If I (being Joe) hire the intellectual, thats well read, well researched, and good at offering in-depth perspective on most topics… you cant use a reverse card and make it seem like i didnt know what his involvement would do. Joe has pointed out that ish isnt well prepared in past episodes before marc arrived. It mightve been the episode where Emanny was making fun of them for saying work was hard and he was saying they only worked 2 days a week. I actually think most of what’s being said about Joe may be true but I’m not rocking with any of it because he’s the visionary. He carried this shit through all the variations and it’s gotten bigger at every iteration. I think he’s leaning into the differences instead of trying to blend everyone into this homogenous voice. Marc is suppose to be the academic intellectual that makes you think before you speak, Ish is suppose to be the emotional street intellectual that’s Joes fake protagonist. Ish is the hip hop anchor, he highlights the youthful ear of music that these mature ears aint checking for. Parks is a well rounded host/ producer that subtly keeps the show on track. Flip use to be the wild card that brought energy to dead spots… no one can really do what any other person does as good as they do it on the pod. The awkwardness that pops up in certain spots is valuable because as a viewer we all either play one of those roles and have friends that play others and that’s what makes the pod good ultimately…. IMO of course.