COYOTES AND CROWS

Host: UNCLE CORVUS (@unclecorvus) · Tue 22 Sep 2026 · 58 min · 3 main voices (plus a room of quiet listeners "here for the algorithm")

TL;DR

• Uncle Corvus opened solo and carried a long, warm monologue about food as the door into people — coffee, Korean rice cakes, and what happens when you actually ask questions at the mom-and-pop shop.
• The story of the day: his daughter's Korean school project turned into borrowed heirloom plates from the local restaurant ladies and a traditional hanbok that was given, not lent [15:41].
• FOPCAT (Batpig) came up and explained the name: FOP = "fuck one plant," a hangover from his Navy days as a nuclear engineer on a carrier [30:29]. Two follow-up Spaces were agreed — one on the nuclear-plant history, one on his three apps.
• Margie B arrived, took the co-host seat, and ran the door while plugging Taco Tuesday / Blinded by Love at 6:30 pm EST [37:07].
• A long, happy tangent on food geography: FOPCAT (living in Uruguay) missing Korean barbecue, the host's disbelief that anyone in Uruguay could be short on grilled meat, and a beetroot-on-burgers jab at Australia [45:44].
• Closing announcement: back tomorrow at 11 am AEST and again at 10 pm AEST, going deeper on Blackfeather reflections and the doctrine drop [57:00].

Highlights

[2:49] — Discord security gets the opening shout. Uncle Corvus kicked off praising Liz's write-up on Discord protection bots — "I'm still halfway through reviewing, so there you go. There's my halfway review" — and used it to make a broader point: the space needs more people posting tools and safety guides rather than "meme coins and cheap coins." He noted the field has genuinely matured since the days of founder accounts getting hijacked and promising everyone limited editions if they just send their SOL, but that every new chain and platform still draws the thieves first.

[5:47] — The Korean rice cake shop. The day's field trip for his daughter's homeschool presentation: a traditional Korean rice cake shop in West Ryde, mum and pop out back, cousins on milk crates in the kitchen, everything handmade. The host's read on it was that the whole vibe felt less like a business than someone's living room — and that the staff and a neighbouring restaurant worker lit up the moment he started asking real questions about where things came from.

[7:11] — A 25-minute coffee with Sam Neill. On his lunch break at a Sydney harbour cafe, the host got to sit down with the actor, who apparently just wanted what he always wanted when home: coffee, toast, the paper, and a park bench in front of the jetty to watch the sailboats while he drank his second cup. It anchored the host's thesis that every door that's ever opened for him opened over food or coffee.

[11:30] — Thirty years of palate training. A rare bit of open self-credit: thousands spent on olfactory and sensory workshops, coaches, barista championships, green bean rating. The practical payoff is being able to hand a roaster a cup and tell him he spiked the heat halfway through and charred the tips, "whereas most people will just go, whoa, that's a bit bitter."

[15:41] — The hanbok. The best part of the week arrived in two big bags. The restaurant lady who'd been following the project along didn't lend his daughter the traditional formal hanbok she'd worn to a friend's wedding — she gave it to her, full outfit, under tunic, robe, belt and all. His Korean mates, sent photos of the borrowed presentation set, came back with what amounted to put gloves on, that's royal dishes.

[21:38] — FOPCAT's first office since roughly 2015. After a decade of working from home with two kids in tow, he got an office yesterday, came in early, and reckons he's already knocked out a week's work across both jobs. He's also building three apps simultaneously, which the host had not clocked. Lunch plan: go home anyway, because he didn't bring any food.

[25:33] & [30:29] — Two name origins for the price of one. Batpig was a throwaway meme account riffing on a Batman-branded KOL; the Purple Piggy Bank budgeting app was, in his own word, "a total flop." FOPCAT is the serious one: on a nuclear carrier there's one plant and two plants, and as a two-planter, FOP stood for "fuck one plant." The cat is a maneki-neko from his time stationed in Japan, now wearing a Guy Fawkes mask on the logo and retrofitted into "free and fully open platform" for the documentation. The host's reaction [31:34] booked two future Spaces on the spot.

[38:02] — Bubba versus a hundred duck-sized horses. Reading last night's recap aloud in the car, the host relayed his daughter's verdict on Woofie's question: a hundred duck-sized horses, no sweat, she'd just kick them. Cue another unsolicited plug for recaps.

[38:46] — "All I can get is fucking a moan and queso." FOPCAT, homesick for Korean barbecue after Japan, lamented his Uruguayan food options, which the host — Uruguayan — received as something close to a personal insult. Offers of phone calls to cousins followed. FOPCAT conceded the asado exists but held that Korean barbecue is a different thing entirely, then took a side swipe at Canadian food and got a "shots fired" for it.

[48:55] — Rioplatense crash course. Margie supplied the survival kit (dinero, agua, dónde está el baño, gracias); the host supplied the local colour: boludo, and the deep-cut insult papanata — "I don't even know what it means. I don't think anyone knows what it means, but when you say it to someone, it hits." FOPCAT noted that here de nada gets replaced with por favor, as in you deserve it, which led to the host's theory that Uruguayans have done to Spanish exactly what Aussies did to English.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• [15:41] "She wore it to her friend['s wedding]... She didn't let my daughter borrow it. She presented it to her. She has given it to her. It's her very own [hanbok]." — Uncle Corvus
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  0:38
• [17:08] "So I do urge everyone, you know, go a little bit deeper into that cup of coffee next time." — Uncle Corvus
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  0:38
• [30:29] "FOP stood for fuck one plant." — FOPCAT^*
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  0:38
• [31:34] "My inner geek just went spastic just then, ran around the room, jumped up on the couch and head butted the chandelier on the way back down." — Uncle Corvus, on hearing about nuclear-powered carriers
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  0:38
• [40:47] "I grew up on beef juice. My first... pacifier was a lamb cutlet." — Uncle Corvus
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  0:38
• [45:44] "You guys put beets on your burger, and I have to say that's like — that's a bridge too far." — FOPCAT^*
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  0:38

Who said what

• Uncle Corvus / Eduardo (@unclecorvus) — host. Opened solo and happily admitted he'd be there whether or not anyone showed ("I've got a mouth and unc and talk, baby"). Carried the food-and-culture thread, did the shoutouts, booked follow-up Spaces, and closed with the schedule.
• FOPCAT / Batpig^* — guest. App developer with three builds going, ex-Navy nuclear engineer, originally North Carolina, currently in Uruguay. Brought the name origin story, the Korean barbecue homesickness, and the beetroot indictment.
• Margie B^* — co-host, arrived mid-Space, took the invite button, ran door duty and closing remarks, and warned Woofie to be caffeinated for her Taco Tuesday questions ("you're gonna need like 20 cups of coffee before 6:30").

Worth a full listen

• [5:47]–[17:08] — The Korean shop through to the hanbok. It's one unbroken monologue and the summary flattens it; the detail (milk crates in the kitchen, the sesame rice cakes that get sent out for packaging because of a shopping-centre contract, the mates telling him to wear gloves) is the whole point.
• [30:16]–[33:18] — FOPCAT's naming story and the host's escalating delight. Worth it for the delivery alone, and it's where the two future Spaces get set up.
• [48:55]–[53:00] — The Spanish tangent, three people deep. Margie's practical vocabulary list, the untranslatable papanata, and the host's riff on Uruguayans as "Australian Latinos" and why the two slangs recognise each other.

* some voices are identified from context; those names are marked as likely.