She's been asking around. Time, I reckon, for her to get in touch with Tom and Peter.

Stumped

Tom Dibblee, it turns out, knows a lot about dogs. “There’s a difference,” he told me, “between a stray dog and a wild dog. You need forest for wild dogs. Milledgeville has wild dogs, no doubt about it. You see them in packs everywhere. You drive down a dirt road at night, and you just see eyes. You think it’s wildlife, and it is, but they’re dogs.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>.

Grandma

Peter Nichols has made peace with his writer’s block. “It’s ultimately funny, someone in that position, someone that can’t go forward. I mean we laugh when we think about constipation. That shit’s funny.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>.

Letting It Fly

I asked Gina if she knew any good jokes. She giggled. “What do a fish and a banana have in common? They both live underwater, except the banana. … Most of the jokes I like have bananas in them, which is a whole other Freudian question. … What’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit? Ba na na NAAA. That one literally came off a popsicle stick.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>. Huge thanks to <a href="http://adagio.calarts.edu/~kmsound/index.html">Katie McMurran</a> for sound engineering and <a href="http://www.dancarino.com/">Dan Carino</a> for the illustration!

Here It Comes

Peter paused and put his shirt on. “What did I learn in the mountains this summer? Things that could help Stephan? Um, simple things, I guess. Like always keep track of your lighter. It’s a good idea to keep it close to things that you’ll need to set on fire. Um, that tomatoes and grapes are some of the best things to shoot out of slingshots. Oh and I think I learned that badgers and coyotes will work together to hunt prey. A coyote will chase down a rabbit, and it’ll go into its den, and then a badger will waddle up and dig it out. I don’t know who feasts first. I don’t think they feast at the same time. But, still, that’s cool. That’s a symbiotic relationship right there.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>.

The Chinook

Adam looked at my microphone and asked if I’d ever been to the place where his brother volunteers. I told him I’d never heard of it. “You should really go there,” he said. “It’s a good place for interviewing. It’s a place for senior citizens that are like 80, 85, 95. Some of them can’t really hear well. Some of them get really grumpy. Some of them say, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up.’ And that’s when you want to get out of there. But you shouldn’t go right away, because you don’t want to embarrass anyone.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>. Huge thanks to <a href="http://adagio.calarts.edu/~kmsound/index.html">Katie McMurran</a> for sound engineering help!

The Renaissance Man

Got a problem?! I want to hear about it. Upload it <a href="http://soundcloud.com/life-advice-radio/dropbox" target="_blank">here</a>. Or leave me a message at 323-963-7753. Or email me at <a href="mailto:jake@tropmag.com" target="_blank">Jake@TropMag.com</a>.

Call for Problems!

“I do like getting her high every once in a while,” said Myke. “I haven’t, though, not lately. You know how some people just shouldn’t get high when they’re having problems? I guess she’s one of them.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>. Huge thanks to Dan Carino, for illustrating, and <a href="http://myke.me">Myke Dodge Weiskopf</a>, not only for sharing his secrets, but also for sharing his music!

Mirror, Mirror

This scene didn't make it into <a href="https://soundcloud.com/life-advice-radio/the-renaissance-man">The Renaissance Man</a>. Luckily, however, our friends at <a href="http://popuparchive.org/">Pop Up Archive</a> are running <a href="http://blog.soundcloud.com/2012/10/16/fellows-popuparchive-mashup/">a mashup contest</a>, so YOU can use the scene in your stories.

Here's <a href="https://soundcloud.com/popuparchive/sets">a link to the rest of the featured clips</a>. And here's another link to the <a href="http://blog.soundcloud.com/2012/10/16/fellows-popuparchive-mashup/">a mashup contest rules</a>.

Outtake: Adam on Jaws

I'm a big fan of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kcrwstrangers">KCRW's Strangers podcast</a>, and I think it would be a tragedy if the project didn't continue, so I played <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/185167780/strangers-season-2">the Strangers Kickstarter video</a> for Tom and Peter, and I gathered a little fundraising advice.

Huge thanks to <a href="http://adagio.calarts.edu/~kmsound/index.html">Katie McMurran</a> and <a href="http://www.pleasehappy.com/">Lauren Whaley</a> for essential production help!

Don't Be a Stranger

I mention in this clip that I'm not a a professional radio producer. If you listen through the music, you'll hear some evidence of that. The music is a track called a <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/ProleteR/Curses_From_The_Past/Muhammad_Ali">Muhammad Ali</a> by a musician called ProleteR. I found it in the jazz section on Free Music Archive. I needed something to cover up the hiss.

Jake de Grazia was a 2012 SoundCloud Fellow

I asked Naomi what her grandmother has taught her over the years. “Everything in life,” she said. “But I didn’t learn the one thing that she really wanted to teach me, the one thing she’s tried to teach me every day, every time I’ve seen her, which is that love doesn’t pay the rent.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>. Music composed by <a href="http://adagio.calarts.edu/~kmsound/index.html">Katie McMurran</a>.

The Status

Parts of this story take place in a Jeep Liberty. If you listen closely to those parts, you’ll hear quite a few off-mic giggles. The giggles, like the Liberty, belong to Katie Browne. Katie doesn’t want to sound pompous, but she considers herself an expert in driving. “You can’t be sheepish when you make left turns,” she says. “You have to be a stallion.”

This story originally appeared <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio/">on Trop</a>.

Drive

Stories about birds that keep you up at night, dogs with unique smells, proto-hipsters seeking validation, and songwriters that that aren’t very good with words. Some of them true. Some of them almost true.

Life Advice Radio appears monthly <a href="http://tropmag.com/tag/life-advice-radio">on Trop</a>.

Life Advice Radio

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