Shower Bellies, Hot Sauce Hijinks, and More with Lauren Passell

Lauren Passell: 00:00:00

I don't know where I'm going with this, because part of me is glad that I did it because it was a litmus test. It was like, if you don't enjoy shower belly, you are not going to like me. Do you know what I mean?

Like, it was a good test of our chemistry, I suppose. But I think maybe. Maybe just admitting something that out of context, you know, if that someone might not understand about you.

Do you know what I'm saying? Something that might require a bit more storytelling. You know, I think it's good to go in gently with someone.

Danny Brown: 00:00:32

Hi, and welcome to Five Random Questions, the show where every question is an adventure. I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests five questions created by a random question generator.

The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I, which means this could go either way. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode. Today's guest is Lauren Passell.

Lauren is the founder of Tink Media, a podcast growth and strategy company.

She's also the editor of Podcast the Newsletter and Podcast Marketing Magic, the producer of the podcast Feed the Queue, and writes about podcasts for Lifehacker.

She's spoken about podcast marketing for South by Southwest, Podcast Movement, Radio Bootcamp, PodFest, London Podcast Festival, The Podcast Show, and more. She's also a judge for the Webby's, Signal Awards, and the International Women's Podcast Awards. So, Lauren, welcome to Five Random Questions.

Lauren Passell: 00:01:26

Thank you, Danny. I love the show. I can't believe I'm a guest on it.

Danny Brown: 00:01:31

I'm really excited to have you as a guest, because I've been following you for a while, whether it's your newsletters, your guest appearances on other podcasts, and just going by the bio that I read out there, it's clear that you're heavily involved and invested in the podcasting space. So what is it about podcasting that really attracts you and gets you so pumped like this?

Lauren Passell: 00:01:51

I mean, I've always loved storytelling. I feel like my whole life I was kind of doing other kinds of media, from print magazines to a dating app to book publishing.

But I feel like something really clicked when I first started realizing that there was this amazing world happening in audio storytelling and podcasts, I felt like I found the thing I was in love with. And then the thing that I think continues making me love it is the people. So is in every single kind of media I've worked in, there's.

There's just no other amazing community like there are with podcasts.

Danny Brown: 00:02:31

And I know you're in West Philly, so did you spend your youth in the playground with some Be-Ball?

Lauren Passell: 00:02:41

Well, I just moved here, but I have a daughter, and that's. I'm trying to get her on the. You know, we're just trying not to get in trouble with the cops.

But, you know, she's fifteen months, so take her to the playground every day.

Danny Brown: 00:02:52

She's got a little bit before she can get to the Fresh Prince stage.

Lauren Passell: 00:02:55

Yes.

Danny Brown: 00:02:56

That's awesome. Well, as I mentioned, I've been following for a while, and I've listened to you on many podcasts, so I'm excited to have you on this one.

So are you ready for the five random questions hot seat, Lauren?

Lauren Passell: 00:03:08

I mean, are your guests usually nervous? Because I'm slightly nervous, but I'm also excited.

Danny Brown: 00:03:13

There's, like, a little mixture. It can be a little mix of nerves, excitement, trepidness. I don't know. Trepid being trepid.

I'm not sure what the word is there, but, yeah, I mean, I'm in the same boat as you. I mentioned it when we were chatting in the green room before starting.

Obviously, you're in the hot seat, but I've never seen the questions until we bring them up on the random question generator. So I'm right in there with you.

And as I mentioned, and I keep saying this to, you know, to some episodes, it feels like the First We Feast Hot Ones, but without the chicken wings and the hot sauce. So we're all good, I think. But, yeah, let's have a look and see what we do there. So question number one, Lauren.

What's the worst thing you can say on a first date?

Lauren Passell: 00:03:57

Oh, this is so hard for me because I did date a lot when I moved to New York City. Can I. Can I answer? I'm going to answer the question with the story. Is that.

Danny Brown: 00:04:06

Okay, how about it?

Lauren Passell: 00:04:09

So I went on a first date with someone, and I didn't have a lot in common with them, and I was kind of running out of things to say, and I hadn't even had very much to drink. I think I was still on my first glass of wine, and I was like. And I'm one of those people that silence makes me uncomfortable.

So if someone's not talking, I start saying the wildest things. So I was getting to that point already, and I started to tell this guy about something that I had never told anyone in my entire life.

Now, I mean, I've told him. So the cat's out of the bag. So I'm going to tell you now. But honestly, I remember thinking this is your one secret, Lauren.

I didn't tell my mother, like nobody.

It is that every single morning in the shower since I was a little girl, I do this thing called shower belly where I vigorously rub a bar of soap onto my belly until there's a little film of soap. It has to be bar soap. And I draw on it and I call it Shower belly. Okay. Never told anyone about this. I'm twenty four years old, twenty four years of secrecy of this.

And I don't know why I decided to tell him. Thought I could spruce up the conversation a little bit. And he did not enjoy it or appreciate it and he thought it was very weird.

But so, you know, I guess I don't know where I'm going with this because part of me is glad that I did it because it was a litmus test. It was like, if you don't enjoy shower belly, you're not going to like me. Do you know what I mean?

Like, it was a good test of our chemistry, I suppose. But I think maybe, maybe just admitting something that out of context, you know, if that someone might not understand about you.

Do you know what I'm saying? Something that might require a bit more storytelling. You know, I think it's good to go in gently with someone.

So that's a really long winded way to answer your question.

Danny Brown: 00:06:06

No, no, I like it. And maybe it's like say sometimes, possibly that felt like oversharing to the, the date.

It's like, you know, we're just here, we're eating dinner and now I'm thinking about. I was going to say jelly belly.

Shower belly, you know, but so it has to be a body soaps like the big chunky bars of soap and you just like rub it and now is that dry with. Or is that once you're, you're in the shower, but does the soap go on when you're already wet or does.

Lauren Passell: 00:06:33

It's while you're all wet sudsing up. It just, it's therapeutic to me. I think it's like sometimes I draw like pizza slices, sometimes I draw phones, like old fashioned phones.

Or sometimes I draw Mary Poppins for some reason. Like, I think they look like these things. They do not. But you just made me think of something. I never thought about this. He.

It's probably uncomfortable because you're. I'm telling a story about me being naked. Like maybe that was. Maybe you shouldn't tell stories about your, you being naked.

I don't know, man, there's probably a bunch of reasons this was a bad idea.

Danny Brown: 00:07:08

Well, and that's it. I feel like. And I, I don't know because I've not been on a date for years. We've been married almost twenty years now.

So I have no idea what the etiquette is on a date, but I would imagine possibly, I don't know, thinking of another person naked is a natural byproduct of going on a date with someone. I'm not sure that's true.

Lauren Passell: 00:07:30

You know, I feel like if we were on Family Feud, I feel like a very popular answer would be don't tell them you want to get married, which is scary.

Danny Brown: 00:07:43

Or politics.

I always go, my granddad always says, never talk about politics or religion with anybody unless you feel super comfortable when you know how they're going to react if they don't agree with your take for example, that's.

Lauren Passell: 00:07:55

You answered the question correctly. So I guess there's three things. Politics, religion and shower belly.

Danny Brown: 00:08:01

We shall get that added to there. The list of this is what you do and this is what you don't do. And you mentioned like shower belly. Now you've got a fifteen month old daughter.

Is this something that you're going to teach her as a rite of passage or this is just purely Lauren's thing?

Lauren Passell: 00:08:18

Oh, we are already doing shower belly. I get to do shower belly twice now. Twice a year.

Danny Brown: 00:08:22

Awesome. So you take the little one in the shower with you and give her a shower belly too.

Lauren Passell: 00:08:26

Yeah, give her a little baby shower belly.

Danny Brown: 00:08:29

Perfect. Well, I feel that was an interesting start to the episode and certainly that is something that I've never heard before.

So that is a brand new one for the show. So kudos. First question right in there, Lauren. So let's have a look and see what question number two is.

I feel it's apparent this might have two options for you. But anyway, let's have a look. Question number two, what weird food combinations do you like?

Lauren Passell: 00:08:58

I guess I would say, I don't know how weird this is, but I really like hot sauce and I put hot sauce on absolutely everything. It embarrasses me because, you know, I, I would put it on Italian food at an Italian restaurant if that was not embarrassing.

Like I would like that's the kind of thing that I would do in private. You know, I like to put hot sauce on like Tabasco sauce on popcorn. Like I really. And I so a lot of it and literally everything I've had it with.

Sweet. I think it's really good with pineapple. So hot sauce, everything.

Danny Brown: 00:09:41

Hot sauce. Did you watch the. Do you watch a lot of tv, Lauren?

Lauren Passell: 00:09:45

No.

Danny Brown: 00:09:46

No. Do you ever watch the. Did you get a chance to watch the Hawkeye TV show on Disney?

Lauren Passell: 00:09:51

No. Is that. That's not Hot Ones, is it?

Danny Brown: 00:09:54

No. No. So Hawkeye is, like, part of the Marvel universe. It's like a superhero that fits into the Avengers.

And Hawkeye, he's got, like, a sidekick in this one. Like a. He's a mentor almost called Kate Bishop. Anyway, so Kate Bishop.

There's an assassin coming to kill Hawkeye, and Kate Bishop is having this conversation with this assassin in her apartment. And the assassin, who's Yelena from Black Widow. It's a whole Marvel universe. If you've never seen them, you probably this gobbledygook. Probably.

So I apologize. But the assassin, Yelena, puts hot sauce, Tabasco sauce on, like, Mac and cheese. Like, you know, Mac and cheese.

Lauren Passell: 00:10:31

That's good.

Danny Brown: 00:10:32

And she stirs it in. And that just reminded me when you said you like hot sauce and everything, immediately I thought, oh, Katie Bishop. Yelena.

Lauren Passell: 00:10:38

Oh, my gosh. I'm doing what? Maybe it's what makes her. Is that. Is it her? Like, what makes her super?

Danny Brown: 00:10:45

Like, no. So Yelena, she's mainly just a. She's like a really top assassin.

They get trained as kids get taken away from their parents, and they're trained as assassins from, like, four years old or something.

Lauren Passell: 00:10:56

Oh, so it's all the training. It's not the Tabasco. Interesting. Maybe it's a little bit of the Tabasco. I think it's. There's some superpower juice in that Tabasco.

It's good on everything. Pizza. It's good on pizza. Have you had it on pizza? Oh, my God. It's good on everything. Every kind. My kitchen drawers are literally half full.

Like, half of them. There's just a lot of real estate dedicated to bottles. Melinda's is very good. Anyway, everything.

Danny Brown: 00:11:23

So I mentioned hot sauce, like the first we feast hot sauce show earlier on YouTube. Would you do the ten bottle challenge with Sean?

Lauren Passell: 00:11:31

Yes.

Danny Brown: 00:11:32

Oh, yeah.

Lauren Passell: 00:11:32

I would nail it. I'm really. Yes, I would. I would be easy breezy. Easy breezy.

Danny Brown: 00:11:38

So you get Da Bomb and then The Final Dab. That'd be no problem for you.

Lauren Passell: 00:11:43

Not a problem. I once won. My name is on a wall in a bar in Astoria for drinking a shot called the Punisher, which is one of my proudest achievements.

It was a very spicy tequila shot.

Danny Brown: 00:11:59

I will have to have a lookout for that. I'm not a big, like, spirits drinker. I had, like, a weird margarita once, and they put Tabasco around the rim. I'm not sure why.

And it just threw me completely. I thought, what? This is punishment? Why would you do that on a drink? You know, it's like, crazy.

Lauren Passell: 00:12:14

I mean, I'll tell you why they do it on the drink. Because it's delicious. No, that's a. That's a bold move. You cannot do that without asking people. That is you. You got it. You can't go in there.

Danny Brown: 00:12:23

Well, and in fairness, I mean, I'm sure it was on the ingredients. So if you look at the menu, the drinks menu. I didn't look at the drinks menu. I just thought, that sounds a cool name. I'm going to have that.

And so that was my own fault. One stupidity.

Lauren Passell: 00:12:34

I don't like to blame the victim. No, I feel like they should warn you about that kind of thing.

Danny Brown: 00:12:40

No, maybe I should have had an attack. Like a food allergy attack or something. Get them all worried on that side. All right, so weird food combinations.

Not pickles, but definitely hot sauce on any. Anything at all. I like it. And I like hot sauce. I'm not sure I could take as much hot sauce as you, but I do like some good hot sauce.

Lauren Passell: 00:12:58

Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:12:59

So hot sauce. Moving on, let's have a look at question number three. And I like this.

This is a nice question, this question number three, Lauren, what quality about yourself do you value most?

Lauren Passell: 00:13:13

I like that I don't care what other people think of me generally. And I am not. I don't embarrass easily, and I am not afraid to try. Wow, that's three. I'm a narcissist. No. But I think they're all kind of the same.

It's like, I am not afraid to try things. And I think that. And it's because I don't care if I don't. If I embarrass myself. I don't care if I end up looking silly.

I don't care if people don't like something about me. I think we can tell this from the shower belly story, actually, because I think it's always worth a try. You should try.

You never know what's going to happen. I say yes to things so much that it tires me out. But, you know, good things happen from.

From a lot of the times that I've taken risks and stuff like that. So I think that's what I'd say.

Danny Brown: 00:14:04

Do you think with.

With social media and how you can get Obviously, now you got a lot of trolls online and social media, and I'm sure you must have come across it because you're very active, obviously, online social media communities like that. Do you think that's taken away the lack of fear, if you like.

So people hold back and now sort of give a presented version of themselves online as opposed to not really caring and being really you?

Lauren Passell: 00:14:31

Oh, that's a good question. So it's like, man, I never thought about that before. I'm gonna have to go sit in a cave and think about that for a little bit.

So we're worried about being our authentic selves because.

Danny Brown: 00:14:45

Yes.

Lauren Passell: 00:14:45

Oh, man. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I'm positive that's happening. That's. I. It's funny that you say that, because I think I'm really not.

I used to love Twitter and I'm not on Twitter anymore, and I never really liked Instagram. And I think I realized that the reason I love Twitter and I love Reddit and it's because I don't know the people that I follow on Twitter generally.

And. And I don't know the people on Reddit. And so I feel like I'm getting authenticity, right? It's.

I don't really enjoy Instagram because I'm seeing things and I'm like, I know you too well. I know that that is not real, and I know that photo is. Took you five hours to take. And so I think you're totally right.

But I also feel like there is still the chance to be authentic in social media. For now. Who knows where the social media train is taking us? But I think you're. That's a really good point.

Danny Brown: 00:15:38

Yeah. It's funny you mentioned the.

When you know someone personally that, you know, they're given a different front from what you know them to be, or they've. They've maybe embellished something from what you know about them. I know years ago used to be called Blog World, and it was called New Media Expo.

I had a friend. Oh, I've still got a friend. I had her. I said I had. Like, she's dead. No, she's still well and alive. I have a friend in Chicago.

She runs her own PR agency. And we went to the New Media Expo, I'm gonna say twenty twelve, and we met someone online. So we met someone in person that we'd all been really known online.

And their bio picture must have been ten years out of date, easily, because we were thinking, who's this person that's came up and started chatting to us because we knew a lot of people online then. We were a lot more active on social media then and we couldn't place it at all. And it was only when she gave us her name at the end, we thought no.

And we didn't give that impression to her, thankfully, because that would have been a horrible reaction. But it threw us completely, at least ten years old. That looked nothing like the person we'd gotten to know online.

I always think of that, like, is that because people expect you to be a certain way, or is it just the fact that maybe she felt more comfortable, you know, having that avatar as her representation online?

Lauren Passell: 00:16:58

Well, Danny, I'm going to need you to promise me something. When I stop looking like my headshot, you need to tell me.

Danny Brown: 00:17:07

I will ping you. We'll have to set up a Slack channel.

Lauren Passell: 00:17:10

Yes, I'll just. I'll email you every day. Danny, Do I still look like my headshot? Do I still look like my headshot Today? How about today?

Danny Brown: 00:17:19

Yep. What about today? Nah, that's true, though. I just updated on mine because I think mine's been like two or three years out of date.

So I try to update it, fill the regular bit. At the same time. I can also understand that it kind of goes back to that trolling side of things.

I can also understand, especially if appearance is an important part of your online.

Lauren Passell: 00:17:40

Requirements and it's a slippery slope too, right? It's like, how do you know? I think some people have just been so constantly online, they don't even know how to be themselves anymore.

I think that's what you're getting at at this question. It's like they don't even realize how inauthentic they're being. And that's probably.

We're probably introducing a whole level of inauthent authenticity with social media.

Danny Brown: 00:18:05

It'd be nice to go. You mentioned a cave. It'd be nice to go back to a cave dwelling at times and just make life simple.

Yeah, well, that went in a direction I wasn't first expecting, but I really appreciate that was a nice direction it took there. So we're three fifths of the way through and I feel you're doing more than okay, Lauren. So let's have a look at question number four.

What is your favorite childhood memory?

Lauren Passell: 00:19:38

When I was little, I was a pool rat. And that meant that I lived at the pool.

I had swim practice at six o'clock in the morning in downtown Akron, Ohio, and I would go to that practice and then I. In the summers. Anyway, and then I would go to another swim practice for my second swim team at like ten in the morning.

And then after swim practice, I would stay at the pool until six pm. My mom would just drop me off and all my friends would be there and the whole swim team would stay and it was just all day at the pool. And it's funny because I, I never knew, like at the time, I never realized that that would end. Do you know what I mean?

Like at the time when you're young, you just think this is forever. And I would, I would kill to go back and have one more of those days, you know, like how lucky I was. My best friends were there.

We would play these games of Marco or sharks and minnows. Sorry, sharks and minnows in the deep end. And it was. Everyone was on swim team, so they were really good swimmers.

So it was like really very intense games of sharks and minnows and just, you know, we'd have free reign of a snack bar, you know, all day. We'd go play tennis in between. And you know, it's funny because some of these people like that I met there. Patty.

Shout out to Patty Jenkins, a girl I met there who is still my best friend to this day. I still have talked to her every morning at six thirty in the morning on Fridays.

So I, I think I would go back, you know, to this fun memory of just it being the summer and you're a kid and it's sunny and you, you have a little bit of freedom. You know, your parents have dropped you off at a pool, which is safe, but you're free and you have everything you could possibly want.

And the free, the freedom to, to be free in your body and, and free in the water. And I, I love just talking about it right now. Thank you for asking me this question so I could even just think about this day.

Redwood Swim Club, that's where I'd go.

Danny Brown: 00:21:45

I like that. And was it your choice to be. Was it your parents that got you into swimming? Was it you that was attracted to water?

You mentioned everybody was on the swim team. So were you part of the swim team at school as well then? Or what was your main attraction to the water?

As opposed to say, going to the park or the beach or something like that?

Lauren Passell: 00:22:01

I mean, my mom put me in swim lessons when I was very young because she doesn't know how to swim at all. Like she, if she goes in one inch of water, she's uncomfortable. It's really. I don't know if there's Some trauma there. There has to be. It's.

It's not just. She doesn't know how. She's terrified. So she put me in because very young, way too young. I was the youngest person at the ymca. Swim. Swim lessons.

Because she was really afraid that I would be afraid, too. And so. But I think the reason I kind of stuck with it was I'm not good at team sports.

And I feel like I was good at swimming and running because it's just like my parents would be like, all right, Lauren, just move your legs real fast and just don't stop. It seems so much simpler to me that way than having to coordinate and look and catch things. And so anyway, that's why I kind of stuck with it, but.

And now I just love the water. Just feels. I love being in water. I love the sound of water.

Danny Brown: 00:23:04

Yeah, I hear you. Our kids, we've got two kids. Our son's fifteen. Oh, he's going to be fifteen. Oh, next week, actually. And our daughter's thirteen. She just turned thirteen this year.

And we're.

I'd mentioned earlier, I think in the green room, we're in a really small village that's surrounded by, like, trees, and a Lake's about fifteen minutes up the road. So every summer we put the kids in swimming lessons, and they get, like, lake swimming, and they love it. They're like.

They keep asking the swimming lessons open again, you know, because they always look forward to getting into that.

Lauren Passell: 00:23:33

So.

Danny Brown: 00:23:33

I can totally hear you on that. Are you. I'm going to assume you would be taking your daughter. Is she already been into the pool with you and getting used to the swimming?

Lauren Passell: 00:23:42

Yeah, I've taken her to the YMCA. Yeah. And it's funny, I take her to. Because I grew up in Phil. I lived in Philly when I was a baby, and then I moved.

And it's funny because now I'm taking my daughter to the Philadelphia YMCA, which is funny. And we took her to the beach, and I took her on a Disney cruise. She. Oh.

And I mean, we play shower belly every night, and if she's ever fussing in the kitchen, I'll pick her up and let her put her hands under the faucet. So I just bought her a water table. Like, yes, absolutely. I want her to.

And I will say the benefit of all this swimming and why kids should get in the swim team, being a lifeguard is the best job ever. We were all lifeguards, too. So even when we had to get jobs, it kind of, like, extended our ability to Be at the pool all day.

Danny Brown: 00:24:29

Well, I like that. And I feel, again, like, as you get older, certainly I feel it as I get older.

I feel some of that can be a lot because technology is so abundant in everybody's lives, especially kids. And our kids use iPads at school, whereas I used to use a pen and pencil. Couldn't afford a pen. Used to use a pencil and paper.

So it's great to see that you can still get the opportunity to make sure that they're connected to some form of nature, whether that's water on a lake, beach, et cetera.

Lauren Passell: 00:24:59

It's funny you say that, because I was just talking to Patty Jenkins, my friend that I met at Redwood Swim Club in the early nineties, and she has two kids that are on the swim team now, and she sends me pictures sometimes of them at the meets. And I just said to her the other day, I said, patty, it's like nothing has changed. This is one thing where you can't use an iPad in the pool.

It's like getting back to this.

Like, literally the pictures of her daughter that she sends me in her little swim cap, I'm like, that looks like my best friend Patty Jenkins in the year nineteen ninety-two. Everything is the same. So it is this kind of moment where you go back and you really can't use technology.

It's like things really have not changed that much in the pool.

Danny Brown: 00:25:41

Yeah, yeah. No, I like that. I like that a lot. And like I say, I'm all for nature and fun stuff like that.

One thing that will change, though, is a question that you're about to answer, which, thankfully for you, Lauren, we're getting to the last one. So you've survived up to now, and I don't think any of them have been bad at all. So I think we're good.

So let's have a look then, at question number five. This is a good one to finish on, I feel. Question number five, Lauren, what issues are you most passionate about?

Lauren Passell: 00:26:13

Am I allowed to ask you a question about the question?

Danny Brown: 00:26:16

Sure. I might not answer it, but you're certainly allowed to ask a question about the question.

Lauren Passell: 00:26:21

Hmm. I guess I was just thinking, is it an issue, like, in society or, you know, a problem in the world? Something I want to fight for?

Danny Brown: 00:26:34

Anything. Anything you feel really super passionate about. There's no right, wrong answers.

Lauren Passell: 00:26:39

I think the first thing that popped into my mind. Well, the very first thing that popped into my mind was vegetarianism, because I have been a vegetarian since I was nine.

My parents both were, and the idea of eating meat or fish seems, I feel, like, wild that people eat meat. It's. I. There's something wrong with my brain.

It seems very strange to me that that is something that we're doing at the high rate that we're doing it. And, you know, when I became a vegetarian when I was a little girl, it wasn't for the environment. I grew up in the nineties.

We didn't care about the environment in the nineties. It was like, you know, they. They were like cut holes in the can, like plastic can holders. And you're good. That'll save the environment.

You know, we didn't talk about it. It wasn't for the environment. It wasn't for my health. I was nine. It was because I didn't want to kill things.

So that is the whole thing that I think I am passionate about.

So much so that maybe I was a little weary to answer it because I don't want to make it seem like I'm judgmental because, you know, my husband eats meat. I'm around it all the time. I'm fine being around it, but just. It is a personal choice that I have made.

One of the few choices I've made where I've never doubted it for a second, and I've never wavered in this decision.

And when I hear that people are also animal lovers and vegetarians that are abstaining from eating meat, or even just a little bit of meat, maybe not eating meat every day, I get really excited that they've made that decision.

Danny Brown: 00:28:19

It's funny you mentioned that, like my. Well, a couple of things, actually. You just remind me there. My daughter, bless her. So seemingly there are some vegetarians that will eat fish.

That's the only meat that they'll eat. They won't eat anything else, but they will eat fish. And there's a dedicated name for that, and I don't know what it is. Pescatarian.

Lauren Passell: 00:28:37

My dad's a pescatarian. Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:28:39

Pesc. Thank you. Because my daughter was saying. Yeah, yeah. My friend Lexi, she's a Presbyterian. Okay, so that's cool. She goes to church.

No, no, she doesn't go to church. She's Presbyterian and she eats fish. And there was no context. She just came out and said it. No context at all. Pescatarian. But. Yeah.

It makes me wonder sometimes. You mentioned it there. Obviously you're a vegetarian. Your husband does eat meat, but you also mentioned animal lovers.

And I sometimes, like, when I try to juxtapose position, you know, positions and oppositions as such, but just like outlooks, I guess, when. If some animal lovers that still eat meat, would they still eat that? If eating that kind of animal was allowed, for example, you know, like your pet.

And I'm always curious, you know, if that would be something that would maybe change people's minds if they want to, you know, become more aware of vegeta, you know, the eating habits, etc.

Lauren Passell: 00:29:34

Yeah, I think it's just we've become so detached from how meat is made that people don't have to think about it. And that's fine. I mean, the weird thing for me was having a daughter and I. It was a really hard decision for me. I feed her meat, which is.

It was really hard for me because I don't believe it is a good thing. But I'm doing this for my daughter because I think my mom let me make my own decision and I want her to come to that decision all on her own.

So I feed her meat. But every time I do it, yeah, I don't like it, but I'm doing it. I want her. She can come up with her own mind about that.

Danny Brown: 00:30:12

Well, I think that's the thing as a parent, right? It's like you try not make the mistakes that you think your parents made with your own kids.

And I guess if you ask any parent, if you try force something onto your kid, they're gonna rebel. Because that's what I did as a kid. If my mom or dad told me to do something or I could not do something, I would do it because I'm me.

So I feel that's like the best approach, where you're putting the power into the kid's hands and your daughter's hands, and she'll come to that decision and she'll, you know, like you did at nine. This is wrong. This is not right for me, you know, and then there'll be no issue whatsoever.

Lauren Passell: 00:30:48

That's. That's so true. And it is. You know, it was when I was nine. And I remember thinking I didn't love meat ever that much.

And I remember I was eating a hamburger with my mom because she prepared meat for me. And I said, what's the difference between eating this hamburger and our cat, Kitty? And my mom said, well, there isn't one.

And that was the last time that I ate meat. But I also remember thinking that the meals that she made for herself looked better than the meat meals that I was eating. So that is also.

She led by example. And I. You're just making me realize that's doing the same thing.

Danny Brown: 00:31:25

No, I like that. And I feel that's a nice way to ease you out of the hot seat of the five random questions and I think round of applause. You did awesome, Lauren.

Lauren Passell: 00:31:34

Thank you.

Danny Brown: 00:31:34

So for someone that doesn't do podcasting as well, which I just give the listeners, Lauren does not have a podcast of her own, but she does do an awesome job as a guest on podcast.

Lauren Passell: 00:31:44

Thank you.

Danny Brown: 00:31:44

So, speaking of awesome job, you did an awesome job there. And as is only fair on every episode, this is a part where I hand over the reins to the hot seat to yourself to ask me your random question.

Lauren Passell: 00:31:55

Okay, if you could go back to a place that you can no longer go back to, where would you go? And it can be because the place doesn't exist anymore.

Maybe it's a restaurant that closed, your grandmother's house and your grandmother is not with us anymore, or a place that still exists, but you can't go back to who you were when you went there. Does that make sense?

Danny Brown: 00:32:21

Wow, that's an awesome, awesome question. Hmm. I'm going to say there's probably. There's two. I'm going to cheat and give you two answers, please.

But they're both connected to each other, so I feel that's fair. So I'm from Edinburgh originally.

I moved away from Scotland when I was twenty one, I think, and I lived in England for many, many years before coming to Canada. But as a child in Scotland, every summer my aunt would take me over to a place called Burntisland. So I lived in Edinburgh.

And between Edinburgh and the Kingdom of Fife is a railway bridge and a road bridge. You cross over these bridges, whichever one you take.

And if you go on the railway bridge that takes you your first port call there, I think is Burntisland. It's a little sort of resort, if you like. It's almost like it had fairground rides at like a beach. It was going into the North Sea.

So it was kind of exotic to a seven year old kid boy in the summer in Scotland. But I think I could be wrong, but I think Burntisland is no longer a place to go for summer trips.

As a kid, I think they took the fairground that down again. I could be wrong. I'll have to check this and update that in the show notes.

If that's incorrect and if anybody listens From Burntisland and I'm talking rubbish, please accept my apologies. I will correct in the show notes. So I would love to go back to there. The reason I would love to go back to there is as I'm going to say nine year old.

I think it was nine year old. No, I was seven. Seven year old.

So about the same time I had a friend at school, primary school, which is like elementary school in North America, called Corinne, and she suffered from asthma. Never really knew what asthma was. I just knew it made her cough. Now again, that was my expectation.

And that summer, this was the summer that Elvis Presley died. So everybody was talking obviously about Elvis dying, but my friend had an asthma attack and didn't make it.

So at seven year old you think, wow, you don't expect a child to die, especially from this weird disease that I didn't really know anything about. So Corinne passed that summer. So I'd been to Burntisland the weekend before, came back, we were hanging out and then next minute she wasn't there.

So that would be the place I'd want to go back to is that summer of either a six year old to the summer before or the weekend before Corinne passed because it was still a happy, really happy place and you didn't really know about death then. So that would be me at my place. But yeah, amazing question. Thank you for asking. I've never been asked anything like that.

So that was an awesome question, Lauren. Thank you.

Lauren Passell: 00:34:59

That was a beautiful answer. Thank you for sharing that story. It's cinematic.

Danny Brown: 00:35:04

Yeah, will have to make a video version of this. But yeah, it's just like I feel really bad if Burntisland is no longer there or it is there, sorry, and I'm saying it's no longer there.

Lauren Passell: 00:35:16

But you can never go back with Corinne and that would be very special.

Danny Brown: 00:35:20

Exactly, exactly. So that would be my answer.

Lauren Passell: 00:35:23

I love it.

Danny Brown: 00:35:24

So Lauren, again, as I mentioned, I really enjoyed chatting with you. I knew I would. When I got you booked on the show, I knew I would. So I really have enjoyed it.

For people that want to know more about what you do behind the scenes in podcasting, so your marketing agency, the talks that you give, the education, etc. Or just know more about you as a person while it's online, etc. Where's the best place for them to connect with you and even meet up?

Have they got any events?

Lauren Passell: 00:35:53

Oh yeah, I go to every podcast event I can get my hands on. I'm going to London soon for The Podcast Show. I'll be going to Podcast Movement in Dallas. And I think the best place is Tink Media co.

I used to be on Twitter. I'm not really on Twitter so much anymore. I'm more lurking in Reddit. And subreddits.

But, you know, Tink Media is the company I named after Tinkerbell to help podcasts grow, and that's through PR and marketing. I really believe in community and helping one another, connecting people, podcast friendships, that's what Tink Media is all about.

But I do believe that podcast friendships lead to podcast growth. That's all we do.

Danny Brown: 00:36:35

And I will be sure I can one hundred percent guarantee and vouch for that because I use your Tink Media swap database.

Lauren Passell: 00:36:42

I love to hear that. Thank you for telling me that.

Danny Brown: 00:36:44

Yeah.

And I've got one of my guests coming up next, two weeks time, I think came from that she reached out, came from that said, hey, saw you on Tink, I'd love to, you know, do a guest swap, that kind of thing. So, yeah, I can completely one hundred percent vouch for Tink's swap database and what Lauren does over at Tink.

So I will be sure to leave all that information in the show notes.

Lauren Passell: 00:37:04

We've actually renamed it the Friendship Database because we started it so that people could do promo swaps. But so much more has come out of it. So I love that. Thank you for telling me that. That means a lot.

Danny Brown: 00:37:16

Well, no, for sure. I want you to know that because I recommend all the time. You mentioned Reddit.

I recommend that database all the time for people looking for, as you mentioned, started out with promise swaps, but now they're looking for guests. So just know more about podcasters. That's a great resource.

So I will be sure whatever podcast app you'll listen to this episode on, or if you're online at the website, just check out the show notes and all the links will be there. So again, Lauren, thanks again for appearing on this episode of Five Random Questions.

Lauren Passell: 00:37:42

Thanks for having me, Danny. This was so much fun.

Danny Brown: 00:37:45

Thanks for listening to Five Random Questions. If you enjoyed this week's episode, I'd love for you to leave a review on the app you're currently listening on.

And if you know someone else that would enjoy the show, be sure to send them this way. It's very much appreciated. Until the next time, keep asking those questions.