Stupid Human Suits

Does the idea of permanently altering your stupid human suit excite or terrify you? Does body alteration make you feel like you have more control or does it simply remind you that you are temporary and easily damaged? Tattoo artist Bob joins us this week to talk about his work, the lost art of naughtiness and why so many of us fall in love with turning our bodies into canvasses.

Part of the deal with these stupid human suits is they come from somewhere. Sometimes, that somewhere has its own stupid human suit issues. This week, Phillip Betts joins us to talk about what happens when your parents aren't quite up to parenting.

Chances are, if this week's guest was called to your house for a cleanup, you and your stupid human suit had a very bad day. On this episode of SHS, Lupe Rodriguez regales Sean and Carol with tales from a job neither of them would be capable of doing.

What happens when you experience a loss so great you know nothing can ever hurt you to that degree again? This week's guest, writer and editor Kimberly Steele, experienced a kind of freedom in personal tragedy, though that freedom also came with a decades-long flirtation with self-destruction. She joins Carol and Sean to talk about surviving loss and the eating disorder that plagued her teens and twenties.

This week, Carol and Sean sit their stupid human suits down with one of their favorite humans and actors, James Urbaniak. They talk character, what "making it" looks like, and that moment when you start to realize that yes, you are getting older.

Sometimes when the world cannot accept the way we're born into our stupid human suits, it conspires to change us... with disastrous results. This is what happened to Maris Ehlers' older brother, Kirk. Maris was only a baby when Kirk was "cured" of his homosexuality, so she didn't understand the damage that had been done to him until much later. On this episode of Stupid Human Suits, she shares Kirk's story and offers some important advice to parents about accepting who your children are and who they love. For the full story of what happened to Kirk (at the hands of people who have very strong ties to the current administration), visit boxturtlebulletin.com. And if you are struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide, please reach out to the people at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255. If you would rather not call, you can also go to their web site, suicidepreventionlifeline.org, for an online chat option.

Our friend and fellow podcaster Dave Bledsoe stops by to tell us what it was like to be a military cop at the tender age of 19. SPOILER: Sometimes bad things happen.

You only have one stupid human suit, so what do you do when it is suddenly confined? This week Carol and Sean are joined by comedian, actor and teacher Jeffrey Joseph, who teaches creative writing to juvenile offenders at Rikers Island. He also works with an organization called Witness To Innocence, an "organization dedicated to empowering exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the struggle to end the death penalty in the United States." You can learn more about Witness To Innocence at their web site, witnesstoinnocence.org.

This week on Stupid Human Suits we have our first return guest, astrophysicist and Columbia PhD candidate, Moiya McTier. Moiya stops by to explain to us that, no, we aren't about to make first contact with the aliens from Trappist-1, but the discovery is still really cool anyway.

There is no good way to say goodbye to the stupid human suits who tailored you into this world. Or is there? This week comedian and storyteller Sharon Spell stops by for a totally casual, not at all omg-inducing retelling of how she was "really lucky to be there" when both her parents died within weeks of each other. HER WORDS, NOT OURS! Look, it makes sense when she explains it. If you have parents, you'll really appreciate this episode. And if you're an asexually produced human-coral hybrid made from a clonal polyp that budded off from a parent polyp....uh, we'd love to have you on too if only so we can call the episode "Reef Madness." SHS is famous for having all the LULZ.

Normally our intros casually reference the SHS name as a way to let you know which aspect of consciousness, perspective or mortality we'll be discussing. This week though, we can't tip you off ahead of time. Instead, we're issuing the following warning. DO NOT START THIS EPISODE UNLESS YOU'RE READY TO COMMIT TO THE WHOLE DAMN THING. That sounds like a joke. It's not. This week's episode with Katie O'Leary Logan seems like it's going to be a fun, silly ride with an engaging personality and maybe at worst we'll wind up talking about someone's ---- getting stuck in a zipper. Wow no. It gets rough and gets rough fast. That's why in the body of the podcast itself, we'll warn you when we're about to shift into cry gear. Stay from start to finish though please. Katie's story and resilience deserve to be heard and appreciated without you getting up to eat pretzels or fill out your spreadsheets or whatever it is you normally do when you listen to SHS. More importantly, if you've been through anything similar, well, now you know you're not alone and that there is a tomorrow. It's just not the tomorrow you ever thought you'd have to live in. Oh god oh god oh god we're already crying again. Go. Listen. AND DON'T LOOK AT US WHILE WE'RE CRYING!

The best friends our stupid human suits have is our stupid furry buddies. But because everything is stupid, their lifespans are way shorter than ours. Wait, what? Shut up, no they're not, they're going to outlive us! Oh, god. This week, veterinarian Christina Romero stops by to walk Sean and Carol through the moment they are dreading. On the plus side, we learn that bonding with animals makes you a better person... before they leave you and you become a sadder person. SHUT UP, THEY'RE GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!

You can't judge a stupid human suit by its cover. This week, writer and editor John DeVore joins Sean and Carol to talk about biraciality, family and the AIDS epidemic as a formative moment in American culture. Also, possums for some reason.

If we are trapped inside these stupid human suits, we should at least be able to control them, right? Not so much. This week, comedian and writer Sam Grittner joins us to talk about depression, drugs, suicide and all the ways we try to exact control over these lives and bodies.   Never be afraid to ask for help. If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.

Our stupid human suits will one day fail and die. We don't know when this will happen, so it's best to prepare now. Or, maybe tomorrow. Or next month. Later, just later. This week, Robert Ruggiero, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Funeral Director's Association, tells Sean and Carol about his lifetime in the funeral business and what you have to do to prepare for the inevitable. (And his lovely wife Tina refuses to talk to us.) If you have questions about funeral planning, you can reach out to Bobby via the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association at 800-763-8332 or visit metfda.org.

Comedian Erik Bergstrom walks Carol and Sean through the insanely complicated process of getting a cancer diagnosis, while Sean reveals exactly how much he knows about Transformers: The Movie.

At Stupid Human Suits, we know that death isn't the ONLY thing to be afraid of, not when there are spiders, heights, sharks, some place called the "suicide forest"... This week, Carol and Sean are joined by Margee Kerr, a sociologist who studies -- and embraces -- FEAR. Listen to the episode and then pick up her book, "SCREAM: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear."

Astronomer, author and Columbia grad-school student Moiya McTier has packed a lot of living and knowledge into her stupid human suit, and it's only half the age of Carol's and Sean's. Not fair. She joins us this week to talk about the possibility of life on other planets, institutional racism and growing up in the woods.

All of our Stupid Human Suits are getting older. Some of us feel trapped by that inevitability. Others, like this week's guest, feel emboldened, happy and ready to the dust the suit off for the next adventure. Monica Wyche joins Carol and Sean to talk about being an actress of a certain age and what it's like to have a child in her 40s. Plus, she gently explains to Sean what an episiotomy is.

Some of us feel trapped in our Stupid Human Suits. Some of us don't. And some of us are ripped from them long before our time. This week, comedian Mike Brown opens up about depression, suicidal feelings and coping with the senseless murder of his best friend.

Carol and Sean learn to celebrate their insignificance with U.S. Astronomer and Columbia University professor, David J. Helfand.