INTRO MUSIC

MAIA IRVIN:  Oh my, um, my roommate has a snake at our, that’s actually at our house.

ALBERTO GOMEZ: What’s the snake’s name?

IRVIN: Mira.

GOMEZ: Mira?

OLIVIA STEVENS: Cute.

IRVIN: Yes. Okay, so she is Mexican and does speak Spanish, but she did not realize that she named the snake.

GOMEZ: The snake?

IRVIN: No. Sorry, my roommate. Sorry. My roommate speaks Spanish, and her whole family does, and she didn’t realize when she named the snake that she named it like a Spanish word. She just liked the name Mira.

STEVENS: She looks or he looks?

IRVIN: Yeah. She also thought that Mira was like a girl when she first got her, and then we later found out that it’s a male, but no men are allowed in our house.

GOMEZ: You have that rule too?

IRVIN: So, so Mira still uses she/her pronouns..

STEVENS: I love that for her.

GOMEZ: Um, so confession. We’ve been recording for a minute. Uh, I just wanna let you know that this is going in the episode.

IRVIN: That’s totally fine.

GOMEZ: Thank you. So without further ado, um, hi everyone. Uh, this is Alberto Gomez. I’m the editor for, uh, the, In the Know show thing that we do here. Um, today, I have, uh, my two bosses in the room with me today. Do you guys wanna introduce yourselves?

STEVENS: Um, yeah, sure. So my name’s Olivia. I am the managing editor at the Daily. Um, I am new to this position. I just started the semester. Um, before, I was an associate editor on the campus activities desk. So very exciting stuff.

GOMEZ: And, uh, Maia, what’s your name?

IRVIN: Okay, well first Olivia, what’s your last name though?

STEVENS: Do you really wanna know? That’s private information.

IRVIN: Do you have a middle name?

STEVENS: That’s private information, I don’t know if I should share that. Do I have a middle name? Um, yeah. So my full name is Olivia Helen Stevens, which is a gorgeous name. I know. It’s beautiful.

IRVIN: It is a gorgeous name.

STEVENS: What’s your full name?

IRVIN: My full name? You want to know? My full name is Maia Janae Irvin. Yep.

STEVENS: I love it. That’s such an old white lady name.

IRVIN: Janae? Wait, you wanna know why that’s my middle name?

STEVENS: I think everyone wants to know .

GOMEZ: Why would they give you a name like that?

IRVIN: My mom met a random lady when she was in Hawaii, when she was pregnant with me, and she really liked her name. So I’m named after a random lady my mom met on vacation in Hawaii.

GOMEZ: It’s so sentimental.

STEVENS: That’s actually cool.

GOMEZ: Yeah, it’s actually a cool story. My name isn’t nearly as cool.

STEVENS: What’s yours?

GOMEZ: Oh, so my middle name’s actually Alberto. Um, I don’t use my first name. My first name is, uh, Pedro. My dad snuck it onto my birth certificate.

My mom hates that name. She hates it. She doesn’t like the name at all. Um, but like, while my mom was pregnant with me, my dad was like trying to say like, “Come on, we should name our son after my great grandfather,” who he never met. My dad never met my great-grandfather. All he knows is his name is Pedro.

STEVENS: Why?

GOMEZ: Because he thinks that the name Pedro Alberto Gomez sounds good. And it does. But my mom was like, ‘No, I don’t know who this man is.’

IRVIN: So like while your mom was like drugged up, like giving birth, your dad was like, ‘Gimme that birth certificate.’

STEVENS: Oh my gosh. I love exploitation of mothers. Literally the women who birth us, we love. Oh my gosh.

GOMEZ: Yeah. No one in my family has called me by my first name. Uh, I stopped using that first name completely after middle school. I’m just Alberto.

IRVIN: That’s so interesting. Yeah.

STEVENS: That’s a cool backstory.

GOMEZ: Yeah. I mean it’s not, you know, random woman in Hawaii, but yeah.

IRVIN: And then she named me Maia because, and spelled it that way, because like we’re Polish, right? And I also grew up Catholic (do that with do with that what you will) but um, my grandpa told her that Maia spelled m-a-i-a means Mary in Polish. And he wasn’t actually correct because I later looked it up and told my mom that my name actually means great mother.

STEVENS: You’re gonna be a fantastic mother.

IRVIN: Yeah. I love kids.

STEVENS: I’m sure you do.

GOMEZ: You don’t want kids?

IRVIN: Okay, so have you ever, have you heard of like the ring test?

GOMEZ: No. What is this?

IRVIN: Oh my gosh. Okay. So you have to have someone else do it on you. You can’t do it on yourself, but you take like a strand of your hair and like a ring that you wear. I don’t wear a ring, so I use my.

GOMEZ: I have a ring.

IRVIN: Well, no, it has to be like my ring, and you can’t do it on a guy cause it’s supposed to show like how many kids you’re going to like physically have. Or, well, you can’t do it on someone who like biologically cannot have children. So yeah, you take like a strand of your hair and like a ring, some sort of like ring that you wear and then string the hair through the ring and then you like do the, it’s so hard to like tell you how to do it.

I’m like showing you how to do it. You kind of like swing the ring back and forth between your fingers with like your hands splayed out. And then you bring it up top on top of like the back of your hand. And if the ring like swings back and forth, that means like you’re supposed to have like a boy.

If it goes in a circle, you’re supposed to have a girl. And then if it just like stops, then you’re done. It’s like really hard to explain without like just showing you how to do it. I think it, it’s like a, I don’t know.

STEVENS: It’s witchy.

IRVIN: It’s yeah, well, I mean, I think I was a witch in a past life.

GOMEZ: What?

STEVENS: Yeah, she’s told me that before. She likes to mention, bring it up in conversation.

GOMEZ: It’s the hair; the frizzy hair gives it away.

IRVIN: Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, most people think that I’m Jewish when they see my frizzy hair, witch in a past life, but yeah.

STEVENS: Wait do you not actually have Jewish relatives?

IRVIN: No. No. In eighth grade we were reading the Diary of Anne Frank and this kid sitting next to me turns to me and goes, “You know, Maia, you kinda look like Anne Frank.” And I was like, “I don’t know how to take that.”

STEVENS: Anne Frank was cute.

IRVIN: Yeah. No, but, and like I work at Wally’s. So like my, I mean my boss isn’t Jewish, but she’s from Gaza and like we have a lot of Palestinian people come in to eat there.

And like, so I get asked frequently like, if it’s not, “Are you Arab?” it’s, “Are you Jewish?” And I’m like, “I’m not either.” So anyway, I had my friend Maria with the snake do the ring test on me and it said I’m supposed to have one boy, which if I’m gonna have kids, I think that’s my max.

STEVENS: I can see that.

GOMEZ: Being a mother of one or being a mother of a son?

STEVENS: Uh, both. Yeah, they both fit her. Yeah, they both fit that really well. Which is really interesting to me.

GOMEZ: What would your name-?

STEVENS: You’d be a cool single mom too. I don’t know why I see you being a single mom. That was just like a Freudian slip. Like I should not have said that, but I could see that for you too.

IRVIN: Yeah, find me a ring. I’ll do the test on you, Olivia.

STEVENS: Yeah, I’m wearing one. Oh, okay. We’ll do it.

GOMEZ: Oh, do we do the test? Do we have string?

IRVIN: No, no. We need her hair.

GOMEZ: Oh. Just pluck one out.

STEVENS: We can’t do that. Right? Do we really wanna do that right now?

IRVIN: I dunno. We can always edit it out, right?

GOMEZ: I mean, yeah, we could edit it out, but this is, this is kind of fun.

IRVIN: I do this, I’ve done this on like all of my coworkers, like at the restaurant.

GOMEZ: Yeah, this is supposed to be a podcast about the news and the Daily, but no, this is way more fun.

IRVIN: Okay. Okay. No, that’s okay. I hold lots of people’s hair.

GOMEZ: Did you watch like sports or golf commentators?

IRVIN: No, do you keep up with sports?

GOMEZ: Oh god no.

IRVIN: Oh, okay.

GOMEZ: No, I don’t.

IRVIN: I don’t either.

STEVENS: No, I don’t think any of the leadership, main leadership at the Daily.

IRVIN: Uh, we have Tony.

ASSORTED: Tony, yeah.

IRVIN: Tony’s our sports editor. For those of you who are unaware. Okay. Now take, put your hand out like this. Oh my gosh. I never realized how long your fingers were.

STEVENS: I also have like really red hands, kind of like you.

IRVIN: Thank you. I have blood circulation problems. I have Raynaud’s. Just for anyone who’s curious.

GOMEZ: And she’s –

STEVENS: You’re all learning the important information about Maia.

GOMEZ: -her fingers. On the top of her hand. It’s not really doing, it’s not doing anything.

IRVIN: Um, yeah, I’ll test it again cause that means that you’re not gonna have kids.

STEVENS: Uh oh.

GOMEZ: Congratulations.

STEVENS: I’m gonna be an old spinster.

IRVIN: Spread your, spread your fingers a little more. Let me try it again. I swear it works. I’ve done it multiple times on the same people and it’s like, it’s always the same combination. If you’re not gonna have any kids, this is a really bad example.

STEVENS: Yeah, we can. I do. Yeah. And Alberto can’t do it. I’m not gonna have children. You guys.

IRVIN: Wait, wait. Oh, it’s doing a circle. It’s a circle. That’s a girl. And I’m not doing anything. Do you see my fingers?

GOMEZ: Yeah. You’re, you’re still.

STEVENS: Still, but like last time it didn’t do anything.

IRVIN: I know, that’s because I don’t think your fingers were splayed enough. Cause I kept hitting like the edges.

GOMEZ: The aura wasn’t right.

IRVIN: Yeah, exactly.

STEVENS: Did that just mean one, or what was it?

IRVIN: Yeah, so that means one girl. So basically I do it until it stops. All right. Olivia, you’re having one girl.

STEVENS: Oh, cute. Our girl and boy can be boyfriend and girlfriend and get married.

IRVIN: Yes.

STEVENS: That’s what’s gonna happen.

IRVIN: Anyways. Anyways, now that we’ve done that,

GOMEZ: Congratulations on being a single mother of one.

STEVENS: Thank you. I appreciate it.

IRVIN: You could also be a single mother of one.

GOMEZ: Oh my god. Two single moms. Slay. It’s 2018. This is a new trying time.

STEVENS: It’s 2018?

GOMEZ: Dude, it’s just a thing I say, alright?

STEVENS: I didn’t know that. I love it. Well, it’s like an inside joke.

GOMEZ: Whenever someone says like, it’s like, oh, what is it? Like someone will say like, something weirdly like not very progressive, like “Alberto’s kind of gay.” And I was like, “Yeah, it’s 2018, man. Get with the times.” It’s that kind of vibes. Sorry, that’s a dumb joke. Um, are we gonna get on topic or you wanna keep going?

IRVIN: You’re the one with the questions.

GOMEZ: Oh yeah, sure.

STEVENS: You run this whole thing, you know?

GOMEZ: Yeah. I don’t know. I’m just letting you guys go off the sticks. It’s kind of fun. Um, anyway, so yeah, Maia, you didn’t even tell us what you do at the Daily.

IRVIN: Oh, that’s true. We never got to that.

STEVENS: May be important information, considering you all have been, you all know so much about this person.

GOMEZ: Yeah, why are you here exactly?

IRVIN: Um, okay, so I’m the editor-in-chief this year. So I started in June and will go through May cuz that’s when I graduate, supposed to anyways. Um, yeah, you know, I’m here because there was no one else.

STEVENS: Oh, shut up.

GOMEZ: You had someone else vying for your job.

STEVENS: We do not need, we do not need the Daily readers and listeners to think that.

IRVIN: I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I just, you know, like to be self depreciating.

GOMEZ: Love it. It’s a good defense mechanism.

STEVENS: She’s very qualified for all of it. You can trust my opinion.

IRVIN: Thank you.

GOMEZ: I mean, the building hasn’t burned down yet, so.

IRVIN: That’s true. That’s very true. The Daily is not dead despite what so many people were trying to assert three months ago.

GOMEZ: What?

IRVIN: Didn’t you see that? G.G. was like getting mad about it too.

STEVENS: G.G. is a journalism professor.

IRVIN: Yeah. I’m so sorry.

STEVENS: For those of you who don’t know.

IRVIN: Yeah. Um, no okay. But okay. So, you know, like, okay. You know Jay Boller?

GOMEZ: Mm-hmm.

IRVIN: The Racket. So like, he used to be like an A&E reporter here, I think, um, like 10 years ago. And he was like talking with one of our columnists for a story and like, I don’t know, like throughout the conversation, that’s when he found out that we aren’t printing like a physical paper anymore.

And like he didn’t know about that even though we haven’t printed a physical paper the entirety of my time at the Daily at that point, like since COVID. And, um, so it was like a whole thing where then he like talked to me and like Charlie, our general manager, and stuff about, um, like what that decision was, why we’re doing things digitally the way that we are now.

And like wrote an article for the Racket on it. In like October, and part of it was like obviously like him talking about, like, kind of his own experiences, like going down memory lane. So some of it was more. I wouldn’t use the word like scathing, but like the headline was something like, “The Daily is like dead basically after a hundred years.”

Which is not true. So then like people on Twitter were like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe the Daily is like gone. Like that’s such a big institution.”

STEVENS: Because they just read the headline.

IRVIN: Right. And I was like, I’m still here, I’m still working, you know, my 30ish hours a week or whatever. And then, um, like Andy Mannix was like in with him too, like Andy from the Star Tribune, and him and Jay are friends and they were like both at the Daily, like 10 years ago.

And the thing was, Andy’s been teaching here the whole time. I don’t know how he didn’t know that the Daily wasn’t printing anymore. But anyways, that’s whatever.

STEVENS: Spread the word about the Daily

GOMEZ: Please, we’re a dying newspaper.

IRVIN: But then the Star Tribune also wanted to do an article after that. So then like, I don’t know, some other reporter like talked to me about it, and they did an article, and then G.G. was like, “All right, it’s my turn.”

Then G.G. wrote like an op-ed that got published in the Strib that was about like the Daily is not dead. We’re actually doing pretty good right now because we’re not printing physical papers anymore because the youngins don’t pick up papers anyways, so the Daily is not dead guys.

GOMEZ: Really?

IRVIN: Check your emails.

STEVENS: Read the newsletter.

GOMEZ: Oh, you write those every morning?

IRVIN: Yeah. Um, the first two weeks of school, not like every morning, because, you know, we’re just getting started up again, but probably next, starting next week, like every morning. Honestly, it like takes a lot more thought than you would think. Cuz I have to like talk about like something personal about my life, which like, you know to like, get it started, get it rolling and then go into the news. Like I’m not, I’m not that excited of a person.

So like, I think the last one I talked about, my roommates and I got in an argument, not like a real argument, the other night because we have our holiday decorations still up like inside our house from like Halloween and Christmas. It’s like The Nightmare Before Christmas and I absolutely love it. And they wanna take them down, and I don’t.

STEVENS: How long are you like hoping to keep them up?

IRVIN: Okay, here’s the thing. We came to a compromise. I said that we can take down, like we have these like jack-o-lanterns, like little lamp things, um, you know, around like the living room. I was like, we can take those down. We have these like bats like taped to the ceiling fans. Like if you turn the ceiling fan on, like the bats will like fly around it or whatever.

I was like, we can take those down and like the tinsel that I like strung out by the window and like we can even take the ornaments off the Christmas, the little Christmas tree. But I wanna keep all the lights up that we have because it’s just like a really good source of light. I like the ambiance, you know, when it gets cold and dark out.

So like that was my newsletter intro the other day was just like: “When do you, when is it like, when’s like the proper like etiquette to take down your holiday things?” And then my roommates read it and they were like, “So I saw your newsletter intro.” And they were like, “You failed to mention that holiday decorations meant both Christmas and Halloween.”

STEVENS: You did fail to mention that. That’s crazy.

IRVIN: They’re my two favorite holidays.

GOMEZ: I’m not gonna lie, my family just takes them down like New Year’s Day. Like it’s, everyone’s still tired and a little, you know, tipsy, and my mom will still make everyone like, “All right, come on, seven in the morning, come on, let’s go.”

IRVIN: Nah, I decorated for Halloween, like Oct. 5 this year or something. And then I put the Christmas tree up like Nov. 1. Like that’s how it goes.

STEVENS: You’re so festive.

IRVIN: I’m like, I’m really not, but like I just like the act of decorating. It’s about the aesthetics of it. It’s, yeah, it’s about the aesthetics of it.

GOMEZ: 100%.

IRVIN: Exactly.

GOMEZ: I’m assuming your apartment is boring as heck.

STEVENS: Oh, it actually really is.

IRVIN: I was gonna say, from like your Zoom background.

STEVENS: Okay, shush. First of all, I’m usually doing Zoom for my bed, and so have been trying, this semester I’ve been really trying to get the motivation to finally go like shopping, to decorate my room because I have one, like, I have one picture up right now because everything keeps falling down off my walls and it’s a signed Napoleon Dynamite poster. And so that is all I have hanging on my walls right now.

GOMEZ: It’s signed by the Napoleon Dynamite?

STEVENS: Nope, Pedro, of course. Duh. Obviously.

IRVIN: Oh wait…

STEVENS: Callback.

GOMEZ: No, I didn’t sign it, Maia. God, you’re so funny. I’ve never heard that joke before.

STEVENS: Was pretty good. That was pretty good.

IRVIN: I saw the opportunity. I felt like since we already talked about it, I feel like I had to take it, you know?

STEVENS: Yeah. It was just a callback. It was comedic.

GOMEZ: Thank you. That was middle school flashbacks of when I was bullied. Thank you.

STEVENS: Oh, Maia’s a bully everyone.

GOMEZ: Hi, workplace harassment? Jesus Christ.

IRVIN: HR’s gone for the day.

STEVENS: Yeah. Thank goodness.

IRVIN: Anyway, so you have this Napoleon Dynamite poster.

STEVENS: But that’s kind of it. So I need to, I’m trying to go, if you guys have any ideas for really good places to get like fun art that would match my Napoleon dynamite poster vibes. Like, let me know.

GOMEZ: Oh, you can, uh, send those answers to those. You can send an answer to that question in inquiry at, uh, podcasting@mndaily.com. Thank you very much.

STEVENS: Please do. Please do. I need your recommendations.

GOMEZ: I’ve been practicing that radio voice for like years.

STEVENS: Oh, it’s gorgeous.

GOMEZ: Thank you,

STEVENS: Sultry.

GOMEZ: Oh my god.

IRVIN: You could, you could totally do radio, Alberto.

GOMEZ: I have the face for it. I’ve been told.

STEVENS: Yeah. We’re not gonna argue with that. Oh my gosh.

GOMEZ: Olivia, what else do you do at the Daily? Managing editor? I don’t know what, yeah, I don’t, I don’t know what that means.

STEVENS: Yeah, that’s like a really good question. I didn’t really know what it meant either before I kind of got the job. Um, but basically I think the main thing that you guys like kind of need to know probably is that, um, I just take like a once-over through pretty much every article, and Maia does as well. So we both kind of like share that work of just like editing the stories and making sure that they look good before they are published. Um, I also just kind of like, I don’t know, I’m kind of like an assistant, so like I’m kind of like here, I’m like kind of like Maia’s little secretary. Not really, but that’s, I was trying to think of a good analogy, but, um, I don’t know, like we just kind of like, she’ll like let me know what’s going on. I can kind of like help make some decisions editorial-wise and yeah, just kind of am present generally. Just kind of around, I’m just hanging out.

IRVIN: Yeah. She’s here for support.

GOMEZ: She’s here for the vibes.

STEVENS: Yeah, I am here. I’m like, kind of like I can be a little personal therapist, I can be here to just, if anyone has any like gossip, they can bring it to me.

GOMEZ: Um, will it go in the newsletter?

IRVIN: If she tells me about it.

STEVENS: I usually kind of try and keep that close because I need to maintain respect in the office. And, um, yeah, it’s not Maia’s job, it’s my job to collect all the hot gossip.

IRVIN: Yeah. Yes.

STEVENS: So it’s not, it’s gonna stay close unless, um, unless, you know, I just like, it’s too juicy to like keep close. So, yeah. That’s me.

GOMEZ: Exciting. Thank you guys so much. Um, so. In staying on topic, uh, what exactly, what are we looking forward to this semester, Maia?

IRVIN: Tea. All the tea. Um, honestly, what I look forward to, my goal every semester, every publishing cycle that I have been a part of is to, um, Do we swear on this or no?

GOMEZ: Preferably not.

IRVIN: Okay. Like just don’t eff up. Yeah. . . Sorry. I swear a lot so I’m like really trying to check myself right now.

GOMEZ: You’re perfectly fine. I don’t think we’re supposed to, but you’re the boss, so.

IRVIN: That’s true.

GOMEZ: I think you’re allowed the one F-bomb?

STEVENS: Do you wanna use it now or do you wanna hold off?

IRVIN: It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. Um, no. Every semester I’m, or literally every day I wake up and am like, okay, just like, don’t eff up anything cuz this institution has been here for like 100 years. So like, don’t be the one that messes it up.

GOMEZ: Yeah. It’d be awkward if it died at exactly 100.

IRVIN: Yeah. Um, but, um, that, I guess that’s more so like my personal goal, I guess like, or institutional goal, or like what we look forward to, I feel like it’s probably like the same every semester. You know, just like in general. Obviously I’m not gonna talk about like specific stories that we’re working on right now cause that would be like confidential stuff to talk about. But, um, I don’t know. Exposing things that should be exposed. You know, educating people on things they should be educated on. Pointing out really like cool things, really cool people doing cool things and just like continuing to be, you know, a prime source of news and information for the U of M like community.

GOMEZ: Yeah. You’ve been, um, you’ve been the editor-in-chief for the Daily. You okay?

IRVIN: I’m great.

GOMEZ: Uh, you’ve been the editor-in-chief for the Daily since last June. Um, what have you noticed, like going on in the Daily? What do you hope that you. I’m trying to phrase this question right, without sounding mean. Where do you think the Daily is slacking and where do you believe it could be?

IRVIN: I mean, I think, uh, like I was talking about earlier, I think we’re still in that kind of like a transitional phase, like trying to figure out like where we are at this point. Because we were like such a big institution of like a traditional newsroom, like printing a daily paper for so long and even like in, I don’t remember what year, like 2015 or something when they transitioned to like printing twice a week instead of every day. We were like such a traditional newsroom for so long, but like that model just is not working anymore and it hasn’t for years. And so like, the like pandemic really kicked off the Daily’s transition to a more digital space, to a fully digital and like social space. And, um, I mean, I think that, I mean, I think that’s gonna be the future of it, especially given our audience. Like I don’t, everyone that I know gets their news off of their phone.

So like that’s how, that’s what we should be doing. But since we’re still like in that phase of transition, there is definitely still work to be done to figure out how we are going to fully engage our audience digitally and like through social media, like building up those platforms. Building up the Daily’s brand again, cause it used to be like a really big thing and then COVID happened and no one knew anything that was going on ever. Like I talked to so many people in the past, like couple of years about the Daily that go to the U of M and they’re like, “What the hell are?” What are you talking about?”

GOMEZ: It’s fine. You’re, you’re quoting someone, you’re quoting someone, it’s fine.

STEVENS: These are direct quotes.

IRVIN: Um, they’re, no, they’re like, “What are you talking about?” Like, “We have a student paper?” “That’s what it’s called?” I think just like building up the brand in that space is like the next era of the Daily. And I, I mean, I don’t think that that’s going to be fully accomplished during like my time here, but um, I think that’s where we need like the most improvement on. And I mean, the podcast is definitely a big part of that, so thanks Alberto.

GOMEZ: Thank you. Um, so to both of you then, well, what do you think that is, that next step? What do you think is that next transition to improving and, uh, to improving our reach.

STEVENS: Well, I think we talked a little bit about like using like TikTok, and I think that’d be kind of fun. I really wanna, like someone’s gotta take that on though, like as their baby, I know if it’s really gonna be successful, and I don’t think any of us are like, have been super like, excited or willing to do that.

GOMEZ: Wait, but were you an editor? Uh, last, last semester? Like last academic year you weren’t –

IRVIN: No, no, I went from a reporter to EIC.

GOMEZ: Okay. Popoff.

IRVIN: But I, I was in a managing editor role in like a different, like outside of the Daily in something else. So I had some experience editing, but not specifically with the Daily.

GOMEZ: What was that exactly? Can I ask?

IRVIN: Yeah. So, um, it’s hard to explain, but at that point when I was in like an editing role, it was for the College of Liberal Arts Office for Institutional Advancement, which is basically like a lot of like alumni relations, PR kind of marketing stuff. So, um, when I started working for them as like a freshman, I would write like PR articles, feature articles for different CLA departments.

Um, and then, uh, I transitioned into, I became a managing editor, um, in that role. But then when I got the editor-in-chief job here, I had to quit that. Because like, conflicts of interest.

GOMEZ: Yeah. Yeah. That’s more than fair.

STEVENS: That’ll happen. Yeah.

GOMEZ: What? What did you say? We didn’t catch that.

STEVENS: No. I like mumbling and it’s like really hard to do that when you’re supposed to be on a podcast.

GOMEZ: Well, I mean, you just get a little closer to the mic.

Like, can you just like? Yeah. Like, oh my gosh, is this ASMR? We’re not gonna do ASMR, I’m sorry. Not gonna do that. God.

IRVIN: Crack your fingers into the microphone.

GOMEZ: Uh, ASMR warning. Is this, does that do anything? I don’t get that.

STEVENS: We’re gonna have to find out.

GOMEZ: I really don’t get that.

IRVIN: Do you know what ASMR is?

GOMEZ: Uh, Auditory? Sensory? Michelin?

IRVIN: Michelin? Like Michelin star?

GOMEZ: I don’t know.

IRVIN: I don’t know what it stands for either.

GOMEZ: But weirdly enough I don’t like it when like those sounds are going in.

IRVIN: Oh, like you don’t like ASMR?

GOMEZ: For someone who works in audio, I am very particular on what goes in my ears.

IRVIN: Right? Like someone could be like using your voice as like ASMR to fall asleep. Like, have you ever thought about that?

GOMEZ: You know what?

STEVENS: Oh, huh.

GOMEZ: I’m very honored by that.

STEVENS: You have a really good voice to fall asleep too.

IRVIN: Yeah. It’s like, deep, soothing.

GOMEZ: Oh, thank you. That does make me feel weird now that I’ve thought about it. Thanks.

IRVIN: You’re welcome. I really, one of my favorite pastimes is like purposefully making people feel awkward in conversations.

GOMEZ: Oh, you’re a pro at it basically.

STEVENS: It’s a hobby.

IRVIN: Yeah, it’s a hobby.

GOMEZ: God. Um, so we’ve filled up the 30 minutes already.

IRVIN: Oh – Dang.

STEVENS: Wow. Maia really can’t just keep them in. I love it.

IRVIN: I’m so bad at censoring myself. I would like swear in front of my high school teachers by accident.

STEVENS: I would, I would do that in front of my like nanny kids on accident. Yeah.

IRVIN: I swear in front of children all the time. I was like at work and I like dropped something. I was like – There’s like a little girl standing, right there.

STEVENS: Another direct quote.

IRVIN: This little girl was standing right next to me and I go, I look at her and I was like, I mean, “shoot.” She walked away. I was like, “dang it.”

GOMEZ: Yeah. I used to work with kids at the YMCA, and I’m not gonna quote exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of directed towards me, like, “You need to go foot yourself.” And like this kid’s 6. Wow. He was six.

IRVIN: My little brother started swearing when he was like 6, probably because of me and my older brother. But the first time I remember is like my older brother took his Nerf gun away from him and he looked at him and he was like, “you…”

GOMEZ: Maia.

STEVENS: That was another. Put the little E with the box around it next to this episode.

GOMEZ: We’re not allowed to swear that much. I thought you would do like one or two.

IRVIN: I could have sworn like 10 times in every sentence. So this is really good for me.

STEVENS: Literally a sailor. I love it.

GOMEZ: In other news, uh, Maia’s no longer allowed on the podcast.

STEVENS: She’s been banned.

IRVIN: You can edit that out.

GOMEZ: My girlfriend’s grandparents listen to this show.

IRVIN: No, I’m so sorry. What are their names?

GOMEZ: No.

IRVIN: I’m just gonna apologize.

GOMEZ: It’s CENSORED.

IRVIN: CENSORED. I’m so sorry, CENSORED.

GOMEZ: Oh god. Olivia, any final remarks you’d like to give?

STEVENS: I’m just glad that we’ve all gotten to know each other a little bit better over this last half hour. I think we’ve all learned some interesting insights. We all, we know how many children me and Maia are gonna have, and, um, unfortunately we can’t find that about Alberto. Like, you should have been born a woman. What can we say?

GOMEZ: Every day. I’m jealous

IRVIN: You could do it if you’re like in a really secure relationship. If you could do it on whoever you’re with, I guess. I don’t know.

GOMEZ: Dude. I really don’t want kids.

IRVIN: Well, then don’t do it. Manifest.

GOMEZ: No, I’m not opening that box.

STEVENS: Yeah, that’s totally fair.

GOMEZ: Yeah. Um, Maia, any closing remarks? Anything, any zingers from the crowd?

STEVENS: Any offensive remarks?

GOMEZ: Please. No.

STEVENS: Just keep them in.

IRVIN: No, no, no, no. I, um, yeah, I don’t know. This has been fun. I’ve never been on the podcast before, so I’m like, I’m not used to people like hearing my voice. But, um, I don’t know. I think it’s cool. I’m glad Olivia decided to, um, show up.

STEVENS: Also fun fact, this is the first podcast that I’m gonna be publishing for the Daily, cause that’s also my job.

IRVIN: Oh my gosh.

GOMEZ: Congratulations, narcissist.

STEVENS: Oh my gosh. We’re just coming at each other tonight. I love it. That’s what happens when you’re doing this, like 8 p.m. on a Thursday, so.

GOMEZ: We’re all sleepy. Oh yeah.

STEVENS: We’re, we’re kind of over with the week.

GOMEZ: I’m gonna go to bed, and I’m not gonna look at this tonight.

IRVIN: That’s okay. But, um, yeah.

GOMEZ: Thank you everyone so much for sitting down with us. Uh, we’ll see you guys in two weeks when Stella has her first episode of the season. Um, if you guys like this kind of content, make sure to email us. Email us at podcasting@mndaily.org? Dot com?

IRVIN: Dot com. Yeah.

GOMEZ: Dot com. My bad. Um, but, my name is Alberto Gomez.

STEVENS: Um, I’m Olivia Stevens.

IRVIN: I’m Maia Irvin.

GOMEZ: And this has been, uh, In The Know. Have a wonderful night. Make good choices.

This episode was edited by Abbey Machtig, Hana Ikramuddin and Alberto Gomez.