The Bird’s Bedroom

Merlin Mann (0:08)

Friends, It Is Childhood, God damn it!

John Siracusa (0:13)

I'm gonna blame that on cross-country lag, that's what I'm gonna say.

Merlin Mann (0:16)

Internet weather.

John Siracusa (0:17)

Yeah.

Merlin Mann (0:18)

Should we keep it?

John Siracusa (0:20)

I don't know.

Merlin Mann (0:21)

Hey, everybody. It's childhood. I don't know, am I allowed to say the GD word on here, or does Jim have to cut that?

John Siracusa (0:29)

Gosh darn.

Merlin Mann (0:30)

Do you think we should get Jim to start opining in line on the podcast? That would be a little cute. That's a little bro-y, isn't it?

John Siracusa (0:36)

He's like the teacher on Charlie Brown, who only talks in muted brass instruments. He can only talk in saxophone.

Merlin Mann (0:46)

Tidal. Hey, everybody. It's Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and we would love to get your help with making people more aware of childhood cancer and the things that can be done about it.

And to that end, as we've done for so many years, the Relay Podcast Network is working with St. Jude's St.-

John Siracusa (1:04)

Not possessive.

Merlin Mann (1:07)

Do you need me for this one? Because you-

John Siracusa (1:09)

We need each other.

Merlin Mann (1:11)

We need each other.

We do that. Hey, everybody.

John Siracusa (1:14)

We're one, but we're not the same.

Merlin Mann (1:16)

Wait. Is that you too?

John Siracusa (1:18)

Who is that? It is. Really?

Huh.

Merlin Mann (1:22)

Uh, hey, bye.

Join Relay and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in recognizing Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Before St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable. Today, thanks in part to better therapy, St. Jude has helped to develop more than 80% of US childhood cancer patients survive. And this is really, really good news. I tried to find that video of Dixie. I couldn't find it. I think it's in Portrait, but I should have downloaded it when I could. These kids are really something else in these families. St. Jude cares for some of the world's sickest children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, beliefs, or ability to pay. Its patients receive the customized care that they need to treat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases, no matter what barriers they face. Because of its supporters, St. Jude can provide children with cutting edge treatments not covered by insurance. And that's what we would love to get your help with. There's a very special URL that you can go to. I should have said that at the top. It's stjude.org/relay.

And you can go there and give us a modest or robust amount of money to help out with this. John, can I get you to opine about how do you feel about childhood cancer? Are you going to do it?

John Siracusa (2:36)

Cutting edge research that insurance doesn't pay for. St. Jude doesn't care about insurance.

Merlin Mann (2:40)

You can wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, John, John, hang on, but we're in the United States. Doesn't everybody care about insurance? What's going on here?

John Siracusa (2:46)

Because St. Jude provides its treatment and food and lodging and travel for the families and so on and so forth.

Merlin Mann (2:52)

John, it says here it's a hospital, they must take insurance.

John Siracusa (2:55)

And they do all that with the money that we give them. There's no magic, there's no magical benefactor paying for all this cancer research and treatment. It is people like me and you giving money every year, which is why every year in September, we do this thing where we say, please give money to St. Jude because that money goes to help the people that they treat. And as they always say, it is not a good system, but it is a system that we have and for the families that are affected by childhood cancer, this money makes all the difference in the world, so please give.

Merlin Mann (3:23)

Yeah, absolutely. It's stjude.org/relay. And you can go there and give a little, give a lot, give what you can. You know, John said before, you know, sometimes you get a certain, what I would call perhaps a college student mentality, it's the same kind of thing that still had me making bookshelves out of cinder blocks after I could afford Ikea furniture, you know, and so forth. And maybe you still think of yourself as a, and maybe you are a person without a lot of extra cash to spend. I'm going to put it the way John did on our last episode, which is if you're in a position to do something nice for other people with money, they can't pay me to say this, right? Because I don't, literally currently don't make anything off of this. But I would have to say of the many opportunities that are out there as places that can take your money to help with something theoretically good, this one gets my official okey dokey as Colonel Potter would say, stjude.org/relay.