Welcome to Overeducated and Underemployed. I'm
Fettin, and I'm your host. This is just a little
introduction to give you an idea of what to expect
from the podcast, tell you a little bit about
myself, and tell you a little bit about what
I'll be talking about on the podcast week to
week. First things first, some of you might know
my legal name. I go by Fettin on stage and here
for a multitude of reasons. It's been a name
that I've used in one capacity or another since
I was a teenager. became my name in virtual reality,
which is where I did a lot of socializing during
the pandemic and really started performing improv
in VR, virtual reality. Now, I didn't start performing
stand -up comedy until a couple of years ago.
I used my legal name at first and then started
performing that more in VR as well. And now the
name just stuck. It's a lot easier to use. the
stage name everywhere than it is to use my legal
name everywhere. So, I'm Fedden. That's that.
If you know my legal name, it's no big secret,
but I'm not using it here. I'd prefer that you
didn't either. I'm a historian, philosopher,
and a museum curator at one point, but I've also
been obsessed with and involved with music my
entire life. I literally got into everything,
and I still listen to pretty much everything
to this day. You're going to find two main formats
of episodes right now. I will say the format
of this podcast is fluid. It'll become what it
becomes. But right now, there's going to be two
kinds of episodes primarily. You'll have episodes
where it's just me. I expect these to be a little
less popular than the other episodes, but they
will typically center around a topic. And I use
that loosely. It could be a lens to look at a
bunch of different things. Or it could be a historical
figure or a historical concept. Or it could be
something as simple as reviewing a set of albums
or a set of movies. I really expect this just
to be an outlet for me to talk about all the
different things that I'm interested in talking
about. Hopefully you'll find some of them interesting
too. I do plan to give you pretty accurate descriptions
of what to expect in each episode, so... I don't
expect every episode to be for everybody, but
I do expect that there'll be something for everyone
here. I do not plan to get political here. There's
a lot of people that can do that a lot better
than me. It's not how I want to spend my time.
Frank Zappa said that politics was the entertainment
division of the military -industrial complex,
and I tend to agree with him. When I talk about
things that have become politicized that I don't
really believe should be, I'm not going to talk
about them through a political lens. I'm just
going to talk about them the way they are. I
plan to interview a lot of different people.
As I mentioned before, I'm a historian. I plan
to take an oral history approach to these interviews,
so I'm not really trying to press anybody super
hard or really be journalistic in any sense,
but really just give people an opportunity to
tell their story. That being said, this is a
podcast. I'm not doing traditional oral history
here. And I would say that the interviews are
inspired by the practices of oral history, and
I will not strictly attune to those practices.
There will be times where I interject. There
will be times where I have discussions with these
people beyond just asking them questions and
follow -up questions. And I think that that's
far more interesting for y 'all to listen to.
That being said, I do plan to be fairly selective
about my guests, and I don't intend to... have
guests that get particularly political either,
unless I'm having a politician or an activist
on the podcast, then of course. And I will be
pretty selective about my guests. I don't plan
to have people that tend to politicize things
I don't think should be politicized. That being
said, I'm not going to hide my politics either.
I think it'll be pretty obvious where I stand
on certain things just because of the way I talk
about them. But I'm also not here to debate those
things. So you can take it or leave it. I'm a
very progressive person. I believe all people
should be treated equally or be given the same
opportunities. I'm not going to get into the
nuances of that. Sometimes I'll be talking about
science. Sometimes I'll be talking about history.
Sometimes I'll be talking about movies, music,
art of all kinds. Sometimes I'll be talking about
those things through a particular lens. Sometimes
I'll just be rambling about a particular topic
or philosophical concept. In a nutshell, I'm
just not going to politicize science. I'm not
going to politicize art, culture. Music is inherently
political. I'm not going to pretend music isn't
political when I talk about music. The point
is, this is not a political debate show. I will
not be covering the news or current events. I
hope that this can be a break from all that.
Every podcast has to start somewhere. Luckily,
some of the people I really wanted to interview
are pretty accessible. and were gracious enough
to grant me interviews without even having an
episode aired. So I've got a great, killer opening
lineup for you guys. And I think all these interviews
are really exciting. You can check out the trailer
for clips of that. And by the time this is posted,
you should be able to at least hear part one
of the J. Roddy Walston interview. I plan to
conduct the interviews pretty similarly to how
they went so far. That being said, I let the
speaker really direct the conversation. And I
plan to continue to do that as well so it can
go wherever it goes. I really want to give people
that I think might have untold stories a chance
to tell their story. I really want to also talk
to people that may have told aspects of their
story in all kinds of places to give a different
perspective. And I think that I offer a different
perspective. I'm a big advocate for mental health
and therapy. One thing that I will talk about
quite a bit is psychology, especially in the
sense of self -help and things that have helped
me over the years. I want to give a shout out
to Lee Baines for inspiring the title. Now, I'm
not going to pretend that Lee Baines is the first
person to put the two words overeducated and
underemployed together. He may have been. I don't
know. The first time it entered my lexicon was
when I heard it in his song Centerville. Be sure
to check his music out. He's got some really
important songs. Lee Baines III and the Glory
Fires is who you want to check out. And I want
to thank Lee again for inspiring the title and
giving me his blessing. I'll be giving him a
shout -out at the end of every episode. So every
podcast has its start. J. Roddy Walston was doing
some house shows, and I just happened to see
a post about it. I reached out to him, we worked
it out, and I've got to say it was one of the
best nights of my life. I was a big fan of his
music already. I will say when I'm interviewing
people that I'm a big fan of, I plan to acknowledge
that, but I also will try to be as objective
as possible when asking them questions. That
being said, I'm not trying to be a journalist.
I'm not trying to hardball anybody. But J. Roddy
Walston and I had a really good conversation.
Roddy is a really fantastic guy. He put on an
amazing show in my house. People came from a
couple hours away even to come to it. He played
for two hours. But then the next day, before
he hit the road, he was gracious enough to grant
me an interview. And that interview, to be honest
with you, the way it went, I'm so happy with
it that it shaped how I conducted the others
who were with people that I knew. I didn't know
Roddy before that interview. I'd only spent one
evening with him. I knew his music. Some of the
other people I interview right off the bat, obviously,
were people that I have a rapport with. Every
podcast has its core group of people. And my
core group of people, I think in this case, started
with the Drive -By Truckers. And I'm going to
talk to you for a few minutes about who the Drive
-By Truckers are. So if you already know, I'm
preaching to the choir. But the Drive -By Truckers
have been my favorite band for over 20 years.
You're going to hear me fanboy out about this
band, but you're also going to hear a lot of
different things. I think the reason I bring
this up is because... First, all of the, even
my interview with Roddy, the Drive -By Truckers
came up. He went on tour with them at one point.
One of the things I love about the Drive -By
Truckers is they've turned me on to so much music
over the years. It's not just their music that
I love. It's all the music that they've turned
me on to. So I really feel like the community
that's been built around them is something very
unique and special. They're a big part of my
life. There's going to be a lot of times where
I bring them up, and so I think it's important
to just be aware of who they are. That being
said, they get mentioned in almost all of these
interviews. I have plenty of other types of guests
planned. I've got authors and editors and all
kinds of different people. I am really grateful
for everybody that's given me their time so far.
I think that we've had fun recording these interviews.
I will also answer questions. I don't know what
that means yet. It depends on what kinds of questions
I get and what ones I decide to answer. But if
you have questions you'd like me to answer on
the podcast, you can email me at feddunxr, F
-E -D -D -U -N -X -R, at gmail .com. Go ahead
and drop me an email there, and maybe I'll decide
to answer your question on the podcast. I don't
know how often I'll do that. I will be performing
live pretty frequently. I do travel to record
some of these interviews as well. My goal is
always to meet these people in person, but I'd
rather talk to them than not talk to them. If
I can meet them, I'm going to do that. But I
will meet some of these guests on Zoom, some
of these guests in virtual reality. I think that
those interviews will feel much more like the
in -person interviews than a Zoom call would.
And if it doesn't, then I'll stop doing them.
I don't want to drop any names just in case something
falls through. The names that I've announced
have already been recorded. You can find those
names in the trailer. I'm Fedden, the stand -up
philosopher. This is overeducated and underemployed.
Thanks for checking it out. Check out my website
at fedden .net. F -E -D -D -U -N dot N -E -T.
Fedden .net. Thanks again.