age

40 Hearts
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age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one topic. No idea where it goes. It’s conversational improv, with all the risk that implies. Every week Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene sit down with a guest and discuss something none of them has prepared for or figured out. The guest might be a maker, a strategist, a writer, a founder, or someone three months into a startup and not sleeping. Nobody selling a framework. Everybody has a story, and a few of them are embarrassing. It's for people who make things, people who make decisions about things, and people who make a business out of both. Craftspeople, project managers, SEO nerds, dreamers, first-time founders, anyone running their own business or creative endeavor. We talk about work, taste and ambition in a field that keeps changing. Nobody settles it. That is fairly standard here. Recorded in Asheville, NC. Presented by 40 Hearts. New episodes every Thursday.

  1. 1d ago

    Ep. 22: Idols, Brands & The Originality We Worship

    age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one word. No idea where it goes. This week the word was IDOLS. It started on American Idol and a five-year-old who says Moana is a chief, not a princess. An hour later, three people who build brands for a living were calling their own job idol-making, and arguing about whether being original is an idol too. Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene, with Linsey Gray, fine artist and designer at Linsey Gray Creative. In it: ■ Can you be close to someone you've put on a pedestal? ■ What a kid raised on "no other gods before me" did with that rule ■ What brands and idols have in common, according to the people who make them ■ The moment Linsey finally let herself be called an artist ■ Seth Godin's case against authenticity, and who in the room bought it ■ An ice cream lawsuit, and whether anyone can own a color ■ Why artists mostly don't sue each other ■ The cheesy worship song one of us wrote after giving up on being original Tim and Mary are still arguing about originality when Reggie wraps it up. — Presented by 40 Hearts. Hosts: Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs, Mary Greene Guest: Linsey Gray Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Linsey: • LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/linsey-puckett/ • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/linseygraycreative/ • See Linsey's work: https://www.linseygray.com/ Produced by Tim Scroggs. Edited by Will Canady. age the podcast is edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Favorite parts 00:01:33 Meet Linsey Gray, and getting enough sleep 00:04:36 Out of the trash can: idols 00:04:48 American Idol, and who it forgot 00:06:55 The idols our kids have 00:08:38 Moana is a chief, not a princess 00:10:34 Reading We Are Gods, and everyday idols 00:12:29 Raised not to put anything on a pedestal 00:14:40 Idols keep us stuck 00:16:15 Moses and the serpent on a stick 00:17:41 Jesus, politics and the people in the middle 00:20:16 Idol or role model? 00:21:36 Castle in the Sky, watched again 00:23:33 Putting a partner on a pedestal 00:25:28 You can't be close to an idol 00:26:54 Brands are idols 00:27:37 From brand designer to fine artist 00:29:51 "She's an artist" 00:31:36 Making her own charcoal 00:32:37 Is authenticity a problem? Seth Godin's case 00:34:36 Authenticity as an excuse 00:35:00 What breaks an idol? 00:36:13 Changing careers in public 00:38:41 A haircut and permission to evolve 00:40:14 The ice cream lawsuit 00:43:11 Unique is only first to market 00:44:51 Can you own a color? 00:46:00 Nobody can copy MrBeast 00:46:35 Maker's marks 00:49:21 If they can be stolen, were they your customer? 00:50:09 It matters how it lives 00:51:04 The mark she almost threw away 00:51:46 Commissions instead of client work 00:52:40 The dark room and the lit room 00:54:40 When your idea already exists 00:56:33 Who can afford to protect a brand? 00:58:36 Is there room for everybody? 00:59:51 Trillion-dollar companies 01:01:27 A market without room 01:03:01 What if somebody copied you? 01:05:48 So sue me 01:06:00 Why artists don't sue each other 01:07:42 The race to get there first 01:09:31 First doesn't matter if nobody cares 01:11:02 Have we idolized being original? 01:12:14 Originality as an expression of the divine 01:13:24 The cheesy worship song 01:15:28 Copying as practice 01:16:25 The songs in Mom's drawer 01:16:40 Thanks, and a goodbye to Will

    Ep. 22: Idols, Brands & The Originality We Worship

  2. Oct 8

    Ep. 21: Sexual Orientation, Signals & The Labels We're Outgrowing

    age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one word. No idea where it goes. This week the word was SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Ninety minutes later they had worked out that none of them learned who it's okay to love from a label, and the host with the least to confess had asked the most questions. Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene, with Hannah Cole, founder of Sunlight Tax and author of Taxes for Humans. In it: Why your orientation is nobody's business unless someone wants a date, and who the asking is really for The sentence a father said when his son came out, and what it did to the family A college friend, a campfire, and what happens to discomfort when you love someone The head nod one of us does in hardware stores, and why he does it Whether a man can widen his voice without everyone reading something into it Can a straight guy ruin a room just by walking into it? What drag brunches are asking bachelorette parties to do Why the kids in our lives already seem to have the answer Nobody settles it. That is fairly standard here. Presented by 40 Hearts. Hosts: Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs, Mary Greene Guest: Hannah Cole Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Hannah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-cole-3775561/ Produced by Tim Scroggs. Edited by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Favorite parts 00:00:59 Meet Hannah Cole and Taxes for Humans 00:05:31 Out of the trash can: sexual orientation 00:06:11 Should this still be a hot topic? 00:08:04 The most boring orientation in the room 00:09:50 Bi or pan, and labels that move 00:11:08 Nobody's business unless you want a date 00:12:26 An era for the label 00:14:16 Can you see it? Signals and wedding rings 00:16:34 You like who you like 00:19:45 Hannah, and compulsory heterosexuality 00:25:04 The world needs to get over itself 00:26:53 Can you understand what you've never felt? 00:27:08 The college friend who changed Reggie's mind 00:28:49 Understanding comes through intimacy 00:32:35 Hannah's brother, her father and the script 00:35:48 Parenting without the script 00:37:56 Bringing it back to business: brands and Pride 00:41:03 Branding as a container 00:43:20 Does sexual orientation have a vibe? 00:46:31 You have to signal 00:48:04 Signaling safety: the hardware store 00:51:39 Gay voice and the range men keep 00:55:45 Would widening his voice signal something? 00:59:20 Gender, transition and what orientation means 01:01:24 We're all on the spectrum 01:03:22 Who they always were 01:04:31 Get everybody to a baseline 01:06:46 Religion at the root 01:10:17 Asheville's new lesbian bar, and branding a space 01:13:57 Who's welcome and who's not 01:14:29 The women-only club 01:16:18 Drag brunches and bachelorette parties 01:20:47 Can a straight guy be an offensive presence? 01:23:17 Learning a culture you'll never fully get 01:25:16 Reconsider "I'm not welcome here" 01:27:45 Our kids are teaching us

    Ep. 21: Sexual Orientation, Signals & The Labels We're Outgrowing

  3. Oct 1

    Ep 20: Anonymity, Trust & The Absolution We're Selling

    age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one word. No idea where it goes. This week the word was ANONYMITY. An hour in, nobody was asking whether you should be allowed to hide anymore. The question was who gets to decide when a company has done enough good to stop being watched, and the room did not agree on the answer. Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene, with Craig McAnsh, founder of Native Marketing, who had the McDonald's story ready before the question was finished. In it: ■ A gas truck that shows up in the night and fills your car, and everything you hand over to make it happen ■ A traffic stop, a father's badge, and why a speed camera might be the fairer judge ■ A flower bought for a funeral and where it came from ■ Why a half-truth might be worse than a lie, according to people who sell stories for a living ■ Two buckets, a trust bank, and the two-word question that took both apart ■ A hammer sold to the same man twice ■ A sanitation grade on the door, but for how honest a company is ■ The founders who published anonymously, and the people who wanted their names We did not settle it. The trash can never asks whether we will. Presented by 40 Hearts. Hosts: Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs, Mary Greene Guest: Craig McAnsh Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Craig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebigidea/ Produced by Tim Scroggs. Edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Our favorite parts of the episode 00:00:47 Johnny Bravo, and twenty episodes in 00:02:17 Welcome, Craig 00:04:16 The magic trash can 00:05:34 The word is Anonymity 00:06:30 Pros and cons, and Craig's whole answer 00:07:47 Sam Altman's eye scanner and proving you're human 00:10:22 Flock cameras, and a cop who used them illegally 00:12:04 Mary's dad's badge and the traffic camera 00:13:10 The camera ticket in the mail, and who it can't profile 00:14:10 Crypto, ID, and money nobody can trace 00:17:08 Experiential marketing and the Walmart that knows you 00:18:30 The gas truck that comes at night, and Craig's dad on the ATM 00:20:13 When data gets weaponized: the grocery card 00:22:11 Target knew first, and the ad that followed Reggie home 00:25:42 Know the game you're playing 00:27:27 Zero anonymity in the old world, and the relief of New York 00:31:00 Off the grid, and the Tool Library that wants your name 00:32:03 Was the community worth the cost of being seen? 00:33:02 The flower you bought for a funeral 00:34:00 Trust, child labor, and the hammer 00:35:33 The only trust left is trust in business 00:37:21 The sausage gets made: Leo Burnett and the truth well told 00:40:58 Half-truth is worse than a lie 00:44:03 Taco Bell steps forward 00:45:55 Reggie's two buckets 00:46:42 The trust bank: McDonald's in the LA riots 00:48:11 Incentivize money and you incentivize the bad 00:49:27 I decide whether I'm okay with you 00:50:42 Patagonia, and what technology digs up 00:52:17 Independent journalism: you can't stay hidden 00:53:37 Do businesses deserve anonymity? 00:54:55 A sanitation grade for how honest a company is 00:58:22 Hope, and the hammer turned over 01:00:25 What Japan has that we don't 01:02:00 Do you want to rebrand America? 01:06:11 Reggie pushes back 01:07:48 Whose vision, and who won't sign on 01:11:54 Pamphlets, hanging, and the founders who signed nothing 01:13:07 Sign-off

    Ep 20: Anonymity, Trust & The Absolution We're Selling

  4. Sep 24

    Ep. 19: Cancel Culture, Identity & The Truth We're Afraid to Speak

    age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one word. No idea where it goes. This week the word was CANCEL CULTURE. Seventy-five minutes later one of us had argued that you have to be willing to get cancelled before you can find out who you actually are, and the room had taken that apart while he sat there. Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene, with Will Canady, who has run the audio on every episode of this show and had never once been in front of the camera. In it: ■ A coworker with a swastika tattooed on his ring finger who genuinely liked him, and the one question that stopped him cold ■ Why one civil rights movement moved faster than the others, and what it costs to have to defend your own humanity from day one ■ What happens to a man who says the wrong word in a deposition and goes to bed famous ■ The $750,000 somebody raised after doing the worst thing you can do to a child ■ Cancel culture as a church, with the doctrine swapped out and the machinery left running ■ A host admitting on camera what he is actually drawn to, which is not what he recommends ■ Two people coming out in the same hour, in opposite directions, neither of them planning to ■ One sentence near the end that takes the entire argument apart, and the person it is protecting Nobody solves it. That is fairly standard here. Presented by 40 Hearts. Our Hosts: Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs, Mary Greene Guest: Will Canady Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Will: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willcanady921/ Produced by Tim Scroggs Live production and editing by Will Canady. With very special thanks to Dylan Garcia. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Pulling the topic: Cancel Culture 00:03:32 Will's own brush with it, on TikTok 00:06:02 Floaty in the abyss: nobody can tell what is real 00:08:59 Me Too, Weinstein, and where accountability started 00:09:56 When the tool becomes a weapon 00:11:32 Michael Jackson, Epstein, and buried truth 00:15:29 One word in a deposition, and a comment that went viral 00:18:52 The $750,000 raised after the worst thing you can do to a child 00:19:38 Movements go numb, then become a fad 00:21:34 Backlash culture: the reactionary response 00:23:09 The game is mindshare, not being right 00:25:06 Chud the Builder, and the prophecy he kept 00:26:39 Justice versus cancel culture: where the buck stops 00:28:31 The thin blue line, and not wanting to pick a side 00:32:13 Why one movement moved faster than the others 00:34:43 The coworker with the swastika, who called him a friend 00:36:10 You become the exception 00:38:57 Puritanism, progressives, and the horseshoe 00:41:18 Violence, martyrs, and the cycle that never ends 00:44:44 Walking without armor 00:46:37 Identity, tribes, and losing yourself to find yourself 00:53:18 A congregation on Church Street owns its own past 00:58:07 Are you willing to be canceled? 01:02:31 Coming out twice, in opposite directions 01:04:03 The freedom is in the prison cell 01:09:03 The refinement: plenty of bad people are willing 01:11:26 Who can actually afford the risk 01:13:44 Closing thoughts

    Ep. 19: Cancel Culture, Identity & The Truth We're Afraid to Speak

  5. Sep 17

    Ep. 18: Hustle Culture, Balance & The Success We're Redefining

    age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one word, no idea where it goes. This week the word was HUSTLE CULTURE. Sixty-four minutes later we had established that we can all explain the science of rest in some detail, and that not one of us is doing it. One of us has the blood pressure to prove it. Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene, with George Awad, who produces theatre in Asheville and has done something to a ticket number he is not proud of. In it: The Asheville 48, and why producers in this town are quietly unwell What getting out of the kitchen did not actually solve A billionaire's advice about who ought to be raising your children One sentence at 33:42 that explains the whole episode, which nobody notices Three hours of sleep a night, and the arithmetic proving it was pointless Why a grocery store being shut on a Sunday fixed something discipline could not A question about human beings that nobody can answer, including the person who asked it One piece of advice from a stage, handed over at the very end, that you could use tomorrow Nobody solves it. That is fairly standard here. Presented by 40 Hearts Hosts: Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs, Mary Greene Guest: George Awad Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow George: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-awad-87b90a3/ Produced by Tim Scroggs. Live production and editing by Will Canady. With very special thanks to Dylan Garcia who helped us create age. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Everyone's favorite part, before you've heard any of it 00:01:58 Dylan moved away, so the fourth chair rotates now 00:02:53 Meet George Awad, and the correct way to say Awad 00:05:28 The taiko drummers handing out free fans on a Tokyo sidewalk 00:09:08 Pulling the topic: Hustle Culture 00:09:48 Producing yourself into a corner when you wanted to be onstage 00:11:48 He bought a ticket to his own show to watch the number change 00:12:18 The Asheville 48 00:13:28 The guest-list show that packed the Grey Eagle 00:14:58 The agency was founded to escape hustle culture. It didn't. 00:16:28 Girl boss, and why getting out of the kitchen didn't solve it 00:19:43 "I don't understand how you create a balanced life and succeed" 00:20:28 Kevin O'Leary's advice: find someone else to raise your kids 00:21:33 The woman who's always available, and the fathers who get called away 00:24:23 You can never work more to work less 00:27:03 George doesn't believe in work-life balance 00:28:33 Three hours of sleep, and getting a quarter of the work done 00:30:38 High blood pressure, and having to fight for the reset 00:31:58 A video editor wrote about dying, and the work that seemed urgent 00:32:48 "The work doesn't end. It's my decision to end the work." 00:33:03 Last night: the voice saying keep going, and going upstairs anyway 00:34:58 What is the natural pace of human work? 00:35:43 An operator's manual for a person 00:37:43 They train you to be indispensable. Then you succeed at it. 00:40:48 Everyone's dispensable. Get out of their way and let them do it. 00:44:28 The wall that goes up when nobody feels heard 00:48:38 "Revenue is a strong word, but go ahead" 00:49:43 "I'd probably have to imagine it in another country" 00:51:53 The grocery store was closed Sunday, and week three he liked it 00:52:48 "So you said you didn't believe in work-life balance earlier" 00:53:18 The bike that has to keep moving to stay upright 00:54:58 Beat people, or win people 00:56:28 Get weird, because nobody else got your parents 00:58:08 Get in each other's draft. That's how you win races. 00:59:53 Check yourself before you wreck yourself 01:01:08 The best advice George ever got, from a stage 01:02:38 Define your own success

    Ep. 18: Hustle Culture, Balance & The Success We're Redefining

  6. Sep 10

    Ep. 17: Search Engines, AI & The People We're Asking Instead

    age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one word, no idea where it goes. This week the word was SEARCH ENGINES. Seventy minutes later we had established that the search engine nobody has figured out how to game does not have a website, and that most of us have been paid to help wreck the other kind. Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene, with Liz Williams, who runs the art program at an Asheville LGBTQ nonprofit and pulled the word out of the can. In it: ■ A search engine you can walk around in, and nobody has worked out how to game it ■ The AI answer at the top of the page that you are not allowed to switch off ■ The years one of us spent stuffing keywords to get clients onto page one ■ Why the map app quietly became the search engine in this house ■ A number for how much of the web is no longer people, corrected in the wrong direction ■ One line from an economics book that the back half never recovers from ■ Being told a first idea is too sharp, and to dull it until it will sell ■ What getting paid took from every person at this table, in turn, from 55:30 ■ One offer made at the end that no company is in a position to sell you Nothing gets fixed. Somebody does offer to help. Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Liz: https://www.instagram.com/southernequalitystudios/ Liz Williams is the director of Southern Equality Studios, the art program of Campaign for Southern Equality, an Asheville-based LGBTQ nonprofit working across the southern states. Produced by Tim Scroggs. age, the podcast is edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Everyone's favorite part, before you've heard any of it 00:02:05 Meet Liz Williams, who runs the art program at a Southern LGBTQ nonprofit 00:02:55 The craft fair is a search engine nobody has figured out how to game 00:04:30 Jewelry made from the power lines Helene took down 00:07:10 Bobcats a mile from the grocery store, and the bears in everyone's trash 00:10:30 Pulling the topic: Search Engines 00:12:30 The AI Overview you are not allowed to turn off 00:13:05 The years Reggie spent gaming Google on behalf of clients 00:14:40 Why Mary searches Google Maps instead of Google 00:17:00 Ask Jeeves, AIM, and the prank Reggie ran for an entire day 00:21:20 Reddit is where the people still are, which is why the AI goes there 00:22:20 More than half of internet traffic is no longer people 00:24:20 "You have pores. You still have pores." 00:30:15 Planning a trip to Japan with almost no search engine at all 00:31:10 A death in Japan, and the argument about AI that came before it 00:34:30 Data centers, bees, and not being able to see what you cost 00:39:40 That handmade listing on Etsy is also on Amazon 00:42:10 Rick Steves was the original search engine 00:45:15 A brief defense of search engines 00:48:20 The Yellow Pages could be gamed too, so what actually changed? 00:51:00 Games are fine. Gamification is the problem. 00:54:40 Make an intrinsic thing extrinsic and it dies 00:55:30 "No, you need to dull it more and more and more" 00:59:30 Why the company is called 40 Hearts 01:00:30 "It's like giving birth to a child and then selling it" 01:03:50 Smart glasses, deepfakes, and whether search survives any of it 01:04:25 "I'll gladly be your search engine" 01:07:20 Search inside yourself, and inside your community

    Ep. 17: Search Engines, AI & The People We're Asking Instead

  7. Sep 3

    Ep. 16: Youth, Boredom & The Guilt We're Handing Down

    Welcome to age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one topic, and whatever happens next. This week: Youth. Reggie, Tim, Mary, and guest host Jordan Duvall pull the topic from the can and immediately the room gets reflective. Jordan talks about color palettes and warm seasonal vibes and how we don't appreciate aging the way we should. Reggie flashes back to his kids as portals to his younger self. Mary appoints herself spokesperson for the youth and wonders whether kids aren't soft so much as starved of anyone's undivided attention. And Tim reflects on P.O.D., the Youth of the Nation, and how school shootings became so normal we stopped talking about them. They get into youth as experimentation, guilt as an entity you can pull out of yourself, the sleep paralysis demon as a metaphor for the voices that aren't yours, and why maybe the most radical thing you can do is stop feeling guilty for the youthful part of you. There's the realization that kids will find their way, that suffering isn't a requirement for growth, that waste might be the whole point of youth, and that maybe if we stopped fearing the outcome of their upbringing we'd realize they're going to be all right. It's sprawling, it's earnest, it's a little mystical, and it doesn't resolve cleanly. But what if that's the point? Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Jordan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanduvall/ Produced by Mary Greene. age the podcast is edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 What Was Your Favorite Part? 00:01:25 Welcome to age — One Trash Can, One Topic 00:02:09 Jordan Duvall: Color, Branding, and Aging Out Loud 00:10:12 My Kids Are My Portal Into Youth 00:15:08 I Won the Argument With My Eleven-Year-Old 00:16:13 School Shootings and Desensitization 00:22:26 Every Generation Grows Up in a Different World 00:24:24 Famous for Being Famous, and the Death of Boredom 00:28:31 Sticking Up for the Youth: Attention, Not Screens 00:31:21 Screen Time, Studies, and What Parents Get Told 00:33:43 Love Languages, Buckets, and Speaking to Each Other 00:36:55 Discipline, and Breaking the Cycle You Were Raised In 00:38:43 Can We Talk About Youth Without Talking About Screens? 00:42:13 Work Ethic, Remote Culture, and What Gets Missed 00:44:07 Go Sit on the Couch for an Hour and Do Nothing 00:46:32 The Soft Generation, Argued Both Ways 00:50:36 What Is Wrong With Waste? 00:54:30 Swept Floors and the Kid He Wasn't Allowed to Be 01:00:19 Take an Era of Experimentation 01:02:09 Whose Voice Is That in Your Head? 01:06:20 You Can Only Control Your Response 01:07:28 Guilt Is an Entity, and You Can Put It Down 01:09:20 They're Going to Be All Right

    Ep. 16: Youth, Boredom & The Guilt We're Handing Down

  8. Aug 27

    Ep. 15: Art Theft, Imagination & The Reality We're Creating

    Welcome to age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one topic, and whatever happens next. This week: Art Theft. Reggie, Tim, Mary, and guest host Nicky Balachandran pull the topic from the can and immediately the room shifts. There’s talk of AI stealing music and how 40% of songs uploaded to streaming platforms might be AI generated, intellectual property and who really gets hurt when art is stolen,The Thomas Crown Affair and how cool art theft looks in the movies, and sampling, remixing, and whether anything is truly original anymore. They dig into ownership versus inspiration, whether you can really steal something if it's truly yours, music as shared experience instead of individual performance, and why taste might be the only original thing we have left. There's talk of collaboration and credit, the politics of who gets paid, spirit and vibration in handmade objects versus factory goods, and whether we're all just living in someone else's imagination. Nicky admits he's been stolen from more times than he can count but refuses to fight that battle. Mary confesses this conversation feels like meeting a kindred spirit. Tim opens up about the crushing weight of trying to survive financially while staying true to the dream. And Reggie wonders if the thief suffers more than the artist because they never get to have an original experience. They get into 40 Hearts as a spaceship on a creative mission, morale and money and the dream they're building together, depression as waking up inside the lucid dream, the two trees in the garden and choosing life over the knowledge of good and evil, and why your website is your world when every other platform is someone else's imagination. There's the realization that we're all creators, that community matters more than individualism, that the only thing truly unique is your experience, and that maybe the most radical thing you can do is stop living in someone else's dream and start building your own. It's sprawling, it's mystical, it's a little therapeutic, and it doesn't resolve cleanly. But what if that's the point? Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Listen to Nicky’s music: https://www.instagram.com/nickybalachandran/ Produced by Mary Greene. age the podcast is edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Pulling the Topic - Art Theft 00:02:01 Nicky's Journey: From Refugee to Creative Director 00:12:44 Stealing vs. Remixing: AI, Music, and Intellectual Property 00:17:06 Living in Someone Else's Imagination 00:30:29 Spirit, Taste, and the Role of the Creator 00:49:13 Dreams, Nightmares, and Waking Up in the Matrix 01:01:03 The Two Trees: Life vs. Knowledge of Good and Evil 01:10:10 40 Hearts as a Space Station: World Building and Purpose 01:20:59 Your Website is Your Imagination 01:34:09 Closing Thoughts: We Make Sense Together

    Ep. 15: Art Theft, Imagination & The Reality We're Creating
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About

age, the podcast from 40 Hearts. One trash can, one topic. No idea where it goes. It’s conversational improv, with all the risk that implies. Every week Reggie Tidwell, Tim Scroggs and Mary Greene sit down with a guest and discuss something none of them has prepared for or figured out. The guest might be a maker, a strategist, a writer, a founder, or someone three months into a startup and not sleeping. Nobody selling a framework. Everybody has a story, and a few of them are embarrassing. It's for people who make things, people who make decisions about things, and people who make a business out of both. Craftspeople, project managers, SEO nerds, dreamers, first-time founders, anyone running their own business or creative endeavor. We talk about work, taste and ambition in a field that keeps changing. Nobody settles it. That is fairly standard here. Recorded in Asheville, NC. Presented by 40 Hearts. New episodes every Thursday.

Information

  • Creator
    40 Hearts
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Forty Hearts LLC
  • Show Website
    age