This month sees a rerelease of the classic ‘80s film The Goonies, which is about to turn 40. In honor of that milestone, we’re heading into the Sewers archives to hear my 2018 chat with Andrew Putschoegl, whose childhood mirrored that of ‘80s films where groups of neighborhood kids are thrown together into unstructured days of outdoor exploration. In those movies, each kid tends to have one unique trait that sets them apart, and marks them as an outcast. For Andrew, that trait was that at the age of 9, he suddenly woke up to find his hair falling out. It was a medical mystery that made his already-awkward teenage years even more difficult.
We’ll have that conversation in a moment. And I also want to give you a quick heads-up that there may be some breaks between episodes of the podcast. I just learned that I’ve sustained some damage to my spine — nothing too serious and I’m getting treatment, but I might need to step away from my desk now and then for medical appointments and rehab. I’m expecting to make a full recovery, it’ll just take a couple months to get back to 100%.
The short version of what’s going on is that one of my lower vertebrae has slipped slightly to the side, and it’s pressing on a nerve that’s causing blindingly bad pain all the way down one leg. But there’s good news! As these things go, it’s the least severe grade of damage; I’m on some wonderful painkillers at the moment; and I have a team of experts helping with my recovery. As I’m typing this, my pain is at a 2 out of 10, which is a huge relief after a few days of not being able to move! It’s looking pretty good for me to get better, but I’ll have to be patient as it won’t happen overnight. In the mean time, the painkillers should add to the unhinged chaos of my weekend livestreams.
I’ll be posting about my recovery process on Bluesky, so give me a follow there if you’d like to see how things are coming along. As a little tease, right now you can see an ultrasound image of my left butt cheek!