OBSESSED

With Pokemon cards going for tens of thousands of dollars, and the world in an uproar to "catch 'em all," we need to get to the bottom of this new obsession. And to do that, I'm going to learn about Pokemon, try to win against a very scary nine-year-old, interview the owner of the world's largest Pokemon collection, and get trained by the North American Pokemon champion! This is a wild, obsession-filled ride you won't want to miss! 

Tons of people are quitting social media, and the rest of us having been asking, "Why?" Don't we all need to be on social media in the Digital Age? Well, maybe not. In this episode, we ask, "Why the obsession?" And I try cutting social media for myself, and at the end of my experiment, I make a big decision about my own social media. 

In this episode, I come face-to-face with a fear I haven't felt since high school: role-play. After a semi-tragic high school experience, I'm afraid of playing pretend with others, and as a result Dungeons and Dragons may be my hardest challenge yet. But that won't keep me from finding out why 13 million people worldwide are obsessed with this game!

At first, royal family obsession seemed weird to me, but I went on a journey, on which I met a Hollywood reporter, two world record level royal family memorabilia collectors, and two average Americans who love the royal family. Now I understand royal family obsession, and I know the reason for it is anything but simple and anything but boring.

Speed Rubik's cubing? Really? On the surface, there's not much to this hobby but a weird obsession with a fifty-year-old toy, but does it go deeper? Well, yes, surprise. It does. And this episode, I'm going to try speedcubing out for myself and interview some real A-list speedcubers who have the inside scoop!

I don't get true crime. But apparently a lot of people love it, so it's our sworn duty to check it out and see why. On today's show, we dive deep into true crime podcasts, and we talk to the people who love them. Get ready to hear from a real life true crime podcaster, a guest from a previous show, and my wife April who would prefer "nice, safe, happy" crimes.

Apparently Taylor Swift is a big thing? When I started this podcast, I didn't think I'd be researching why an individual inspired obsession, but it makes perfect sense because Taylor Swift has tens of thousands of truly obsessed fans. What makes Taylor so great? What obsessed things have fans done? Those questions and more on today's episode!

There's a level of obsession that surrounds barbecue that I can't explain. But rather than wonder, I'm diving in head first. We're going to interview people who are obsessed with barbecue, and I'm going to try meat smoking out for myself. In this episode, I report how it's going along the way, and I answer the question, "Why is barbecue worth being obsessed over?"

This game officially died in 2007, but collectors all over the world still pay thousands of dollars to complete their collections. What's up with that? We're going to find out as we interview the collectors themselves. Plus, I'm going to enter an online tournament and see how I match up to their impressive skills playing the game. We're going to find out why this game inspires obsession.

Join me as I interview rappers to find out why rapping inspires so much obsession. And then I'll try it out for myself and see what my wife, April, and a professional rapper think so I can figure it out from the inside!