Screens are amazing tools. We use them to watch shows, send messages, get directions, and more! But they’re also good at distracting us and can get in the way of having fun IRL! So this August, we’re launching an initiative called ANALOG AUGUST. It’s a challenge to step away from your screens and spend more time device-free! 


In honor of the cause, we’ve whipped up an iconic Smash Boom Smarty Pass special: ANALOG vs. DIGITAL starring Smash Boom Best producers, Anna Weggel and Aron Woldesslassie! Handwriting vs. Typing. Zoom vs. Classroom. Book vs. E-reader. Which ones are best? Tune in to find out and decide for yourself!

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ANNOUNCER: Now entering Brains On headquarters.

MOLLY BLOOM: Do I want to use auto-tune or just my regular voice.

ANNA WEGGEL: Molly?

MOLLY BLOOM: Smash Boom Best producer, Anna Weggel.

ANNA WEGGEL: I'm here for the analog versus digital debate.

MOLLY BLOOM: You're representing Team Digital, right?

ANNA WEGGEL: Right.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: And I'm here to represent Team Analog. Bababooey!

MOLLY BLOOM: Smash Boom Best producer, Aron Woldeslassie.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: That's my game and my name.

MOLLY BLOOM: Well, I'm super excited for today's Smash Boom mini debate. We're arguing, which is cooler-- analog or digital? "Analog" is a word we use to describe using physical objects, like maps you fold, old records you play on a turntable, board games instead of video games.

By "digital," we mean computers and screens, like fun apps, text messages and videos. You guys get it? Sending you a thumbs up emoji right now.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: And I'm just literally using my thumb for a thumbs up. See that?

ANNA WEGGEL: Boring.

MOLLY BLOOM: Fantastic. So in this techie tangle, we'll have three speed rounds featuring iconic analog and digital activities. We've got handwriting versus typing, letters versus text, and book versus e-reader. matchups so magnetic. They don't compute. Are you ready for this Smash Boom battle to begin?

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: You're going down.

ANNA WEGGEL: Yeah, probably.

MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Debate number one is handwriting versus typing. Aron and Anna, you'll each have 30 seconds to make your case for your side and 30 seconds to rebut your opponent's statements. Sound good?

ANNA WEGGEL: Yeah.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Oh, yeah.

MOLLY BLOOM: All right. We flipped a coin. And Aron, you're up first defending the age old art of handwriting. Why is handwriting cooler than typing. You've got 30 seconds to spell it out for us. And your time starts now.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: The Constitution, the Magna Carta, cave paintings, what do these all have in common? They were all made by hand. They were all written by hand. You ever think it's strange that when you're out and about and you're signing a contract, you're not typing your signature, you're handwriting your signature.

Because when you handwrite something, it's absolutely certainly you. It's a form of identity. It's how you subscribe yourself to a piece of paper. It's sincerity and clarity and cherishness.

MOLLY BLOOM: And time. Anna, you're up. Please tell us why Aron's argument is coloring outside the lines. Your time starts now.

ANNA WEGGEL: The Constitution, the Magna Carta, would you know about them if not for the text versions of them on computers and printed versions in books? If we only ever had the original handwritten, none of us would even know about it at all.

So thank goodness for technology so that we can learn and be wonderful humans. Am I right? Plus, I can't even read your handwriting, Aron. I've tried. And it's very hard.

MOLLY BLOOM: And time.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Gasp. That's not true. I've got the handwriting of a young doctor. I can--

MOLLY BLOOM: Oh.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: All right. My--

ANNA WEGGEL: That's very bad handwriting.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: I'm waiting--

MOLLY BLOOM: Notoriously bad.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Yeah. They're bad because they're saving lives, like me. That's what I'm doing. I'm saving lives with my bad handwriting.

ANNA WEGGEL: Are you a doctor?

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: I'm a doctor without a medical degree, if that's what you're asking.

ANNA WEGGEL: So no.

MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Anna, please take 30 seconds and tell us why typing is tops. Your time starts now.

ANNA WEGGEL: Let's talk speed. I work all day. I have a toddler and a baby. Do you think I have time to sit down and write a letter. I can't even tell you the last time I showered. Let's talk legibility. My dad is a doctor. They have notoriously bad handwriting. It wasn't until texting was invented that I was ever even able to communicate with my father.

Let's talk searchability. What was that thing that person wrote in an email. Let me do a quick Control-F and find it in seconds. Let's talk storage. Do you want rotting old boxes, taking up room in your closet, or billions of emails and texts inside your computer and found that you can store for the rest of your life.

MOLLY BLOOM: Very good. Aron, I know you've been scribbling down your notes. Read us your rebuttal. And your time starts now.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: You're doing all of these things where you're essentially sterilizing handwriting. To this point, I've just like no compassion. Do you know what the original Control-F for writing was? It was called a memory. That's what you do when you want to remember something kind somebody wrote.

And if you want to remember what somebody wrote to you like five months ago, you don't go through your phone, fiddle through it. You go through your boxes of letters, like a historian, and you remember things. And you look at the beautiful calligraphy of your loved ones, like your dad. Sure, his legibility isn't great, but he loves you. And you can see that.

ANNA WEGGEL: Can I-- how old are you, Aron?

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: I'm a spry 31 years old.

ANNA WEGGEL: As a spry 39-year-old, let me tell you, your memory is going to go. Eight years from now, you're going to wish you had Control-F What memories? I don't know anything that happened to me five years ago.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wow. A fearsome first round. Listeners, what side did you think was best?

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: My side.

MOLLY BLOOM: Use whatever criteria you want to judge and mark down a point. Next up, we have texts versus letters. For this match-up, We've prepared a sneak attack challenge, Oscar-winning moment.

Anna and Aron, for this challenge, I want you to imagine that your side played a significant role in a feature-length film that's up for an Oscar. Tell us what the movie is called and then narrate an award-winning scene from your film that showcases the power and glory of a well-timed text or a meaningful letter. Does that make sense?

ANNA WEGGEL: Yeah.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Oh, yeah.

MOLLY BLOOM: Aron went first last time. So, Anna, you're up. Tell us about the text that took an award-winning film in a new direction.

ANNA WEGGEL: The film is called Click Clack Shadowtown. The movie stars Hannah Bagel, a tech savvy journalist-- not Anna Weggel, Hannah Bagel-- a tech savvy journalist who lives in a town called Clickety Clackville. And a series of cryptic text messages, begins to circulate among the residents, hinting at dark secrets and hidden truths.

Hannah is standing alone on the rooftop of her apartment building, the city lights flickering below. She says, I always thought text messages were just threads leading to someone else's truth, someone's story. I was chasing shadows, piecing together lives and secrets that weren't mine, all while thinking I was the one pulling the strings, uncovering the plot.

But now, now I see it was all leading back to me. Every text, every clue, they were breadcrumbs, scattered by someone who knew me better than I thought I knew myself. My whole life I've been writing stories about other people, as a journalist, Hannah Bagel, unraveling their mysteries, exposing their lies.

All this time, text noise, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop. Wait, what is this? It says the truth is closer than you think. Wait, wait, wait. This isn't a coincidence. I've been running from the truth, terrified of what I'd find if I dug too deep. But it's here staring me in the face. And I can't run anymore. I won't. It's time to step into the light.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wow.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Oh, my gosh.

ANNA WEGGEL: Did my own sound effect.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: So intense.

MOLLY BLOOM: I smell. Oscar.

ANNA WEGGEL: Thank you.

MOLLY BLOOM: Incredible.

ANNA WEGGEL: I smell EGOT.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Oh, wow.

MOLLY BLOOM: Absolutely. All right, Aron, it's your turn. Let's hear about the letter that stole the scene in a moving movie.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: My movie is called Dear Deer Deer. It is the love story between a dear, beloved dear, writing letters to their long-lost love who happens to be a moose. And this is the final scene where the moose has to write its last letter before confronting what is the villain of the movie, an unruly Hunter.

"Dear, dear dear, it's been a tumultuous winter of sprinting and jumping over springs, looking over my shoulder, licking inconspicuous rocks for salt, thinking they may be a trap. In these tumultuous times, the only thing keeping me going is the idea of you, my lovely, lovely, dear.

You are the springtime in my heart. You are the rosebud of this feral, frantic winter. You are the serene silence punctured by what I can only describe as a buckshot. Dear, deer deer I, moose, cannot say when I will see you next. But just know when I do, it will be a loving summer."

ANNA WEGGEL: The amount of eye contact I received during that made me really uncomfortable.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: I'm not going to lie to you. I wasn't-- I had to take-- it took a lot of work for me to look past you and imagine the love of my life, a deer.

MOLLY BLOOM: That was acting. That was real capital A acting by capital A Aron. All right. We've got one round left. Before then, listeners, please give a point for whoever you thought did better in that sneak attack.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Be a dear.

ANNA WEGGEL: Hanna Bagel.

MOLLY BLOOM: Now, the last round we have is book versus e-reader. For this debate, we're doing rhyme it up, a sneak attack challenge where each opponent will have 30 seconds to come up with a freestyle rhyme about why their side is tops. Sound good, Aron and Anna?

ANNA WEGGEL: Yeah, yeah.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: I'm so excited.

MOLLY BLOOM: Aron, you're up first with this one. Show us why old-fashioned books are best in rhyme. And your time starts now.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Take me to a book nook. Give me a good book look. Straight forward, no corners, like a book rook.

MOLLY BLOOM: What?

ANNA WEGGEL: A lot of seconds left.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Yeah, I'm-- it's called a pregnant pause. How many books did I took? It's a library. As much as I want.

MOLLY BLOOM: Time. That was a more avant garde approach to rhyming and poetry.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Wait, did you get my pun, book, rook?

MOLLY BLOOM: I don't know what a rook is?

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: In chess?

MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.

ANNA WEGGEL: No, no.

MOLLY BLOOM: Like a tower?

ANNA WEGGEL: It's too late to make sense.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Yeah. Forget it. It's fine.

ANNA WEGGEL: Nope. We're stuck with it.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: It moves straight forward. Keep going.

MOLLY BLOOM: Moves straight forward. Anna, it's your time to tout the advantages of e-readers, in rhyme this time. You've got 30 seconds, and your time starts now

ANNA WEGGEL: Hi, how are you doing? Now here is some knowledge. You just have to listen. You don't have to go to college to understand that the rule of the land is that digital life goes hand in hand with ease, saving trees, keeping these books together in your bag, in your suitcase. They're there forever.

Search for a word. You'll find it in a blink. Highlights and notes all saved in sync. From classics to new, reading, day or night, e-readers. my friend, you can travel light. Oh, yeah! That was an actual wrap. I actually rhymed. Wow!

MOLLY BLOOM: Time. Your own best hype woman.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Wow.

ANNA WEGGEL: It's good to support ourselves if no one else will.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, that was a fearsome fracas. Those arguments were seriously rad. And now I'm feeling glad.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: So who won, Molly?

ANNA WEGGEL: Yeah. It's not like I care because winning isn't everything. It isn't important. So many other things are important. So who won, Molly?

MOLLY BLOOM: I won. I won. I won.

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Wait, what?

ANNA WEGGEL: No!

ARON WOLDESLASSIE: What?

MOLLY BLOOM: 'Cause I got to listen to you guys be funny and cool. I'm auto-tuned, and I sound so good.

And that's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was made by Aron Woldeslassie, edited by Sanden Totten, and produced by Lauren Humpert. Our executive producer is Beth Pearlman, and the APM Studios executives in charge are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Brains On is a non-profit public radio program. Thank you, Smarty Pass friends, for your support.

(SINGING) Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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