Lea Feiger: Yes. In recent days this has come up. You say, “I’ve been listening to them.” It’s like, “Oops, Zoë, your bill is ready.” And I say, “What’s going on there?”

Zoe Schiffer: You’ve been listening to them. It’s embarrassing. That’s embarrassing.

Lea Feiger: It’s something wild. No, honestly, if it’s making your life better, I’m glad to know. And it’s… I’m all for using this for your annoying admin tools. That, to me, is not… If you said, “And I decided to write a book with AI,” I would say, “That’s embarrassing for you.”

Zoe Schiffer: No no. And Shoshana also said this. I mean, she works with a lot of clients and she said, “Human writing is your differentiator.” You never want to use it for those things, but there are plenty of things related to your actual main job that it can be useful for. Brian?

Brian Barrett: Oh, me?

Zoe Schiffer: Yeah.

Brian Barrett: Well, my WIRED is life in space.

Zoe Schiffer: Ooh, not where I thought I was going to go.

Brian Barrett: Bear with me. No, and… Look, I think it’s obviously a great mystery of the universe. Are we alone here? I think two new developments in the last week are super interesting. I’m not saying they mean no, but for the first time in history, astronomers detected a sugar molecule floating in space tens of thousands of light years away. These types of molecules are needed for life to exist. So it’s not a confirmation that there’s life out there, but it’s a sign that says, “Oh, there’s a stew out there that could potentially work.” Likewise, just a few days later, 48 light years away, astronomers confirmed for the first time the existence of a rocky planet with an atmosphere that is also in the habitable zone, meaning that it is a similar Earth, capable of supporting life. It probably has water, it probably has all those elements. Some big advances in astronomy suggest we are not alone.

Zoe Schiffer: Brian, do you believe in aliens?

Brian Barrett: I don’t know… I think the idea that there is no life form on any other planet in the entire universe seems crazy to me. I don’t know if it’s like… Yeah, I don’t know if we would call it sentient life. I don’t think they have Tinder, but I think there has to be something.

Lea Feiger: I love hearing that Brian’s version of sensitivity involves Tinder.

Brian Barrett: That’s the bar.

Lea Feiger: That’s the bar.

Brian Barrett: Yes. Anything less than that, I’m sorry. No, it doesn’t count.

Lea Feiger: OK, what’s your TIRED?

Brian Barrett: The opposite of that.

Lea Feiger: Oh my god.

Zoe Schiffer: OK. Read, say this. WIRED/TIRED.

Lea Feiger: OK. My WIRED/TIRED, I must say, is entirely scientific in theme. So Brian’s was a perfect entry into this. My TIRED thing is that I am very, very worried about El Niño. Right now I’m looking at maps and temperature predictions literally daily. And part of it is because of a really big global concern: What does this mean? The impact on food security, the impact on the communities that are going to be affected. Historically, Los Niño is very, very bad for marine life, even though it is a natural process. This will be a year with super El Niño. And around the world it has been seen that areas that were usually full of life became devoid of life during El Niño. And if El Niño continues for a long time, what will that mean for shark hotspots in the Galapagos and things like that? The Humboldt current. So this is what I’m thinking about a lot, and I’m very TIRED of it, and I’m incredibly upset about it. If you two are stressed about El Niño and want to chat, let me know. I’m always around.