Two friends talking their way toward the actual point.
Max and Ben open with whatever is in front of them, a frozen modem, the wrong coffee cup, a half-remembered YouTube scandal, and let the talk wander until a real subject surfaces. Conversations have landed on saying no without apology, why taxes stopped being worth the stress, and whether to cry on camera.
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Ignorant and Uninformed is a conversation between two friends, Max and Ben, that has run long enough to pass its seven-hundredth numbered 'EpiDose'. The premise is right there in the title. The hosts describe themselves as ignorant and uninformed about most things, and they talk anyway, under the mock-grand billing of 'America's favorite podcast' and from what they describe as Summit County, Colorado. A recurring opening line, 'taking your emails and taking your calls', kicks things off, and then the format loosens completely. What follows is not an interview and not a scripted bit. It is two people thinking in real time, with the false starts, repeated qualifiers, and small course corrections left in.
The characteristic move is the drift from something trivial to something that matters. A modem that keeps freezing, a mouthful of cold coffee from the wrong cup, an attempt to summarise a sprawling series called 'The Emperor': any of these can be the on-ramp. In 'EpiDose 675- Nihilism and Power' the hosts note that the route ran from Coachella to sumo wrestlers to nihilism, and the nihilism is sincere, a discussion of why saving money and guarding a credit score stopped feeling worth the stress once the future looked unplannable. 'EpiDose 604- Quit Hitting Yourself' turns on chronic people-pleasing and whether anyone owes an explanation for saying no, with one host insisting nothing is owed and the other pointing out that recovering people-pleasers tend to overcorrect. 'EpiDose 603- Media Social and Otherwise' spends its energy on YouTube creators, working through the Try Guys and a scandal involving the member whose whole persona was being the married one.
The show is also willing to be raw. 'EpiDose 724- Art Imitates Life' has a host describing tears during a filmed reunion, breaking down in a car afterward, and the specific helplessness of watching someone they love suffer. The jokes do not stop when this happens. They sit next to the confession, which is a large part of why the show feels overheard rather than produced. 'EpiDose 725- Rewind' shows the other side of the same instinct, with a long stretch on acting and why audiences fixate on the mechanics of memorising lines rather than the experience of being transported by a performance. Even the housekeeping is on mic: which sound setup failed, why the notes moved to the end of the episode, how to shrink the workload after hundreds of recordings.
Listeners are invited to email in topics, and the hosts sign off with a promise to return and an email address that gets repeated, and occasionally fumbled, on the way out. The register stays casual and warm, with a lot of profanity and a dry edge when the subject calls for it. A good entry point is 'EpiDose 675- Nihilism and Power', because it shows the whole arc in one sitting: a small irritation, a tangent, and then a real argument about what still matters.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes overheard, unedited conversation between friends and is happy to wait through a tangent about a modem for a real thought about self-worth or powerlessness. Less suited to anyone wanting tight structure, expert guests, or clean language.
What sets it apart: Plenty of two-host chat shows perform a bit; this one lets a joke about cold coffee and a confession about crying in a car share the same breath, and treats listener-emailed topics as a starting point rather than a script. The catalog has passed seven hundred numbered 'EpiDose' entries without the sound getting any more polished, by the hosts' own admission.
Recently named one of MillionPodcast's top 20 Experiment podcasts! Woo! American's favorite podcast! Submit a topic. Get a t-shirt. Max and Ben draw listener submitted topics out of a bowl - or - discuss what's on their mind for 30 minutes.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Ben and Max turn everyday frustrations and serious self-questioning into warm, teasing conversations that keep finding comedy in the mess.
Ignorant and Uninformed turns ordinary friction into a two-person comic argument, with Ben Hollywood Whitmore and Max Surakistan Surak moving from workshop dust, stale coffee, and physical aches toward questions about work, perfectionism, ambition, politics, and the future.
Sawdust to AI job interviews is a reasonable route if you enjoy taking the long way around.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Podcast housekeeping opens into a funny, thoughtful discussion of performance, effort, and expertise.
The episode draws its comedy from the unglamorous mechanics of sustaining a long-running podcast, then lets that practical talk open into something sharper about performance, craft, and expertise.
A loose, funny take on perfectionism, editing, and the limits of polish.
The episode takes perfectionism seriously without losing its easy, conversational feel. Set against the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Ben and Max work through the pressure to make things look right, then ground the point in a simple editing example: a bobbing head, a masked…
Dust, AI interviews, and a human-sized wobble over how polished hiring has become.
Ignorant and Uninformed opens in the shop with a clogged table saw, a vacuum full of sawdust, and a host still covered head to toe, and that mess gives the episode its best momentum.
A cold coffee mishap opens into a funny, unsettled conversation about fear, nihilism, taxes, and what still matters.
The episode makes a rough recording setup feel like part of the argument, using small irritations to ease into a heavier question: what becomes of personal responsibility when the future feels hard to trust?
A possible shoulder surgery opens into a loose, funny reflection on work, worry, and what counts as enough.
A possible shoulder surgery turns into a planning headache for a speaker whose job depends on overhead labor, hanging lights, and hauling heavy things into trucks.
Creative work, personal stories and affectionate interruptions.
Peter Sagal leads NPR's live news quiz, pairing celebrity guests with listener call-in games.
A stranger calls. Chris Gethard listens. Anything can surface.
The hosts open on dust.
The two hosts begin with emails, calls, end-of-episode notes, and the puzzle of whether releasing number two before number one makes sense.
The episode opens with a consent check and a little ding-dong as recording gets underway.
The episode opens with a shoulder problem and the possibility of surgery.
Ben and Max open with their usual banter and settle into a conversation about perfectionism.
Two friends banter and joke about random topics submitted by listeners.
Two friends have an emotional conversation about crying and supporting loved ones through difficult times.
The hosts rant humorously about the frustrations of video editing and inconsistencies in a course project.
Two hosts discuss their personal sensitivities to common sleep aids like melatonin, magnesium, and chamomile tea, sharing how these substances disrupt rather than help their sleep.
Hosts Jeff Watson, Ben Whitmore and Max open by talking about how Ben gives his romantic life an "outsized disproportionate value" in his sense of self-worth.
Ignorant and Uninformed’s “EpiDose 604- Quit Hitting Yourself” moves from Warhammer 40K lore, including the Emperor consuming 1,000 psychic souls daily for 10,000 years, to practical discussions of boundaries and self-criticism.
Ignorant and Uninformed’s “Media Social and Otherwise” moves from internet outages and Warhammer 40K into discussions of Marvel films, celebrity reputations, online scandals, and digital permanence.