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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today, Today Explained. Hello, hi.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today's show is going to be a little bit different from all the others. Before we start, I'm going to ask a favor.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I hear some of you listened to today explained at one and a half speed, even double speed. Just today, I'd ask that you slow down.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You move too fast. You got to make the moment last. Listen to this episode at regular Earth time. You will not regret it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Take it away, Breakmaster.
--:-- Breakmaster Cylinder: Thank you. Thank you. I'm Sean Ramos for him. It's Today Explained.
--:-- Breakmaster Cylinder: And that bop you just heard was the extended version of our theme by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder.
--:-- Breakmaster Cylinder: The song has a name. It's Valentine. Love you, Breakmaster.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, which is sort of the unofficial start of summer, and any way you slice it this summer is going to be a bit of a bummer for all of us.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But one of my favorite things about the season is summer music. The summer song, the album you listen to all summer.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We play a lot of original music on this show, and whenever we do, listeners always text and tweet and email to say, yo, where can I find that jam?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, today, as a little gift for everyone's subdued summer, we are sharing with you all of the original music we've done on this show in just one place.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained, Greatest Hits. You can download it, you can stream it. We're still working on the vinyl.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I'm gonna spend the episode walking through a bunch of what we've done with a guy who's done a lot of it. Today Explained, producer, reporter, original songwriter, Noam Hassenfeld.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You know, his singing voice, it's this one. Today, Today Explained. You've heard that little tag a million times, but I bet a lot of you haven't heard its source.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's part of the very first thing that was ever in this podcast feed, our trailer. And how fitting that even our trailer was sort of a song.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Here it is from way back in February 2018.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Okay, so you're leaving the office and you look at your phone and you've got pages of push notifications and alerts.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And the world has changed dramatically while you were working. And you're like, what is going on?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And we're like, here's a podcast to answer that question. It's called Today Explained from Vox.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I'm going to host it for you. My name is Sean Ramisfirm, and we want to answer all those questions you've been asking yourself.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Like, why doesn't Puerto Rico have power yet? Or what would a war with North Korea even look like?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Or if people keep walking out of the EPA, what happens if there's another deep water horizon?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We're going to take an issue and give you all the context you need to know, and we're going to do it every way we know how.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Interviews, clips, trips, radio drama, maybe even a song.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Every afternoon but not on the weekend the music comes fast so we keep it spontaneous climb, climb, climb motherfucking adequately today today explain she was warm nevertheless she persisted I hope there are tapes alternative facts very fine people on both sides reclaiming my time fire and fury when nobody ever has to say me too again.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Welcome to Today Explained Greatest Hits. Hello, Sean.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: So we're here to share the original music.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I think when sometimes people think of our show and the music they've heard on this show, they'll think of the fun parody songs that you and I have written together and you have performed on the show.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: But that's not what we're here to talk about today, yeah?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, I'm certainly a lot prouder of the original music we made on the show, the original music that we somehow fit into a workday producing a daily podcast.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think what's interesting about the original stuff that oftentimes you've written on the show is that they've come out of these really organic moments.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Like there was no plan. We were just having fun and experiencing sort of the joys of production.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Like Matthew Iglesias would come into the studio and anytime Matthew Iglesias sits down for an interview before we actually hit record and start making stuff, He'll just be like cracking jokes.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And one time very early on in the history of our show we were doing an episode about steel tariffs and he just sat down and started humming a song about steel
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think I sent it to you and I said like could we make music out of this? And we were just all so blown away by what you made.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Steel. Steel. Steel. Steel. It's heavy, it's strong, steel. Oh, I'm trying to conform. Heavy, aluminum, strong. Steel.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, I just kind of love imagining Matthew Iglesias leading some kind of industrial rock, nine inch nails kind of band singing about steel.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Dude, the thing that blows my mind about that song, listening to it now, like years later, is just how quickly you did that with this little keyboard that I had, like, underneath my hoodie behind some cabinet.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: To be fair, I do have a bunch of instruments on the music program on my computer. But yeah, I think it took maybe an hour and a half, two hours, maybe.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: What a beautiful thing that you got paid to make that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: No complaints here. Thank you, Vox. Thank you, Matthew.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I want to play a couple more examples of these really organic moments. And these two are sort of connected. So maybe we can play them back to back.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I mean, there's been a few instances where you've been at your desk working on something else. And I've been sort of at the Vox TV that we always used to huddle around when the president was speaking or there was a big political moment being broadcast live.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: When we had an office. When we had an office.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And you're probably at your desk working on something else. But then I slack you and I'm like, yo, the president's declaring like a national emergency to build a border wall.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But he just said this thing about like the travel ban and it sounds really musical. Is there a way we could set this to music? Or there's just this roll call in Congress. Can we set that to music?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And you're like, uh, maybe? I think I'm always like, definitely not.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And then about 10 seconds later, I'm like, okay, let's see what happens.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And we will have a national emergency and we will then be sued. They will sue us in the Ninth Circuit, even though it shouldn't be there.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: We will possibly get a bad ruling and then we'll get another bad ruling. We'll end up in the Supreme Court and hopefully we'll get a fair shake and we'll win in the Supreme Court.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Just like the band. They sued us in the Ninth Circuit and we lost and then we lost in the appellate division and then we went to the Supreme Court and we won.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And it was very interesting because yesterday they were talking about the band. Because we have a band. It's very helpful.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Ninth Circuit. Fair shake. Supreme Court, just like the band.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Okay, those are the quick and dirty ones. Now let's talk about something that took some doing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Back when Michael Cohen was in the news a lot, I had this idea that it'd be really fun to cover the story in some sort of noir style.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I remember asking you about it. I was not happy. And you were just so not into this idea.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I don't know. I remember it was like a long week or something. And I remember just like lying on the floor with my feet on the desk, like not sure how I was ever going to pull this off.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And somehow we pulled it off.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Let's play a slice of an episode called Dial C for Cohen.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And huge shout out to Christina Anemachan, who does graphics at Vox, who really made this thing sing. And you hear in the trailer, too.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: She was the one singing in the trailer But not on the weekends
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Welcome to Today Explained. You've heard that little tag a million times, but I bet a lot of you haven't heard its source.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: It's part of the very first thing that was ever in this podcast feed, our trailer. And how fitting that even our trailer was sort of a song.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Here it is from way back in February 2018.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Okay, so you're leaving the office and you look at your phone and you've got pages of push notifications and alerts.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And the world has changed dramatically while you were working. And you're like, what is going on?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And we're like, here's a podcast to answer that question. It's called Today Explained from Vox.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I'm going to host it for you. My name is Sean Ramisfirm, and we want to answer all those questions you've been asking yourself.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Like, why doesn't Puerto Rico have power yet? Or what would a war with North Korea even look like?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Or if people keep walking out of the EPA, what happens if there's another deep water horizon?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: We're going to take an issue and give you all the context you need to know, and we're going to do it every way we know how.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Interviews, clips, trips, radio drama, maybe even a song.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Every afternoon but not on the weekend the music comes fast so we keep it spontaneous climb, climb, climb motherfucking adequately today today explain she was warm nevertheless she persisted I hope there are tapes alternative facts very fine people on both sides reclaiming my time fire and fury when nobody ever has to say me too again.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Okay, we got to take a quick break. But before we do, a very important sort of classic message from us.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Bump send it to a friend and one more thing every now and then Pick your favorite episode and send it to a friend.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What are you doing? Five stars. What are you doing? Love this show. Today. Five stars. Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's Today Explained. Support for Today Explained comes from Built Rewards.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: These days, it seems like everybody has a rewards program. You swipe your card and you get one cent on the hundred dollars.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But with your rent, frequently, you just pay month after month. You never get anything from it other than that roof over your head.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Not anymore, says Built Rewards. Built Rewards says it lets you earn points on your rent.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: By paying rent through Built, they say you can earn flexible points that can be redeemed toward hundreds of hotels and airlines, perhaps a future rent payment, your next Lyft ride, and so much more.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Your home isn't just where you sleep, it's your community, and Built wants you to go out and do things in the community.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can eat at your favorite local restaurants, then earn more points. You can get VIP treatment at certain fitness studios.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can enjoy exclusive experiences just for Built members every month.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: When you're ready to travel, they say Built points can be converted to miles or hotel points all around the world.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can earn points on rent and around your neighborhood wherever you call home by joining built.com slash explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is?
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So much so that I thought you should make little bumpers for the show about the election.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Oh, yeah. Like the one you called me up at like 930 at night one time and just started singing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah. I was like on the sidewalk in Brooklyn getting off the subway. And I was like, yo, I just had this idea for the bumper because we were trying to think of something funny.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I was like, what if it's just the numbers? 20, 20 explain. 20 explain.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And remember this one, too? 2020, 2020, 2020.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And remember when it was Super Tuesday and we were doing a big Super Tuesday episode and I was like, hey man, could you write us a Super Tuesday song?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: How could I forget? Is that how that happened? Super Tuesday, Super Tuesday.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and American Samoa.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Super Tuesday, Super Tuesday, Super Tuesday, Super Tuesday, Super Tuesday, Super Tuesday.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But then, of course, this pandemic happened and we sort of stopped talking about the election all the time.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But you can still sing about a pandemic. Right.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I mean, I think the pandemic is maybe responsible for Today Explains' greatest hit of all time, like our Hotel California.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: How did you come up with Six Feet Away?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I think that was actually the CDC. Right. OK, but but the song, how did you come up with the song Six Feet Away?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I got to give credit to my older brother, Jonah, who thought it would just be the funniest thing to have a love song where both people just have to be six feet away, but really sung sweetly.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: A love song about social distancing.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Hmm. Hmm. need to stay six feet away six feet away you called me twice in a row asking me out i said let's stay in and i don't want to be alone so i need you to know i need you to know
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I hope that you need to stay six feet away six feet away
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: You need to stay six feet away six feet away
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: You need to stay six feet away six feet away
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The first time I heard that song, I remember one, just being very impressed because it's beautiful, but it's also got a sort of sexy vibe to it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It made me think of D'Angelo or something.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: D'Angelo? That is a nice compliment. Thank you.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: D'Angelo, yeah. I mean, it isn't for the kids. There's a bit of like an adult sense to that song.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But you also have managed to write some pandemic jams for the kids.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, a couple of weeks ago, we actually made a really fun kids episode, which I produced with Vox podcast producer Bird Pinkerton.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And she and I and our engineer, Afim Shapiro's son, Harvey, got together and made a theme.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's try something a little different. Today! Explain! What? Today! Oh. Explain! Okay. Today! I get it. Explain! Today! Today! Explain! What? Today! Today! Explain!
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: More impressive than that, I think, you came up with this really charming sing-along song to wrap up that kids episode that sort of encapsulated all the themes and ideas that were in the episode.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I remember it was in the script, like, insert song to wrap things up. And then you were like, I can't come up with a song. I don't think this is going to work.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And then all of a sudden you had this perfect song.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I just got to give credit to Bird here again. I was almost ready to not end it with a song like we'd planned. And Bird just wouldn't let me cut it.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: She wrote most of the lyrics. My girlfriend, Hannah, helped me come up with a melody for the song.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And I was really happy we did it in the end.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Okay, we're going to play the But Why song and then we're going to wrap things up with one of our favorites from an episode we did about the space farce.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Here they are back to back, the cave of But Why and space farce.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: No, you're alive. I'm alive and I learned a lot.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Like what? Like this cave it judges answers. If they're bad, it says But Why. But Why? Exactly.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: And the schools, they shouldn't let the kids inside. But Why? To keep the children safe and their families safe as well. But why?
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Isn't it obvious why we want to keep families safe? Yeah.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Sorry, I got totally carried away. No problem.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So. Kids keep other people safe if they stay home from school. But why? They can't cough on each other. They can't sneeze or spit or drool. But why?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Not not masks? Those are pretty good, but perfect they are not. But why? A cough might still get through, so it's best to stay apart.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, perhaps. Sorry, bird. You can't argue with the facts.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: When I was young, I would look up at the stars, trying to take in the vastness of it all.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I would imagine myself hurtling through the infinite expanse in search of answers to ancient mysteries, ready to fight for a better future.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: Ever since I was little, I have been a warrior.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I'm ready to step out into the unknown, to take on the ultimate challenge.
--:-- Noam Hassenfeld: I close my eyes. I know where I must go. Space! Space Force Space Force Space Force Space Force Space Force
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thank you for listening! Today Explained Greatest Hits is available now on all the streaming services Apple Music title, just search for Today Explained Greatest Hits.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can also listen to all the jams you heard in today's episode and many, many more at Vox.com slash Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: As you heard, Noam Hassenfeld wrote a bunch of the music for the show. He also produces and reports.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder does a lot of music too.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: They also really miss Fred Willard.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Afim The Dream Shapiro masterminded space farce. He also engineers.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Christina Aminashan gave that song life with her voice. She also rocks visuals here at Vox.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Liz Nelson is Vox's editorial director of podcasts. She helped us put this whole thing together.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Her husband made us some killer cover art for the album.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The rest of the day Explained team includes Bridget McCarthy, Amina Alsadi, Halima Shah, and Jillian Weinberger.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Cecilia Lay checks our facts. Extra help this week from Paul Mounsey, and we grew this week. Muj Zadie joined us from fresh air.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thanks, Terry. Welcome, Muj.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We are taking Memorial Day off to watch the paint dry back on Tuesday. Take care.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You don't know what you're missing Right off some stage you got bump I can't slow wherever you listen You don't know what you're missing Right off some stage you got bump I can't slow wherever you listen
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What are you doing? Five stars What are you doing? Love this show You don't know what you're missing Five stars Five stars Today Today Today Explained
