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Would you pay to get a potato in the mail every month? Brandi Mastrud and Marlo Anderson work through a list of real (and really weird) subscription services, from messages mailed on potatoes and rent-a-chicken to bacon and pickle of the month clubs, hot sauce, tinned fish, exotic meats, dice, fossils, pay dirt for gold panning, cryonics memberships and even pet care after the Rapture.

Along the way, Marlo pitches his Hotel Pen of the Month Club, Brandi shares her family’s Universal Yums box, and they dream up a coffee club with a VIP line. Plus rent-a-bees, candle clubs, succulents, booze-infused jerky, olive oil and mac and cheese clubs, Bokksu, MeUndies, the magic of brand-new socks, dry cleaning, the swallowing-spiders myth and why nobody remembers names anymore.

Watch for the fact-check cards when they get something wrong.

The Absurdists, where logic takes a back seat. Season 3, Episode 2 with Brandi Mastrud and Marlo Anderson.

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Season 2 of The Absurdists wraps up by welcoming a new co-host: hairstylist and content creator Brandi Mastrud, who Marlo Anderson met on a riverboat during North Dakota Music Hall of Fame weekend. (Don’t worry, Mary Murphy will be back from time to time.)

The topic is the absurdity of waiting, and it turns into a getting-to-know-Brandi episode: the red light that forgets you’re there (and how many cycles before you go), Brandi’s stop-sign and speeding tickets, the song that cost Marlo points on his license, channel surfing past commercials, TikTok attention spans, crosswalks, slow drivers, waiting for gas, moving over for sirens, e-bikes, and whether lawmakers can keep up with AI.

Then it’s the DOT, self-checkout vs. the cashier, 85-minute restaurant waits, how long Marlo will wait for a haircut, the tornado-warning haircut, Brandi’s social anxiety and why Marlo still gets nervous on stage, and the filler-word swear jar. Plus warning labels: “for external use only” on a curling iron, the Red Bull “gives you wings” lawsuit, the Superman costume, blister packs you need scissors to open, and Reno’s red shopping cart law.

The Absurdists, where logic takes a back seat. Season 2, Episode 10 with Marlo Anderson and Brandi Mastrud.

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Parents once mailed their children. A bank was shipped to Utah by parcel post. And the CIA tried to turn a cat into a spy. In this episode of The Absurdists, Marlo Anderson and guest Ginger G celebrate America’s 250th birthday by counting down 25 of the most absurd moments in U.S. history.

It starts with a 5-year-old mailed 73 miles across Idaho for 53 cents, Boston’s Great Molasses Flood and the chaotic 1904 Olympic marathon (a runner who rode in a car, a winner fed strychnine and brandy, and a Cuban mailman who stopped for a nap). Then it’s the government poisoning industrial alcohol during Prohibition, moonshiners’ cow shoes, the CIA’s Acoustic Kitty, World War II bat bombs, B.F. Skinner’s pigeon-guided missiles, the plan to nuke the moon, the steel cap launched by a nuclear test and missile mail.

They also get into the Pig War, the Toledo War, Ohio’s 150-year paperwork problem, Indiana’s attempt to legislate pi, Wisconsin’s yellow margarine ban, Mike the Headless Chicken, outlaw-turned-funhouse-prop Elmer McCurdy, the Cardiff Giant (and P.T. Barnum’s fake of a fake), Dan Sickles and his leg, Andrew Jackson’s 1,400-pound cheese, the Battle of Los Angeles, Oregon’s exploding whale and Cleveland’s Balloonfest ’86.

The Absurdists, where logic takes a back seat. Season 2, Episode 8 with Marlo Anderson and guest Ginger G.