What is this "Start Here" podcast episode about? It's a quickie, "welcome, we're glad you're here" kind of thing.
Mike Steger and Jodi Wellman explore life's big questions, mortality, purpose, and the unpredictable nature of existence through a candid and humorous conversation. It's like a sampler of what's to come in future episodes. Keep listening!

Key Topics

• Welcome!
• The unpredictability of life and death
• Finding meaning in the chaos
• Embracing uncertainty and living fully
• What else to expect in these episodes

Takeaways

• Life is unpredictable and no one truly knows what will happen next.
• Focusing on making the most of the present moment can lead to a more fulfilling life.
• Accepting mortality can inspire us to live with more purpose and zest.

Action Items

• Reflect on what makes your life meaningful today.
• Embrace uncertainty as a core part of life.
• Live with intention and make today memorable.

Sound Bites

• "Everyone loves to give advice, but it's all guesswork."
• "This could be it—what we have right now is all we've got."
• "Make the most of today, it might be your last."

Chapters
00:00Introduction to the Podcast
00:09Exploring Life's Questions
03:19The Nature of Uncertainty
05:29What Does 'This Could Be It' Mean?
08:52Wrapping Up with Key Themes

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Steger 0:09
Welcome to This Could Be It. This podcast is about how we're supposed to live in this world. Notice that's a question mark. We're gonna keep asking it, keep trying to answer it the best we can. Me and the Luminous Jodi Wellman.

Jodi Wellman 0:25
Hi, Mike Steger. You know, I have a feeling already that it's gonna be fun, and it's also gonna be snarky fun. So, if anyone's offended by that, I think you should probably just hightail it like immediately. Nope,

Mike Steger 0:36
nope, nope. Please don't listen to her. Whatever you're offended by, whoever you are, as much as you disagree with us, if you're not gonna listen, at least sponsor us, right? I think that's probably true,

Jodi Wellman 0:45
or Venmo us, that's probably just really the fastest option. There's no way I'm giving

Mike Steger 0:50
out my email address. Fair instant identity theft, that's actually maybe we can turn that into a segue into something that's tricky about the modern world, right? We're all supposed to find we can't rely on regular jobs anymore in this crazy cuckoo world. We all have to be like entrepreneurs and have to put ourselves out there, but then either robots or people from countries never heard of are going to steal who we are. So, what are we supposed to do, Jodi? What are we supposed to

Jodi Wellman 1:17
do?

Mike Steger 1:18
Yeah,

Jodi Wellman 1:18
just for the record, it may emerge that Mike tends more towards pessimism. I tend more towards optimism, just in terms of, you know, recognizing philosophies. But yeah, the lady wearing

Mike Steger 1:30
a black shirt who writes about death nonstop is the optimist of this show, and the smiley, friendly-looking, dare I say dashing adjacent, man? Get away with that one. I get away with that, like, because it makes you laugh long enough for me to move on. Yeah, I am a bit known as a wet blanket on some of these topics. Maybe

Jodi Wellman 1:56
you are a bit known as that, but that's okay, because you will be the voice of realism that is people wondering, like, what is all this for? Yeah, right.

Mike Steger 2:06
Yes,

Jodi Wellman 2:07
like, not just what is this podcast for, but what is my grand life? Like, why am I.. I'm working hard. I'm, what am I doing here? That might be a question people ask. Yeah,

Mike Steger 2:18
yeah, you know, we're one of the biggest problems, and we'll get to a lot of different things, like we're gonna definitely get into Jody's nooks and crannies of what she prefers, which is death, right? Like, we do, if this, if this is breaking news to you, that you're going to die, and everyone who you ever loved or hated is also going to die. Then you're welcome. We just shared something that's actually true, and everyone around you is thought you're too wimpy to hear it. We don't think you're too wimpy, and Jodi tells us how to live, even so.

Jodi Wellman 2:54
Yeah, and you chip in every now and then a little bit. I talk more about living, ah, yeah, in the grand giant looming shadow of death, and you happen to sprinkle in a shit ton of information about meaning, and so between the two of us it's going to be just like a giant party until death, and then also wrestling with life's tough questions, like how do we live on this interesting wild ride. Yeah,

Mike Steger 3:19
can I, can I ask for a clarification on your recent vocalization of was that someone falling off a cliff to their death, was that your version of like living with zest, and yeah, that's the sound

Jodi Wellman 3:30
effect for vitality. Oh, okay, okay,

Mike Steger 3:33
I really don't take this the wrong way, but I'd love you to own that a bit

Speaker 1 3:38
more, party part.

Mike Steger 3:42
Yeah, I want to hear

Jodi Wellman 3:43
it. It should be an octave thing. Like, is that better than falling to your death?

Mike Steger 3:49
I don't think that. I think it's a falling action of the tone that makes it sound like it's the Doppler effect, right? Where? Okay, they're falling. The Doppler effect in this episode, but I promise we will in future episodes.

Jodi Wellman 4:02
Okay, we'll have way better. Just leave

Mike Steger 4:05
it high. Yeah,

Jodi Wellman 4:06
so I have a question about our conversations. Then we already know, because, like, we were the masterminds of them, but can people expect to have all the answers and, like, sheer and other closure? Do you think, as a result of all of our scintillating conversations, or more questions or what

Mike Steger 4:23
you know, the only thing that makes us different than every other podcast out there is that we don't pretend we know what's going on, we own that no one really knows what's going on in life, no one knows where the world is going, no one knows how to predict how other people act. No one even knows how they're going to respond to choices they make now. How is future Mike and future Jodi going to respond to the choices we're making in this moment, or even the ones we sat down with spreadsheets and slide rules and Abikai to figure out? Like, we don't even know how we're going to respond to those decisions. And everyone loves to give you advice about do this, do that, three secrets, four keys, five lockdown, blah blah blahs, and you know the brutal truth is all that is guesswork, and we show you the guessing,

Jodi Wellman 5:15
so it's like a giant guessing game with you, said Avocai, can we bring back Avocai, please, just don't lose that.

Mike Steger 5:23
The long list of things that we're going to definitely get to Abikai now is on there.

Jodi Wellman 5:29
Okay, and so just a quickie before we go, this could be it. What does that mean to you?

Mike Steger 5:35
Could be it. What does it mean to you? What it means to me

Jodi Wellman 5:41
is a very loud swallow. I'm attracted to

Mike Steger 5:43
what's that

Jodi Wellman 5:44
was a very loud swallow. Just because your mic is right, just very, very loud, big swallowing sound.

Mike Steger 5:50
Everybody's a critic. Thank you. I appreciate being made to feel extremely self-conscious on our first episode. This is perfect. Okay, so now I will address all the truths of the of the universe was that too loud too. Sorry, I might be digesting in the background. Well, we will, we will address bodies and how messed up they are for our lives. We'll address like the noises they make, the things they want to do with their parts, probably. I'm guessing so, but yeah, this could be it. Yeah, to me that means what we have right now could be it, right? So, what we have in our lives right now, the tools we have, the dreams we have, the hopes we have, the people we have, the fears we have, the anxieties we have, this is what we've got to work with. So, that is one take on our title, Jodi. I'm guessing, given that you have a different background than me, maybe you have a different take. Tell me more.

Jodi Wellman 6:49
I agree with you, and building, yes, and here we go, not the careening suicide sound, and because we're finite, and this could be it. Why not make the most of it? Like, if today's the day, what do you want to do to make it maybe memorable, and or meaningful, and or magnificent, and or full of tacos? That's that's the attitude. Yeah,

Mike Steger 7:12
perfect. I think that's what we're going to do. Then we're going to wander our way through all of the things that make life so overwhelmingly confusing, right. That's one perspective. The other is sometimes it's, how can it be the case that we feel overwhelmed? We don't know what is in the future, we don't know what other people are up to, we don't know if we can trust the government, we don't know if we can trust the media, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Robots are coming for us, and yet still life feels boring half the time, like, how is that possible, right? So one thing we want to let you know as you dive in, that some of our conversations go for a long time. We also have, we'll give you little quickies where we solve something or attempt to in a very brief amount of time, but we don't want this to feel like homework. We don't want this to feel like you're supposed to take away, you know, three life lessons per episode, or that you're supposed to be reading the ancient, weird books that I find myself attracted to these days, or know all the smart things that Jodi knows. You can know different smart things, and you can read different books, and you can have different questions about life, but I get - I'm guessing we'll get to most of them,

Jodi Wellman 8:21
yeah. Thanks. So, no assignments, just listen, wash over. We are going to urge some action, because otherwise, what's this? What are we doing here? And otherwise, just prepare for a lot of comments from Mike about hair.

Mike Steger 8:34
There's a lot that can be said about hair. We'll get to that. We'll get to all sorts of things on your minds right now, hair sex spots, as well as hair, and possibly for lots. I mean, for those of you who have colons, you're not alone.

Jodi Wellman 8:52
All right. Well, I feel like we need to wrap this puppy up.

Mike Steger 8:55
Yeah, I know. Get ready, we're gonna dive into.. let's just do a lightning round of all the things we think we're gonna talk about: death,

Speaker 2 9:03
hair,

Mike Steger 9:05
responsibility,

Jodi Wellman 9:06
meaning,

Mike Steger 9:08
freedom,

Jodi Wellman 9:09
loneliness,

Mike Steger 9:11
sex spots,

Jodi Wellman 9:13
maybe, and more death,

Mike Steger 9:18
even more death. Yeah. Okay. Well,

Jodi Wellman 9:21
I'm in taste.

Mike Steger 9:22
Fantastic, I think this could be this could be

Speaker 2 9:24
it. Let's get out of here.

Mike Steger 9:39
You just like all the girls in ninth grade, I can't stand it, laughing at my dancing rose. Is any of this gonna get cut out?