No One Asked Us to Do This (So Here's Why We Did)

We called the first episode “No One Asked Us to Do This” because nobody did. Not a single person. There was no pitch, no audience, and no plan for what the show would be about. We are three regular guys from the Chicago suburbs with no particular reason to be on a microphone, and we know it.

What we had was the conversation. For twenty some years, wherever the three of us ended up - a kitchen, a campfire, somebody’s driveway at the end of a party - it turned into the same thing. Hours of good conversation. Somebody’s kid is leaving for college, somebody hit a deer at five in the morning, somebody read an interesting book, or they just wanted to pontificate. Then everybody goes home, and by the next morning most of it is gone.

At some point one of us said someone should record this. Why not? And if nothing else, our kids will have our voices someday. So we bought some microphones, set them up in the basement, and hit the button. The recording was a way to keep the conversation. It was also a reason to keep having it. Once the show existed, we had to show up.

What five episodes taught us

The show has no format on purpose. We hit record, and the conversation goes where it goes. What surprised us is that a structure showed up anyway, and it came from a challenge.

In episode three, we assigned ourselves homework. Eat somewhere you would never pick. Learn something about a religion you know nothing about. Then in episode four everybody actually reported back, and it turned into the best hour we’d recorded. I took my daughter to an Afghani restaurant. The Buddhism assignment produced a question we still haven’t settled: if you got to live a hundred lives, is that a gift or a sentence?

So now homework is the spine. Every episode opens with the report and closes with a new assignment. The current one is small and a little uncomfortable: carry a journal, compliment a stranger, say hi first.

A few other things keep coming back without anyone planning them. AI has shown up in four of five episodes. Music, because Clint will always have a song. Our kids, our parents, and grandparents who turn out to have been cowboys and clowns. Whether you’re allowed to recline your airplane seat. We’re not going to schedule any of that. We’re just noticing.

What this blog is for

The tagline on this page says it: things that didn’t fit in an episode, or wouldn’t stop after one. The hundred lives question is going to get a post, because two hours wasn’t enough. So is the homework itself, with a running list of what we’ve assigned and how it went.

We’d also like to hear from you, and we mean that more than most shows do, because nobody asked us to do this and we’re still a little surprised anyone listens. Send us a question and we’ll take it up at the table. Suggest a guest, including yourself. Give us homework: a restaurant we’d never pick, a book we’d never read, something three regular guys should have to try. Or just drop us a note and tell us where you’re listening from. All of it goes through the submit page or to info@3guys.chat.

Thanks for listening. There are more of you than there were in May, and we noticed that too.