Story for Another Time Podcast · Story for Another Time Podcast

S3 Ep7: Goldfish Climbing Trees, John Visits a Head Shop and Rhino fist fights.

February 20, 2023·26 min
Joe opens with an apology. He and John quickly fold in a thank-you, then drift into neuropeptides, goldfish, and pine trees, setting up the show's usual blend of Sunday school, nonsense, and plain conversation. The bagel debate lands early. A dry, schmearless bagel becomes a reason to needle each other about taste, pride, and the strange seriousness people bring to breakfast. The name 'head shop' comes up next. They treat the phrase like a small mystery from ordinary life, with the sort of genuine confusion that makes their side trails feel funny instead of forced. Sunday school finally takes over. John tells how he asks kids for something awesome each week and follows one answer about being a failure with a real conversation about purpose. That story turns toward Albert Einstein. The fish-and-tree example becomes a plain way to say that people can be measured badly when the wrong skill is treated as the whole point. Edison follows. They bring up the familiar school story to keep the thought moving: what looks like failure in one moment can look very different once the frame changes. The episode keeps its conversational wobble. One host pushes the point, the other reins it in, and the back-and-forth lets the sincerity stay intact without getting stiff. The tone stays local. School hallways, churches, family habits, and the small humiliations of everyday life all get turned into comic material. A whispering experiment comes up near the end. They plan to update listeners on what happens when John tries whispering instead of shouting with the children, which gives the close a practical, domestic edge. They also mention balloons and Russia. The finish teases downed balloons, a Russian windows joke, and a next-week follow-up, so the episode ends the way it began: half story, half sideways thought.

As heard by us

A bagel gripe opens into a loose, funny, and sincere talk about purpose and children.

Joe Greenwood and John Jacob start with a bagel gripe and drift into apology, gratitude, Sunday school, and a few strange questions about purpose.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when a bagel rant turns into a lesson on purpose.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on