Hamsters in the Air, Moments in Morality, and More with Max Kurton

Max Kurton: 00:00:00

But the last one specifically, I think it was helping this heiress to some fortune who'd lost her dog or hamster.

It was a very small animal and it gone into the vents and I remember looking out the window and seeing all of like the, the ground below and the lakes and the rivers and I'm trying to get into these ducks to find this animal and bring it back to her. And then I do eventually return the animal and she's like, I don't know what you're talking about, this isn't my animal.

And then I have this gerbil dog thing to look after for the rest of the trip.

Danny Brown: 00:00:30

Hi and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show with unexpected questions and unfiltered answers. 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 Max Kurton.

Max is an award winning journalist and content creator with a passion for storytelling in all its weird and wonderful forms. Over the years, he's worn many hats.

Food writer, Green Party of Canada media campaign manager, UK radio news host, interviewer of sports and music personalities, and more bizarrely, a pro wrestler, street sweeper, late night burger flipper and potential future candlestick maker. A podcasting veteran since two thousand eight, Michael Max has hosted and produced shows for brands and personal projects alike.

He founded the GT5 network and launched shows including Goto5 Are we there yet? And his latest creation, the Surface Knowledge podcast. So, Max, welcome to 5 Random Questions.

Max Kurton: 00:01:36

Thank you very much for having me. It's an honour to be in the seat.

Danny Brown: 00:01:39

And it's a very varied bio.

I do like a lot of the experiences you've got there, but one that stands out because obviously, I mean, not obviously, I guess, for new listeners, but I'm in Canada, even though I'm, you know, UK origins, but I'm in Canada, so campaign manager for the Green Party. I mean, we all know politics can be a bit iffy, shady, etc. And have its own challenges.

So as an actual campaign manager, like a media campaign manager, what makes for a great campaign? Obviously, not counting winning the whole thing, but what makes for a great campaign?

Max Kurton: 00:02:09

I mean, that helps. That really does kind of help when you win the whole thing.

Unfortunately, we, we didn't, we came in second, which was a pretty good place in the riding, seeing as previous years People have been coming in like third and fourth. So I'd say that we had a success on our hands, definitely. But in terms of success, I mean, you.

You have so many different people taking care of so many different elements of this campaign and like, how we're trying to get to the end result, and you have conflicting ideas and responses.

And when you're in that room and you're talking through ideas, it does honestly feel like a war room sometime with all these different things flying all over the place. So I would say it's just kind of organization, conversation and just trying to understand the main goal of what we're doing for. I was very lucky.

I worked for the. For the Green Party, lovely party with some. Some really great ideas and morals behind them.

So I feel like every conversation we had was very productive and wanting to push the narrative forward, but I can't even imagine trying to do something on a large scale, big national, two parties going head to head. I think it's one of the most stressful jobs that you could possibly do.

Danny Brown: 00:03:17

I could imagine, funnily enough, where we live in this party. Ontario, Canada, the Green Party came second in our riding as well.

They really started to push up as a veritable force in Canadian politics, which is cool to see. Then you mention can be.

Obviously the Green partners are great, you know, great people, but sometimes it can be real, you know, jibes and horrible stuff said by other parties and maybe not so much the party leaders, but maybe, you know, people really closely associated. If something really bad came out, what would you guys do to counter that? You know, because you've got to keep yourself respectful, I guess.

But, you know, it's a downright lie. And you really want to come out fighting, so to speak.

Max Kurton: 00:04:00

Yeah, you do. But you've also kind of got to walk that line a little bit.

I feel like if someone comes out with something so untruthful and so ridiculous, you almost coming out with a retort to it kind of confounds it and compounds it into something way more than it needs to be. If it's something so outlandish or ridiculous, you kind of just have to, like, brush it off and ignore it. And it depends on the party as well.

Like, certain parties are going to go for those dirty tactics and underhand methods, and you have to figure out, is that the kind of campaign we want to run? Are these the people we want to be? And nine times out of 10, the answer is no. Just let it go under the radar when you get to the next debate.

Underline that point without mentioning it so that it's already in the people's minds that you have taken the high road and that you are addressing it without addressing it. I think it's the safest bet you can take.

Danny Brown: 00:04:48

Sounds good. And pro wrestler, what's all that about then? Because with all due respect, you don't strike me as the big steroid bound wrestler.

Max Kurton: 00:04:58

I know there's, there's a mix of us for a variety. So obviously this is an audio based podcast, people.

I would describe myself as not the Rock is the best way to describe myself, but wrestling is something I've always enjoyed, always loved, always been passionate about as a kid and I got to like my mid-20s and I thought why not give it a go in terms of like taking up a sport and doing some form of activity. Let's, let's give it a go. It's a very weird sports take up because you're developing these characters. You have entrance music, you have costumes.

I wore a mask. You know, these are things that you don't really associate with your, your tennis or your racquetball that people normally play.

There's a standard uniform that people kind of go out in. So I tried it and I went down to my local, local club in Birmingham, met some really cool people and found out I was pretty good at it.

So I kind of continued and I was put on shows and got to wrestle with some very cool people. Unfortunately, injury later down the line kind of sidelined me so I kind of had to stop.

But yeah, it was a fun two years of my life where I get to go, I was a professional wrestler and I got to like entertain people around the uk.

Danny Brown: 00:06:02

You mentioned there that after about two years or so you had injury and it was, you know, ended the career. And that's what I always find with wrestling as well as a pro sport. Many people and fans always call it false because you know, it's scripted, etc.

You generally, you know, learn beforehand who's going to be, who's going to win, who's going to turn heel, all that cool stuff. But the injuries are very real.

I've watched so many documentaries about WWE for example as well and you just, you don't realize how much they put through and how very few people actually make it to the riches and how many people are like doing seven days a week, two, three shows a day just to try make a living.

Max Kurton: 00:06:38

Yeah, working on the independence is grueling just for that kind of shot to make it for people who really want to do it. That's what they do. Canada has a huge wrestling scene, especially like out east and Toronto and everywhere. But yeah, it hurts.

And I think that's what people don't realize. I, I always love talking to the naysayers and they're like, oh, the ring is a trampoline, it's padded, it's this, it's that.

But you know, you'd hit the ropes and those ropes leave bruises on your back. You get slammed down by someone twice your size, you're feeling it the next day.

There's whiplash, there's actual contact with strikes and kicks and stuff. So yeah, it's all predetermined. We know like where the major steps are that's going to happen in the match.

We know who's winning, but in between that stuff goes wrong and stuff hits a little harder than you'd like depending on your opponent. So, yeah, I always, I always argue back on the word fake. It's predetermined, but definitely not fake.

Danny Brown: 00:07:31

Yeah, I think Mick Foley would be a prime example for sure. That is not fake. What a guy. What a guy.

Well, what is not fake and hopefully what will not cause you any injury, mate, is the five random questions today. So you ready to jump into the hot seat?

Max Kurton: 00:07:44

We, I am. I love that link. Beautiful.

Danny Brown: 00:07:46

Alrighty. I will bring up the random question generator. Okay, question number one, Nice easy one to get started.

Actually, I've had this before, but I do like this as a nice question. Question number one, Max, describe your favorite type of pizza.

Max Kurton: 00:08:02

My favorite type of pizza, My new obsession at the moment is anything with pistachio on it. I've just become obsessed with any form of pistachio pizza. It's, I think it's kind of the hot trend at the moment that people are into.

It's got the, you know, pistachio sauce sprinkled on either some kind of ham or cheese and it's normally a white based pizza as well. But I was in Palermo a couple of years ago in southern Italy and they have pistachio everything. Pistachio pesto, pistachio pizza.

Like it's everywhere. I bought back jars of the stuff. I became that obsessed with it. So now that I kind of see it appearing everywhere.

It's dented my waistline and it's dented my wallet quite a bit. So I think I'll have to go with that at the moment.

Danny Brown: 00:08:46

Well, I can't think because you mentioned pistachio sauce and pistachio. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it's something very different in Spain, where you live. It's a little nut, right?

Max Kurton: 00:08:57

Yes.

Danny Brown: 00:08:58

So you make a sauce out with a nut.

Max Kurton: 00:09:00

You basically make it into a pesto sauce. So instead of using pine nuts, you would use a pistachio nut.

And then I'm not sure what kind of herbs it uses, but pistachio has such a strong flavor that allows it to kind of take that pesto form. So if you think of it more like pistachio pesto, that gives a clear idea.

Danny Brown: 00:09:18

And you said this is like a big trend at the moment. Is this like a Spanish food trend that's kicking out? Is it European? Because we've. I mean, I can't think of that trend in Canada at least.

So, yeah, maybe I'm very limited because I'm stuck in the boonies. So maybe limited, but is that a trend more in Europe or Spain or.

Max Kurton: 00:09:35

Well, if it's not there in Canada yet, Danny, you need to get on it, start opening some stores, start selling it. You'll be ahead of the curve. Yeah, I think I saw it in England last time.

I was there a lot in Italy, coming more and more in Spain because there's a lot of availability for it. So, yeah, I think it's. Maybe some of that's growing, but I'm seeing pistachio chocolate pizzas, coffees.

It's kind of the new cool nut in town, if you will.

Danny Brown: 00:10:00

Very cool. And you've lived in a few places.

So for you, I watched, I think Bill Burr, the comedian Bill Burr was doing up a show or a special or something where he was going different parts of the UK and trying out British food compared to. Obviously he's in the US compared to their food. And one of the things that he says, you live next to France, you live next to Italy.

How can you not get your effing pizza right? Because he was complaining about the UK pizza for you.

You've been to Canada, you're from the uk, you live in Spain and any other place you've been to. What's the best pizza, do you feel? Or who's got the best pizza?

Max Kurton: 00:10:32

Who's got the best pizza? I mean, I'm going to rule out the Italians. Just because they've got the market cornered, we don't need to cater to them. Let's.

Let's try and go a little bit different here. The UK has some good pizza places, but you got to be very specific where you find it.

There's obviously the late night takeaway pizza, which after a couple of beers and you've been out for a while is a godsend. It's just cheese and grease and it's going to make your life feel better, but it's not good in the light of day.

And when you're kind of going about the world. England also has this beautiful melting pot of cultures. We have so many people from Europe. We have the French, the Spanish, the Greeks.

Everyone you can imagine lives in England. And we have all of the amazing food from it as well, so it's really easy to find. Great. I can never say it. That's great to find Italian pizza.

We'll just leave it at that. Great to find Italian pizza.

And I used to live in Chiswick in London, and there was one called Napa or Nap, and it was voted the best pizza in all of England for two years running. And I went there and truly was like being in a little slice of Italy.

So even though I said I'm rejecting the Italians in Italy, the best bet you can kind of have is if you can find these lovely stores that are run by Italians and local people. And this goes for all food.

The general rule I always find is if you find people in another country eating the food of their country in that restaurant, that's a gold sign that that is the best restaurant to go for that type of food. And that one in Chiswick definitely has. Definitely has the mark of approval.

Danny Brown: 00:12:05

Yeah, I'm with you 100%. If I love Chinese food, I love Indian food.

So if I see a restaurant, if I'm out and either Chinese people or Indian people or Asian people are eating from that restaurant, I'm thinking, okay, I'm all in. That's, you know, take my money now, you know, you're good.

It's funny, though, because, yeah, you mentioned about, you know, finding locals in the country. It's weird how, like, food traverses, you know, well, like Canada, as you know yourselves, a melting pot of different, you know, cultures, etc.

You go to Toronto, you've got little Portugal, little Spain, little China, Little Italy, little. Lots of stuff. And it gives you that property feeling of being in these countries, even if you've never left Canada itself. Right?

Max Kurton: 00:12:49

Yeah, yeah, completely. The one I always find funny is because Canada has a love for. For England.

And maybe where I was in the west coast, it was very much a. I lived in British Columbia. You can't get more. More English than that. But Victoria, where I lived in.

In Oak Bay, there was very much an English culture and they were trying to do English pubs and we were in Calgary Last year as well. And we found another English pub in, in Kensington, in Calgary.

And I only ever see it in Canada where they try and recreate the English bar experience, an English food experience. It's very common to see Irish bars and Irish food in all these tourist spots.

But for me, I always find it funny that Canada's like the only one that holds on to that kind of English identity. You rarely. There'll be one or two in.

Well, maybe not the south of Spain where it's very British dominated, but in Madrid and Barcelona you see a couple. But no one's trying to replicate that pub English experience and that pub food experience, which I find interesting.

Danny Brown: 00:13:49

nd, we went to the UK back in: 2018

And it was a bit like pub culture as in you can sit there on your own, read a paper, have a pint and no one bothers you. You couldn't do that in Toronto.

Or you go and you start up a conversation with the person next to you and it's nice and easy, but you can't do that in Toronto again because it's just different. So maybe it's like a West coast thing here.

Max Kurton: 00:14:20

Yeah, yeah, potentially. But I think you're spot on with the pub culture there. It's a different beast.

Danny Brown: 00:14:26

It is, it is. Well, as mentioned, that's a nice one to kick off.

And we're going to stick with the, the English Stroke Spanish pizzas, kicking out the Italian pizzas just to start a big cultural divide. Great stuff. Okay, question number two. What is the last dream that you remember?

Max Kurton: 00:14:46

Oh, well done. Good one. You, you, you got me easy with the, with the pizza, didn't you? And then the, the last dream one kind of came in.

The last dream one I had was kind of a repeating dream that I have kind of often where I'm in a plane, but it's not really a plane, it's a, it's a train, but it's kind of going through the sky and it's, it's very open, it's very walkable, and, and everything's very accessible and there's always, it's always the same landscape that we traverse, but the situation is always different. It's always a case of needing to help an issue that's happening on board or there's something wrong with the plane. Plane Train.

I don't know what to call it. And you're trying to, like, fix those kind of solutions. But the thing I find so crazy about it is how visual and realistic it is when you wake up.

It's when you're in that moment, it's one of those dreams that feels very, very real. And then when you wake up, you're like, oh, of course that wasn't real. That was a dream. That was crazy.

But the last one, specifically, I think it was helping this heiress to some fortune who'd lost her dog or hamster. It was a very small animal, and it gone into the vents. And I remember looking out the window and seeing all of, like, the.

The ground below and the lakes and the rivers. And I'm trying to get into these ducks to find this animal and bring it back to her.

And then I do eventually return the animal, and she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. This isn't my animal. And then I have this gerbil dog thing to look after for the rest of the trip.

And then the stewardess is saying, you can't bring any animals on board. And I'm trying to explain to. It's not my animal. So a bit of a weird dream in terms of, like, what happens and not a lot really happening.

But I had that one a couple of nights ago and it's kind of stuck with me.

Danny Brown: 00:16:31

That's a very specific example. You said it's a recurring dream, but this specific example of the heiress and, like, this weird Gerbo hamster dog, you know, stowaway kind of thing.

I know there's like, a lot of people say, like, dreams. They believe that dreams can be, like, foretelling of things to happen.

I mean, hopefully you're never on a train in the sky looking for a hamster, which would be weird, but things to happen. But also maybe things have already happened, you know, in the past. I don't know. Do you have any thoughts on that to.

Max Kurton: 00:17:02

I don't know if I believe that they can kind of predict the future. I believe dreams have a lot of power in terms of, like, how people view them. And they can have a lot of influence on people's lives.

I kind of just see them as something fun that happens. And I do try to remember them, but you know how it is. You wake up, life starts happening and you kind of forget them.

But certain ones do stick with you. And this one, for example, that is repeating.

I think I remember the more specific details, like heiresses and Animals, because the rest of it is already something that I'm familiar with. But in terms of, like, prediction, you get into that whole deja vu debate as well.

My wife always says that deja vu is a sign that your life is going right, that you're. You're where you're meant to be if you're getting deja vu. And I always like that kind of explanation for it.

But in terms of actually, like, predictions and stuff, who's to say? It doesn't work for me, But I can't say that for other people.

They don't have that within them because people have predicted events that seem crazy to predict, and they've been able to look at this kind of stuff. I actually did a podcast episode on this, on dream science and how this all kind of comes about.

And it was very interesting about different cultures and how everyone kind of learns to work with dreams and how much weight it has in other cultures versus, say, our Western cultures, where we kind of just dismiss it. But there's whole psychology behind dreams. There's journals as websites. There's people in professions that do it.

So there's got to be something to it, right?

Danny Brown: 00:18:30

Well, yeah. I mean, you mentioned there about the psychology, dreams.

And I know, like, one of the things that fascinates me is, and I think I've got the name right here, is like, lucid dream.

Max Kurton: 00:18:38

Yes.

Danny Brown: 00:18:39

And your ability to jump in and control your dream, or. No, that's not right. It's lucid. Is that when you can leave your body in a dream state?

Max Kurton: 00:18:47

Yes. But lucid is also where you can kind of control it and know what's kind of going on.

Danny Brown: 00:18:53

Right. Because to me, that'd be kind of cool. It takes me back to something like Nightmare on Elm street, for example, Right.

Where they fall asleep and then Freddy comes into your dreams and stuff. That would not be cool. But it fascinates me to think of someone that, like you.

I really remember dreams, but when I remember ones that are super specific, then I can remember them. It'd be cool to actually participate that and think, okay, that dream didn't quite end how I wanted it, but I really enjoyed the dream.

So I want to try to have that dream again and change the outcome.

Max Kurton: 00:19:21

Yeah. I mean, there's so many people who, as I mentioned, have kind of figured out what's something from a dream. It was. It was a Russian chemist.

Danny Brown: 00:19:32

He.

Max Kurton: 00:19:32

He created the one who created the periodic table. Dmitry something. Sorry for not having the full facts, but he said the layout for the periodic table Came to him in a dream.

He saw all of the elements falling into place and he saw it as a puzzle. So then when he woke up, he did that and arranged them by kind of atomic weight and that's how he kind of came up with the periodic table.

And I think Mary Shelley was another one like with Frankenstein. She kind of came to that waking dream idea which you just spoke about. She had this late night conversation about ghost stories.

She went to sleep and then had the idea for, for Frankenstein. So all of these pretty long term integral things of our culture have come from dreams themselves.

Danny Brown: 00:20:17

It's cool, it's like, I mean this is really mundane compared to the two examples you shared there. I mentioned in the pre recording that we've been having issues with our water here where we live for various reasons and we kind of got that fixed.

And when I went to sleep the night of, on the night that we got the problem fixed, hopefully we got it fixed. I dreamed about the issue that we'd had and fixing it. And then something went wrong again and I woke up and thinking did that go wrong?

And I went downstairs to check and it was fine, it was all good. So it was the dreams, which is, it's, it's so cool how it just intermingles between life and your subconscious.

Max Kurton: 00:20:52

Yeah, yeah, completely. It just becomes this part of your waking conscience.

And they say that's just true about the faces that we see in dreams, the faces of people that we've met in random parts of the days. And that's our brain kind of storing this because there's loads of theories about why we dream and everything that we kind of do.

I think the leading one is memory consolidation. So we kind of, it helps us kind of sort and store all of our memories.

So your brain is basically Marie Kondoing your day, if you think about it that way. They're keeping what matters, they're discarding what doesn't, and they're figuring out where to file the important stuff.

And the theory is that dreaming can be kind of part of that sorting process. And I think it's when you are woken up during the REM sleep, you have the worst memory called the next day.

And that's kind of improving the performance and the balance. And then the, the other one that I remember from the episode was about threat simulation theory.

So it's kind of like a mental training ground for threat scenarios. And I think this is like an older evolution idea. So fooling, fighting, hiding, preparing for dangers that kind of happen in real life.

It's Kind of like the subconscious running drills basically to kind of keep you going. Don't know how that applies to me with the tiny hamster, if that's a situation I need preparing for. But who knows?

Danny Brown: 00:22:14

Well, taken out of context, I might use that as a snippet for this episode. Taken out of context, that could suggest many things. You know, I don't know how that applies to me with a tiny hamster. I'm gonna use that.

That is fascinating. I do love that. And I will. I'll check out that episode. Is that episode released now or is that.

Max Kurton: 00:22:29

Yeah, I think that was four. Four or five episodes ago.

Danny Brown: 00:22:32

Okay, I will look out for that. Sounds a fascinating one to listen to. Okay, so that was a nice one. Just throwing off the balance a little bit.

Let's have a look at question number three. Question number three. And I feel you can give an honest. Well, you give an honest answer anyway, mate. Not. I was going to say you wouldn't.

Anyway, your parents probably won't listen to this, but if they do. Question number three, max. Are you smarter than your parents?

Max Kurton: 00:22:59

Okay, so we'll hide this one when it kind of comes out then. Don't attach my name to it, it's fine. No, am I smarter than my parents? I'm not going to say yes or no. I'm going to take the coward's answer.

Maybe I say that, but I'll probably loop round to an answer in the end. Subconsciously. I don't know if I'm smarter because we've lived different life experiences.

We've done everything completely differently through throughout our lives.

So in terms of, like, my experience, it's yes, I'm smarter than them in a lot of stuff that I've become very specialized that if I was like, mom, dad, can you jump on this podcast recording and do a 30 minute hour long interview? Absolutely not. If you could do this content creation report, if you could wrestle this match for 20 minutes. Never going to happen.

So in that sense, yeah, I'm definitely smarter than them. My dad's been an electrical engineer for years.

So if he was like, can you draw this route for this house and figure out how all the electrical lines go? Absolutely not. Not a chance. My mum used to work for the newspaper.

She did a column in the Daily Mail called Searching for a Memory, which was really cool growing up where she reunited people based on finding records. And she'd receive all of these letters from people who had lost contact during the war. War and all of this other stuff.

And she'd help Reunite them, I'd have no idea how to do that. And she's also really into astrology and everything in terms of mapping how astrology works. I'd have no idea with that as well.

So I think it comes down to the life experience and how you kind of do things. Even having kids. They had kids, started when they were 20, 25 and 13.

I just had my first kid at 34 and I'm basically at a point now of figuring out as I go along, I'm pretty dumb to the situation about what's happening. If you ask me how to raise a two month old. Yeah, super smart on that. Done it.

Figure out, ask me how to raise a 12 month old that's three months in the future, I don't know what that's going to entail. So yes and no, depending on which avenue we're talking about that.

Danny Brown: 00:25:07

Yeah, that makes sense. And wait till you get to teams, mate. Good luck with that. But yeah, you did that, that's cool.

You mentioned your mum, the project she worked for that she did at the Daily Mail, like the bringing people together. And this would have been, I'd assume, before Internet was really in use and Google and all that cool stuff.

So like to put all that together, I mean that must have taken a whole bunch of research and traits and down and calls and etc.

Max Kurton: 00:25:34

ng up, it was about let's say: 1998

So my mom was working for, for this column where she would basically do all the research and figure out how to reunite these people and then she'd kind of get them together and sort it out.

So the way it would work is she'd receive all of the letters that people wrote into this column of like, help me find my lost sister, help me find this, that and the other. And she would then take all of these letters and I would sit at the dining room table and I remember reading for all of them.

They have pictures attached of the only picture they have of their old war buddy from the regiment that they're trying to find. And I'd be like, oh man, this one's cool. Try and do this one.

And the way she'd have to do it, we're Talking about Windows 97 with a big CRT monitor, Tower Desktop. She'd be early days of the Internet, looking at local parish records, death certificates.

She'd be going down to the records room, searching for all of this stuff, trying to find a connection and then hopefully finding a phone number. But if not having to find an address that she could write to them and try and connect these people.

She had incredible success and reunited so many people from like past, past war buddies, long lost relatives, long lost loves, which I think is really sweet as well, trying to get all of these people back together. And then she even took it a step further and she started doing it for her own family, which was really cool.

So she started building the family tree and searching about what's kind of going on and missing relatives. And she had these kind of new skills. And her dad, who was born in Belfast, he was put into a orphanage.

So he was put into one of those, you know, very early Northern Irish orphanages back in the 20s or. Yeah, tens or twenties, whenever it was. And she did all of this research and found out that he had a sister.

So she actually tracked down his sister living in New York. This is where my granddad was, like 65, something around that age. So she tracked down this whole other part of the family.

Irish immigrant, originally from Ireland, left the orphanages or was sent to America from the orphanages in New York. And then she kind of reunited them 60 years later, got her dad on a plane, flew to New York.

And then they threw this big celebration party of this reunion of all these. All these New Yorkers coming together.

And I mean, that's such a cool story of how even before the power of the Internet, how useful it can kind of be to reunite people and, you know, tell those stories that might have been lost without a proper connection.

Danny Brown: 00:28:19

Well, that's. And that's an incredible legacy to leave as well. Right.

You know, as to know that you've had such an impact on so many people's lives through something that. That she may have thought wasn't a big deal.

Well, I'm just doing some research and putting people together, but it's such a big deal to bring families, loved ones, everybody back together again that, you know, had been separated for whatever reason.

Max Kurton: 00:28:42

Yeah, yeah. And it's. Hopefully we're kind of in a position now.

You know, there's the downside to social media, and there's a good side of social medias, but it's allowed people to kind of reconnect and re. Re. Grow those loves and loss that they may have had. But I feel like there's a lot more that can kind of be done, and it's a shame that the.

The paper stopped running that kind of piece because I think there's a lot of legs to it and a lot of interesting things to be done. So who knows? Who knows? Someone might pick up the idea in the future.

Danny Brown: 00:29:09

You should make a podcast about it, mate. Get a podcast started. I would subscribe to that in a heartbeat. It sounds right up my street.

Max Kurton: 00:29:16

Yeah, but the research, though, she used to put in so much work to it.

Danny Brown: 00:29:20

Yeah, well, that's a benefit of this. The format of the show is the research is minimal to zero, with slightly heavily leaning to zero. That is awesome. I really enjoyed that answer.

Thank you. Let's have a look at what question number four is.

Okay, you're a parent, so you're already teaching your kid, do's, don'ts, et cetera, even though you know your little one's so young. But question number four, max, if you were asked to teach a class, what class would you teach?

Max Kurton: 00:31:03

Okay, if I was to teach a class, I mean, for me at the moment. So the whole point, I'm not plugging my podcast here, I just want to kind of give the context of it. So, like, please do.

Surface knowledge itself is literally surface knowledge. And what I do is I take a subject, I research it like crazy, and I try and compact all that information into 30 minutes.

And because that's kind of where we're at from the attention span perspective. And me and my knowledge is very surface level. It comes from being a journalist.

You, you, you take a piece of information on, you work on it, you forget about it, you move on to the next piece. So I feel like I have a very surface knowledge of. Of information, and that's why I did it.

So I doubt I'll be teaching anything like history or geography or economics or anything like that. But what I would love to teach and what I think would be really beneficial is more around the life skills element of life.

For me at the moment, if I could get a whole bunch of kids in the room, I'd want to teach like phone and Internet safety, because it's driving me crazy seeing how we've become so reliant on a technology that has been proven countless times to cause a lot of damage to underdeveloped. Not underdeveloped, but developing minds that are kind of coming into the world, and it's teaching them a lot of stuff.

And there's some really horrible stories. And I'm not going to take this podcast to a really dark term, but we're all aware of the dangers that are kind of going on.

And I think there was very much a position five, ten years ago of cool. There's this thing that can keep my kid quiet. Have at it.

And I think now we're kind of waking up a little bit more to the dangers of what's kind of going on. And I'm not saying that phones are a bad thing for all kids. It's part of technology. We're growing up with it. We've all grown up with it.

When I was growing up, the newest technology was bad for me and my health. But I think there is definitely an education piece that needs to be done of how kids can keep themselves safe online.

I'm not saying take phones away from kids, take social media away from their kids. It has its benefit by keeping them safe. And we all know what's on there. We've grown up with it.

So why can't we just take an hour a week to talk about the dangers, how to protect yourself from them? Having downtime from your screen, from social medias can really help in the long run.

And I think that's something that we're going to struggle with a lot with, with my daughter. Because it's funny, when you see her, we get our phone out sometimes and she's immediately drawn to it.

She just wants to see what it is and she wants to, like, play with it and grab it and away it goes again.

And I don't want to be the parent who's like, no, you can't have this, or, no, it's bad for you because they're just going to find a way and they're going to hide stuff from you and keep it secret. So for me, it's not about safeguarding it or gatekeeping it. It's providing education into what it can do. So long answer. But that's.

That's where my head's at the moment.

Danny Brown: 00:33:56

No, I think that's a key one. Like you say, it's, like, so pervasive now, especially with the growth of AI over the last 12 months that make blatantly false things seem 100% real.

Right. You really blurred that line.

And as a kid growing up with that in front of you, you can be easily fooled into thinking something's X, Y, Z. I know our kids are fortunate. The school board here does a great course on online safety and mobile safety and all that cool stuff, and has speakers come in and talk to them.

There's also a mom over here that you probably would have heard about, I would imagine, that created Amanda Todd Legacy based on her daughter taking her own life, sadly, because she got bullied and coerced into, you know, unsavory things online through her phone.

And it is such A. I mean I'm really well versed in Internet as are you and it's scary to see how it's grown into such a beast since we started back in the day.

I'm obviously older than you mate, but since we started back in the day, it's how it's grown and what's accessible now as opposed to what, what was accessible to us. And it's, it's a really fine line as a parent, I completely get you on that, mate.

Max Kurton: 00:35:08

Yeah, it's, it's really difficult as you say before. Okay, maybe it was the wild west, but it was a little bit more fun and free.

I feel like when the corporations got involved and everything became monetized, that's when you really saw sort of downfall and everything kind of happening there. I work in content day in, day out.

I spend most of my day figuring out how do I get people to rank, how do I get content to appear, working with GEOs, LLMs, all that kind of stuff at the moment is so pervasive of like how do we get. All anyone wants to do now is how do I get the AI to talk about my thing. And it's just this is a shift within the past like six months to a year.

Two years ago was the new launch of AI. So the past five years of content and how the Internet's changed from a front row seat has just been absolutely baffling in terms of what's going on.

And it is nice to see that stuff is happening in Europe. I think Germany is introducing a ban or has introduced a ban. The phones can't be in schools and another country introduced that.

Kids can't have access to social media until they're 16. So I think there is definitely a shift coming. There's a tide coming. The conversation is happening.

Whereas five, ten years ago it was very much, ah, calm down, it'll be fine. What's the problem? There was no studies, there was no interest in it. But I think there is a shift happening.

Danny Brown: 00:36:26

It is interesting to see a, the UK Online Safety act, it's been just released where you've got to be, you got to upload identification or something like that. If you're 13 or under, you need to be, you need to prove your age basically.

But it's also disheartening to see some of the pushback around this because I can understand some of the pushback. You know, there's some stuff that you do want to access but you can't because you're not over 13. How do you feel about that. Is that a good move?

Is it a good move but maybe needs improvement or.

Max Kurton: 00:36:56

I think it definitely needs improvement because it's not just if you're 13, they've kind of blanketed it. So if you want to access anything that is not seen as appropriate, you have to upload your id.

And I'm obviously there as an old punk rocker in my young, younger teenage days, giving my identity to any form of government control seems like a horrible idea. And like, I've worked in cyber security for a number of years as well.

There's no way that you can tell me I upload my personal id, that you have a way to prevent a leak of that information. There is no way you can guarantee that.

So I'm very against uploading my ID to any source that is, you know, I get hesitant at the airport, but I know they need it. But we're just going to upload it to a website. I think it's not the best way to go. I do see the merits. Obviously it's helping keep kids safe.

But the, the conspiracy nut in me, which doesn't exist, makes me do, does it? Makes me question what is the real motive and why we kind of need to do that stuff. And I think there's better ways.

Countries like Germany, some of the Scandinavians have already found a better way of just simpler technology. No ID verification. And it just seems a little too, too far in the wrong direction to start doing government mandated ID checking.

Danny Brown: 00:38:22

Yeah, I know.

James Crillon over at POD News, Industry publication POD News shared a story on the day, I think the law came into place or the act came into place, and it was someone holding up the driver's license photo of one of the big MPs in London, and they uploaded that as their ID and got approved. Right. It's a flaw right away because you can just take that. Right.

Unless there's something like facial recognition based on the ID that can say, well, you're clearly not, you know, Margaret Thatcher, who's long dead. Why are you uploading her id, for example?

Max Kurton: 00:38:53

It's a flawed system and you should never trust flawed systems, no matter how badly you want to access it.

I honestly think I'll be stubborn with this until the day I die of people being like, you got to give me this information or this information, like, we already give over so much. Where do you draw the line? Personally? You've got to have your own moral line in the sand, right?

Danny Brown: 00:39:14

No, 100%. Well, the good news is, with that, I don't ask for Your ID on this show. I can see you. So I can see you're you.

Max Kurton: 00:39:22

You're the one I trust to give it to.

Danny Brown: 00:39:24

Well, there you go. Dang it. Now I'm going to have to, like, open up a little small business. Well, let's have a look then. We're doing really well here, Max.

We've come to question number five, so let's see what your final question is on the random question. Hot seat question number five. Would you rather be homeless for a year or be in jail for a year?

Max Kurton: 00:39:46

Morality questions. I like them. We start off with pizza, and now we're. Now we're here. Okay. Would I rather be homeless? Am I allowed to ask, like, context questions?

Do I have access to my current network of people and friends or.

Danny Brown: 00:40:00

You can go whichever way you want, mate.

Max Kurton: 00:40:02

Okay. I would say no. I feel like if you end up. If I ended up in a homeless situation, I'm very lucky that I have a lot of friends and family. That.

That would be a very impossible situation to find myself in. If I. Prison or. I don't think I do well in prison. I don't think I have the knack for it. I'd be terrified. I just wouldn't do well.

I'm not a big, tough guy. I know the wrestling really sold you guys on me, but trust me, I'm not going to do one in prison.

Homeless would probably be the choice, because you stumped me. Well done. There's two ways to kind of look at it. I mean, from a homeless perspective, I always enjoy.

And this is not me, tooting my own horn and being like, wow, look how great I am. But I always enjoy, you know, having conversations with people who are homeless and found themselves in that situation.

I met a lovely guy once in Brighton called Jockey. And Jockey. I was. I was coming home and I met him, and he was like, oh, do you have any money? And I said, no. Sorry, but I always offer food.

Like, can I go grab you some food? As a Sainsbury's? As a Subway, whatever we can kind of do. He's like, a Subway would be great. I was like, cool, let's go get a Subway.

I hadn't eaten, so I got myself one as well. And we sat and had a sandwich together, and he told me his whole life story.

He'd be a great one for this podcast because he was like, I'm gonna write a book on my whole life and everything like this. And he was trying to get into subsidized housing. He'd been working really Hard. And he'd been like, I'm off to drugs.

And I've been off to drugs for a year now, and I'm really trying to, like, get into this housing. And I have a meeting tomorrow. We sat in our sandwiches for a while and we spoke about life and about him.

touch dial phones, old Nokia: 3310

I was like, hey, Jockey, you know what happened? And a month later, he told me he got into subsidized housing and that he was able to kind of be there for a month.

He was settled in and he was starting a job, which was really, really cool to.

To hear his story about how he hit such a low but really worked on himself to not only kick his habits, but also to kind of get what he wanted, get into the housing, get a job, and then, like, emerge himself from there. I didn't hear from him after that. I checked in on him like, six months later, but the phone didn't go through him.

So I'm being optimistic in the hope that he didn't need that old phone anymore. He got a new one.

Life is good for Jockey out there, but his story always, always stuck with me in terms of, like, him being able to kind of push himself up and do what he wants to do. So I'd like to think that I would have that same kind of resolve as a person to really try to pick myself back up and try again.

Because I've always tried to, like, if something hits a wall, I always try and reinvent myself and pick myself up and try something new.

And I'd like to think that if I ever did find myself in that situation and again, very blessed with the family and loved ones I have around me, that I do not see that ever happening, which is a very privileged place to be in. And I recognize that. But for me, that kind of strikes more my personality than, say, me ending up in.

In prison for a year and then trying to, like, rebuild your life from that, because being cut off from everyone and say I did still have access to all my loved ones and friends, and they weren't able to help me, but I was still able to see them. That would still bring me joy and inspiration versus being locked away from the rest of society for a year.

I don't think I'd be Able to handle that mentally?

Danny Brown: 00:43:38

Yeah, it's, it's interesting. I know people say, well, prison, it's easy life, you've got three square meals a day, you've got a roof over your head, you've got a bed, et cetera.

But I've never been in prison myself, thankfully. But I've known people that have and they like, to your point, they say it's not an easy, you know, they did things wrong, they accept that.

But the penal system also overreacted as well to some, and it was not a good place. And obviously homelessness is not. I've been homeless for a month myself back in the uk many, many, many years ago.

And I know a great guy over in the us, Mark Horvath, who has a podcast and a video channel on YouTube that does the same thing, meets homeless people, sits down, here's a story, lets them tell their story, sits down over a lunch or something. And the overarching thing is you mentioned there about subsidized housing and helping people get back on their feet and start afresh.

It always like, I mean, I say this a few times on this podcast, it's not a political show. I try not to go into politics at all.

But it always surprises me that for a lot of governments, whether it's the big governments or the provincial or state governments or whatever, see homelessness as an issue to sweep away and clear out as opposed to look at what would happen if we had universal basic income, subsidized housing, something like that. I know in Canada they're trying out at the moment with little tiny homes, for example, and getting people in tiny homes. And that's been amazing.

And it's given people a steady place to live and to start again. And it's working so far.

It just seems that there's a better way to work on homelessness as opposed to forgetting there and walking by with your head down, et cetera, 100%.

Max Kurton: 00:45:21

I mean, as I said, you have a conversation with these people and that's what people forget, that they're just you in a different situation than you're at.

So there's nothing wrong with stopping and having a 10 minute conversation and figuring out how they got into this situation versus being like, oh, they're just a bunch of drug addicts trying to steal from me. No, like that is not the case whatsoever. Like, have a conversation. Canada does a really good job of this, of trying to understand what's going on.

Canada does have a horrible homeless population issue where they do try, and this was very Prevalent in bc, especially during the Olympics. They were trying to like sweep the problem away from Vancouver.

And if you go to like Hastings now, it's a shanty town basically because they're, they are looking the other way. And it's such a shame that's happening, but they have been really good of.

I can't remember the official term for it, but, but safe places to take drugs. You know, safe areas that people can kind of like shoot up in a clean area. And it's perfectly safe.

Offering kind of mental health courses and classes, offering free food, clothing, as you said, having that access to a tool schools such as tiny homes that really kind of get them to where they need to be again. And it is such a shame when you see.

And again, I will not go deep into the politics, but if you ever do a top five random politics questions, please have me back. I have many, many of them.

But I feel like it's so sad when you see these budgets being diverted towards like military and like things that can do a lot of harm in the world instead of just like focusing on the home issues of helping people who really need help. And it's not even just homeless people, it's people living below the poverty line who are one paycheck away from something going wrong.

Or not even that. It's already going wrong and it just takes someone to like kick them out of where they're living.

So I would love to see find me any party that actually delivers on that promise and follows through with it. I'd be ecstatic.

Danny Brown: 00:47:20

when Covid kicked In back in: 2020

Everybody kind of came together, 100%, hopefully were looking out for each other, certainly in the holidays, maybe less so as it went on. And it feels like there was a lost opportunity there to really turn things around culture wise.

Max Kurton: 00:47:49

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. And luckily there's still a lot of people out there doing good work. There's some fantastic charities in the uk.

I'm not, not sure about Canada, but I'm sure that they are as well. And yeah, there's some, some really great organizations trying to do some work and make a difference.

So hopefully once all of the craziness that's going on in the world kind of stops, we can kind of realign our focus and get back to that. Get back to that good feeling.

Danny Brown: 00:48:16

Well, unfortunately, probably won't hold our breath in the craziness stopping globally. But we can try. We can try.

Max Kurton: 00:48:22

I'm an optimist.

Danny Brown: 00:48:24

Well, Max, we have reached the end of your time in the hot seat and I really appreciate your answers there. As is only fair because I've had you in the hot seat for the last 40 minutes or so. It's only fair to now switch the question baton over to you.

Max Kurton: 00:48:37

You are too kind and thank you very much for having me on and listening to my ramblings. You and the listeners, it's always appreciated. Okay, so my question is. Is kind of like a hypothetical.

It's got a buildup to it, but it's kind of a basic question that we know. I had this conversation at a dinner party a couple of weeks ago and it's brought up some interesting debates.

So I'll read you the backstory and the rules and then I'll be interested to your answer. I wrote it down so that we're clear. Not going to shatter the allusions to the reader.

So you and you alone are about to make the most important hypothetical decision in history. Nobody can influence you, nobody can change your mind. But every single person on Earth knows that you're about to make this choice.

You have to send humanity as a whole back in time to a single fixed date. And there's some rules to it. It has to be more than 10 years ago, so you can't cheat and send everyone back to yesterday.

Events can be changed so we all go back collectively with the same knowledge of what happens in the future. But people can change outcomes. It's a brand new timeline, if you will. It's a do over. So everybody keeps the memory from their life. So all of them.

Every world event, every mistake. The victories, heartbreaks, the family tragedies, every joy, every loss. What date and year do you pick?

Danny Brown: 00:50:00

Oh, good grief. That's an outstanding question. That would be great for a board game mate. You want to trademark that and get that out in houses. Wow.

Okay, let me think.

It's funny because an episode I recorded just recently hasn't gone out yet, had a similar question about going back in time and what you could and couldn't do. Because obviously you've got the time paradox and everything. You do this one thing and et cetera.

Max Kurton: 00:50:25

Yeah, this flips on its head. You're allowed to do whatever you want.

Danny Brown: 00:50:28

So the whole human race is taken back to this one time.

Max Kurton: 00:50:33

Exactly.

Danny Brown: 00:50:34

But they keep all their memories of.

Max Kurton: 00:50:36

Everything they Remember everything from their timeline, the past and their timeline.

Danny Brown: 00:50:40

onna go. I'm gonna go back to: 1914

I'm not super good at history, but there's certain times in history that I really enjoyed. My history teacher at high school was amazing guy, Mr. Houston, loved him to death and brought history to life in an amazing way.

In: 1914

You know, from the Romans beforehand, but from the Romans upwards and Vikings and all that stuff.

Max Kurton: 00:51:24

But.

Danny Brown: 00:51:24

remember the exact date. It's: 1914

So I'm going to say maybe March, April. And I should know this because Mr. Houston, if he was listening to this episode, he would kill me for not having the exact date.

But when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and that start a chain of events that led to countries taking sides and the First World War started, I feel that broke the. A bunch of alliances that had been there up until then.

And that kind of took us on a path where we are now, where you've got, you know, north versus south, west versus east, all that kind of stuff. That being said, and it's funny, it was brought up in that episode I referenced there. If.

If I was able to change that and we were able to stop that assassination happening, and then humanity went down a different path, does it become a different path? Anyway, knowing that the memories you've got when you went to that time, because are these memories relevant now?

Because you've got a different path that you've gone down. Because this war never happened. Right. So that would be where I would go, probably. But then it opens up a whole other can of worms.

Max Kurton: 00:52:45

It really does, because you can argue the point. And this is why the conversation ballooned into what it did when we had this conversation amongst friends.

Because, as I said, everyone retains the knowledge. We know we went to World War I. We know these millions of young men and women died through blitzes and fighting at the front.

So would governments be controlled enough to be able to say, like, okay, we don't want to go down that path, or would there be that already lingering hatred and resentment for that happening in the future, that we would find ourselves in a similar course anyway. Because there's that theory that you can't change whatever happened happened. It's just changes in a variant. Right. So it would be interesting.

Maybe Franz Ferdinand doesn't go out that day. He hides, he hides in his room and nothing happens to him. But some other event kicks it off. It's. You can go back and forth.

We could do another two hours on this of like unraveling what happens if that doesn't happen and where the world could kind of go. So I think it's interesting when you add the pre knowledge element into that question, makes people go like, oh, but I know that we went to war.

I know World War II happened. I know that Germany split into east and west, and then that's how we ended up having to get like the EU and everything.

And you can see all of that chain of events going on. But yeah, it's, it's, it's a doozy.

Danny Brown: 00:54:02

Well, I almost wonder, and that's a fantastic question, I almost wonder if, if you've got pre planning before you go. So let's say you know, you're going to go back in time to this date.

Do you just leave right then, or do you prep for a week to get everybody ready, et cetera?

Because if so, do the weapons manufacturers, knowing what they know now and they've got a say in market because they've made millions for it, and if that changed, then they wouldn't have millions. Do they go back and give tools of destruction to the side that they really want and change the whole course of the war that way?

So again, it just, it's like you say, it's an interesting, you know how it can go, like that whole sliding doors effect. Right. If this one thing happened now, what.

Max Kurton: 00:54:41

Yeah, you can argue either side of it. And we know through history there's always going to be someone taking advantage of a situation.

It's nice to see the good in the world, but there's always someone who's going to capitalize on it. So who knows, who knows how it would go? But it's an interesting one to think about.

Danny Brown: 00:54:59

It is. And that's an awesome question for asking, so thank you for that, I appreciate it.

So, Max, I have really, really enjoyed our chat today and the answers that you've seen shared with our listeners. For anyone that wants to check out the podcasts on your network, because you've got more than one podcast, obviously check out what you do.

Maybe you know, Arrange a, you know, a wrestling match, even if they're over your way in Spain. Where's the best place to connect with you online? Check out your podcast, et cetera?

Max Kurton: 00:55:23

Yeah, for sure. At the moment, Surfers Knowledge is my main focus area. That's what's been going on at the moment.

The GT5 network has a bunch of other great podcasts on there, so you can kind of check out ones in around video games and life and talking. Whatever your interest is, there should be something there. But Surface Knowledge is halfway through season five. Season one.

Sorry, we've got five episodes left and as I mentioned, it's me trying to give all this information on a topic in 30 minutes or less. So you can find me anywhere at the Surface Knowledge pod That's on Instagram, TikTok, blue sky.

And if you want to reach out for any kind of chats or give me your, you know, where you go back to in time, I'd love to hear that. Then you can reach me@gottill5mail.com and Danny, thank you for allowing me to come on here.

This was one of my favorite podcasts I've ever guested on. It really got my brain ticking. So thank you so much for having me.

Danny Brown: 00:56:21

That is awesome. And thank you for the kind words. And I will definitely get you back if I go down the old political slant for an episode.

A little bonus episode there, but I will definitely do that. So thanks again for appearing on these fun five Random Questions Max. 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 or over@5randomquestions.com review 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.