Speaker: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker: Freshman year I came in undecided.

Speaker: I'm finance, entrepreneurship, anthropology.

Speaker: I'm a senior architecture student.

Speaker: I'm involved in the blockchain club here.

Speaker: I'm very passionate about studying abroad.

Speaker: Classes are going great.

Speaker: And then obviously very involved with my sorority.

Speaker: I'm thriving.

Meredith Aliff 

Hi, I'm Meredith Aliff. And this is major insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus. When's the last time you were in a situation with a bunch of people and you couldn't think of anything interesting to say? If you're like most people, it probably happens all the time, especially in college where you can easily meet new people every day, and where your new best friend might still be that stranger across the room. But what if there was an easy way to discover some common ground - to relate, to laugh and to learn a little bit more about each other? Well, on this special episode of major insight, we're going to help you transform that awkward conversation into a symphony of witty banter ... or something like that. Because these are our winter break icebreakers where college students answer some of the least important questions of our time. Here we go.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay, controversial question. Is cereal soup?

 

Maggie 

One reasoning that I think holds some merit is that, then what's your distinction between soup and stew? Because when I think of stew, I think of, like, chunk of potato, chunk of carrot, chunk of something. And it has like chunks in it. So I feel like ...I mean, I'd honestly say that cereal is a stew because it's pretty chunky. Like …

 

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah

 

Maggie 

Because cereal is big. Unless it's like, you know, I don't know cornflakes because they're thin and they get soggy the moment you put them in milk. Or you put milk in them. I'm sorry, I don't understand people who pour the milk in, and then pour cereal.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Ridiculous.

 

Maggie 

The day I actually meet someone who does that. I've like seeing people on the internet be like...

 

Meredith Aliff 

I dated someone who did that. That's why we broke up. No, I'm kidding? [Laughter]

 

Nyah 

Oh. I've never heard that one before. No.

 

Meredith Aliff 

I agree. It's cereal.

 

Nyah 

Right. Cereal is cereal.

 

Meredith Aliff 

And, like, I also ...my justification for that as well as is milk is not broth.

 

Nyah 

That's what I was gonna say.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Like, milk is milk.

 

Nyah 

Exactly.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay, love that. On the same page there.

 

Gianna 

Yes? Like, in the sense that .... what is it? What is that one...? Like the alphabet soup?

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay. Yeah,

 

Gianna 

Like, I equate that in my mind. It's

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay. Okay. Interesting.

 

Gianna 

I don't know how to make it work. It's the way my brain works.

 

Meredith Aliff 

I see the rationale.

 

Brady 

You know, I've had that... What's the cold soup? Gazpacho or something? I've had that before. And so, I might have to be in the camp of cereal being a soup.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay. Is cereal soup?

 

Liz Grossman 

No, I don't put milk in my cereal. So definitely no.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Oh, you eat your cereal dry? Yes. So then what would you call cereal? Granola?

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay, what is your favorite time of day? And why?

 

Jonathan Erwin 

Seeing everyone outside at like noon when it's like the nice days when it's like 70 degrees makes me so happy. And it can be noon. One, two. Especially when you don't have class. And you don't have to worry about anything that morning. That's my favorite. Just the breeze and the clouds.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Yes. I love a good sunny Miami Day. And I feel like there's been a lot of them recently, which is good. But my friends and I have all these neighbors around us, obviously. And there's these guys that play die like any chance they get, any time the sun's out. And every single time we see them. We're like, oh, the boys are playing outside again. The boys are playing outside.

 

Maya Mehlman 

Can I ask you a question? Would you rather be an astronaut or an Olympic athlete?

 

Meredith Aliff 

An Olympic athlete. I don't want to go to space. What if I never come back down?

 

Maya Mehlman 

Yeah.

 

Meredith Aliff 

But then imagine having the physique of an Olympic athlete.

 

Maya Mehlman 

Yeah, I just ... but think about having to like wake up every day at like 3am and have to start training.

 

Meredith Aliff 

That's so true.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Is a hot dog a sandwich? And why or why not?

 

Ryan Rosu 

In philosophy, I'm taking metaphilosophy, what is philosophy? And one of the philosophers... his objection to philosophy is that it's just a language game. And if you take a word out of the game where it's played, it doesn't mean anything. And so when you ask that about philosophy, you can ask the same thing about what is a sandwich. And a sandwich is only practical if it seems like a sandwich. And so there's nothing that is a sandwich, or isn't a sandwich. But when I look at a hotdog, I don't see a sandwich.

 

Meredith Aliff 

No, me neither.

 

Ryan Rosu 

So I'll say it's not a sandwich.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay. I had a much more like, not philosophy ... philosophic. I don't even know what the word is. Yeah, no, that's like, the answer that I would expect out of a philosophy major. I love it.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Is a hot dog sandwich. Why or why not?

 

Maggie 

Neither are correct. it is a taco.

 

Meredith Aliff 

What?!?!

 

Maggie 

It is a taco. Okay, so a sandwich is open on all sides. You have a sandwich, you have two pieces of bread. It's open on four sides. A taco is open on three sides, because you can look at it from the top. You can look at it from either side, and you can see what's in it. But if you look at it from the bottom, you can't see what's in it. If you look at a hot dog from the bottom, all you see is the bun, right? I think if you were eating a hot dog, and perchance the bun splits apart as you were eating it, then it's a sandwich.

 

Meredith Aliff 

But also, like, a burger is not a sandwich to me.

 

Maggie 

Really?

 

Meredith Aliff 

Because it's a circle and it's on a bun and it's like a specific kind of meat.

 

Maggie

I would consider a burger to be sandwich adjacent.

 

Meredith Aliff 

I would give it sandwich adjacent. Hotdog? No.

 

Maggie 

So happy we can agree on that.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Yes. I love that for us.

 

Jayden 

I would say no. Because if I ever said I was gonna eat a sandwich, and I came back with a hotdog, I think people will call me crazy.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Short and sweet. That's a great answer, actually. Everybody gets into the whole pieces of bread. What kind of meat is in between-type thing? But you're just like, "if I said I was getting a sandwich from the kitchen and came back with a hot dog, I think people would ask some questions."

 

Maya Mehlman 

Like, why are we so obsessed with labels, like, seriously? Why does it have to be either/or?

 

Meredith Aliff 

So a hot dog's a hot dog.

 

Maya Mehlman 

A hot dog is just a hot dog. It doesn't have to fit into a category. It is just a hot dog.

 

Meredith Aliff 

We wanted to see what would happen if I said to you again. Okay, um, would you rather be the funniest or the smartest person in the room?

 

Maya Mehlman 

The smartest because ...

 

Meredith Aliff 

All right.

 

Maya Mehlman 

No …

 

Meredith Aliff 

I feel like you already are the funniest. Most of the time.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Oh, shut up. Stop gassing me up. Maybe the funniest because I feel like being funny also comes with a good personality.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Totally. Yeah, totally. I agree with you on that. You're gonna love this one as well.

 

Maya Mehlman 

Oh god.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Is cereal soup?

 

Maya Mehlman 

No!

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay, there are suddenly now 25 hours in a day. How do you spend your extra hour?

 

Maggie 

Sleeping. I'm sleeping. 100% I'm sleeping.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, I feel like as college students, there's no such thing as too much sleep.

 

Maya Mehlman 

I would probably sleep.

 

Melanie 

Sleeping.

 

Orin 

Sleep or hanging out.

 

Avery Holmes 

If I say sleeping is that a bad thing?

 

Meredith Aliff 

No. So many people say sleeping.

 

Avery Holmes 

I don't get enough of that these days.

 

Liz Grossman 

If I'm being honest, either I'm sleeping or watching television.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Yep. I love that. Everybody says sleeping.

 

Jonathan Erwin 

I think I just spend it on tic tock, and I hate it. I hate every second of it. I'm so addicted to it. But I probably end up just sitting in bed watching tick tock.

 

Meredith Aliff 

There's suddenly now 25 hours in a day. How do you spend that extra hour?

 

Jayden 

Well, I already take a nap every day. So I would probably spend it ... on a nap.

 

Meredith Aliff 

That was awesome! "I already nap every day, so I'd probably spend it ... napping."

 

Meredith Aliff 

If I say think of a movie villain who immediately jumps to mind?

 

Jonathan Erwin 

Syndrome from Incredibles! I don't know what it is. It's the hair. It's the ... God, he is just a little munchkin

 

Orin 

Joker.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Nice!

 

Orin 

He was the first person who pops up. So, the Joker.

 

Melanie 

I think of Cate Blanchett's Hella from Thor Ragnarök

 

Liz Grossman 

For some reason, Magneto. But I don't even know how much Magneto is really a villain.

 

Nyah 

Cruella De Vil

 

Meredith Aliff 

Oh, lovely answer. I agree. I immediately think like a cartoon villain like Captain Hook. Cruella De Vil. Like, somebody ...somebody like old Disney villain vibes.

 

Brady 

Scar from Lion King. He is like the most stereotypical movie villain that comes to mind. He just like the most evil villain of all the childhood movies that I think... that, I mean, his whole music number, "Be Prepared" is very terrifying, especially to watch as a kid. And then, I don't know, just the whole scene of Mufasa and Simba. It's traumatizing, to say the least.

 

Gianna 

Okay, I was actually listening to you guys do this. And I was trying to think of somebody better than, like, what I had. And I was just like, maybe I don't watch a lot of movies with villains because I was like racking my brain from, like, my favorite movies.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Like all of my movies are happy ...

 

Gianna 

I know. I was like, When Harry Met Sally? Like, really neither of them.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Not really a villain.

 

Meredith Aliff 

What's something that you wish you could instantly become an expert in?

 

Liz Grossman 

Well, some sort of business something. I have a paper to write and I don't want to think about it. So if I could instantly become an expert on international business of gaming and technology that would be really helpful.

 

Meredith Aliff 

I would be helpful to this paper...

 

Jonathan Erwin 

Oh, god, I hate this. Something can be either wet or can be dry. And if something's wet, it has to have water on it. And there's the molecule of water, H2O. And if an H2O particle is connected to an H2O particle, that means water is on water, which means it's wet. So, I don't know. I don't know. I think it's wet.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Is water wet?

 

Meredith Aliff 

You think water is wet?

 

Jonathan Erwin 

Yeah. Isn't a water on water?

 

Meredith Aliff 

I think that water makes other things wet, but water itself cannot be wet for that reason.

 

Jonathan Erwin 

I think it's ... I just think that's stupid. I think there can only be two things: you either wet or you're not wet. And water can't be not wet.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Well, okay.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Super deep question. Is water wet?

 

Melanie 

Yes. Because you get wet when you're wet.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Right, right. Devil's Advocate. Could water just be making you wet? But that doesn't mean it's actually what itself? It just makes other things wet?

 

Melanie 

I guess so.

 

Meredith Aliff 

I don't know. I don't know. I'm just posing an alternate opinion here.

 

Orin 

You know my answer, in all honesty, water ... Because the thing is I understand both sides. Because I want to say, obviously, yes. Water's wet. But when they say it's a description of things being wet, when waters put onto something, I understand where they're coming from. But at the end of the day, I think it's a controversial question where we could just keep it simple and say "yes, water's wet." Obviously. In my opinion.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay. Is water wet?

 

Jayden 

Oh, no. Um, I would say, no. Because water can't be wet itself if it's ... what is wet? I don't know.

 

Meredith Aliff 

What is wet?

 

Nyah 

I think it is.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Okay. Okay!

 

Nyah 

Do you disagree?

 

Meredith Aliff 

I do.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Is water wet?

 

Maggie 

I think if we're speaking purely from like a, I don't know, a scientific standpoint, like, it has the ability to make something else wet because it comes in water. But water itself is just water. Like, "wet" is not a chemical property. It's purely a physical feeling.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Yes!!! That is my exact answer. And nobody has ever agreed with me on that exact answer.

 

Maggie 

I am happy I can agree with you.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Like, some people will say "no, it's not wet." But they won't give me like a good reason why.

 

Maggie 

Okay, yeah, then fine. At least explain it.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Right. That's my reasoning. It's not wet. It makes other things wet. But it itself cannot be wet.

 

Maggie 

Like quite literally, when you think about what something being wet means. It literally means that it has come into contact with water.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Right.

 

Maggie 

You say "Oh, my hair is wet because I showered." Okay, yeah, there's water in your hair.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Right. Water mixed with something else makes it wet.

 

Maggie 

Yeah.

 

Meredith Aliff 

But water alone is not.

 

Maggie 

I agree.

 

Meredith Aliff 

Thank goodness. Okay.

 

Meredith Aliff 

We hope you enjoyed our winter break ice breakers on this special episode of major insight. We'll return next semester with a whole new collection of stories about college life. Until then, many more episodes are available wherever podcasts are found.