0:00

Greetings, grown-ups! We're thrilled

0:03

to introduce to you another

0:05

fantastic podcast live from Mount

0:07

Olympus. Unforgettable tales from Greek

0:09

mythology of gods, monsters, and

0:11

heroes! Live from Mount Olympus

0:13

is an adventure podcast for

0:15

tweens and listeners of all

0:17

ages. And you can find

0:20

it wherever you find your

0:22

favorite shows. www.mooji.org

1:03

www.mooji.org Did you know

1:05

we love podcasts with mythical monsters,

1:07

heroes, and gods? One of our

1:09

favorites is Live from Mount Olympus,

1:12

an adventure podcast for tweens and

1:14

families of all ages. The new

1:16

season tells a story of war, fate,

1:18

friendship, betrayal, a heist, and a

1:20

titan who played with fire. You

1:23

don't want to miss the myth of Prometheus.

1:25

Tune in to Live from Mount Olympus, wherever

1:27

you get your podcasts. www.mooji.org

2:00

you you

3:00

you you

4:00

You Hey

4:53

there folks and welcome back to What If World,

4:55

the show where your questions and ideas inspire

4:58

off the cuff stories. I'm Mr. Eric,

5:00

your host, and I am joined today

5:02

by a very special guest. I

5:04

have been on Henry C's podcast. Actually,

5:06

Henry, would you want to tell us

5:09

about your show? Hi, good

5:11

to be here, Mr. Eric. Hi,

5:13

so, well, I

5:15

have a podcast called Time

5:18

Woke the First Season. It's

5:20

an audio, a family audio

5:22

drama, a audio drama made by

5:25

me aimed at kids. And

5:28

yeah, and you also have a sort

5:30

of a separate show, I guess it's more

5:33

of an I can show for the for

5:35

the radio in

5:37

Oregon that both of us

5:39

are on. Can you tell us

5:42

about that one too? Yeah, I

5:44

was on the first we were

5:46

both on the first episode of

5:48

the show I Can Become. Yeah,

5:50

I Can Become. Yeah, that's the one I met. I so

5:53

I got I got my podcast pitches

5:55

mixed up there. I apologize. But

5:58

yeah, and it was so great. Henry

6:01

C. is just a

6:03

wonderful host, almost

6:07

in seventh grade now, and you're

6:11

here today to ask me a

6:13

what if question, right? Yeah, what

6:15

if guitars rain from the sky?

6:18

What if it rained guitars? Alright,

6:21

what if it rained guitars?

6:23

Now if

6:25

I recall correctly,

6:28

it was a specific

6:30

kind of guitar that you wanted.

6:32

Yeah, electric guitars. Ah, electric guitars,

6:34

okay, okay, I wanted to make sure that I got

6:37

the full question in

6:39

here. So before we jump into the

6:41

story, this is a fully improvised story

6:44

for you listeners at home, which means

6:46

Henry's going to jump in. Henry, do

6:49

you play electric guitar? No,

6:51

I've got a couple of different instruments

6:53

I play though. Oh, you do? What

6:55

instruments do you play? Teaching myself how

6:57

to play piano, and then I play

6:59

clarinet in my middle school band. Piano

7:02

and clarinet. So already

7:06

very musical. I

7:08

actually, I already have one character in

7:10

mind that I want you to meet,

7:12

because it just immediately jumped into my

7:14

head. I'll keep that a surprise. But

7:16

are there any, is there any one

7:19

character that you might want to meet

7:21

in What If World? A couple of

7:23

my favorites. I love JF Kat. I love Fred

7:25

the Dog. Everyone loves Fred. Okay, we

7:27

are going to answer the question.

7:30

What if it rained

7:32

electric guitars? Are you ready?

7:35

Yeah, I'm ready. Henry

7:39

was enjoying a nice stroll

7:41

along the neighborhood. Excuse

7:44

me, sorry. I'm a little lost

7:46

here. My name's JF Kat,

7:48

and who might you be?

7:50

Hi, JF Kat. I'm Henry. Nice to meet

7:52

you. Oh, such a pleasure to

7:54

meet you. I love cats, but I've never

7:57

met a talking one before. Where I come

7:59

from, they are... commonplace. Maybe

8:01

you can help me get home? Now

8:03

this is when Henry, a clever and

8:06

cautious kid like you, took a break

8:08

to call his grown-ups and asked to

8:10

visit What If World with JFK. They

8:13

had already given permission otherwise we wouldn't

8:15

be telling the story but it never

8:17

hurts to double check. Okay,

8:20

I have some time. Oh very good, very

8:22

good. It's always good to check in with

8:24

the grown-ups of course before heading off to

8:27

an imaginary land but off we

8:29

go. And there

8:32

they were in What If

8:34

World. Whoa what is this

8:37

place? Actually it looks a

8:39

little bit different. This neighborhood which

8:41

is normally lined by strange

8:43

houses all built and the

8:45

various shapes that people imagine

8:48

except that these houses had

8:50

lots of damaged roofs and

8:53

and broken musical instruments sticking

8:55

out of their lawns and cracked

8:57

pavement and people were picking through

9:00

the rubble of damaged instruments carrying

9:02

very sturdy looking umbrellas as if

9:04

they worried about something falling on

9:07

their heads at any minute. So

9:09

this isn't normal for this wonderful

9:12

place? Normally people aren't

9:14

so afraid as they walk around

9:16

during that day but there was

9:19

one person who did not seem

9:21

afraid at all bursting out of

9:23

an apartment building with a big

9:26

joyful grin on his face

9:28

was Alabaster Zero. Oh

9:31

yeah! I'm What If World's best

9:33

detective. Well between 7 p.m. and

9:36

9 p.m. when Fairly's isn't

9:39

taking on new cases it's me

9:42

on Tuesdays actually then I'm the

9:44

best detective in What If World

9:47

and I see a mystery in front of

9:49

me to solve what do you think happened

9:51

here there's there's so much damage around these

9:53

oh these houses are messed up I

9:55

don't know it seems like there's a

9:57

broken guitar is everywhere that's right

10:00

You know, I love solving mysteries and

10:02

I'm super duper good at it, but

10:04

I'm also a really good electric

10:07

guitar teacher, so maybe I should

10:09

just like give you some lessons

10:11

while you're visiting. But,

10:14

Alabaster, everyone kinda looks really, really

10:16

scared. So Henry, the first thing

10:18

you gotta do before you pick up

10:20

an electric guitar is make sure you're

10:22

wearing a really cool t-shirt. So

10:25

what's your t-shirt say? I've got

10:27

that covered. It says Next Level

10:29

Tinball Museum. Wow, you know a

10:32

lot about rock and roll. I really

10:34

don't. The next important thing to

10:36

be a really great rocker. And

10:39

before Alabaster Zero could finish the

10:41

sentence, storm clouds started

10:43

forming over hell. Um,

10:46

what's happening? The sky opened

10:48

up, quite literally, with a

10:50

swirling vortex that started dropping.

10:54

That does not sound good.

10:56

Electric guitars! That

10:58

explains the poking guitars everywhere. But

11:01

it doesn't teach us how to play. I

11:04

bet if we learn how to be

11:06

really good guitarists, then we will solve

11:09

the mystery. They just wanna be

11:11

played, right? That's probably why they're

11:14

here. Who can say? That seems

11:16

like one possible reason, but we've

11:18

really done absolutely no information gathering.

11:21

You're right. We need to

11:23

get to the rock and roll shop, because

11:25

we are dangerously low on rock and roll

11:27

gear, which is absolutely necessary in order to

11:29

play the electric guitar, thus solving this

11:32

mystery. This reasoning seems unsound to

11:34

me, but I belong for the

11:36

ride. Okay, let's go. And off

11:38

they went to the rock and

11:40

roll shop. Now, Henry, what is

11:43

one of your favorite foods? Let's

11:45

just say donuts off the top of my head. Alright,

11:48

here we are at

11:50

the Speakeasy Donuts

11:52

Shop that is secretly

11:55

also a rock and roll shop. Mm-hmm.

11:58

I think you're just hungry. if

12:00

a donut's alabaster knew that's definitely

12:02

not it. An alabaster went

12:05

inside and ordered a bunch of donuts.

12:07

Oh hey, how are you? I see

12:10

November Julie the Roar is vaguely being

12:12

called Neat Another, but the sign outside

12:14

says speakeasy donuts. Our

12:16

title is very subjective to

12:18

uh imagination. Oh

12:21

no, uh huh, let's get down to the

12:23

rock n roll basement. And they fled into

12:26

the rock n roll basement, which had all

12:28

different kinds of musical instruments, and

12:31

rock n roll gear, as well

12:33

as of course electric guitars.

12:35

Okay now it's time for your next

12:38

lesson Henry. If you're

12:40

gonna really rock out, you need to

12:42

know one thing. It's what

12:44

a whammy bar is, okay so you this little

12:46

bar and yep and you stick it at the

12:48

end near the end of the guitar here, electric

12:51

guitar, you have a hole for it and

12:53

then you kind of wobble it back and forth as you're playing

12:55

the guitar and it goes whir whir whir whir

12:57

whir whir whir. Oh I think

13:00

I know it well, I think I've heard what it was

13:02

before. And alabaster zero handed

13:04

Henry an electric guitar and screwed in

13:06

a little bar to it. Okay

13:08

and the next thing you need to learn, absolutely

13:11

vital, is which pedals to

13:13

press to make your voice

13:15

sound weird while you sing.

13:17

Pedals? Yeah, you know I

13:19

despise being the voice of reason, I would

13:22

rather be napping, but it seems like

13:24

maybe we should uh solve the mystery.

13:26

All of this stuff is really important

13:28

though, you gotta- Is it so? Oh

13:30

you know we haven't dyed your hair yet. Nope.

13:33

Uh, yeah and maybe like a mohawk? No

13:35

thank you. Are you 18 yet? Nope. What

13:38

do your grown ups say about tattoos and piercings? Nope. They

13:41

would be imaginary of course. I fail to see how

13:43

any of this is important. Okay, I

13:45

admit it. I don't know how to

13:48

play electric guitar. If you

13:50

move your fingers really fast and go- It

13:57

sounds like you're doing a rocking guitar solo,

13:59

but then I- realize that making

14:01

those solos happen on the guitar

14:03

is actually really hard. If

14:05

something's really hard, you gotta just keep

14:07

trying. Wait, really? Yeah. But what if

14:10

I just paint my nails and get

14:12

some cool eye shadow going? That's

14:14

rock and roll. That'll probably help,

14:16

right? You just gotta keep practicing. I'll give you

14:18

an example. I didn't learn how to play the clarinet in

14:20

one day, did I? You didn't? It took you

14:23

more than a day? I'm still learning it.

14:25

Because I played guitar once for an

14:27

entire day, and then my fingers hurt, and I

14:29

was like, I should be really good at

14:31

it now. No, you gotta keep practicing. Keep

14:34

practicing? Yeah. There's

14:37

a lot of things that take a

14:39

lot of practice, and learning a musical

14:41

instrument is one of them. So

14:43

you're positive that if I get

14:45

a belt with a metal

14:47

skull on it that seems really

14:49

rock and roll, that that's not going to

14:52

make me a better guitarist? No. Practicing

14:54

is going to make you a better guitarist.

14:58

Sorry, Alabaster. Alabaster Zero,

15:00

when was it that you started trying

15:02

to do everything other than playing a

15:04

guitar in order to make you better

15:07

at playing a guitar? Oh, I don't

15:09

know. I mean, it was

15:11

probably around the exact time that it

15:13

started raining electric guitars everywhere. Um,

15:16

OK. Try practicing more,

15:18

and maybe it'll stop

15:20

raining guitars. Well, here we

15:23

go. Let's try and learn together.

15:25

And he and Henry started playing together.

15:27

And do you think it sounded

15:29

amazing? No, I don't think it

15:32

did. I mean,

15:34

but we've just started. We're going to get

15:36

better over time. Maybe I should get like,

15:39

you know, one of those people that knows more than you,

15:41

so they tell you stuff, and then you do that stuff,

15:43

and then you get better at the stuff. A

15:45

guitar teacher? Right. Do

15:48

they have those? Yeah. You weren't able

15:50

to find a clarinet teacher, were you?

15:52

No, but because my band teacher is the one

15:54

that teaches me how to play clarinets. So

15:56

they teach like a bunch of people all at

15:59

once? Yeah. Bunch of people all

16:01

at once, a bunch of different instruments. That's

16:03

okay, so music teachers have a really

16:05

hard job. Yeah. I think we should

16:07

probably just acknowledge that. But hey,

16:10

my teacher's amazing. She knows how to

16:12

play every one of the instruments that

16:14

we play in our school band, so. Wait, so

16:16

she knows how to play like three instruments?

16:18

A lot more than three. Four?

16:22

More than four. This

16:25

sounds awesome. I'm gonna be so

16:27

rock and roll, and now I

16:29

just need like maybe a headband. Maybe

16:32

like one of those double guitars, you know, with like one

16:34

guitar on top of the other. That's not

16:36

how you become a rock and roll star. Not

16:40

how you become a rock star. And even if

16:42

you don't become a star,

16:44

if you enjoy the playing,

16:46

does it really matter all that much? Yeah.

16:49

That's a good point. And as

16:52

Alabaster and Henry practice together,

16:54

it's actually

16:57

gotten kind of quiet in here. Have you noticed

16:59

that? Yeah, I haven't heard

17:01

discordant guitar noises fall upstairs in

17:03

like at least a half hour.

17:05

You're in sixth grade and you

17:07

know the word discordant. Yes, I do.

17:10

That is rock and roll. Is

17:12

it? Anything can be rock

17:14

and roll! Okay.

17:16

I think you're right. Even donuts can

17:19

be rock and roll. I

17:21

think we're losing the thread here. This lesson is

17:23

not about what is or is not rock

17:25

and roll is about practice. Yeah, you've

17:28

probably heard that phrase practice

17:30

makes perfect. It's

17:32

not practice makes perfect. What I like to say

17:34

is practice makes progress. That

17:38

is much more realistic and attainable and

17:40

doesn't make me feel stressed out about

17:42

every time I mess up. Yeah.

17:45

But we have been playing musical instruments

17:47

for several hours now. So we

17:49

should probably get you back to what is

17:52

world. You want a few donuts for the road?

17:55

Um, yeah, I'll take a couple. My

17:57

brother would probably be happy about that.

18:00

Well here's half a dozen. And

18:02

I did give this one a mohawk and I

18:04

did give that one a cool graphic tee. And

18:07

this one's wearing flannels. That one has a belt

18:09

with a very cool metal buckle on it. Okay.

18:12

Maybe you can come and make some of those for us

18:15

now that we have this secret rocket

18:17

roll base spin down here. Uh,

18:19

sure. Yeah, that sounds great. What

18:22

about your normal job as a detective? Sometimes

18:25

I just, uh, I just need a break from that.

18:28

In case you haven't noticed, I'm

18:30

not always the best detective. Yeah,

18:32

I've noticed. But practice

18:34

makes progress. Exactly.

18:37

The end. We

18:40

did it! Henry,

18:43

thank you so much. Thank you for

18:45

playing off of two of our wackiest

18:48

characters in all of What If Worlds.

18:51

Do my favorites. Now what are you

18:53

working on? I have a podcast that

18:55

I record out of my bedroom called

18:57

Time Woke the First Season. As

19:00

I mentioned earlier on, it's an audio

19:02

drama for people of all ages. We

19:04

find out what happens when an 11

19:07

year old discovers a time machine in

19:09

his garage. Ugh, I love

19:11

it. I love a good time travel story. I

19:13

don't have any full episodes out yet, but

19:16

I've got a trailer and I've got like

19:18

one little preview scene. By the time you're

19:20

hearing this, it might already be out.

19:22

Yeah. So the reason

19:24

this team up is happening is

19:26

because we are both friends of

19:28

the ICANN family. Yeah. Yeah.

19:32

Well, ICANN is the kids radio network.

19:34

A bunch of programming named that kids,

19:36

including What If Worlds. Yeah. We are

19:38

recording this for, I believe we're recording

19:40

this for ICANN's fifth birthday. I hope

19:42

they'll be around for many, many years

19:44

to come. They play awesome

19:46

classical music. And

19:48

I've been lucky enough to be

19:50

a part of ICANN since the

19:52

very beginning. Yeah.

19:55

All right, Henry. Well, thank you so much

19:57

for coming by. Thanks to our friends at

19:59

ICANN. can and we'll we'll

20:02

see you soon yes and fun thanks

20:04

for having me alright thanks bye

20:07

Henry Fred the dog

20:09

here to give a shout out

20:11

to Sammy age six Sammy

20:13

writes my favorite characters

20:15

are Fred the dog and JFK

20:18

but I came first so I'm

20:20

doing it I live in London England

20:22

with my sister Annabelle all year and

20:24

a bell and I love playing football

20:26

or soccer as you call it

20:28

in America I'm the goalkeeper I

20:30

find that putting my claws through

20:32

the ball makes it so that

20:34

no one can score a goal

20:36

little pro tip for you oh

20:38

yeah this is good oh I've

20:40

also got a meow out for

20:43

Jacob Rao Jacob is turning eight

20:45

in April he loves his two

20:47

kitties Leopold Vaughn stripey pants and

20:49

Ted head schmed bow bed does

20:52

a great name his favorite character

20:54

is me JFK and he says

20:56

thanks for all your work

20:58

you're very welcome you never

21:01

work quiet folks at home if

21:03

you want your own shout out along

21:05

with ad-free episodes monthly bonus content

21:07

and much more you can check

21:09

us out at patreon.com slash what

21:12

if world I'd like to thank

21:14

Karen O'Keefe my co-creator my producer

21:16

miss Lynn my guest Henry my

21:18

friends at I can radio where

21:20

you can listen at I can

21:22

radio org and all you kids

21:25

at home who remember that

21:27

practice makes progress not perfection

21:29

and until we meet again keep wondering