LOS ANGELES, California (AP) – Duncan Penn schemes to meet and date Taylor Swift. Dave Lingwood tests himself and his tolerance for bruises in a mixed martial arts match. And the two, along with Jonnie Penn and Ben Nemtin, streak a soccer game and try to avoid getting busted.

These adventures and more are aimed at getting you and other viewers of the quartet's MTV series, 'The Buried Life', to ponder this crucial question: What do you want to do before you die?

The Canadian 20-somethings obviously are having fun with their own bucket list, whether the item at hand is finagling access to the White House (last season) or posing as a country singer and his posse to get Duncan Penn and Swift together (in the sophomore season, debuting 11.30 p.m. Bermuda time tonight).

Siblings Jonnie, 23, and Duncan, 26, and childhood friends Lingwood, 24, and Nemtin, 26, gained inspiration and their intriguing title from a 19th-century Matthew Arnold poem that evokes a longed-for "buried life" hidden by mundane demands.

The four take their roles as Pied Pipers of self-fulfillment beyond the frivolous, using their wits and growing number of TV and online followers to benefit others.

Those widely varying efforts include helping a Minnesota girl struggling with depression bring the disease to light in her town and trying to bolster a town hit by the deaths of four teenagers.

It is the same layered approach – enlighten, entertain and assist – the four took when they started the project online in 2006 as students.

Then, they used a relative's borrowed RV and lived off donated nutrition bars on a two-week summer trip. Now they have the resources of a cable channel behind them but not, they stress, MTV's help. Each mission succeeds or fails by dint of their own industry and with the help of their growing online community of fans.

It is a peer group with a shared perspective, say 'The Buried Life' friends.

"All the kids we've talked to, it's like innate, this feeling to give back. We talk about why that is a lot, why our generation has this desire to give back," said Nemtin.

Ask what it stems from and the answer is enough to warm a baby boomer's heart.

"It's hard to peg it down, but part of it is your generation giving us the tools and the freedom to be able to do that," Nemtin said, and his pals do not knock down the compliment.

Even if they are just being polite, or politic, the four are impressive nonetheless. One of their items on an early to-do list included having a TV show – and here they are, doing it on their own terms and with what appears to be as much heart as ambition.

"We just wanted to have fun and make a difference," said Lingwood.

"We're not saving the world," adds Jonnie Penn. "We're just doing nice, small things for people."

The four are eyeing larger goals as they draw deeper into their 20s, whether it is playing basketball with President Barack Obama or rescuing an island, albeit a small one, from deforestation.

"It's aspirational," Jonnie Penn said. "Our generation around the world is consistent in that we all want big things, really big things.

"What we've enjoyed with this project, and specifically this season, is going after really big things and seeing what it takes to complete them."

"Doing it with friends and siblings makes it that much more fun, even if you fail," he said.

The ultimate 'Buried Life' goal, says Duncan Penn, is to spread the message of living life fully worldwide. That is not too shabby an entry on anybody's list.