Speaker 1Hello and welcome. This is We Contain Multitudes, the casual interview show with our favourite people, famous and accomplished guests, who share the geek-outs, hobbies and interests which they might not necessarily be known for. C'est moi, I am your host Sandra Wong and today I am so thrilled to be joined by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Hi Adrian. Hello, hello. Thank you very much for having me on the show. Oh, it's such a blast. Let me just read this for you. As you well know, listeners of the podcast, Adrian Tchaikovsky is an incredibly talented and prolific British author of science fiction and fantasy with an entire slew of awards to his name, not just a shelf but a slew. You will also recognise his dulcet tones from Starship Alexandria. The podcast Adrian co-hosts with the delightful Emma Newman. I personally am particularly fond of your Christmas Advent episodes of 2025. Adrian, I loved hearing the shows and like TV series and movies that you and Emma, you know, shared because that was just so cool. And I'm still looking for a way to watch Black Sails, by the way. Okay, so thank you so much for joining us, Adrian, and especially as I think you could have probably just stayed on in the world of science fiction and fantasy. Thank you so much for joining us, Adrian, and especially as I think you could have probably just stayed on in the world of science fiction and fantasy. I think you could have probably just stayed on in the welcoming and warm embrace of your fans in Finland, enjoying what looks like a really fabulous book tour. So I'm so thrilled that you made the time to join us today. And also, friends, Adrian is feeling a tiny bit under the weather. So I promise to be gentle. So what do you want to talk with us today about?
Speaker 2I guess I'm going to talk about my hobby of visual art. Oh, love it. And kind of the slightly peculiar and not necessarily healthy reasons of why that is what I do resort to as a sort of a de-stressing and hobby activity. So this is two-stranded. So first of all, I draw. Digitally. I do post stuff up occasionally on whatever social media platform I'm on currently, Blue Sky. And I draw anthropomorphic animals, much like I write about. And I also draw people riding bugs, which also kind of feels fairly on brand. And the other thing I do and post up is I paint miniatures, Warhammer miniatures. I don't actually play the war game particularly, but I do build and paint a lot.
Speaker 1Oh, OK. So two-stranded. So let's deal with the first one, which is your visual arts. So is that something that you trained yourself in or did you have training? Have you always been a visual artist from childhood?
Speaker 2I've always drawn. I have traditionally not been terribly good. But it was something, I mean, my dad tried to teach me to draw and I was not a terribly teachable child. But I used to doodle a lot in lessons. And then I went on. I went on to doing like sort of cartoons and things. And I have done until recently like an annual sort of calendar I've given out of the Christmas present with cartoons and things like that. But actual sort of art, art, as in any way representational art, is something that I can only really do digitally because I am not very dexterous. OK. And the great joy of any kind of digital art platform, and I use a Corel paint shop mostly, is, of course, that you can just go back. If you make mistakes. Yeah. So at that point, it kind of overcomes my sort of skill ceiling that I tend to run into.
Speaker 1Right. So was your dad, is your dad an artist?
Speaker 2He is, I mean, not professionally an artist. He is a furniture restorer, which is obviously an artistic thing in itself. But also he does a lot of art, usually things like maps for geology. He's a keen amateur geologist. And from that kind of, yeah. Yeah. Became a certain amount of artistic sort of drawing skill that he attempted and mostly failed to pass on to me.
Speaker 1OK. I'm going to resist the temptation to delve into what made you a not teachable child. And we're going to move. So what is it about like anthropomorphizing animals that interests you? I mean. Partly.
Speaker 2Yeah. As anyone who's read my books knows, I like animals. My books are always in conversation with the natural world in some way. Yeah. I quite like doing. So, you know, in general, I will do kind of animals in historical or sort of fantasy world style costuming. I've done it. I do a lot of sort of animals as various sort of Dungeons and Dragons character classes and things like that. There is partly it is that human faces is very difficult. And if you're doing an animal, you don't have to worry about that. Partly it is that when. What I try not to do as so sometimes when you see sort of anthropomorphic art, the animal involved has been given essentially a human body. So it's like a sort of Egyptian deity sort of thing, animal head on human body. And then you can just dress them up as you want. What I quite like doing is you just have the animal in its shape and you bipedalize it and potentially give it some sort of thumbs or whatever that it needs to hold whatever things you wanted to hold. But there is a really. Really fascinating challenge in working out how you would dress a bear or a spider or anything like that. So you you get to you get to play a lot with that kind of basically it becomes a little world building exercise in and of itself.
Speaker 1Yeah. Yeah. Well, so do you remember what the like when you're drawing like how did you get into digital art? When did you discover that?
Speaker 2I guess. Oh, well, I because I kept trying to do physical art and I was never very happy with anything I was able to produce. And then I it struck me. Oh, actually, these, you know, basically you can have a drawing tablet, which obviously means you know, you have to train yourself to it to a certain extent, because rather than looking down at your pen, so to speak, you're looking at the screen while the pen is moving. Yeah. But that's a I found that a reasonably easy adjustment to make. It was just working up from that. And obviously, you know, like I say, you have the option to undo things. It's go wrong. And also at the end of the day, if you don't like it, you can just delete it. Yeah. So you don't have lots of, you know, been stuffed with bits of paper or anything like that. Right. And it was yeah, it was it was just a thing I worked I worked and kicked around. There was oh, I think it was Sarah McIntyre, who is a children's book artist who had on Twitter like drawing exercises for a while. And I got involved in that. So there was like she would produce a shape and you would take the shape and then you would make a picture that involved the shape. And I found that quite a fun. And that was just a good a good practice ground. And a lot of the time, nothing terribly useful came of it. But it was still it was a good way of visualizing things. And one of the things I seem to be able to do is visualize stuff and then draw it. I can't draw from life. I cannot do portraiture or anything like that, but I can draw from imagination. Interesting. A lot of people, there seems to be a bit of a divide in that. So, for example, Annie, my wife, can draw from life, but you can't draw from her head.
Speaker 1Oh, that's fascinating. I just want to take a moment to to say R.I.P. Twitter and like lovely, you know, little serendipitous things like that, like finding drawing exercises just because that's so cool. So then did you start drawing things from your own novels and stories?
Speaker 2I've tried a couple of times. I think the problem is mostly because the majority of my characters are human. Like I said, I'm not I'm getting better at drawing. I'm not drawing people because like I say, I do also draw people on bugs. But it is quite noticeable that the vast majority of my people on bugs have hoods or helmets or some other thing that means I don't have to do the faces. The secret. Yeah. And when I've tried to do when I've tried to do characters from the books, it's never turned out terribly satisfactorily. So I'm not a good sort of self fan art sort of person.
Speaker 1Right. And then is it line drawings and just vector drawings you do or do you do full color? Well, this is the other advantage.
Speaker 2You know, if you'll do as long as as long as you've kind of have no gaps in your lines, you can do flood filling with digital art and then you can do shading over that. And so I've worked up a technique. And again, I was never able to get kind of smooth coloring when I was trying to working with kind of pencil crayons and things and things like that physically. But you have a lot more control over things on the digital sphere.
Speaker 1Do you have? I don't. And I don't know if you're going to have an answer to this. Do you have a memory of like the worst thing you ever drew? And what was it?
Speaker 2Oh, good. I mean, I've certainly had some incomplete drawings. I mean, sometimes my imagination does rather get the better of my ability. So I've got somewhere on the digital file, a half done thing. There was an amazing picture I found of a wasp and a cicada fighting. So I had the idea I'd have them. Kind of clasped together, and then you have the two riders dueling over them. And that just turned out to be far, far too complicated for me to really make make happen, sadly.
Speaker 1Yeah. So how many years have you been doing this kind of digital art?
Speaker 2I mean, I think I must have been doing it about 10 years now, to be honest.
Speaker 1Yeah. Do you think you'd want to retry again at that Wasp and Cicada?
Speaker 2I mean, like I said, the incomplete file is sitting around in my pictures folder. So at some point I may go back to it.
Speaker 1That's so cool. So then I'm fascinated too, like this is sort of the mini strand off of this strand about people riding insects.
Speaker 2Yeah. Insects, spiders, all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3What is that about?
Speaker 2So it's, I mean, partly it's a thing I, you know, that turns up in various of my books. Yeah. Anyway, but also the way I work is I'll find a good reference photo. Okay. And this is one of the things you need to find a fairly side on reference photo. And that's actually quite difficult to hunt down with a lot of bugs because usually, you're seeing a top-down view. Yeah. You need a very good sort of photographer to give you a nice, a reference from a useful kind of perspective. But doing that, I then will sort of trace around the bug. And so make one layer of that. And then you can do another layer of all sort of tack and harness and things. And then the rider on top. And again, it becomes this little world building of, well, how do you saddle up a tarantula or something like that?
Speaker 1How do you, how does one saddle up a tarantula?
Speaker 2Then you think, well, you know, and what sort of person is riding it? And then you think, riding the, riding the tarantula and that kind of, and, and so you get to tell a little story as part of the art. And that's, that's kind of grown more, more elaborate as I've gone on. Yeah. And yeah, it's, so basically it's one of those that my, my artistic ability has get, has hopefully become sort of steadily better through doing. And also, like I say, it, it is a, a very useful de-stressing activity.
Speaker 1Yeah. Yeah. Say more about that.
Speaker 2I have a very strong drive to be productive. I mean, people will notice I get a lot of written. I try and get something written every day and there is a limit to how much I can write, but there is a little goblin on my shoulder basically saying, well, you've got to do stuff. You've got to do, you know, you've got to have something to show for your time at the end of the day. And so a lot of the time when I'm relaxing, I still need to feel that I'm producing. And I don't think this is particularly psychologically healthy, but there we go. And I know, I think towards the end, we will talk about potentially like sort of comfort things to do. And I, at that point, I'll talk about things that I do that are entirely non-productive that I, that I also engage in. But the idea of spending time doing this and then having a picture at the end of it or having a painted figure at the end of it or something like that is psychologically useful to me. And like I say, I don't necessarily endorse this as a healthy way of going about things, but it does seem to be the box I've ended up in.
Speaker 1Yeah. Well, I mean, there is something to be said too, of understanding ourselves, you know, and knowing what works for us and not trying to do something that someone else says is better for us. And we know it's just not going to work. So I think, I mean, I don't think there's anyone who's going to say that's a terrible idea that you're distressing by creating art. Right. Yeah. So is there, do you have any favorite drawings, either of the anthropomorphized? Uh, creatures or, uh, you know, a human figure riding an insect?
Speaker 2Yeah. I mean, certainly with the, the human, one of the things I did, um, a couple of years ago, there was a kind of a, a, an invertebrate challenge, a year long invertebrate challenge where you ended up doing, um, I think it was like one picture a week across the year or four pictures a month, I think across the year. And I absolutely went to town on that. And each one was like, you know, I ended up doing, you know, generally fairly martial sort of this or the person with a sword on a bug. Right. Uh, but while I was doing this, I, I very much broadened my kind of my topic so that it was people living with bugs in all sorts of weird ways. So you had like a, an Ichnumon wasp being used at the drilling rig and you had two people taking tea inside a jellyfish and all of this and sort of medieval peasants harvest, harvesting sea squirts and all this very bizarre stuff. But, you know, there was some, there was things like, you know, there was a, there was a like, um, I did a city that was built on a, an incrustation of mussels and I threw a bit of computer trickery. I got a reasonably good, um, reflection in the water of the city and that kind of, that turned out extremely well, for example. And I've started playing a bit more with like lighting and shadow and
Speaker 1stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. And so do you, is that, I know that you say it's for de-stressing. Do you spend a certain amount every day? No, it kind of comes and goes.
Speaker 2I'll go through a period where I'm doing it a lot and possibly doing a bit every day. Um, and then they'll, I mean, you know, it's been quite a while since I've, I've sat down and done that because I've just had a lot of it, a lot else on. Right. And I'm still doing the, um, miniatures painting, which is something that's kind of easier to do in, in small bursts, I think.
Speaker 1Right. Okay. So before we say that was, thank you for giving me that lovely segue. Um, I do have a quick question though, do like any of your friends or family ever ask for commissions? Not that, you know, to pay you, but just ask for you to draw something for them?
Speaker 2No, um, no. And I, I don't, I mean, the thing is, I, I think at the point it became something I was specifically doing for something else. I think it would cease to be fun. I think that doing it for me and having complete control over what it is I draw is, is, is part of the attraction.
Speaker 1Yeah. I love that. Okay. So I'm going to take your, your beautiful segue. Into miniatures painting. So one of the first things I, I actually learned about you was that you paint miniatures. Um, so I'm fascinated by that. And also by the fact that you don't play at all. You just do the miniature. So how did that come about?
Speaker 2Um, so around about sort of 2019, my son got into the game. Yeah. And I had also, um, I used to play, um, and have some miniatures, which I absolutely could not paint at the time because I didn't have patience way, way back in my teens. Right. And then it had been quite a gap. I became interested in Warhammer again because I ran into some really quite evocative art at the UK games expo one year. And I ended, I ended up on the back of that, contacting them and saying, well, look, can I write some stuff for you? And that's, that's, you know, that is now something I do with black library, but that kind of, because my son was interested in it, we, yeah, we went down to the games shop and so forth. And I thought, yeah, I will, I'll get some orcs or something and give it a go. And he said, yeah, I'll get some orcs or something and give it a go. And he said, yeah, to my absolute astonishment, I actually could paint figures now in a way I couldn't back then. And this, you know, not, I haven't been practicing or anything like that, but I think it's simply that being older, I am able to sit and be patient and work away at something in a way I just didn't have the tolerances for when I was young.
Speaker 1But isn't the dexterity the same though, for drawing physically as painting? It is. And there is a level of
Speaker 2detail I cannot do because of that. I cannot do that. You know, you see some of the figures done by like the, the games workshop, um, heavy metal painters where they've got actual kind of full, you know, whites and, and iris and pupils in the eye and all of that sort of thing. I can't, I can't do that. No, I am, I am a, I kind of, I make functional painter. At the end of the day, you get something that looks mostly okay. Right. And the other thing that you have now that you don't think you had back then is there are contour paints that follow. That give you, um, that bring out the, the, the details of the figure a lot. So you get a lot of sort of essentially sort of automatic detail when you're putting on this painting, like folds of cloth and skin and fur and that kind of thing, which is really handy because there's no way I could do that sort of thing by hand either.
Speaker 1Yeah. I'm not sure I understand what a contour paint is. So it's
Speaker 2a very thin paint. So when you put it on, it settles more deeply into the creases of a figure. Okay. So that if you have cloth, you will get, it will bring out, uh, with, with a slightly deeper coat within the kind of the dips and the folds of the cloth. And similarly with kind of hair and anything else that is, uh, that is a, like a contoured surface, it'll bring out the features of it.
Speaker 3Wow. Technology. That's amazing. Wow. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2And you can get a very nice looking finish on a lot, a lot of sort of textures and surfaces without having to do this incredibly detailed kind of work. Yeah. So what is like
Speaker 1the most basic kit that like, what did you, what was the most basic kit you started with? You bought some orcs
Speaker 2and then, um, yeah, I bought a, like a set of orcs and I bought just a starter set of paints, which would be like 10 paints and a paintbrush.
Speaker 1Do they tell you what, uh, like paint palette colors go with what sets or you just get to choose all on your own?
Speaker 2Um, you, there's always a kind of like, this is the standard color. These things are in games, but you're, you're kind of encouraged to find your own paint schemes and so forth. And there's nothing particularly prescriptive unless you are trying to say, oh, well, these are this particular space Marine order or something like that. In which case that, you know, they're supposed to be a particular color, but you can just go off and make up your own order and paint your space Marines, whatever color you like. Yeah. And I mean, this is one of the other things is, um, there is an amazing online community of miniatures painters painting at their stuff. And, you know, you see people like paint an entire sort of space Marine army and sort of in sort of trans pride colours and things like that. amazing that's so
Speaker 1cool so i mean this is the question how many painted miniatures do you adrian tchaikovsky have i think
Speaker 2the specific number is too many uh to the extent i couldn't tell you how many but just i mean it is one of those things yes we have a room in the house where the walls you know three of the walls have shelves up and the shelves are pretty much full miniatures many of which are not in fact yet painted but are a waiting painting because every miniatures owner knows the idea of the gray horde of things that you intend to paint at some
Speaker 1point okay so now we know you're serious because you have a room dedicated to storing these figures what do you do with them after you paint them i just display
Speaker 2them i mean this is it's also that so normally when i write i go out of the house but if i'm in the house to write because for whatever reason uh i've got a little desk in that room and it's very nice just to sit surrounded by all this stuff and yeah when i take a break from writing i can just look look at my handiwork and feel generally good about myself because
Speaker 3of that that's fabulous that is so fabulous wow i just work in an office i don't
Speaker 1hmm thinking now what should i do about this but did you say that you usually write outside the home yeah i usually go out to
Speaker 2cafes and and things like basically there's less less distraction wow outside it's much easier for me to just do yeah because i my laptop is is non-internet capable so i'll just go out and and write you know and i can look stuff up on my phone if i need to but otherwise it's just me and whatever i've got music i've got playing and um wow on the writing
Speaker 1whoa that's totally opposite i find people too distracting i just yeah you know i i'm very as long as i've
Speaker 2got music to block out sound i'm very good at retreating into my head
Speaker 1fabulous well yeah so then like does your son also paint miniatures does he still play warhammer
Speaker 2he plays warhammer very enthusiastically he paints a bit and he builds his own he does a lot of weird custom sort of you know customized figures oh yeah yeah because you know if you've got the bits you can make all sorts of weird weird things out of them so he has a whole thing about guys with extra arms and things like that but yes he also he he he's very he's a very keen player as well he's got a whole group of friends from uh college he
Speaker 1plays with okay but he does not play with any of the figurines the miniatures you paint that's separate no
Speaker 2no no they are just for display they are they are they are they are serious serious adult adult miniatures obviously
Speaker 3sorry i i am i am
Speaker 2reminded um it may be a weird time to to quote pepper pig oh never there was a pepper pig episode where the father had built like a scale model car or something like that and everyone is referring it to the toy car and every time he said no no it is a scale model of such and such and such a thing and it's a very serious adult and it's just yeah yes i feel very seen by this pepper pig episode oh the magic of
Speaker 1pepper pig uh we never ends so like do you also so you mentioned that um painting miniatures like you you can do that more often because you you just to take a little spot of time yeah it tends to be it just
Speaker 2tends to be a short burst thing i'll sit down and i'll do a particular sort of set of colors across a you know like a unit of 10 figures yeah so i'll do i'll do all the like the belts and leather straps and things like that or i'll do all the cloth or all that kind of thing right and then obviously you have to let things dry anyway so it's a it's a perfect thing you can then go off and do something else and then come back in a couple of hours and
Speaker 1do another bit right do you need like um a light and a magnifier you know those i've tried
Speaker 2to you could do get magnifying lights and stuff i can't or at least i mean i thus far i've not really been able to coordinate my hand movements under the magnifying glass i do have a little desk light yeah so i can see what i'm doing it's quite it's the place i paint and it's quite airy so oh
Speaker 1that's so interesting because you mentioned about uh drawing on a tablet so i i know about that because my um one of my children is in art school doing a degree and so they recently bought a tablet and they talked about having to adjust to looking at the screen while they're you know while they're drawing and i would think it was in your brain it would be something similar i
Speaker 2would i mean it's one of the things if i think if i kept practicing i could probably do it but the the difficulty with the magnifying glass is just that a small movement becomes a big movement which to me is a very different adjustment to um not much of a difference between the magnifying glass and the magnifying look in your hand
Speaker 1yeah oh i'm just thinking sorry for the pause uh listeners of the podcast i'm just like thinking how how difficult that would be yeah that's a really good point um do you have any goals with painting miniatures like is there a line you're
Speaker 3like that's enough
Speaker 2no no no it's i mean it's just very much an ongoing thing and at some point i'm presumably going to have to get rid of a bunch of stuff to make room for the next lot um which is you know it's one of those living on vesuvius sort of sort of things that you know it's going to happen but you don't want to think about it no yeah we're
Speaker 1not going to think about it no we're not think about it so then it's it's also clearly painting miniatures is also de-stressing for you yeah yeah
Speaker 2and again you know you have something at the end of it which ticks that box in my brain right
Speaker 1it's always good to know oneself what works okay um yeah so if anyone wanted to start getting into digital art what would you recommend that they start with
Speaker 2i mean so this is not something i personally use but a lot of people i know have become extremely proficient with a pro with a pro i think it's an apple program called procreate okay so if you have an apple device that seems to be a very good way of getting uh of getting going and being able to produce really quite good looking stuff relatively
Speaker 1quickly yeah and the key is to like start and draw badly and then keep going right yes i mean
Speaker 2i think it's like any like anything you you know innate gifts will only get you so far you need to just keep going you need to not worry about it being bad at the start um there are plenty of uh it's one of the regular things i run across in blue skies artists saying you do not need things i mean especially in reaction to people resorting to ai yeah generation which which frankly you know at that point you are not being an artist you are just telling a thing to yeah bundle a bunch of ideas together for you but the fact you know you can do you know you can do internet cartooning with extreme you know with with stickman figures for example you know xkcd for example is enormously popular you know if you've got uh but also yes you can just do art and get incrementally better and enjoy doing it i think the key thing is you know what is it you want to get out of things really what is it you want out of they think basically i think the most important thing is enjoy doing it yeah and that's very much similar to writing i think the most one of the most important things in becoming a productive um writer is actually enjoying writing yeah not just enjoying their having being something that you have finished but also enjoying the the process of producing it in the first place if you can get yourself into that kind of mindset i think that's that's gonna see you getting better and better at whatever creative endeavor you're working
Speaker 1on yeah that's brilliant and i mean i don't think that you're saying you have to enjoy it 100 of the time because as human beings we're just not built for that right but overall there's got to be something that's enjoyable yeah
Speaker 2but like i said i mean getting finding enjoyment in the process as well as the result
Speaker 1yeah yeah that's great um oh i had a thought and of course it just just ran away should i run after it or move on um um i guess too okay so with um painting miniatures so it sounds like your advice would be just like find a set of things that you think would be fun to paint yeah get a starter kit of paints and go
Speaker 2yeah i mean one of the things uh obviously you know that it's not purely a warhammer game workshop thing there are plenty of other yeah places that do paints and miniatures and so forth one of the things i will say is that warhammer shops will generally have people who will sit down with you and just teach you painting techniques oh completely completely for free as just because you know they've got a big incentive to try to try and kind of encourage people into the uh into sticking with the hobby yes and so as well as teaching the games and things like that they will also sort of teach you how to paint that's so you know going along and booking a session to see how you take to it it's a very easy thing to do
Speaker 1oh that's a great tip and then you also mentioned a really huge and supportive um miniature painting community online is like how did you
Speaker 2access that um i mean i think it's like a lot of stuff you you see one person's post yeah and you like that and you follow them and then they will kind of boost someone else's post and you you just you accumulate and then one of the things that blue sky has is lists so you find like this is the list to be sort of miniatures painting people and you can follow that as a group and then you've got loads of stuff to look at yeah and similarly exactly the same thing works with um artists it's a it's a really good place to go just to you know have a have a lot of fun stuff to look at on
Speaker 1a daily basis yeah yeah and i do think too on blue sky i think there's usually portfolio day uh monthly if not a weekly so if you just like do a search you will find artists sharing their stuff and many of them are extremely generous in sharing you know tips how to get started and stuff like that things to avoid so yeah social media for good yay um okay we're gonna move into the small joys segment so adrian i want to ask you what is something that you have or you do that lifts your spirits when you need it it may or may not be the same things we've been talking about
Speaker 2so well um i am going to wave a small flag for what is normally considered i think a big problem of our time which is the parasocial relationship okay um so there are certain uh like twitch streamers i follow or podcasters i follow who bring me a huge amount of joy and it's usually it's usually because there is there all will be two of them usually for podcasting or there's a there's a particular twitch stream called i think stumped gamers where there are four or four of them and you get to watch people having a good time together yes or listen to people having a good time together and that is enormously uplifting and you it does put you in this weird weird situation where if you met one of those people you would feel that you knew them and of course they wouldn't know who the hell you were which is going to you know would be a peculiar position to be in but it is i think certainly for as a writer being a fairly solitary profession it's very nice to have this sort of idea of you're sitting there listening to a bunch of friends chat yeah while they play a game or while they talk about a topic yeah and i do find that enormously um entertaining and just heartening i suppose that
Speaker 1is really lovely but i totally get what you say i mean parasocial relationships they definitely have their downfall um but i mean the whole point of this show this podcast you're on is really just so people can listen and hear joy so i totally understand what you're saying um yes and so friends i will link uh things that i can find that are related to what adrian's been talking about so hopefully you can discover the same kind of joy too um so thank you for sharing that with us adrian we are going to end on something i called my world famous speed round do not be alarmed i'm just gonna ask you silly questions and you're just gonna answer off the top of your head there's no pressure no judgment absolutely no stakes at all it's just to be silly and have fun um and end um on a laugh so are you ready okay so this season um speed round questions i'm doing favorites so this could mean your one favorite or i'm doing favorites so this could mean your one favorite or a favorite out of many because sometimes it's hard to just choose one thing okay first category favorite way to eat potatoes oh god uh
Speaker 2starting with the hard ones um
Speaker 3i'm here to challenge you i mean i i'm
Speaker 2a bit of a martyr to um potato crisps in the um or chips if you're american i suppose okay
Speaker 3that's great do you have a favorite flavor of crisp um i like weird
Speaker 2flavors of course except i'm very judgy um i i i yeah well it's like every christmas someone decides oh we'll do a mince pie favored crisps and they're always horrible um but i i do like sort of very sharp or spicy flavored crisps yeah that
Speaker 1puts me in mind of when i lived in japan many many many years ago and i discovered uh they i discovered a bag of chips because i'm canadian um that were like uh roasted chicken flavor they were actually incredibly good anyway okay this is about adrian so let's move on to favorite pizza toppings ah well
Speaker 2i don't eat cheese so i don't eat pita oh okay i'm so sorry so none pizza none
Speaker 1pizza x on pizza okay favorite favorite comfy outfit when you're schlepping
Speaker 2around at home oh god um i mean t-shirt and um i guess you call them jogging pants yeah sweatpants sweatpants
Speaker 1sweatpants okay favorite holiday oh god um i mean i don't really do is it like non-holiday i guess
Speaker 2maybe easter because it's an easter con so it's like one of the big convention dates and that it's very kind of a home ground convention for me but i i'm not really a holiday celebrator per se other than yeah yeah certainly not my birthday certainly not my birthday having got as old as i am
Speaker 1um i'm just gonna point out that i'm older than you adrian anyway moving on no yes yes i am i am okay we're very close close but i technically i am older okay okay a favorite tree or a favorite flower because not everyone has so either or both favorite tree or flower
Speaker 2either or both oh um i'm gonna i'm gonna go at a slight tangent i'm gonna say horsetails which are not neither a tree nor a flower but a plant nonetheless and it's mostly because they are like they're crazy sort of prehistoric looking um what are they weeds i guess um i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know um you got them a lot when i was when i was growing up yeah they are arthrophytes i believe and they they you tend to see them in reconstructions of like the carboniferous and things
Speaker 1like that do they look like giant
Speaker 2ferns sort of they are kind of fern ish but i think i don't think they are they are technically ferns but they they just look very very weird and
Speaker 1archaic oh on brand um okay favorite kind of movie or tv show whatever to wind
Speaker 2down with oh um trying to think when i last watched tv of any kind um yeah i mean either a really good sci-fi show or a really good intelligent comedy like say the good place or something like that oh
Speaker 1yeah that's great okay favorite kind of chocolate um
Speaker 2just just uk style milk chocolate honestly possibly fruit
Speaker 1and nut love it and this is the last one okay usually it's a favorite favorite word disarticulate oh that's dark which my editors will tell
Speaker 2you i am far too fond of
Speaker 1that's fantastic asian you've been such a good sport i so appreciate you joining um when you've been feeling a little bit under the weather so thank you so much for being here well thank you
Speaker 2very much for the invitation
Speaker 1okay lovelies thank you for joining us um as always i will have all the relevant uh links in the show notes and we will meet up again soon so in the meantime please create joy for yourself and others however works for you because we contain multitudes we contain multitudes is on the incomparable network of smart and funny pop culture podcasts where members can access exclusive podcasts and a wonderful community find out more at the incomparable.com special thanks as always to erica ensign our editrix extraordinaire of castria communications award-winning excellence in podcast production and media solutions check them out at we are castria.com
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