Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast - Bonus Bang: This Book Changed My Life Ep 21 (Lily Sullivan, Andy Daly, Ben Rodgers)

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

This week, we have reached the final episode of our "I Love Lily" series. We’re ending on a CBB World exclusive episode of Lily Sullivan's series; This Book Changed My Life. Lily and friends Dean Firehouse (Andy Daly) and Auggie Silverado (Ben Rodgers) dive into the adventure book "Perseverance" by Preston Lewg-Wheeler. Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/cbb 

Hey everyone. Welcome to another bonus bang where we re-release great episodes of comedy bang bang out from behind the paywall. This is your host, Scott Ackerman, and we are at the conclusion of our series, I Love Lily. That's right. We do love Lily. The Lily we're talking about is Lily Sullivan, performer extraordinaire. She does so many wonderful characters on the show. Now, we are doing something a little different this week. Usually we release old episodes. It's a comedy bang bang, bang. But this week we are bringing you something a little different. It's another Comedy Bang Bang World exclusive. This is episode 21 of Lily Sullivan's series that she has over there.

This book changed my life. Now, basically, this series is Lily hosting a book club of sorts with comedians playing readers of the book. And this week, Lily invites her friends, Dean Firehouse, who's played by Andy Daly. and Augie Silverado, played by Ben Rogers, and they're going to talk about the book, Perseverance by Preston Lug Wheeler. So this is going to be an exciting listen for you. If you enjoy this and you want to hear

other great episodes of This Book, Changed My Life, or maybe previous episodes of Comedy Bang Bang, or every single live episode we've ever done of Comedy Bang Bang. Become a subscriber at CBBWorld.com. Every single episode over there, the live shows,

ad-free, new episodes, and original shows like CBB Presents, which you're going to hear today, and Scott hasn't seen. We're going to be back Monday with a new episode of Comedy Bang Bang, but until then, enjoy this bonus bang.

Put everything on red, I yell. My sequence dress from Zahar is itching my armpits, and my fake eyelashes are only half on. The forced oxygen is pumping through my veins, and I feel like Tom Cruise must feel when he risks his life jumping up. of a helicopter for the sole purpose of getting an erection. The dealer looks at me befuddled.

I said all unread, champ. My name is not champ. My name is Sal, he says. And this is the blackjack table, ma'am. Ah, Las Vegas. The city of lights. There is truly nowhere on earth like it. Where else can you see a father of five betting his daughter's college fund away on a finding Nemo slot machine?

The entire strip is like Dave and Busters had a baby. with a cruise ship and there's no way out. Your days are simple. You spend either $140 on two beers in a French dip by the hotel pool or lose $80 watching a hot robot woman with triple F tits spin the video roulette wheel. Your nights are even better.

Three dirty vodka martinis with blue cheese olives and a half-eaten filet mignon from the bus tub at Bavet's steakhouse. If you're lucky, you can see a show. Maybe Penn and Teller will bring you on stage and make jokes about how much you hate your husband. Or you can see Joey Fatone from InSync do his latest two-and-a-half-hour stand-up special.

Whatever you end up doing, you'll have the time of your life. Is this New York, you'll ask yourself, wide-eyed at 3 a.m.? Nope, it's just Vegas. After losing $800 on the craps table, you'll head to your hotel room and eat $300 worth of chips from the mini bar while watching an old friend's episode, you know, the one where they all hate gay people.

Then you'll drift to sleep To the sounds of your neighbors screaming In a way that makes you think they're either having sex Or being murdered Either way, you'll know you had a great time I pull up my strapless dress And I look at my cards Jackpot

I'm all in, Sal I push my life savings to the center of the table As he flips my cards Two threes, he says House wins I smile to myself What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas

Welcome to this book change my life. I'm your host, Lily Sullivan. And today we are talking about a very, very incredibly special book, Perseverance by a little known author, Preston Lug Wheeler. I would like to welcome on my first guest. He's somebody who I met vacuuming, of all things. We were both at a Best Buy and trying out the vacuums. And I looked over and I said, Dyson, and he said, yeah, Yep, yours, and I said, Dyson, you know it. And we were fast friends ever since.

Please welcome on my guest, Dean Firehouse, Dean. Hello, Lily, wonderful to be here. So good to see you. It's great to see you, too. I love, every time you tell that story about the time we met, it has more details to it. Because I forgot that we were talking about the Dyson. I had been there, you know, I had been there every day for three weeks,

trying out all of the vacuums. Yep. And some of them have handheld, you know. So it's like, you got to, you haven't tried it until you've tried both ways. That's what I always say too. Like, I don't want to just vacuum standing up. I want a vacuum in all positions. And how am I supposed to know which one is the best for me personally without trying

them all? Sure. And I've been a Hoover man since way back. I can't even tell you how long I've been. I remember that. I'm very suspicious of newfangled vacuum cleaners, too. I got to know all. the guys at Best Buy over the time.

And, well, you remember, Cherry, she went. Yes. Or I don't know if it was Sherry. I think it was Cherry, yeah. She got real mad. She did. Well, I mean, you were spending all day there every day for a very long time. Yeah.

What she started calling me was a deadbeat. And she started saying, you're never going to buy a vacuum cleaner. Well, she doesn't know me very well. She doesn't know because, lo and behold, of course, you did buy a vacuum. I did. finally online from a different store well yeah sure i found a store in colorado that does refurbished hovers right right and that was i ended up with a good a 1975 hoover superplex yes you know what it reminds me of do you ever listen to that this american life where um someone's talking about like

how they want to buy a couch and they couldn't decide on a couch to buy i have i've heard that very story that you're referring to yeah that is you to me like that is you to me like Like you are so particular and you want to make sure you're buying the best purchase. I mean, I've been to your house. You have no furniture. No. I don't. Well, for heaven's sake, how do you decide on anything?

I know. And to tell you the truth, it doesn't, the thing about furniture is it just gets in the way of straightening up. Right. You know what I mean? Well, you're, yeah, I mean, your place is spotless. I've got the cleanest floors in Southern California. That's what you always say. Yeah.

I advertise my house that way. I give tours. You know I give tours. You know I've come on one of them. I've come to see. house yeah um for the listener that if you don't know um you can go to dean firehouse's house yep which is i mean funny not a firehouse no i got a lot of that i know i've been half of my yelp reviews are this was not a firehouse and i think the other half are why the hell did i do this it's just

a tour of a house with no furniture of an empty house with no furniture and you know it's true i don't have a lot of positive yelp reviews no on the tour but uh but you do have a lot of reviews which I feel like, you know, no news, I mean, sorry, all bad news is good news. Well, I don't let them leave without that they've been on Yelp and left a review. Yeah. You can't leave. Well, yeah. Right, because then you get held in your basement, which oddly has more furniture than upstairs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But none of that is like furniture I'm proud of. Yeah. It's all, in one way or another, I'm ashamed of every piece down there. Yeah, you call it the shame layer. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a room full of just chock full of terrible memories and everything in there was a mistake or something that's left over from a horrible relationship. Yeah, I was going to say so, I mean, most of the, I think you moved all the furniture down there after the divorce. Is that right?

Yeah, that's right. Every single piece of furniture reminded me of my darling wife who just had enough of me. Yeah, she did. She left the state, right? oh yeah i mean i could i if i tried to track her down i there's no way all right i've tried to track her down yeah you have i remember and i can't be done it can't no she's she's gotten rid of her cell phone she's gotten rid of her car yeah she's gotten rid of i mean i've told her fingerprints and i don't know i have no idea if this is even possible i'm told she's changed her ethnicity that can't be it can't be right can't be but i've heard it from two sources. Like she did an Ariana Grande? What is that? What did she do? She

Rachel Dolazate herself, essentially, but no one calls her out for it. Oh, wait a minute. I don't know anything about it. She's just a white girl. Okay, Ariana Grande. But, you know, she has enough tanner that. Oh, I see. People question. She's dangerous. What, I understand, my darling Marjorie moved to Thailand and now she's Thai. Well, that just can't be. I mean, Well, I've heard it from two people. Well, either way, Dean, your business is booming. I mean, people still come for some reason to go see your house. Like, you're doing good.

You're doing better, at least than the last time I saw you. Oh, thank you very much. What was the last time I saw you? Wasn't I starting that coffee cart business? Yeah. You were selling coffee and dog treats. Yeah, yeah. And no one was buying either.

I guess that's true. I gave away a lot of free samples sort of sort of, you know what I mean? Yes. Get people hooked on both. Right. Yeah. I guess you're right then it wasn't, yeah, they weren't buying it. They weren't buying it.

Good point. Yeah. Huh. That's interesting. You were in good spirits, though. I hadn't thought about it, but you're right. Actually, I think I never sold a cup of coffee off of that thing. But you did give away a lot of dog treats.

I gave away a lot of dog treats. Yeah. Yeah. Well. I'll tell you what. Huh. I, because I said, I was very clear, these dog treats are made human grade. Yeah.

You always say human grade. Right. I saw a number of times somebody take a dog treat and walk away and eat at them. No. Yeah. No. Many times, many times. Well, I mean, and they weren't really human grade, were they?

No. Of course not. For Christ's sake, why would I waste good money? You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm making these at home for me. just knickknacks and whatever I find around, odds and ends. I know, I know.

I mean, you're not a chef. I know that about you. That much. Hell no. No. Nope. I do have a kitchen. Do I have a functioning kitchen.

Yeah, you do. Your kitchen actually has probably the most furniture of any room in the house. Yeah, yeah, I guess, if you can think of a stove's furniture, but I'll boil some water on there. Yeah, know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, but mostly it's grubhubhub. You are the forever bachelor in my brain now, you know?

Well, let's talk about the book, Dean. Oh, yeah. Perseverance by Preston Lou Gehler. You brought me this book. Yeah, yeah. And I have to say, I was blown away. You were? I was blown away.

Have you read adventure books before? No, not up until this point. And honestly, I think about it. Like, it's like a lot of men read these kinds of books, but not a lot of women. Like. Okay. I suppose you're right. It's just like a, like a fascinating tale into this.

disaster essentially, right? Yep. Well, now, if you're, if you like this adventure book, it's a whole section of the bookstore of adventure books. And it's one thing after, I tell you, I read a, I read a new one just about every week. I've yet to read one about an adventure that went even okay. Yeah. They're all terrible.

It seems like they all go badly. I guess you don't write a book about it. Yeah, I guess that's it. I mean, I am at the point now where I wouldn't mind reading an adventure book where we set out, We set sail and accomplish what we set out to accomplish. And everyone came back alive. Exactly. I guess it'd be short.

But I think about that all the time. Like with the Titanic, like, I'm sick of like these sad Titanic stories. Like, why not have a book like that imagines the Titanic arriving in one piece? What are any? Oh, well, that's a whole other genre. What if the historical what if? What if the Titanic didn't sink? That's what the history channel is made for.

Oh, is that what they're doing over there now? Yeah. I changed my package. I went from Dish over to this fellow by the name of Charles. And he's, I can't get history anymore. So Charles does the, Charles gets the cable all hooked up for you. Is that what you mean? Well, he brought his own dish over.

He says, so it's just a plate. What? It's just a plate. It's on the roof. far as I know, he came in and he said, what are you paying dish for? I'll hook it up for you. And I've got, he says I've got my own business and whatever he calls it. I see him from time to time and I try to flag him. Hey, I have, mainly what I wanted was history. Right. I can't get enough of those World War II planes. But I tell him, anyway, I pay him a monthly bill and I do get some

channels. Which channels do you get? I get, uh, it's mostly Charles. This is his channel. Yeah, he broadcasts out of the basement, but it's into local interest and very religious, very religious. Oh, that's good, too. I love that. Well, yeah, I mean, this book, okay, so it centers around one man on his adventure into the deep sea. Into the deep sea. That's right.

Yeah. On the ship, the perseverance. Yep. It was a beautiful giant ship that was intended to go a submarine as well as to sail upon the waves. Yes, exactly. It's a two-fold thing. It's a what did they call it? That's what they call there, right?

They called it a marine slash submarine. That's right. A boat. And so it was meant to sail. And then at a moment's notice, because I mean a sail ship. Up with the main sales and all that. And then at a moment's notice, under the waves. And it was, he had developed it for the British military in the 1920s.

And this was the prophetically named Byron Wildrown. And he was. Byron Will Drown. That's right. Yep. That is, that is the story. This is the story of Byron Will, Will, Wildrown. Yeah.

And it turns, well, that's a spoiler. He drowned. But I do want to bring on our next guest because I feel like we have so much to dive into about the perseverance. This is somebody who I met on the pickleball courts. We were smacking around the ball and I turned over and I saw somebody playing with a bunch of old people. And he was absolutely whipping their asses. And I thought, that's a cool cat. And we ended up chatting over some lemonade afterwards.

Please welcome my dear friend, Augie Silverado, Augie. Hey. So good to see you. It's great to be here. Thanks for asking me. Of course. It's good to see it, not in sweats. I'm not depressed anymore.

I'm doing much better. Yeah. I got dressed up for you guys. By the way, you, of course, know Dean. You guys are old friends. Indeed. Good to see you. Nice to see you all.

I did not know you were, it had gotten into pickleball. I'm doing pickleball now because it's, uh, it's new for me. Yeah. Because it's a new sport and I want to get involved in the new things. And,

uh, it doesn't take a lot of movement, but if you got a little bit of spryage, you can really take down all these people out there. Yeah, because I mean, the people you were playing with when I saw were like in their 90s. They're in their 90s.

You're, of course, in your 70s. That's right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 76 yeah and uh you know the pickleball court is uh it's different than where i came from which of course is um state prison uh-huh that's right yeah no pickleball in state prison not yet anyway no i feel like there should be like it's cheap i'm gonna bring it back i'm gonna bring it in uh-huh yeah and we met you

know when i there was a period of time where i was i lived so close to the state prison that's right You would come by. I would come by and say, who hasn't had a visitor in a while? I think you'd bring your cart, your coffee, and your dog treats. I did.

Which was offensive in a way, the dog treats for the prisoners. Well, you think that. You think you would think it would be, but it actually, I would get those dog treats and they would make my day. Day one?

They would make my day and you bite into them and they're full of little, he would put little prizes in them. Yeah, he would put pieces of cloth, I remember. They got me in a world of trouble. It's like those, you guys know, they do this in, like, in Greek culture, and I think they do this in English, in England as well.

But they put, you know, if you get the little piece of cloth in the cake or if you get the coin in the Spani Copita, good luck. It's good luck. And you look at the little cloth and you think maybe there's a message in here from Dean and you look at you twirl it around around and it's nothing. And then you say to yourself, I guess it's one of those good luck. right that's funny you say that because it was just i thought of it as filler you know what i mean okay all right just stretching the batter because you were using i think wood chips a lot of wood chips you know when you're inside you you tend to look into things a little bit too much so it was filler to you and to me it was a good luck charm prize oh that's funny well anyway i would give them

the dog treats say hey you're going to get out someday and when you do you might want a dog hang on the treat. I'm never guessing these prisoners were eating the darn things. Well, I'm sure it's better than the food in prison, to be honest, like Yeah. It actually was not. It was, they fed us well there. Did they? He was good. We had one good chef in there.

Wow. Steve, he was a master chef. He was on master chef? He was on master chef. Oh my God. He was on master chef. You're kidding me. Yeah, he ended up inside. That's incredible. Foul stuff. I had no idea. I'm not really. I'm more of a top chef gal, you know. Padma, Tom Colicchio, Gil.

Of course, yeah, Gil. I don't get it anymore on TV. I don't get the Top Chef or Chop, boy, I love Chop. I miss Chop, yeah. I love Chopped. Yeah, I don't get that. I mean, you were essentially playing Chopped every day that you were making those dog treats. I suppose I was.

Like, what do I have today? What do I have today? Some gravel from the driveway? Can I make it any smaller? Yes. I just grind it up with a hammer and no one will even know. Right. You guys, this book, Perseverance, by Preston Luke Wheeler, about our man, Byron Wildrown.

Admiral Byron Willdrow. What was your favorite part of reading this book? Because obviously it's about a tragedy. That's right. But there's so much more to the book and the story ahead of that said tragedy. I can start with my favorite part. I thought it was so interesting when we met Byron. Um, he was at, um, like a, basically like a retreat, um, for billionaires.

That's right. And they were having kind of like a kumbaya circle. And I just never thought billionaires would do that. And I really liked that. Well, it made me feel good too because, you know, inside people, believe it or not, there isn't much of a kumbaya vibe. No, there's not. You're saying generally in people?

General. Yeah, in general. Uh-huh. Yeah. People at their core are angry. They're angry, particularly in prison. They'll say some terrible stuff to you. And you wind up saying terrible stuff.

So it's refreshing to read it in a book. You're so used to saying stuff like calling people a motherfucker and stuff. For sure. You're seeing a bunch of millionaires and billionaires playing guitars and bongos. Yeah. It was sort of communal living way ahead of it. it's time there in the 1920s. He was up there in the, up in the fields of England, I suppose, North England. Was that? I didn't even know that was a thing back then. Well, he was, they were

way ahead. I mean, these are the innovators of their age and the captains of industry. And I didn't even know that there were billionaires in the 1920s. Oh, yeah. No, they didn't talk about it much. Right. You know, you had to get to get a billion dollars together in 1920, you had to be a son of a bitch. You really did. Tell you. You really did. Yeah. Yeah, so I... You know, actually, in prison, you've got to be kind of a son of a bitch to get really anything.

Find the economic system in there. Really, a box of cereal is the equivalent of a billionaire at some ways. Oh, really? Wow. Depending on the cereal. So you're just like rich, like rice crispy treats, like you'd be rich. Oh, rice, crispy treats through the roof. I remember you were always asking me for shoelaces.

Next time you come bring me some shoelaces. I know you never did. I never did. I thought, what are they going to do with them shoelaces? What were you going to do with those shoelaces? Well, to be honest with you, I was going to kill myself. See, that's what I was afraid of. I knew it. I knew it.

You're giving me all the shit about being depressed. Like, I remember you, like, when you were down on your luck, I was doing bad. Well, we could tell the listener what you did to get yourself in prison. Yes. Well, basically, a wrong place, wrong time. I was a groundskeeper at a camp. Summer camp. Kids summer camp.

Kids summer camp. All the kids got murdered. How many? They were 13. They were smoking reefer and the camp was over and I was the last guy to see them and they landed the blame on me. Now luckily. So this is the end of the summer.

All the campers have gone home. They're partied. I told them, I told them it's a bad vibe because I have, I get feeling sometimes. Oh. And I was just getting a feeling in the air. I was like, bad vibe. right yes and uh and you guys know that about me i'll tell you like stay inside today uh you're like it's too nice to be outside right yeah yeah oh yeah you've told me a few times specifically don't go

down to the reservoir today you know what's going down to the reservoir i just get these feelings you're like don't go down there there's going to be stuff released uh so yeah i got somebody killed all these kids holy DNA got me off well Yeah, eventually, yeah. Mm-hmm. The police showed up, they found 13 dead bodies and one living body, and that was you. It was me. Well, I can see you.

I mean, you were, to be fair, you were just sitting there. Like, you didn't even call anyone for help. You were just. Well, I was shocked, and the whole thing was it, because I'm the groundskeeper. I'm thinking, how am I going to clean up this mess? Right. Oh, that's all you saw. You were overwhelmed by the mess.

I saw the mess. You know, we've never talked about this, that you guys are so bonded by how much you love to clean, like, and organize. you know like you're two of my like cleanest guy friends that I have really yeah that's nice to hear the well you'll come by the house sometimes he just I'll come by and sometimes I see him just looking in through the window sometimes and he's just wide eyed with amazement and how sparse the area is I get because I'm a bit of a pack rat now that I'm outside oh yeah and and so I get jealous us at the sparseness of it. I keep it clean. Right. I keep it clean. It's clean. It's clean hoarding. It's very clean and organized. I tag everything. Yeah. I remember. They's DNA exonerated you? DNA got me off. DNA got me off. Oh. And now, unfortunately, the DNA also pegged me for a couple other things. Oh, it did? Yeah. But it got me off of what I was in there for. Did they find the person that killed those 13 kids? They're still looking for.

macaroni. I don't like to hear that. It's still out there. Don't go camp. The camp vibe is I know that granted that was a long time ago but it was it still haven't found them. And they ever reopened that camp? They're planning on a reopening

it this summer. Wow. Spooky. You guys, what was your favorite part of the book? Oh. Well, I very much appreciated when he set off to explore Greenland, which had already by that point been fully explored and mapped and settled long since.

Right. So in a sense, you know, they called it Wildrown's Folly because he was setting off to sort of, you know, a self-styled explorer with nothing to explore. And that was really the mockery that he took at home in the press from that was really the thing that I think made him push the envelope, you know. Yeah. And experiment with his ship before it was quite ready. Right. Seems like. Yeah, he decided to really prove something to the press because of what they were saying about him.

Yep, yep. And he put together a crew of one, 100% journalists at the time. It was really a rag-tag bunch, wasn't it? Well, that's what it was. Yeah, it was a rag-tag bunch of journalists, which one of them was from, of course, Fox. news the um yeah the early equivalent of that yeah which was yeah they i don't think many people know that fox news actually started in the 1920s um it wasn't a tv station at the time but it was a um it was a coloring book like a coloring book magazine yeah rammer's ruper murdoch the first put that together

yes he began it and now it's now we're dealing with us uh he's offspring and he did The first Rupert Murdoch was a bit of a coloring genius. And not so much worrying about the colors, but the layout of shapes next to other shapes. And, you know, that's a separate podcast, I suppose. But, I mean, you look at some of those blocks he put in those early magazines. He made coloring books. Yeah.

But you say he didn't, it didn't concern himself with the colors so much. No, no. No, he looked at the color because, you know, the person who buys him, colors him in. So he is quite possibly colored blind is what the theory is from some people. I always imagine with a coloring book that there is a sort of a platonic ideal of how each page should be colored. You know what I mean? And that somewhere someone has done it.

But maybe that's not the case. Now, if you're putting the coloring book out there and you yourself have not color it and you don't know if it can be colored, I think that's their response. I think so too. I think that's dangerous. Yep. Now, you'll meet some really scary fellas inside who will demand that you color a coloring book one specific way, as you suggest. Now, these guys really, I mean, they will get on you fast. Yeah. If you paint somebody's, let's say, Santa Claus.

Yeah. Okay. Well, I think we all have an image in our mind. I know what I'm thinking. Big white beard. That's what I'm thinking. Red soup, big black belt. Yes.

Now, let's say you paint that. Not paint. Color. We're talking about crayons? We're talking about paint by number here, are we? Good luck getting a paint by number inside the joint. That's what I was thinking. The number of times you asked me, please, some lead-based paints.

Yes. Yeah. What were you going to do with all that lead? I mean, do I have to spill it out for you? What are you going to do? That's a slow way to go, my friend. Come on, Augie. They can't pick up on it.

They can't figure it out. get sicker and sicker and you wind up and you wind up in the hospital and then you can get out. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The hospital is just a pipeline of freedom. Oh, yeah. It's so easy to get out. You see, what you do is you get in the hospital and you dress up like a doctor. Okay.

Yep. And that's real easy. All you have is one of them white coats. Uh-huh. Now, which brings us back to, let's say, you're coloring in a doctor's coat. Okay. It's supposed to be white. Better be white.

Yeah, well, what if you color purple? That'd be cuckoo. Yeah. You're losing an eyeball, my friend. Okay, I get it. There's certain fellas in jail prison that want to see something colored a specific way. That's right.

Yeah, boy. It's a pretty serious thing. And at the time in this book, I mean, this was a very serious, like, situation, having one of the Fox News' only journalists, one of the primary inventors of the coloring book on this ship. Like, if we lost this person, that's a big deal to Fox News, you know?

Would Fox News be what it is today without that person? Right. I mean, well, I mean, consequently, it's the most well-documented trip on a ship ever. Right. Because those who did survive were all 100% talented writers or comic book designers. And coloring book, guess. What did I say? I said comic book.

There was one comic book guy. There was a comic book guy. Right. Well, there was, yeah. But he was half mad. he was half mad Yeah Well what was the other half crazy

That's right man right He gave nothing but trouble Sometimes you're rooting for somebody To die in one of these books You know That guy's really got under my skin as a reader But he's as far as I know Still alive

Amen He's still living He's still kicking He's over 100 now There's a lot of people actually From the perseverance Who are still alive Most of the journalists

But of course not Byron Wildrown drowned. Can you, Dean, you can't keep giving away the ending. I'm sorry. Okay, because we're going to get to the spoiler section and then we're going to find out that Byron will drown.

Okay. I beg you pardon. You can edit it out anytime. Yeah, Brett, we can edit that out. Just edit that one. Just added out. Three, two, one. He didn't drown.

Three, two. Or I won't mention all that helps. That helps, yeah. That helps. If the listener could just fast forward. So, okay, yeah. So, guys, fast forward right now. three two one

hello but different topic three to one perfect let's talk about her favorite parts of the book what but what huh okay

it worked Brett knows what he's doing he's actually he took a class recently and he's gotten a little better for you for a while he was being a really bad editor taking classes

taking class you got your whole life out of you trying to start over you took that podcast editing course of the Pasadena Community College uh yeah I'm auditing it. Are you? Uh-huh.

Oh, my God. Good work. You're auditing it? Yeah, I'm auditing it. Mm-hmm. They don't want you to. They want you to pay for it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, but you're auditing it. Uh-huh. Yeah. To make sure the finances are altogether. No, he's going to teach his own class. He wants to see how much money there is it. Oh, I see.

All right. Get your head screwed on, Jack. Yeah, Jack. Get your head screwed on. audit a college class by just going in for free and sitting there and not getting a grade. Now, as it happens, I'm also auditing the professor. I don't think we talked about how you're also. I am.

I have been self-deputized by the Internal Revenue Service to look over the books of people that interest me. That's right. It's all just based on your own self-interest and whatever you want. As a free agent of the IRS, I'm able to look into the books. people that interest me from what that's a huge genre being able to self-deputize not a lot of people can do that no that's true i i i have self-authorized myself to set will deputize myself various government agents yeah the listener maybe needs to know a little bit more about your your background dean sure obviously we know what you do now your house tours and obviously

so you're still auditing and all that. Yep. And I still have the coffee cart. That's right. But before that, you were an agent. Yeah. I was an agent of the people get so mad when I talk about it. Because it was a bureau set up a federal agency to promote cruelty.

to animals and people get so mad right you know it was the American society for unethical unethical harm someone's got to do it treatment of animals be caught the idea being

that if you're too kind to you know stray cats stray tortoises stray tortoises One of the worst. Well, a lot of people inside had a problem because you were testing some of these experiments out on the prisoners. Okay. Well, now we're going to get into that.

I don't, you know. Well, I did a lot of nice things for the prisoners over the years. There was a lot of psychological stuff that you would be doing to these. This is the point. If you feed a squirrel, let's say. Yeah. That squirrel's going to come back and back and they're going to have babies and then there's going to be too many goddamn squirrels. If you feed a possum, same thing.

If you feed a cat, it doesn't matter. Fill in the animal. Right. If you're nice to one of these animals, it'll only make them reproduce more and more and will be overrun with whatever it is, raccoons or something like it. This was a federal program to get people to the opposite of be nice to a squirrel. Right. Can you get close enough to kick it?

Yeah. Can you throw something? Yeah, can you shoot it? and or any sort of a version, sort of a technique to say, you're not welcome. Right. And those were the ones, the psychological ones, that I initiated a program in the prisons.

They would do it in the prisons. It was. You were brainwashing prisoners, pretty much, basically. I don't call it that. Yeah, you were. You were going in and you were having your talks, your conferences. Yeah. He would give these big conferences to all the prison.

They would show up. Well, it's a captive audience, I tell you. Yeah, they were forced to go. And he would talk in a real low voice. So we had to get real close to him. And we would come right in. And he would have cupcakes and stuff set up and they weren't for us. They were just for him.

You guys got the dog treats. Did you have your agency credentials by the dog treats? Maybe that's why. Of course he did. Maybe that's why people didn't buy it. Of course he did. Screw your head on, Jack. Screw your head on, Jack.

No. Well, part of the reason I'm making. dog treats is to make it up to the animals of the world. I don't work for that agency anymore. They took it apart. You have a lot of making up to do. I don't know. It was important work at the time.

And now I feel badly about it because we really did scare a lot of animals, I'll tell you. But yeah, part of the process, draw them in. Yep. And then unleash on them was what I was working on. Right. The prisoners. Yeah. Here come, you know,

hey, everybody gather around because I had a sore throat. I can't talk to that. And everybody comes in. It's very intimate. Making fun of our haircuts. Yeah. My goal was when I walk into the jail, I want everybody to scurry away from me.

Right. Into the corners of the building. And I got there eventually. Well, I would say, too, like, it's harder to realize when somebody's, like, insulting you when it's, like, a low tone like that, you know, the way that he talks. That intimate low tone.

We can't reproduce in jail. Like the whole point of the program seems to be so the world won't get run. Well, it's an experiment. A monkey's not going to put on mascara, but you try it out on the monkey. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And the monkey by like good. Yeah.

Have you ever seen a picture of a monkey in mascara? I honestly have and so hot. I beat a guy up good to get a picture of a monkey with mascara on inside. Yeah. I mean, that was a hot commodity. That took. I was in the hole for a long time because of that one. Little monkey or big monkey.

It would be huge, huge. Oh, yeah, one of them guerrilla type monkeys. Yeah. I guess chimp, I guess it was chimpanzee. Oh, don't get into that. I don't do that whole thing. Yeah, you had to. If it looks like a monkey, it's a monkey.

I don't care how big it is. You're the one who said gorilla. that's what it's a gorilla type of monkey that size but it's a monkey don't get into that anytime somebody i say here comes an alligator somebody says that's a crocodile i want to push him in the water well what's the goddamn difference i got to call you out you just echoing what you heard on charlie's tv station oh all right you don't have animal planning anymore you've been watching too much charlie oh you sound like i feel like i'm talking to Charlie right now.

Guilty as charged. That is one of Charlie's bugger's bugger. The perseverance. Charles to you, but you. You guys, you guys, what was your favorite part of the book?

I already told you the Greenland part. What's your favorite part? Oh, I like probably when they got frozen. When Byron and, you know, I don't know who saw it because they claim he was alone, but then how do they know? Right. When they got frozen and he had to make his own playing cards to play solitary.

Yeah. Frozen. Solitaire. And he used his own fingers. He used his fingers. and because his fingers would freeze off and then he would nibble little symbols in the fingers. Right.

And then he would stack them off. Now, the thing is, how do you play solitaire with three fingers worth of cards? I don't know, and I would have loved to know, and these are some of the mysteries that haunt us about the perseverance. Yeah. And it also reminds you when you're,

because, you know, this book saved my, you know, the change my life. But this book saved my life. Wow. Wow. You know, I'm inside and I'm getting depressed. Yep. And some, and the books they got inside are wizard books.

Wizard books. Oh, like Harry Potter? You got a wizard books. I don't want to read. Harry Potter? Yeah. It's the only wizard book I know that exists. They got all the wizard books.

They got Harry. Which one? Sorcerstow. Yeah, they got Harry. They got, uh, they got, uh, they got, uh, Boise. Uh, Boise, the wizard. I don't know that one. They're never heard of that one.

Yeah. the son's made out. How about the Wizard of Oz? That was a book, wasn't it? Oh, yeah, I guess that's a wizard. That's the second Wizard book. They got into a whole Boise series now that I think about it. I don't want to talk about the Boise series.

I like the part too where their extremities were frozen and turned the fingers into playing cards. And you're right that we don't know how they played solitaire with that few cards. And we'll never know. And we'll never know. Well, it also, you know, who? figure that out. Right. What are the journalists must have been there?

You can play solitaire with one card. How? Brett. If it's an ace, you win. I play that all the time. Oh, my God. Sometimes he's so sad. It's honestly so devastating.

Son of a bitch, that words. Can you edit that part out, Brett? Can you edit that part out, Brett? Three, two, one. Brett doesn't play solitaire. Thank you. Thank God. That's gone.

My favorite part, I think, was when they got stuck in the desert. You know, they make it, they make the ship get on land finally. Yeah. And they dock in the desert. Well, they had to modify it to be a land vehicle. Right. Which was incredible, given they went to the deep sea. Yeah.

They went, obviously, to the frozen Antarctica. Yeah. And then they find themselves docking on to the desert. And they're all so thirsty, so tired. They have no fingers or toes left. And they just managed to, you know, essentially build shelter out of just sand. And this is 18 years into the journey as well. Yes.

So they've been, and everyone gave them up for dead a long time ago, you know. And little do people know they're out there making their own shelters in the desert. They are. And that's how Adobe was invented. Yep. And that was something I learned from the book is I knew nothing about Adobe. Yeah. And I didn't know the history of it.

I, you know, I felt like a sandcastle is a sandcastle. Right. But no, and they had complicated structures in the desert. Yeah. They had various floors. They had stuff you don't even. Elevators. They had elevators, which I wasn't even show.

Outrageous. They had landing pads, and I read it, and I thought, what landing? They were not thinking straight a lot of the time. Yeah. Because the way the Adobe came about. If I recall, one of the fellas says, we got to make an igloo. We're freezing the death out here. Next thing, you know, they're trying to fashion an igloo out of sand.

Yep. Next thing, you know, it worked. Next thing, you know, they're building second and third stories. Right. And figuring out how to get a goddamn elevator up there. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. A lot of wasted effort in my view.

Well, they went a little crazy, see? Well. They did. They went a little cuckoo by the time they were out there in the desert for that long. I mean, they were there for 20 years? 20 years and it took them 18 years to get to the desert. And then they were in the desert for a further 20. So they were talking like, we're in the mid-60s at this point, aren't we?

God knows. God knows. Listen, I'm just a humble groundskeeper. I didn't do the math. Yeah, yeah. Because it's all, I mean, the world now is crazy to me. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, we got rumbas and doors that open. You know, it's interesting that you never considered getting a rumba, Dean. Oh.

For your house. Uh-huh. Why would anyone do that? Do you know what these things do? They learn your, it's a goddamn robot that learns your house. What's the big deal if it knows the layout of your house? Like, how does that? What's the big deal of it knows that?

That's a people. Like, what is the government going to do with that information? You know what I mean? I know exactly what the government. is going to do with that information. Are you kidding me? They're going to come in and hide stuff in your house. What do you mean?

Like, he's got a point. I didn't think of that. What would they even hide? Where do you think black mold comes from, sweetheart? Don't call me sweetheart. You guys, honestly, you're lucky that I'm having you both on. Two senior white guys. Like, you're fucking lucky like you're on today.

Please. You've told me that before. I'm sorry about that, Missy. No, Aggie. What did we say about Missy? No dear? No Missy. No sweetie.

No honey. All right. No baby. But you can call Brad any of those. All right. All right, all right, baby. It's a compliment. Where do you think black one comes from, sweetheart?

It's the government. And they map your house with these goddamn robot vacuum cleaners, and then they put it in a place where they know you don't look very often. Why did they want you to have black mold? Well, because it messes with your mind. It messes. All right, ma'am.

All right, sport. You get Thunner, punk! Yeah, yeah. All right, punk. It's the same reason that the Romans made everyone gave everyone lead poisoning with the viaduct.

I don't want this to be conspiracy theory hour with YouTube. Seriously, I knew we were getting close. It's all charles. Between how much history channel you guys used to watch mixed with. Are you defecating in your diaper right now? Why did it 3-2-1?

No, I'm not. Why did you say that? It sounds like... Brett, edit that out, okay. 3-2-1, I didn't defecate. They sound sad enough on this. episode we can't have them. They're going to hear that. It just sound, the amount of, the amount of strain, it took to get that out.

I knew something was going on. I know what that sounds like. Gee whiz. You're not supposed to mention it when you see it happening. Guys, stay on topic. Fine. Okay, what's my favorite part? You already said your favorite part.

Should we talk about how the survivors got discovered finally? Yes. Let's talk about the ending. Spoiler alert section. Okay. It smells. It smells so bad. Guys, please.

Keep it together. You don't like to smell? You don't like to smell, Jack? See you go to him, Jack. Why do you keep screaming in my face? Smells fine. You're my kid, Jack. Guys, please.

All right. Jesus Christ. Spoiler section. So if the listener, if you haven't read the book yet, you're going to want to turn off your laptop or iPhone. We're going to talk about the ending. So obviously, this is a well-known story. But the perseverance, after the desert, they've been living in the desert for 20 years. It's 1960, I think 1962.

From there, they finally get discovered in one of the least likely places I would have expected them to get discovered with the ship. which, of course, was, do you guys want to say it? Dallas. Dallas. Yeah. Airport. Dulles. Yeah, Dulles, Fort Worth, in Dallas, Fort Worth, in Dallas, Fort Worth.

That's right. Yep. The Dulles Fort Worth Airport, which is in Dallas, Fort Worth. That's right. And, you know, the overlap, and this maybe gets into Charles territory a little bit, who turned me onto the book, speaking of them. Oh, my God. You've been watching Charles, too?

I didn't realize. Yeah, he installed my, my cable. Jesus Christ. Now, 1962. You go a couple more months, 1963. Who goes to Dallas? Who goes to Dallas? Who doesn't leave Dallas?

John Connell. That's right, I guess. Is there some conspiracy theory? Yeah. John Connolly got assassinated in Dallas. Governor of Texas. He was the real target. Anyway.

Anyway, so the perseverance team, so they, obviously, the boat has gone from being a sailboat into a submarine, into being on land as a car. A desert rover. Desert rover. And then, of course, they find a way to make it into an airplane. They fly it over. They land at Dulles Airport in Dallas Airport area. Which from the, I believe it was the Sahara where they were. Right.

And they flew direct. Which is a long flight. Very long flight. And landed at Dulles Airport, 1962. The whole world is getting ready for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The whole world was in other? They didn't know it was going to happen, Dean. Not everyone thought that was going to happen.

That's not fair. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, honey. I'm sorry, honey. Don't call me honey. Even this, I got to say, Lily, you're at, you don't know. Oh, my God. Brett, truly, if you're in a.

Lily, everyone knew of us. There's too many white guys in this room. It's as honestly like brain damage central. Like, I don't know what, who's rotting all your. are you a shepherd take the will off your eyes all right those those big brown eyes

get the wool off of them don't talk about my body you're not allowed to talk about anything about what she looks like I've tried it I've tried it and tried to yeah we had to have our own seminar our own workshop which I wish you would have

attended doggy about what you can and can't say nowadays all right welcome to 2023 they want to let me come in with my hockey mask. Why were you wearing that?

I'm coming from my hockey. You could have taken off the helmet. I just said, I wouldn't let him in. I just said, I don't want you wearing that in the room. I think it's distracting. I want people to, mainly you two, because literally no one else was there. To really hear me out. That is the bloodiest goddamn hockey mask.

It's caked in blood. Why is it so bloody? What were you doing? It's a rough sport. I mean, have you ever played, I mean... He's, like, drenched in blood. Yeah, well, I'm my team's enforcer. I don't have this skill.

I mean, that's why I like to blow off steam on the pickleball court. Yeah. You wear that mask during pickleball. That's right. He's wearing it all the time. He's wearing it all the time. You're like, you could clean it in between games. I'm superstitious.

If I clean it, I'll lose my mojo. I'm surprised you're not wearing it today, honestly. Yeah, no, I... It honestly got too disgusting to talk through. I really appreciate you being vulnerable with us and showing your full head and face. You're welcome. Anyway, so the perseverance lands in Dallas.

And obviously, you know, they're getting off of the plane and everyone's like, who are you guys? What's going on? Are you aliens? Remember, they all thought that they were aliens? That's right. No one had seen a wooden submarine fly into an air. That's right.

They all lost their hair or and they got really into ritual shavings. Yes. So they're all completely like no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no nothing. That's right. They're smooth. They're smooth. Like, covered in baby powder. Yeah, they looked like that guy from powder.

You remember powder the movie? Of course, he was one of my favorite movies inside. I was obsessed with powder. I couldn't stop watching powder. It's a classic. It's a classic. Everybody loved that movie. Yeah.

There's a real good one. The CEOs would come at me and I'd be like, I'm going to powder my way out of here, motherfucker. What does that even mean? How would you do? Turn into pure energy. That's the toughest way to break out of prison. I forgot that's what I mean.

They can't, yeah, they can't get you. Yeah. Okay, so obviously they land. And then soon after that, yes, John F. Kennedy is assassinated, I guess. Sure. But it has nothing to do with them, the timing, anything like that. Oh, I'm just saying setting the stage, 1962, where everybody is, we're not quite getting ready for the moon landing yet, right?

Well, yeah, we're gearing up to get ready. Yeah. But we're, we're getting pretty ready for that JFK assassination. Just get geared up for it. The world is there with pated breath. Yep. All right, guys. Getting ready for the 1964 world.

World's Fair. Was that the year? That was the year? Sure. 63. Well, 64 was the World's Fair year. Yep. Big one.

Yeah. I don't remember this one. Oh, 64. Queens, New York. Queens, New York. Big color TVs. Yep. It's a small world after all.

You guys, please stay on topic. I want to just finish the fucking A fucking book. Queens. Have you ever seen Mission Impa? Men in Black? Yes, of course. Okay, yeah.

That's where they shot it. The World's Fairside. Okay. Men in Black. Yeah. Huge bomb in prison. No one liked it. You would think, yeah.

No one liked it. Bood, boot it off. You're kidding. Yeah. Can you believe it? Well, I apologize. It was not but the standard edit. Wait a second

You brought a version I should have known When Well Charles is in half of it Well I just thought This was back from Charles As more successful acting days So Charles comes in

He's got the black suit on the black tie The sunglasses The sunglasses He starts calling out Prison numbers From the screen The prisoners by number Yeah

horribly Like you're giving personal details Everybody was booing Throwing stuff at the screen Yeah I'm not surprised The film you saw is a co-production Between me and Charles And Barry Sonnenfeld

Who had nothing to do He had made because he made the original Right Dean I don't like you collaborating with Charles I think it's better that you just get back to the house touring the house dog treats Can I just say for the record Charles is a son of a bitch

You at least got stations I get jack shit on my game I get jack shit He fucked me over It's because it's literally a dinner plate I don't know how many times I have to say this It's a fucking dinner plate on top of your house He goes behind the screen

He does he's literally It's not even TV It's a play You're watching a play every day He puts a frame around himself and looks like a TV. It's got the dials and everything here. When he comes over, he holds up a bunch of scrambling wires and stuff and says the station isn't working. Yeah.

And then in between, you guys are supposed to adjust to go. Yeah. Can you believe? I pay him for that. I can't believe it. No, I can't. I owe him $100,000. You don't owe him anything.

Please, let's finish the fucking book. I finally get out. I finally get out from inside. I go to Charles Debtor's prison. Wait, what? He has his own prison? He does. No.

So you're in his own prison, right? Are you on bail right now or something? What's going on? He thinks I'm out installing plates on people's roofs. Well, you better. I know. You're better not. No, he better not.

I'm going to be up all night. I do it at night. I do it at night. Good idea. In this seat? Guys. All right. Favorite part of the book.

No, we already talked about favorite parts. Okay, so then Byron gives this big speech in front of all of Dulles. And he says, you know, none of you believed in me. There was a smear campaign against me. Look at what I've done now. Look all at what I've accomplished. And again, the people think he's an alien. That's right.

Because he's covered in baby powder. He's hairless. And he's oiled. I don't think we mentioned these oiled. No, we didn't bring up. Because the oil and the baby powder adds an interesting mix of textures, very dry in some places and very slick at others. Yes. Uh-huh.

And then I believe he's grabbed by a group of people and they drown him. Yeah. They're trying to baptize him and they don't, they keep him down for too long. No, they do. Yeah, like, I think they were trying to honor him, honor his journey by dunking him into the toilet. Well, it counts vary because some people feel that they, some folks still thought they were aliens and thought if we could just baptize these aliens.

If we can teach these aliens about Jesus a little bit, maybe they'll stick around and do good. And so I don't know if it was a hooray, Will Drown is back. We're glad to have him here. Let's baptize them because we love them so much. or goddamn these aliens, we'd better get baptized. Who knows what they believe in? It very well could have been a mix, yeah.

Or a mix. We got to get on top of them before they bring whatever alien religion to us. Right. I mean, not a bad idea, by the way. Alien religion. People say we're being visited by aliens. It's not a bad idea to get a hold of them in baptism. I don't really want any religion talk or alien talk on the pod.

Like, it's very polarizing. I'm not talking about it. I'm just saying it's not a bad idea. So the irony, the irony that Byronwell drowned didn't drown on the ship. Yep. But instead, drowned in a toilet in the Dols Airport. Yes. Where they were.

I mean, Q. Alanis Morissette, right? Yeah, I guess so. I never know what you mean when you say that, Augie. They say it all the time. He's always saying Q Alanis Morissette. I don't keep up with pop culture, really, and I'm just trying to speak your language. Yeah, no, it doesn't get through to me.

But guys, wow, we finally got through the book. Can you believe it? I can't. No, I can't either. Let's talk about It's got me excited for a reread I'm going to do a re-read How was the book received publicly

Let's talk about that You guys know I mean you've been on the Online you've been checking stuff out I mean I don't know At this point what your online is looking like Well I got a phone from Charles The thing works pretty damn screwy

But that was new for me And it gets me online And I get to read You're talking about that remote Yeah And it's not a phone It's a remote for like a TV Okay. That explains a couple of things about why it doesn't do that much.

Yeah. Well, I'm very handy on the Internet, but I've had the advantage of not being in jail. I go down to Starbucks and I just ask somebody, can I use your Internet for 15 minutes? I'll buy anything you want off the Starbucks menu. So you buy someone some egg bites or something. Whatever they tell me they want, a egg bite, within reasons. and you know egg bites is a big half one egg bite not two i'm not gonna get you two go havers on the egg bites they come in two yeah you go havers you buy them you buy two you eat one and you give the other one to the guy for the internet if they want two egg bites they got to buy two orders of egg bites and then i'm gonna have

two egg bites this is economics i can understand so you've been on you actually have been on the internet you know how it's being received publicly then uh yeah i've been on good reads you ever go to good reads it's yelp for books and people there love this book boy i'll tell you yeah i mean well so preston luke wheeler this book didn't get published until what was it a year ago i think so so it's a pretty recent book that came out but obviously about such a historical phenomenon slash disaster yep um and i thought it was interesting that fox news um they hated it isn't that interesting. I thought they would have loved this book. Because it traces back

to some of their lineage. Their roots. But I feel like maybe they didn't want people to know that they came out of being a coloring book. And you know, you think of your own family and, you know, I'm not too proud of some of my ancestors. Well, don't bring up. I know a little about your family

history. It's pretty dark. It's very, very dark. Yeah. Uh-huh. What should give us the darkest? Oh, God. Well, they used to give tours. They were in the tour bus business. Oh.

And, you know, cheating in the insurance companies. They were just, a lot of times, just let these buses roll right off a cliff. You got to be kidding me. Full of passengers and whatnot? Yeah. God damn. Yeah. And then just to collect the insurance.

Yeah, that's right. Now, I don't know exactly how that worked, but that put, you know, my grandfather's through medical school probably. So, I mean, it's kind of weird to me, Augie, like how much death is in your family's history, but also yours. That's right, yeah. All 13 of those. Those, those hopped up kids fucking eat.

other and have to know good and this is still a tragedy but yeah yeah they were they were all fucking each other guys I went on that 23 and me I got connected to a whole family I never knew anything about they don't want anything to do with me to a person right I mean you told me about this the heartbreak the interesting thing about it is they're like direct relatives of your well yeah first cousin yeah it's like it's basically just like your cousin it's your immediate family yeah yeah yeah one of them is a full blooded sister yeah so it's like you knew these people you didn't need to do 23

me they're like find out who they were well i thought it'd be more fun for you hey look at this here i am your long lost food DNA isn't it amazing and they not one bite they're like i saw you last year at christmas like what the fuck In some cases, yes. Well, you guys, what are we reading next? This is one of my favorite questions to ask. And I am curious. You guys are still reading books.

That's great. I was worried after, you know, how much TV you've been watching. No, I'm a lifelong reader. I'm a lifelong learner. Okay. And I'm reading a very interesting detective book. Hmm. That sounds interesting.

Yeah. And it's about this guy, he's a dog. Oh. Whoa. Wait, the detective's a dog? That's right. Okay. So it's fiction.

I haven't gotten that far into it yet. It's fiction. Hey, it's, it's, I, it's, sorry, sister. It's, uh, the police department has dogs. Have you ever seen a movie canine? Yeah, I have. Okay. Keep going.

You can keep telling us. He's a dog detective. He's a dog detective. Yeah, he got kicked off the police force. No, he's a P-I. Yeah. Why did he get kicked off? He was too rough with, uh...

Pun intended, Jesus. This is the bag of the book. This is a fucking children's book. I'm looking at it now. This is a kid's book. This is obviously fiction. This is the back of the book. No, this is a fiction...

This is a child's... I mean... I'm doing my homework. Augie, this is outrageous. I'm doing my homework. I'm reading a what-if book about what if the Hindenburg had blown up on departure. Wow. So it just imagines that it would have blown up and that the story wouldn't have existed at all.

No, it's almost the same. It's the Hindenburg takes off from Berlin. Yeah. And it gets 10 feet and it bursts into flame. And so instead of, oh, the humanity, it's exclamations in German. Yeah, German stuff. People saying things in German. Meanwhile, Lakewood, New Jersey, the destination of the Hindenburg, life goes on as usual.

Hmm. You think about it, the phrase, oh, the humanity probably isn't even worked into the cultural. zeitgeist. Yeah, that wouldn't exist. Like, what would we do without that line if you think about it? Well, that's a lot of the book concerns itself with what does it like to exist in a 20th and 21st century America where nobody knows what, oh, the humanity refers to. I wouldn't want to live in a world like that. If I got taken to that dimension, I would freak the fuck out. I wouldn't want to live in that world. Well, I'm reading a really great book actually as well. It's about phone charge. of all things. Whoa.

Yeah. And the history of phone chargers, the different types that there are, and just sort of how we don't really think we take phone chargers for granted. Yeah. What came first? The phone or the phone charger? That's what's so interesting, the phone charger.

Wow. And no one really thinks about that. It doesn't really get the credit it deserves. Wow. And if you think about it, like how many people you see at a bar or something like, can I use your phone charger? Does anyone here have a phone charger?

That always happens to me when I go to a phone charger. a bar. God, I'm sick of it. It's such a part of our culture and we just, and you don't even need to charge your phone. It's a remote. I don't know what they're talking about. I give them the batteries out of my phone and they look at me like I'm friggin' nuts. Wow, you guys, I can't believe we did it. I truly can't believe it. Thank you so much for being on Dean Firehouse. So nice to see you. My pleasure. Come on down to Dean Firehouse's not Firehouse. And give it Give it a look over

Take a look at that fair house Hot on my floor It is clean I go there I look in the window I just drool Because I know he's got a You gotta clean up

That drool when I leave And it drives him A little crazy You guys like it It's symbiotic Your little thing you guys have Going on Augie Silverado

Thank you so much for being on Really nice to see you On the pickleball courts Yeah Yeah, you will, yeah. I mean, I don't know that you're going to be invited back after what you did the last time, but. Yeah, I got, I burned some of the net last time. And some people.

Well, they were trying to put out the net. That's kind of on them. I don't know if I can take the hit for that one, but. Anyway, and Brett, yeah, good job, I guess. Oh, wow, thank you. You guys made me look good. Three, two, one. Pretty good job.

Yeah, look next to these two, like real conspiracy theorists, you seemed slightly more normal. To the listener, I just want to say, thank you all so much for coming on this adventure with us. I hope you go to the bottom of the sea and to the desert and up into the mountains, and I hope you find the book that changes your life. Thank you.

Such an understanding. Unbelievable episode. Big thank you to my guests, Andy Daly and Ben Rogers. You can hear more from Ben on his podcast, Action Boys, and more from Andy at Patreon slash Andy Daily. As always, thank you to CBB World, Scott Ackerman and Brett Morris for making this show happen. And finally, you can follow me, your host, Lily Sullivan, at L-I-Y-Y-L-Y. Until next time, I hope you keep galleventing through the pages. And I hope you find the book that changes your life. I'ma-ma-a-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma Yeah. E-n-lough! E-lough!