It's pumpkins. Pumpkins are an excellent source of vitamin A. (But not as good as cod liver oil, which tops the list, according to the USDA National Nutrient Database.)

We're busily and giddily creating this year's podcast series, The 13 Days of Halloween - INVISIBLE. Last year, it was a separate podcast show; this year, you'll find it where you find all of our podcasts, at RadioPublic, Stitcher, Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts, under our very own name (LifeLabNotes). We hope you'll join us as we meet thirteen spirits who visit this side of the grave pretty regularly. The first episode will suddenly appear on Friday, October 19th. The last, on All Hallow's Eve.

While you're waiting, we hope you are enjoying the annual pumpkin spice craze, settled cozily into the school year, and rocking some nice, new fall sweaters.

Soon, the Life Lab Notes staff will be choosing the perfect Vitamin A source to carve our logo into, and there is no way it'll be a cod fish.

Life Lab Notes is gearing up to head to Philadelphia, to the Podcast Movement 2018 Conference. We are as excited as lab assistants can get, because travel is a great way to realize a) we have a lot in common with everyone; 2) there are differences, too, which are fun to explore; and ∆) you can get by with fewer toiletries than you thought you needed.

Philadelphia Freedom was my first record, back in grade school. It was a 45. (Google it.) My second record was Cher's Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. These started a life-long love of stories. Tales about humans, what happens to them, how they deal with things. Essential, mythic stuff. Humans tell stories.

We have a special piece coming up for July, written especially for the Podcast Pavilion at the conference. If they choose it, it will be recorded right there, with special thanks to TalkShoe (a cool website for user-generated live and recorded voice content) and HeilSound (providing the microphones). If it's not chosen we'll record it when we get back, full of podcast camaraderie and swag.

Although the green, suitcase-style record player that played those 45s a million times was not mentioned in this special July podcast piece, it was there in spirit. So to speak.

Ah, the ever-evolving English language. And all of the other languages, too. Constantly in motion, that's language for you. What is a perfectly serviceable word at one time (like, "behoof") falls by the wayside and we're left with "benefit, advantage." (Obviously, those are also perfectly serviceable, but they don't have the same sudden start, followed by an exhale you can draw out like a vuvuzela call.) 

"Nice" used to mean fastidious.

"Plight" went from "to pledge" to "an unfavourable condition or state." 

You can plain over about change and how fair the old days were, but my rede is to go with the flow, but also  throw in an occasional old-timey word on a freak. (I've been known to be a scapegrace betimes.)

Enjoy the latest episode from the H.A.B.I.T. crew! (It's back on the Welcome Page. We're working on that.)

Here's something we really love here at the Lab: when life imitates art, imitating life. So, every time we found ourselves puzzling over the name for our Thanksgiving sketch, the image for social media, the description for the episode for publishing it, we chuckled and shook our heads. "Good one, Life! Well played!" 

But appreciating the irony does not deliver the info. As we neared desperation, we turned to slogangenerator.co (not dot com) and we were not disappointed. With only one variable you control, you are treated to a lovely string of silliness that couldn't possibly work and is also brilliant. We started coming up with slogans for ourselves: "The Better Way to Phil," "Silvie, The Future Is Here," "You Can. Denny!" Try it - it's ridiculous fun! 

It also seemed the perfect time to give a name to this talented bunch of actors who voiced the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar, The 13 Days of Halloween, and Thanksgiving - Imagination At Work! After much deliberation and research, we decided upon the Life Lab Notes Polymer Players. (Mentioned in the post from earlier this week). We are so lucky and grateful to have the pleasure and privilege of working with these folks.

And we're so lucky and grateful for you! Many thanks for listening, reading, sharing, subscribing, following on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

May you be thankful every day.

It would smell as sweet, right? Would it? How much does a name tell us what to think? 

Last year, we presented the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar. It was its own entity, before Life Lab Notes as we know it now. It was as those twenty-six daily podcasts were coming out that I decided it was so much brilliant fun to express ourselves in a short-form audio fiction narrative format, that we should keep on doing it.

Life Lab Notes was born. January of this year started off with a sketch about the New Year. The following months we presented personal stories, professionally produced, usually read by the author. Touching, thought-provoking, and funny, our writers shared their beauty pageant,  hitch-hiking, book store, theme park, leaving-abusive-relationships, and growing up stories. They shared their hearts and minds, and we connected with them.

Then came October, and The 13 Days of Halloween podcast series. Fun, creepy, original audio fiction, with a cast of superb voice actors, writers, and musicians.

This week is Thanksgiving here in the US, and that's what this week's podcast episode is about. Since I'm beyond grateful for the talented and fun people I have the honour to work with, and the sketch itself has a sort of naming theme, it seemed like the perfect time to give this cast a proper name. So, I did some research.

Polymer [POL-uh-mer] noun, Chemistry: A natural or synthetic chemical structure where two or more like molecules are joined to form a more complex molecular structure.

Introducing the Life Lab Notes Polymer Players, in a special Thanksgiving sketch, coming this week.

Stay tuned!

Back in 1921, sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., was crowned the very first Miss America. She was awarded $100. There are several ways to calculate the relative value of $100 in 1921 compared to, say, 1983. But if you think about it, there are several ways to figure the relative value of…everything.

Today's episode was written by Christine Zirbel, and performed by Silvie Zamora. Underscoring and the Life Lab Notes theme were created by Phil Ward.

Have a listen below, and please subscribe, share, and write us a review! 

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You can also find this episode on iTunes, Stitcher, RadioPublic, and AudioBoom. We'd love it if you'd subscribe and give us a review on iTunes, if you're so inclined.

And, as you might expect, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!

We were geekily delighted to see this photo a friend-of-a-friend sent in after hearing the "How To Fly A Jet - And Other Life Lessons" podcast. (It's our June episode - check it out.) We turned his photo and quote into an online postcard for Instagram and Twitter, which is why it says the link is in the bio. (Don't look for a bio here - scroll down a bit and you'll see the episode, or subscribe to LifeLabNotes on iTunes or Stitcher.)

Thanks, Steve D!