Students Found Our Podcast… and It’s Getting Weird

This week, a crumbling Flake somehow turns into a full conversation about childhood, school life, and the packed lunches that still haunt us.

We revisit frozen sandwiches made on Sunday nights, budget crisps in blank packaging, and the strange mix of shame and comedy that existed in every school canteen.

We’ve also reached Episode 7 — the point where many podcasts quietly disappear into “podfade.” Instead, we talk about what it’s actually like launching a teacher podcast: obsessively refreshing Spotify stats for tiny dopamine hits, experimenting with Instagram clips, abandoning an X account, neglecting a lonely Facebook page, and trying to grow a very small YouTube following.

Then things take an unexpected turn.

Students were never the target audience, yet they’ve become the fastest people to find the podcast — quoting clips back to us, asking for high fives in the corridor, and even attempting to negotiate detentions.

If you enjoy funny, honest conversations about teaching, secondary education, classroom culture, and the internet colliding with school life, this episode’s for you.

Subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave us a review — we’d genuinely love your feedback.

Transcript

Chocolate Nostalgia And Shrinkflation

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Do you like a flake, James? I do like a flake. I mean I They've definitely got smaller though, didn't they? I think everything's got yeah, shrink flation's a thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:29

It's a real thing. It is a real thing, but as I'm opening this, I'm excited by it.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah. Well, the adverts, and they don't you don't see a flake advert. No, you don't. But the adverts back in the sort of nineties made out it's this particularly indulgent treat. Yeah. Absolutely. And I like I like a flake, but I think they were overselling it a little. It goes everywhere though as well. That's why I quite like a twirl, actually, because that's like a flake, but covered in sort of hardened up their act, haven't they? They did, yeah. Although there was a lot of those kinds of chocolates that don't necessarily exist anymore, because there was the twirl. The twirl sort of endured, but the spira, do you remember the Cabries Spira? I I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Die to death. That's die to death. Now that's actually made me think of a very strong memory from my childhood.

Frozen Sandwiches And Mars Bar Slices

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Go on then. Because we heard all about the knotted handchief. Knotted handkerchief last time. Um in our house, we we were not exactly well off. Right. I think that's fair to say. So there was no dinner money as such. You had to pick up you had to pick up a frozen sandwich. Right. My mum used to make sandwiches on a Sunday and freeze them for the week. Now I've never known I've never heard of that. I've never known anybody else's parents do this and they were vile. Well, yes, because it's one thing to have a frozen cheese sandwich that would, by the time you were eating it at lunchtime, be okay. But if you had, for example, ham and tomato, I don't know what how to call it, the thawed tomato, would then sort of become at one with the bread. And then I used to get made fun of. And we used to have a I used to have a packet of crisps that they were. Do you remember Quicksave? I do remember Quicksave. That became something else, didn't it? I think it did go on to become low-cost or something like that, and then went on to be, and then they were bought out by Safeway. Yes, yes. And then Safeway, of course, were bought out by Morrisons. Yes. So there we are. That's the journey. But let's go back in time with the journey. Quicksave, they didn't mess about with the sort of the budget nature of things. So the crisps, the outer packet of of the six-pack, if you if you will excuse the phrase, had plain crisps written on it. Quicksave plain crisps or savers plain crisps. I may be confusing that with Morrison's, but definitely the quicksave. When you then opened the bag, the actual crisps contained the packets contained within the outer wrap had no print on them whatsoever. It was simply plain white. So I had a frozen sandwich that you would hope had thawed, and one of these packets of crisps. But Saturday night, my dad would, after we'd we'd have to get into a Bruce Forsyth show, definitely. And once he'd paid your cards, right? Nice to see you, to see you. Don't touch the pack, we'll be right back. All of that stuff. I genuinely felt like I was in the room with Bruce Forsyth. Coming out, you're so appealing. Come on, Dolly's, and do your dealing. When we were into that show, my dad would disappear out to the kitchen. You'd hear a clanking of a knife. You know, something like that. And then in would come what he termed as Saturday nighters. It would be one Mars bar sliced. I mean s sliced as if it was a pate or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

A full size Mars bar.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

One full-size Mars bar. Not king size, though. No, no, not king size. Standard size Mars bar. And the plate would be passed around for us to have what and and if I put it in my mouth to keep he goes savour it. I I to this day find it astonishing.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Much like the anticipation you felt uh when opening a previously frozen sandwich containing tomato. Let's give our audience what they want and get on with the show. Absolutely. I'm still in counselling for that, by the way. And I would be too if I had experienced that. Welcome

Postcards And Teacher Roll Call

SPEAKER_00 4:45

to Ben and James Could Do Better, a show which features two secondary school teachers trying to do comedy. But largely achieving Shakespearean levels of tragedy. Let's start with the customary reg that we do for some reason. I'm James, and the sound of my voice is likely to be evidence that I'm in the room, but do we have a Ben? Let's find out, shall we? Ben. Sorry. Ben?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Are you actually answering Ben? Yes, what I'm doing is what a lot of students do do, which is to say the word hair, H A I R, which I don't really understand because it's here. Yeah. And they say it so quickly and in such a sort of deadpan low voice that you can barely pick it up with your aging ears, which is huh. Huh. I get it every lesson. So I mean, you know, it that happens all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

So another bit that you love, Ben, uh, is well, you didn't really like it last week, actually. You weren't a fan of the postcards last week. No. No. I didn't like that one. But I'm I don't think you're gonna like this one either.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

But it is important that we stick to what we've established now, is the postcard beer, the start of the episode. Yep. Okay. So I'm gonna I've just I'm gonna try and muster up a bit more enthusiasm. Try and I yeah, I I've I've chosen one for you. I'm gonna hand it to you now. Right. And uh you don't use don't dwell on it. Just just say a few things and then we'll move on. Groovy baby. I think that'll do. That'll do.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Um I think that'll do. It does. Yeah, uh yeah, okay. Groovy baby. I wouldn't send that to anybody.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Sort of an Austin Powers vibe kind of pattern that's reminiscent of uh 60s, but not really. It's more the 90s view of the 60s.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

It's not the worst thing I've seen, but if they're again supposed to be things that you hand out to students, I wouldn't want to. Inappropriate for a student, I think, but yeah. Uh what have you been up to this week, Ben? Well, I've been tinkering with the car. I do watch an inordinate number of um YouTubers who buy old cars and do them up. I've no idea why. I haven't got a mechanical bone in my body. Anyway, enough about that. What did you get up to um this last week?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Well, I'm surprised you don't remember then because I was actually with you for the highlight of my week. Oh yes. Which was when we went to see the highlight of my week as well. Probably better than what you actually gave, but thank you for that because you've given me the story. So

A Surprisingly Smooth Theatre Trip

SPEAKER_00 7:23

we went to uh High Wickham to see Blood Brothers. I'll try. With some students. The lovely Swan. The Swan Theatre in High Wickham. And it was a really good production, and the students were excellent. And actually, because of all of that, it's quite a boring story. And I I think a lot of people anticipated when you and I went on a trip together there'd be some sort of story to be told. That our colleagues No, we didn't lose anybody. Didn't lose any. It was it's it was all very everyone had quite a nice time. I drove the mini-bus, it came back in one piece, no issue. Yeah, and uh it wasn't just like a jolly, which I think people had sort of always Ben and James, Ben and James off on a trip together, having a bit of a jolly. But actually, I did bring value to the triple because I used to live in Highwickham, so I was able to. You really added value, I thought, to that. I added a lot of value. So it was lovely, but it's actually made quite a dull story for the podcast, so I can only apologise for that. Well, we did meet the actors, didn't we? We did the cast. And again, that was good, but I'm not sure that's an interesting story either. Okay, on with the show. Uh,

The 6-7 Meme And Podfade

SPEAKER_00 8:20

you might not be aware of this, Ben, but this is episode seven. And I know you don't like the countdown, but I think it's important to point out that last week was episode six, and this week is episode seven. Thank you. Revolution. So I mean, my maths is poor, but I mean I can cope with that. I think you need to listen to that again. Six. Seven.

unknown 8:43

No.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

It would be wrong of me not to have done that, because I'm sure you've experienced it.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

I can't stand it. I don't get it. Well, I do get it, I understand it completely. I don't get it from a humorous point of view. What's your understanding of it then? Do you understand it? It was some sporting reference, I believe. Is it basketball, something like that?

SPEAKER_00 9:04

It is related to basketball. I'm going to tell you the story now of 6-7 because I think some of our listeners will be perplexed by, and I want to shed light on this for everyone. Right, yeah. Um so it started uh with the lyrics of a in a song called Doot Doot by an artist called Skriller. Yeah, there's no danger of me listening to that. I've never listened to it, I've not done that much research.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Give me the cure or David Bowie any day of the week, but not Skriller, did you say? Skriller, doot doot. I love the way we did that as real old men. Even the way you said doot doot. Yes, I imagine that's how he says it.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Uh Skriller.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

I should imagine it isn't.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Uh probably not. Uh that was released on the 1st of December 2024, if you wanted that level of uh detail, which it looks like you did. And by January 2025, content creators, uh, which is what we are now, believe it or not, we're content creators, but some other content creators that weren't us on the TikTok. Yeah, which we're not on, we're not on the TikTok, we're on a lot of social media, we're gonna get onto that later. Uh, they started using that song over some videos, but but predominantly, as you said, basketball-based content. Yeah. Then it became associated with a six foot seven basketball player called Lamello Ball.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

God, this is boring.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Isn't it? But it finally it took off when a footage of a young boy at a basketball game was shouting 6'7.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

But why would it take off?

unknown 10:31

I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Why would that take off? You know, if if later on today I go outside and I go, oh, two, three, that's not gonna take off, is it? No, and if it did, there'd be nobody more perplexed than me about it. I don't understand it, I don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

No, it's stupid. So I've had some fun with it in some maths lessons. Not that I think it's that funny, but asking questions like 42 is the product of which numbers? And the answer obviously being six and seven. Yes. Gets such a perplexed reaction out of my year 11 class. They get quite annoyed with me for doing that. Even though they're the idiots who came in going 6'7, 6'7, and trying to get a reaction out of me. The reaction they get out of me is that.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah, I mean, I had it the other day, we were marking uh one of the drama questions, and I said, Well, you know, that's a five out of eight, but if you wanted a six or seven, um, and then there there was some guffours of laughter. Yeah. Absolute guffours of laughter.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

They think you did that on purpose, you see.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Well, I I didn't, and even if I did, it's not funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

But it is to them. And I suppose anyway, the other significant bit about this being episode seven is that should we successfully manage to record this, which is by no means a given. But it never is. Never is. But we we've made it to the end of six. Yeah. Oh seven. See, you can enjoy it. Oh, I enjoy it. You you just need to lean into it. Uh yeah, yeah. Anyway, if we do if we do make it to the end of episode seven, we will have officially survived Pod Fade. Right, that sounds interesting. Tell me more. Pod fade is uh quite a common trait amongst new podcasters. And what what basically happens is they start recording, realize no one's listening, and sort of stop, and they don't make it as far as episode seven. Right. So this is a a sort of pivotal moment, isn't it? If we get past this, we've made it past the first stage of podfade, which is good, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Um will we be able to describe ourselves as podfade survivors?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I I think there's several stages of podfade, so we'll first phase pod fade. We've survived first phase, yeah. I think we could do that, yeah. It only if this episode goes out. If this episode makes it to air, yeah, so to speak, we'll have survived the first stage of Podfade. We've been made episode seven. So that's that's exciting, isn't it? Yes. Um and it's also um significant this episode, not not for being number seven, but this is significant because this is the first episode we've recorded since we actually launched the show. So the first six we recorded before we'd actually released any of these episodes. So we didn't know anything about what would happen. We just were kind of quite hopeful, and we made these things and then we put them out there. And now Gosh, aren't we brave? Yes, I feel brave. Uh we're sitting, but you know, this is the first time we've stared at each other across this double bed. Yep. With some feedback. Yeah, we are I would say we're no longer we're no longer aspiring podcasters, we're actual podcasters with actual listeners. As long as we don't fade after this one. Well, yeah, I mean, well, at the time of recording We haven't faded, we haven't faded, and people have listened to the episodes.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, so thinking about that then, I mean, we've had quite a bit of feedback. Uh I

Students Watch Clips And Teachers Shrug

SPEAKER_01 14:02

think we ought to share some of that, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Well, yeah, that's what I thought. I thought, you know, rather than going through one of my fun lists that I like to find on the internet. Oh, there'll be plenty more where that came from. I'm sure. Oh, yeah. We'll definitely have to pivot back to that.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

We'd like the listeners to send some in. That would be fantastic. I want people to be writing in and contributing to the shows. That's called a call to action.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Now, most people traditionally leave that to the end of the episode. Well, why not do it in the middle? I like your not everybody. Your Maverick approach is is is appreciated. It's inspiring, isn't it? Anyway, I but I do still think it's helpful to have a list, although I haven't gone on the internet to find a list. So I made a list. Right. It's my list of things that I've noticed since becoming a bona fide podcaster. And uh you might have noticed some other stuff. Yeah, yep. So obviously feel free to contribute. Thank you, it's very kind of you. Because it's I feel this is a it's a shared operation. It's important.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

It's very kind of you to invite me to I want you to feel heard to be part of this. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

I I I I want you to feel part of it.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Oh, I do, I do, I do, I do.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

But if we start with what I've noticed and then you just interrupt as you as you as you're prone to do anyway, we'll see we'll see where this takes us. Because it's it feels like a deviation from what we've previously done, and I'm a little worried that without the structure of a badly put together list about something slight sort of.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Well, let's not become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

No, uh, so let's go. Okay, so what have I noticed? I'm sure you're curious to know. I am. Number one, I have now realised why secondary teachers don't make podcasts, and why it's predominantly been our primary counterparts that have been largely making the podcasts. Okay. Why is that? Uh well, because primary teachers teach primary age children.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Oh, yeah, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And I think they're not that interested or able to access the the output of the primary teacher. And even if they could, wouldn't really be interested. Whereas, and I'd forgotten what second even though we work with them every day, I'd forgotten what secondary students are like when making this. I thought the biggest issue would be colleagues not liking it or you know, that I thought that would be it would be colleagues and maybe No, no.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Whereas we've had lots of people coming up to us going, Oh sir, uh love your podcast. And I'm I'm serious when I say that, I'm not saying it's to sort of boast. And I'm thinking you're not the target audience. Not at all. How has this happened?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

What I particularly like is the fact that the children have come up to us and going, I I've watched your podcast. Yes. I've watched your podcast, is what they're saying to me. I've watched it.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

It's it's kind of it's impossible. You can't at this moment in time to have watched it. No. So what are they saying? I suppose they mean they've played it on their device. No, they don't mean that.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

They mean they haven't listened to it. They haven't listened to the actual podcast. They're not included, I don't think, in the statistics. The vast majority of them. They've looked at bits of video. They've looked at the little clips that we've been posting to the Instagram, mainly the Instagram to be fair. Um so they've watched the podcast. They've literally watched what is a still of us with a sort of a wavy line saying, well, basically, because those are bits of the podcast that I've deemed to be the funniest bits, but it's been quite hard to find 30-second clips that are that funny, which doesn't say it doesn't say much for us. It doesn't because often there is a funny bit in there, but then one of us will just sort of ruin it by interrupting the other one or something like that. Oh gosh, we'll have to get better at that, won't we? Uh we would we do do that quite a lot, which I think is okay for on the extended play. It doesn't really matter the long play. The long play, the full format episode. If we sort of talk over each other a bit there, that's okay. That's what podcasters do. Yes. When we're part of that fraternity now. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

And um But we need to think going forward more in terms of what can be clipped up. The kids have absolutely gone nuts, haven't they? Yeah, they've uh they've loved it. We're coming up to us. I I had a year seven boy uh ask if he could be high-fived, and then if I would sign his bag. I mean, that's extreme, isn't it? And I say, I'm not signing your bag. You must be joking.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Can you imagine the parent when they get home? What's this? Now, what's been interesting is that some of the kids have been so loyal to the show, they've actually been promoting it to their families, and I've had feedback such as, and my mum really likes it. You know, that's yeah, uh so essentially But what about the actual target audience?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Well, I mean that's as in our colleagues and and adults, generally speaking, around the country.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

It's almost as if you've read my mind, because that's point two. Point two um on my list that I made is that uh I've entitled it Mostly Our Colleagues Don't Care. Well, that's true, yeah. Um the kids have got behind us, but quite a lot of the teachers we work with really couldn't care less. I expected to walk into Stafford in the day episodes one to three launched. Yeah. And expected almost a round of applause or, you know, some sort of uh event. Um and what we actually definitely didn't happen, did it? We didn't walk into a definite round of applause, we walked in largely to indifference.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

That's no different to you, sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

What I like are the teachers, though, and a couple of teachers have come up to us. Um, well, me and you, I think, certainly it's happened to me, have come up to me and said, uh, I've listened to your podcast. And then stopped there. I've listened to your podcast. Yeah. That's that's not feedback. No, it's not it's not feedback, no. Um but my favourite ones are the ones that have told me they're working their way through episode one. It's not supposed to be some sort of endurance test, is it? I know my response is university.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Well, you don't need to. It was 30 minutes. If you had to sort of open your ears. So they've had to make well, they're having to bite it, you know, sort of go through it in chunks, I spec. Yeah, but but this one do five minutes, but no more.

unknown 19:43

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

And I just feel like if it's that hard, don't it's fine. It's fine. Yeah, it's not for you. If it isn't for you, it's not for you. If you listen to this now and this isn't for you, that's fine. If you can listen for 60 seconds, though, it's better before you give up, because that counts on our stats. Yeah. Because that's uh brings which brings me on to point three, actually.

Stats Obsession And Social Media Confusion

SPEAKER_00 20:03

The stats have become a bit of an obsession. Well, more for you than for me, but I I'm just totally underwhelmed by the well you are, but what I'm saying, I and I'm not overwhelmed by them. I'm not going, wow, wow, we've made it. But I literally every time I see the downloads go up, I get like this dopamine hit. The day we launched the podcast, most people didn't know there was a podcast. No, that that's true. And when you look on on the Spotify and the Apple podcasts and all of those different places where you can find Ben and James Could do better, but but when you look on those platforms, you will find there's quite a lot of podcasts. There are, in fact, worldwide, millions of podcasts. Is it a saturated market? It's an incredibly saturated market, and we are what is oft referred to as a niche podcast.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

So I want to be best breakthrough artist of 2026.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah, I mean, realistically, that was never going to happen in week one, two, three, or four. No, um, or five, six, seven, or eight. So unfortunately, your expectations were unrealistic, which is why you're disappointed by the statistics. However, the statistics have actually been quite encouraging for, and I need to reiterate this, Ben, for a new podcast. They've been alright for that. Yeah, they have. Well, that does actually bring us on to our social media strategy because um we don't actually know how to promote the show at all. We don't, neither of us know how social media works. And it's been sort of quite overwhelming. I sort of overdid it at the beginning because I set up an Instagram account and a Facebook account and a blog and an X account. You did, and you were very good. Well, I've done all these things, so now we've got an Instagram account which is full of audio clips, on which we're mostly being followed by teenagers, a Facebook page which has one exactly one follower, which is possibly worse than having no followers, and this person that's following us seems like a pleasant elderly lady who is quite clearly based in the USA and can't have any interest. In any of this. We have five subscribers on our YouTube page, which I'm not sure is much better than having none. And we've got absolutely no followers on X, but I did largely give up on X on day one because I just don't like it really. The blog has got a couple of posts on it, and I might keep updating that, but I think at this point that's just for my own amusement and not for anyone else's. Well, clearly. Yes, yes, but you know, I've had a couple of likes actually on that.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Oh, this is depressing.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Well, no, it is it is because we don't understand, but we have pivoted on this. We've started making some videos, so hopefully they will be better received. So come on then, James.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Uh, what's the feedback uh telling us from our listenership?

Reviews Warnings And Bizarre Messages

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Well, we've actually had some five-star reviews. Where were they? On the Spotify. Oh right, right, okay. And on Apple Podcasts, that page. The Apple Podcast reviews are quite hard to find because Apple's quite interesting and you can only find them on the GB Apple Podcasts. But we're available internationally on Apple Podcasts, but the reviews only feature on the British version of that. Right. But five star reviews on on Apple and on Spotify, and a written review on the GB Apple Podcast page. Right. They've entitled it Lighthearted and Rye Humour. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Five stars. Yeah. Originally two stars that one, but I think that was a mistake because they've gone back and changed it to five stars. Um and it says, this is what the review says a great listen from two experts in their field. Both have been there and got the t-shirt and lived through to the other side. I don't think we have actually the I think we're still in the middle of it. Very much in the thick of it, I would say. Have loved and re-listened to all episodes thus far. Wow. I know, I know. And looking forward to the next topics to come under the killer gaze of this pair. I just hope they keep their jobs.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Oh, that last bit.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

And obviously we hope very caring, actually. Very caring, and we hope they now I don't know if this is a person we know or someone that doesn't know us, but it's it's very nice. It's a very nice review. Thank you. Well, long may they continue. But we had some other feedback in other areas as well. Okay, yeah. I'm sure it'll be overwhelmingly positive, is it? Uh some some of them will be quite weird. Right. On the YouTube. So um on uh on YouTube, somebody essentially it's a warning uh they've they've written. They've I wouldn't announce that if I'm honest. You won't hear the end of it from ya students. So what how do you interpret that? I think they possibly are saying, as secondary teachers, making a podcast and promoting it is a bad idea because we teach secondary age students and they'll be aware of it and they'll keep on going on about it.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Well, yes, we've already fallen foul of that one.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Unfortunately, yeah, the horses bolted on that one.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

But it was actually good advice, it's just we didn't get it in time.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

By the time we got it, it was largely useless advice.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

So thank you, thank you to to whoever that was for that advice.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

That's great. And then most of the feedback's been on Instagram. I don't understand all of them, truthfully. Could you could you give us a bit of a flavour? Uh somebody asked if we'd remove their detention.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

That's somebody homegrown, then obviously.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Obviously, we would never do that. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

That's an outrageous request, as I may say, as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

That same person asked if we had an OnlyFans page because they'd like to support us. Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

No, no, there's no danger of that. No. No need to worry about that.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Um a student in school that I know, because the the day the podcast launched, um, actually did sponsor us. What? They they see because there's a bit on the on the Buzz Sprout page where you can support Ben and James sort of thing. There's a now it's sort of we don't have a choice, that's just there. All I could do is kind of reframe it a little bit. I could I changed the the wording so it sort of isn't quite such a money-grabbing kind of but basically it's there, you can't not have it. But one of the students instead of We've had a donation. Well, yes, but they did subs they did. They did. Yeah. But then I think something, the algorithms or whatever, worked out that it was a child doing this, so cancelled it. So what was the donation? I never really saw. I think it was a regular it was a commitment to regularly donate money as well. Wow. Um, on behalf of it could have been this sort of two pounds a month, something like that, yeah, which would have made all the difference actually. But it certainly would have done true quality. I did tell him no, you can't do that, but I think the internet told him no, you can't do that as well. Oh, thank goodness for that. It was a it was a relief, yeah. I would have felt quite good uh receiving even that as small as that income would have been. Well, it's these small stepping stones, isn't it? I feel that could have been a conflict of interest. There is on the Instagram, there's uh somebody that keeps sending us memes. Why? I don't know of what they they don't seem to bear any relation to anything that's we're posting. And on one comment, he made a comment, he seemed to be accusing us of being AI. And then and then a student has defended us in this comment and put and put how can they be AI if they're two teachers who work in a school? There's nothing artificial or indeed particularly intelligent about any of this. So, yes, uh, and and then lots of comments, but quite supportive things, people saying like black heart emojis and things like that. What do they mean? Don't I think it's positive. I'm gonna find out. But mainly it's been students going, I know these people, isn't that brilliant? Like and as if we're already famous. Um that's nice, isn't it? Yeah, but it's enthusiastic.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

The black heart emoji commonly symbolises deep, dark love, affection and admiration, but often with an edgy, rebellious or sarcastic tone. Right. Well that's appropriate. I quite like that, yeah. I think that fits. Um we've also got a fan I've uh noticed on on the social medias in Cambridgeshire. Yeah? Yes, and this gentleman uh given given us the benefit of his um his opinion on how things were going. He he thought episode one was a bit slow moving. Yeah, he felt that was a bit slow moving and you know. We then had him, he piped up again um and said something about for episodes two and three, he said, get him better. Okay. Uh he said, but you both sound the same. Uh I don't think that's true. I don't think it's true either. I don't think I sound anything like you. I and and I hope I don't sound anything like you. I mean, you know, I've got a great deal of time for you, but I I don't go around trying to mimic you.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

No, you you mimic Bruce Forsyth and very well. But uh no. Um no, it's and it's interesting because I excellent. I'm pleased you've done that again. I um obviously I I uh you know, I as well as running the socials, I do most of the editing. All of the editing, let's be honest. All of the editing and so I listen to the episodes quite a lot. I mean you have to. So you can't edit something if you're not listening to it. And I can categorically say we sound different. I'm it's very easy to identify which one of us is speaking. It's it's really clear which one of us is not being funny. It's obvious. You're not thinking which one was just not funny then. Yeah, it's obvious which one isn't being funny. Um but it's been And I think at this moment it's both of us. It's been a weird time to be us, me certainly, but I imagine you too. I think it's been quite a good fun making this. Yes, definitely. Can agree. But it has been simultaneously overwhelming. And underwhelming. And underwhelming at the same time, yeah. Uh any any additional thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Well, um uh my mum said to me, I said, Oh mum, doing a podcast with my friend James. Oh yes, yes, James, the one that works with you. I said, Yeah, yeah. Well, what's all that about? And I said, Well, it's about education. She said, Well, will people listen to that? I said, Well, I I don't know, mum, but I'm I'm hoping. And she said, Well, I won't be.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I mean, look, I I'd rather that than she works her way through episode one.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Well, she's she's not a lady's um up for enduring episode one, two, three, four, or indeed any subsequent episodes. Well, I think that was the bell, wasn't it, James? I think we might just have been saved by the bell. Yes, I think so. I think

Thanks Requests And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 30:45

so. But I what I would like to end on is thank you for the feedback so far, and thank you genuinely to people who have endured it, as uh one of those uh people in school said, or genuinely listened and given feedback. We would like people to like and subscribe. It'd be great if you could get the clips out to your uh networks and spread the word about it, and we will be back on it uh in terms of hammering through a comedy list uh linked to uh another aspect of our wonderful job of teaching. And uh James, I I hope you'll be there too, won't you?

SPEAKER_00 31:20

I expect I will turn up, yeah. I've quite enjoyed it actually. If if anyone listening to this, and I think we did put a call out last week, um, so possibly by the time this goes live, we'll have had some feedback from our listeners already. But if it if that hasn't happened yet, and we have still got listeners, God bless you, if you'd like to contribute to the show and have us read out some stuff that you've sent into us and make fun of it. That would be great. We'd really like that because it's a lot of work trying to find stuff on the internet, and I don't want to. I want you to do it. Can you do it for us, please? Please. And until next time, bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Bye.