Shut Up I’m Talking – Details, episodes & analysis

Get ready for a collective existential crisis.

TommyInnit puts on his big brain thinking cap as Cosmic Skeptic Alex O’Connor joins the Shut Up I’m Talking podcast for a mind-bending deep dive into consciousness, free will, fear of death, religion, and why our brains lie to us.

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The boys dig into Alex’s Catholic upbringing, how he got from three U grades to Oxford University via his YouTube channel and how debating Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens shaped him.Tom admits he’s terrified of death, Jack questions whether meaning is something we create or discover, and Alex explains philosophical zombies, panpsychism, and what it feels like to lose your sense of self on psychedelics.

They explore consciousness, blind sight, ego death, split-brain experiments, why the self might be an illusion, and whether a worm or a bat experiences reality anything like we do. Alex also opens up about burnout, grounding himself, and trying to keep philosophy fun rather than content-driven.

Topics:

00:00 - Intro

02:20 - Alex O’Connor introduces himself

04:25 - Alex’s worst moment of the week

06:30 - Early life & journey into philosophy and theology

11:15 - What happens when we die?

15:10 - How to stop fearing death

19:40 - What is meaning?

23:50 - Alex’s view on purpose

27:00 - Conscious experience and why it exists

29:23 - The Philosophical Zombie

30:14 - Do plants feel pain?

33:00 - What is consciousness?

37:55 - What is Jack Manifold?

41:28 - Ego death and psychedelic experiences

44:12 - Left brain & right brain

46:01 - Crazy split brain experiments

51:00 - Alien hand syndrome

52:00 - Does Alex get tired of debating?

53:15 - How to switch off from thinking so deeply

54:20 - How Alex winds down

55:55 - Playing Warzone whilst talking about the bible

58:30 - Bruce Springsteen & free will

1:00:00 - How philosophy can help with anxiety

1:02:00 - Everyone is going to play PUBG together

1:03:40 - Content, social media & control

1:04:42 - How’s the worm doing?

1:05:35 - How to get into philosophy

1:05:56 - The mystery of consciousness

1:07:24 - ‘Mary’s Room’ thought experiment

1:09:38 - TommyInnit invites Alex O’Connor for a pint

1:09:50 - Transition over to Patreon

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold

Executive producer: Mirren Mace

Directed by: Mirren Mace

Producer: Russell Noon

Production coordinator: Tori Sheard

Social media: Tori Sheard

Camera, sound & lighting: Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz

Editor: Owen Rogers

Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep

Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 25/10/25

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The first ever Shut Up I’m Talking Podcast LIVESHOW! Recorded in Brighton with live studio audience participation and a very special guest appearance from AverageHarry. 

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With far fewer chances to edit out stuff they shouldn’t be saying, watch TommyInnit and Jack Manifold take Shut Up I’m Talking to the stage for a hilarious live show. From Tom’s questionable dream about Jack and his problems with Gen Alpha, to Jack’s booze-filled TwitchCon adventures and his very real problems with working with Tom, expect an even closer look at how these two friends tick. 

Watch now, and catch the second half of the show exclusively on Patreon!

In this episode:
● Tom’s unexpected Fright Night horror story
● Tom’s questionable sex dream about Jack
● Did Tom stalk Bruce Springsteen at the Deliver Me From Nowhere premiere
● Audience confessions: vomit disasters, noisy chewers & sausage-roll-stealing seagulls
● Brighton’s rite-of-passage moments including James Marriott sightings and The Bird Man
● Jack’s newfound love of finger guns

Recorded at The Old Market in Brighton on 23/10/25

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera operators: Owen Rogers, Hazar Ayyildiz & Eryn Films
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

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Happy first birthday to Shut Up I’m Talking! This first year has been full of worst moments, wild stories and surprisingly deep conversations. Thank you to everyone who’s listened, watched, and commented along the way.  We couldn't have done it without you.

As part of our celebration month, Jack and Tom are teaming up with the charity CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, throughout September to support suicide prevention. There’ll be lots of ways that you can get involved. Support CALM here:

👉 ​​https://tilt.fyi/PXxhucBU0W 👈

In this anniversary episode:
● Best guests & moments from Year One - MatPat & Steph, Jedward, Average Harry, James Marriott & more
● Jack is cancelled by Oasis fans for spreading misinformation about Liam Gallagher
● Tom’s been stealing from IKEA and Waitrose
● Hideous eye injuries in gory detail
● Tom’s freakishly huge ‘tonsole’ and why it probably belongs in a freak show
● Is Superman the greatest hero of all time?
● Jack dives deep into philosophy. The soul, identity, and whether brain transplants make you a whole new person
● Fresh birthday worms!

Subscribe for Year 2. You don’t want to miss it.

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'Jacktivity #8: The GOAT Walks Goats' is live now on Patreon. Huge thanks to the lovely team at BOGO for having us!

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 26/08/25

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This week on Shut Up I’m Talking, Jack and Tom are joined by the legendary George Memeulous,  the faceless pioneer of YouTube commentary. From meeting Jedward at Jack’s birthday party to pulling off 11 years on YouTube without revealing his face, George opens up about anonymity, fame, and his strangest fan encounters.

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The boys dive into:

• Why George Memeulous stays faceless and if a mouth reveal could actually happen
• The bizarre pub moment that left George speechless
• George’s surreal time at Cambridge University and how it connects with Jordan Peterson
• YouTube, burnout, and how George stays motivated after 11+ years
• The lies creators tell strangers about their jobs, including “I own McDonald’s”
• And of course an update on how The Worm is doing.

Also in this episode, Jack Manifold and TommyInnit debate the golden years of YouTube, George shares behind-the-scenes of his biggest viral videos and his shocking premiere league experience and we find out what life is really like when you’re one of the UK’s most mysterious creators.
If you’re a fan of commentary YouTube, WillNE, James Marriott, or Schlatt, this episode is packed with stories you don’t want to miss.

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Owen Rogers
Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 19/08/25

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@jackmanifoldtv @tommyinnit

Paddleboard Disasters, E-Dating Confessions & Jack’s Bum-Cheek Itch

Jack Manifold and Tom Simons are back with episode 50 of Shut Up I’m Talking. In this milestone episode, Tom reveals his relationship status, Jack paddleboards without getting wet but with getting itchy butt cheeks, Brighton beach life, stand-up nerves, beer diaries, and has TommyInnit lost interest in the worm?

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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Tom’s worst moment: pre-Tomedy gig nerves & stand-up disaster stories
•  Long-distance relationships, e-dating confessions & fans oversharing
• Should Tom join LGBTQIA+ as ‘Questioning’? 
• Is TommyInnit making Pride all about himself?
• Everyone admits to peeing in the sea. Except Jack
• Jack’s dad’s Belgian beer reviews & how Jack gets way too honest after 6 pints
• Tom visits a butterfly sanctuary, plays with stick insects & blows a wooden train whistle
• Brighton life = paradise for one expensive month only
• Jazz night fallout: Tom ignores Jack’s invite & instead cycles recklessly and helmetless
• Jack’s birthday ruined by Ikea opening, A-level results and MrBeast
• MrBeast joins Kick, AI debates & dark woke arguments
• Tom’s book obsession: should he stop outsourcing his big life decisions?
• Jeremy Renner, love, and the secrets of the universe
• Tom’s near-death stunts: bungee jumps, jetpacks, tanks & almost wing-walking
• Worm update: the enclosure is now shit brown’, the worm’s still alive, but Tom doesn’t care
• Rap names, streaming ADHD & Jack Manifold’s new video teased

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 12/08/25

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TommyInnit and Jack Manifold are back. Newly caffeinated, chaotic, and somehow still allowed microphones, Tom and Jack chat about stand-up comedy failure, wild Netflix party stories, Pride parade madness, and how the UK Government wrecked Jack’s recent J Schlatt video.

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↓Check out Tom’s new ‘not doing well’ merch! ↓
https://tommyinnit.store/

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Tom is back on coffee and Jack has to deal with the overthinking
• Jack’s YouTube age restriction disaster: J Schlatt collab tanked from 500K to 2K views overnight
• Tom’s beyond brutal stand-up gig: is it time for him to quit comedy?
• How bombing on stage made Tom more money than Jack on YouTube
• Tom self-diagnoses ADHD after reading one book
• Jack crashed the Wednesday Season 2 premiere and accidentally became Steve Buscemi’s plus one
• Jack Manifold made friends with the zombie waiters at the Zombie-themed afterparty
• Are Jack’s Meta Smart Glasses actually invasive?
• Jack’s bird’s eye view of Brighton Pride: NHS floats, Tesco drag queens & Northern manners in the toilets
• How Married at First Sight’s Paul Brunson got Tom to tell all on the We Need to Talk podcast
• Jack’s review of the Oasis reunion tour and why Liam Gallagher’s tambourine featured so heavily
• Brotherly violence and why Tom Simons hates lad behaviour
• New TommyInnit ‘Not Doing Well’ merch flex
• Medicinal wanking for dopamine (Jack’s theory, not professional medical advice)
• Why Tom will never aim for the sink

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 05/08/25

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Tom Evicts AverageHarry, Basement Floods & Twitch Career Chaos

This week Jack Manifold and TommyInnit welcome their most requested guest ever, Average Harry. From living in Tom’s mouldy basement to accidentally getting banned from Twitch, Harry spills all the stories only he can tell.

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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Why Tom made the tough decision to evict Harry and the truth about living together in Brighton in a house with velcro walls, basement leaks, cobweb pipes & emergency plumber nightmares
• Harry’s worst moment of the week bus disaster & old lady outrage
• Why Tom never wants to live with another streamer again
• Could anyone in reality, survive living with Tom?
• Toilet seat wars, condom wrapper evidence & why TommyInnit never shags
• Neighbour complaints about Tom’s loud piano playing and how over Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan Harry is
• Reality vs expectations of being friends with Jack Manifold & TommyInnit
• Harry reveals who out of Tom and Jack he would save in a life or death situation
• That time Harry’s Royal Marsden Christmas Lego charity mission was ruined by TommyInnit’s trending braces news
• Harry’s Twitch origin story:  PS4 streams, Minecraft, viral clips & dodgy gifted subs
• Why Average Harry was banned from Twitch, losing huge numbers of followers overnight
• Harry’s Polish meme fame, Chilean fanbase & South American love
• Lockdown weight gain, OVO designer scam & livestream fail moments
• Gamers Got Talent bot vote controvers
• Worm update & general podcast chaos
  
  PLUS:
• Did Bo Burnham & Sam Fender conspire to ignore Tom?
• Ellen Degeneres conspiracy theories
• The ‘Would You Do Hand Stuff With Me?’ debate rages on.  

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 29/07/25

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Jack Manifold tells TommyInnit how he literally ate every YouTuber snack with George Memeulous, just moments before coming to record, and it nearly broke him. MrBeast Feastables, Phase Rug’s rancid candy, Ryan Trahan’s gummies, Karl Gummies, David Dobrik crisps, Sidemen jerky, they all get a mention. Watch Jack trying to cope with a sleep-deprived Tom Simons, while he tries to unstick his own jaws, deal with the sugar crash and regain his sense of taste.

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Also in this episode, Jack tells Tom all about how he went back to the circus to be a judge, went on an ADHD chaos-fuelled foraging trip with a Michelin-starred chef for the latest Jacktivity and Tom asks Jack the most random questions his semi-lucid brain can think up.

● Jack judged a real-life circus school and they were phenomenal
● Foraging with a Michelin-starred ADHD chef
● Behind the scenes of a secret music video
● Existential rants about Superman, sleep, and leaking not-actually-dead worms
● Tom obsesses over YouTube Analytics

Warning: semi-lucid chaos, broken shoes, and way too much sugar

Big thank you to Christian at for hosting this month’s Jacktivity and sharing all your foraging knowledge. Check out his website here: ⬇
https://www.urbanforage.me/

Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This podcast episode was recorded on 22/07/25

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Jack Manifold and Tom Simons are back and this week, it gets weird. From zombie fungus theories to cringey nightclub stories, the boys address the questions that are on everyone’s lips, like could climate change lead to human-extinction mushrooms? Are there volcanoes under the sea? And the big one - is deodorant for girls secretly weaker?


TOPICS THIS WEEK:
● TommyInnit’s £1.50 deodorant disaster at a Sabrina Carpenter concert
● Napoleon's body odour kink
● Jack Manifold’s chaotic night at the club involving social anxiety and mega awkward eye contact
● Are there hidden volcanoes under the ocean? Yes, and the tectonic plates are arguing
● Could The Last of Us fungus actually evolve into a human mind-control plague?
● Climate change talk: why “global warming” is the wrong name for it and could there be an extinction event soon?
● Jack’s repaired eyeball, optician drama & stage blindness stories
● Nintendo Switch 2 update + Mario Kart vs PS5 debate
● Are we all colour blind? 
● Bioluminescent humans and UV-seeing animals
● Bee Movie science, 3D-printed food, and why we all might be eating crickets soon
● Weirdest audience interactions, parasocial moments, and being sad and alone in a bar

Plus: Quackity-teasing, Sabrina Carpenter at Hyde Park, Claro’s Zoom-call performance energy, praise for Olivia Dean, BlueSky vs Threads chat, and philosophical questions like “Would you survive the apocalypse if the bees died?”


 BONUS CHAOS:
● Jack’s existential skincare crisis 
● Tom builds a rock kingdom on the beach and becomes a micro-managing project lead 
● New social media with new rules?
● Could we actually dig to China?
● Worm funeral pending. RIP.

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Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This episode was recorded on 08/07/25

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This week, TommyInnit and Jack Manifold are joined by the queen of true crime Eleanor Neale, host and creator of the hugely successful Outlore podcast.

Tom Simons takes the reins this episode to find out more about Jack Manifold’s girlfriend and what it’s actually like to be part of a YouTuber couple.
 
Eleanor talks about her alcoholic zoo party and worst moment of the week, Jack deals with ongoing eye trauma, and we learn way too much about everyone’s digestive issues.
We talk true crime burnout, the emotional toll of reporting brutal cases, and why Eleanor needed a break after reporting on one devastating Christmas Eve murder. She opens up about why women are drawn to true crime, what drives her storytelling, and how she balances advocacy with emotional well-being.

Also discussed:
- How Jack and Ellie met and what their home life is like
- What Jack and olives have in common
- What it’s really like to have a true crime podcast
- How Eleanor finds the balance between the gore and the goof
- ADHD, mess, and living together
- Long distance relationship advice
- Creepy houses and a kleptomaniac fox
- Grumpy grandads, politics, and Tom’s falling apart shoes

Plus:
- Who knows Jack best?
- Does Ellie get recognised in public?
- Who gets recognised where?
- What’s Ellie’s biggest red flag about Jack? (And what’s his?)
- The weird crossover of Dream SMP fans, emo girls, and Switch 2 rants

Join us for unfiltered laughs, weird fan encounters, serious chats about trauma and online fame. Plus, the comfort of a true love story and a little bit of worm twerking.

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Written & presented by: Tom Simons & Jack Manifold
Executive producer: Mirren Mace
Directed by: Mirren Mace
Producer: Russell Noon
Production coordinator: Tori Sheard
Social media: Tori Sheard
Camera, sound & lighting:  Owen Rogers & Hazar Ayyildiz
Editor: Owen Rogers
Shorts editor & Thumbnail: Snikrep
Set design: Mirren Mace

This episode was recorded on 01/07/25

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