Get the app

Shadowing practice: Matt McCusker On Quitting His "Sleep Protocol"

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. If I stay in hotels for a weekend and don't look at porn, I feel like I'm a saint.0:00
  2. I leave and like, they should literally just like, canonize the job.0:04
  3. You do the one that you pay for?0:07
  4. Like they're - No, just on your phone, I'm saying.0:09
  5. Cause it's like, you're just isolated in this bunker.0:12
  6. You get off stage, you're like, I'm wired.0:14
  7. You're like, I need to go to bed.0:16
  8. I know exactly how I can fall asleep right now.0:18
  9. And you go like, no, I'm not gonna, I'll do it like 4 % of the time.0:20
  10. And I'm just like, man, they're gonna canonize me after.0:24
  11. I'm not sure.0:27
  12. It's impossible.0:30
Show all 160 lines Show fewer lines
  1. Is that it?0:31
  2. It sounds like you're open about this with your wife.0:31
  3. Otherwise she just knows about it now.0:33
  4. I've talked to her about it and now I'm off it.0:34
  5. I'm off the porn, but I always ask for her help.0:36
  6. How was that?0:39
  7. How was the transition off the porn?0:39
  8. Dude, it's way better.0:41
  9. Cause you know, now I'm four, I swear to God, once you're 40, it's like 20s, you can have like infinite bonus, you can watch porn even though it's now0:42
  10. like I need to be ready.0:48
  11. I'm fapped out.0:50
  12. Yeah.0:51
  13. And the wife - And I get the big call from, I'm like, no.0:52
  14. So now I'm just always, I stay ready at all times.0:55
  15. I might just let me know.0:58
  16. Five bucks a dollar.0:58
  17. No, I'm just kidding.0:59
  18. That's it, dude.1:01
  19. I'm just kidding.1:02
  20. No, I'm like, I'm gonna try that as well.1:03
  21. Is that one of the life hacks that comedians know that the health experts haven't cotton on to, that if you've just done a high stimulation activity, that just a1:04
  22. fat before bed is - That's universal knowledge.1:13
  23. It's gotta be universal knowledge.1:18
  24. I haven't heard that on the Puberman Lab podcast.1:20
  25. Fat before sleep.1:22
  26. It's called a FapNet.1:23
  27. Never heard of a FapNet?1:24
  28. We've been doing this for generations.1:28
  29. My daddy was a FapNapper and his daddy before him.1:30
  30. Well, the thing is like every comic, probably every performer, like music or otherwise, but certainly for comedian, like the adrenaline spike you're getting off stage, like usually like somebody,1:33
  31. different people get into something.1:45
  32. Like there's the guys that go just drink their faces off or drugs or like eating or go out all night or jerk off.1:47
  33. Somebody like, you have this rush after, and it's like the night's over.1:53
  34. Like you just like go back.1:59
  35. No girlfriends or wives on tour.2:01
  36. I mean girlfriend or wife on tour.2:02
  37. No, I mean - You are really Freudian slipping your way through this podcast.2:04
  38. I have one girlfriend.2:07
  39. She's awesome, like I said.2:08
  40. I'm addressing the on and off.2:09
  41. Can you - But I'm not a live, I'm also not a live show guy.2:11
  42. When I finish a podcast, like a solo episode of my podcast, I wanna collapse, man.2:15
  43. Can you explain what's happening neurologically, biochemically when the being on stage, high stimulus, a lot of focus, a lot of adrenaline, positive feedback, and then what is that?2:19
  44. What's going on?2:32
  45. I mean, in a word arousal, right?2:32
  46. I mean the catacombs, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine.2:34
  47. The catacombs is this little kit of chemicals that are made in our brain and body, right?2:38
  48. Different ones, different places, et cetera.2:44
  49. We don't have to get into that.2:45
  50. That cocktail is what's released under higher arousal situations.2:46
  51. Some are scary situations, some are exciting, but when you're a performer and you gain that feedback, then yeah, you got a lot of dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine.2:51
  52. So you're alert, you're focused, so broadly speaking, right?2:59
  53. The science crowd is getting a little pissed at me for this, but broadly speaking, the dopamine thing is gonna want you having more of whatever you're experiencing, right?3:03
  54. Higher threshold, higher threshold, okay?3:11
  55. Epinephrine, which is adrenaline, makes your body alert, and norepinephrine released in the brain, and this is again generalizations, increases focus for the thing that you're pursuing, right?3:14
  56. So you get off stage and those things are cranked to level 11, and you could do some long exhale breathing, you do a sauna, but obviously you're out on3:27
  57. tour.3:35
  58. You want to bring it down a notch and then you got to get on the bus or the plane the next day and go.3:35
  59. And so yeah, and you know - It can be hard to sleep, man.3:39
  60. Look, evolution, hardwired circuits so that the desire to ride this roller coaster up to this peak and then crash down again and make sex, ideally with somebody else, but3:42
  61. if apparently in your case you're alone, you're trying to find a way to do - Well, you're alone.3:58
  62. You're a loner for the URL.4:02
  63. Right, so that brings you into a so -called lower arousal parasympathetic state, right?4:03
  64. And as dopamine goes up, testosterone goes up in women and men, okay?4:09
  65. And then after orgasm, dopamine goes down and a hormone, which is basically a hormone, prolactin goes up and that sets the refractory period during which time you need a4:14
  66. higher stimulus thing to get you aroused.4:27
  67. Coolage effect.4:31
  68. Yeah, the coolage effect.4:32
  69. Like in roosters, this whole thing, if you trade out the hens, then they can continue to copy over and over again.4:33
  70. It's just some extent is true in humans, but I sort of joked about the todall feeling that it was indeed a joke, but there's some interesting things like if4:37
  71. you want to play this game, you can, although I'm not sure I want to encourage your porn habit.4:47
  72. No, no, no.4:50
  73. I'm not a porn guy, but when you were saying like - Try to turn around.4:50
  74. The refractory period can be shortened by blunting the prolactin response.4:53
  75. That can be done with taking something like P5P, which is related to vitamin B6, and it you know, there are drugs which I don't recommend people take, but these5:01
  76. prescription drugs like caber -goline and things like that, which inhibit prolactin.5:10
  77. There are communities like in the gay community, there's a big use of some of these drugs to have sort of marathon sex, but I think they'll use stimulants like5:16
  78. meth.5:26
  79. I have a friend who's a former meth addict, he happens to be gay, and I was like, I don't understand, I've never done meth, but I'm like, what's the5:27
  80. deal with meth?5:32
  81. And he's like, oh, the idea is marathon sex.5:33
  82. And then when people get sober from meth, hopefully, they lose their sex drive for a long, long time.5:35
  83. These systems need to be recalibrated.5:42
  84. We're talking about extremes with drugs, right?5:44
  85. One reason why I'm not one of these like all porn is bad, but one reason why I personally am just not a fan of porn is I think you5:46
  86. can dial in pretty much a higher and higher threshold thing without really having to do the work or going out and finding a relationship.5:54
  87. And I think a lot of younger guys who aren't married, who don't have a relationship, they don't know how to use it kind of judiciously.6:02
  88. Yeah, you gotta titrate those.6:08
  89. And there's no, and it never says no to them either.6:09
  90. So a lot of issues with porn in the younger crowd.6:12
  91. I mean, that's like, for as comedians, I feel like your 20s into your 30s is probably the time of the most consumption.6:16
  92. And it is like you're alone of porn.6:23
  93. Like you're alone.6:26
  94. You're a loser.6:27
  95. You're a loser.6:27
  96. You're also in a strange place.6:29
  97. Like you're, you know what I mean?6:31
  98. You have this like, this isn't my environment, right?6:33
  99. And you, and then you throw in the, the performing and getting bumped up from that and just being like looking for something.6:36
  100. For no wanting to fuck you.6:44
  101. No.6:45
  102. Yeah.6:45
  103. No, we're comedians.6:46
  104. Although, call the boys you do the crystal meth.6:47
  105. Don't give me that.6:50
  106. Where's your like, where's your like, are you kidding me?6:51
  107. I didn't hear what you said.6:53
  108. I said, I was picking up on Andrew's foot and down, you call the boys and fire up the meth pipe, man.6:54
  109. Yeah, fuck that.6:58
  110. Let's go.7:00
  111. So you're saying if you take the stuff that suppresses prolactin that you can refractory period is shortened.7:00
  112. Yeah.7:06
  113. I want the refractory.7:07
  114. You want.7:08
  115. Yeah.7:08
  116. So you're looking for some.7:08
  117. You're trying to optimize refractory.7:10
  118. You're looking for some peace and ease.7:12
  119. I want to pass out.7:14
  120. I want to.7:15
  121. Yeah.7:16
  122. So I mean, I don't know.7:16
  123. I mean, I think we're, this seems like an age old method.7:17
  124. I'm guessing, you know, of, of calming down.7:21
  125. Hey, listen, better, better, better that, better that than taking like a barbiturate, right?7:23
  126. True.7:28
  127. A quick aside, there is a stat that genuinely surprised me when I first heard it.7:28
  128. 95 % of people don't get enough fiber, not because they're being careless, but because hitting your daily fiber target through food alone is actually quite hard.7:32
  129. But that's why momentous built fiber plus see fiber isn't just a digestion thing.7:41
  130. It's the foundation of your gut health, which drives how well you absorb nutrients, how stable your energy is and how quickly you recover.7:47
  131. If your gut isn't dialed in, everything else that you're doing is working at a fraction of its potential.7:54
  132. Fiber plus is a three in one formula built to address digestion, gut barrier strength and blood sugar stability all at once.7:58
  133. And this cinnamon flavor is unreal.8:05
  134. You might think fiber.8:08
  135. Wow.8:10
  136. I bet that tastes great.8:11
  137. Well, yeah, actually it does.8:12
  138. Doubters.8:14
  139. I really enjoyed this.8:15
  140. Best of all, momentous offers a 30 day money back guarantee.8:16
  141. So if you're not sure, you can buy fiber plus, try it for 29 days.8:18
  142. If you don't love it, they'll just give you your money back and they ship internationally.8:21
  143. Right now, you can get up to 35 % off your first subscription and that 30 day money back guarantee by going to the link in the description below or8:24
  144. heading to live momentous .com slash modern wisdom and using the code modern wisdom a checkout that's liveemomentos .com slash modern wisdom and modern wisdom.8:31
  145. A checkout.8:43
  146. Congratulations.8:44
  147. You made it to the end of a clip and the full length episode is available right here.8:45
  148. Go on.8:51

A Fast British Podcast Conversation for B2 English Speaking Practice

This clip is a conversation from the podcast Modern Wisdom, two speakers with a British accent, rated B2. The pace runs at 212 words per minute, faster than 72% of the catalogue, so lines land close together and one speaker often cuts into the other before a sentence finishes.

The talk itself stays loose and personal: hotel routines, giving up porn, and the mental tricks comedians use to come down after a set. A line like "You get off stage, you're like, I'm wired." shows the rhythm of two people riffing rather than reading from a script, which is exactly what makes this good material for english speaking practice for daily use and for everyday english more broadly. At this speed there is no room to pause and think, so it forces you to keep up the way a real daily english conversation practice session would.

The Reductions in This Exchange: What to Listen For

This clip is useful for british english pronunciation practice because the speakers run words together and drop into casual phrasing throughout. A few lines carry the reductions worth isolating before you try the full sentence.

  • "And you go like, no, I'm not gonna, I'll do it like 4 % of the time." The gonna is swallowed into the sentence rather than said as two clear words, and "you go like" works as a single filler beat.
  • "It's gotta be universal knowledge." The gotta lands hard and fast here, closer to one syllable than two, right before the stressed word universal.
  • "No, I'm like, I'm gonna try that as well." A second gonna, this time coming right after the filler "I'm like", so the two run together with almost no gap.
  • "Cause it's like, you're just isolated in this bunker." The opening Cause drops the be of because entirely, which is typical of how this conversation opens its sentences.

How to Shadow This Matt McCusker Exchange Line by Line

Work through the opening stretch of this clip in order rather than jumping around. Each step below points at a specific line so you can hear the shift in pace and stress before you try to speak english fluently at the same speed.

  • Start on line 6, "You get off stage, you're like, I'm wired." Repeat it slowly first, then shadow this line at full speed until "you're like" lands as one beat, not two words.
  • Move to line 9, "And you go like, no, I'm not gonna, I'll do it like 4 % of the time." Say the gonna contraction on its own three or four times before running the whole line.
  • Compare line 18, "How was that?" with line 19, "How was the transition off the porn?" Shadow both back to back to hear how the same question shape stretches over more words without losing its rise.
  • Finish on line 35, "It's gotta be universal knowledge." to lock in the gotta reduction, then loop lines 6, 9, and 35 together to feel the pace change between a short line and a longer one.
  • Once those four lines feel automatic, keep going through the rest of this english shadowing practice clip at the same 212 words per minute pace, pausing on any line where a reduction catches you out.
Download on the App Store