Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 155: When Is Fun Too Dangerous? | Ear Biscuits Ep.155

Episode Date: August 6, 2018

Rhett and Link sit down to discuss when fun stops being worth the risk, dangerous hobbies they use to partake in, and the time Rhett almost went down with the "SS Merle" on this week's Ear Biscuits. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Today's episode is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Vitamin Water. Woo woo! Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we are going to explore the question,

when is fun too dangerous? Ooh. I ain't never had too much fun. You remember that country song? Kershaw? Too much fun, what's that mean? I don't know, it's, I, it's. Who sang it?

I don't know. Sammy Kershaw? I know, I think it was somebody that may not have had another country hit in the 90s after that one. But yeah, I think what we're gonna end up doing is. Something dangerous. I've started, no, I've started thinking back on a lot of the dangerous hobby type things that we've done and I've gotten a little scared. Yeah, and I've gotten a little scared.

Yeah, and I've done a little research on some statistics, you know, some numbers that will help us get the truth about how dangerous things are compared to how dangerous we perceive them to be. Okay. And then I hope that at the end of this conversation, we will have arrived at what we were saying is our personal philosophy of balancing fun and danger,

which you can take or leave. A rubric. A rubric, if you will. A rubric. A rubric's cube. No, a rubric, a system built upon which we can then navigate life's decisions. That's what I think a rubric is.

Okay, I'll take that. Christy. It's your wife. She taught high school math our first year of marriage. She was a geometry teacher. Very dangerous activity. She referred to her rubric a lot. And I think that was like the plans that were given to her

for how she had to navigate teaching. Like a syllabus? I've never looked up what the word means. I just kind of sensed what it means. And now we're gonna come up with an adventure danger rubric. That shows a lot of hubris. The fact that you're saying rubric.

So we're gonna do that. But I'll give you a little bit of update. I got a house guest. Hey! You know I'm not big on house guests. I know that, you've never let me stay over. Like my home is my zone, man. And it's, I just don't let anybody come in there.

You let people, people just transient in and out of your house. Well that is because of my wonderful wife who has the gift of hospitality. Yeah, there is a positive spin to this. And she's very open and she's very welcoming and she's always- And you have a guest room. But if I lived at your house,

even though if we lived at your house, even and we had three kids, we still would have a guest room. Like my wife would have two of those kids in one room together because she really believes in the concept of a guest room. A lot of pressure, make people happy. It's like a frickin' bed and breakfast. You oughta see what she does for these people.

Maybe I'll come over. Next time I'm in the dog house, can I just stay in the McLaughlin B&B? I don't know, do you like Earl Grey tea? No. Okay, well you're not welcome. Yeah, I know you have one of those Nespresso machines, so don't try to pull one over on me.

That'll be in my room when I'm staying there. Anyway, we do make exceptions. The printer is in the guest room, I gotta say. If I gotta print something, I'm coming in. I'm barging in. I have a key. Oh, is it dot matrix? Is it gonna wake me up like, ink, ink, ink?

It's laser. Oh nice. I'm kidding, I don't have a laser printer. That's cool, man. Inkjet, man, you know, medium volume. Okay, okay. Sorry to interrupt you. But I do make exceptions occasionally, especially for family members,, especially for family members,

and especially for family members that Are famous. Are famous. And potentially becoming more famous. If you follow me on Twitter, ha! Oh, look at that. Link Lamont. You need to shout out. Shout out to Twitter, Link Lamont. Shout out to Link Lamont on Twitter.

Yeah, that's how you do it. You gotta do it a lot to get better. I haven't done it in quite a bit, but you know what? I'm taking it. Take the mantle. Taking the mantle. Taking the mantle piece. Then you know that for a certain amount of time

in conjunction with the broadcast of the most recent season of This is the Voice! Singing competition show, not the American Idol one. Yeah, the other one. With the country singer and the rock singer who like banter a lot, Adam and Blake. I knew all about this, I'm just saying. What about Alicia, the most important one?

I'll get to her. And Kelly, shout out to Kelly Clarkison. What's her Twitter? Don't know, I do not know. That's a good question. I'm sure you could find it. Sure, it's awesome. You knocked off my train of thought.

I'm sorry. If you follow me on Twitter, which I shouted out earlier, when I was on track in telling you about something on this podcast, you'll know that during The Voice, my Twitter basically became a fan account for my cousin, Britton Buchanan. Because you have to vote in order to get people to win on The Voice, and daggone,

I got a cousin who can sing, man. Yeah, he's very talented. Even I got on Twitter, shout out to RedMC on Twitter. You finally did. I knew I'd find a way. At the last minute. I got involved in that. I help promote, yeah. So that's all I tweeted about

for a handful of weeks there. I even used like the, I really checked my pride at the door. You did. For my boy, Britton. You probably lost some followers. I downloaded, like, I went through all the hoops, just like any normal person who uses the internet. Are you saying you're not normal?

I downloaded the Voice NBC app, and then I'm like tweeting. That's malware, man. And it's like putting the app in my tweets for people to download the app. You've got a virus now. I feel horrible, but what am I supposed to do? It's like, my boy, my boy's gotta win this thing.

I gotta do my part. Took over my Twitter for it. Well, turns out I don't have that much digital power because. You gotta tweet about other things other than the voice. He got second place. Hey, but quite an accomplishment. It's actually better to get second place

because he hasn't told me any of this. This is just speculation on my part. Speculation. I don't wanna say anything to incriminate him, but I will just say that my speculation, I think it's better to get second in terms of Obligations. What you can do.

Freedom versus obligations. He's back out here making stuff happen musically. I met him for the first time. Yesterday. I almost got him to sing for me, but it was just me and him in the office and I backed out in the last second. He did have his guitar.

Yeah. At least the case. Right. I didn't open it. So he's back out here and he's staying at my house. Yeah, I'm glad, gladly. Now is Alicia Keys also staying at your house? Because please say yes and then please tell me

when I can come over. No and no. No and no. No and never. You can come over I guess if you're bringing me something like cash. Okay. So he tells me this story, like I was in a meeting. He's recording, the reason I asked is because.

I can't say what he's doing. That's for him to say. I can't make announcements on this podcast about what my boy's doing. That's for him to say on his, shout out to him on Instagram. Okay. He's moving and shaking. He's moving and shaking, can I say that? He's getting stuff done musically.

I'm excited for him. I'm providing bedding for him, like a domicile, a place for him to stay for two weeks. You need any tips? While he's moving and shaking in Hollywood. You need any tips for how to care for someone who's staying in your home? Because I got lots of them.

Chrissy's great at that. Yeah, she is. I mean, she's not opposed to it. I'm the only one who likes, I'm like a grumpy old man who likes my space and doesn't like the pressure of having to make other people happy in my home. My kids and wife have given up on me helping them with that many years ago.

But he comes into town, I gotta throw him under the bus here. He's gonna kill me for telling this story, but I think it will benefit us. I think there's something in this for us. Well good, I'm glad you're talking about it. And it's a funny story and he's the butt of the joke, so I'm gonna will benefit us. I think there's something in this for us. Well good, I'm glad you're talking about it. And it's a funny story and he's the butt of the joke so I'm gonna go for it. Okay.

He gets off the airplane, he drops off his luggage stuff here and then he goes to a pop-up shop in Hollywood. There's these pop-up shops. I've heard of them. You know, it's like a fancy thing where it's there and then it's gone and you better go and you better buy the stuff while it's there.

He's so, he's fanatical about music. I mean, he's the biggest Bruce Springsteen fan. I was elated when he texted me a picture of meeting Bruce Springsteen with Alicia Keys in New York a couple of weeks back. So I'm like living vicariously through my cousin. He's meeting his heroes and then it's fabulous. The boss.

Turns out he also like, he's gotten into the Grateful Dead, which is a head scratcher for me, but John Mayer's involved in that now. A dead head scratcher? He's a dead, yeah. John Mayer is taking Jerry Garcia's place. For many years now, he's been touring with them. Is he gonna replace him on the ice cream?

Good question. I don't know. I don't know how you can make Jerry Garcia sound like John Mayer. Anyway, he's going to, there was a show in San Diego, and then the next night, there's a show here in Dodger Stadium. He's going to both of those.

When you become like a dead head, I think the expectation is that you will follow them from show to show. One 26 minute song is not enough. You need to hear it the next night as well. So he goes to this pop-up shop right when he lands, goes to Hollywood, it's a Grateful Dead pop-up shop. Turns out he's gotta wait two hours out in the sun.

When I see him later, he's like, got a horrendous farmer's tan. Yeah. He's sunburned because he baked out there for two hours. He finally gets in there and he's like looking around, oh he has a sweatshirt. He knew this stuff would be expensive, but it's like hey, this is special pop-up material.

The thing I thought was interesting is he talked about how you wait in line and then they let you in like one, one or two, he said, one, two at two max. Yeah like two people in there at once, it's like a private shopping experience. So there's, you've been waiting and there's a lot of pressure,

there's a lot of pressure once you're in there. Yeah, because you know that everybody else is outside and he's looking around, he grabs a sweatshirt, he sees a t-shirt, cool t-shirt with like a hand drawn design on it. Yeah. No price tags. Of course not. And he goes up to the register

and then the only people who were left in there are lining up behind him. And he said that the girl at the register in a condescending tone was like, in a condescending tone was like, this T-shirt is $500, is that gonna be okay with you? I just said that T-shirt is $500. Was one of the members of the Grateful Dead in it? No.

He didn't realize this but it turns out it was a one of a members of the Grateful Dead in it? No. He didn't realize this but it turns out it was a one of a kind art piece hand drawn on that particular t-shirt by an artist that we looked up later. And I mean I wouldn't know the artist but he's known by people I guess. He's known by people. He's known enough for them to charge 500 bucks

for a t-shirt. I mean the original piece of art. And poor guy, he was like, I just felt the pressure of the people behind me in line and I had picked out the shirt and so I was just like, yeah, that'll be fine and I gave him a credit card and I'm like, oh no, oh my gosh. And then the hoodie.

At least he's got free lodging. And then the hoodie cost $90. Okay, all right. Which I would have said was unreasonable, but then I would have been, okay, it's a pop-up shop. It's a steal now. Maybe the only place you can buy it. Oh man, I looked at this shirt.

I mean, it just looks like some. It looks awesome, no, come on, it looks great. It still looks great. It looks like a $500 shirt. It's a great looking line drawing with pin on a shirt. This is gonna. And he's gonna kill me because I just told, there's no way he was gonna tell his family

that he spent $500. We can turn this around for him because this is. You gonna defray the cost? 2018, no. 2018 is the year of the resale, man. Yes. That's what you gotta turn it around. He better not wear it.

eBay it. You know, he said right after he left, John Mayer showed up at the pop-up and started taking pictures with people. He probably didn't even buy one of those shirts. But he did Instagram a picture of the shirt that Britton bought. Oh.

So that's like an added thing. When you're reselling it on eBay, you're like, and John Mayer Instagrammed this T-shirt. As well as. The exact one or? The exact, there's only one. Yeah so he Instagrammed the online listing, photos that had already been taken

because of course Britton already had the shirt by the time. You need to text him very shortly. Tell him not to wear it. Oh he's not gonna wear it. He told me that. I don't know, he's got a budding music career though. 500 bucks for a t-shirt, that is the way of the rock star. It is.

So this may just be the beginning of the rest of his life. So is just coming home to my house, eating tacos, and falling asleep halfway through Queer Eye. Oh really? Season two, episode one. Yeah. Okay. He fell asleep.

I mean I think it was a jet lag, riveting episode. Well, okay, you know what? I will buy the freaking T-shirt from him. I just feel guilty sharing the story. Britton, I'm gonna buy the T-shirt from you. And then resell it? And then resell it. But we gotta do a pop-up shop

and we gotta start getting our ink on. Like ink drawings on us. We're gonna be selling $500 T-shirts. John Mayer's gonna show up. It's as easy as that. I gotta defray the cost of buying the T-shirt off of my cousin. I'm gonna frame that puppy.

If you sell it in a frame, you get more on eBay. That's what I'm thinking. Speaking of pop-up shops. Framed. Speaking of pop-up shops, we do have to sell some stuff. Ear Biscuits is supported by Oatly. You remember the 90s? Yeah, I was there for those. You were present for the 90s?

Yep, that's when my musical horizons started to expand from just Hank Williams Jr. to include Nirvana. We had some weird transitions. I had some weird physical transitions. There is some photo evidence of it. That was when my neck was growing and my face was not growing. It was contorting and blowing up.

I'm very thankful that somehow it ended up like kind of balancing out. Is it not an appetizing way to then transition to talking about really good tasting oat milk from Sweden? Well I just wanted you to think about what we were going through in the 90s and let you know that the people at Oatly, they were making Oatly over there in Sweden while our bodies were changing.

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and now and now and now and now. You get the idea. And now, and now, and now, and now. You get the idea. And now, on with the biscuit. I think he's gonna kill me. He can't kill me, he's a kid. He's just 18 years old, he don't know what he's doing. Buying a T-shirt. He probably would be better at killing you

as an 18 year old. He's probably at his ability to kill peak. Oh gosh. Yeah, sleep with one eye open. Okay. Gripping your pillow tight. Speaking of death, in danger, that is. Let's say danger and fun, how's that?

Okay, we are going to talk about the balance between these two things and we got the idea to explore this question from a question from the mythical beast known as Zane Phillips who asked us, what are your thoughts on having fun at the potential of danger? For example, I love to ride motorcycles but I'm not allowed to because of parental restrictions.

Hmm. Even though I fly gliders and small planes which can be just as dangerous. You fly gliders and small planes, which can be just as dangerous. You fly gliders and planes, but okay. So immediately I'm already questioning, well what is statistically more dangerous, motorcycles or gliders, slashes, planes? Slashes?

Yeah, multiple slashes. Do you want me to get into the numbers to answer that question? Well, where did you wanna go first? Where's the first place your mind goes with this? Because certainly as we've gotten older, and I feel like my life was a lot more precious than it was in my brain than when I was younger.

Well, okay. I think that's part of being young. So that's a good place to start is, what do you think your, our, yours and mine philosophy was when we were at our killing peak at 18? And what is it now? How has it changed? And what is it now? How has it changed?

Because we have done a lot of dangerous things. I wrote down- But I consider myself very risk averse at the same time. I mean, in a recent episode, well, a few months back now, we did give the, I gave the tongue in cheek advice to, when somehow related to danger and like what people could do with their summers

to go kayaking. Like we did a lot of river kayaking and we had a lot of near death experiences doing that and our families hated it and in retrospect, I mean I just can't imagine letting. Oh no. Every single thing that we're gonna talk about with few exceptions that we did as a kid,

is stuff I would never let my kids do now. And I don't even know how I feel about that. I mean, right. Because to clarify the kayaking. Do you remember the story, I'd love for you to retell the story of when you took the USS Merle kayak around the, on Buies Creek

at the edge of Keith Hills Golf Course and it was at flood stage. Yeah, well, yeah, so to give you the background, because every experience is variable, I think one of the things that we'll probably explore is the way you approach dangerous situations that you have control over, that you can prepare for and you can minimize danger.

When we kayaked, we maximized danger, at least as far as Buies Creek was concerned, because I was in a kayak that was not, didn't fit me, as I explained on a previous episode, it had flotation that consisted of trash bags filled with foam that I found in my attic that was just pushed into the front and back of the boat.

Very homemade and janky. Could not flip the kayak, never figured out how to do that. Well let's say roll. If you can flip a kayak, that implies going head over, like tail over nose. I even called it, I called it flip. That's how unaware I was of what was happening. But I also could not roll it.

And I don't believe you ever successfully rolled it. Ben could roll it a little bit. Sometimes. So did not have a helmet. So just to clarify, rolling is when you turn the whole kayak upside down and you're still stuck inside of it, but your exposed torso and head are facing directly down underwater

and then somehow you gotta use the paddle in a magical way to continue your momentum and come out the other side like a log. And some might argue that it is a prerequisite for kayaking. I would say that an actual safety course where we were is prerequisite. But the other thing we would do is, the only time we would break the kayaks out

is when the creek flooded. So when this creek that was about 10 to 15 feet wide would flood, it would flood and it would suddenly overflow its banks and it would just be this muddy river that was like a roller coaster, incredibly dangerous. We would take it and we would go through culverts. Like there were these big culverts that were big enough to put a man and a kayak.

Probably like a five foot diameter culvert. Yeah, that would fill up and shoot you out and we would go through these things in kayaks. Yes, that is crazy. Can you believe that we would go through these things in kayaks. Yes. That is crazy. Can you believe that we did that? I mean, you could literally be decapitated. It was stupid and, but they had this spot of the creek where it almost became like a canyon,

the most canyon-like spot on Buies Creek where there's like a cliff on one side. This is along what used to be hole number six at Keith Hills Country Club, which they switched the front and back nine, so whatever that is now. And you would start in one spot with all, and everybody was up there,

and then you couldn't walk along the creek because it was so steep, so you'd walk along the golf hole and then everyone would be down on the other end waiting for you to come out. So while you're in the middle of the crazy rapids, there was nobody who was there to help you, nobody who was there to see you. And at flood stage, I mean, the creek,

which becomes a torrential river basically, starts to incorporate a lot of obstacles, like trees going in all directions that normally would just be beside and around and sometimes spanning over top of in a bridge-like fashion, the creek itself. And it would all be incorporated into it along with debris. So you and Ben went through first.

Each in our own kayak, yeah. And- Mine wasn't janky. So you and Ben went through first. Each in our own kayak, yeah. And- Mine wasn't janky. I think you successfully navigated it as far as I could tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we get on the bank over there and we wait for you to come through. And you didn't.

So what happened to me is I went around the bend and lost my balance, which happened all the time in the USS Merle. And of course, when you fall over in the USS Merle and you're wrecked, you just get out of the kayak. You take it off like pants. Yeah, and so we did have a skirt, you know, the skirt thing, the water skirt, whatever it's called.

To keep the water out. So the kayak turns over and I push myself out of the kayak and then it basically, as soon as I kinda come up, I realize that I am up against a tree that is horizontally like a bridge across the water that's just under the surface of the water that you could not see. Yeah.

And so I'm like up against it. It's against your pelvis and then. And then I realized, first of all it was like no big deal. Let me just go over this thing. Well the kayak. Literally, before I had a chance to do that, I feel the kayak itself, which is now turned sideways with the hull of the kayak facing upstream,

Yes. is up against me. And filling entirely with water. Very quickly filling with water and pressing all of its weight against me. This is flood stage up against the tree and it had me pinned perfectly in the middle of my body so I couldn't make a decision to go up, I couldn't move.

I remember finally deciding to go looking for you and we came back around to the top and then started walking down as far as we could. I think we, I can't remember if we walked up or down, but I remember seeing you standing in the middle of the creek. Well, so from my perspective, I saw you guys way down like around the bend

and you remember it differently than me because in my version, I fell behind you, fell out of the kayak, and then I was trying to get your attention, but you were like 100 yards downstream and you kind of just looked back. I was like to get your attention, but you were like 100 yards downstream, and you kinda just looked back. I was like yelling, and you looked back and just saw me, because you kept going.

You weren't coming to look for me. You were just continuing to finish your trip. That sounds right. But literally, at that moment, I'm like, I'm gonna die. I cannot get out of this. I'm pushing up, I'm pushing. I cannot get out of this situation. I'm like, this is going to crush me. I'm not gonna be able to get out of this, I'm pushing up, I'm pushing, I cannot get out of this situation. I'm like, this is going to crush me.

I'm not gonna be able to get out of here. I'm gonna, very soon I won't be able to breathe. So I start pushing up as hard as I can on this log. And thankfully what was happening with the kayak, because I had a crappy homemade flotation, is that as the kayak filled up with water, it began to move down, it began to sink a little bit. And that was just enough for it to kinda slide down

onto my butt and let me scrape myself up and push myself up and over the log. I could've broken your legs. And I had these scars, scars all over my hips from where they rubbed against the tree. But it was just so stupid on so many levels that we did that. But the question is, was it worth the fun?

Was it worth the story? Obviously, our philosophy back then, because that's just one of many examples, we'll get into some other ones, but I think my philosophy at least was what can we do today? I consider myself pretty risk averse, like I wouldn't climb up in things really high

that I could fall out of. If like we were. You're talking about as a teenager? Yeah, if we were like, we swung on vines all the time and like we, even though one of my initial back injuries is a vine breaking, for the most part, we would like make sure this is a strong, we didn't do, it wasn't jackass.

We weren't like purposely doing things. We were trying not to get hurt and miraculously, we did a lot of stuff and never got hurt. But I would never do 90% of those things now because I'm constantly worried about, man, if I get hurt, I won't be able to work. This is gonna be such an annoyance because I'm always just about hurt anyway with my back.

So I've completely changed the way I approach these things. Well even now, if people bring up things like skydiving or bungee jumping, my snap reaction is, well I'm not gonna do anything like that unless it's for a video. Now to do something that's more risky and I do think I absolutely have my limits on what that would be.

I'm not gonna do anything just for a video. But there's certain things that I'm not gonna do just for the personal fun of it, but that might put me over the edge. So I actually think bungee jumping, I don't know what, again, you know the numbers, you'll tell me eventually, but I think I would do bungee jumping for a video.

I just don't think, I think it's kinda tired so I don't really see a good video in it. And even skydiving, I think I might do skydiving, but if I had to choose one, it'd probably be, I don't know, because skydiving you do it tandem, but bungee jumping, there's a system. I think I would do bungee jumping before skydiving. I don't know, which would you do first?

I mean, just before you look at numbers. Okay. If you had to choose. I didn't see the numbers yet, I'm just bringing it up. I definitely think that skydiving is safer than bungee jumping. And I would do it. I think it's been done so much longer.

And you're just strapped to a guy who's supposed to be, or a girl who's supposed to be an expert. As opposed to just strapped to a guy who's supposed to be, or a girl who's supposed to be an expert, as opposed to just strapped to a rubber band. It just feels like something that's just got- By the ankles. It's got so much regulation behind it, like it's because it's done so many times. Let's look at the numbers.

Skydiving, you have a one in 101,000 chance of dying while skydiving. Okay, 101,000. Bungee jumping, you have a one in 500,000. Oh my gosh. It's a lot safer, it's five times safer. Five times safer. Skydiving is five times more dangerous.

Okay, and you know, I have a theory. I have a general theory that, so I made the right choice, you made the wrong choice. Here's my other one. These are more extreme. But doesn't it seem scarier though? Hang gliding. Okay, hang gliding.

Versus zip lining. Now, they're not even in the same ballpark, obviously. I've been ziplining many times, but hang gliding, even tandem, I mean, it's up to, there's so many variables, but it's up to one individual to bob and weave and react to whatever happens

in that instance versus a system, like a mechanical system has been put in place. It's subject to frequent inspection and proof. Okay. It's every single time you're not just going out there and leaving it up to a lot of human moment by moment, second by second judgment. Well, okay, first of all, the stats that I'm getting right now

are from tetongravity.com. So that's why I like ziplining. Pulling from a couple of different places. I've done ziplining a lot. You've done ziplining too. You've done zip lining too. I have, now okay, so pretty consistent with what you're saying. Hang gliding, you have a one in 560.

560, not 500,000, 560. So hang gliding is extremely dangerous. There's a guy at the end of my street who has a hang glider. And I was just looking at the thing and I got sweaty palms. Now, like you were saying, okay, so the guy at the end of your street, if I were to tell him that he has a one in 560 chance

of dying in a hang glider, he would say, well, not me. That might be the overall statistics, but he would be like, it's as safe as riding in a car for me. He may make that claim because he's in control. So I do wanna- Because he'll probably say something about, because I only elect to do it when the conditions are perfect.

But the fact is, regardless of how you approach it, it is an extremely dangerous activity because there are certain things that are outside of your control, even if you're an expert. So maybe your individual odds would be lower than that, but it is on a whole, a very dangerous thing to do. Now zip lining, something that we both done

and we've both done it with our families. Oh yeah, my kids love to do it. I've done it in like, there was this private, like near Santa Cruz camp that you did it in the top of these redwoods in a forest. It was amazing. Done it, I talked about doing it in Mexico and we did it in Hawaii.

And I'm scared of heights, ironically, and it can be kind of paralyzing. Like I think I'm actually, like we did that ropes course at the Central Florida Zoo. For some reason, the Central Florida Zoo has a ropes course because every zoo should. Don't fall into the lion enclosure. And you're like, you know, 10 to 20 feet in the air

given where you're at on the course, and you're strapped into a guide wire. But I get paralyzed in those situations because it's inconsistent. Like I'm trying to balance and then I might fall and that thing's gonna pull and like, I don't like that situation. I'm much more comfortable with zip lining

because once I throw my weight on a zip line, it's kind of a consistent experience. But I am constantly thinking, am I gonna be the guy that breaks the zip line and dies? And even when my kids are like, we did Costa Rica a couple years ago, a few years, four years ago probably, and Shepard was so small, there was a few things that he was too, it was-

Not heavy enough? It was not heavy enough, but it was also through the jungle and over these ravines and stuff, and it was all these Costa Rican guys that, a few of them spoke English, a lot of them didn't, are just like, I'm just gesturing with Shepard, I'm like, hand them this kid, and they strap him in, and they're like, give me the thumbs up,

and push him, and I'm like, where did he go? And then I see him a little bit later. But you, that's a tremendous amount of trust. But I had embraced it, I was like, it's probably not as safe as the trip that we took to get here, but. I think it's one in a million. I think zip lining is chance of,

these are chances of fatality, right? I don't have a number for you. You don't have a number? So I looked up zip lining and it has, it's so, they don't have any. Variables, so many variables. They don't have any statistics that have been gathered. There's like lots of reports of people dying

or getting injured, but it's kind of difficult to know how many people, it's still a relatively new activity, so at least in like a five to 10 minute dive onto the internet. But the bottom line is it's incredibly variable. So you gotta know who's controlling this zip line. Like how often do they check their stuff? There's so many variables.

It's not like, it's not as regulated, but I guess that is the case with like skydiving and hang gliding, whatever. It's just your equipment is a huge part of it. And you just gotta know, you gotta know like every single variable is taken care of and it's as safe as possible. It's pretty unlikely that you're gonna get hurt but.

When the TripAdvisor reviews are all positive and there's a system in place, I'm able to just check out. Like when I'm doing all that, I'm not looking at the equipment. I feel like I need to up my game a little bit to at least think about what would I, contingency plans, you know? Well, if this thing that I just clamped on up here

as my safety line, if that did fail, what would I do? Well, okay, I'm gonna grab it, I'm gonna get the worst rope burn in my life, but I'm not gonna fall. I'm gonna grab this thing. You know, I think I could do better, but I kind of feel like it's a gift that like I'm able to fall, I'm gonna grab this thing. You know, I think I could do better, but I kind of feel like it's a gift that I'm able to trust a system.

Like going to, I mean, getting on a roller coaster, about every year you hear some roller coaster malfunctioned. I mean, this, months ago, wasn't it at Six Flags that like where we've been multiple times, people like falling 30 feet in like a roller coaster car. I mean, that happened yet again. Right, now, one rule of thumb that you could apply to this is, is the thing I'm going to do more dangerous

than the transportation required to get there. Okay, just to think about that for a second. If it's not, then that makes you feel, okay, I can do this. Now this is, and I think this is a really relatable thing because a lot of people are afraid of flying, right? Yeah.

And, but they have absolutely no problem with taking the trip to the airport. Now you've probably heard countless times that the trip to the airport is a lot more dangerous than the actual flight. That is 100% true. So here's what- If you get to the airport in a luge.

Right, I'm assuming you're going in a motor vehicle, not a motorcycle, because we're gonna talk about motorcycles in a luge. Right, I'm assuming you're going in a motor vehicle, not a motorcycle, because we're gonna talk about motorcycles in a second, because that was one of the things that Zane mentioned. Okay, I wanna get this right. Okay, so according to stats from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, oh, actually, now I'm getting the motorcycles, here we go.

Travel by car is many times more deadly per mile than commercial air travel. It's not even close. It's not even worth bringing up what the numbers are because there's a number of different ways you can do it. But lifetime odds of death for selected causes, injuryfacts.nsc.org, your chances of dying in a motor vehicle crash

are one in 102. Whoa. Okay, so you have like a, about a one. The chances of what, being injured? No, dying. Oh gosh, really? The chances that any given person in the US is gonna die in a car wreck is about 1%, one in 102.

So, that's not really comparable to, you know, when we talked about, they calculate the stats in different ways. But okay, the chances of you dying of cancer are one in seven. Okay, so one in seven people are going to die of cancer. This is taking a depressing turn. I thought we were talking about having fun.

Now, the chances of you. Nobody, by the way, nobody gets cancer for the fun of it. So, but, but, so you digress, but go ahead. The chances of dying on a passenger airplane is one in 205,000, really 100, 200, 205, 552,000. So a small, small fraction. In fact, on, 200, 205, 552,000. So a small, small fraction. In fact, on this list, it is the least likely way to die right next to dying on a train, which is one in 179,000.

Dog attack is one in 133,000. Lightning strike, one in 140, so you're more likely to die of a dog attack than you are, or lightning than you are with a dog attack, which is more likely than on a train, which is more likely than on an airplane. So if you're scared to fly, you need to never go outside during a storm, definitely, and you need to stay away

from dogs, and you need to definitely never travel on a train. Now we'll let you off the hook, people who are afraid of flying. I know it doesn't work this way for you. This type of logic doesn't help you and you gotta get at this another way. So I just wanna acknowledge that for the sake of the loved ones close to me

that I've flown with and- No, but hold on, okay, no, yeah. So people have a phobia of flying and it's not based in logic. No. But I do think that the truth of the stats, it's not, they're not irrelevant. No.

They are actually the most relevant thing in reality. Now, but that doesn't include, because. But it's just not, you know, just talking about that is not an effective treatment. It's just part of it, right. You gotta treat other things. But there's two additional things.

So I think a lot of people are like, I wanna get a motorcycle, just like Zane. So I wanna get a motorcycle. And then some people, and then I have always talked to my wife about how at some point, you know, when I'm in my second midlife crisis, I would like to learn how to fly a plane.

And she's like, you can't fly a plane because it's super dangerous to fly a plane. And her parents were actually, and she was there too, she was one year old. They had to take an emergency trip up to Detroit when my father-in-law's father was shot. And they had to go to see him in the hospital and they chartered a private plane and they're coming back

from the trip, coming back into Raleigh and it's just the pilot and my mother and father-in-law and then Jess and Jessie and I guess Ashley, her sister was there. They clipped a power line coming in and a crash landing that was, no one got seriously hurt. I don't think anybody got even, maybe just some bumps and scratches or whatever, bumps and bruises.

But so she's been in a plane crash. My wife has been in a plane crash. And then we know people who've had people die in plane crashes, whatever. So interestingly, the stats are on her side. Because, so travel by car is many times more deadly per mile than commercial air travel. However, general aviation, which is a broad category

but does include private planes, small planes, is many times more deadly per mile than car. So general aviation is roughly 20 times more dangerous per hour than driving. Ouch. So she's actually right. Hopefully, good thing she doesn't listen to this podcast because I am still, I still wanna be a pilot at some point.

But the thing about motorcycles is, and I'm not riding with you after hearing this, I'm out. You know, we're talking about things like bungee jumping or skydiving and trying to weigh is the fun worth the danger, but for most people, none of those things would even be considered fun. I mean, it's like, hey, let's strap a rubber band

to your ankles and dangle you off a cliff, off a bridge. Better yet, why don't you jump and then look like you're gonna do a face plant and then bounce back and forth a few times. Won't that be fun? But. And you might die. A motorcycle is a fun choice. So a motorcycle seems fun.

I would say go-karting is something that seemed really fun until I did it the last time we did it. And daggone if my back and neck wasn't hurting so bad, I'm like, I don't think it could kill me, but it could maim me. Like you could easily be maimed in the back or neck region from go-karting at those aggressive speeds. Just from like tight corners and bumps?

We're getting rear-ended, don't you remember? Oh, you mean in the, oh, oh, you're talking about. I'm talking about the go-kart racing thing. Inside the place. Yeah. I thought you were talking about the go-kart that you bought for your family that you guys did on the road for like 24 hours

and then you sold it. Yeah, they didn't go for that. I did buy one of those, yeah. I was like, that is the most un-Link Neal-like thing ever. He bought a go-kart. Yeah, from my neighbor. And then you sold it. Because Lincoln was afraid to drive it.

He probably was on to something. Yeah. But okay. So I thought go-karting would be fun. And now I'm like, it's not worth the danger given how I wanna keep my body in working order. 100% agreed. And I think, I mean, even more so,

I don't even know the stats on motorcycles, but I know enough people who've had like a scooter or motorcycle and then they've had this wake up call and then they've decided to get rid of it. Okay, well, this is the stat that I was about to read from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Per vehicle mile traveled, motorcyclist risks of a fatal crash

is 35 times greater than a passenger car. So while you're, in this other list I was looking at, your chances of dying in a motorcycle crash if you're just any old person are lower, but that didn't take into account the fact that, well, most people don't ride motorcycles. So the only real way to do it is per vehicle mile traveled. So 35 times greater fatality risk per mile.

Than a car. Than a car. And we already said that there's a one in 102 chance of you dying in a car, so this is already one of the most dangerous things. What if Elon Musk is driving a car, like remotely using his robots? So, okay. So. That number goes down,

I believe. Yes, it does. So I think that anyone who. Motorcycle, bad news. And you may say, well, that's people who can't drive, but motorcycles are the greatest example of something that the idiots that you have no control over on the road, you are subject to their idiocy while you are driving. Because, and I've seen it a million times out here,

so in LA you can split lanes, it's legal. A lot of people first move out here and they're like, what is that guy doing? Well actually if you don't get more than like 15 miles per hour over the speed of the people, I think it is the number, it is legal to split lanes. Just to clarify, that means you're driving bumper to bumper traffic, but also lane to lane,

you're like tracking with people. If you're not going more than 50 miles an hour, a motorcycle can drive in between two cars, they're right beside each other. Yeah. I think the speed difference is 15 miles per hour. Basically on the painted line. And you'll hear or see them coming and you'll try to get.

I try to move over. Try to get over a little bit. But as evidenced by the fact that just the other day, I did that and I moved over and when the guy went by me, he gave me the thumbs up. Yeah. Not everybody moves over. And some people don't even see.

Some people have no awareness of what's behind them. And I'm not gonna put myself in that situation. And those people shall remain nameless. I am not going to put myself in that situation, although it seems real cool and it seems real fun for me. And it also seems a lot quicker to get somewhere in LA. And also, making a decision, I think this is another factor that goes into the rubric.

Zip lining, bungee jumping, skydiving, you don't do these things to get from point A to point B. You don't commute by bungee cord. Just for fun. Because if you do, you get pulled back to your original destination, which is not much of a commute. Nope.

And also, you could- You better be uphill if you're gonna zip line. You gotta commute one way. There's many times where I'm in a situation where I'm at the end of a hike and I'm like, man, if there was a zip line back down to the car, it would be awesome. But typically it is something you do,

you expose yourself to this dangerous activity for a very brief moment. With motorcycles, because the way that we calculate the risk is per mile, if you decide that you're gonna get a motorcycle, you're probably gonna go on road trips. You're gonna use it, you might use it to commute. You might say, well, this is the way that I avoid traffic in Los Angeles.

You're living on the edge. You're building up your risk with every mile. And so I think that's part of it. I'm not gonna choose to do that because, but I might say, hey, for a video, okay, for Buddy System season two, we both were on a motorcycle. Remember that, you were in the sidecar?

Yeah, I tend to not think of it as a motorcycle because of the sidecar. Right, just so you know, that was a motorcycle. It was a closed course. It was. And you did not know. I didn't know what I was doing. And I didn't get, well, it was also like a 1915 bike or something like that that was very difficult to start.

Didn't get very fast and it had a sidecar so it couldn't fall. Nope, easier to see. But I'm willing to take the risk if it's isolated. Well you weren't on the interstate. No, no, exactly, but I'm saying, I'm not a just, I'll never ride a motorcycle guy, but I'm not gonna buy a motorcycle

as a means of transportation. Because at that point, I introduced myself to risk levels that are unbearable. Now what about when we were in Nice and we rented those scooters and we drove. Very dangerous. We drove on like the cliffside highway to Monaco. Yeah.

That was, and you know what? I had so much fun and I was so scared. One of the best moments of my life. It was so much fun. Would you do that again? I would. And here's why I would do it. But that was pretty risky.

It was very high risk, but what were the chances of us having serious injury or death and choosing to do that for one day out of our entire lives and then maybe a second day? Now if we didn't- Given that I had never ridden a scooter before in my life and before I let Christy get on behind me, I went around the block and nearly ran into a building

because I couldn't keep the thing straight. That's pretty crazy. Yeah okay, maybe it wasn't wise, but was it? I just didn't tell Christy that I almost had an accident around the corner after I left her site. But seriously, if you decided, if you told me I'm moving to France and I'm going to use a scooter exclusively to get around,

then I'd be like, Link, for a number of reasons, this is not a good idea. Because I don't know how this partnership is gonna continue to work if you're gonna be in France. But beyond that, if you're gonna travel by scooter alone, I don't think that's super safe, especially one that can only go 25 miles per hour because we didn't have a motorcycle license

to be able to get the one with the CCs required to get up to highway speeds. So I think it's about the amount of exposure and controlling that. I mean, even think about hiking. Do you have numbers on hiking? Because I mean, I knew we decided we were gonna talk about this subject matter a few days ago. But then, as of the recording of this,

this morning, we heard the news, of course, by the time you're hearing this is much later, but that three YouTubers died going over a waterfall in British Columbia from the YouTube channel High on Life. Two guys, like, it's unclear, but as far as I can read, they were swimming in a pool. With a waterfall. At a high elevation.

And there was a waterfall going into it and then a waterfall going out of it. And the girlfriend started to go over. The guy tried to save her. He started to go over. And the other guy, the guy tried to save her, he started to go over and the other guy, his friend tried to save him, sorry I don't know their names. We don't know a lot of the details either. They all went over and died.

And it's not clear if she fell in or if they were all swimming. But I mean, if you look at their YouTube channel, they certainly lived a life of adventure on the edge. And you know, maybe that was a calculated risk, but they didn't calculate it properly. And it reminds me of, my heart goes out to, you know, I don't wanna belittle it.

My heart goes out to family and friends't wanna belittle it, my heart goes out to family and friends associated with that. It's a tragedy. It freaks me out when I'm going hiking, like even at the Grand Canyon when I went with the kids and there's those more adventurous people who go over the railings and then they go out on the edges and then start doing handstands and whatnot.

That's dangerous. And that's fun for them, you know, but there's, well, I don't get that. There's something in my body, like literally when I get to the edge of a cliff, like it makes my balls feel pain. Like, do you feel that when you get to the edge? Right now? Well, no, when you get to the edge. it makes my balls feel pain. Like, do you feel that? When you get to like- Right now?

No, when you get to the edge- When your balls feel pain, do my balls feel pain? When you get to the edge of a cliff. We don't have that kind of connection. When you get to the edge of a cliff or at a height and you feel like you could fall off. I don't have ball pain. Like my stomach- I have other things happen.

My stomach sinks and hurts. Yeah, yeah, that happens. But maybe you need to get your balls looked at. I don't know, maybe that's a common thing. I keep my balls in my stomach, did I not say that? No, I'm very scared of heights. I have to. I don't get those people who, I mean, it's not,

it might be fun to take a picture out there, but to do a handstand out there? Well, genetically, there is a different mentality. I mean, those people's brains are different than our brain. That's just, risk takers have different brains that have been mapped. Now, the YouTubers who died, I didn't know anything about their channel.

I looked at it a little bit and it seemed like they were having fun. I mean, high on life. They were having all kinds of fun. They were inspiring people. There's lots of people who have been inspired to go and to do big things. And so I think that, again, it's striking a balance

and I don't know anything about what they were doing. We, it just happened, it was just on the news like yesterday from when we were recording this. So we don't know exactly what happened and they're not, obviously not to be blamed. It was an accident, news like yesterday from when we're recording this. So we don't know exactly what happened and they're obviously not to be blamed. It was an accident, however it went down. But I think that people who take risks and live big lives and do big things,

it comes with the territory that you're going to have a risk of dying, but you're dying doing something you love. And so I think it's more about what is your personal approach to this? And I think that ultimately it can be taken, this is just my analysis of it, it can be taken too far in both extremes.

So you've got people who are so risk averse that they won't fly, they won't get in a car, they won't do the everyday things that you kind of, and also they limit themselves from just every once in a while having fun. It's like, I'm not getting on, I'm not gonna ride on that horse, whatever it might be. And then there are people who, like Steve-O used to be, he was like, I'm gonna take a risk

for the adrenaline rush that it is and they're kind of off the other end of the spectrum and I think that living somewhere in a place where there's a realistic assessment of the danger but also not an unrealistic avoidance of risk because you get one shot, you get one shot. You get one shot at this, which means you need to be careful but don't make it a miserable existence

because you're being careful. I mean, that's why I like to enter into fun experiences that are subject to a system that has been built, time tested and constantly tested. You know, so the zip lining thing. Or like riding a mule down the Grand Canyon, my family was petrified to do that, but like, I was like, there's data

that says how safe this is. The thing that gets me is, I mean, as a dad now, I freak out looking back at how rash our decisions were. Cliff diving. We did that. You know, and there was a rock quarry just outside of Lillington where we grew up and it was filled with water.

It was like 50 foot deep hole filled with water but then the far side of it is called Acapulco Lake and it was closed. Turns out they open it on holidays and some weekends and let people swim there. Still? No lifeguards. At least as of three years ago,

like the latest news article that I read, which I was reading about. Lots of deaths. A senior from Harness Central who drowned. Most of the time people get drunk and they jump on top of each other. That's how you die out there. Yeah, so there's a cliff on the far side

that if you can drive up and park on the street and you can find a hole or jump over the fence and you can jump off this cliff. And we always felt like it was like a 50 foot cliff. It may have only been 30 foot, but it's definitely tall enough to where you jump off and you get scared twice. It's a cliff when you get scared twice.

You get scared and then you're like, this is never gonna end. And you lose your breath. And you were much more confident jumping off of this thing but there was no calculating of risks, it was just calculating of peer pressure. Well, okay, so I looked up some cliff diving stuff and cliff diving, again, it's one of those things that,

there's so many variables, it's not regulated. I mean, nobody really gathers stats on it because what is a cliff dive? Like kids jumping into a rock quarry, it's dangerous. But people going up on cliffs on the ocean side and you're jumping into something you don't really know the depth of and you're the first person to do it, you're more like.

If it's an established spot where people have been jumping off this for years and you've seen a bunch of people go before you and the current is not crazy, again, there's so many variables. You kind of have to just assess it in the moment. Yeah, but there's multiple deaths at this place that we went to and we never thought about that. It was just like one of us was like on a day hour

saying let's go to this place. But if we went there and jumped off. But would you let your kids do it now? No, not, well with me? Now see, I would let Locke do it because. Not at a place that is not open to the public and there's not. Oh, I'm not talking about sneaking in.

I wouldn't sneak in and do it. But like. I mean, we snuck in at night. It was like 1 a.m. You remember that. A group of our friends, we all went there. Yeah. And we jumped off in the dark.

You couldn't see the edge of the cliff hardly. You couldn't see the water until you hit it. And then you couldn't see the water. And we're jumping You couldn't see the water until you hit it. And then you couldn't see the water. And we're jumping off of this thing. That was not smart. So stupid. That was not smart. Again, the way we approached it in that given situation was not smart.

But like, we didn't end up doing this, but when we went to Hawaii last year, you know, Locke is a platform diver and he's not scared of heights and he can do stuff off 10 meter or whatever. There was this famous cliff diving spot on the big island that we were gonna go to, but ended up being really far away and we didn't go.

But I kind of prepared myself. I talked to my brother who had done it with his son and he was like, just check the current that day, see if anybody else is doing it. So it was like calculated risk. And again, I'm not making the decision to become as a vocationation a cliff diver. I'm just doing it on vacation one time.

And it's not like I'm the first person to experiment at this site. Calculated and informed risk is something that I feel the need to, I mean, our kids don't have nearly the amount of freedom that we had based on a whole bunch of variables. Well, time, space, location, everything. But I just wanna instill in my kids,

whether it's whatever it is they're deciding to do, it's like, okay, stop, think about the risks, you know? Yeah, just calculate it. I think that that rough calculation is actually a great way to do this. Now, before we go, one thing I wanna talk about just because we've got experience with this having been in Amsterdam, is the Dutch.

Everybody in Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general, they're riding bikes around like crazy. No one has on a helmet, okay? Right, yeah. Unless they are our wives and kids, because when we decided to rent bikes, they were like, we've gotta wear helmets. And we were like, I don't wanna wear a helmet

because then it's obvious that we're the American tourists because no one else is doing it. So me and you didn't wear helmets, but our wives and our kids did. Now, interestingly, they don't wear helmets. As a policy, they do not wear helmets. And the Dutch have the lowest cycling death and injury rate in the world.

But as a culture, now, first of all, in the US, everybody, it's not the 80s anymore, everybody wears a culture, now first of all, in the US, everybody, it's not the 80s anymore, everybody wears a helmet, but we have a significantly higher bicycle death and injury rate than the Dutch do. Now, there's a number of reasons that are given for this. Most people tend to think that it's just because, well first of all, the reason they don't wear helmets is because they use their bikes as a form of transportation.

They go everywhere, so when you have to put on a helmet, all of a sudden you've got a helmet that you have to worry about, and also you've got the hair situation, which incidentally, that is the best theory so far that people have surmised as to why they don't wear helmets is because we are using this all the time, and if we wore helmets,

our hair would be, we constantly have helmet hair. Mm-hmm. Right? That's important. And so they don't wear helmets, but yeah, and don't you- But why are they safer? I mean, it's also very flat there. Do you- And there's a society of being, when there's so many bikes

and everything's built for bikes, I think it makes everything safer too. So there's a society of safeness. Well, do you remember the kids? We go along and there'd be a dad on his bike and there would be, his kid would be on his shoulders on the bike. Like lots of this.

That ain't safe though. But hold on, it is safe in the way that they do it. So. Why do you say it's safer? Basically what you said, they have a culture that is bike friendly. They have lots of bike lanes. There is respect for people on bikes

from the people who are in the cars. The bike has the right of way. You notice that the pedestrian does not have the right of way in Amsterdam, the bike has the right of way. You notice that, the pedestrian does not have the right of way in Amsterdam, the bike has the right of way and they tell you that a million times when you're renting a bike. They've got the right of way, they've got adequate lanes, there's enough of, there's a momentum

because there's so many people doing it that they're not going super duper fast, they're going at a reasonable speed, they've calculated the risk and they've actually put themselves in a place where they don't have to wear helmets. I don't think the application is- This is not an argument for not wearing a helmet.

This is an argument for moving to Holland. Yeah, so if you're anywhere but the Netherlands, in any place like it, wear a helmet. Definitely in the US wear a helmet because people ain't got no respect for people on bikes, especially in this town. And so there's actually a really high incidence of bike deaths in the US because there's just a lack

of respect for people on bicycles. But what the Dutch have also found is that in places that have made helmets mandatory, biking rates have gone down significantly. So when you make people have to wear a helmet, less people bike because they don't wanna wear a helmet. And so then you get into the thing where there's less people exercising

and now their risk of cardiovascular disease goes up, which therefore increases the death. So when you look at the thing on a whole, it's actually safer for these particular people in this particular culture to not wear helmets. So we go over there as Americans and we're like, these people are nuts, they need to put helmets on. They don't need to put bike helmets on,

they need to stop smoking is what they need to do, right? Because smoking, that's the real killer, right? 22 times more likely to die of lung cancer if you're a male who smokes, 12 times more likely to die of lung cancer if you're a male who smokes, 12 times more likely to die of lung cancer if you're a female who smokes. So stop smoking, but if you're Dutch, don't start wearing a helmet.

Again, it's not, if you're in the Netherlands, just because you're of Dutch heritage doesn't mean you get a special power. But so again, you can't apply a hard and fast rule. I think you can do risky things if you're doing them. Real quickly. Yeah, if you're not doing them often and you're not making a habit out of one risky thing.

Like if you wanna be a hang glider and that's gonna be your pastime, there's a great chance that you're gonna die hang gliding. What about high lining? You wanna do that? You know what that is? That's like on the bouncy wire thing? Yeah, but really high, like spanning mountain tops,

but you can still clip in. So when you're tightrope walking and you decide to do your little trickity dick and then you fall, trickity do da. Okay. I made up a word, I don't know what that is. As a policy, I try not to do trickity dick and then you fall. Trickity do da. Okay. I made up a word, I don't know what that is. As a policy, I try not to do trickity dick. Yeah, that's a really painful.

Unless I'm in Holland. Unless I'm in Amsterdam specifically. You can guess what it is, I don't know, but I will say that when tightrope walking, it is a very painful thing to do, but it's very cool to pull off. And they do the low line at Venice Beach. Yeah, the high line is you're in between two mountains

and then if you fall off, trickety-doo-dah, whoop, you get caught by your hangy-down. Clipper. Your hangy-down clipper. He was caught by his hangy down clipper. Your hangy down clipper. He was caught by his hangy down and that's why he didn't die. When attempting the trickety dick. Link Neal attempting the trickety dick.

We're just hoping that his hangy down will save him. It's more fun to talk about it than it is to try it. Yeah, I wouldn't do that because it wouldn't be fun. For me. I wouldn't even watch. I wouldn't do it because it's not fun because my fear is so high in the moment that the fun is canceled out. But ziplining, I can let go of it.

Literally, I can let go and you just zip, diddy do da, trickity dick right down the zip line. Right. Cause it's hanging down the whole time. Right, you're already hanging down. Right. It's like a high line that has broken and then slides. That's what a zip line is.

So again, I'm not constantly having to like correct and think for myself. Would you skydive? Yes. Would you bungee jump? No, even though we just learned that one is five times as dangerous. But it's not nearly as fun sounding to you.

The fun of free fall. The whole time that I was on the bungee cord, I would be thinking about it breaking, even though probably, I think I would probably be thinking about the chute not opening until it opened. But the idea of getting up there and flying, the idea of flying in general is something that I've always been fascinated with

and I think skydiving is as close as you can get. I'm not gonna do the squirrel suit thing. That's the most dangerous thing, it has to be. The squirrel suit thing, yeah. That's when you like platform jump, or what's it called? Base jump off of a sheer face. And then you're sitting there pulling your arms out and exposing your squirrel wings.

And that is absolutely true. The most dangerous sport in the assorted sports category at this website is base jumping with a one in 60 chance of death. So you take 60 base jumps, you might die. You might die on your first one. That's how statistics work. So yeah, and if you're doing the squirrel suit thing,

which is a few levels up from base jumping, where you're like trying to hover. Well you're flapping, you don't flap. Oh I've seen some flappers. Dad, you're in real trouble if you're flapping in a squirrel suit. You gotta be taught, man, you gotta be tight. Yeah, I would not do that.

But I'd wear one of those squirrel suits while skydiving, which is different. I'm sure that the instructor would not allow, whoa, it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No squirrel suits, buddy. You can't steer. No, yeah. You're just along for the ride.

I'm just saying that like down the road, I mean think about that. To be able to jump out of a plane and to like move a horizontal distance of an impressive amount, to like end up in another county. That'd be cool. So you're saying you would do it? Yeah, but also I,

Yeah. No, I'm not gonna base jump, but I will skydive. And what I will say, also I agree, I'm not gonna do it if it's not for a video. But if it was for a video, I would do it. You will skydive in a video. Yes. But it won't be a good video, so we're not gonna do it.

Yeah, it's just a skydiving video. They make it for you. They do it for everybody. You don't have to take a crew because they do it and they put weird Van Halen music under it. Right. Yeah, without paying Van Halen. Don't cut out Van Halen.

Yeah. Van Halen deserves anything. Don't make that mistake. Is royalties from skydiving videos. It's like the type of guy you'd meet at a party. It's like what do you do for a living? Well I wrote this song one time, it sounded kinda like Van Halen.

Turns out all the skydiving outfits use it and I make bank. Every month I get a check. Okay, so do we have a rubric? I think I've stated my rubric a couple of times now. I'm gonna take risks, but I'm gonna take them in small quantities and I'm going to assess the situation in all the variables as best I can in the moment

for me and my family. I think my rubric is that plus, if I'm not comfortable enough to do it with my kids, I'm not gonna do it. Okay. What do you think about that? Like if I'm not willing to put them at risk, then I'm not gonna put myself at risk of leaving them to walk this earth without me.

Got it. I like that, I'll add that to my rubric, which I'm like, come on guys, let's all strap on a squirrel suit. I'm not 100% sure. That's my rubric. I'm not 100% sure that we've been using it correctly. We haven't. I mean at MiriamWebster.com,

an authoritative rule, a rule for conduct? Yeah. Okay, I think that could work. An explanatory or introductory commentary, an established rule, tradition, or custom, a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests. Boom, that's it. I think, or custom, a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests. Boom! That's it. I think, you know, it's all combined in there.

A guide for scoring things. Yeah. Like our good to bad decisions. Good to bad decisions. Fun versus danger. All right, guys. We're gonna shut her down. We're approaching the edge of the cliff. We've got our suits on, we got our hangy downs dangling. We're gonna clip it on.

And trickity dick right outta here. But we'll be back again. Next week. Trickity dicks in hand. I took it too far. Just let it go, man. I took it too far, I took it too far, I'm sorry. Just let it go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just let it go like a zip line. It'll hold you, it'll hold you.

They'll catch you at the bottom. Hashtag Ear Biscuits, let's continue the conversation. Yeah, let's do that. Bye bye now.