Thanks to Henson Shaving for sponsoring this video! Head to https://hensonshaving.com and use code ASKHANK to receive 100 blades for free (2+ years worth). Just make sure both products are in the cart for the code to take effect.

A note for the AHA team, if Hank and the guest are discussing pets, please please please put a picture of their adorable pets in post !

I'm not fully sure how to articulate it, but Hank and Siobhan together feels like a character from the original British show meeting their counterpart from the American remake.

Hank is just going through the whole cast of Dropout and I am not complaining one bit!

Siobhan’s poetics discussion was genuinely thrilling to listen to. To sit down and advocate for ‘actually these things were intentional, and we’re not over egging it, and critical engagement of great works leads to positive experiences with them’ was a delightfully refreshing change of pace which I thoroughly enjoyed hearing

"do you think poems are just creating a state of ecstasy for themselves and then letting the pen run across the page?" is an incredible phrase, thank you siobhan

Zac Oyama when?

Okay, now I would like a video where Siobhan talks to John about poetry.  That would be brilliant.

Hank's distrust of art analysis is funny to me — that scrutinising an aesthetic somehow detracts from the vibes. But consider how specious that sounds when applied to science, as so famously rebuffed by Carl Sagan:

"It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it."

The debate about composition at 25:35 is so compelling. I love Hank, and I love that Hank frequently will record a moment where his assumptions are tested fiercely, a lacuna in his knowledge of the world will reveal itself nakedly, and he'll just leave that in the finished edit. That takes a lot of humility. And as in all things, thank god for Siobhan Thompson

this, and sam reich's last meal within the same few days is genuinely amazing

I think Siobhan is right that learning about things/how they are made (re: poetry and wine) doesn’t make them less beautiful!

Optometrists actually use mirrors to reflect the screen with the letters on it to make them visually further away, so you can get 20 feet in a 10 foot room

I feel about physics the way Hank feels about poetry and I think we could both benefit from being more curious about things that are hard for us. "Knowing more ruins the magic" is a really good cover for "this is hard for me to access intellectually."

I feel like Siobhan put on a master class of sending Hank into tangents.

I recently got cats again after about 10 years of having no pets. They were used to the pine litter so we went with that to keep things familiar, but turns out we love it. It's SO cheap if you buy the horse/animal bedding in huge bags from a farm supply, and it just smells like pine instead of artificial grossness. Highly recommend!

As a Shakespearean, I appreciate Siobhan's face when telling Hank that poets are absolutely thinking about scansion.

"You may be not as not normal as you think you are."

Siobhan is out here helping keep Hank grounded.
<3

25:19 its so interesting seeing Hank fall into this myth that good creative work comes from somewhere intuitive and vibey and isnt intentionally crafted with   the rules are theory that can be taught and learned - this myth is so harmful because it convinces people that the ability to make art is something you’re born with and not something you develop and build just like you learn how to do math or build technical skills.

The impromptu dialogue about Art and Mystery was very enjoyable, we are listening to some very smart people. Siobhan's ability to explain a concept without shutting down another person's view, like she does with Hank here, is beautiful. She clearly doesn't mind pushing back ("I'm sorry you don't have poetry in your heart" springs to mind) but is very good at choosing which tool she uses in the moment. I deeply wish I had that kind of discernment and subtlety.