#349 AJ Gentile - Grand Canyon Conspiracies, AI Extinction and Nuclear War on Mars

Shawn Ryan (0:00)

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AJ Gentile (1:34)

From the studio that brought you WandaVision.

Shawn Ryan (1:37)

I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. The Vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy.

AJ Gentile (1:46)

That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called Vision. How is this possible?

Shawn Ryan (1:53)

Don't miss the two-episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest. Nothing bonds a family together quite like mortal jeopardy.

AJ Gentile (2:01)

Now streaming on Home Young Disney+.

Shawn Ryan (2:11)

AJ Gentile, welcome back.

AJ Gentile (2:13)

Good to be back.

Shawn Ryan (2:14)

Good to have you back, man. I mean, shit, we just did a whole four-hour podcast up in my office.

AJ Gentile (2:20)

We did. Only about two hours we can release.

Shawn Ryan (2:24)

But yeah, man, it's good to catch up, like really good to catch up.

AJ Gentile (2:29)

I'm comfortable coming back. I appreciate it.

Shawn Ryan (2:31)

You know, usually I give an introduction, but I don't feel like I need to give one right now. AJ Gentile, founder of The Why Files, wildly successful podcaster, now podcaster. Last time you were here, we were kind of going through, it was an idea.

AJ Gentile (2:49)

It was.

Shawn Ryan (2:50)

She turned into a real thing. And how many people have you interviewed now? Do you even, have you lost count?

AJ Gentile (2:55)

I'm at 35 Shit. Yeah.

Shawn Ryan (3:00)

How do you like it?

AJ Gentile (3:01)

Well, it's harder than it looks. You know, you kind of make it look easy. It's harder than it looks. It's a lot more work than I thought.

I like it. It's cool to talk to smart people who know a lot more than I do about stuff.

And right now, I'm sticking with just the people who are in sort of the orbit of my episodes. Like if I'm going to do a time travel episode, great. And I'll find some physicists that I'm talking about in the episode. So now I can just call that physicist and be like, hey, you want to come on and shoot the breeze about your theories? And they do.

Shawn Ryan (3:33)

I love it. Pretty cool, right?

What do you see it growing into?

AJ Gentile (3:38)

I don't think it grows into much more than this. Um, you know, there are some that would like me to go a little more mainstream.

Like, more mainstream guests.

Shawn Ryan (3:48)

What does that mean?

AJ Gentile (3:50)

I turn down every celebrity, every politician, every journalist. I turn them all down.

Every government, every dude in the government or lady in the government, turn them all down. I'm kind of just sticking with sort of my wheelhouse.

Shawn Ryan (4:07)

Who wants you to go mainstream?

AJ Gentile (4:10)

You know, your reps, your, my team. You know, I don't want to name names of who I've turned down, but turned down some big, big Hollywood stars because it's like, what are we going to talk about with him?

Shawn Ryan (4:21)

It's weird, isn't it? Yeah. It's weird. So, what do you talk about with certain people? I know what you mean. I mean, I've had a lot of politicians on, probably won't have many more on.