to. Running, hiking, golf, Pilates, and so much more. Made with sweat-wicking yarns, blister-fighting details, and targeted art support. Bombas Sport is pro-level socks from the pros of socks. For another pro, you. Go to bombas.com slash audio and use code audio for 20 % off your first purchase. That's bombas.com and use code audio. Hi, this is Paige from Giggly Squad, and today's episode is brought to you by McDonald's.

17:23Jennie Josephson: Honestly, Caesar sauce and a Diet Coke at McDonald's might be the perfect girl dinner. And McCrispy strips dipped in Caesar sauce, no notes. Right now at participating McDonald's, the$2.99 Caesar snack wrap is making me rethink my entire go-to order. Caesar sauce is at participating McDonald's for a limited time, so go try it before it's gone. Prices and participation may vary. There are moments that reveal who we are and who we're meant to become. For those born to lead, such moments call for a vehicle of equal distinction. Dynamic by design, uncompromising in execution, the Range Rover Sport was engineered for those rare individuals who demand the world and possess the conviction to claim it.

18:06Jennie Josephson: When your time to lead arrives, you need a vehicle that rises to meet it. The Range Rover Sport. Exclusive offers available now. Explore further at RangeRover.com. One second, you're enjoying your day off. The next, your phone buzzes. A window's been broken at home. You're miles away. In one second, everything can change. That's why ADT's security systems can monitor your home 24-7. They're backed by the most company-operated monitoring centers in the industry. So you're always supported during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com to learn more.

19:06Jennie Josephson: and Walden is here to help you achieve it. Take the first step to make your impact. Visit waldenu.edu. Walden University. Set a course for change. Certified to operate by Shev.

19:21Amos: Yeah, it's fun.

19:22Rich Stroffolino: Sorry, can we curse on this?

19:23Amos: I don't care. I'll bleep it out.

19:25Rich Stroffolino: Okay.

19:27Amos: God bless. So that's what I've been doing. Okay. Yeah.

19:31Rich Stroffolino: Do you guys want to hear the podcasts I've faded on?

19:34Amos: Oh, yes, please.

19:35Rich Stroffolino: Can anybody do some sad music? In memoriam. So there was Tell It Anyway, which I don't know why.

19:46Amos: I don't know if that really faded or just kind of came to a conclusion where you told a bunch of stories and it's its own piece.

19:53Rich Stroffolino: I couldn't remember the stories I'd told.

19:54Amos: The semi-therapeutic purpose of it were fulfilled, I feel like. Yeah. It started getting to the point where to tell more stories, you'd have to retell the stories you had already told. It was kind of an Orobos or whatever.

20:07Rich Stroffolino: Our stories were more or less upbeat, and then things got not upbeat.

20:11Amos: Yeah.

20:12Rich Stroffolino: And I was like, how can I? It's hard to do that. Sorry, I faded out. Tell it anyway came to a very lovely conclusion with a story about a guy who got some at Auschwitz or near Auschwitz, and that was the end of that.

20:26Amos: Why do I not remember that?

20:27Rich Stroffolino: Yeah, because it came out late, like a year after. we did a couple of reboots of it on the on the new year's streamcast um and then i faded on let's talk about cheers because my comments i always fade for a good reason it was like my comments were all the same there wasn't anything new to say about 90 11 seasons of cheers um but

20:51Amos: that show was beloved and that show was amazing it got me to watch cheers and also buy a lot of rugby shirts yeah it is god bless it ted dancing and a rugby shirt looks great so i feel bad about that one and where was i that i found i found a couple fungos from the show and i had to buy them immediately and mailed them from that location and i wasn't even home like i've i mailed them from like yeah i don't know like idaho or something stupid uh but i had to mail them because i knew that i wouldn't be able to ship them in the proper or carry them in my luggage in the proper like without getting them broken or whatever.

21:23Amos: So I shipped them from that location, from a UPS store, wherever it was that we found them, on whatever road we were on.

21:30Rich Stroffolino: And then I canceled the podcast. This is

21:34Amos: the way. We have received fan merch. It's time to end.

21:38Rich Stroffolino: Let's talk about Star Wars didn't fade. It consciously uncoupled. And then Let's Walk About Disney was very much a pandemic minimal effort thing. I don't even think we use microphones. I think we just like speak it into the phone. Yeah. And then I've had a lot of podcast ideas, but my podcast fading has prevented me from doing those ideas because I don't want to sucker punch people again.

22:06Amos: Here's my podcast idea that I just need a yes from Mollywood that will never come,

22:11Rich Stroffolino: which is fine.

22:12Amos: But let's talk about Babylon 5. I will do that show in a heartbeat. However, However, I'm lazy. I don't really want to book the show. And if I can't have a full-time co-host, I definitely don't want to do it. Because, hence, lazy. I also have a proud history of pod fading. The show I did the longest, I think, was called The Edifice of Our Demise, which I did with my good friend Ben Weinberg. And that was a show, it was all about rating if things in the news were a sign of the end times or just sad. and uh and then we ended it like in i don't know it was like november 2016 i want to say and it because it happened just for some reason like didn't satire didn't feel fun anymore i don't know what happened there uh it just didn't feel fun to do anymore that's what killed tell it anyway too yeah we both were just like nah let's uh let's not do that i did weekly tech news hour which simulcast uh on wruwfm so i did a radio show podcast which was kind of a one-hander DTNS kind of style rundown of the tech news of the week, inspired by the Tom Merritt naming conventions of doing things as obviously as possible.

23:24Amos: I also did the Novelization Realization Project.

23:27Rich Stroffolino: I love that show so much.

23:29Amos: I loved it too. It just took so much effort. But it was where I reviewed movie novelizations. Cabin in the Woods with Jenny Josephson, one of my favorites. I did an episode about the movie Hackers with my friend Phil, who I was pretty sure was a little high when we did it. And a lot of other good ones. Best movie novelization is probably Predator, because it was written by a guy who was a poet. Howard the Duck is also surprisingly good, written by a satirist for an actual magazine. but Predator is written by a guy who's mostly known for like for like gay poetry and then died of AIDS in like 1986 or something like that so he's like actually like a real author and then just happened to write needed a paycheck to write Predator uh so um started a whole universe yeah so it was like it was just like it's actually well written so check it out if you want to read that don't ask me to start the show up again I have a huge stack of novelizations still in my basement Jackie's like, should we get rid of those?

24:31Amos: Nah, those are forever.

24:33Rich Stroffolino: Do you have other questions, Anthony, or should we just keep talking?

24:37Amos: No, this is exactly what I was hoping for. Free form.

24:40Rich Stroffolino: I didn't want to be rude and just keep talking if there were questions.

24:44Amos: You know my prep work was the idea for texts and showing up, right?

24:50Rich Stroffolino: Yes. Perfect podcast. Okay, so let's go through, all of us, the goodest and the worstest of let's just say the past five years okay okay uh rich you go first like in our lives yeah in our lives like what is the best thing that happened and if you want the worst things like you don't have to say the worst things uh the worst thing um

25:17Amos: the worst thing uh is uh we had a personal loss uh due to a long battle with illness uh in our family. And so that's been, that happened just this year. So that was pretty brutal, I'll be honest. And I don't want to get into it too much, but that's, you know, that's obviously the first thing that comes to mind. But the best thing has been, honestly, when the pandemic, it was not the best thing, but it was the fact that I had already, because I had started on the road to podcasting, thanks to one Jenny Josephson, I'd already been working from home for like a year and a half, making my bread, just kind of working on my bedroom as I am in right now.

25:57Amos: And so there was like the fact that that was like a completely smooth transition. I could still be home with my kids the whole time, be there for my family and kind of seamlessly. I know some people want that more of like that clear distinction between work and home. But for me, being able to just kind of dip in and out of that when you have little kids is super important and being able to be there. So just kind of having gotten my career to a point where I don't have to spend an hour and a half, two hours a day driving somewhere, which I was doing for a long time. I'm sure tons of other people do it every day.

26:34Amos: So I just, like, I'm never not grateful that I can, like, take care, like, spend, like, two hours or more with my kids in the morning and then roll into work. And it takes two seconds, you know? So that's generally the, like, the best thing. Also, I went to Vegas for Jackie for her birthday, and that was cool.

26:51Rich Stroffolino: Yay.

26:53Amos: Anthony? The... This... So...

27:18Jennie Josephson: like you. You'll gain hands-on skills to take on real-world challenges and succeed. Your future is waiting and Walden is here to help you achieve it. Take the first step to make your impact. Visit waldenu.edu. Walden University. Set a course for change. Certified to operate by Shev. There are moments that reveal who we are and who we're meant to become. For those born to lead, Such moments call for a vehicle of equal distinction. Dynamic by design, uncompromising in execution, the Range Rover Sport was engineered for those rare individuals who demand the world and possess the conviction to claim it.

27:56Jennie Josephson: When your time to lead arrives, you need a vehicle that rises to meet it. The Range Rover Sport. Exclusive offers available now. Explore further at RangeRover.com.

28:09Amos: The worst thing I would say was having to put my dog down. Yeah, that was rough. Still bothers me to this day. It's one of those decisions that you have to... I'll rethink that decision and wonder if there's more that I could have done for a long time. And then the best thing is it's kind of hard because my wife came back from Washington. She's up here in Alaska, so I could just see her every day, which is new.

28:39Rich Stroffolino: New and wonderful.

28:41Amos: yeah it's actually pretty great

28:47Amos: my oldest daughter just got married last month oh my gosh congratulations so yeah she just got married last month so that was pretty exciting pretty awesome it was a great ceremony and for the record the whole reason I wanted to have kids primarily wanted to have daughters because I wanted to walk my daughter down the aisle which I got to do so it's pretty awesome oh god I realize that might be in my future yeah did you just have that moment literally just for somebody cats in the crib okay uh yep um but yeah those those are the big things and then uh just as as as cynical and as uh downtrodden on the world that i am uh my life has actually been going pretty good and i think it's because i've been holding everything so so hard at bay to not let the external world affect my inner world too much.

29:42Rich Stroffolino: Yeah, that's the challenge, isn't it? Yeah. Well, nothing happened to me.

29:47Amos: No. Nothing.

29:48Rich Stroffolino: Nothing at all.

29:49Amos: I think it's a lie.

29:51Rich Stroffolino: I think that's a lie. Okay. Let's limit ourselves to 2020 and beyond, shall we? In 2020, no. Yeah. In 2021, my dad, who had Parkinson's, started to really decline. And so I was flying back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to New York. And in addition to helping him, he went into a facility from which he basically did not emerge until the end. And I had to clean out his radio hoarder three-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side that Anthony has seen. Rich, did you see it? I did not get a chance to see it. I got to sleep in it. Yeah, Anthony got to sleep in a radio studio that has hosted Alec Baldwin, The Rolling Stones, among others, several vice presidents.

30:43Rich Stroffolino: And so it was this like tremendous effort, like not to minimize my father's death, but the apartment was harder. Like because like some of the stuff in there was trash and some of it is archival audio from the 60s and beyond.

30:58Amos: we're talking about a house that jenny hasn't lived in for a couple decades it still had a

31:02Rich Stroffolino: sign on the door that said jenny's room yes like it literally is a museum i have a headphone jack

31:09Amos: from that house that i use still every almost every day a lot of people have stuff from that house because i was like take something i have a weird sony mic that i use sometimes

31:20Rich Stroffolino: yeah i have some memorabilia um and the most precious things that is the most relevant to the DTNS audience, I feel like, are my dad's two famous microphones. The AR, God, I can't remember their names. This is so terrible. I bring something up technical and then, but they are beautiful, beautiful ribbon mics. And for a long time, was it the short? No, it's not short. I got to look it up. They're famous. They're like famous microphones and everybody who's famous, whoever came into my dad's apartment spoke in them. And I was really like, who do I give these to? Who do I give these to? Because I didn't want to use them.

32:00Rich Stroffolino: They're too powerful. Like, I couldn't use them correctly. And you know if they just sat there, they would get damaged. So in the end, a friend of mine who's an audio engineer, his house burned down in Altadena, and he lost all of his gear, and he got the mics.

32:16Amos: Wow.

32:16Rich Stroffolino: So that was the good ending of that story. and I have 300 boxes of archival audio that I'm paying$500 a month for to store in good storage because it's this very valuable collection of Bob and Ray and I'm slowly going bankrupt saving that so all ideas for how to get rid of that I've tried the Library of Congress and they won't pay me any money buy a salt mine

32:42Amos: and just store it for free just buy a salt mine

32:46Rich Stroffolino: that's it

32:48Amos: Just pick one up on Craigslist.

32:50Rich Stroffolino: All right. So that was just one thing. Some crazy family stuff happened that I can't share on the podcast, but it was like taking someone out of a bad situation and helping them reestablish their entire life that would happen immediately after my dad. Then Jax died, my beloved Pomeranian, and I went completely off the GD cliff and whoa, something just fell. It was a ghost. and then ended up in a hospital because I completely lost my marbles. So that was the very serious part of the last five years. Had some fun in there. Let me tell you, it was some fun. I can't even joke about it, but I can. I can joke about it.

33:32Rich Stroffolino: I want you to know that I'm joking when I tell you that I almost got strangled by a meth addict on my last day. But I didn't really because she weighed 90 pounds. And I could have knocked her over with my breath. but she was trying to get a better room and i didn't want to end up in a fight where i would have to stay longer like prison so uh that was a low point but also in terms of future storytelling until it anyway high high point high point so took a little while to recover from that and then got another pomeranian named zuzu um who is just the cutest little puppy and that really helped let's see what else happened there was one other crazy thing that happened oh my mom i have to move my mom out here this is not a crisis but it is a lot of work uh to la from new jersey and so like the five years have just been like full family drama trauma there's things i haven't even mentioned like it's just like it was just a lot it's just a lot a lot a lot and thank goodness i worked it into it.

34:33Rich Stroffolino: Like, I can't even tell you how much this company has put up with me and my drama. I mean, that's all we can ask of any employer. Yeah. So yeah, so a lot of stuff happened that was bad, but also in the bad times, I think that you find out who's really good and to you and everyone I'm on this podcast with is really good to me. And a lot of people who aren't were really, really, really good to me. And I could never be more grateful for the friends and the family that i have uh after the last couple years plus lavar burton plus lavar burton i was on i helped produce an event with lavar burton for

35:11Amos: god's sakes that was a highlight that's that's a walk-off shot if anything that's a walk-off shot

35:16Rich Stroffolino: um i'm trying to think of the one story i can tell which which is um when we were doing the like the meeting ahead of the thing when you meet with celebrities they all say oh well the celebrity will show up to their agency says that and they don't and except levar burton showed up like he was there and he looked a little tired and he was like oh i just got back from las vegas and blabbity blue and so he was like a little tired and just kind of listening and whatever and we had suggested um some walk-on music for him for this event at quickbooks and uh we decided that it should be King Kunta by Kendrick Lamar.

35:55Rich Stroffolino: And literally the way this man's face lit up and he just threw his hands in the air and was like, yep, was literally, I think was one of the highlights of my producing career. And there have been a lot. That is amazing. He was just like so immediately in it. And then he was in the meeting after because he was like excited. So always do your research because you could find out that LeVar Burton really likes the song King Kunta. And there even were 20 seconds free of expletives that we were able to use.

36:26Amos: That's honestly the more miraculous.

36:28Rich Stroffolino: That is the more miraculous. I mean, I was even using the clean version, but there were some lines that I was like, can I put this on into it internal TV? Anyway, so that's my sum up.

36:39Amos: Also, speaking of music and highlights, the whole beef last year. So good.

36:47Rich Stroffolino: Yeah.

36:48Amos: Between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Yeah. So good. If you would like Tom and Molly's thoughts on that, subscribe to It's a Thing at It's a Thing. I have nothing to promote.

36:58Rich Stroffolino: Small business heroes. If you know a small business who's a hero, nominate them. Oh, I know one. I'm on it right now.

37:05Amos: Speaking of small businesses, my landscaper just arrived. So it might be them telling us that it's time to wrap this up. I have to go pick up my kids and I'm going to a wrestling show tonight. That's why I'm wearing my Outrunners shirt. Boom. No one else can see this.

37:20Rich Stroffolino: It's video only, but let me assure you. I mean, it's audio only, but let me assure you, that was a cool shirt.

37:25Amos: If you ever wanted two wrestlers impersonating 80s wrestlers as their gimmick, it's kind of the greatest thing ever. Jenny, where can people find you if they want to reach out and say hi?

37:38Rich Stroffolino: No, I'm on threads. I think it's JennyJ23, I'm pretty sure. Or it's JennyJ. J-E-N-N-I-E-J-2-3. I had to give up Twitter. Instagram is just like for pictures of my dog. So threads is where you find my thoughts. And I tried Blue Sky, but I couldn't get the algorithm to feed me the garbage I wanted it to.

38:02Amos: That's true. It is a little resistant to that.

38:05Rich Stroffolino: Threads is like an eager dog. If you look at one thing and like it, it will give you all that fink.

38:12Amos: Threads is the mirror in Harry Potter where it's like there's no knowledge, no wisdom.

38:17Rich Stroffolino: But it'll show you what you want to see. Give me the goods.

38:22Amos: You can find me at Mr. Anthropology, M-R Anthropology, wherever you – I will sign up early for any platform so I can squat on that name. Not that anyone ever will want it, but that's fine. I'd spend a little bit of time on Blue Sky, so you can find me there. And you can find me, go if you are interested in a roundup of the cybersecurity news of the week. The Weekend Review Show is on every Friday at 3.30 p.m. Eastern on the CISO Series YouTube channel. So check that out, too. Awesome. And, of course, you can find me on DTNS. Just feedback at DTNS. Just sitting in the background. Feedback at Daily Technique Show.

38:59Amos: Or Court Killers, even, if you want to hear my voice. Go to CourtKillers.com.

39:03Rich Stroffolino: Yeah, go to CourtKillers.

39:03Amos: It's a hard pass. All right. Thank you, guys.

39:33Jennie Josephson: You know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks? Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at Monday.com. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk.

40:13Jennie Josephson: Get started at Vanta.com