Hello Internet

I have recommended other things with relatively little explanation. Sometimes a song doesn’t require much explanation, I’m recommending it because I think it’s a good song. But if I’m going to recommend listening to what could eventually amount to hundreds of hours of two dudes talking, I’d better tell you something about it up front. I’ll write a brief profile of the host and vice-host from a listener’s point of view.

C.G.P. Grey is interested in organisation and efficiency. He is enthusiastic about systems and methodologies. He studied physics or something and worked as a teacher before becoming self-employed as a creator of educational videos on YouTube. C.G.P.* now lives in London, coming originally from New York State. He likes flags and Apple products, checklists, and statistical analyses. He sometimes reacts to things the way a robot might. He likes things just so. For example, he would be horrified that this text is not left-justified. He probably couldn’t read this far. He had a lady penguin named after him but it died. He likes Star Wars. Trademark move: deep exasperated sigh.

Brady Haran has a background in journalism and television production and comes from Adelaide, Australia. He now lives in Bristol. He produces educational videos on YouTube, having separate channels for chemistry, mathematics, and several other subjects. He is a prolific producer of video content and his videos frequently feature well-respected academics. He is enthusiastic about cricket and his two dogs, Lulu and Audrey. His passions include buildings, space flight (particularly all things related to the Apollo Space Program), museums and history. If Grey is a robot, Brady is often depicted as a caveman. He gets excited about things in a childlike and infectious way but he also has a sharp analytical mind. He likes Star Wars. Trademark move: laughing at own joke.

On the podcast, they discuss a range of topics. Their very different personalities and outlooks lead to interesting debates. They keep track of their conversations and they welcome input from listeners on the Hello Internet subreddit. Each episode has a ‘follow-up’ section near the beginning, picking up the thread of what they were speaking about last time. The follow-up often becomes the whole episode. Recurring topics reside in corners, the most famous is probably plane crash corner. For some reason they talk about plane crashes a lot.

To refer back to another long-running conversation on the podcast… I’m fairly sure that writing this recommendation and including a YouTube embed isn’t in the arena of infringement. I think it’s allowed. But what do I know? Maybe I think I’m freebooting (sounds good), when I’m actually viewjacking (sounds bad). If this somehow crosses the Hello Internet radar and they take it apart on the podcast, they will no doubt point out that my writing about them could be seen as a type of viewjacking. I am trying to lure people to my website by writing about a lot of things that are much more popular than my own creative output. But isn’t that what the whole Internet is, a big viewjacking pyramid scheme? Doesn’t everything refer to something else? Like Hello Internet talking about Star Wars and Black Mirror. You could look at it that way. Side note: I know freebooting beat viewjacking in the end. No one talks about viewjacking anymore. But doesn’t my usage make sense?

When I found the podcast I listened to the most current episodes in reverse order while simultaneously listening from the start in sequential order, burning the candle at both ends. I haven’t listened to all of Hello Internet yet. Since it is often so self-referential, listeners are rewarded for going back and trawling through the archives. For example, I knew that they referred to all their listeners as Tims, but it wasn’t until I had listened to around twenty episodes that I found out why.

Here’s the episode where they changed it all up and made an accompanying video as they visited the Royal Society of Science in London and examined some historical artefacts.