The Secret to Your Best Life: Jordan Geary on Creative Reinvention

Wendy & Rich 0:00
Hey, everyone is Rich Bennett. Can you believe it? The show is turning 10 this year. I am so grateful for each and every one of you who've tuned in, shared a episode, or even joined the conversation over the years. You're the reason that this podcast has grown into what it is today. Together, we've shared laughs, tears, and moments that truly matter. So I want to thank you for being part of this journey. Let's make the next 10 years even better. Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios Harford County Living Presence conversations with Rich Bennett. 

No no no! It's like, who is? 

Rich Bennett 1:00
From the Magic of Sesame Street to the bright lights of the Emmy stage, Jordan Geary has spent over two decades shaping the stories that captivate children and families around the world. As an Emmy award-winning creative producer, author, and media executive, Jordan's fingerprints are on some of the most beloved shows of our time. Ghostwriter, helpsters, mecha-builders, beesblocking hundreds of Sesame Studio shorts. His work isn't just entertainment. It's innovation, education, and joy wrapped in unforgettable storytelling. Today, we're pulling back at the curtain on how Jordan brings these worlds to life. The lessons he's learned from the creative frontlines. And why he believes storytelling can change the way we see the world. It's subtle tells me he is going to be helping a lot of people see the changes in the world with storytelling. So this is going to be an inspiring conversation you don't want to miss. So make sure you grab your coffee, your tea, your little ones, grab your juice, grab your milk, grab whatever, and sit back. You're going to learn a lot. How's it going, Jordan? 

Jordan Geary 2:14
It is going great. So, as you can hear, my voice. COVID right now. So, I know that podcasting is an audio medium. I apologize to everybody for having to listen to this raspy voice. Unless you're into... Then you're welcome. So I'm super excited to be here. And I got to say, you have the greatest facial hair I have ever 

Rich Bennett 2:40
seen. Oh, 

Jordan Geary 2:40
I mean, I implore your listeners to please just go on to your social media. Just check this out because I'm in awe right 

Rich Bennett 2:48
now. And well, thank you. You know here's the funny thing. Some people, because I record in person a lot too. And some people will go on and they'll go to the conversations with Rich Bennett Facebook page or website. And then they see me. They're like, you look nothing like what's on your social media or website. 

Jordan Geary 3:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:08
That's like, well, because what I do is... Well, those listen. Most of you know, I play Santa Claus professionally. So if their Christmas, all this comes off. And then I don't start growing it until June. The beginning of June. 

Jordan Geary 3:23
That's it. 

Rich Bennett 3:24
Except for the mustache this year. mustache I started early because I want to handle bar 

Jordan Geary 3:28
mustache. I see I saw that in some of your previous podcasts. 

Rich Bennett 3:32
Oh. 

Jordan Geary 3:32
I was mentally preparing myself for that for the, you know, the... 

Rich Bennett 3:35
For the big mustache. 

Jordan Geary 3:37
Yeah, but we came in with the full beard. I mean, as you can see, I'm clean, Shave, and I'm just in awe of folks like you that are just that man. 

Rich Bennett 3:43
Oh, well, thank you. If I could convince my wife to let me keep it after Christmas, because I just, yeah, I just like to grow nothing, not like duck dynasty style, you know. But I have a funny feeling if I did, she'll cut it off in the middle of the night. me, tell me too long to learn how to sleep with when I open. And I don't want that. 

Jordan Geary 4:02
Tell 

Rich Bennett 4:03
All right. Let's talk about your career in media. So take us back to the beginning. What actually first drew you to the world of children's and family 

Jordan Geary 4:14
storytelling? Oh, well I'm not gonna lie. When I first started, I thought I was gonna be a music producer. I was like, I am totally going to be the person who is the next great taste maker making hits for myself and for other. 

Rich Bennett 4:29
Right. 

Jordan Geary 4:30
Yeah. you know, I was a senior in college and I had a professor who sat our entire college class down and said, I think the bottom just fell out of the music industry. This Napster file sharing, 

I don't need to do this. Like, I'm young enough, I have time to pivot, graduate college with a music degree and nothing else. Uh, and I said, "How do I get to another career or another place?" And I thought to myself, "What's going on with this?" 

Well, what do I enjoy? Like, what do I enjoy consuming doing? What could I do as a career that wouldn't feel like a job? And I was just watching cartoons and I said, "Gosh, that seems really cool, that seems really fun." And, man, I, there's so many different aspects of cartoons. I'd be happy drawing. I'd be happy doing the voices. I'd be happy doing so many different aspects of it that I said, "I'm going to launch myself into getting there one day." The problem I had, as I mentioned, I didn't have a background in it, and so, 

Rich Bennett 5:48
right. 

Jordan Geary 5:49
I had to find a backdoor. And the backdoor that I found was at MTV. They were looking for a guy who had a music background that could underscore all the reality shows with music. And so I did that job, got a producer, tidal on my resume, and then found my way into the kids' TV world that way. Just, "Oh, hey, I'm a producer, and worked at MTV. Maybe I could do something for your kids show." And after several, several, several years of doing that, doing every job you could possibly think of in kids TV. 

Rich Bennett 6:22
Climb into the ladder. 

Jordan Geary 6:23
Every single job you could think of, 

Rich Bennett 6:25
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 6:25
I got my call up to the big leagues 10 years ago, assessing me. 

Rich Bennett 6:30
Wow! Yeah, and the funny thing is, God, MTV, and even Napster, you're going back some time. 

Jordan Geary 6:38
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 6:39
But if you think about it and correct me if I'm wrong, I think it was Metallica that followed the big lawsuit against Napster. 

Jordan Geary 6:46
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 6:47
But I think that really, in a way, it helped the music industry because you're seeing more independent artists come out now. 

Jordan Geary 6:58
It was inevitable. I mean, that's the 

Rich Bennett 6:59
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 6:59
thing. I think that's a big thing that people, so people right now, we're dealing with the version of that for TV right now. 

Rich Bennett 7:07
Right. 

Jordan Geary 7:08
Everything is streaming. 

Rich Bennett 7:10
Yep. 

Jordan Geary 7:10
Nobody's making money anymore. You know, all these millionaires and billionaires that have movies and TVs are, what there's no, no one wants content anymore. I think it happens in every industry. It just happened to happen back then in music. And now it's happening in TV. And as you're seeing with AI and everything, it's kind of coming for everybody. 

Rich Bennett 7:32
Well look how much cartoons have changed since we were 

Jordan Geary 7:35
younger. Yep. 

Rich Bennett 7:36
I mean, now everything's basically done on computer. 

Jordan Geary 7:40
Exactly. Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 7:41
Hey, nothing like the Flintstones anymore. I mean -- 

Jordan Geary 7:44
I mean, I'm an animation doork. I have, I have a ton of animation cells, the hand paintings. 

Rich Bennett 7:51
Yes, 

Jordan Geary 7:51
In my 

Rich Bennett 7:52
yes. 

Jordan Geary 7:52
office. And that was to me, the peak of just a person painting, a painstaking picture, thousands of times to make the Grinch and other classics. And yeah, now you can do it all on a computer. It takes a fraction of the time and you kind of lose something there. 

Rich Bennett 8:09
Yeah, it's just the -- I don't know. And I was watching the other day. And now, now I'm really showing my age. But it took me back. It's like, "Oh my God. It was at the old Thunderbirds." Or whatever. Not the claymation, but it was like the puppeteers. 

Jordan Geary 8:27
Yeah, the puppeteers. 

Rich Bennett 8:28
If you watch carefully, you can see the lines, the strings and everything. I was like, "Oh, I missed those days." Because everything wasn't perfect. Well, then again, computer generated is not perfect because let's face it, nothing's perfect. 

Jordan Geary 8:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:44
But it's just looking at those little 

Jordan Geary 8:46
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 8:46
flaws. yeah. Even watching the old Godzilla movies, I 

Jordan Geary 8:50
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 8:50
mean. 

Jordan Geary 8:50
yeah. No, the tangible quality of -- 

Rich Bennett 8:52
Yes. 

Jordan Geary 8:52
It's part of the magic. And honestly, I remember as a kid watching some animated series. And 

Rich Bennett 9:01
you 

Jordan Geary 9:02
never were watching it saying, "I expect this to be 100% perfect." I remember as a kid watching The Smurfs or something, and it'd just be like a single frame where Papa Smurf turned like green or something. And as a kid, you're like, "Oh, like a team of people did this." And some quality control guy was asleep at the wheel, and they got a green frame of a smurf in there. And then... 

Rich Bennett 9:26
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 9:27
You're like, "Oh, you're sick of you kind of going." Like, "Oh, this is like, there's magic happening here where a team of people all work together to get you to forget that this was just all a creation that like you are not in, you know, Smurfland or whatever you 

Rich Bennett 9:44
--" Right. 

Jordan Geary 9:45
you are in something that popped out of people's heads and and translated into people's hands and yeah, I miss that. I think that's why you watch some of these older movies, uh, like Ghostbusters and everything, and they feel more real than Earth. 

Rich Bennett 10:00
Yeah. 

It's just a lie to the characters, right? 

Jordan Geary 10:16
I worked with all the characters. 

Rich Bennett 10:17
Okay, so here's something, my sister and I, my sister Co-host in an episode with me, we had um, oh god. Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop on. 

Jordan Geary 10:27
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 10:28
And at first we're speaking with Mallory Lewis, then she brought out Lamb Chop. It's something that I don't know what it is, but when you're talking to Lamb Chop's a sock puppet. but you're talking to Lamb Chop like she's real. 

Jordan Geary 10:43
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 10:44
With you, your time is Sesame Workshop. How hard was that? Because I'm sure you're dealing with characters all the time, but a lot of times when you actually talk to them like they were actually real characters. 

Jordan Geary 10:57
Absolutely. Absolutely. And uhm, I will say at Sesame Workshop and Sesame Street, it's, it's a bit more revered than I think other places. 

Rich Bennett 11:07
Okay, 

Jordan Geary 11:08
Formers are paid to be the characters because you think that 

Rich Bennett 11:12
right. 

Jordan Geary 11:12
they're voicing the characters, but they're also performing all of the physical actions. And then um, you know where things get kind of interesting is they're paid to think like the characters. So I'll just give you an example of how it could be interesting, but also little challenging on. 

Rich Bennett 11:31
Okay. 

Jordan Geary 11:32
So imagine, you know, you rich, you're told, okay, so we got a record cookie monster tomorrow morning at 8 a. m. And the day before you're feverishly working with the writers to get the script all set. You know, what what's what what's going to be said, what's going to be recorded. How much time do we have everything? And then you show up at 8 a. m. You hand, you know, you sit down to record. Okay, we got an hour. There's a lot. There's a lot to fit in in an hour. So we got a really get going. And the first word out of the performers mouth is, well, uh, the first line cookie monster would never say that and you go, oh shoot. Okay. Uh, what would cookie monster say? What cookie monster would probably say this or this or this. So let's record those things. We'll still get what you want. 

Rich Bennett 12:22
Right. 

Jordan Geary 12:23
I'm paid to think like him. And he would never do this. And it's, and that would happen every single time we recorded anybody. They would 

Rich Bennett 12:32
say, wow. 

Jordan Geary 12:32
Say, hey, I, you know, this little line that you got to tweak this, you got to change this. And it was at times challenging because sometimes it was entire scripts that were off. But you never, um, stopped appreciating just how much these people could get inside the characters own their motivations, own the way that they spoke. And then really be like an ambassador for each of their characters and how they all interacted. It was nothing sort of, uh, impressive. 

Rich Bennett 13:02
That's, that's a true art. 

Jordan Geary 13:04
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 13:05
To be able to do that. And you see very, I mean, there are a lot of actors that will do that. Those study. I think of, um, Cuban Goening Jr. Do you ever see the movie radio 

Jordan Geary 13:17
radio? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 13:19
And he studied that character and was flawless. 

Jordan Geary 13:23
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 13:23
flawless. And there are some other actors that do that. I think of Johnny Depp, which cracks me up with Johnny Depp. He never went to, from what I understand, he never wanted to be an actor. He always wanted to be a musician. 

Jordan Geary 13:36
Yeah. Now, some people just had that gift and 

Rich Bennett 13:38
yes. 

Jordan Geary 13:39
Um, people always ask me, Hey, I want to be an actor or a performer. What is the number one skill I need? I'm like, I always say the same thing empathy, like you 

Rich Bennett 13:49
Yes. 

Jordan Geary 13:49
need the ability to just get inside other people's brains, get inside other people's feelings and own them. And that's like a, that's a crazy superpower that a lot of people just don't have. 

Rich Bennett 14:02
Oh, yeah. All right. So those, those people that are, if they see the social media video, they're going to ask the Emmy. 

Jordan Geary 14:13
Let 

Rich Bennett 14:13
me in the background explain everybody what you actually won that for your the second person I've had on that's had an Emmy and the other one got it for working at MTV. 

Jordan Geary 14:22
Ah, there you go. 

Rich Bennett 14:24
Yeah. So I explained everybody with the Emmys for would you win the Emmy 

Jordan Geary 14:27
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 14:27
for, 

Jordan Geary 14:28
sure. So I mean, just in short, just kind of a little bit about who I am and what I did at Sesame. So when I was at Sesame, I was the Senior Director of Current Series. And that's a fancy way of saying that they, for the first time in 50 or so years, we're like, we want to do stuff that's not just the Sesame Street TV show. We want to do scoffs. 

Rich Bennett 14:50
but 

Jordan Geary 14:50
We want to do new programming. We want to do puppet shows. We want to do animated series. We want to do live action series. We want to do stuff for preschool and stuff for teenagers. And we want new 

Rich Bennett 15:01
wow. 

Jordan Geary 15:02
Jordan to be the person who is creating, developing, and producing all of it. The thing that a lot, 

Rich Bennett 15:08
it's a lot of hats. 

Jordan Geary 15:09
Yeah. Yeah. And that's why my resume before I got there was some skits. So they're like, oh, this guy can actually do a lot. So it helps that I did all that stuff. the thing that a lot of people don't know about Sesame Workshop is it's a giant international organization that is like 250 people. It's the smallest company. 

Rich Bennett 15:32
Wow, 

Jordan Geary 15:32
Yeah. Like, there's like two or three people that run theme parks. There's like two or three people that run original programming. There's two or three people that run humanitarian. Like it's this Harvard like club of people that are really good at their jobs who are wearing 50 million different hats. So when I tell people, oh, yeah, I was part of a team of two or three people that were doing all this. They're like, I don't, that doesn't make sense. And I'm like, that's the way it happened, you know? And what I will say is creating, developing, and producing all this content, we had to do stuff for all different age groups. And the way that you create and develop a show is you ask, well, what's, what are people not doing out there? for kids and for teens, what are some problems that they're all facing that no TV show is addressing? And the short answer to your question is, what did I win the Emmy for? I won it for Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider was Apple TV series. It ran for three seasons. I'm super duper proud of it. It, it's actually the first Emmy that Apple TV ever won. 

Rich Bennett 16:49
Oh, 

Jordan Geary 16:50
Yeah, it's first year of existence, no streaming platform in history, had everyone in Emmy for any show they ever did their first year. And 

Rich Bennett 16:58
not even Netflix? 

Jordan Geary 16:59
Nothing. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:00
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 17:01
And so Apple TV won in its first year for Ghost Rider. And it won the Best Overall Kids and Family Series Award. It was like the top award. Like, think of the end of the Oscars, you know, for Emmys. It was the top kids prize. And 

Rich Bennett 17:17
so you made history? 

Jordan Geary 17:19
Sort of. Yeah. And, 

Rich Bennett 17:20
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 17:22
and that show was for teens and tweens. And the curriculum was getting kids interested in reading again. So it was a TV show that brought a bunch of literary characters to life, but also had a message of like, if you want more, if you like this episode, go inside the book. We only told half the story. And, and it was a huge success. Apple was super happy with it. We got a lot of celebrities and stuff. Neil Patrick Harris is one of the characters. And, and I'm happy to say, the year that it won was the day that it won was the best day of my life. And I'll tell you why. It was the 

Rich Bennett 18:00
way that Jordan. 

Jordan Geary 18:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:02
I want you to think about this. Very careful. You're married, 

Jordan Geary 18:05
I'm 

Rich Bennett 18:05
right? 

Jordan Geary 18:05
married. I have two kids. 

Rich Bennett 18:06
And you have children, right? 

Jordan Geary 18:07
I, yes. And what I will say is 

Rich Bennett 18:09
that, okay, 

Jordan Geary 18:09
a lot of logistical issues on my wedding day. And we had some scary labors. They both, everything worked out well, but it, they were not perfect. This is, 

Rich Bennett 18:18
okay, all right. 

Jordan Geary 18:20
I 

Rich Bennett 18:21
didn't want you to get in trouble with anybody 

Jordan Geary 18:23
Do you 

Rich Bennett 18:23
there. 

Jordan Geary 18:23
thank you so much? What I will say is there was only one year speaking of history. It was only one year that they had to cancel the Emmys. And it was during COVID. Speak of the raspy voice. And they canceled it that year. They just did a broadcast on a laptop. And it was a running joke with my wife and with my mom that they both wanted to be my date to the Emmys. Whenever I got nominated. And it was a joke on Thanksgiving that always sparred each other. And I'm like, "Oh, we'll deal with this one day." And then I got nominated. And I was like, "Oh, shoot, who do I actually take?" And they thankfully canceled the ceremony. I went to my mom's house with my wife and with my kids. And it was like, "You're all my dates." And then miraculously, it was like the dark horse in the category. Miraculously, I won, surrounded by my friends, family. We all hugged each other. We popped champagne. It was the greatest. So yeah, 

Rich Bennett 19:21
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 19:21
I have to be. 

Rich Bennett 19:23
lol. 

Jordan Geary 19:23
To start with that long answer, but. 

Rich Bennett 19:25
That's alright. I just went to make sure you didn't get in trouble. You said that you had the greatest moment of your life. I'm like. 

Jordan Geary 19:31
Hey, yeah, there's been a lot of great moments, but... Thankfully, they, thankfully, all the people, the important people in my life were there for it, so... 

Rich Bennett 19:38
So, with all the stuff you did at Sesame, and because I didn't realize, I mean, 250 people, that's not a lot. But do you think that is why they are so successful? Because they've been together... they've been around for well over 50 years, right? 

Jordan Geary 19:56
Yeah, over 50 years. I do. I actually think that it being a small core is part of the magic. So, 

Rich Bennett 20:05
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 20:05
here's what I will say. I've worked a lot of places in my career. And they're all different. Some places had thousands of people. Some places had like, you know, 10 people. 

Rich Bennett 20:15
Right. 

Jordan Geary 20:15
What I will say is the moment that I stepped into my first meeting at Sesame, I went, "Oh, I've never, um, I've since spoken at Harvard, but I never attended Harvard." I was like, "This is what it feels like to go to Harvard." You walk in, you just start to hear people talk, and you go, "Oh, I might be the dumbest person here." Oh, my gosh! It was every meeting I was in for the past ten years. It was a collection of the smartest people that I had ever been around. The smartest people in marketing, the smartest people, gosh, and talent relations, everything. And you have to bring your A game. When it's a small... 

Rich Bennett 20:56
Right. 

Jordan Geary 20:56
Or when you are talking to the one person who's in charge of this or the one person's in charge of this, you aren't half asleep in your meeting. You are firing on all cylinders because you know you're in some rare company. 

Rich Bennett 21:10
That's what makes somebody very great. When you surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, and I'm sure that there is things that you were better at that the other people couldn't do. 

Jordan Geary 21:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:24
I mean, I always think of Henry Ford. That's how he was so successful. He would just surround himself with better people. 

Jordan Geary 21:31
Well, it's funny, you say that because, um, you know, you work at a place, you go to a Harvard or you 

Rich Bennett 21:38
Harvard. 

Jordan Geary 21:38
work at That's me. You kind of start saying yourself, well, God, what am I the best at? What can I, 

Rich Bennett 21:44
yeah, 

Jordan Geary 21:45
this, and it's hard to find your place. I'm happy to say that mine was pretty obvious. People would tell me it every day, and it's funny. When you're around a bunch of weird, savant people, 

Rich Bennett 21:58
this 

Jordan Geary 21:59
is your superpower, stick to this, amp this up. And my thing, um, it's crazy. As a may sound, I was really good with people, like I just love talking to people. I love connecting people when people were fighting each other. I was like the one who made it all work. If there was a TV production and there was a horrible head writer that didn't want to work with anybody. They would just say Jordan, go in there, make 

Rich Bennett 22:23
personal. 

Jordan Geary 22:23
this 

Rich Bennett 22:23
Mm hmm. 

Jordan Geary 22:25
Um, and I think with a lot of really smart people, you do run into a lot of people who have, um, high opinions of themselves. They may not be 

Rich Bennett 22:34
Yes. 

Jordan Geary 22:34
people, people, I guess. And so that was a rare superpower in Sesame was just the guy who could walk around and make things happen and take somebody out to a, a drink, and suddenly the show's working correctly. That's one 

Rich Bennett 22:48
of the greatest powers anybody can have. 

Jordan Geary 22:50
Oh, thanks. 

Rich Bennett 22:51
I seriously, I think, I mean, I, I was the same way other companies I worked for, they're like, alright, get a whole to Rich, let him put out the fire, let him talk to 

Jordan Geary 23:01
They 

Rich Bennett 23:01
him. 

Jordan Geary 23:01
called me the fire, they called me the fireman at this. I 

Rich Bennett 23:04
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 23:04
mean, they're like, if there's a giant fire, just throw Jordan on it. 

Rich Bennett 23:07
Yeah. Yeah, it's like, okay, I'll do it. I love the challenge. 

Jordan Geary 23:10
I mean, 

Rich Bennett 23:11
I 

Jordan Geary 23:13
have to tell you you have a wonderful podcast of wonderful 

Rich Bennett 23:17
Well, thank 

Jordan Geary 23:17
forum. 

Rich Bennett 23:18
you. 

Jordan Geary 23:18
Just a really nice person. And, um, I think, I think it's that interest, that interest that you have, the fact that you like helping people, you like learning about people, that's, that's the secret sauce, I think. 

Rich Bennett 23:32
Well, thank you. Thank you. And I'll make sure I send you that check for saying that said, that's the reason I started this 10 years ago. I just wanted to keep, I want to learn from people and raise awareness for some other things. You know, it's just, and I do. I mean, I've already learned some stuff from, from, yeah, me 250 people, for a company that it's mind boggling. Alright, so looking back what's the one project that you feel most proud of? And why? 

Jordan Geary 24:05
Oh my God. 

Rich Bennett 24:06
And it doesn't necessarily have to be assessment anything. 

Jordan Geary 24:12
Okay. I have, I have to, I 

Rich Bennett 24:14
Okay. 

Jordan Geary 24:14
have one Sesame one on Sesame. 

Rich Bennett 24:17
Okay. 

Jordan Geary 24:17
So the Sesame One I will start off with is the show called Sesame Street Mecha Builders. And that just for those people who don't have kids, a lot of people have kids who are like, "I know that show." It is a CG animated show. It's on HBO Max. It's by all accounts, a big hit. And it was a spin-off of Sesame and it stars a cookie monster, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby. They are mechanized robot characters that help people out with their problems. That's the long and short of it. 

Rich Bennett 24:50
Sort of like Sesame meets 

Jordan Geary 24:52
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 24:52
Transformers. 

Jordan Geary 24:53
Yes. I mean, I grew up at Transformers and... 

Rich Bennett 24:55
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 24:55
I have an animation, so Transformers. So it was just something I worked on that I was like, "This is my dream project." But the big reason I'm so proud of it is that when I started at Sesame, I was told, "Hey, we got a little bit of an issue. We could use your help on it." The issue is the age demographic of Sesame Street. It started in the shrink a little bit. It started to go down. And I was like, "How so." And they said, "Well, you know, it used to be for two to five. It's then I went to two to four and then two 

Rich Bennett 25:26
Right. 

Jordan Geary 25:26
to four." It's continuing to shrink. It just seems like the audience is getting younger and younger, and kids are aging out of it. And I said, "Well, do you want us to do anything to Sesame Street?" And they said, "Oh, yeah, you know, we're planning a whole reimagining, and they're in the process of doing that for Netflix right now." But they said, "We want you to do a spin-off, and we want you to get our age group like higher again." And 

Rich Bennett 25:53
Right. 

Jordan Geary 25:54
so I worked on this Meka Builder Show. And we told the writers right off the bat, "Hey, make this for the older brother and the older sister of the kids that watch Sesame Street." And we're going to respect preschoolers' intelligence that they're going to be along for the ride, and they're not going to get lost. We made it for STEM curriculum, which is like science, 

Rich Bennett 26:16
Yes. 

Jordan Geary 26:17
science technology, engineering, and math. And what I'm proud to say is we aired it. And it became the number one kids show on HBO Max for ages 6 to 11. And I was like, "Whoa, oh my god, like 6 to 11 kids, this is the number one show." And we were told, "Yes." And so I was super proud about that one on a personal 

Rich Bennett 26:41
level. Wow. 

Jordan Geary 26:42
On a personal level, I worked on this one show. This is not a show that's like super famous or anything, but I'm very proud of it. I worked on this one show for Cartoon Network, a previous job that was called Thumb Wrestling Federation. It was literally just two live-action hands that were thumb-wrestling with each other. And they had masks and different characters. 

Rich Bennett 27:06
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 27:06
I did a bunch of stuff for this show, but I voiced two of the characters. And one of the characters was a slime monster named Gil. He had kind of a voice, and see how it was like this. And the other character was a New Jersey tough guy named Ouch, who sounded sort of like this. I did the voices for the show, I forgot about it. It aired on Cartoon Network. No one really watched it. Fine. A couple of years after that, I'm working at a different company and I go to a toy show in London. And I'm walking around just checking out all the different boots they have. And all of a sudden I see this giant booth with my characters on there. And I walk up to, I just go, "What is this?" They're like, "Oh, it's Thumb Wrestling Federation. It's huge. It's huge out here." I'm like, "This show is big." And they're like, "Yeah, I'll throw it out Europe. It's it's an awesome thing." And I'm like "Do you, like, do, voice here." And so I listened and they were using my voice. And you're like, "Yeah, we got posters, we got shirts. We have action figures of your characters." And I'm like, "What the hell is this?" It was their real life. I'm big in Japan moment. And I, 

Rich Bennett 28:21
I 

Jordan Geary 28:22
was signing autographs for people. I was just like, "This is the weirdest thing." I'm, 

Rich Bennett 28:26
"Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 28:26
idea." 

Rich Bennett 28:26
no 

Jordan Geary 28:27
Currently my characters are really big. I just never knew about this. This is, you know, before the heyday of the internet, where things like that could still happen. So... 

Rich Bennett 28:36
Yeah, and the funny thing is, if that thing was rebooted today, it would be the way wrestling is today, it would just blow up. 

Jordan Geary 28:45
It would blow up. It was also like shorter episodes. And that's 

Rich Bennett 28:48
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 28:48
the- Keep asking me, "Where is kids' content going?" And I just keep on saying, like, "It's just getting shorter and shorter for some reference." that mecha builder show that I was telling you about those episodes, 22 minutes long. And then Sesame Street was like, hey, we want to do some shorts of it. Can you make them five minutes? And I was like, sure, the five minute episodes were even more popular. And then Japan was like, hey, this is really big out here. Can you make two minute episodes? We made two minute 

Rich Bennett 29:19
Ow! 

Jordan Geary 29:19
episodes. And that was even more popular. And then one of the last things that I did at Sesame before I left was make a series of shorts of mecha builders for Instagram. Each one had to be 59 seconds or less. At the whole episode. 

Rich Bennett 29:38
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 29:38
From beginning to end. And we put the first one up and I was like, every, this is crazy. Every time we shorten these, they get more and more popular. What I will tell you, Rich, these were produced in Canada. The entire population of Canada is 41 million people. The first video we put up as of five minutes ago is at 310 million views. It's the most popular thing that Sesame Street has ever posted on 

Rich Bennett 30:12
Instagram. 

Jordan Geary 30:12
And it's on Instagram and on YouTube. 

Rich Bennett 30:15
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 30:16
And so it just goes to show like everything's just getting shorter and more compact, more disposable. Heck, if you want to make a hit series, just shorten it a bit. And I think you're there. 

Rich Bennett 30:29
And you're seeing that a lot with, well, even podcast. People will take, you know, like the video clips and make short ones out of it. That's why YouTube shorts, shorts. YouTube shorts is so successful. The hardest part, especially when it comes to podcast is getting the people to go to the podcast and listen to the full episode. 

Jordan Geary 30:54
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 30:55
That's the hard part. But that's smart. What you're doing doing the little short, I mean, it reminds me of, again, I'm showing my age the three studious. 

Jordan Geary 31:06
Yeah. Total. 

Rich Bennett 31:07
They were so successful because of their shorts, I believe. That and they were funny as hell. 

Jordan Geary 31:13
Exactly. And I've always gotten shorter and shorter. Like that's the thing. I think people are having a tough time rapping their minds around this. That's the number one thing parents say is, I'm really annoyed at my kids. All they do is watch YouTube shorts. 

Rich Bennett 31:27
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 31:28
I can't get them to sit and watch a movie that's like two or three hours anymore. I'm the guy in the room who's like, I don't know if I want to watch a movie that's three hours. There's something about stuff getting a little bit shorter, a little more compact. It just frees you up. I don't know. 

Rich Bennett 31:46
With this stuff you do with children, I just thought about this. Everybody, a lot of businesses, I want to say practically, everybody, not an individual person, but all types of businesses and all. They have focus groups. 

Jordan Geary 32:03
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:04
So with you, when you get ready to put pen to paper or whatever, you're creating something for children. Do you have a focus group of children? 

Jordan Geary 32:13
Yep. Children. 

Rich Bennett 32:15
Come on. 

Jordan Geary 32:16
Children and parents, 

Rich Bennett 32:19
because, really, 

Jordan Geary 32:20
it's because it's millions and millions of dollars that are invested. 

Rich Bennett 32:26
Right. 

Jordan Geary 32:27
Thanks. No one has the thick skin to be like, yeah, let's just throw it out there and just gamble. So what we'll do is we'll produce a couple of episodes, or if we can make a couple episodes, if it's too expensive, just a couple of shorts. 

Rich Bennett 32:43
We'll 

Jordan Geary 32:43
get a focus group of kids and do a formative and summative testing. That's basically a fancy way of saying like our kids and joining stuff and our kids learning something from this. And what's crazy is you as a person who's creating a kids show, you have to make something that appeals both the kids and the parents. I think a lot of 

Rich Bennett 33:08
you could. Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 33:09
Big misconceptions is, oh, hey, I made a show. Kids are going to love it. Parents have to a feel safe with their 

Rich Bennett 33:18
front 

Jordan Geary 33:18
of it that, especially if it's a sesame thing, they have to look at it and no. My kids going to come out and watching this a better person, smarter, stronger, and kinder. The other thing is parents have to basically like kids will watch almost anything. There's a heavy, heavy funnel that's like a parent filter where they go, okay, my kids have to improve in some way, but also in addition to this, do I feel comfortable as a parent telling other parents that my kids watch this show? That's a weird, weird thing to, 

Rich Bennett 33:59
yeah. 

Jordan Geary 34:01
but the elevator pitch of any show that we did at Sesame or any kids show. It almost has to be parent approved where you're never gonna make a show that's like, hey, I made a show. It's John Wick but like their groundhogs every. Every parent will be like, well, yeah, I'm not gonna tell other parents that I'm watching some other some groundhog with guns that it's killing people and everything. You have to do that parent filter. It's like does this sound good to parents end? 

Rich Bennett 34:28
Right. 

Jordan Geary 34:28
Pain the kids with it. And so and so it's literally just two forms of testing. We asked the parents a series of questions and we asked the kids a series of questions. And then at the end, we have these big meetings where it's like, hey, and we get really nuanced with it. Hey, this shows really great parents hate this character. We have to get rid of this character. Kids 

Rich Bennett 34:50
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 34:51
loved this episode and hated this episode. We have to get rid of this episode and we 

Rich Bennett 34:55
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 34:55
just are kind of moving and shifting until you get your sweet spot. 

Rich Bennett 34:59
All right. So you always hear the phrase, never bring your work. 

Jordan Geary 35:04
Yeah. I mean, I 

Rich Bennett 35:06
was just going to ask you that because especially with you having kids, how many times have you brought work home and you're like all excite about this episode or this character you created or whatever. And eight. What two 

Jordan Geary 35:23
girls to girls. Yeah, two girls. Two girls. Yeah. And four four years apart. 

Rich Bennett 35:28
OK. 

Jordan Geary 35:29
Great. It's two different age demographics. I get the test, you know. 

Rich Bennett 35:33
Well, how many times have they looked at something you brought home and they're like, oh, no, 

Jordan Geary 35:38
all the time. 

Rich Bennett 35:39
I think you're, but you're excited about it because you thought it was going to be like off the 

Jordan Geary 35:44
All 

Rich Bennett 35:44
charts. 

Jordan Geary 35:45
the time. And that's actually the best feedback. So here's what I will say is there's no more of a blunt audience than kids. 

Rich Bennett 35:53
You 

Jordan Geary 35:53
go up another level. There's no more blunt of an audience than your own kids because they really do love you and they really do care about you and they. 

Rich Bennett 36:02
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 36:02
They just can't smile and say, yeah, this is really great. Dad, this year, amount of times I've shown something to my girls and they've just gone, Dad, no, this is the worst. This is, I mean, this is boring. I find this character really annoying. This person who voices this, like, never cast them again and something. 

Rich Bennett 36:23
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 36:24
And what's so cool about that is, I mean, sometimes, you know, you can't just take all the feedback, but 

Rich Bennett 36:30
right 

Jordan Geary 36:30
feedback. I can't tell you how many times. And I'm not, I know of an ego. I can tell you how many times I have been, like, we got an episode. We had to review it. I went home, showed it to my kids and they were like, "Dad, this sucks." This part 

Rich Bennett 36:46
is 

Jordan Geary 36:46
character sucks. And then I just went in the next morning and was like, "Yeah, I don't think this character is going to test well." You know, like, you, you, you kind of have this like me, me, me, want to rethink these things and I 

Rich Bennett 36:57
wrote. 

Jordan Geary 36:58
They were like kids who were very, very united in hating something. Now what I will say though, is there's a secret. There's a magic spot to bring in your work home. I will say, 

Rich Bennett 37:11
I 

Jordan Geary 37:12
love watching shows. They love helping me. They love feeling like they're part of the process. I will say, like, any job you have good and bad days. And it took me a while to realize, like, you know, you leave some of the stress at your job. You know, you will bring that home, you know, because especially working in a creative field. You could watch a movie with your kids and you're just like scowling the whole time and you're just like, "Ugh, this reminds me of this thing with my job." Like, this character reminds me of a character that I had to work on. When you, when you work in entertainment and you're watching entertainment, it's hard not to give notes. It's hard to, 

Rich Bennett 37:51
uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 37:55
You know, you kind of have to let your kids just sit and be whisked away. 

Rich Bennett 38:03
Have either of your girls shown any interest in the following your footsteps? 

Jordan Geary 38:08
Uh, that's a great question. Uh, my younger daughter wants to be a singer. 

Rich Bennett 38:13
Okay. 

Jordan Geary 38:13
Some creative stuff in there. Our, our older daughter is just a rebel. And, like, how 

Rich Bennett 38:19
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 38:19
do you, how do you rebel against a parent who works at Sesame Street? She's like, "I want to be a dentist." I'm like, "Sure." Yeah, go, "Wow." I mean, I'm whole, she's helped me out with so many shows over the years and she's really good. She's a great director/producer. I'm like, "Sure, pursue the dental dream." 

Rich Bennett 38:39
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 38:40
But slowly but surely, I'm like, "Maybe you could help me out with this YouTube video. Maybe, I'm like the devil on her shoulder." That's just trying to whisk her away from a stable, safe, sane career and is like, "Let's work in kids TV." So. 

Rich Bennett 38:52
Are you are you happy that you switched from the music on 

Jordan Geary 38:58
Oh my 

Rich Bennett 38:59
over? 

Jordan Geary 39:00
god. Yes. Oh my god. Yes. Yeah, I mean I just had to work with a lot of people that work in music either. 

Rich Bennett 39:06
Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 39:06
the sound engineer or composer. It's tough. It's a really tough profession. There's not a lot of money in it. Honestly. 

Rich Bennett 39:14
Right. 

Jordan Geary 39:15
I really have a lot of respect for people that do find living in. In that career. And here's what I will say to anybody listening. That is young or even old and they're trying to figure out what they want to do next. 

Rich Bennett 39:31
You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

I want to give a huge shout out to a key player behind the scenes of the show Freedom Federal Credit Union. You know running a podcast involves more than just microphones and stories. It requires solid financial management. And that's where Freedom Federal Credit Union comes in. They're not just a credit union. There are community partner that I trust deeply. Their support helps us keep bringing you the stories you love episode after episode. And what really sets Freedom Federal Credit Union apart is their dedication to local businesses. They offer everything from business loans to incredible resources ensuring companies like mine thrive. And it's all wrapped in top notch customer service. So if you're a business owner looking for a financial institution that supports your goals and invest in our community. I can't recommend Freedom Federal Credit Union enough swing by their site at freedom fcu. org or give them a call at 1-800-440-4120. 

Jordan Geary 40:45
Do a unpaid internship in that field. You may think you love it. I when I was younger. 

not gonna pretend that this professor told me, hey, you know, there's no music and music and there's no money in the music industry you should leave it. And I immediately just took that advice. I was like, let me check. And so I did a internship at a company that did music and movie -- sorry, music and sound effects for movies. And 

Rich Bennett 41:14
I'm 

Jordan Geary 41:15
I was a sound engineering firm in New York City. And all the top movies, Martin Scorsese, everyone used this place. And so I worked as an intern there. And they were like, hey, you know, as part of this internship, we want you to score and do sound effects for one of the movies and we'll just see how good you are, you can see what the process is like. And as I mentioned, I'm a people person. I love talking. I love collaborating. I love joking. I -- they told me this. They closed the door. And for the next week, I was in a padded sound -- soundproof room, all alone. 

Rich Bennett 41:53
And 

Jordan Geary 41:54
it was like solitary confinement. 

Rich Bennett 41:57
Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 41:57
yeah. I was trying to get a door squeak and I was listening to door squeaks like 700 different types of door squeaks. And by the end of that week, I was like, I hate this. I need to talk to somebody. I need to get out of here. This is hell. This is literally hell. And so that's just to say, am I happy I'm not doing that. Am I happy? Absolutely. I've been able to do some music things and sound effects and voice acting as I mentioned. So I'm still in audio. But I'm happy I'm successful. My kids are happy. I never look back. 

Rich Bennett 42:32
Internships are important. And yeah, I learned that when I was going to school for radio and my first internship I did was that I was lucky because it was one of my favorite radio stations. 

Jordan Geary 42:46
And 

Rich Bennett 42:47
I learned so much there. But keep in mind when I was in radio, I was strictly a music DJ. 

Jordan Geary 42:54
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:55
One of the things I did not like to do, believe it or not, was to interview people. 

Jordan Geary 42:59
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 43:00
I did not want to do that. And here's the funny thing. I was DJing in clubs before I started DJing in radio. 

Jordan Geary 43:07
Interesting. 

Rich Bennett 43:08
The first time I went live on the air at a radio station, that on air light came on and I froze. 

Jordan Geary 43:16
No, 

Rich Bennett 43:17
it freaked me out. And the guy that got me into radio, he's a rich. He said, what's the matter? I said, there's like thousands of people. Listen, he said, well, hopefully more than that. But which made it even worse. I said, yeah, that's scary. He said, you're in the clubs all the time, you're DJing in front of hundreds of people. I don't get it. Well, you'll be fine. You don't my answer was. 

Jordan Geary 43:42
What 

Rich Bennett 43:43
there? That's in the club, Steve, that that's where I'm DJ and there's alcohol. 

Jordan Geary 43:50
Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 43:51
*laughs* and he said, oh my god, he said alright, good point, but he said just look at this. And Steve Malfa was, he taught me a lot when he came to radio. He said, just look at the microphone and think of it as one person. I'll say, I can do it and everything else. But the only thing I didn't like about radio was everything was scripted. 

Jordan Geary 44:15
Yeah, well, I learned that about reality TV. 

Rich Bennett 44:18
Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And some stations I couldn't even use my own name. Yeah, nowadays, again I'm sure my age, but when I was in, we were still using vinyl and even real to real tapes and carts. 

Jordan Geary 44:33
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:33
Yeah, now everything is computer on the computer and you just hit, you can hit go. 

Jordan Geary 44:38
Yeah, now exactly. And I mean, to your point about the internships, I think something else that I did with any internship I had, but also really any job that I had, because I would get there, I'd look at what the tasks were and what the building was like, and what the company was like. But I always paid, and maybe I'm an empathetic person, I would always pay really close attention to how happy the people were. 

Rich Bennett 45:02
Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 45:03
yeah. And I can tell you how many places that I started, I was super excited. I was, oh my god, this is going to be great. And then you look around and people are like, run, get out of here. 

Rich Bennett 45:12
There. 

Jordan Geary 45:13
And sure enough, I mean, those places, that never lies. It's never, oh, you just talked to Tom. He's always disgruntled. It's like, no, people give off a vibe. And that vibe is how you will feel about this company eventually. 

Rich Bennett 45:28
The thing is, and it not just with businesses, but that's very important. If you're going to go to work somewhere, talk to the people that work there. But also, if you're going to move to a neighborhood, I always suggest going to talk to the neighbors. 

Jordan Geary 45:42
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:43
Before you sign that contract, because the last thing you want to do is move into a neighborhood that is just filled with hateful 

Jordan Geary 45:52
And 

Rich Bennett 45:52
people. 

Jordan Geary 45:54
honestly, you get some great stories out of that I 

Rich Bennett 45:57
started 

Jordan Geary 45:58
working at this one animation company, and this animation company was doing all the preschool stuff, and they were like the envy of every company in New York city at the time. And I started working there. I was super pumped. And I want to talk into this guy who is like the second or third in command. Like working here. He's like, oh, I hate it. I hate every day of my life. And I was like, okay, 

Rich Bennett 46:21
wow. 

Jordan Geary 46:22
Well, I mean, I talked to this person and this person and this person, and they all seem kind of happy. Like what's going on? And he said, yeah, it makes sense. The reason being the person, the guy who runs this company is psychopath, just the most horrible human being that you will ever work with. And if you look at an org chart of this company, it's like, don't be too close. Don't be a curse. Don't go too close 

Rich Bennett 46:48
this. 

Jordan Geary 46:48
to 

Rich Bennett 46:48
Right. 

Jordan Geary 46:49
You will see how happy anyone is at this company is by how closely they have to work with this guy. This horribly evil guy that runs this company. And sure enough, it just changed my whole worldview. I looked around and was like, oh, I need to work here and not get promoted too much. 

Rich Bennett 47:07
Yeah. And, 

Jordan Geary 47:10
and unfortunately, I did. I just kept getting more. Oh no, I have to work with the sky all the time. And yeah, it wound up. I wound up seeing what a lot of people were saying about this guy. 

Rich Bennett 47:24
All right. Before we get into what you're doing now, I have to ask you this, usually I'll ask for one, but that's not fair. So I'll say three who are three of your favorite characters for sesame. 

Jordan Geary 47:41
Forcess me? Okay. Okay. They're going to see. 

Rich Bennett 47:43
Overall, overall. Yeah, because that could be kind of hard, wouldn't 

Jordan Geary 47:47
it? Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I can I could do both. 

Rich Bennett 47:50
Okay, good. That's fun. 

Jordan Geary 47:51
Happy to give you whatever you want. So I will say favorite sesame characters. I like the count is number three. Just I'm a Halloween door. And so I just love anything Halloween. Second would be Cookie Monster. There's something to so pure and ridiculous. 

Rich Bennett 48:09
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 48:11
Number one for me is Bernie of Berten Ernie. Uh-urnie? Yeah, yeah, and I do a lot of the voices for the scratch. Like a lot of the voices and I'm not used. 

Rich Bennett 48:24
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 48:24
So I used to do all the characters. So, uh, you know, his voice is sort of like this. I heard I was a young and Ernie is down here. 

Rich Bennett 48:33
Uh-huh. 

Jordan Geary 48:33
Well, Ernie. For those who don't know, Ernie was like the spirit of Jim Hansen. He was voiced by Jim Hansen. He had Jim Hansen's like happy, exuberant energy. And as a kid, I was obsessed with that energy. I was like, this guy, this character is just so warm and friendly and fun and optimistic. I just want to be this character. And I grew up, I kind of am that character. And it wasn't until I got to Sesame Street that people are like, this was Jim Hansen putting himself on camera. And so if you never met 

Rich Bennett 49:08
him, wow, 

Jordan Geary 49:09
chance to meet him. If you watch an episode of Sesame Street and just see how Ernie acts that is like a proxy for him. So those are my top three for that. Top three characters overall. I'll give you the number one. The number one character I love is the Grinch. Specifically, because you haven't have a Grinch doll Christmas. You have an episode. I mean, I don't know if you've realized how short it is. It's like 11 minutes long. They pat it in cartoons when we were younger, but it is really short. You have a Christmas special about a jerk who is just doing horrible things to people for 98% of the runtime. And not only is it fun, but you're like, yes, steal that thing. You know, oh, yeah, you know. But he was that dog. Like you were just with him on the ride. And what I try to tell people is he is, in my opinion, one of the first in popular culture, one of the first anti heroes. If you look at Tony soprano or, you know, insert anti hero here, you can trace it back to the Grinch. And just how fascinating it was to a generation of kids that were like, wait, this episode revolves around the villain. I'm hanging out with the villain this whole time watching the villainous things on Christmas. It feels so sacrilegious and so dark that I've kind of spent my whole career just unpacking that and the great work that Chuck Jones, the guy who made loony tunes, did with all the animation, 

Rich Bennett 50:46
right. 

Jordan Geary 50:47
Boros Korolof doing the voice. It's a master work. 

Rich Bennett 50:51
I bring him up not Boros Korolof, but Grinch up a lot when I'm playing Santa Claus because I always tell the kids, yeah, they're like, don't be Grinch, don't be I hear them say that to other people. I was like, wait a minute, what's wrong with the Grinch? Yeah. Keep in mind, Grinch is basically the cartoon character of Scrooge. 

Jordan Geary 51:11
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 51:12
And, and, and anti, and what happens with the Grinch? His heart, his heart just grew so big. 

Jordan Geary 51:17
exactly. 

Rich Bennett 51:17
I said, there's nothing wrong with being the Grinch. I got to agree with you about Ernie too. 

Jordan Geary 51:22
Oh really? 

Rich Bennett 51:23
Oh, yes. And here's why because I think 

because of Ernie, a lot of adults fell in love with Sesame Street. And now I'm going back probably before you were even born. But there is a hit song that Ernie sang. And I'll never forget this. My older brother had to have the rubber ducky 

Jordan Geary 51:48
rubber ducky. Of course. 

Rich Bennett 51:50
Yes. But I mean, you heard a thought singing the thing all the time. 

Jordan Geary 51:57
Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, I'm a child of the early 80s. Like I was born in 82. And, and back then, I mean, they've Elmo's a new thing as far as I'm concerned. 

Rich Bennett 52:08
Yes, yeah. 

Jordan Geary 52:09
Tabby, like there's a whole bunch of new characters burden Ernie were like the OG weirdo odd couple, you know, for Michael. 

Rich Bennett 52:17
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You said it perfectly for people my age, the odd couple. 

Jordan Geary 52:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:25
Which another series. All right. So what is it that Jordan is doing now? 

Jordan Geary 52:30
Great question. So, um, 

Rich Bennett 52:33
besides sitting there talking to me, I know 

Jordan Geary 52:34
I 

Rich Bennett 52:34
that. 

Jordan Geary 52:35
mean, that's number one. That's the rule. And recovering from COVID. So I'm very excited. So a lot of people are like, well, you're at Sesame for 10 years. Why aren't you staying there? For I mean, Sesame famously is a place where if you are good at what you do, you stay there for decades. And the way that I've been responding to people is, you know, on this planet. What we get like, eight decades nine decades 

Rich Bennett 53:04
if we're lucky 

Jordan Geary 53:05
Lucky, 

Rich Bennett 53:05
if you're 

Jordan Geary 53:06
yeah, I've devoted one of those eight or nine decades to making kids smarter, stronger, and kinder, doing all different types of shows. And really, I'm just super proud of the work that I did. I was ready for a change. I was ready for two things. And this is kind of where I'm going now. The first one is I was ready to do some creative where my name was on the top. You worked a lot of creative people, showrunners, and show creators. And as creative as I am, I was always the, you know, number two, you know, deferring to somebody. I was like, I think I'm ready to be the creative voice. And so I can't talk about it right now, but there's something super duper, duper exciting that has gotten Greenlit. I'm signing the paperwork literally as we speak so I can't talk about it, but I am the creative voice I created a series. And in the coming weeks and months, I'll be able to announce it. So that dream has come true, which is great. The other half of what I really wanted to do more of is this, is helping people, is talking a little bit about how you can use some of the methods that I used to create some of the new kid shows. And how you can use the same methods to better your own life. And to give you an example of that. I worked at Sesame Street for 10 years. And before that, a bunch of kids shows. And we're doing fun things. This is like ridiculous that we're getting paid to do this. I can't tell you. 

Rich Bennett 54:47
To be a kid 

Jordan Geary 54:48
Yeah. To be a kid again. 

Rich Bennett 54:49
again. 

Jordan Geary 54:49
I can tell you 

Rich Bennett 54:49
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 54:49
many meetings I would be in. And people are upset. People are stressed out. People are angry. People are yelling at each other. And I just realized just how many unhappy people even at Sesame Street, even at other places there are. And I would always take those people aside and just be like, "Hey, what's going on in your life? Like, can I help? Can you know, can 

Rich Bennett 55:13
Right. 

Jordan Geary 55:13
we turn this around a little bit?" And you know, you're busy. I didn't really have a lot of time to do that when I was at Sesame Street. Now, a lot of people, friends, family, but also just people all around the globe have been contacting me via my website, which is jordangary.com. And they've been saying, "Hey, I'm ready to change my life and make it more fun and make myself the main character of the story I always wanted to be." And so I have a bunch of videos on YouTube. I have some blogs that I've been writing. And really, it's using a person's background that in creating characters, worlds, episodes for TV and just saying, "Hey, how could you run your life through that filter?" And then come out the other side going, "Oh my God. I turned into my favorite character. I turned into James Bond. I turned into, you know, John Wick or Instvan 

Rich Bennett 56:09
Right. 

Jordan Geary 56:10
from Swingers." Like, the person I always wanted to be, I am now. And it's because I deconstructed my life and rebuilt it back up almost as if somebody was creating a TV show. And so 

Rich Bennett 56:21
Brandon yourself. 

Jordan Geary 56:22
Exactly. Brandon yourself, but do we get in a really fun way? We all like watching TV. We all love watching movies. I'm like, "Why don't you just watch a bunch of your favorite TV shows and jot down all the traits that all your favorite characters have? Do you have all of those? What's holding you back?" 

Rich Bennett 56:39
Like, "I love that. 

Jordan Geary 56:39
Estructing some of that stuff." 

Rich Bennett 56:42
And I think that's very important, especially, well, for somebody like me, in this field, in podcasts, it's very important for people to do that. I think it's very important for entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners. Those are, you need to get your face out there. And, well, call the expert Jordan. You can, look, you can make cookie monster look good. 

Well, 

Jordan Geary 57:11
here's what I will tell you, is just for my background. Something look fun and cool and sweet for kids and for parents. And that is so. 

Rich Bennett 57:22
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 57:22
Really hard. And so I can guarantee you worth. 

Rich Bennett 57:26
But you get a lot of 

Jordan Geary 57:27
joy out of it. I get a lot of joy out of it. But I can guarantee whoever's listening to this, if they're like, "Oh, yeah, but I got so many problems. I'm such a despicable person." Everything like, I'm like, "No, I can totally turn you into somebody that everyone kind of goes, "Wow." kids and parents. That's the guys kind of cool. That woman has something kind of going on. And what I will tell you is the biggest thing that I've learned, like throughout this entire life and process, is that we have more agency than I think we give ourselves credit for. I will tell you a couple of years ago, I was pretty unhappy with myself. I was pretty unhappy with the way I dressed, the way I talked. The friends I had, the family members, I was giving some time and attention to. I literally had to just stop everything unpack and rebuild my life. And now my life is better than it's ever been. It's, I think it's something that everyone needs to do from time to time. 

Rich Bennett 58:32
What did you do to help to help you with that? Was it something you read or something? 

Jordan Geary 58:37
No. 

Rich Bennett 58:39
Really? 

Jordan Geary 58:39
No. So I'll just tell you, when I, the most unhappy I think I've ever been in my life was in high school. I was 

Rich Bennett 58:46
a 

Jordan Geary 58:47
cool, awesome, friendly, personable guy leading up to high school. And then I went to high school in another town. And when I got there, everyone knew each other. And if you were somebody that was not, that didn't grow up with them, you were like an other 

Rich Bennett 59:02
outside. 

Jordan Geary 59:02
Yeah. It was also a harsh, strict, Catholic high school that 

Rich Bennett 59:06
I 

Jordan Geary 59:07
mean, it was like just a perfect smorgasbord of affiveness. 

Rich Bennett 59:12
Right. 

Jordan Geary 59:14
And I was so unhappy in high school that I just said I did the George Costanza from Seinfeld. I was like, the opposite of everything I'm doing must be right because everything is going wrong. And I said, who do I want to be? Like that was my first question. Who do I want to be that I'm not right now? And I just started watching TV and movies. And I just started jotting down like this guy's the character that I want to pay attention to the whole time they're the second or third most, you know, on the billing, but you know, the second or third most interesting character or important character, but I love them. 

Rich Bennett 59:50
Right. 

Jordan Geary 59:51
After making this list, I literally, I mean, at the went to my mom and I was like, I want to get my hair cut this way. I want to dress, I want to dress this way. I want to speak this way. Uh, can you help me? And my mom said, sure, you're not, it seemed 

Rich Bennett 1:00:06
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 1:00:06
very happy. Let me help you out. And not, I mean, it was like a, it was like one of those old 90s movies. I did everything different. Went to school the next day. Girls were paying attention to me. Jocks wanted to hang out with me. I was getting parts in plays. It was like everything changed. Cut to a couple of years ago, I had another one of those moments where I was like, I'm just not happy. And then I just went back into my catacombs and my memory and said, you were once this unhappy. What did you do then? You did this, this thought experiment where you just tracked people and, and characters and movies and TV that you liked and you just kind of embodied them. And I did it again. And it worked again. And I was happier than ever. And so, uh, that is part of the reason why I built this website. I've built this YouTube channel. I'm like, I've done this a couple of times for myself. I've helped my kids through tough times with this. friends, family, strangers. I'm like, there's something in this where it's fun to watch TV and movies, but it's even more fun to like become the characters that you love. And 

Rich Bennett 1:01:14
Uh, 

Jordan Geary 1:01:15
yeah, and, and, and a weird way, bring out aspects of yourself that are you're not pretending to be somebody else. You're bringing, you're like elevating, uh, attributes that you have within your own personality. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:25
Right. 

Jordan Geary 1:01:26
And your own persona and bringing those to the forefront and, uh, kind of changing the way that other people see you, but also how you see yourself. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:35
It's a unique way of giving yourself a makeover. It sounds like, 

Jordan Geary 1:01:38
yeah. Well, and so the first show, the first reality show I worked on was a show called ambush makeover. Maybe that's somewhere in the back of my mind. It was a 

Rich Bennett 1:01:46
I've 

Jordan Geary 1:01:46
show. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:46
never heard that one. 

Jordan Geary 1:01:46
It was a show for Fox, where they went. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:49
Okay, 

Jordan Geary 1:01:49
went up to people on the streets in New York and said, Hey, you look like crap. You could use a makeover. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:54
Oh, God. 

Jordan Geary 1:01:55
Yeah. And, and they would makeover somebody. And, uh, my first job at a school was, I was the unpaid intern that had to chase people down who were too offended to appear on the show and say, Hey, can you sign this waiver so I can get you storming off? That was that was the worst job in my life. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:13
Yeah, I could see that. Yeah. I gotta ask you this, this, and Jordan, which characters are in you? 

Jordan Geary 1:02:21
Oh my God. I love you. 

Alright, so I'll just jump right into it, uh, there have been many characters over the years that I've just seen attributes in. Specifically, confidence, uh, they're personable, uh, that age old, you know, uh, women want to be with them, men want to be them, sort of thing. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:45
Right. 

Jordan Geary 1:02:45
You know, James Bond, uh, I did mention Vince Vaughn from the movie Swingers. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:50
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:02:50
Just people are super extroverted and big and they're light- the life of the party, but there was one character that I saw and I just was like, I think this is it. I think this character is who I am when I'm at my best. If I've had a couple of drinks and I'm like entertaining a whole party full of people, it is this character, the way I look, the way I dress, the, you know, the decisions I make. And I was like, I'm not going to take my own word for it. I sat my wife down and I was like, watch this TV show, we watch this TV show. My wife turns to me and said, this character acts so much like you when you are entertaining people. And I was like, okay. And I showed it to a couple of friends. And they're like, yeah, I like that show, but like the main character just reminded me a lot of you as words that may sound. And it just sung to me, it spoke to me so much. The funny thing is it was the character of the devil from the TV show. That was on Fox and Netflix Lucifer. If you ever watch that. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:55
Yes. 

Jordan Geary 1:03:56
That character is... 

Rich Bennett 1:03:58
I could see that. 

Jordan Geary 1:04:00
And for better for worse, I guess I'm the devil, you know, they're, they're, it's the 

Rich Bennett 1:04:05
I, 

Jordan Geary 1:04:05
worst thing 

Rich Bennett 1:04:05
I love that. 

Jordan Geary 1:04:06
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:07
I love that character, Red. 

Jordan Geary 1:04:09
He's fun. He's fun. He's unpredictable. And the most important thing is he's interesting. You're everyone who ever talks to him like has a good time. And that's my big thing is appearing on your podcast. I'm like, I may suck, but I want Rich to have fun. And, and feels like things have been going well. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:26
Can you play piano like... 

Jordan Geary 1:04:27
Aha! I'm working on it. Nope. Good question though. I think I have my next thing I might do. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:36
Oh, the prayer art, the learn how to play piano. 

Jordan Geary 1:04:39
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:40
I was going to say if it's something that you want to do, you got to at least try 

Jordan Geary 1:04:43
But at least try it absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:45
it. 

Jordan Geary 1:04:45
I, 

Rich Bennett 1:04:45
Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 1:04:45
I, I'm, I'm very good at playing the guitar. piano though. I've 

Rich Bennett 1:04:49
really. 

Jordan Geary 1:04:49
always had problems, but you inspired me. That is the number one thing I'm going to do after this. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:54
Jordan, if you could play guitar, you'll be able to play piano. Seriously, I, that's, I believe that whole heartily. My, I used to play music. I started off his drums. Then keyboard, the guitar, then bass. 

Jordan Geary 1:05:09
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:10
My son. And I always say he has Stevie Ray Vaughn re-incarnated. 

Jordan Geary 1:05:15
Whoop. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:16
Guitar. And then he plays piano, he can play bass and drums. You give him, put him in front of anything and he can pick it right up. 

Jordan Geary 1:05:27
Amazing. Can I ask? 

Rich Bennett 1:05:28
Yeah. Sure. 

Jordan Geary 1:05:30
Character for movies or TV that you love. Like somebody that pops into your head that you're like. And when I say love, I mean specifically, there's attributes of them, and it doesn't have to be all of them. It could be a serial killer for all I know. But somebody that you look at and you're like, you know what? I always love this about this character. And I have a little bit of that myself. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:52
Not necessarily a character, but an actor. 

Jordan Geary 1:05:54
Ooh, even better. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:55
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:05:56
Great. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:56
As a me, because even growing up, I, I nicknamed myself after him. 

Jordan Geary 1:06:02
Oh, I'm so 

Rich Bennett 1:06:03
And 

Jordan Geary 1:06:03
excited. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:03
that, and that was John Wayne. 

Jordan Geary 1:06:05
That's awesome. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:06
I always loved, I just always loved John Wayne. And the, I'm afraid I forget what movie it was. But the one movie it may have been, "Sans of Iwo Jima," where he died. And I started tearing man, it's like, John Wayne, he's not supposed to 

Jordan Geary 1:06:23
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:23
die. The thing, I mean, there are a lot of great characters out there. 

Jordan Geary 1:06:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:33
And you know what, that's homework for me that I'm going to have to do. 

Jordan Geary 1:06:36
you gave me so much, even in our audience so much, even in saying John Wayne, I could see it in the best of ways. And 

Rich Bennett 1:06:44
Well, 

Jordan Geary 1:06:45
served 

Rich Bennett 1:06:46
flick, or there were pilgrim. I can't even do his voice anymore, man. 

Jordan Geary 1:06:50
It can't tell you why though. Because 

Rich Bennett 1:06:53
I'm old, that's why. 

Jordan Geary 1:06:54
The why is the biggest question? I have to, or the biggest answer, I will say you and I popped on this podcast like for five, 10 minutes before we started recording. You project quiet badass. Like, 

Rich Bennett 1:07:09
oh, 

Jordan Geary 1:07:09
you. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:09
thank 

Jordan Geary 1:07:09
You're very nice. You're very sweet. You're very gracious. But at the same time, I'm like, oh, this guy is who I want. like in a bar fight with me. This guy's 

Rich Bennett 1:07:20
No, man. 

Jordan Geary 1:07:22
in a close. Don't touch his presence. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:26
I'm the here's the funny thing. Because I was the one now, granted I did have a short temper, very short temper. But I was also the one that would try to break things up and tell people to just look, there's no, my thing was there's I would always say, why are you fighting? There's no reason to fight. Sit down have a drink together or whatever. What's fighting going to solve well, he ain't going to do it again if I beat his ass. You don't know that. You don't know that. But at the same time, if you did anybody, my family, a friend wrong. And if you ever hurt a woman or a child, I'm coming after 

Jordan Geary 1:08:12
you. Well, let me 

Rich Bennett 1:08:13
tell you that's the way I was 

Jordan Geary 1:08:14
up. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:14
brought 

Jordan Geary 1:08:14
Let me tell you something. That attribute that you have within yourself is what made you such a good mediator. Because if you were like a weak little sniveling guy and you 

Rich Bennett 1:08:25
right. 

Jordan Geary 1:08:26
We calm down. No one's listening to that person. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:28
Now 

Jordan Geary 1:08:29
you have to have that ability to step up and puff your shoulders out a little bit and just say, I want you to calm down. I want you to calm down. And just in your voice is that little bit of edge where it's like, and don't mess with me when I'm telling you. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:44
Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 1:08:44
I'm telling you to do that. And I think that's really, it's the best of both worlds. This is a weird tangent. I 

Rich Bennett 1:08:51
a 

Jordan Geary 1:08:51
have I have a fish tank in my house and it's full of all these tropical fish. And when I first got this fish tank, the fish door was like, you should get a fox face rabbit fish. And I was like, I don't That is, you know, it's a really pretty yellow fish, but they're like this fish is kind of a badass. And I was like, how so? And it said, any when you're curating a fish tank, you have to have a good different, a bunch of different personalities that I'll work to get. This fish fox face rabbit fish is a badass that calms everyone down and stops fights. And I was like, it does. And they're like, yeah, if you get too fish, you put too fish in there that naturally hate each other to start to fight, you will literally see this fish getting between them and be like, you go to that side of the tank, you go to that side of the tank. I don't want to hear from you guys again. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:42
Wow. 

Jordan Geary 1:09:42
And I was like, get out of here and sure enough. I got a bunch of fish, put them in there. And this fish was just sorting people out and telling people like, hey, she'll out, you know, calm down. And so I think I think the world needs more people like that, just John Wayne quiet bad ass. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:57
Wow. I love that. Man. All right, so Jordan, before I get to my last question, which I have no idea what the 

Jordan Geary 1:10:06
be. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:06
hell it's 

Jordan Geary 1:10:06
I 

Rich Bennett 1:10:06
going to don't. Is there anything you would like to add? 

Jordan Geary 1:10:11
Oh, that I would like to add. Wow. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:13
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:10:14
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:14
That's not my question though. 

Jordan Geary 1:10:16
Um, yeah. You know, I'll add something that I have learned really the past month. Part of the reason I have COVID is I just got back from Europe. I was, geez, I was in Belgium Prague. Vienna. Crack it out. I went to eight different cities in eight different countries. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:38
What were you over there, thumb rust? 

Jordan Geary 1:10:39
Yeah, right. I know. new fan service here and there. You know how it is. Um, and what I will say is just that much time away from your life, you just start to reflect. You start to look back and just say, okay, when I land, what are some things I want to do differently? How can I just tweak things a little bit to make things better? When I had big revelations when I was on my travels was man, it is really easy in this life to take things too seriously. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:07
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:11:07
I'm a guy who worked at Sesame Street for 10 years. I should have had the happiest most fun job in the world. I took every ass, I cared about it. So I took every aspect of that job super seriously and just worked my butt off and probably didn't have as much fun as I wish I did. And 

Rich Bennett 1:11:23
Right. 

Jordan Geary 1:11:23
you look back on your life, I think that's a big regret a lot of people have when they are on their deathbed. As man, I could have had a bit more fun. If I knew it was all gonna end this way, I probably should have just laughed more, been a bit more open. And so, I think just something I want to add to the listener, if you haven't been doing this enough lately, just schedule and time to laugh. Schedule and time to be present. And man, unless, unless you're a surgeon who is, you know, saving people's lives every day, chances are what you're doing is not as serious as you think it is. And you'll live longer if you just laugh more. So that's something I just want to share. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:02
But the good thing is with that, you said it was something that you regret, but you learned from that regret, 

Jordan Geary 1:12:09
I guess exactly. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:10
which is very important because a lot of 

Jordan Geary 1:12:12
and 

Rich Bennett 1:12:12
people 

Jordan Geary 1:12:12
benefit it. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:13
don't 

Jordan Geary 1:12:13
Like I can't, I'm not gonna working hard don't do that it's like no like there's a there's a time and a place for everything and I think okay hey I won the biggest Emmy I could win maybe now I can laugh and have a bit more fun with my family you know like 

Rich Bennett 1:12:27
yeah yeah maybe maybe now you can critique the stuff that your daughters do 

Jordan Geary 1:12:33
oh my gosh you got to put that in writing so that when they 

Rich Bennett 1:12:36
I 

Jordan Geary 1:12:36
become teenagers mean rich told me I gotta 

Rich Bennett 1:12:39
do 

Jordan Geary 1:12:40
your boyfriend can suck 

Rich Bennett 1:12:43
oh oh hey you know what here's a and I told parents this anytime if especially if they have a little girl and they put her in Santa's lap and that little girl's crying always don't take the picture now that's the best photo you ever have because when it's time for her to go date somebody you can just hold that picture so look this is the way she is of guys she's gonna be crying the whole time 

Jordan Geary 1:13:04
exactly it's exactly 

Rich Bennett 1:13:07
saying and have the road where if a boy wants to date your daughter they must come to the door and ask your permission 

Jordan Geary 1:13:15
just 

Rich Bennett 1:13:15
first and if he still stand there if do you punch him in the mouth and he 

Jordan Geary 1:13:19
well I mean or just have a guy with a Santa beard who's an ex-marine right behind 

Rich Bennett 1:13:26
wait a minute 

Jordan Geary 1:13:28
him 

Rich Bennett 1:13:28
Jordan 

Jordan Geary 1:13:28
at rich 

Rich Bennett 1:13:28
you said the wrong thing there you said the wrong thing not ex-marine 

Jordan Geary 1:13:30
oh Marie well 

Rich Bennett 1:13:32
marine yeah once a Marine always a me 

Jordan Geary 1:13:34
hey I will just keep my giving me things 

Rich Bennett 1:13:36
but 

Jordan Geary 1:13:37
your boyfriend's I will use all 

Rich Bennett 1:13:40
the one of the things I love and I I still have it upstairs so I have a round or some people call them a bullet upstairs you might want to try this for when the girls old and start to date and when the boy comes you just take that bullet and throw it at him and he'll say well 

Jordan Geary 1:13:57
okay 

Rich Bennett 1:13:58
yeah throw throw it at him because he's gonna ask what you do that for and you say just remember if you treat my daughter wrong you're not gonna see the next one coming 

Jordan Geary 1:14:08
you are such a intensely more masculine than am like I'm gonna just I am literally going to just write you emails every month you just give me a line to make me sound cooler that that was that was so and I'm in love that's amazing 

Rich Bennett 1:14:30
that that may be why my daughter my daughter is never 

Jordan Geary 1:14:33
high 

Rich Bennett 1:14:35
so Jordan I have fit or I have a hundred questions here don't worry I'm not gonna ask you all 100 of them but I need you to pick a number between one and 100 give me time to look for the question and some I don't know how but somehow another the number that my guests have picked a line of what we've been talking about so pick a number between one and 100 and tell me why you picked that number as I look for the 

Jordan Geary 1:14:58
all 

Rich Bennett 1:14:58
question 

Jordan Geary 1:14:58
right the reason I'm picking this number is because I yes me who's my who's my doppelganger and I said it's the devil so we got to go a 66 

Rich Bennett 1:15:09
oh wow 

Jordan Geary 1:15:10
no one's gonna pick that number I bet 

Rich Bennett 1:15:13
well I'm for it first your I thought you were gonna say 66 I was gonna say Jordan there's 

Jordan Geary 1:15:17
100 

Rich Bennett 1:15:18
only 

Jordan Geary 1:15:19
exactly 

Rich Bennett 1:15:20
oh damn you know when in a way this can go hand in hand with what you've been doing 

Jordan Geary 1:15:25
wait 

Rich Bennett 1:15:27
if you could witness any historical event first hand which one would it be 

Jordan Geary 1:15:36
oh that is I'm a history do 

Rich Bennett 1:15:39
I love that question 

Jordan Geary 1:15:40
me too especially 

Rich Bennett 1:15:42
said you could write something about it afterwards too 

Jordan Geary 1:15:45
yeah exactly any historical 

event 

Rich Bennett 1:15:53
that's a 

Jordan Geary 1:15:54
question 

Rich Bennett 1:15:54
hard 

Jordan Geary 1:15:54
that is history a bit long 

Rich Bennett 1:15:58
I 

Jordan Geary 1:15:59
mean like like the low-hanging fruit is stuff like the JFK assassination a lot of like closed door things I gosh can you tell I have like the brain of a five-year-old I think I'm gonna go with it kind of the dinosaurs 

Rich Bennett 1:16:14
oh 

Jordan Geary 1:16:15
specifically because every time something new comes out about that event it is the most chaotic insane horror show of a day like or a couple of days in history like they talk about how you know carbon went up in the air immediately crystallized and then it rained like glass like glass shards 

Rich Bennett 1:16:38
and 

Jordan Geary 1:16:39
then certain animals were able to survive because they were like hundreds of meters deep or deep in caves look if I could be there and nothing could happen to me and I could just watch it I would totally pick that because I feel like everything that you and I see from ourselves to dogs to the mountain ranges. It all. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:02
Mm-hmm. 

Jordan Geary 1:17:03
There's like two or three days. Like that's the thing is that they've also recognized looking at the carbon footprint that like you could see when the apocalypse happened because there's just like one black line like in the soil. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:18
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:17:19
That would be crazy just to witness. And probably put the rest of our days in perspective. Yeah, you know what, today was a bad day, but it wasn't that bad. It wasn't raining glass from the sky's bad. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:30
Wow, Lucifer, you really dig it. I didn't know what that was. (laughing) 

Jordan Geary 1:17:36
Yeah, I didn't pick an easy one. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:39
(laughing)

Jordan Geary 1:17:39
You have one? 

Rich Bennett 1:17:42
Probably a few. The first thing to keep the mind and probably keep the mind because I'm watching the show now, the chosen. And that would have to be the last supper. 

Jordan Geary 1:17:51
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:53
Yeah. But there's, I mean, it's hard, that's a hard question. Yeah, because in all honesty, I'm also watching the last kingdom and I watched Vikings before that. To go back to "Worn that". There's so many different...

Jordan Geary 1:18:11
I think there's a running theme, though, with the ones you just mentioned, the one I just mentioned is like, thank God I live now. Thank God. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:19
Yeah, 

Jordan Geary 1:18:19
I'm not 

Rich Bennett 1:18:19
yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:18:19
a Viking. Thank God I'm not this. You know, I heard some sort of crazy statistic that like, the average lifespan was like 30 up until like 1850 or something like the fact that you and I exist. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:33
Yeah. 

Jordan Geary 1:18:34
Just because we're after 1850 or something. It's weird. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:37
Oh, it's, you're giving me a lot of homework. 

Jordan Geary 1:18:42
Gotta 

Rich Bennett 1:18:43
figure out what characters I would like to be. And then I gotta take that, figure out what times in history. 

Jordan Geary 1:18:50
It's great, man. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:51
That's great. 

Then I could step back into just to 

Jordan Geary 1:18:54
It's 

Rich Bennett 1:18:54
watch. 

Jordan Geary 1:18:54
a sign of a good podcast, but also just a new friend. This is great. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:59
Well, you know what, one historical moment, I wish I would have been there for it. And I'm going to end it on this one. So before I tell that moment, Jordan, I want to thank you so much. He's been a true honor. I could not have, wait to have you on again. But the one historical moment, I wish I could have been part of, was when Jordan Geary got that Emmy. 

Jordan Geary 1:19:23
Oh man, this is Cume blush. It's a podcast 

Rich Bennett 1:19:27
(indistinct) 

Jordan Geary 1:19:28
to get the red and the sweat. 

Rich Bennett 1:19:30
(laughing) 

Jordan Geary 1:19:32
You did it, you did it John Wayne. Thank you so 

Rich Bennett 1:19:35
much. 

Oh, well, looking very much. Oh no, that ain't John Wayne. That would have been Johnny Cash or Elvis or whoever. Nevermind. Thanks a lot, Jordan. 

Jordan Geary 1:19:43
How much is this really fun? 

Rich Bennett 1:19:45
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love it if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversationswithrichbennet.com for updates, giveaways, and more. Until next time, take care, be kind, and keep the conversations going. You know, it takes a lot to put a podcast together together, and my sponsors help add a lot, but I also have some supporters that actually help me when it comes to the editing software, the hosting, and so forth. There's a lot that goes into putting this together. So I want to thank them and if you can please please visit their websites, visit their businesses, support them however you can. So please visit the following. Full circle boards, nobody does charcuterie like full circle boards. Visit them at fullcircleboards.com. Sincerely, so your photography. Live in the moment, they'll capture it. Visit them at sincerelysoyer.com. The Jopitan Lines Club, serve in the community since 1965. Visit them at www. JopitanLinesClub. org and don't forget to ee at the end of Jopitan because they're extraordinary.