Generations

Peter and Aubrey Jones

A father and daughter discuss life across their generations. Science, medicine, music, and whatever else they choose to discuss are on the table.

  1. 5d ago

    The Introvert Who Never Was

    Peter and Aubrey tackle one of the hardest social transitions there is: making friends as an adult, after college's forced proximity is gone. Aubrey shares how COVID convinced her she'd turned introverted — until a weekend with a fearless friend showed her the extrovert was still there, just walled off. Peter traces how med school and residency made friendship functionally impossible, and how a Dungeons & Dragons group finally gave him a reason to show up — and the stickiness to keep showing up. They separate social isolation from loneliness, debunk the viral claim that isolation is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and land on the same conclusion: friendship takes intentionality, and it's worth it. Making friends as adults: Aubrey's question of the week — how do you build community when you're new to a state, working, and there's no forced socialization like college?Aubrey's COVID identity shift: She spent years convinced quarantine turned her from extrovert to introvert, until a weekend with her most socially fearless friend showed her the extrovert was still there — just walled off behind anxiety.The college regret: Aubrey wishes she'd pushed harder in undergrad, when opportunities were everywhere — instead she sat alone in lectures and skipped discussions, convinced the effort wasn't worth it.Peter's med school trade-off: Peter admits he consciously chose career over friendships from medical school through his 30s — and says he'd make the same choice again.Dungeons & Dragons built the friend group: A shared curiosity among work colleagues became a weekly game — and the obligation to the party, investment in characters, and between-session talk at work is what made it stick. Dungeons & DragonsAdults need a reason: Kids become friends instantly on a playground, but adults need an excuse to gather — which Peter argues is why grown men love golf.The 6-hour board game: Aubrey played Oath, a strategy game built on lying and betrayal, and was still buzzing three hours past bedtime.Social media isn't a substitute: People who cut back on social media don't socialize more — they just dink around on other apps, and the heaviest social media users are actually the most social in person.Third places aren't dying (per the data): Peter's research found no discrete decline in third spaces except the COVID years, despite the discourse about them vanishing — the concept comes from Ray Oldenburg's The Great Good Place.Isolation vs. loneliness: Social isolation is a quantity problem (how many people you interact with); loneliness is a quality problem (how connected you feel) — the Surgeon General's 2023 advisory is the canonical rundown.Debunked: the 15-cigarettes claim: The famous stat that isolation is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day traces to an infographic that was never cited in the actual paper — even the authors have distanced themselves from it. Our World in Data on the claimDementia caution: The isolation–dementia link is likely reverse causation — isolation is often a prodrome of dementia, since people with early symptoms withdraw first.The Obelisk Gate connection: A two-minute work conversation about The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin turned into a new connection — proof that tiny interactions count.Therapist's advice: Aubrey's therapist told her not to force hangouts with people she doesn't mesh with — and her fearless friend credits hard life decisions that forced her into new social circles for her social superpower.Astro Fact — the Roman Space Telescope: NASA finished fueling the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope with 290 gallons of hydrazine — launching late August, it's expected to capture more images in its first 5–10 years than Hubble did in its entire lifetime.

  2. Jul 19

    Astronaut, Spy, Surgeon, Astrophysicist — A Generations Origin Story

    Peter and Aubrey share everything they wanted to be when they grew up — from Aubrey's childhood spy fantasies and mermaid aspirations to Peter's astronaut dreams (crushed by a second-grade principal). Peter recounts his journey from orthopaedic surgery to urology, and Aubrey traces her path from pediatric cardiothoracic surgery to astrophysics. Show Notes Plex FM: Peter built a custom music radio app using Claude/Fable that turns his Plex library into live FM-style stations by decade, genre, and mood — complete with dial hiss. PlexCoax: The inspiration — an app that creates pseudo-live TV channels from your Plex/Jellyfin library. Coax on App StoreThe Rest is History Festival: Peter attended the inaugural festival at Hampton Court Palace with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. The Rest is History FestivalWildfire smoke in Wisconsin: Aubrey describes unsafe air quality conditions at summer camp, with a purple-level AQI from Canadian wildfires.Aubrey's spy phase: Mission Impossible fueled a childhood obsession with becoming a CIA agent — until she reconsidered working for the US government. Mission Impossible (IMDb)Peter's astronaut dream: Watching shuttle launches in school (including the Challenger disaster live) inspired it — then a principal told 7-year-old Peter he'd never make it because he got sick on the playground merry-go-round. Challenger disasterPeter's astronomer phase: He started a Young Astronomers Club in elementary school and hand-copied encyclopedia entries for a newsletter.Aubrey's mermaid era: She wanted to be Ariel, and still tells her camp kids her legs turn into a mermaid tail in the pool that they keep missing.Aubrey's legal/political detour: A mock Congress in 8th grade (2016–2017) made her consider law or politics — she was good at arguing but decided against both.Peter's engineering research paper: An 8th-grade report on electrical engineering convinced him in real-time that he wanted nothing to do with it.Aubrey's healthcare trajectory: She bounced from pediatric cardiothoracic surgery → NP → neurosurgery interest (killed by getting to know neurosurgeons in person).Peter's orthopedic surgery pivot: A two-week rotation confirmed the toxic stereotype — he chose urology after hearing a lecture on the Da Vinci robot. Robotic surgery in urologyWhy urology: Peter explains the prostate's difficult-to-access anatomy drove early robotic adoption, and he values the specialty's blend of medicine, surgery, long-term patient relationships, and better-quality call. Da Vinci prostatectomyVascular surgery story: A med school mentor (Dr. McCann) defied a "students only observe" mandate and let Peter close a two-foot leg incision solo — the nurse fed him suture sizes.Aubrey's astrophysics pivot: She realized if she was smart enough to be a surgeon, she was smart enough for astrophysics — now first author on a published paper.

  3. Jun 14

    Comfort TV, Real Stakes

    Peter and Aubrey each share their five all-time favorite TV shows — and discover an accidental through line. Three of Peter's five were created by Mike Schur, and nearly every pick on both lists is about people helping each other become better. They talk about why "prestige TV" doesn't appeal to them (too stressful), why comedy doesn't have to be mindless to be meaningful, and how these shows reflect a belief that community — not individualism — is what makes us human. Show Notes Aubrey's #1 — Friends: Classic background show; jokes that didn't age well somehow got funnier for it. Peter's counterpoint: "Why are you all such dill holes to each other?" Friends on MaxPeter's #1 — Avatar: The Last Airbender: The show that started his thematic through line — a group helping Aang defeat the Fire Lord without killing him, centered on Zuko's redemption. "If you won't watch it because it's a cartoon, get over yourself." ATLA on NetflixThe Good Place (both ranked it #2): Aubrey lost her mind at the season 1 twist. Peter notes the real thesis — not just that people can improve, but that people help each other improve — and that Mike Schur consulted T.M. Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other and real ethicists to build the premise. The Good Place on NetflixAubrey's #3 — New Girl: Quotable Schmidt, secondhand embarrassment from the awkward humor. Peter couldn't get into it — "I don't have ADHD, but watching it I feel like I have ADHD." New Girl on HuluPeter's #3 — Ted Lasso: Season 1 is the comfort-food classic, but Peter defends seasons 2-3 as necessary for the arcs — Ted, Roy, Jamie, Rebecca — to land. The scene where Rebecca confesses why she hired Ted gets called one of the most powerful moments in television. Ted Lasso on Apple TV+Aubrey's #4 — WandaVision: Rewatched during night shifts as a nurse. Loves the hidden details that pop on rewatch (Vision noting no children in Westview, children everywhere next episode). Still the strongest Marvel Disney+ series in her book. WandaVision on Disney+Peter's #4 — Brooklyn 99: Captain Raymond Holt (the late André Braugher) is the greatest TV character ever created. Peter defends the controversial final season — "I respect it more because it had the nerve to go there" — and cites the Terry Jeffords racial profiling episode as something the show had to address. Brooklyn 99 on PeacockAubrey's #5 — Game of Thrones: Love-hate. Loves fantasy and high stakes, hates that it's "bummer after bummer." The Red Wedding broke her. She has exactly one character she still considers morally good. GoT on MaxPeter's #5 — A Man on the Inside: The third Mike Schur pick. Ted Danson plays a retired professor who goes undercover in a retirement community and reconnects with his daughter and with life after his wife's death. Season 2 deepens the same theme: connection is the antidote to isolation. A Man on the Inside on NetflixWhy No "Prestige TV": Peter avoids Breaking Bad, The Wire, Sopranos — "bad people being bad" is too stressful when your day job already is. Aubrey agrees and distinguishes high-stakes fantasy from realistic misery.Community Over Individualism: Aubrey rants about transactional culture (friends expecting Venmo for airport pickups). Peter counters with a real story — his work team showed up by the dozens to pack up a nurse's house during a crisis, no questions asked, no expectations. That's the world these shows are pointing at.

  4. May 31

    Remove the Friction: Building Systems

    Peter checks in while recovering from a cold and deep into the newly released Forza Horizon 6 (set in Japan); Aubrey is heading into summer break and excited about her personal training certification. The episode's central metaphor — "motivation is weather, systems are climate" — frames a rich conversation about why motivation fades and what it looks like to build sustainable personal systems instead. Peter catalogs a long history of task management apps before landing on a daily-note-plus-Todoist system, automated through Claude Cowork, that finally fits how his brain works. Aubrey shares her own collection of small systems — a scripted 5:30 a.m. gym routine with Hayden, a fixed pre-gym snack, strict grocery lists across three stores — all designed to eliminate meaningless decision fatigue. They close with the bigger picture: behavior change requires identity change first, and as Scott Barry Kaufman puts it, "the system hand keeps the lights on, but the soul hand decides whether the lights are pointing at anything worth looking at." Motivation is variable and unreliable — systems create consistencyReducing meaningless friction and decision fatigueIdentity alignment is essential for lasting behavior changeSmall systems compound into automatic routinesSystems should serve flourishing, not just optimization

  5. May 17

    Move More, Eat Less, Stop Buying Stuff

    Peter and Aubrey work through a list of fitness and health myths — everything from whether your pee needs to be clear to whether cold plunges do anything besides make you cold. Peter, a physician who actually researched every item beforehand, delivers verdicts with increasing exasperation at the wellness-industrial complex. The episode gets off to a chaotic start when Aubrey's city issues a tornado warning mid-recording, which they handle with an extremely relaxed amount of concern.SHOW NOTES Unplanned cold open: A tornado warning interrupts the recording right before Aubrey introduces the topic — complete with sirens, an emergency alert, and Peter calmly browsing tornadohq.com while Aubrey checks whether the sky is green.The episode's framing: Aubrey compiled a list of fitness myths she wanted Peter to address; Peter researched each one before recording to make sure his gut answers were correct. (They were.) The through-line is the firehose of fitness misinformation on social media versus the relative rigor of older media.Hydration myths — two myths addressed: No, you don't need to hit a specific daily ounce target (it varies wildly by body size, activity, and weather); and no, your urine does not need to be clear — pale yellow is the actual target. Peter notes that clear urine can actually indicate overhydration.Caffeine and dehydration: Totally debunked. Caffeine is a very weak diuretic, and you'd need 500–600mg to see any meaningful effect — well above a normal cup of coffee or tea.The 10,000 steps myth: The number came from a 1965 Japanese pedometer called the Manpo-kei ("10,000 steps meter") — a marketing name, not a medical recommendation. Research suggests meaningful health benefits plateau around 6,000–8,000 steps, and the biggest gains come from going from ~2,000 to ~5,000."Breakfast is the most important meal of the day": A cereal company marketing line from the 1980s, not medical advice. Peter's verdict: if you like breakfast, eat it; if you don't, don't. There's no metabolic magic to eating first thing.Electrolytes for regular exercisers: Save your money. Electrolyte replenishment only becomes relevant after roughly four hours of continuous exercise. For everyone else, you're just making your urine more expensive.Zone 2 cardio and fat burn vs. fat loss: A nuanced one — Zone 2 does preferentially burn fat during exercise, but that doesn't translate to greater fat loss overall. What happens in the other ~10,000 minutes of the week matters far more than what happens during 150–300 minutes of cardio.Cold plunges: Peter is unimpressed. No meaningful physiological benefit for most people; may actually inhibit muscle protein synthesis after resistance training. Heat is better post-lift.Detoxes and cleanses: The one that makes Peter visibly angry. Your liver, kidneys, GI tract, and lungs already do this — it's literally their job. No juice cleanse replaces a failing organ, and anyone selling you one has something to profit from.Carbs, protein, and the "no eating after 6 pm" rule: All myths. Carbs are your brain and body's primary fuel source; processed carbs are the problem, not carbs generally. Protein needs are real but far lower than supplement companies suggest (~0.82g per pound of bodyweight). Meal timing within a 24-hour window doesn't affect fat storage.

  6. May 3

    The Crawl Review - Dungeon Crawler Carl

    Peter and Aubrey dig into Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinneman — all seven books, with book eight nine days out. They cover how they each came to the series, why the audiobooks (narrated by Jeff Hays) are basically the only correct way to experience it, and what separates DCC from the litRPG slop Peter burned out on years ago. The back half goes full spoilers: theories on the ending, whether Donut survives, and a frank debate about where DCC actually sits in the pantheon — fun and entertaining, they agree, but not literature, which is fine — and which leads Peter to take a brief shot at Brandon Sanderson on his way out the door. SHOW NOTES How they found the series — Aubrey was skeptical (a talking cat named Princess Donut did not sell her), but Hayden's enthusiasm eventually won out; Peter needed something lighter after slogging through The Three-Body Problem book two.The audiobook question — Both agree Jeff Hays is essential; his voice work is so distinctive that he omits dialogue tags in places because you simply know who's talking. Audiobook sales reportedly outpace ebook and print combined.The litRPG problem — Peter contextualizes why he's wary of the genre: most of it trends toward male power fantasy with inexecrable harem dynamics. DCC's reluctant, morally grounded protagonist is a deliberate contrast.Matt Dinneman's origin story — Before the pandemic, he traveled the country doing commissioned cat portraits at cat shows. A staring Persian cat inspired Princess Donut. COVID shut that down; he started posting chapters on Royal Road, and it exploded from there.Series overview (spoiler-free) — Earth gets strip-mined by the Borant Corporation, collapsing all buildings and turning the planet into an 18-level dungeon broadcast as galactic entertainment. Carl and his now-sentient cat Princess Donut navigate it while inadvertently becoming agents of chaos against the whole system.SPOILER SECTION: Series theories — Both think Carl will dismantle the Borant Corporation rather than complete the dungeon; Peter predicts the series ends at level 12, with the deity/ascension mechanics being the key. Ten books total, per Matt Dinneman's own Reddit comments.Will Donut survive? — Neither is confident. Peter says if Donut dies, he stops reading; Aubrey thinks losing her would send Carl fully off the rails. The cover where Donut is absent did not help their anxiety.Favorite moments — Aubrey's top two: Carl telling Prepotente to "eat a bag of dicks," and Donut screaming "die m**********r die" while drunk. The Prepotente/Carl reconciliation in book seven gets genuine appreciation from both.Jeff Hays fandom — He's locked into the Carl and Donut voices permanently; he's confirmed he can't use them for other projects. A convention clip of Hayes singing "Wonderwall" in the Donut voice while Matt Dinneman plays guitar on stage is, per Aubrey, simply iconic.The verdict — Fun books, not great books, and that's okay. Peter lands a parting shot: Brandon Sanderson could learn something from DCC about not taking himself quite so seriously.

    The Crawl Review - Dungeon Crawler Carl

  7. Apr 19

    S Tier or We're Done Here

    Peter and Aubrey work through all 37 official MCU films on Peter's custom tier list tool, placing each from S down to D with no shortage of strong opinions along the way. The results are roughly what you'd expect from two Marvel fans who still remember opening-night midnight showings — Thor: Ragnarok and The Winter Soldier are untouchable, Eternals and Iron Man 2 are not. The episode also touches on the MCU's recent creative upswing (Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four), the ongoing wound that is Secret Invasion, and a pre-show check-in that includes Aubrey's genuinely harrowing week of tornado evacuations in Madison. SHOW NOTES Check-in: Peter escaped a work trip in Austin early by paying $75 for a same-day flight change — no business casual required, shorts were involved. Aubrey's week involved actual tornado warnings in Madison, a mid-workday shelter evacuation with her kids, and baseball-sized hail; she later raced home with Hayden to beat a second tornado approaching from the west. Friday brought a school district preemptive cancellation and, fortuitously, weather pay.Episode setup: With Avengers: Doomsday trailer apparently shown at CinemaCon (not yet public), Peter thought it was a good time to tier-rank all 37 MCU movies using his custom tier list tool. He and Eden did a bracket format on The Middle of Culture previously, but Peter prefers the tier list because it doesn't force unfair head-to-head matchups.S tier (locked in): Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter notes The Winter Soldier is probably the best MCU film, even if not his personal favorite; No Way Home earns its S on pure emotional impact, despite Homecoming arguably being the tighter movie. Both agree Infinity War is the stronger film over Endgame.A tier highlights: Black Panther, Black Widow (Aubrey advocates for it; Peter concedes despite CGI complaints), the original Avengers, Civil War, Endgame, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four: First Steps, Guardians Vol. 1, Homecoming, Ant-Man, and Iron Man 1. Peter is bullish on both Thunderbolts ("hits emotionally a lot harder" than Fantastic Four) and Fantastic Four ("it's got the juice").B tier: Guardians Vol. 3, Wakanda Forever, Spider-Man: Far From Home, original Thor, Guardians Vol. 2 (Peter's least favorite of the trilogy, despite online discourse claiming otherwise), Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: The First Avenger, Doctor Strange, and Shang-Chi — though Peter notes Shang-Chi gets docked for Marvel's failure to do anything with the character afterward: "My boy Shang-Chi deserves better."C and D tiers: Age of Ultron lands in C; Iron Man 2 in D ("you can't enjoy the experience of Iron Man 2 ever again"). Eternals earns a D with Peter suggesting he might genuinely prefer Iron Man 2 over a rewatch. Brave New World lands in D simply because neither of them has had any interest in watching it — the tier list as disinterest metric.MCU fatigue and cautious optimism: Post-tier-list conversation touches on the post-Endgame drop-off in quality and excitement. Aubrey recalls having a nightmare the night before the Endgame midnight premiere that they couldn't go see it — that's the level of hype she wants back. Both see Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four as signs of an upswing heading into Doomsday.Secret Invasion tangent: Peter revisits his custom-built tier list feature (a bonus below-D tier for truly irredeemable content) — originally created for DC's Black Adam, but Secret Invasion is the MCU equivalent. Six episodes and rage-quit; he says it soured him on MCU TV generally, leaving him behind on Loki S2, What If S2, Echo, and Daredevil Born Again.Tease for next episode: Aubrey mentions she already has an outfit planned to go with next week's topic.

  8. Apr 5

    Fist My Bump – Project Hail Mary

    Peter and Aubrey dig into the Project Hail Mary film adaptation — both are big fans of the book and came in with high hopes and specific anxieties about how it would translate to screen. They start spoiler-free with their history with Andy Weir's work and their first impressions of the casting, then move into a full spoiler breakdown of the story, the Grace/Rocky relationship, the practical effects choice for Rocky, and what the filmmakers got right (and wrong) about adapting the book. Peter notes no medical fact this week, and Aubrey closes with a brief Astro Fact about the Artemis II moon launch. Project Hail Mary — Book Backgrounds Aubrey came to the book recently via a recommendation from Hayden, listened on Audible, and loved it — specifically calling out the audiobook's interpretation of Rocky's voice as a standout experience. Peter claims Andy Weir hipster status, having bought The Martian on Kindle before it was picked up by a publisher.Andy Weir's Body of Work Peter gives a quick rundown: The Martian (great), Artemis (a letdown), Project Hail Mary (a major return to form). Both agree the book is worth reading even after seeing the movie — it goes much deeper into the science and the characters' inner lives.Spoiler-Free Premise Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up alone in a spaceship with no memory of who he is or why he's there. The story unfolds through present-day mystery and flashbacks, piecing together how humanity ended up in crisis — and how he ended up being the one sent to solve it.Ryan Gosling as Dr. Grace Aubrey was skeptical going in, having mostly seen Gosling in pretty-boy leading man roles. First trailer changed her mind; the performance won her over completely. Peter agrees he's a better actor than his typecast reputation suggests.Directors: Lord and Miller Peter felt reassured once he knew Phil Lord and Chris Miller were at the helm. Credits discussed: The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, and their screenwriting work on the Spider-Verse films.Rocky and the Practical Effects Decision Aubrey was relieved that Rocky — the film's alien character — was built as a practical puppet rather than pure CGI. Both agree it's the right call: the physical presence makes the central relationship feel genuinely earned.Book vs. Film — Adaptation Discussion Both appreciate that the filmmakers understood that books and movies are different mediums. The movie streamlines and adds warmth; the book rewards readers with more depth. Neither feels like a substitute for the other.No Medical Note This Week — Peter didn't have anything to share. Astro Fact — Artemis II Aubrey notes the Artemis II moon launch, which had just taken off. Artemis III is planned to actually land on the moon — Aubrey's verdict: nothing ever goes to plan, so we'll see.

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About

A father and daughter discuss life across their generations. Science, medicine, music, and whatever else they choose to discuss are on the table.

Information

  • Creator
    Peter and Aubrey Jones
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    74
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Peter and Aubrey Jones
  • Show Website
    Generations