What's the best personality test?
Rec Room #7 – What we've been enjoying this week
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
A lot of people think being told the contents of another person’s dreams is the ultimate boring conversation. Today I would like to challenge that notion by talking about the results of an online personality test I recently took.
This time it was the Enneagram Test, which is better than the Myers-Briggs because you only have to remember one number instead of four letters, and you get a personality descriptor to go with it. I am a 9, aka “The Peacemaker”, and I will tell this to everybody I meet for at least the next 4-6 weeks.
The Enneagram is good and will make you feel extremely seen – but is it the most accurate personality test you can take? I reckon that honour probably goes to the Statistical “Which Character” Personality Quiz. This one gives you a list of famous TV and movie characters you’re most like – last time I did it my top pick was Milhouse from The Simpsons.
If you know of any other good online personality tests that can be done in under ten minutes, please reply and let us know!
–Cal
Duncan recommends this incredible edit someone on Twitter made of a post-match interview with Fulham manager Scott Parker set to the beat to Dry Your Eyes by The Streets. “I’ve watched it 30 times and it's the only form of culture I enjoy now.” While we’re on the topic of great post-match football interviews, I always enjoy this one, and Jihee recommends this one where José Mourinho talks about eggs.
Eli recommends following American funnyman Jordan Firstman on Instagram. “Might be late to the party with this but I love Jordan Firstman's impressions and secrets. You will feel seen!!!!! Really love his impression of a mosquito when someone says ‘mosquitoes LOVE me’.”
Jane recommends following New Zealand funnyman Chris Parker on Instagram. “I am a longtime Chris stan. His felting journey brought me a lot of joy during lockdown, as did his daily lockdown vids which are still worth watching if you missed them first time around.”
Emily’s son Eddie (7) recommends 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy on Three On Demand. “A mammy is Irish for mama. The man takes his mum all around the world to do scary things but he’s not really trying to kill her it’s just a joke. He actually really loves her and he cries when she skydives because he loves her and he is scared but actually she loves skydiving. When I grow up I am going to skydive with my mammy but just joking because she’s actually called mama”.
Sam recommends Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud by Elizabeth Greenwood. “It's about a woman who’s researching how to fake your death. It's funny and smart about all the implications of faking your death, and the industry that has popped up around it, and also surprisingly melancholic and smart about grief.”
Finally, a treat for the warmer weeks and months ahead – Leonie recommends Little Island Passionfruit Organic Coconut Ice Cream. “It’s sunshine in a bowl. As someone who’s had every non-dairy ice cream out there, the fact that it’s not just a great little ethical New Zealand business but also a world class product makes me feel quite patriotic.”
Got a piping hot rec you’d like to share with the room? Please send it in so we can include some next week.
100 Year Forecast
“The less I know the better” is a philosophy I apply to most difficult topics in life, climate change being a leading example. But the new climate series 100 Year Forecast is nowhere near as difficult as I expected – in fact I’ve now gone the other way and started telling everybody else they should watch it too. It clearly lays out what the next 100 years would look like if we keep on our current emissions path (quite bad) and how much of a difference we could make if we make changes now (quite a lot). All five episodes and accompanying data essays by Chris McDowall are available now at thespinoff.co.nz/climate/
The first leaders’ debate in 2.5 minutes
If you missed it, or have simply forgotten everything about it already, please watch José’s two and a half minute recap of everything you need to know about last week’s first leaders’ debate.
Who has the best dad jokes in parliament?
Here’s José again with a power ranking of the election campaign’s best (and worst) dad jokes. Number one is an absolute masterclass.
The Real Pod
The Real Pod trio returned to the studio for One Night Only last week to honour a vow made many moons ago – a vow to one day record a Twilight pod. Jane, Alex and Duncan hadn’t been in a studio together for more than a year and Duncan was still watching the last 40 minutes on 2x speed at his desk minutes before the pod started recording, so in a lot of ways it was like no time had passed at all. Any ideas for what movie can we make them watch next (New Moon?) please let us know.
Business Is Boring
Last week’s Business Is Boring guest was working as a trainee doctor when she started wondering how many others in her position were feeling the same stress. Quite a lot, it turned out – so she started designing an app to help. Now chnnl is being used by all sorts of workplaces to help workers keep an eye on mental health and get help when they need it. Dr Elizabeth Berryman joined Simon Pound for a chat about the app and her path to entrepreneurship.
Gone By Lunchtime
It’s election debate season, and this week’s big election debate is the Newshub leaders’ debate tonight on Three. That means Gone By Lunchtime will be recording at the unusual time of Thursday morning this week, so don’t worry – all the post-debate analysis you can handle should be available from early tomorrow afternoon.
Dietary Requirements
Also back in the podcast studio this week is the Dietary Requirements team, so if you haven’t already, subscribe and have a listen to the last episode from a couple of weeks ago. It was mostly about sourdough – how heaps of people got really into baking it over lockdown, what that all means, what makes a good crust and so on.
That’s all for this week. Please feel free to share this Rec Room with anyone you think might like it, and of course hit reply if you’d like to get in touch.
See you next Wednesday 👋
