An ancient bullet marked "learn" turns into a sharp little study of petty rage.
A lead bullet marked with a word that translates to "learn" gives the episode a clean comic object: a tiny artifact with the force of an all-chat taunt.

Weekly absurdity, counted down at full speed.
What A Time To Be Alive turns odd headlines into a loose weekly countdown, with Patrick Monahan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin chasing each story into stranger territory. Ancient insult bullets, AI vending-machine coups, sports-fan lawsuits, space missions, and Bourbon Street alligator trouble become fuel for rapid group riffing.
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What A Time To Be Alive is a weekly comedy countdown about the world’s most ridiculous current artifacts. It has a clear premise and a messy engine. Patrick Monahan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin move through stories that make the present feel like a malfunctioning museum exhibit, then keep pressing until the tiny stupid part becomes the whole point. The show can start with a botched intro, a noise outside a door, or someone interrupting the rhythm before the rhythm has even arrived. That looseness is part of the machinery. Recent episodes find comedy in an ancient bullet marked with a taunting lesson, the weight of modern graphics cards, Artemis II, a fan lawsuit involving DK Metcalf, YouTube greeting rituals, Bourbon Street alligator possession, and an AI vending machine apparently vulnerable to fake boardroom paperwork. The stories are not treated like neat segments. They are treated like objects passed around a room by people who want to see which side is funniest. One riff becomes a gaming comparison. Another becomes a map search. A third swerves into old arcade games, video stores, or the unbearable confidence of spectators who think they can confront professional athletes. The show’s best moments come from escalation. A normal headline gets restated, narrowed, mocked, overexplained, and then somehow made dumber and more precise. It is not polished in a public-radio way. It is too restless for that. The comedy depends on speed, interruption, and a shared tolerance for tangents that eventually justify themselves. There is political frustration in the mix, but it usually arrives through exasperated jokes rather than formal argument. There is also plenty of media-brained texture: Survivor, Twitch, Resident Evil, old video formats, YouTube habits, and internet business weirdness all pass through the same grinder. The show is best for listeners who like their weekly absurdity crowded, sharp, and conversational. It rewards people who enjoy callbacks, overanalysis of small phrases, and the feeling of a joke getting out of hand before anyone can responsibly stop it.
Made for: For listeners who like comedy panels, strange news, pop-culture debris, and jokes that accelerate through interruption. It fits people who prefer topical comedy with loose edges instead of polished monologues.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its ensemble pile-on: each story becomes funnier because the room keeps finding smaller, stranger angles. It turns disposable headlines into elaborate comic set pieces without losing the feeling of casual conversation.
Comedians Patrick Monahan (@ pattymo), Kath Barbadoro (@ kathbarbadoro) and Eli Yudin (@ eliyudin) count down the things every week that make you say the thing that's the title of the podcast.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A news countdown becomes a launchpad for precise, escalating riffs built from the week's most peculiar details.
What A Time To Be Alive turns odd news into a countdown that Patrick Monaghan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin can pull apart together. Sports confrontations and archaeological finds receive the same curious attention as computer hardware mishaps, unusual arrests, and slow-moving…
An ancient bullet marked "learn" becomes your cue to appreciate a very old form of trash talk.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
An ancient bullet marked "learn" turns into a sharp little study of petty rage.
A lead bullet marked with a word that translates to "learn" gives the episode a clean comic object: a tiny artifact with the force of an all-chat taunt.
A broken spaceship toilet gives three quick-witted hosts room to turn the week absurd.
What A Time To Be Alive turns a run of strange countdown material into a comic release valve, opening with a noise outside the door before veering through Home Invaders, Night Trap, Space Invaders, Artemis II, and the problem of a broken spaceship toilet.
A back-surgery return turns into a loose, funny run through spinal horror and suspiciously heavy computer hardware.
What A Time To Be Alive comes back from Kath Barbadoro's herniated-disc surgery with its comic instincts intact. Patrick Monaghan, Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin move quickly from practical recovery details into spinal body horror, replacement-spine jokes, and a surgeon voice that…
A sports-fan confrontation becomes a comic anatomy of confidence after contact with a professional athlete.
What a Time to Be Alive turns a sports-fan confrontation into a sharp little study of inflated self-belief. Patrick Monaghan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin stay with a fan's stated reason for provoking DK Metcalf, then let the idea sprawl outward to men imagining they could beat…
A Bourbon Street alligator arrest sends the panel into maps, fines, and New Orleans creature-guy riffing.
An approaching blizzard gives What A Time To Be Alive a nicely unstable setup, as Patrick Monaghan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Uden wonder whether the weather will keep them from seeing Rory Scovel.
Kath's return starts with a tribunal-pronunciation correction, then opens into slow science, climate talk, gaming friction, and a sober Minnesota note.
What A Time To Be Alive brings Kath Barbadoro back after a month away and quickly folds her return into a correction of Patrick Monaghan's pronunciation of "tribunal." With Eli Uden alongside them, the opening has the easy snap of a room settling back into form: a little…
A Survivor social test opens into an AI vending-machine coup, then jolts into holiday chaos.
Survivor 50 gives the review its cleanest frame: a panel weighing whether an imagined contestant could eat the bug, drop weight, build alliances, and make people like him. The bit turns the show's social machinery into a character test.

Messy pop-culture banter with friendly momentum.

Fast flatmate banter, games, and glorious nonsense.

Everyday detours, lightly overthought.

Tiny nonsense, treated with maximum urgency.

Messy media takes with sharp elbows.

Humanity's worst decisions, retold loudly and without restraint.
Comedians Patrick Monahan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin discuss a failed AI experiment where Anthropic tested an AI-run vending machine named Claudius at the Wall Street Journal.
The hosts of What a Time to be Alive engage in lighthearted banter about the word for being active at dawn and dusk.
A comedic compilation of the year's best moments from the podcast, featuring discussions about cooking and food photography.
The hosts of What a Time to Be Alive introduce the episode with banter about the theme song and bouncing babies.
The hosts introduce a guest co-host and discuss the absence of a regular host who is on his honeymoon.
Comedians Patrick Monahan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin count down bizarre weekly stories.
["What A Time To Be Alive #431, \"Welcome to Hell,\" opens with coffee-temperature jokes, straw complaints, and a zyn interruption from Eli Uden.", "Patrick Monaghan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Uden trade lines about hot coffee, cold brew, paper straws, reusable straws, and the fear of going \"through your brain.\"", "The history segment says Native Americans may have invented dice and games of chance more than 12,000 years ago, using marked stones in the Folsom culture across Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.", "A second archaeology story centers on a lead bullet from Hippos engraved with a word translated as \"learn,\" and the episode also revisits a video poker glitch discussed on Lie, Cheat and Steal."]
What A Time To Be Alive #430, “Full Woman,” moves from a false death report about Jonathan the 193-year-old tortoise to a toilet problem on Artemis II and a long run of jokes about broken bones, casts, and AI inbox access.
What A Time To Be Alive #429, “Caught Up in the Works,” opens with Patrick Monaghan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Yudin talking about Kath’s recovery from a herniated-disc surgery and joking that the pain disappeared immediately after the operation.
What A Time To Be Alive #428 opens with a Bundesliga VAR controversy, where someone in white overalls and a ski mask allegedly unplugged the screen during a Preußen Münster vs.
The hosts discuss podcast intros and catchphrases before starting their episode.
What A Time To Be Alive episode 425 is a comedy countdown hosted by Patrick Monaghan, Kath Barbadoro, and Eli Uden covering two news stories—Italy's Lover's Arch collapsing into the sea on Valentine's Day after a Mediterranean storm called a 'medicane,' and a man arrested on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras carrying a 3-to-4-foot live alligator, a firearm, and marijuana.
A group discusses the reality show Survivor, MrBeast's potential as a contestant, and his Feastables product.