Is Weather a Conspiracy? With Dancing Weatherman Nick Kosir

25:38It sounds like, man, the government can probably do that and they probably would. Believe me, the technology is not there. There's no way it's not that advanced. This blizzard wasn't created for Momdani to look like a stud. I promise you it was not. But he did look like a stud, huh? He did look like a stud. 16 inches. 16 inches that's a lot of inches then he cleaned that stuff up cleaned it all up it was so good he did such a good job I actually interviewed him about it he promised something and he delivered in my opinion at least in midtown it's taking him a little longer why are you coming for our mayor look I gotta be fair the other borough is not looking he did a good job on this storm You did a good job.

26:26I actually like here's I was like, what is the difference between a blizzard and a storm? Because the blizzard was supposed to be worse, but they cleaned it up faster. And I was like, is it even a blizzard? Well, they call it a blizzard to like manage expectations to underperform it. This is going to sound pathetic, but honestly, the first thing that comes to my mind when I say blizzard, as a 20-year veteran of the meteorological world is the Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen, yeah. God, I love those things. Oh, my God. I'm such an ice cream junkie. If you had a choice of a blizzard right now, what would you put in there?

26:58Oh, my favorite is Haagen-Dazs Cookies and Cream. Okay. So you go Cookies and Cream Blizzard. I actually have never been to a Dairy Queen. What? Is this going to make me sound like the 1 %? You got to go. you gotta go you're not a one percenter no uh but uh you gotta go you bring up another good point blizzard there is a definition for a blizzard and what is the definition you want to hear it yeah okay i think a lot of people think a blizzard is based on how much snow will fall right so if two feet of snow falls that's definitely a blizzard right yeah no it's not based on that is it the way the snow falls yeah it's it's good it's like the wind it's it's almost more based on the wind.

27:38So if you have snow, you don't need heavy snow to fall. A blizzard warning is issued when three hours will have visibilities less than a quarter mile and winds of 35 mile per hour or greater. So that creates a blizzard. It's the blowing of the snow that really... Nick, you did go to meteorology school. I did. I did. You're not just a hot weather man who dances. Finally. Finally. You got to convince my wife. You got to convince my wife. Hey, keeping that dream alive for her is important. That's her thing. Is it a flax in a small town to be the weather guy in Ohio? It's funny, yeah. You do get a little taste of fame.

28:19It's not a big taste. All the middle-aged ladies like you. It's like Vampire Diaries on CW. You have no idea. Yeah. I crush with the middle-aged. And moms, crush. I mean, I remember you do kind of feel a little famous when you go to the grocery store for the first time and someone's like, you're that guy. And this was back in 2006 when I started. So the internet wasn't exactly what it is. So it wasn't happening to a bunch of influencers and other people. So it was cool. It was cool. But after a while, you realize social currency is a little tricky. It's not the same as actual currency. At one point, I think that flips and you go, oh, would I rather someone recognize me or would I rather just have$5?

29:04so so now i think in some ways probably i hope you have both because you have this job at fox weather you're you're like a big time doing better meteorologist now um national yes not local and you also have what is it nine million tiktok followers yeah two million three million instagram followers a total of 17 million across platforms but no one's counting not a big you just wanted You meant to take one more inch for Mondani, didn't you? For my 17 million. Yeah, you take your 16 inches and you take my 17 million. We'll take a quick break and be right back. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company.

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30:19With real-time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence. Helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.com. Is AI making weather so much more accurate? Yes, 100%. And do you know the numbers for this? I know some numbers. I know just right off the top of my head, AI weather models only take 40 minutes to complete. Other models, it takes one to three hours to figure out. cycle through. And it takes something like 0.3 % of the computing power.

31:03So AI models are faster and they use way less power than traditional models, which is incredible. It's incredible. Yeah. And they're learning. Why are they building all these data centers? We can just know. Well, we do need those data centers because AI models aren't aggregating current atmospheric conditions, which is what the traditional models are still doing. What do you think AI will come for first? Like your job as a talent, your job as a meteorologist, or your job as a TikTok star? That's a good question. I think about that often. I don't know. I mean, I guess I could ping pong that right back to you.

31:43Like, you're on camera. do you think i don't think in this day and age right now as it sits people are ready to accept ai generated humans i don't think they're ready for it i think they're fighting it they don't love it everybody's scared of that happening and listen there are some big ai human robot accounts that have millions of followers they already have they already use our artists i think uh dj callett has one of them i think or maybe it's rick ross i'm not sure but I don't think it's people are accepting it yet uh now sure AI is going to replace systems and you know business infrastructure and I don't think that's a bad thing I really don't I have always kind of prided myself on being an early adapter I think it's important like back when uh a good example is back in the older days decades ago when the tractor was invented 90 % of America they were farmers and they were pissed because they go if you invent a tractor what are we going to do for a living?

32:50Well they figured other stuff out to do. Good tractor accent. Yeah thank you. They didn't have to go plow the field for eight hours a day they just had a tractor do it in one hour and I think I think I hope I hope I'm not being naive I think AI is going to do that for us. Yeah. You know who wants to sit there and write out a whole something or other when you can have Chad GPT do it and then just tweak it a little bit. Yeah, I think the talent side is largely protected right now, if I take that question back. I think also the interplay between people. Exactly. Because you can have, sometimes I do see, is that grandmother you keep on seeing on social media?

33:25Is she real or is she AI? Yeah, the pink grandmother. I love that grandma. But is she real? No, that's AI. She's AI, right? Yeah, she's that AI grandma. Yeah, she's got swag. But when they do the interview thing with her, it's not as good. Yeah, it's a little choppy for now. Chemistry is hard to create with a bot. I agree. Yeah. But who knows? People are dating their chatbots now. It's like, you know. Wait, they are or they aren't? They are. There was one survey that had like 28 % of Americans are dating an AI or have dated an AI or have had some romantic interaction. That's a high number. It was like one kind of study that has been cited elsewhere, but I don't think it's true.

33:59I will admit, and this is, I'm sure in the comments, someone will hit me for this one, but I do go to chat GPT for advice. Yeah, of course. Like I'm talking to a friend, maybe a little too much, you know. So, man, my chat GPT knows some stuff. Yeah. Would you rather somebody see your text messages, your emails, or your chat GPT history? I thought you were going to say internet history. Or internet history, sure. Whoa. Hey, now, I would probably say my chat GPT questions, because I'm asking that thing, just wild stuff. That's what you want to hide the most. Yeah. Yeah, I want to hide the most, like your inner sanctum.

34:34Somebody asked me this question, Isaac Turner. How did you answer? I think that I would, for me as well, I think that email gets forward, etc. Yeah. And then I think text messages, you're sharing them with a person, but your chat GPT, or I use increasingly Gemini now, my Gemini history is between me and Gemini. It feels more personal. It feels more private. More private, but not personal. Not with another human. I'm with you 100%. Anyways, I guess to wrap around your initial question, there is an element of weather, I think that we'll always need human interpretation. I do. I do think that you're going to need somebody to add context.

35:14Yes. Okay. But I also don't think we're going to get replaced tomorrow. I think it'll take time. You know, we have five, maybe 10 years. AI can't dance. AI can't dance. Actually, it can. They can dance. Actually, they dance really well. AI's got cats and dogs and babies dancing. They can do everything. They can dance. Okay. Okay, well, speaking of human interpretation, I want to do a lightning round of some weather questions. Oh, I love the weather wordplay. This is good. Yes, okay. So lightning, and you can do, Bill Nye did a sound effect for a lightning round. Do you want to do a sound effect?

35:45You had Bill Nye on here? Yeah. God. He sat right where you're sitting in that chair. Bill Nye and Diplo. Oh, man, all of it. Diplo, I kept being like, you know, I thought Bill Nye wouldn't know who he was. Did he know? Bill Nye said he was made aware prior to his arrival. that's the most Bill Nye way to answer do you know Diplo Bill Nye did not know Bill Nye was being nice human interpretation lightning round do you want to do it or should we play Bill Nye sound effect there you go what is lightning electricity it's like static it's like a big bolt of static it's equally charged ions no negatively charged and positively charged ions button heads.

36:30It's like they're having an antipathy. Oh, okay. Got it. TikTok tells us that the percentage chance of precipitation is not the probability, but the percentage of the area that will be covered in precipitation. Yes. Is this accurate? It's going to take more than one word. Go. Okay. All right. Let me gather my thoughts. It's like confidence slash coverage equation. As a meteorologist, how confident am I that it will rain? Okay. And how much of the viewing area do I think will see that rain? Does that make sense? Yeah. So let's say I'm 80 % confident rain will happen in New York City. But I'm 50 % confident that the entire map of New York City will - Or 50 % of New York is anticipated to see the rain.

37:23There you go. So like Tribeca, Soho, they're all saved. Those rich people. okay those rich people that are making their own weather on their on their own time yeah um so government conspiracy excludes them yes exactly so then so then there's your equation it's like so it's 40 then good math incredible math absolutely it's 0.8 times 0.5 equals 0.4 so 40 yeah 40 yeah so that's essentially what you're doing although really i like to say it like it's much easier to just say, okay, there's a four in 10 chance I think you will see rain today. It's much easier to just kind of boil it down like that, right?

37:59Okay. This is what a weather person can tell you that your app can't maybe. This is helpful context. This is how you're going to save your job from AI. Take that. Take that, Gemini. What's the difference between a warning and a watch? A warning means it's happening. A watch means it will happen likely. Okay. So tornado warning means there's like a tornado on the ground. You better get to the basement. Tornado watch means conditions are ripe for a possible tornado. Would you rather be outside in a blizzard, a hurricane, or a tornado? I don't want to be outside in any of those. Even if you're dancing.

38:33I want to be in a studio. I just want to be in a studio all the time. I'm too old. Which one is less safe to be outside in? I am deathly afraid of tornadoes. Matter of fact, that's why I got into the weather game is because I'm scared of tornadoes. They make me cry. wait really yeah do you cry on air when there's a tornado not anymore i kind of maybe want to sometimes but not anymore but i vividly remember the first time sky got dark i went in started raining turn on the tv and every every station there was a dude in a suit saying there's a tornado warning in cleveland ohio if you live by this stuff better take shelter and it was a tornado warning for a tornado on the ground, like come into my house.

39:16And I was freaked out. I go, how is the sky attacking me? I'm 10. I don't know. So I heard the weather guy on TV say, go to the basement, grab your significant belongings and take shelter. What did you grab? So I grabbed my dog and my baseball cards. But I was terrified and I didn't leave for hours my mom had to finally pry me out of there and then you know as i matured and got older i still kind of feel that whenever there's a tornado warning in close proximity and i kind of realized over the years that's sort of passion right it's something that equally excites you and maybe scares you so yeah that's how you're living on the edge i thought i was your go bag still have your dog and uh we're going to send pete out to your house but yeah a dog and baseball cards i've modified it a little bit those baseball cards can be worth a lot and i should look at those yeah You should check that out.

40:10Okay. What's the difference between hail and rain and sleet? So rain is just liquid, obviously. Sleet is, okay, if a snowflake falls out of a cloud as a snowflake, and then it hits a warm layer in the atmosphere, melts into a raindrop, and then hits another shallow, cold layer of temperatures below freezing, it refreezes into a sleet pellet. Okay. Hail is just kind of ice that falls from the sky all the way down. So it never melts and then refreezes. And it's all dependent on what temperature it is. Yeah. Think of the atmosphere like a hamburger. It's got different layers. Pickles and onions. Yeah.

40:52So the bun is one temperature. The meat is another. The lettuce is a different temperature. It's not what the temperature is on the ground is not the same as the base of the cloud. So that affects everything. What's the atmospheric temperature today? At the surface? Yes. It is approximately 35 Fahrenheit. That's our current temperature. Current, yeah. But what's happening up there? Way colder. I mean, we're well below zero. Okay, up there. Yeah, yeah. Even on a warm day in the summer, you get up high enough in the atmosphere, and you're probably close to, if not below zero at times. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

41:31that's why they that's why you know they de-ice planes and stuff yeah well into the spring months what is the hottest the world has ever been I think it's I would have to check I think it's like one either 124 or 134 recorded in Death Valley California when was it check it yeah more than 100 years ago hold on this is what I do to chat GPT all day ready this is what you don't want us to see yo chat Did that sound cool? Very cool. Chad thinks you're cool. I was just looking to see if everybody thought I was cool. What's the hottest temperature ever recorded in the world? Is it 124 or 134? Hold on.

42:14Chad's checking. We're cooking. He said, Chad goes, first sentence, lol, yes. That sounded very cool. Chad, you gassed me up. It's 134. So Death Valley, California, 1913. 1913. July 10th. Although there's a little bit of drama around whether or not that was an accurate reading. Yeah. But still. But the world is getting hotter, global warming these days. Yeah, yeah. On average, we seem to be on an upcycle. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so this idea of precipitation and the localness of it makes me feel like there should be a bedding market. Like a Kelsey or a Polymark. There's a bedding market for the weather?

42:54Definitely. What is it called? I don't know. Are you raking it in? No. How'd you pay for that suit? I got it free. No, I can't gamble. I can't gamble. If I lose even 25 cents, I'm like sick to my stomach. No, no, no. I'm too Italian for that. Yeah. But yeah, there's a market out there for it. You can, I'm sure, I don't know what at, what would you say? Cashy? Kalshi? I think that's the one. Kalshi has a weather section? I think that's the one that I saw. Yeah. Oh my God. I know. I know. That's, wow. Okay. So there should be a weather. I've got an addictive personality, so I can't even think about betting.

43:31Good God. I actually don't think there should be a weather gambling app. But I do think there should be a way to interpret the weather by what you should wear. Because these numbers, like I don't know. I think there's an app called Swack It. Swack It? That tells you what to wear. What? I think. Like five years ago, it was pretty cool. It was trendy. Yeah. And now it's not good anymore, apparently. I don't think. What's this whole feels like thing? Like it's 80 degrees, but it feels like it's 60. 60 degrees, but it feels like it's 80. Who does it feel like that? I know. People are like, so you're telling me it's just the feels like should be the temperature.

44:03Yeah. That's based on the wind. So the wind makes it feel significantly colder. It's like facts are not feelings, but feelings are not facts. That's a good parallel to draw. But which one should you dress for? Right. The feeling or the fact? You should dress for the feeling. I mean, if it's going to feel like five, who cares if it's the actual air temperature before the wind is 30, it's going to feel like five. Okay. 70 and sunny. Yeah. First of all, what degree Celsius is that? You have to minus 30 divide by two. So that's what? 40. 40. That's about 20 degrees Celsius. Yeah. I have to answer here.

44:40Is it 21? It's 21. That's inexact. It's like a real inexact one. What should you wear? 70 and sunny. What are you going to wear? Oh, you can wear anything. I mean, is it all sun or is it like, can you be in some shade? I don't know. I would wear, I would probably. See, this is the problem. I would probably wear, and here's the thing. It doesn't stay 70 all day. So when I hear 70 is the high, most of the afternoon will be in the 60s, getting up to 70 and getting down front. So I don't know. I'd probably wear some layers. I'd probably go pants, T-shirt, a flannel unbuttoned, and then take the flannel off if and when it hits 70 and you get warm.

45:1490 and raining. That sucks, man. That's the worst weather. That sucks. I would stay inside. I'd wear a bathrobe and my hair would be just a mess. And I'd be eating ice cream. And it would be dribbling down my bare chest. 50 degrees, 10 degrees Celsius by your math. Good one. Also, when I hear Celsius now, I think of the energy drink. So blizzards equal ice cream. Celsius equals unhealthy amounts of chemicals. This is hyper capitalization of our... This is why the World Meteorology Organization doesn't have this kind of capitalism imbued in it. When do you need a hat? At what temperature do you need a hat?

45:50Zoram Amdani got in a lot of trouble, the mayor, for not wearing a hat. I think under 40. Under 40 hat? I think. I'm a wimp. That hair you're going to put under a hat? Well, not me. My hair? My hair I'm not putting ever under a hat. You've got great hair, by the way. Feels like four degrees Fahrenheit. What are you doing? Stay inside. Did you go outside during the blizzard? I did. Did you go dance? Wasn't it magical? Yeah, sure. I hate anything cold. It did look pretty while it was coming down and then, you know, after about five minutes, all I want to do is go back inside. But I didn't do any dancing i didn't have any time to dance i was out reporting and stuff where where did the dancing come from like were you a good dancer when you're a kid not really um yeah our bosses in charlotte used to they told us they said hey exciting changes uh we're gonna push you guys on social media and we were all like cool cool and they go yeah we don't want you to post work related stuff we want you to post cool fun stuff about yourself we were like yeah awesome this sounds great dream homework assignment.

46:53And then they're like, cool. We're glad. Yeah. You have to post 12 times a day is what they said. And what year was this? 2018. 12 times a day. Are you serious? We all just freaked out. We were beside ourselves, but you got to do, you got to do what you got to do. But you made it. It's like America's Got Talent, but you won. American Idol. Did all the other people also become internet famous? No, some of them embraced the 12 posts a day thing. Some some eventually didn't. I remember I adhered to it, I think more so than the others. And then one day I had, I worked a morning shows noon. I wanted to leave work.

47:27I had already posted 11 things. I needed to post one more thing so I could go home and just be done for the day. And I'm scrolling for inspiration on Instagram. I saw a dance. I thought, I think I can do this stuff. Had my buddy record me, posted it on the internet. I was like, I'm done. Thank God I'm going to go home and take a nap. And ever since I woke up from that nap, my life has not been the same. My phone was doing the viral thing where it was dinging and beeping and vibrating and it just didn't stop. And yeah, I go, oh, well, I guess I'm a dancer now. I just mimic what the cool kids do on TikTok.

48:01So I just sit there and practice their dances. Is your son a good dancer? No. Is your wife a good dancer? No. What? Straight up. I'm not even going to try to show them love. They're just bad. And they would admit it. My wife actually did ballet when she was younger. Okay, so she's like a real dancer. Yeah. More so than me, actually. I want to ask you also, you've spoken publicly about your struggle with alcoholism. Yeah, yeah. I actually love talking about that. Can we talk about that a little bit? So at what point did you kind of realize that that was going on with you? When did it start and when did you?

48:35Man, I think I probably, I think anybody with a drinking addiction would probably tell you they knew well before they wanted to admit it. One night, it was probably 2017. We were out at a bar watching the Carolina Panthers play. And my wife all along was telling me, you should probably ease up on that stuff, buddy. You must have been together for a long time yeah a long time since 09 and um I was like ah what do you know and then after that night it sounds funny I was giving people at the bar piggyback rides through the bar and it was you know to me I thought I was being cool and you know a man of the people uh but my friends afterwards they go you probably shouldn't do stuff like that and uh you may have overdone it and I go wow all right so if my friends are saying that you know it's probably time to ease up and so I remember waking up to some of those texts and some of those conversations that day.

49:37That night, I had a few therapy sessions in the books and I haven't had a drop of alcohol since. And it has truly been the best part of the best decision that I've made. It's almost like I feel like I'm since then sort of living life with a cheat code. You just always are stacking good days that are productive and healthy and going in the same direction rather than start, stop, start, stop, have a decent stretch, fall off a little. So I thoroughly encourage anybody that's even a little sober curious to give it a shot. It's incredible what you could possibly achieve. I love how you describe that, like the stacking of the good days in the right direction.

50:18You just stack good days, man. It's all about consistency. And it's really hard to be consistent when, you know, one morning you wake up, you're groggy, it takes you a full day to maybe get your sea legs back and just that one day can set you back two or three days. Do you think a lot like now that you're in this place where you're stacking the good days do you think back a lot on that time or is that kind of like a different person feels like a different? It does feel like a different person. I often one I often feel like I really wasted 10 years maybe more 10 years of my life like I often think and this might be the closet enneagram three in me I often think damn Which one's three?

50:57Achiever. Achiever, yeah. I often think, damn it, I could be so much further ahead right now if I had just figured it out. But I do think we come to this planet to learn very specific things. I think our soul is here to learn and gain knowledge through experiences. I don't think anything is a mistake as a result of that. And when I frame that way in my mind, I feel like I'm on the right path. I appreciate that. It seems like you're on the right path. I'm trying. Man, some days it feels like I'm not, but I'm trying. I mean, I think it's also incredible that you talk about it. Because you want to help other people who are, that's what brings you to.

51:38My biggest fear about it is I don't want to be preachy. Because I remember when I was, when I knew I had to quit, I did not want to hear a bunch of advice or be told what to do. And I think that's not me. Like how magical it's going to be on the other end. Yeah. And it's not, you know, it's not magical. It's just, you're more consistent. Better. Better, I would say in the long run. It's hard at first. But then like the last thing anybody, and it's not just a Nick thing, the last thing anybody wants to do is be told what to do, especially as an adult. So I don't ever want to be preachy to anybody about it.

52:11So I try to be low key and I try to talk about it when asked. But if anybody watching, and I mean this because I look at all my DMs personally. I have a team, but I still do that personally. If anybody has any questions or needs any guidance or encouragement, DM me on Instagram. I answer all those DMs myself personally. So that's one of the more fun parts of my social media career, I think, is like getting to help people. There's no point in having a platform if you're not using it for some kind of good, I think. And I appreciate you saying that about like that's a hard sentence, you know, that you wasted a decade of your life.

52:46I mean, I feel a lot of people feel that way. You can feel that way about a relationship. So I think there's a lot of ways you could look at your life. And people always say, but you wouldn't be the person you were. But like you do, you struggle with that question because time feels so scarce. It's hard to not look in the rearview mirror. It really is. And sort of evaluate what could have been. I think that's also human nature too. But the way, again, I always circle back to our soul comes here to learn specific things. And that was part of it. So that's if I start thinking in other ways, then then I get pissed off about that lost decade.

53:22So I can't. How old was your son in 2017? OK, he's got to be about like 16 now. Is it harder than Fahrenheit and Celsius? He's got to be about 16. Where's my abacus? He's 16. So that was it's 06. So that was nine years ago. Yeah. Man, seven. Yeah. Wow. He was seven. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. you've had these good, these like really present years. Definitely, definitely. You obviously took a gamble in changing your life. Huge. I want to use that word gamble and relates to addiction. Yeah, that's fair. But it is that. You've also taken a huge professional risk of kind of, yeah, putting yourself out there when asked by your old employer.

54:01Yes, yes. But putting yourself out there in something that could be seen as ridiculous. I don't think it's ridiculous. I think it's joyous. Absolutely. But what advice do you give to people who are saying they're afraid to do something because they'll fail or because they think it'll embarrass them? I think that's a really good question. And it is. First of all, I know what I'm doing is ridiculous. I fully understand that. I just know this. I just know this. When I upload a video, I just get a certain sense of joy out of it. I can't really explain it or quantify it. I just feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.

54:39That's it. That's all I know. And I think that that thing, whatever that is, is the path you got to follow. Yeah. Whether you think it's ridiculous, whether other people think it's ridiculous. And I'm still figuring it out. There are days when I wake up and I go, man, is this too ridiculous? Like, should I be doing this? I'm 42. to. But I still have to, I'm still listening to that inner compass, that true north. And what's the point of not listening to that? I can't think of one thing that would make me try to dull that. I think alcohol did dull that. And so, I was listening to alcohol for a while, But I'd rather listen to that feeling than anything else or anybody else.

55:32And I encourage other people to do that too. Because at the end of the day, I think the best feeling in the world is being able to just be yourself. Yeah. It's like, it's so exhausting to do anything else. And to be yourself in a way like you would be proud of yourself. Like kid you who was scared, you know, huddling the baseball cards in the tornado sees adult you dancing through blizzards. That's the only person I really, really want to make proud. Obviously, I want to make my family and friends proud. But if I, I think if I told my 16 year old self, one day for a little point in time there, you'll be known as the dancing weatherman.

56:06I think my 16 year old self's eyes would be like, cool. And that's, to me, that's a win. I don't care what anybody else says. That is a win. I love that. Quickly on media, everyone's being encouraged to be an influencer. For people who find it cringe to put themselves out there, do you think it's impossible to become a media, to be a media personality right now, whether you're a journalist or calmness at the New York Times or whatever, without having an online presence? Man, it's a fine line. I mean, I don't know if I want to use the word lucky in my come up. Because for 10 years before I really hit it, I was doing plenty of social media stuff on my own.

56:46The landscape has changed. I mean, back in my day in 2019, you could post on Instagram once every two weeks. And that was a good cadence. You were right up there with the best of them. in this in this world if you're not posting one thing a day it's over it's curtains I don't think I don't you're treading water at best and that's a tough pace to keep that's a tough pill to swallow burnout's huge but I also don't think you necessarily have to do that I think I think if I was starting from square one I would immediately post as much as I possibly could just to see what worked. And then the internet tells you what it's like, what it likes.

57:30It's like a river that you get swept up in. Just like with me, I wasn't a dancer, but people responded to the dancing thing. So I kept going with that. Just find that niche. And then you can drill down and figure out your own cadence. And you can figure out a way to not like back yourself into a corner. If you don't want to put everything about yourself online, that's okay. You can make a faceless account and be a millionaire. That's a very feasible route to go. Create an AI grandma. Create an AI grandma. You can make memes. Inside these newsrooms right now, I mean, you started off as a news anchor.

58:04A news anchor? Yeah, news anchor. News reporter, really. Back when you used to read the teleprompter like a simple news anchor before you were doing the green screen meteorology. Before I was freestyling it. Exactly. But yeah, I feel like it's like America's got talent in those places right now. Like America's next top model they're trying to cast. Ezra's getting the glow up, all the things. I will say, though, having a big following seems to be speaking of those shows. That's like the ante to get into stuff. Like if you want to get cast on a reality show, if you want to almost do anything. That's becoming the currency, as you were saying.

58:38I almost want to say that the new – I'm going to debut this quote right here right now. A lot of people in the past say your network is your net worth. Yeah. I would change that to your social network is your net worth. because the more followers you have, the more doors open, the more money you could possibly make, the more things you could sell. I don't know. I think that's the new iteration of that quote. That's the new thing. Okay. You're smart about many things. You're a meteorology certificate degree thing that you got going on. And you got to go see Fetty Wap. You got to ditch me to go hang out with Fetty Wap.

59:13This is pretty fucking cool. I am up right now. You're up right now. Let's go. Okay. So we end every episode of Smart Girl Dome Questions asking our guests what they do not know. what is a dumb question you have. You've been embarrassed to ask out loud. Is it just a question I'm putting out into the cosmos or are you going to answer it? We used to answer them, but I kind of like having people, and I just gave a TED talk about this, about the art of not knowing. Okay. The art of not knowing. I'm not saying don't be an informed citizen. You don't need to know every single fact. You can leave 5 % up to the imagination.

59:42You can have a fight at a dinner party with your friends instead of just asking chat and being told by chat that you're like a wonderful, validated human being. You're very cool. You're very cool. so we might as the men say let it hang let it rip let it hang if people outside if people are listening and they have the answer you should call in tell us the answer 1-855-MY-DUM-Q you can leave us a comment you can slide into this man's dms you can do whatever you want if you know the answer you can tell us okay I think my question is um I've got a lot of questions about evolution I think science you know obviously I like science a little bit I'm partial I've always thought or wondered if if humans evolved from apes why are there still apes shouldn't we all shouldn't there be no more apes and they're all humans now or are they just the ones that are too dumb to evolve are those apes i'm asking questions here these are the questions you are an ape listening to this podcast please call you're too dumb to be a human no very sorry wow that is a good question.

1:00:43There's another question to be asked there too. Like if all the dinosaurs went extinct, then what, what did animals evolve out of? But also like, why aren't there still dinosaurs and these apes are hanging around? A lot of questions. Maybe the apes are watching us. Maybe they're from the world meteorological organization of Europe. They're spies. It's like that hot air balloon. Remember that Chinese hot air balloon? I do. Yeah. Those apes. No, I'm sorry. Nobody go harmony but new listen to us okay thank you so much Nick for doing this this is so fun we're done I could do this all day this is so fun you're the best I have a question for you I think I would be a fool to not ask you a question because you're very smart and you've got the successful thing going it's awesome I've watched a bunch of your stuff you're killing it thank you and I see you absolutely blowing up podcasting yeah I've thought about it is it worth it do you think is it worth it is it saturated let me close Close my eyes and listen to you talk.

1:01:41Is the juice worth the squeeze, Nema? Well, I don't even know if a podcast is a podcast. A podcast is a show now. Benny Blanco and Dickie are coming out with this new show. And his wife is so funny. Yeah. And has no social media presence. She's testing the theory. So they have a show that basically feels like it's like Seinfeld or Friends, but real life. It's very candid. It's almost like a TV show. It's like a TV show. But I was thinking like if they weren't famous, would we be interested? At what point does the projection into everyone's interior lives become a huge distraction from what's going on in the world?

1:02:12I think some commenters say it correctly when they say they should make podcast equipment more expensive. Not everybody needs it, I guess. I was at a dinner last night of eight people, and half of them had podcasts. Some of them were successful podcasts, present company included. Flip that hair. Top 10 Spotify podcast of 2025. Let's go. I Heart Podcast nominee. Thank you to all the people who listen and watch the show, by the way. That's huge. And thank you for the team that makes the show. Desta and Johnny, Darlena, Colin, Melissa, Annalisa, who was there from the jump. We have a great team that make the show.

1:02:48But I think that podcasting, I actually think that audio podcasting will come back into style. Really? I think all this video hype, it might be a little bit much. and I think audio might be coming back. I think it comes back. Radio has been around. That's like, you know, how did people get the weather before you were all pretty on a camera? That's true, man. It's a radio. It's all cyclical. So yeah, I don't know that everyone needs a podcast because I just think no, like who's going to be left to watch? If everyone becomes an influencer, like who is the audience? Bingo. What are we doing out here in the world?

1:03:21I think about that a lot. You just kind of validated my thoughts. Yeah, so you're not going to do a podcast? No. How do you know I'm not sabotaging your podcast because I don't want you to do the smart guy dumb questions podcast. That'd be you steal my mic flags. You know what? I'm just happy I don't have to start a podcast. Sounds like a lot of work. That's fair. I'll leave it up to you. By the way, I don't know if everybody watching understands how hard it is to have a podcast with the accolades like she does and these guys do. It's impossibly hard. Yeah. And you guys should be very proud. So thank you.

1:03:53I'm so honored and flattered that you even know I exist, let alone invited me on here. You give so much joy. Appreciate it. If you're having a bad day, if you're in your 20 % bad days, go to this man's Instagram, TikTok, look at his stuff. You can find him at Nick Koser. That's right. All over the place. You can find him on Fox weather, apparently 24 seven. You can do a reality show of the weather. You could just eat cereal and talk about the weather. we could, yeah. Eat dinner, talk about the weather. Your wife might leave, but it'd be like that. Yeah, we could do the little Dickie Benny Blanco version of that.

1:04:22Actually, speaking of podcasts, very quick last thing. My friend, Nick Bilton, former New York Times journalist. He's actually the reason why you can turn your phone on on an airplane. He did the reporting that demonstrated that it was not going to interfere and do all the things. Oh, I love him. Yeah, what a stud. Except for when someone next to you is secretly taking a Zoom call on the flight. But he has a new podcast called The Nick, Dick, and Paul Show. And Nick asked me, have you ever used the word weather and weather? W-H-E-T-H-R in the same sentence. Oh, weather and weather? I did. Long story short, before I was the dancing weatherman, I was the rapping weatherman.

1:04:59Are you young cardamom? Yeah, I'm an OG in this. Look that up on YouTube. We'll talk about that. I did see this. Okay. But one of my rap lyrics was, I'm going to give you the weather, whether you're ready or not. I thought that was, at the time, I thought that was punny. You know, I think you could have a film, forget a podcast, call it Weathering Heights. You finding, you know, you and your wife. I see it. Traversing. I see it. And at the end, there's a tornado. Oh, God. And you're just like dancing. And I've conquered my fear. I dance right past it. Put it in Google Gemini, Nano Banana Pro. We should put that stuff out.

1:05:36I got a film right, guys. We got to wrap this thing. Thank you so much. I want to know if my foot is as warm and wet as Diplo. His was wet. Mine was warm, he said. He called it dirty, but he retracted. And called it warm? He said it was warm. And I replied to him, I said, you know, it was just your touch. And then he didn't write me back. I'm like, what? He's like, man, she's a clinger. Abort. Alright, let's see. So far, I'm not feeling any body heat. These are very small. Oh my god! I don't want to stretch these out. These are chic. I could actually roll with these shoes. How big are your feet?

1:06:10How big are your feet? Are these 16-inch feet? Thanks for noticing. Take that. Take that, New York City Mayor Mom Donnie. You know, I think your feet might be bigger than Diplos' feet. Cut it. That's all I want. That's it. That's the sound bite. Take that Diplo.

1:06:27Dude, your feet are tiny. How do you squeeze in there? I know. They're small. They're like concubine feet.

1:06:36Okay, I love Nick Koser. I wish, I mean, I guess he is my local weather guy in New York, but I don't know. He just rocked. I'm glad we were able to dispel the conspiracy theory that weather people are just hot people pointing at things while reading things. It seems that they do a lot more work. They actually have degrees in science. Who knew? I also really didn't know that about cloud seeding and the reality because this idea that the government controls the weather and makes it snow so we can stay in or we can rush to the grocery store to buy things and up the economy. I had never heard that conspiracy theory before I started taping this episode and now I'm going to have to look into the Asia thing but pretty sure that's a conspiracy theory just like the conspiracy theory that climate change is a conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory.

1:07:15Anyways, all of that meta stuff aside, what I appreciated most from Nick was hearing his personal journey. You know, I think I went in there dumb about the weather. I left smarter about that, but I also left smarter about how a person thinks about their career, about change, about the passion he had. I love the story he told about young Nick, baseball cards and the dog, you know, watching a tornado. And I think it's tremendous what he's been able to do. So I know He doesn't want to be preachy. He doesn't want to be one of these people who's just like, I'm living the dream and it's ideal. But I think there's something really honorable and humbling and inspiring in the story that he told.

1:07:53So anyways, big fan of Nick Koser, my local weather guy. He's not as hot as Sam Champion, but his feet are bigger than Diplo's. So there was all of that. Happily married man, though. We'll leave it there. That's it for this episode of Smart Girl Dumb Questions. I want to know what you think. Do you buy any of these conspiracy theories about the weather? you can write to me naima raza101 at gmail.com you can call us at 1-855-MY-DUMB-Q or you can just slide into our DMs and apparently into Nick's DMs they're all open guys this episode was produced with Desta Wunderad and Melissa Lee Gibson it was mixed and engineered by the wonderful Johnny Simon it was edited by Colin Bryant-Wallace and I'm your host Naima Raza I'll see you next week on Smart Girl Dumb Questions we're going to talk to a genius 13 year old and get smarter all of us especially me bye guys Thank you.