Automatically transcribed by https://otter.ai

Josué Cardona 0:07 Welcome to GT Radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. I’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:19 Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:20 And Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:21 Hello.

Josué Cardona 0:25 We did it. We’re here. It’s Episode 300. And I am the emotions that I’m feeling are, are positive and many. And I’m feeling real good. And come with much of a plan. It’s just, it’s just feel it feels good. Feels good. We’ve been working on so much stuff. It’s been quite a year. It’s been quite 10 years. All this stuff is happening at the same time we’ve been we’ve been it’s just been a lot. And I’m so I’m so happy. I’m so happy. Not too many big changes for 300. I mean, usually at a milestone I do something, you know, the we introduce something we change something. We’re nothing, nothing too crazy. Nothing, nothing too different. Just just one little thing at the beginning of the show. And, yeah, that this is this is just I don’t know, it feels. I do like to kind of a, I don’t know, I want to I want to celebrate a bit. But I also want to kind of like re like recenter. Right, come come back to some back to basics. Maybe I did it like every 50 episodes. But I think that’s that’s a good like number two, do it like once a year here. Yeah, like, okay, let’s, uh, let’s bring it back to basics. And what one thing that has been, obviously, the biggest adventure that we’ve, that we’ve been on for the past year, is officially becoming a 501 c three nonprofit organization. And it just, it just, it feels good. And it’s changed so many things, and it opens up for a lot of new opportunities and possibilities. And and, you know, we’re just a couple weeks away from the actual 10th anniversary. And it’s like, it’s a lot of things, it’s a lot of things all at once it feels it feels really good. But one thing I’ve found myself doing is reintroducing Geek Therapy to many, many new people, partners, other businesses, people, you know, potential donors, collaborators, just over and over and over and over again. And, and it reminds me of, and I don’t remember exactly when this started happening. But at some point, people started asking, like, what, how do we do that? Like, how do we how do we, how do we do what you do? And and that started, I started thinking like, oh, like I should, I should find a better way to explain this. And so over time, and over the years, I did come up with, like, a theory, even over the weekend, someone was like, Oh, well, you know, it’s preparing for an interview. And they were saying, Yeah, like, you know, can you talk about this and this and this? And like, Oh, can you talk about Geek Therapy theory? And I was like, Yeah, I can. Now after, after many, many years, I can actually, I can actually do that. And, and the reason I want to talk about that today is because I feel like it’s a 10th anniversary, that does it. There’s a New York Times article that’s gonna mention us in a couple days. Just like right there. It’s a big milestone. You know, people, people are gonna come and say like, Oh, what is then what is it for you? And it’s so we’ve never really done an episode on that, like I talked about it, right. But we’ve never really done if you’ve been to a workshop or something, I talk about it. And basically, it’s it’s the core idea that everything that we do is is built on. And in one way or another to it’s like when you think about like, Oh, yeah, I don’t know, I get it. I see. I see. it real simple. It’s three parts. It’s it’s affinity, I was talking about this idea of affinity, right. It’s like, oh, something like stuff you’re just drawn to, attracted to meaningful, like, I don’t think you can always explain why you like what you like. It’s just like, I don’t know, I just do. Maybe there are reasons but like, you know, you don’t think about it when it’s happening. I don’t know that that’s kind of it. Right? Like, what are you drawn to? What are you connected to? What are you interested in? That that’s like an affinity I mean, that’s the main piece that we’re looking at that but then it’s when that combines with What I used to just call a relatability. But that was like felt kind of clunky. So a couple years ago, I started calling it resonance. Because I was like, oh, okay, like it resonates with you. Yeah. Like, you’re both nodding like, yeah.

Link Keller 5:14 It’s a sexier word. It’s got better mouthfeel it’s great. It

Josué Cardona 5:18 feels good. It feels good. It’s like, oh, like that thing that I really like, oh, but like, it resonated with me. And that resonance, I like that it can be a positive or a negative one. Right? So it’s like, oh, yeah, like, I feel it like I relate to that character. That’s my experience, or, yes, it feels good. It makes me happy. I’m excited about it. But if it’s negative, so sometimes the dates like an a and an R and the R. If I’m talking about a negative version, it’s a it’s a negative resonance or a repulsion. It’s like, oh, like that. I feel like it pushed me away. Right. Like, it’s like, it’s like, it’s a no, no, no, that I don’t like the way this feels, or that makes me angry. Or, you know, it’s like these negative feelings. A big Nope. But it’s those ones. When you put those things together that then and you and you, you go over them. You talk about them, like, oh, oh, right, right, right. I feel this way. I care so much, because it reminds me of this, or you just start processing the feelings like that. So I was I was late to today’s recording, because we’ve started a, a, a brand new show that I will premiere Finally, in a couple weeks, and I am I’m so happy about it. Because for years, Promises, promises promises. I but I’ve wanted to make this on for years. And it’s, I think, I think it’s really easy to talk about Geek Therapy theory in particular, when you apply to music, it’s like, oh, yeah, like, Uh huh. But you could just start talking like a three minute song or even just the lyric from a song. It’s like, I don’t know. And then you think about it’s like, oh, like, it’d be me angry and be happy. And we were just recording an episode by the show, which is called resonance, by the way, because and, and there was a sound that made me it just I didn’t, I didn’t like the way it made me feel. And and when we got into the conversation, that went, that was quite a conversation. Like, I didn’t, I didn’t. This is this is the theory, this is the whole thing, right? It’s like, I don’t like this the way that song made me feel. Um, but like, there was something about it, like I’m drawn to it. I like it like that. Someone else like said, we’re talking about it. I don’t like the way it makes me feel. Why exactly, I think it’s and then I just went like, it just made sense. They started understanding my feelings about it. And I started remembering views of the world and lots of things that I don’t like thinking about, but that song brought them up for me, I think it’s really easy to do that with music. And we’ll just I mean, basically, it’s a plus r equals u, the US for understanding, it’s like, oh, that’s where that’s where the insights come from. That’s where things start making sense. And someone who is equipped with, you know, just looking for those first two pieces, you can get to the to the third one. That’s kind of the the point. That’s why we say you know, it’s the best way to understand each other. And if you, we may not bring it up every single day, but every single show every single everything on the network, even when people it’s not just a foundation of the way that I teach workshops in the way that I’ve been writing about stuff for a long time and the basis of this particular show. But I think it’s also representative of the shows that are on the network that maybe have made by people who haven’t even been to one of my workshops, like, deep impact. I’m sure Nate has never been to one of my workshops and has never heard me say these words. But the idea that that that he brought up was like, Oh, yeah, no, no, like these, the, these pieces of media are important, I think we should know about them. And from the frame, that they’re meaningful to me, like they were impactful. Right. It’s like it matters to hear people talk about things that were impactful. And, and I keep every we do that with things, music may be the most mainstream of the things that we’re doing. Although, you know, we just did an episode on train music. So, you know, we are definitely we’re still thinking, right? It’s like, Oh, you love trains? Yeah, let’s train music in particular. Yeah, let’s dive deep into that. And it’s just that that’s it, right? It’s a that’s the geek part of the culture. It’s Oh, yeah, no, no, we’re drawn to it. We love it. We were excited about it. It makes us feel a certain way. How, what is the resonance there? What is it that it’s made you thinking that makes you think, what are you thinking about it? What are you feeling? It feels simple, but once you start using it, it’s, it’s just very effective anyway, and then that’s, that’s what we were all what we do. And so that foundation, everything that was built on That idea. And and we continue to like what, again, using deep impact as an example, right? It’s like, this is the idea. I’m like, Yeah, no, that lines up exactly. With what we’re doing. Yep, that’s the thing. It’s Welcome aboard.

Yeah, yeah, like Hero Nation. Another one right there. We’re like, Oh, yeah, no, like we you know, because it’s primarily about representation. And I’m like, yep, Nope, that’s the one. That’s absolutely, we, you know, people of color talking about representation of people of color in comic books and movies. Same thing with the Queer Comics Podcast, right? That’s, that’s what we’re talking about. And, and we go into the, like, we celebrate. And we also talk about like, doesn’t doesn’t feel good? Why? Oh, okay. Yeah. some insight, some understanding, you learn something, it’s good. That’s the foundation, I that’s it, I want to celebrate everything we’ve done, we’ve built on that. It’s just so I’m so I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished and everything that that we’re doing. And I’m glad that we’re at a point now where we, you know, we’re growing things are happening, and also that we have like the clarity to be able to talk about things in a in a in that way when necessary. Because I don’t think it’s always, again, there’s like a very specific way to talk about it at a workshop. But like the conversations we have here, are there essentially that

Lara Taylor 11:22 they are that it’s just more casual, actually don’t have to go like break down. What is the A? What is the R? What is it the U?

Josué Cardona 11:32 Exactly? Exactly? Exactly. Yeah. Because that’s boring. So if you’re a therapist or a teacher, don’t do that. Either. You do that in your head. You do that in your head, you don’t do that out loud.

Lara Taylor 11:44 Unless the client asks like, What the hell are you doing? Why are we Geeking out?

Josué Cardona 11:48 If you’re doing it, right, they’re not?

Lara Taylor 11:50 If you do not, right, they’re not. But there are some people who are very, like, I am curious as to why you do the things you’re doing in the room.

Josué Cardona 11:59 And it’s actually yeah, it’s fun to explain it, actually. But it reminds me of like, trying to practice, like, legit hardcore person centered. Also, like I say that, but probably like not well trained person centered, where you’re just repeating what people say back to you, right? It’s like, Oh, I feel this way. It’s like, Oh, you feel that way? Like you do that with with really little kids. And they’re like, why are you repeating everything I’m saying? adults don’t catch on as easily. The kids are like, Why? Why are you repeating everything I’m saying? Oh, you’re getting everything you’re saying.

Lara Taylor 12:39 I mean, it’s just it’s a taste to their own. own medicine. The copycat game, right? Yeah,

Josué Cardona 12:47 yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re copying me. Exactly. Exactly. Well, um, both of you have actually written something recently about, you didn’t know this. But I’ve asked you both to write your stories. I’ve been asking a lot of people on the on the network to kind of write their story and share it and then we’ll Link to them later. But again, this feels like it’s the start of the 10th. The 10th birthday. It feels like a party. 300 again, it’s a mileston. Feels so good. Feel so good. I’m curious if you’ve already written it down. And it’s a you know, there’ll be published by the time that this episode goes up. But I’m curious if anything you want to share looking back at 10 years, you know, neither of you have been here for all 10 years, but it feels that way. I don’t know. I think Laura wrote something like that. Like, it feels like is this supposed to be? Is that good? In a good way? Actually, explain yourself louder. That’s the first thing.

Lara Taylor 14:07 I came, it’s been eight years. Here. It’ll be eight years next month. And like, Yeah, I don’t know. It’s even though it hasn’t been a decade. It has been my almost my entire career as from starting my master’s program, like it was a year after I started, but like before I started meeting with clients in a more official way, right? I’ve been in the field for a lot longer than that. I don’t even want to think about how long I’ve been in the field. But it’s

Josué Cardona 14:43 Because you’re old.

Lara Taylor 14:49 what I think the gist of what I was trying to get at in what I wrote is that I can’t imagine I don’t even know what I imagined my career being before. I I met you and started talking about all this Geek Therapy stuff. But it definitely wasn’t this. Eight years ago, you never could have got me on a podcast. Maybe I was to I did start writing a blog, I could have seen myself doing that. But like, my relationships with my clients would still be authentic. But like, maybe I wouldn’t lean so hard into arguing with people I work with about being able to wear the hats I wear and the shirts I wear and having my geeky stuff in my office and like, I have people come to me. Now, because of my photo, in my bio, I mentioned Geek Therapy. And I mentioned using people’s passions and comics and video games in therapy.

Josué Cardona 15:56 The correct term is affinity. We just went over that.

Lara Taylor 15:59 passions, passions.

Josué Cardona 16:01 I mean, I’m sorry, I don’t want to interrupt you. But I know I’m sure I’ve mentioned this at some point. But at some point, I debated whether or not to call it passion therapy. And I don’t regret not doing that. But there was a time when he felt like the most appropriate word. But if I know it wasn’t a good idea.

Lara Taylor 16:18 In my bio, it would make more sense to say things you are passionate about rather than like you have affinity for like pizza. It’s less clinical, dammit. Yeah, no, but I am trying to be relatable. resonate with me like

Link Keller 16:33 affinity, like the Infinity Stones.

Lara Taylor 16:39 Stones, shit, now we need to make affinity stones. Um, but like this feeling of I have found my people, I have found a community of people who get me get the work I do. People that I can geek out with me on multiple levels, whether it’s psychology stuff, or geek stuff, or both at the same time, and that is like, that’s the Venn diagram we want, right? with us and with our clients meeting each other as much as we can. And I have people seeking me out. I’ve had to, I have a waitlist of clients, because there are no other people at my company that do what I do. And I don’t think that it can be hard to find somebody. But once you’ve found someone, like there, I’m not the only therapist that does this.

Josué Cardona 17:36 There’s, we have a huge community,

Lara Taylor 17:37 I’m just the one advertising it right. And so it can be incredibly powerful to just be able to have that language already. Same thing with my queer clients, they don’t they love that they can come to me and not have to explain certain things, what would get clients same thing, they can come to me and not have to explain what a discord is, or feel like they’re going to be judged for having a long distance relationship and an RPG, or, like, you know, that they play video games all night, when they get home from work. I’m like, Well, are you working? Are you taking care of your needs, okay, you do what you want to do, like, it’s fine. There’s a language that they don’t have to explain what an RPG even is. And then we can launch into the work quicker and use the stuff they they have an affinity for.

Josué Cardona 18:33 Well done

Link Keller 18:35 That’s such a that’s such a great point. Because that’s really it really, that is what it is, is coming into a space where you have a shared language to start out building a relationship like that’s, that’s the first thing is is building that relationship with another person. And having shared language is the one of the easiest ways to do that. Yeah,

Josué Cardona 18:59 yeah. The, one of my first websites about like my practice, there was a page on it that said, the like, the languages that I spoke in English, Spanish, and then it was like sci fi fantasy. Since then I just kept going into media franchises. It was like 30, it was like 30 different things. I was trying to make a point. And it’s exactly what you’re saying now. Yeah. It just, it just makes such a big difference at talk to people. To understand you, again, it’s it’s that understanding piece it’s like to feel I still think I mean, if I think that the affinity and the resonance is the core is the foundation. But if there was like something under the foundation that inspired that bedrock. There was a bedrock for it. It’s it’s Like it all came from the motivation was to avoid that feeling of feeling misunderstood or feeling like someone doesn’t care about the things that you care about, there’s something about that, that is especially important in meaningful relationships. And if, if, whether it’s your therapist or your caretaker, or your significant other, there’s, and your friends, like, it just hurts more, when that happens, I don’t care if a stranger doesn’t get what I’m talking about, right. But if it’s somebody who’s close to you, it’s so because words are hard to communicate. And if you have that language set up, and it’s, I mean it. I went to Korea once and I remember getting off the plane and feeling. So lost, because I couldn’t read any of any of the characters at the airport. And this was this was this pre Geek Therapy days. So this is over 10 years ago, I remember going to Google Maps, and for some reason like it like, because I was in Korea, there wasn’t an English translation of Google Maps in Korea. So when I printed it out, everything was in Korean, I had, I couldn’t understand. And I actually got lost in the city once. And I told the taxi driver were to take me and we couldn’t understand each other. That was a terrifying feeling. And it didn’t feel good. And that frustration that just like, of trying to explain something to someone, and they just don’t get it. And I and I just had it happen last year with with a therapist, I was saying, like, it was working for a while, and then I was trying to explain something and he just could not. It felt dismissive. And that, that in this line of work in what we’re trying to the people in the community, not just me, in general, it’s like it sucks to feel that way. Like

Lara Taylor 22:16 it just becomes just another person who doesn’t get it. Right. Yeah, therapists you supposed to get it and supposed to listen, and try to understand even if they don’t understand, just becomes another person who doesn’t get it and dismisses how you feel.

Josué Cardona 22:31 Yeah. And, and, you know, they don’t have to. Just because they don’t get the reference, you know, like,

Lara Taylor 22:40 I don’t get half the references, my clients, may I work with a lot of kids in the enemies that I haven’t watched. Right? But I get passionate about why is that character so important to you? What does that character do that makes you feel so happy? Or so sad or whatever?

Josué Cardona 23:00 Is that about my resonance with your affinity? Right? It’s about having, it’s about helping you bring those two things together. That’s why that’s why that’s why I think that the formula works. You know, we talked about the mindset and the other things and like, don’t get my young. And I thought we’d talk about conversation starters, I talked about taking time for reflection, you know, don’t it’s not about you, it doesn’t matter, you just need to be be curious. That’s another one those points, it’s just gotta be curious. You got to try to help them make that connection. If you can make it to and you understand it fantastic. Even better, but the point is do it even if you’re not trying to just saying over and over, I don’t get it I don’t understand is it feels it feels dismissive. And that that feeling sucks.

Lara Taylor 23:49 I went to a training once where it was like a best practices day where different people from the county would talk about present a case and like what they did to help the client and one person came up and said that their client loved my little pony. And was really a little younger kid obsessed. I love my little pony too. I’m I used to be obsessed. And she was like, if I had to hear about these ponies one more time, I was gonna throw them out the car, the little dolls. So she made this kid play with paper dolls to express feelings and talk about different parts of the self. And I’m like,

Josué Cardona 24:35 but she was annoyed

Lara Taylor 24:36 because she was annoyed and I’m just like, but my little pony is set up. It’s set up so perfectly to do that, like the shy part of yourself or the party part of yourself for the the the the bookworm part of yourself. And I’m just like, Why? Why you had the tools right there in front of you to get this. And so she talks about the best practices but The kid still didn’t really connect with her. And I’m just like, because you didn’t use what was there in front of you. Right? So

Josué Cardona 25:06 the best practice was, how to how to the best practice for not being annoyed. That was basically

Link Keller 25:12 my best practice is paper dolls Actually,

Josué Cardona 25:16 yeah, yeah.

Lara Taylor 25:18 That’s a valuable tool. Some kids really love it. You can even make your own with different like, you could make your own pony paper dolls or whatever, like thankies. Like,

Link Keller 25:29 what an opportunity be like, Okay, I get like,

Lara Taylor 25:33 what would their cutie marks What? Yeah, what are their cutie marks? Right? At

Link Keller 25:38 least put, you know, make your own pony. And then which of the ponies would you like, hang out with the most and why? You know? Oh, you don’t want to hang out with this pony? Like, why? Why do you think that? You don’t like that one as much? Like, explain that to me. And yeah, no, here’s a read. You should add, you know, a heart there. Because,

Josué Cardona 25:57 yeah, it’s keep excellent use of the formula. Perfect. Excellent.

Lara Taylor 26:01 And I just wanted to scream. And yeah, and that training. I’m just like, No use really use what’s in front of you. You use what the kid loves us with the person loves in front of you.

Josué Cardona 26:14 I mean, that’s, that’s the that’s my origin story. Right? It’s like working with these kids. They’re already talking about video games. I’ve gotten fine. Let me Yeah. Let me use the wings like, no. And, you know, as I said, out of spite, I went home and Geek Therapy was born. 10 years ago.

Lara Taylor 26:37 Yeah, yeah,

Josué Cardona 26:38 it was just so it’s just so frustrating. It’s like, it’s at that point. It’s like a deliberate habit. That’s

Lara Taylor 26:48 why no, yeah,

Josué Cardona 26:50 yeah. And it’s funny, because just in general, in life in general, it’s a great question. And I’ve actually I’ve been thinking, I’ve been thinking about a few different tattoos to get lately, but just, but the basic, they’re like, they’re basically just sticky notes that I want to put on my skin so that I’ll forget things is basically what it is.

Lara Taylor 27:12 You just need a GT gt tattoo.

Josué Cardona 27:15 Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah. I hope I don’t just end up with like sticky notes, because I’m going to be very embarrassed by that.

Lara Taylor 27:25 But it feels like a tattoo of a sticky note.

Josué Cardona 27:28 It feels it feels like a good idea today anyway. But one of the things is like, what has worked before? You know, like, that is such a like, sometimes that question blows your mind. It’s like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I have done this before. Right. And it did not work or, Oh, right. Last time, I, I know exactly what to do. Because I did it last time. And it worked. And it was helpful. And you just forget. And then you start going around in circles. And oh, like you already know, so many of these things through? Like, do you have a version of maybe exactly your situation that you’ve seen maybe on TV? Or in a movie in a book? It’s like, Oh, yeah. And then, like, your client tell you the entire story. It’s like, so what did they do? They Oh, they did that? It’s like, Huh, like, I love to bring up the Doctor Strange scene from the movie. Right? where he’s just asking the the the Ancient One like, what, what? How do I get from here to there? Like, how do I become like you? How do I do that? super stressed out doesn’t understand. I should just ask him. How did you become a doctor? He goes, study and practice. And she just looks at him like you have the answer. You know exactly what to do. That’s it just connected. What did she do? She connected the thing that he knows the most. And how he was feeling? And boom, he has the answer. That’s the inside. That’s the understanding. Yeah. works. It just works.

Lara Taylor 29:04 When we talk about language, and how, like, all this way, you and I had this conversation not that long ago, but like I tell clients, at first time I meet with them every time sometimes it’s easier to put your internal experience, in not into words, but into like, that’s the thing like something visual, whether it’s a comic video game, TV show, movie, what a book, whatever. Like, my anxiety could be very different from the experience of the person next to me with anxiety. And so I’m going to treat those things very differently. So what does yours look like? And so someone can come to me and be like, so it’s like this in this show? Have you seen it? I’m like, No, but if you got a good episode for me to watch or a clip or something, I’ll either watch it in session or I will take the time sometimes to watch it outside of session to be able to come back and discuss it then Next time

Link Keller 30:03 sorry, I just think he goes like, yeah, typical therapists give out homework for you to work on your own progress outside of class, Laura, however, it gives herself homework. watching anime.

Josué Cardona 30:19 I mean, just gotta watch, you just gotta watch.

Link Keller 30:22 Like, look, kids send me send me the list of the hottest amvs and all all set up a playlist. I’m gonna watch I just,

Lara Taylor 30:31 I just I have, I have three clients who have a list of enemies for me to watch, and I cannot watch

Josué Cardona 30:41 a lot of anime.

Lara Taylor 30:43 There’s too much. There’s too much, hopefully.

Josué Cardona 30:46 Probably Oh, good. Hopefully our anime podcast or taco can help out with that otaku? Geek therapy.com, I’m going to try to drop a reference for every show on the network as we go. I’m working my way through.

Lara Taylor 31:01 I’m gonna have to give you all the list. And if if you haven’t done an episode on every one of those, then you’re gonna have to bring up another one.

Josué Cardona 31:09 Awesome. We haven’t done episodes on amvs though. Which said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On our. We have a Disney podcast that’s sporadic. That is going to, it’s going to live on with new hosts. And it’s one of the most exciting things that is going on right now. and stuff. Who will be one of the co host? We’re talking about amvs. And how like, tick tock is, like, the evolution of a MV. It’s great. Yeah, no, that’s, that’s good. That’s good. So is there anything else about the story that you wrote? I mean, actually, you said a lot. That’s fine. People can go read it. Read it. Yeah. I

Lara Taylor 31:53 gotta leave something for people to read.

Josué Cardona 31:55 Yeah, yeah. But But I am wanting more. I wanted to I do want to reiterate that 10 years is a long time. And yeah, like a lot of changes. You invited me to your wedding. Like you got married in between all this? I get to take it. That’s good. That’s good. That’s good. Oh, Link, what was what was yours about? What do you talk about? Hey,

Link Keller 32:17 I talked about how I came across Geek Therapy network projects. And first started talking with you I was in ending my bachelor’s program. I was just graduating and my supervisor made a big deal about doing informational interviews, you got to you got to email the people you like and ask them questions. But don’t take up too much time, though. Only 30 minutes, like Be respectful. 30 minutes times.

Lara Taylor 32:46 I’ve heard of an informational interview until like, five years ago.

Link Keller 32:51 Yeah. And so that that was about that was about the time, five years ago, that maybe it became a big thing, then. But yeah, so I had been listening to headshots and psych tech. And so I sent an email to Josué. And Kelly, asking to, you know, just ask him a few questions. I basically was like, I think what you guys are doing is really cool. And I would like to know how you got there, basically, like, tell me what, you know, your journey looked like a little bit because I’m flying blind here. And I need some ideas. So I had a lovely 30 Minute. Meeting with Kelly, and it was very nice chatting with her very professional. And I was like, Okay, I feel like I’ve learned some stuff like, and then I got an email back from hostway. And he’s like, yes, let’s chat. But, um, you have a PlayStation, right? Could we could we like, hang out and chat on there. And because

Lara Taylor 33:53 that’s the only way host way knows how to

Link Keller 33:56 hang out. I don’t want to hang out. And just do one thing, I need a side thing. And honestly, it was great. We ended up we played Tomb Raider Curse of Osiris, which was the free PS Plus game at the time, and it had Co Op. And so we were playing together. And we played for like two and a half hours, and talked about all sorts of things. And we’ve been talking about having a shared language. And I think that that was one of the things I immediately connected with Josué about is that, you know, I was explaining you know, my own background and where it was coming from and what I was interested in studying and everything and having to explain contextual information. So little like I didn’t need to give you context. I was just like, Yeah, I was studying this thing. You know, I got it. I know what you’re talking about. I was like, oh, not only but but you made me feel in such ways. Not only did you get what I was talking about which understand base level understanding, as we’ve talked about before, is you Pretty easy, just be open to it. And if not, you can fake it. That’s also pretty easy. Just fake it

Lara Taylor 35:05 till you make it.

Link Keller 35:07 It’s not only that I felt that he got it, I felt that he valued at the same things that I was interested in. And it made me feel like we’ve been talking about over and over again, it made me feel like oh my gosh, this is there are other people like me that not only understand what I’m trying to talk about when I’m talking about using video games for positive that video games have pro social benefits and individual benefits and physical benefits that we should be studying and and improving on. And people can be like, yeah, that’s cool, I get it. But very few immediately go like yes, not, that’s a great idea. I don’t know why we’re not already doing that in it, like seeing the value in the ideas that I’m having the, the, you know, the problems that I’m encountering and talking about how like, Oh, you know, how do we fix these kinds of things and having somebody not just get it but also, you know, reflect back to you like this is valuable, this is worth spending time and thought on was so important to me at that point in my educational journey, but also as a human being.

Lara Taylor 36:16 You’re not crying, not

Josué Cardona 36:18 Was I a good Co Op partner at least successful Yeah, we’re moving at a great team. We we did I

Link Keller 36:24 was I was a little nervous because I hadn’t played the game before. And that was like, my dad’s like, Oh my god, what if I suck at the game and he doesnt like me!

Lara Taylor 36:35 good guy, you know,

Link Keller 36:37 the couple of times, we’re like, wait, what are we doing? I felt like we had a really good rapport right at the beginning being able to communicate within a game, which I guess that in of itself shows that video games are beneficial because that is a skill I learned from gaming is how to co op game and how to communicate that stuff. But yeah, it was it was awesome. And I just you know, kept kept my little fingers a little peepers looking at Geek Therapy and host way when Haha, a victim Hmm, get in here and watch me up like a spider and

Lara Taylor 37:19 such. That’s kind of what happened to me Link.

Josué Cardona 37:24 So so I don’t like I don’t like the word victim.

Link Keller 37:31 you were a very fancy fishing hook with like the the beads and the feathers and is like I was it was great, great bait, you made great bait.

Josué Cardona 37:46 So so so let me let me explain exactly how I do this. Because it’s very relevant. So I recognize an affinity and people and then I try to find some resonance.

Link Keller 38:09 And then you come to anunderstanding of trying to get them to start a podcast.

Josué Cardona 38:17 Basically, yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s the same thing except, you just don’t see it as it’s happening. The the most work, I think that has gone into this, to get us where we are now is… I care about this stuff a lot. And when I see that other people care, too, I reach out, and I try to make that connection. And I think it’s so important. It’s the same thing that we talked about. Feeling like someone is dismissing you or something you care about, it just doesn’t feel good. And it feels really good when someone embraces your idea, or in a way just believes in you. It makes you feel like your ideas matter, that things you care about matter, that you matter. There were many moments in my life where it wasn’t until someone else said, “Well, maybe you should do it,” or “have you thought of doing that,” that felt like they believed in me or they supported me that made all the difference in the world. And so I try to do that. I’ve done it enough times over 10 years that now there’s enough of us to and we’ve been doing it for a long time and now there’s enough of us that our job Okay, so something I’ve been telling a lot of people is like I have nothing I have no money to offer you, you have an unpaid staff position now. And can nobody said no yet, which is the only way we’re gonna get to where we are now. Because I think we’re all it’s one big Co Op game, we’re all building something together

Link Keller 40:24 We all care about it. And that’s, that is part of what we’re connecting over, not just the individual IPS, it’s not just, you know, we all really love Disney, it’s that Disney has had impact on our lives, and that we can communicate that with each other and see reflections of ourselves and other people and feel closer to them and feel understood and valued and a part of a community and a part of a community that also has value. And it’s really powerful. And I am eternally grateful to be a part of it.

Josué Cardona 41:03 You’re all working for free, but you’re doing good work. And I appreciate it a lot. And I appreciate it.

Link Keller 41:10 We’re not getting paid in money. But we are paid in lots of other ways. Social capital, I mean, I have so many more friends now than I did. Four and a half years ago, I started getting involved here. I have deeper connections with the friends that I already had. And part of that has been incorporating Geek Therapy stuff into our, you know, group Hangouts. And yeah, and and having a bunch of people on the discord. And yeah, it’s, it’s just yeah, it feels really good to have a community and to be a part of it, and to be a part of building it up. And having that sort of, you know, physical and emotional investment in it only makes me care more.

Josué Cardona 42:05 blows my mind so that you you, you’ve never seen the Facebook group.

Link Keller 42:11 Ever seen that thing, which

Lara Taylor 42:12 is arguably the largest phase, it is the largest and the most active 1005 We are almost a 5000 people like you’re just short of 5000 people. In fact, if I go approve some people, we might be a couple of people short. Yeah,

Josué Cardona 42:29 yeah. This week, the the, the potential mentioned in a New York Times article this week, a question I got back was like, How many? Like, how many? How much has the group grown? And I have to go check out like, oh, like, yeah, that’s a lot a lot of people I’m,

Lara Taylor 42:47 I’m a little scared to see what happens when there is a New York Times article about us.

Josué Cardona 42:53 I’ve been trying to prepare for this moment. For for a couple of weeks. I hope I’m I hope I’ve prepared everything enough. I’ve been pretty busy. A lot of us have been pretty busy trying to do a whole bunch of different pieces. Um, it is it is. It is great, right? It’s it’s really about the people and everybody in it and everybody contributes to, to making it better like, and even like when you talk about the the content like it’s that cycle. You both saw either a presentation or you’re listening to a podcast, he reached out, started talking now you’re part of the community, you’re creating stuff, you’re engaging other people or are aware of you that way. And then and then I rope them in. Now we have other other people. Yeah, yeah. We’re at that point now, where I can’t rope everybody in and so and it’s in and you see it, I’m like, you do it, you reach out to them, you talk to them, you can do it. And it’s and it’s working. And so so and in many ways, we’re like multiplying that effort. And yeah, and it’s, it’s great that the story that I’ve heard, or the phrase that I’ve heard the most sense since the beginning of this year, has been “I found my people” you said it earlier. A lot too. And, and, and like you said it, you know, we’re talking about our conversation, right? It’s like that feeling of like, oh, oh, I’m not alone. Other people think think like me, other people care about the same thing. And every time someone says that to me, I’m it makes me it makes me very happy. Because I I was alone, right? And I was like, well let’s, let’s get not be. Let me find other people, and little by Little, you know, we were finding each other and, and like when we did tags in April to see people from other parts of the world saying the same thing of like, like, I mean, there’s, there’s, it’s 1000s of people, right, but it’s like, it’s pretty central to the, to the States. And like, I know, like, we’ve had

Lara Taylor 45:23 a handful, there’s a handful of people in like Australia or Europe or whatever. But yeah, but

Josué Cardona 45:28 like, even like centrally like here, like, in the States, we have a bunch of people. And then like, we’ve even had a blogger, you know, like a content creator from Canada, one from Colombia. And it’s like, like, stretching out this way. I mean, we’re, I’m hoping like, I think we’re this close to having at least one podcast based out of the UK. And that’s just because I haven’t made some calls to other people in other countries. And but at TAGGS seeing people from other countries saying the same thing like I, I did it, I thought I was the only one. And to be able to start doing this. And hopefully, I can encourage them to start building up networks and connecting people there. So that they don’t feel that way. But but just that they found us from from other countries, like it was that it’s like, oh, we’re not we’re definitely not done, right. Like, we can keep doing this. And we’ll keep bringing people in. And the more people that we bring in from other countries and put different perspectives, it just, it just makes the community better. And it improves the work. And yeah, and they like it. It. It felt. Yeah. So every time “I found my people,” I’m so that’s, that’s what it’s all about. Maybe that’s what we should call this episode, I found my people. I don’t know. I want to call this episode a whole bunch of things.

Link Keller 46:51 You name it 300 times,

Josué Cardona 46:53 I can name it 300 times

Lara Taylor 46:55 you can have 300 different names.

Josué Cardona 46:57 300 different names. Yeah,

Lara Taylor 46:59 this is Geek Therapy.

Josué Cardona 47:03 I didn’t do the research to see how many episodes we’ve lost. were recorded and never like, I’m not sure exactly how many we’ve recorded. And across the entire network. Let’s see who we haven’t we mentioned yet. haven’t mentioned Rolling for Change. tabletop primarily, but it’s really about the transformational power of games. That’s really at the core of it. And that that show has been has reached a lot of people to like resonated with a lot of people. And that’s been really good. headshots, too. You mentioned Headshots and PsychTech. Link. Who am I missing? We guess we’re only missing the, what I call the deep dives, which are here comes a thought conspiracy about Steven Universe, which is again, a beautiful story where I kept talking about doing a Steven Universe podcast. And then people started joking about it on the discord. And say like, well, maybe we should make it wait. Do it damn right you should make it. What do you need? What do you want? And they did and i think i think that’s wonderful. Marc Cuiriz and I started on Assassin’s Creed show because that’s his favorite podcast. And it’s and it’s interesting. We spoke recently. And we I mentioned to him, like, we’re just talking about ideas. And I said, I think we should start over. We should do it again. Like we could we can make it more Geek Therapy than it already is. Because to me, all of these shows everything we’re doing is about building resources, something that will be helpful to people. You may not realize it as you’re having the conversation talking about Final Fantasy seven. But but it’s it is it is relevant. I can put it all together. It can be very helpful. And and Mark was like I was thinking the same thing. Right. It’s a and that felt that felt really good to this again. Oh, that was fun, but I think we can make it more helpful. Let’s start over let’s revisit the first game again, and go through. It’s his favorite series anyway. So he’s

Lara Taylor 49:13 never never Yeah, can I get to Valhalla ever?

Josué Cardona 49:17 We might not.

Lara Taylor 49:18 You might not even get to Origins.

Josué Cardona 49:20 I don’t know. I don’t know that I believe in March. And then there’s the probably the deepest of the dives, which is Conspiracy of Light, which I don’t it’s hard to recommend a show that uses as the affinity is for a sci fi show called Babylon 5 from the 90s that has a cult following. And the reason why we decided to do it is because Woody it’s like it’s like Woody’s favorite show and then like most meaningful and impactful show where the show was important to him during the Some parts of his life and you know, he’s I was like, yeah, sure, let’s go episode by episode, this is the whole thing. Oh yeah. And, and the conversations that have come from that show have shocked me. But it’s but it’s it’s that and here comes the thought those are the examples of what if you take the time to really look at these things that you care about and talk about it and talk about why they’re meaningful and what they remind you of and where they take you. And, and, yeah, recently, people found, you know, new listeners found conspiracy of light and and started reaching out and it was like, it was just so validating. It was so good. And so until there’s room for a lot more of that, and we’ve been building the nonprofit in the background, building the organization, but once things like settle down this is what I was trying to get to like from 15 minutes ago.

Lara Taylor 51:00 You didn’t you didn’t mention GT Adventures.

Josué Cardona 51:03 Okay, so I forgot I forgot. I forgot to mention, I don’t want cat to get mad at me. I forgot to mention Geek Family Therapy, which was also a great story. She’s like, I meet Kat, the forger. She’s like, listen to the podcast. She said something on Twitter. And, and, again, I need very little. The the bait is you’re absolutely right. Like, it’s like, okay, you’re just a little bit and then I just, I just pounce, right? And so cat tweeted, like, at Geek Therapy like, oh, they’re gonna be at New York Comic Con. Like it would be cool. Like, something like, I don’t know, like, it’d be cool to meet Josué or something. And I immediately responded, I was like, cool. Let’s let’s, let’s do it. So we went in, we had breakfast. And she said something like, you should talk more about family therapy on the show. You don’t talk enough about like family and family dynamics this

Link Keller 51:59 And Josué pulls out the UNO reverse card. No, you. No you.

Josué Cardona 52:06 that’s exactly what happened. That’s how Geek Family Therapy was born. Yep. Do you have to? And yeah, that’s Yeah. TFT and then the other one. What was the oh and GT Adventures. For those of you who are just listening to us, for the first time, we have had other hosts over the years as well. Rest in peace, Ali Matyu, and rest in peace. Brandon, Saxton, Brendon, Saxton in particular. very disappointing.

Lara Taylor 52:36 Just to be clear, they’re alive!

Link Keller 52:39 As of this recording.

Josué Cardona 52:42 Brandon is kind of dead to me, which is what Im getting at. He left this show deliberately to go do Geek Therapy adventures. He was like, I can’t do both. I was like, fine. dedikate take your baby. You love RPGs do this. And you know, we still get messages about like, you know what? What happened? A bond. Lego. I don’t know, brand.

Lara Taylor 53:07 I don’t even care anymore about the podcast, I just want to kill the dragon. You need to play again. The dragon

Josué Cardona 53:14 brand is disappointing us consistently for over a year now. One day,

Lara Taylor 53:21 he’ll show up to her when we were doing live streams of the recordings. He

Josué Cardona 53:27 And we did a presentation last year together. I roped him into it. And and it was great. It was fantastic. He’s still he’s still got it. He’s, um, I don’t know what else to do. But I mean, I actually I know exactly what to do. Which is, which is why we’re we’re doing the Level Up campaign now. Which is like, we’re setting up Geek Therapy for the for, not only to realize the vision of the things that we’re already doing, but to set us up to do things in the future. And that’s why we’re, we’re raising, you know, we’re fundraising to do things like so that Brandon doesn’t have to edit his own podcasts, just just do the thing. And we’ll

Lara Taylor 54:04 let’s just play the DND

Josué Cardona 54:06 Yep. And then we can cover this stuff. And then once we start setting that up, and we can have all the shows being more consistent. So like surprise, for people who don’t know, like, we we do all our own editing, we do everything on our own. A lot of the shows not only that I have to convince Kat to do Geek Therapy, I also have to convince her to edit it.

Lara Taylor 54:25 You already have too many things to edit

Josué Cardona 54:27 it. Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s impossible to do at all. And so we’ve always tried to provide that support and training as much as possible. Like you’ve edited some episodes of a few different things. And it’s only that we don’t talk ever about that. So now as a as we’re celebrating and looking back, I think that’s that’s one of the coolest things. Where now moving forward. I think we’re, we’re offering it’s a little it should be a little easier for new people who want to contribute. But yeah, maybe not. All of us have we’ve, we’re the ones who’ve done the work, you know, there’s no. There there is a tech person. There is an editor, there is someone monitoring the websites, there’s someone like doing all that stuff. It’s one of us. It’s a it’s always one of us. And on the shows, you know, we’re, we’re the ones doing everything. And no one’s ever complained. We’ve fallen behind and we fall behind all the time. But, you know, no

Lara Taylor 55:32 one will make comment. They don’t really make too many comments except this sometimes there are but usually it’s like, wow, eight episodes just popped up. My my podcast. App must be broken.

Josué Cardona 55:44 Shout out to people who are who get eight episodes at a time. You’re about to get with this one. Yeah, there’s a it’s great. Yeah. Enjoy.

Lara Taylor 55:57 Yeah, it’s always gift to you.

Link Keller 55:59 We’re 10 years in, we’re doing pretty good, I would say by most measures, but we are still learning. We are still improving our own skill sets as we try new things all the time.

Josué Cardona 56:11 You know what the biggest problem is? It’s, it’s, there’s this disease, podcast disease that goes around and people start recording one and then immediately want to like, have another idea to do another one. It’s like tattoos. Yep. Yep, yep. Yep. Yeah. How many sticky notes tattoos do you think I’ll get after the first one?

Link Keller 56:31 I mean, if you use like a traditional sticky note size, I feel like you could put fit three on your forearm. And that’s, you know, good. Good placement visually, I think so two, three notes. Who needs more than three?

Lara Taylor 56:44 You can probably doing some on the other side to learn to write with the other hand, though.

Josué Cardona 56:51 I’m, I’m thinking if Brandon’s particular way of getting tattoos would be the best way. Just giant tattoo on my chest? Yeah. So I can. It’s a reminder every day, someone will see. This has been a good, I hope this is a good introduction for anyone who’s listening for the first time into not only the theory, and the mindset, but also the culture of the community. And I hope, I hope a lot of the stuff that we’ve talked about, it’s a lot, it’s a lot of stuff, it’s too much stuff. There’s no way you’ll ever get to all of it. It is it is in unless you talk to Marc, Marc, Marc, you can’t even so mark at one point many years ago, he came in and he just listened to every episode. But but there weren’t, like 800 episodes like there are now there’s way more now across all the shows than there used to be, of course, because there’s two or three new episodes every week. And that’ll only keep growing. And, and one of the things that that, you know, is really important. And I think I think Laura and I will start focusing on this at some point later this year is to start moving people over to the Forum because everything all the content is already there. And so the GT Library is there that Kayla is helping us out to, like make that easier to use. The team is growing. It’s just it’s just the future looks bright. So yeah, so I’ll level up campaign for fundraising. We’ll see how far we can get. There’s there’s bills to pay but also there are audacious goals and things that we want to do. And if you want to be a part of if you’re listening to this you’re and you want to be involved. Let us know

Lara Taylor 58:53 And Josué will spring the trap.

Josué Cardona 58:56 I welcome you into the community.

Link Keller 59:02 Please send all of your podcast pitches to Hello at Geek therapy.org

Josué Cardona 59:09 Absolutely, absolutely.

Link Keller 59:11 We will reply promptly.

Josué Cardona 59:19 I think I think the reverse you know card, maybe my first tattoo just seems appropriate that not just podcast pitches.

Lara Taylor 59:29 Anything you think we should be doing? Yeah,

Josué Cardona 59:31 plus everybody can contribute to the library. Everybody can contribute on the forum. There’s there’s a lot. There’s so many different ways. You can make a donation you can use amazon smile and have like part of you know your purchases. Go to there like just just many, many different ways to to support what we’re doing. And maybe there’ll be stickers for you. If you if you have I don’t know. I need to learn the rules about being nonprofit now and giving away stickers. I think we can I think you can give away I’m very I’m very I’m very I’m very concerned about following the rules and the laws. I’m afraid that, you know, one sticker will get the IRS on me or something. I don’t know.

Lara Taylor 1:00:13 sticker put things away this way. We’re a nonprofit,

Josué Cardona 1:00:16 I know. But like, like, what if that isn’t an exchange? I don’t know. I’m figuring it out. If you know about nonprofits, please reach out. That’s the one place I especially need help in trying to figure things out. And yeah, so that, that’s it for? It does feel like a new kind of chapter like we’ve been, we’ve been preparing for a whole bunch of stuff. And I’m very, in every, not only have we been preparing, it’s very much an everybody went through an evolution recently. I think everybody has new roles. Everybody’s doing new things.

Lara Taylor 1:00:55 2020 changed us. It changed us all

Josué Cardona 1:00:58 That to that too. But it, I’m glad that in the middle of a pandemic, I was like, You know what, let’s raise the difficulty mode on this.

Link Keller 1:01:08 Yeah, excellent time.

Josué Cardona 1:01:10 Yep. Yep. I mean, what better time? Oh, and everybody’s doing great. The community’s doing great. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished. Happy Birthday Geek Therapy. And yeah, we’ll keep updating you join us every week here on GT radio. Where we have conversations that are a little more focused than this one. But kind of cover the topic. Sometimes.

Lara Taylor 1:01:43 Sometimes

Link Keller 1:01:45 episodes just like this,

Josué Cardona 1:01:47 sometimes you have episodes just like this, I think this is the flagship, this is the one that kind of keeps things going. It’s kind of sets the tone for for everything we’re doing. My hope is that with this show, we can lead by example, in the sense of consistency, right? Like, we can do it and we can do it in different ways. And, and like it. To me it’s everything we do exists as a whole. But also the individual pieces are incredibly important. It’s one of my favorite things is to be in the Facebook group or, or just any conversation and someone mentioned something I like, Oh, actually, Link, and I did an episode on that game. Actually, there’s a Disney episode that me and Lara did. Oh, that anime. We talked about it for an hour on Otaku Ryoho. Like those moments feel so good. Because it’s that you came here looking for a resource. And not only can we were the ones who made it. And and that feels it again, it’s very validating and I’m, and it’s great and welcome. I’m just assuming everybody here, listening to it for the first time. But also welcome to

Link Keller 1:03:00 Year 10.

Josué Cardona 1:03:01 Year 10 right. Welcome to the second decade of Geek Therapy. Where we you are leveling up. I am very excited. Thank you so much for listening. Um, any closing thoughts actually before from from from Link, and Lara, anything? Um,

Link Keller 1:03:20 people listening new friends and old. Talk about your Geek Therapy stories on the forums and the discord and Facebook. I won’t see them there. But I hope that you post on Facebook. Yeah, I it’s been nice sharing my story. So I want to hear other people’s stories to actually, there’s your call to action folks.

Josué Cardona 1:03:46 Actually, go to geektherapy.org/story. And there’ll be a form there. You can fill out to share your story.

Lara Taylor 1:03:59 And Link will never see it. Josué will be the only one who sees no.

Josué Cardona 1:04:03 Oh, the actual story you mean? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. So other people will see it. That’s kind of the point. Right? We’re collecting stories. That’s I mean, that’s an excellent point. Um, one of the most valuable things that we that we have are these stories is why I asked you both to kind of write something down and we’ve got tons of them. So yeah, if you’re willing to share go to Geek therapy.org/story. Any any closing thoughts?

Lara Taylor 1:04:39 It’s great to have found my people. I enjoy it. Last week we skipped and pushed off recording I missed the both of you. It’s like a weekly ritual and I found my people here I found my people in all our community spaces. And I just hope that everyone When that listens are able to whether they come to our community spaces are not confined their people. Because it’s a hell of a feeling to feel like you belong.

Josué Cardona 1:05:11 Yeah. Well thank you both for making me cry today. And thank you everybody for yeah for everything again, welcome this is episode 300. That’s a wrap. For more Geek Therapy is a Geek therapy.org links to everything in the show notes. Every geek out into good and we’ll be we’ll be back next week.

Link Keller 1:05:37 We love you geeks. Bye