Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Are We Having a Midlife Crisis? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 448

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

No, we’re not getting a motorcycle. In this episode, Rhett & Link ponder whether they’re in their midlife crisis, and what they’d want it to look like. Plus, they roast a willing fan about their cat walking habit, as well as giving advice on how to tell your best friend you’re dating their sister. Get the perfect gift at etsy.com! 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. This episode is brought to you by Missouri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Missouri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Missouri has something for everyone. Missouri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials.

So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at majori.com today. a month or 18 months. Plus get a one-time gift of five gigs of Rome Beyond data. Condition supply details at freedommobile.ca. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we are going to be roasting someone, a cat

lover, really hard. They ask for it. They ask for it. We're going to be talking about midlife crises and whether or not we're going through those. Oh. Are we gonna get to that? Yeah, we are now. Ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah. I mean, are we gonna get to our midlife crisis?

Oh. I think we're fully in it. I think I'm in it, man. Me too. I think I'm on the other end. I'm on the backside of it, actually. Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But first, I wanna tell you about a futuristic experience that I had. Okay. I like how you're selling it not as a sports experience, but as a future experience. The elements of this that are interesting are not the sports parts. So our friend Mike from North Carolina, not our friend Mike from California, different Mike, was in town. And of course we hung out on Friday night, but then on Saturday night, just he and I went to the Clippers game at the new arena, the Intuit Dome. And where is that? Right next to SoFi. It's in the same, like, Englewood, like, SoFi...

The Forum. The Forum. SoFi, YouTube Theater, all that stuff. Yeah. All that just land down there that's just giant entertainment venues now. Clippers got their own space. I've been a Clippers fan. They don't have to share with the Lakers,

and you start to feel like you're going into enemy territory every time you go to a home game. Well, I think the reason I was originally drawn to the Clippers was I've always, as a state fan, felt like you just sort of gravitate towards the underdog, but then the weird thing that happened with the Clippers is that once I started pulling for them, they really became like LA's best team. That's kind of falling apart at this point, I believe.

But... Is that because you stopped pulling for them? No, I still pull for them. Oh, okay. In fact, me and you got to go to a Clippers game last year. We were given Clippers jerseys and we threw T-shirts into the crowd during halftime. Yeah.

And that was the game that LeBron was, that was the Lakers-Clippers game. But LeBron didn't play. He did play. I've never seen LeBron play. He did play. I did, I was, no he didn't. He did not, I've never seen him play.

I remember sitting there thinking, this is kinda cool, we're getting to see LeBron James play basketball, this is probably, this might be one of the only times I get to do this. Did I dream that? Well, one of us dreamt something. Well, maybe I dreamed it. But anyway, I'm still a Clippers fan,

and I had not been to the new place, which the arena opened up. Like the first concert in there was like two months ago, three months ago. Oh, so it is fresh. Very fresh. Okay, I didn't realize that. And, okay.

So the experience starts with the tickets, you know, being bought and then me learning that I had to have the tickets on the Intuit Dome app. They got their own app. You can't have Ticketmaster app, you can't have, you have to have the app in every single person over 13, I think, has to have their ticket on their phone. Now, lots of people have been complaining about this. The rating on the Intuit app, the Intuit Dome app, is like 1.4 stars or whatever,

because people hate having to do this kind of stuff. But they don't make you like, Intuit owns QuickBooks and Quicken, people hate having to do this kind of stuff. But they don't make you like, Intuit owns QuickBooks and Quicken, so do they make you like, do your, file your taxes through Quicken before you get a ticket? They might be sending you those types of opportunities later, but no. But there are some hoops. This is not a good start.

There are, well, so. But there are some hoops. This is not a good start. There are hoops. Well, so. Hoops. To jump through this basketball. Now, first of all, a lot of the things that I'm gonna talk about are gonna make people who are like, there are some people

who are just really concerned about privacy. And you're probably right, you know? But I'm just a dumb sheep and I don't care. I just go along with all of it, right? Because I just feel like if we're all doing it, we've done it so much already. Yeah. So if you're one of those people that's like,

you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't have your biometric information, you know, listen, everybody's got my stuff. Multiple companies have my DNA, 23andMe, the company that we use, two companies that we use for the show, like I can be cloned multiple times. I can be framed for crimes. You can do anything to me that you want. So I'm all there already. So I'm not part of the resistance when it comes to this

particular issue of security. This is a nice alibi, though, whenever you get accused of something. So I like that. And I gotta say, the convenience that comes along with what I ended up doing with the inconvenience of the app, I'm going to tell you some things, and I don't know, you're also a little country boy from Buies Creek, so I think you're gonna be impressed by this as much as I was. I think you're gonna tell me that you didn't have to take your phone out of your pocket.

Okay, I might say that. So what I did on the phone is I had to create my game face ID, which is I had to take a picture of my face. Now this was an option, didn't have to do this. But I was like, I'm doing everything. I'm peeing into the app, whatever I can do, right? I'm peeing on my phone, licking it. I'm giving all of myself to it,

because I want it to be as easy as possible. I mean, did it ask for it? I wanna be the consummate consumer. Dick pic? Yeah, I got a picture of my dick on the app. Because they put you in your seat based on dick length. And I was on the second row. Shut up.

So, uh, something must be working. You didn't send me a picture. You were pretty close. Very close. But your dick wasn't visible. It was dick sorting, I'm telling you. That's what it was. You don't pay for a ticket. You just put your dick in the app. I'm sorry, you started that. I just went along with it. Okay. Dick sorting sounds a little too close to dick soaring.

Okay. Which, if you're gonna put soars on my dick... We've taken it far enough. We've taken it far enough. I'm out. So, first of all... They took a picture of your face. Here's what I was expecting as a... and I think you as an industrial engineer would be impressed with this.

Efficiency. But as a civil engineer, that, you engineer, I'm also thinking about the construction, but I'm thinking about the efficiency of this entire... I'm like, this is a brand new arena, so I have to imagine that everything that we have learned about people flow and traffic and proximity to things and corridors, they're gonna have it perfected here. And I gotta say, they did. Oh, man. Starting with parking.

So, giant dome facility on the left side of the street as I'm coming up, well, so we like, you know, whatever, east and then to the west of that, across the street is a giant multi-level parking deck. That's where the parking that I got was. I think that's where most of the parking is. You park, and, well, first of all, you have a ticket on your app, and you have your vehicle registered on the app. Now, I will say that this did not work as it will because it was a little bit

unclear. I added my vehicle, and technically I'm supposed to be able to pay for parking ahead of time and then just drive in and park and drive out. They're scanning your license. They scanned my phone, but it was very quick. It was just a person with a thing and they scanned my phone. But in an ideal world, they wouldn't even do that. Okay. So little hiccup there, but that's the only hiccup.

I get out of my car. I'm on the fifth floor, I think, or so. And instead of walking downstairs or getting on an elevator, there are elevators for people who need them, but the vast majority of people are going down these long, gently sloped ramps to go down levels that are very, very wide and sending throngs of people through.

And you go down... Is this a spiral? No, no. It's big, long slants that go like almost the length of the parking deck. But you don't think about the fact that you're walking that much, because you're constantly moving and there's no bottlenecks. So switchbacks and it's a conveyor belt like the moving floors in an airport. Yeah, you never stop. You never stop walking. So then when you come down the final ramp, and it was actually only one level for me, you come to a bridge, a very wide bridge that goes across the street,

and then opens up into the pavilion. And right in front of your eyes is a... this giant pavilion, like, this big open area with a big, like, merch store and then this, like, giant basketball goal sculpture that's got, like, 20 basketball goals and some of them are, like, 50 feet high. And then in front of you, there's two basketball courts outside and then a giant digital art display that was showing this 3D thing that was just doing like, we just sat there and looked at it for a long time, it was very cool. And then like Honda is like sponsoring one of the courts and people are like shooting baskets for money or whatever and doing little competitions.

So we like stayed out there for like 10 or 15 minutes like taking that in, it was very cool. Because you're in the place. Unlike the Staples Center where they kind of, like you're still kind of, until you're inside the arena, you're kind of in the city. Yeah. Here it has its own spot. And then when you go in, it's another sort of giant lobby with escalators going up to get to the upper level.

Oh. You walk into the pavilion, but then in order to get into the arena, it says, it has a line and it says, Game Face ID. Mike and I just walk in there. No one stops us. We just walked right into the arena. They're scanning your face. Facial recognition software. Did you see him stopping anybody? So there was two guys with iPads and red jackets on, and they were kind of standing at the end, and we kind of looked at them, and they were nodding like,

-"You've made it." -"I saw your face." Basically, there's somebody there, because if there's nobody there, people are like, -"Can I go?" You know how people are. We've never had this kind of freedom. Freedom. Their job is to stand there and nod. To make you feel... To feel like it's okay. And also to keep people who are cheating, you gotta have somebody there.

Oh yeah. But I think half of their job, at least, is to let people know, yeah, you can keep walking. You just keep going. Just never stop walking. The whole idea in this arena is you never stop walking. To get to your seat, I hope. Then we walk in. If there's a treadmill at the seat, I'm out. Cool lobby area. Lots of cool lighting and fixtures and stuff. It's very

futuristic. Okay. And then we walk in and you get into, now, I guess you can't improve upon this idea, but at every arena you have this ring, this hallway that you're walking around on, whatever level that you are, and waiting to go to your, looking at the numbers to get to your seats. Now we were like, we're not gonna eat until we get to the thing, because I was like, this is a brand new place. Let's eat as, Mike and I eat so much food. We eat so much food with you on Friday.

Oh God, we can come back to that. But then I just kept eating all weekend. I ate so much food. I have no idea how many calories I consumed over the course of three days. But... You did right to wait until you got there, because you want to experience the culinary treats of the new arena. But the thing that I noticed was that they had like a place called Fast Break or Pick and Roll. Like the restaurants were named basketball terminology.

Okay. Themes. And it's like, oh, that kind of, and it would be just like, oh, there's hot dogs and pizza and chicken. So it's generic. And I was like, this is interesting. I was like, well, let's keep walking. We'll get to like a branded foods, you know, because every arena has like, this company has set up their stuff.

Mm-hmm. We walk around half the arena, I just keep seeing the same spots over and over again. Uh-huh. So then we go up to one of the information people, and we're like, is there a spot with a food court or other branded food? And they're like, no, all the food is the same in every single place.

And at first I was like... Feelings got hurt a little bit. I was like, I've been saving my appetite, man, you know? Yeah. You want the specialized chicken sandwich. When we used to go to the Clippers game at the Staples Center, we'd get that Ludo chicken. Now, let me just say... That was good. That was a good little fried chicken sandwich, because they use the thigh. If they don't use the thigh in your fried chicken

sandwich, you must move on. You could have said deny, but... You must deny. If they don't use the thigh in your fried chicken sandwich, you must deny ham or sandwich. So at first I was a little disappointed, but then I... Then you had to eat anyway. Later I went and researched, because I knew that, I was like, this is all part of some

engineer, I know that this is intentional, right? Sure. And it is. It turns out that, first of all, they put a lot of time and intention into what's offered. Okay. So the philosophy is... I'm suspicious. It sounds like Ghost Kitchen to me. Well, yeah, but think about it like this.

Is it good or not? It was very good. Very good? Yeah, yeah. What did you get? So the first time I got, so they obviously have, they had LA Street Dogs. Now.

Bacon wrapped hot dog. I don't know what I should tell you first because I'm gonna tell you what I got and then I'm gonna tell you how I got it because that's a lot more interesting than what I got. They have everything that you might want but it's not like as much stuff as you get at like Dodger Stadium.

So, because what they have is, they have multiple types of hot dogs, including an LA Street dog, which was, like, legitimately very good. They have kind of a deep dish pizza, like two squares of pizza, which I also got. Personal pan type thing. But they're all in these, like, cardboard boxes. I think the company's called, like, 310 or something like that that makes all this stuff. They have a cheeseburger. It looked like a Smashburger, but we had had a Smashburger on Friday night, so I didn't get that. They have

Korean fried chicken with waffle fries. They have, of course, pretzels, nachos, and they have a sushi dog, they call it, which is just basically a sushi roll that kind of looks like a hot dog, but it's like a spicy tuna thing. It's not in a bun though. No, it's in like a seaweed wrap. Okay. So that's like the most fancy thing that they have. So I'm not saying that there's not a slight disappointment in that, but the

thing is is that the whole philosophy of the food system is that any seat in the arena, you are two minutes from every food item that they offer. Again, efficiency. So if you're a Staples Center and you're sitting in section 317 and you want Ludo Chicken, Right, you gotta walk up, you can walk all the way around the arena. And then you go there and how many people are in line? Yeah, so they're like, we're trying to make all of this more efficient, and so you're always close to everything that we offer, and everything that we offer is really good.

And I think that what they offered is really good. It may not be as good. But the branding is not fun. Exactly, so you have to like. You need to work on the branding. You have to adjust to that. And I think that having been. Sounds communist.

I think, okay, I'm all for it, here we go. Take my ID, take my dick pic. Comrade. Right. Put me on the farm. Okay, here's the thing. Be enamored by the basketball and do whatever we say. But let me tell you how it worked at these places. Was it face scan again? So you go up and there is, now first of all there's people in red jackets

everywhere because people are need to, they gotta adjust to this, right? So our robot overlords can fully just manipulate us. You have to have some people there to make it seem like it's okay. Okay. So there's a straight from the Kremlin. So we walk up to this little thing, There's these little screens with cameras on them on both sides of all the store. Every store, everything. You walk up and you look at the thing and it says, hi, Rhett. And you just walk in. What?

You walk in and then you grab what you want, and you walk out, and it charges you automatically. You don't talk to anyone. You just take it? Because I have Apple Pay set up on my phone in my thing. So I just go in, I grab a hot dog, I grab a pizza, I grab a beer. Were you grabbing it like, were you gesticulating? Were you like really going big with it? I did. In fact, we picked up things, looked at them, and put them back.

Not as a test of the system. Oh. Just to see... Just to get a close-up. I was opening things up, and I took the dog out and looked at it, because I was like, I wanna get a good one. I'm just doing what I would do. And then I didn't know yet that we could just walk out.

They charged you for opening that thing. It was a fee, but it was... And then we'd go to the exit, and then there's another guy with a red coat, and he's just like, you can walk right out. He knew that we didn't know that we could do that. He's like, you just walk on out. And then on my phone, it was like, you've been charged $44.

You know, like my Apple Pay just comes up and says... And it charged it correctly. And so within the app, you connected all that. The merch stores work the same way. You just go loot the place? They charged it correctly. And so within the app, you connected all that. The merch stores work the same way. You just go loot the place? You walk in, you grab a jersey, you walk out. You just looting.

Now we didn't do that, we didn't buy any merch, so I'm not 100% sure. Did you start to feel a little... I felt like the future is amazing. Looking around, like putting a jersey on, hey. The future's amazing, you can do anything you want! Opening a hot dog and closing it back? Man, you just... The future is great, huh? Everybody knows. How much do you want to go now? You want to be there.

I can tell you want to be there. Oh, and I haven't... Okay, now let's talk about the basketball part. And I don't mean the basketball sport part, I mean the technology part, okay? Just to answer your question for a second, yes, I wanna be there, but I'm glad I wasn't, because I was on a romantic one-night getaway. Okay. And I'm not gonna tell you all the details of that. I'm sure it wouldn't take long.

No, actually. Well, you actually know more than I'm saying on mic. On mic, M-I-C or mic, M-I-K-E? What? On microphone. On mic, yeah. Okay, so, well let me finish this. Yeah, finish it, please. So then we go and we did have really, really good seats.

And it was a great game. I'm not too confident about the Clippers this year, but they did win. And cause it feels like we've lost, we just lost every good, every great player. And we just have a lot of good players, but no new people that I could decipher. But maybe I'll figure it out as the season goes on.

I'm expecting a lot technologically after everything you've said, because I want this to continue at the seat. Like, when you show up at your seat, does the seat talk to you? No. Does it say, hi, Rhett? You know how when you go to some basketball games, they give you like a little light-up bracelet, and then it starts doing things, coordinated things in the crowd? Yeah, for the whole crowd. Pretty cool.

So the way that this arena works is every seat has a light on each arm rest. And it also has buttons and stuff, and I couldn't figure out the buttons. I didn't know what the buttons did, but the lights are constantly doing things throughout the game in concert. So it's like your seat is contributing to the crowd light thing happening, but it's not on you, which is kinda cool. Also, as a big man, I can say significantly more leg room than any arena that I have been in. Like, I'm sitting there. Somebody could walk in front of you without you having to stand.

No one can walk in front of me. Not you, but me. Maybe. But there's maybe three inches between my knee and the next seat, which is crazy. Any other arena I've ever been into, I have to sit with my leg sideways. Like we went to the forum to watch KC Musgraves. And I had to put my feet in the front row,

the next row, because there was nobody there and I could do it. But like, I just so uncomfortable the whole time. So they got the legroom thing, I like that. But the thing that is the most fun part of this is this. I'm gonna predict that it has something to do with trash removal, because that's the big problem. Is there a hole under there that you can throw trash in?

No, there's not a trash chute under every, you can imagine the infrastructure for a trash chute. What about conveyor belt? Trash conveyor belt. Nothing like that. Nothing like that. Nothing like that. You just throw it under your seat like you do at any place. Automatic shoe shiner? The thing that's awesome about the arena

inside besides the leg room and the little lights is of course the screen, which is a, and I think they've done this at a couple of NFL stadiums, it's a giant ring that is a... For anyone in the upper deck, they're looking on the outside of the ring that goes all the way around. And anyone on the lower deck is looking up at the interior of the ring. Okay, yeah.

And it has like... Okay, so the starting lineup is in. And there are these... there is, right there on your left side is a giant, I'm talking like a hundred feet wide, all five players, like on the screen, like in like a stationary pose like this, like their bust. And then when they do something, like if, you know, Norman Powell scores, all of a sudden, on that screen, Norman Powell will go like... He'll kinda like move.

Pretty good, myself. And then he'll light up. And then he'll go back to being stationary. So you know exactly who did the thing. Then... It's like an animated GIF type thing. But the other thing that happens is when somebody scores or does something awesome, so in the middle, of course, it's the score.

You know how, like, in some arenas, you don't know where to look and, like, well, if I want these stats, I look over here and these stats and the score and the time and there's, like, a hundred damn places you're looking? This is just all right there. Like, everything that you wanna know is very simple and right in front of you. And giant. Okay. It's like an alien craft that knows everything you want, and it's landed

right there in the middle of the venue. Yeah. In the ceiling. So like, Zubok dunked it or something, right? Mm-hmm. And then I look up at the scoreboard, and all of a sudden, Zubok, like a giant, he's already giant, a giant Zubok comes up from behind the scoreboard, the score, and he reaches over the scoreboard and he's pointing like this,

and his hand is going in front of the score. He looks like he's coming out of the screen. He's like, what? Yeah. And then anytime a player did something, a different video of them coming up and like sticking their hands out like, Batum, the French guy was like acting like he was conducting something, like it was awesome. I loved it. I was like, I'm just sitting there watching this

the whole time and then of course, any replay, anything you could imagine that you would want related to the stats, who's playing, who did what, it's up there. On the screen. Huh. And so, again, that's probably not, like, the most groundbreaking thing, but I haven't been to a place that has this technology. I've been to a place that has, like, the thing in the middle and, you know, whatever they've got at Staples Center.

What about the basketball rules? They're still doing double dribble? Still got double dribble. Okay. Oh, they also still, I mean, they're doing this in a lot of places. They still have the fireworks, where they have the charges that come down, and they're blowing up at the end of these little things, but it looks like a literal fireworks thing's happening at certain times. I kinda need to go see this. Yeah, I highly recommend it. Think about getting some ongoing seats?

No. No, okay. Well, maybe I'll go to one. Because that time we got season tickets, and they told us we would be able to resell our tickets for a bunch of games that never worked. So I'm just gonna go when I wanna go. It's also a long ways down there, it's Inglewood. Yeah, that's true.

I don't like driving there. Takes a while to get down there. Well, why did they call the video game Double Dribble? Because you could double dribble in the game, right? No, just because it sounds cool. Double dribble? Like Double Dragon. Oh. Oh. But you couldn't double dribble.

I have one critique, just one critique for the Clippers. So you know how they were the San Diego Clippers when they first started and the Clipper is So you know how they were the San Diego Clippers when they first started, and the Clipper is like a sailboat of some kind. Yeah. They're really leaning into the maritime imagery. And the new logo is, it looks like, it looks like the logo for a yacht club.

Oh. It's literally the front of a boat coming at you. And you only kind of know that when you really think about it. And then they're leaning into the navy of it all. You know how like... Like, are they wearing naval uniforms? No, no. Literally the color navy. Okay. Because you know how different teams have multiple... Clippers are one of those

teams that they have multiple colors. They've got a royal blue, then there's almost like a sky blue, and then there's a navy, and then there's the red. The red and the white. And sometimes black. And they decide what they're gonna lean into in their official color scheme. But it's all navy this year. I just don't know that I like the feeling of a ship coming straight at me. No! I hate it. Yeah.

And then there's all kinds of... Huh? A lot of the animations that are happening are very much like ocean stuff. Now if they were playing yacht rock in there. I think I'm okay with embracing the fact that we're clippers, like we're boats, but I don't know, I don't think, I mean,

I just, I don't like the new logo. I'm not a fan. Okay, gotta get some negative in there. Didn't buy a jersey. Well crap. If you're not into sports, maybe you're into Dungeons & Dragons. You can be into both, or you cannot be into either, but over at the Mythical Society, we've been running this exclusive, um, deep, deep well of Dungeons & Dragons...

Boy, I can't even say it, Dungeons and Dragons experience. TJ's been running a campaign over there, I played a character which was the same character you played, we were in the rotating position, we got Emily, we got Lily, we got Trevor. We got Emily, we got Lily, we got Trevor. So the finale happened this week on the Mythical Society. And if you're watching the YouTube version of this,

the finale's already out. So go over there and check it out. If you or someone you know is into Dungeons & Dragons, check out that campaign season finale. One is done, we're gonna do a second season, of course. And we'll get back in on that. Yeah. Mythicalsociety.com.

It's a lot of fun. Check it out. Check it out. [♪ music playing -♪ This episode is brought to you by Missouri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Majuri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Majuri has something for everyone.

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Shop Etsy this holiday season for personalized jewelry, custom artwork, cozy style items, vintage pieces, and home decor to celebrate all your favorite people and their specific kind of special. For original gifts that say, I get you, Etsy has it. [♪ theme music playing. V.O.] Let's hear voicemail. Hey Rhett and Link. Connor from Florida here. I've been watching you guys for a long time, maybe 11, 12 years now, and I need some advice.

I have had a friend since second grade. We've been basically lifelong friends like you guys. I'm only 27, but I'm pretty sure we'll be lifelong friends forever. His sister recently moved down from Michigan, and I've known her for a couple years, you know, only hung out with her a few times before this, but we hung out a couple times recently and we've been talking a lot and we're getting to the point where I think that we're going to be dating. And I want to know how to tell my buddy this. It's a weird situation. Never thought this would happen, obviously.

But, yeah, I just want you to tell him how should I approach this subject with him in general. I really like his sister, and I would hope that he's happy that she's, you know, dating somebody that he really knows well, but, you know, just looking for some advice. I appreciate you guys. Love you. Bye. Okay. I think there's... I'm sensing that there's lots of pitfalls with this, you know? There's a path forward that could be good for everybody, but I just feel like it's fraught. So I'm a little nervous, you know?

I'm a big fan of long-term best friendships, you know, working out for us. Of course we didn't date each other's siblings because we didn't have eligible siblings to date. Correct. I wasn't gonna, you know, you don't have a because we didn't have eligible siblings to date. Correct. I wasn't gonna, you know, you don't have a sister. That's what I'm trying to say. You had your Emmy for a while. I had a stepsister for a while, but yeah.

But she liked music. She was like four years older. So we didn't like her. She was four years older than you and we were too young. I wasn't attracted to her, in case you're wondering. Okay, she wasn't attracted to you either. Okay. Pfft.

I just, if it doesn't work out, what does it do for your friendship? Does it, you know, how do you deal with that? You haven't told him about it. He's probably picking up on more than you think, but I just think you gotta let her do the dirty work. I mean, she's his sister, you know? She knows him better than you do.

I don't know about this advice, man. Just let her break the news. And then you can be like, oh, I didn't know she was your sister. I just thought she was... A good friend. An acquaintance. I thought she just was... A good friend. An acquaintance. I thought she just was at your house a lot. All those years that we grew up together. I just thought she was just a

neighbor. I guess this is a younger sister. Yeah, if you've been friends since second grade, you've known the sister this whole time. But things tend to change at a certain point. Which makes it a little bit weird, right? You tend to see... you tend to change at a certain point. Which makes it a little bit weird, right? You tend to see somebody in a different light. Well, of course that happens.

Now, I think one of the things that you need to think about is that I don't necessarily agree with Link that you should get her to do the dirty work. I can tell Jenna didn't either. I do think that a conversation with your friend is warranted, but here's what I'll say going into it, because I agree with you, Link, that this is fraught. I think when you go, and I think this is a general rule for any time you are going to someone

to let them know about, like you have to know what your intentions are, because if you're going into the conversation and you're thinking to yourself, I'm kind of seeking his approval. Well, if that's your intention, then if he's like, no, I'm not comfortable with this and I feel like this would mess our friendship up, you kind of have to be willing to deal

with the repercussions. You have to, if like, if that's where you're going, but if you're just going to inform him, now you've kind of made your decision. Is your decision about this dependent on his perspective? Because if it is, you have to take it into account. If your decision about this is not dependent on his perspective, then you have to be prepared for how your relationship with him might change. Now, he might be totally cool. You might be right.

A lot of guys are like, obviously very worried about what dude their sister's gonna be with. And they do want their sister to be with somebody who's a known entity. Respect them and love them. And so maybe he's like, whatever awkwardness this brings into the situation is offset by the fact that I know that you're a good guy. If you are a good guy, I'm assuming you're a good guy. Yeah, he's a good guy. You listen to this podcast. Yeah, he's a great guy.

So... In a best case scenario, it works out great. You're saying that he needs to broach the issue in a way that represents what he's actually interested in getting from his friend. Is it approval or is it just knowledge? This reminds me of a principle of, well, as CEOs of this company, one of the things we've had to do in review meetings, we started to talk about inform versus ask. And so what you're saying reminds me of this. It's just a, it's been a helpful principle to us. When people tell us things in the capacity of a boss,

sometimes it's not clear if they're asking for, if they're asking a question, or if they're requesting input, or if they're just sharing question, or if they're requesting input, or if they're just sharing information FYI. So it's nice to know this is... we've actually organized some meetings where we're just being brought to the speed on things as inform and ask separately, so we'll know when it's like, okay, I'm just listening to this to understand, but I'm not listening to this to interject or to change, unless I really feel the need to. And I like...

As a person inter... coming... like, the person instigating the conversation, I just think it's really important to know what your mission is in the conversation. Yeah, because... Because if you're going just being like, I'm just gonna see how it goes, and then in your heart of hearts you actually are looking for his approval and he doesn't give it to you? Right. Then what do you do? Yeah. Then now you're left with a choice.

Am I gonna reject his input and just go for it? Now the whole relationship is starting off on this weird foot where you're like, well, I'm choosing your sister over you. This is like the worst case scenario of how these things can play out. But if you go in saying, hey, I'm doing this. And I mean, I can imagine that kind of once you start

really liking somebody and they're really liking you, a lot of times the circumstances that might complicate that kind of fade into the background. And so the way that you're talking about this person, it sounds like you're gonna get together. And if that's the way you're feeling about it, then I think this is an informed. Delicate.

And then maybe there's a question that goes along with the informing, which is like, you know, how do you feel- Are you going to be okay with this? How do you feel about this? going to be okay with this? How do you feel about this? And like, is there a way that you would ask that I go about this that respects you?

Is it like, I don't want you to talk to me about my sister might be one of the requests. Yeah. I don't wanna know anything about your relationship with my sister. I wanna know how you feel about it. But I'm not asking, I mean, you don't have to say but I'm not asking your permission.

Just don't ask permission, if that's what you're going in with. I have another thing, and I think this is the clincher. Pre-nup. You need a relationship pre-nup. And I know for certain it's a two-way pre-nup, and my question is, should it be a three-way pre-nup? You craft a document with your

friend that it's, sorry to be crass, bros before hoes. Oh, shh. Now, I don't know his sister, and I'm not using that term, I'm just referring to it. I'm not using it. Okay. That's an interesting distinction. But it's, I'm committed to our best friendship, and I'm not gonna let my romantic interest get in the way of it. But that's a priority. I'm saying if things go south with your sister, we're committed to like to carry on.

I just think you're introducing the fraughtness. And then you tell her about it. I just think that this is... Maybe she sees a different version. This is the risk that you're taking, Link. Because the fact is, is that you, by beginning this process, what you are doing is you are putting your friendship at risk. That is an element of this. It really is. Because then if things go south, you may end up losing your friendship with both of them. Right? That can happen.

That's why we need, you need to's why you need to have something to enact. It's like, all right. No, because if you go into the relationship with her, with that, and then it seems like you've got some allegiance to him that supersedes your allegiance to her, and now that's what she's thinking about. Yeah, she's not gonna like that.

No. So I think it's either- But why is your allegiance to the person you're dating versus your friend since second grade? Why does she automatically swoop in and get the allegiance? I'm saying that there's allegiance to one person. I'm just saying that practically you really can't, there's not like a,

there are different kinds of relationships. And then what ends up happening is ultimately, especially if a romantic relationship moves towards a partnership, at that point, I do think it's appropriate for your partnership to have precedence over your friendship. Jenna, have you ever dated one of your brother's, what, siblings?

No, that's us, you. One of your brother's friends. Have you? No, that's us. One of your brother's friends. Have you ever done this? And if you have, explain to me how it works, because I'm confused. If you're asking if I've ever dated any of my friend's brothers. Or your brother's friends. Your brother's friend. Well, my brother and I are twins, so both of us have dated each other's friends

at some point, yeah. So this was something that was quite common. Quite common. Well, we should have asked you earlier. Yeah, yeah, you should have. Then keep talking. It's all right. I was enjoying what you were saying. And you and your brother are friends.

You're close. My brother and I are very close, yeah. Right, so like, you have a bond. I mean, you have the twin thing. I know that's weird. His wife was my friend first. You have a bond. Mm-hmm. I mean, you have the twin thing. I know that's weird. His wife was my friend first. Yeah, my sister-in-law was my friend before they started dating.

How close were you friends? Pretty close, yeah. So it- Flip overs and we were on the same softball team. How did that start? Yeah, how did that come about? Well, okay. So junior year of high school. Okay

She she was a year younger than us she was a sophomore and my brother Didn't have a date for prom and wasn't sure who he was gonna ask and I suggested that he asked Suzanne So they went to prom together our junior year. They didn't date they were still just friends But then they reconnected in college again and started dating. So I like to think that I planted the seed. Yeah, this is what you're doing, but you didn't go to the same college as him. We did. Oh. And her.

She did not go to the same college as us. She came back in town because Shawn and I both went to Tennessee. So it was our Hometown so she came back to visit friends of hers who were at UT and while there She hung out with me. She hung out with some friends who end up being friends with my brother, too So yeah, and that's how they reconnected in college. But if she was your best friend, how would that have changed things? I don't think it really would have. I think I just have a different perspective because it was a normal conversation that my brother and my friends would have.

Like I had friends who would date, or be attracted to my brother and be like, hey, I think your brother's cute. Is it okay if maybe I start talking and seeing if anything good? And I'd be like, yeah, that's totally fine. I'm not gonna, my brother's an amazing person. Yeah, I think maybe what's going on here

is that when you've got healthy, adjusted people, all three people in the scenario are non-toxic people, then the conversation's a lot different. Not that there won't be the potential for the relationship to end and then it gets a little bit awkward in some way, but not in a way that you can't work through. I mean, when my brother and I first started going down,

oh, we're dating people. Yeah, the conversations were a little uncomfortable at first when it would be like, oh I think your friend is really cute. Like those conversations were uncomfortable, but they're certainly not. As we got older and had them a number of times, it became less uncomfortable. Right. Well then you give me hope. I think this could be a good thing. Yeah.

It's a known entity all the way around. This could really work. Okay. I think it could work. I definitely don't think you should not do it because you're worried about the risk. Hey, I'm the one full of bad ideas. Now I'm just having hope. That's my only idea.

Okay. Okay. I am so dreading groceries this week. Now I'm just having hope. That's my only idea. Alright, okay. [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING I am so dreading groceries this week. Why? You can skip it. Oh, what, just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin?

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Is it your Toronto area Ford store or Ford.ca? Good luck. Thank you for that, Jenna. Let's hear the cat question. Hi, Rhett. Hi, Link. This is Kennedy from Iowa. So I recently made a decision that will put me in line for some ridicule, I think. And I kind of want to get ahead of it before it starts so that I know what I'm doing.

So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to start with a question. So I'm going to decision that will put me in line for some ridicule, I think. And I kind of want to get ahead of it before it starts so that I know what to expect. So I started leash training my cats so that I can take them on hikes with me. I know that there's a lot of judgment behind that.

I totally get it. A lot of it's warranted. But my cats really do seem to enjoy it and I love getting to spend some time outside with them. Could you guys make fun of me for walking my cat so that I could just get used to it? Rhett, I think you'll especially be good in this exercise. So I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. Love you

guys for a long time. Bye-bye. Multiple cats. Yeah, it sounds like she's walking multiple cats. And I'm gonna let you lay into her first. And I got your back, because this is what she's asking for, to be completely roasted like a garlic clove. I think it starts, to be honest with you, I think it starts with annoying inquisitiveness from strangers. That is the main thing you're gonna have to deal with

and we can ramp up to outright insult. Oh my God, is that a cat? Like that? Yeah, more like, ha ha, are you serious? Is this a skit? Ha ha ha. Is this a skit? Is this a skit? Ha ha ha! Is this a skit? Hold on, where's the camera? You can't be serious!

Oh, like that. You can't be serious, right, lady? You're walking a cat? Two cats! Oh, there's another cat! Oh my god! Two cats? Ha! Man, where are you from? You're not from around here, are you? Cat lady coming in from out of town bringing her cats. Hey, look at this lady. She's walking cats. Can you believe that? You ain't supposed to walk a cat.

What if a dog comes up? She's going crazy. What's this world coming to? I'd like to see a dog come up right now. You think they like it? You think they like it? You think they like it? They don't look like they like it. Since when do they like anything? They're cats, right? You ain't walking them cats and cats are walking you. So what are you gonna say when them cats are walking you?

I would not engage, first of all. That's my advice. Learn to take it with a smile. There's nothing you're gonna say back to these types of people. Well, you know what you could do? Boys, come over here! You can have a car. Let me show you what I don't wanna raise you to do when you grow up.

You could have a card. Now, I had a tall guy once hand me a card that said, I think it was at a meet and greet, a fan meet and greet, maybe, and the card said, yes, I'm tall,. Six eight to be exact. No, I do not play basketball. It was like a card that just was like, these are the questions that tall people are asked. It was kind of like the R-S-T-L-N-E on Wheel of Fortune.

We know you want these letters, so here they are. You could have a little, maybe a brochure if it requires more of an explanation. It could be a card, yes, I'm if it requires more of an explanation. It could be a card. Yes, I'm walking cats. Yes, they do enjoy it. No, they are not walking me. That's it. It could be a t-shirt.

Yeah. Front and back. Or just back. Or if you're wearing one of those backpacks that your cats can crawl into when they're tired of walking, because they're not dogs. They're gonna get tired of walking. What kind of stamina do they have? Because dogs feel like they can go forever.

Well, it depends on the dog, of course. Jade cannot go forever. Cats are more like quick, fast, short distances, right? I think, I mean, my cat, well, I'm not gonna say it's my cat. The cat that we live with, Sokka. He's almost becoming our cat. He's really winning everybody over.

I'm just gonna be honest. He's gotten a lot more affectionate. He's gotten a lot more bold. He doesn't put up with Jade's shit much at all anymore. Like when she barks and tries to be territorial, it just doesn't, she's giving up more, he's coming around more. He will sit... Does he ever pop her?

Um, sometimes. He'll get to high ground and give her a little bat. No claws, though. Um... I'm starting to think about maybe taking him for a walk. I think he would like it out there. Now, we have to meticulously... You could do it with the dogs, though, probably. Keep them... no. I mean, I've seen some of these videos of people trying to... Like, what it takes to train a cat to walk on a leash is not easy. Because they probably are biting it and clawing it and like, what the hell are you trying to do? They don't like to wear it. But then if you get them...

It's like walking a chicken, which we've done. Yes, super hard. They get these back, you've seen the backpacks where people take their cats into public and there's like a big window dome thing and they can put their head in it and look around, but they usually keep them zipped up in that. But there's this one, at least one hiker that I guess I've come across on Instagram where they will be on a hiking

trail with their cat, like camping with their cat. And when the cat gets tired, they just kinda, they put their elbow out and the cat will jump up on the elbow of this person, climb up on the shoulder, and then get in the backpack. Just freely, in and out. And I like the idea of that. I mean, I grew up as a fan of He-Man. And, you know, He-Man had the big battle cat, and he would ride the cat. But the cat wouldn't ride him. Cat. That's true. The cat, Cringer... Cringer became...

Cringer became Battle Cat. Battle Cat. That's true. The cat, Cringer... Cringer became... Cringer became Battle Cat. Battle Cat. He got very... He wore a mask. Well, it was like armor. Yeah, it made him look kind of badass. He had a lot of confidence. He was a green cat with orange accents.

Yeah, I had him. And then when they realized that everybody was buying the Battle Cat, they started selling, they gave Skeletor a cat to ride. Like a white cat? No, it was a black panther, and it was, it had a felt on it. Yes!

I had him and he was completely stationary, like non-articulating, but it was like that felt, I love touching things. It was felt, he was black, and Skeletor wrote him. But I never felt like they had the bond that Adam and Cringer had. It was a cat of convenience. Well it was copying, he was a copycat. I'm just copying, it was a copycat. I'm just copying E-Man.

I too can have a cat. My cat is black because I am a skeleton. And I want him to be felt covered. He costs more to manufacture unless children will buy him. Right. My plan is working. But anyway, I'm a fan of... I think the most beautiful animal is a tiger. And that's a cat, bro. I'm not gonna argue with that. And they're so wild, and they're out there just doing their thing.

Solitary. I like the idea of walking with a cat. And you know, when I like the idea of something, part of it is inciting the ire and the credulity of those around me. Oh, that's insightful. So you can like that, you know? Kimberly, is that your name? Kenzie. Kenzie. Kenzie, you can like that. But I do like your technique here is that you're putting yourself out there to be pre-roasted. So that, I don't know, like a peanut. By the

time you get out there into the world, you're ready to go. You taste good. Little salty. Mm-hmm. You've experienced some saltiness, now you can give it right back. It's like, that's right. This is the future. Cats are... And you can make it feminist, too. You can say, what are those shirts that say, like, women are the future? You know? The future is female. That's it. Okay. Yep. So you can also put that on your shirt, and then underneath it, and also catwalking is the future. What you think about that?

Well, you could say the future is feline. Huh? Yeah. You're catchy today, man. I mean, I mean... You're my marketing genius. Yeah, that's right. The future is female and feline. Yeah. And feline. And then you're out there walking your cat. Yeah. Yeah.

That works. Let's hear the, I want him to get to the midlife crisis question. I told you we might not get to it. Hey Rhett and Link. My name's Jonathan from the DC area. I was curious if you guys have had any thoughts about where your midlife crisis would be on 26 and I feel like getting into motorcycles would be a cool midlife crisis hobby, but have you guys thought about that and if so, what would your midlife crisis hobby be? Love your guys' stuff.

Give us the good work. Thank you. I would say a common criticism of both of us that I've seen, there's lots of criticisms, but a common one is that we are in the midst of a midlife crisis and a lot of, many different things are used as evidence of that. Like what? Well, deconstruction. I mean, people are like, oh, you're... Spiritual shifts.

That's a midlife crisis. Hair changes. Yep. Tattoos. Oh, yeah. Tattoos is a big one. Like, who waits until their 40s to start getting tattoos on their arms?

I mean, obviously we're going through a midlife crisis. Right. Men in crisis too. So I'm not, here's the thing. to start getting tattoos on their arms. I mean, obviously we're going through a midlife crisis. Men in crisis too. So I'm not, here's the thing, I'm not even gonna defend myself or deny it. I kind of think I've kind of always been in a midlife crisis. You know what I'm saying?

It's like, I kind of feel like I live in the midst of an existential crisis of like trying to figure myself out, trying to like try new, trying to try new things. I think one of the reasons I like new layers and stuff, I mean my... What am I gonna do with myself? My archery, my latest archery layer, which is evolving very quickly, by the way. Some people found out about it and now that's taking off. So, I mean, I just feel like...

What do you mean some people found out about it and it's taken off? I've told certain people about it and they're like, well, I want you to do this when you come to North Carolina. Oh. I'm gonna give you this. So, I mean, it's just, I'm gonna take you to do this. Like, it's just starting to happen, right? You start finding people who want to do things.

Other midlife men in crisis. Yeah, other midlife crises. And... Shooting arrows. So I think that everyone goes through a midlife crisis, meaning that there's like a question of identity, who am I, why am I here, et cetera, and then whether you're gonna go through one or not, that's not the question.

The question is, how are you gonna deal with it? Because it's whether or not you make healthy or unhealthy choices, right? To me, that's it. I'm trying to figure out from, I think I'm having an assessment of my midlife, I don't like calling it a crisis but a season, the midlife season. Why you don't like calling it a crisis, but a season. The midlife season. Why you don't wanna call it a crisis?

Because I'm not wigging out about it. I'm not suffering because of it. It's not a bad thing. It's just, it's a shifting of the winds and the sands. And the sands are shifting downward through the hourglass. You know? So I'm becoming more palpably cognizant of the fact that I'm going to die. And so that's just one thing I notice. It's on my mind a little bit more. Increasing. But the other thing that I'm thinking It's on my mind a little bit more. Increasing.

But the other thing that I'm thinking... You're soft launching a midlife crisis. Oh yeah? I don't think... I think that it's a broad term that doesn't necessarily mean a bad thing. Okay. Because I'm talking... there's people who have like... Well let's not call it crisis.

...breakdown. No, I'm saying let's reclaim the crisis. Because people are gonna keep saying it. Well crisis is a negative word. Can we change it? In the context of midlife crisis, I'm saying that people are gonna keep saying it. Well crisis is a negative word, can we change it? In the context of midlife crisis, I'm saying that people are gonna keep using it, so I say reclaim it rather than try to redefine it. Okay. It's much less of an uphill battle.

I think I'm faced with a decision to continue to get weird or to try to slow that down. Like apparently I've gotten a lot more weird over the past few years. Over the past, even, I don't think decade, but maybe decade. I don't know, do I need to slow that down? Do I need to counteract that?

Or do I need to go full into it? I'm in a little mitigation period. You know? Where, you know, I don't like Christy scratching her head too much. Like, I don't wanna start planting fear in her brain. Right. So, I mean, just yourself be as weird as you. Yes, that is a motto of mine. But I think that's part of what's going on with my midlife crisis right now,

is who do I want to be? I think is like the core question. And how do you answer that? And I think the way that I've been answering it is just go with the weird streak. Just go wild. Have fun. It'll be over before you know it. And fun and weird to me go hand in hand. And I'm just assessing that. Is there another facet to this for me? Should I go into a bank and have a responsible conversation? Would that not be weird? I think that would. What?

You're saying because that wouldn't be weird? It would be weird for me, but it would seem responsible. Like back half of life kind of thing. You know? I don't know. I feel like I'm at a turning point. Do I need to mitigate any of my wild streak? I think I'm... maybe I'm... maybe the framing of this sets it up so that there's only one acceptable answer. Okay, maybe I did that. So I think that when you ask it like that, what you're gonna hear from everyone... Just be yourself, man.

Link, be as weird as you wanna be, man. Just do it. Yeah, do you not live with me every moment of every day? But I think that the reality is is that, and I don't think this is bad, we've talked about this before. So there are certain social norms and certain ways that we interact in the context of our community that I don't think are unhealthy.

So what I'm saying is that you can choose to be a person who is quote unquote, I'm not against weird. I'm gonna be as weird as I possibly can. Well, I think that the thing you have to understand about that is that for people who are close to you, you will become more isolated from them because that's what happens naturally

because people don't always have time for total unpredictability and total weirdness. They just don't, this is coming from Christy, right? And it doesn't mean she doesn't love you, it just means that. And it's not as much as it's direct feedback, as much as it's just like, it's something that I'm thinking about.

Because you are an individual, but you're also a father, a husband, a coworker, a best friend, a boss, and so. Responsibility. I think that when you frame it in such a way so that it's like, this isn't not about you not being yourself, it's that you manifesting your true self happens in the context

of relationship and community. If it happens in a healthy way, it happens in reference to the communities that you are a part of, with people who love you and respect you, not people who are trying to keep you from being a certain way. Because it's like, it's just like, okay,

if you think about it in the context of a team of people, whether it's a sports team or whether it's a band or whatever, if there's one person who's just like, I'm gonna do my own thing irrespective of anyone else in this situation, everyone is gonna become annoyed by that person. And that person's gonna be, it's gonna be harder for that person to be a part of that team. Now that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be as weird as they can be, but there is a metering effect that happens in the context of community.

That's all I'm saying. And so I think, so when you say, my wife says this or that, or I don't want her to be scratching her head, I think ultimately what you're saying is you don't want her to not like you. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

You don't want somebody to be annoyed by it. So I don't think that's an unhealthy thing, and I think that too many people in our culture are like Do exactly what you want to do without any reference to anyone else. It's like well, there's a difference between Being like controlled by someone who's manipulating you or a system of oppression that try to keep you from being yourself That's a completely different conversation than being like but I do what I do in the context of a healthy community, right? I'm not saying that like, okay, you've got parents who are telling you that you can't be yourself or you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't be interested in

this. That's bullshit. Right. I'm not talking about that. I'm just saying when you've got people that love you- You're talking about navigating social constructs. Yeah, because social constructs exist for a reason, and I think that they can be healthy, especially when you've decided to tie yourself to other people. Do you know what I'm saying? When other people are impacted by it, then I think

that that is something to take into account. I'm not saying you shouldn't be weird. I think that's not my problem. You're not gonna keep me from being weird. You're not gonna keep me from anything. You're just giving input. I appreciate it. I think most people... I think my point in midlife now is that I can go out there and explore who I am. I'm on the outer rim of that. Most people might need to have a little more inhibition. That's not me. But I think that's how I interact with midlife is who am I and who do I wanna be?

I think that's a question that a lot of people have in midlife, like who do I wanna be? Do I wanna be a guy with long hair now? I wanna be a guy in a convertible now. That's the only reason I bring it up. And I think that there's... it's a good point in life to actualize, and I think I'm pretty good at that. It's the mitigation of actualization for me, self-actualization, that I think is... you know, I can go off the deep end of

on the other side of midlife crisis. That's what I'm identifying. And I think that I agree that it can go too far. It can be kind of isolated. And I think what I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with, like, again, I think that the way this is often framed in our culture is that anyone who would give you any kind of feedback about something is like trying to oppress you or hold you back.

It's like, okay, but like that dude that was in Santa Cruz and was like walking really slow. Remember that guy? Yeah. Like that's a really weird thing to do, right? Now, do I find it cool and interesting? Yes. Am I glad that he exists in the world?

Yes. Would I want to be his best friend? No. Because he spends every day walking really slowly. I think that's my realm of midlife crisis. It's not as much about, it's like how am I gonna express myself and what parts of myself am I gonna develop? But it's not, it's less about, I guess sometimes it's about hobbies, but

it's not, I just don't think of it as much that way. I think of a motorcycle, well a motorcycle could be fun, but it's a little too dangerous. But if you're always riding with another motorcycle, that makes it a lot less dangerous. So if you're in, I'm in. I don't think we should do a motorcycle. I think that, I mean, hobbies is one element of this, and I have lots of hobbies. And then there are things like I'm gonna purchase this thing for myself. It's like that's not, I mean, I do that from time to time. Like I have things like I have a cold plunge, right?

I have things that like scream midlife crisis in some ways, but it's less about like, so I can appear in a certain way. I think as I get older, how I appear to people, I'm trying to make less, put less emphasis on that. Does that make sense? You just wanna live longer, healthier. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I'm saying that like, when I think about the time that I have, I just think, to me, I'm like, okay, I've had these experiences and I have this perspective and I've been blessed with an opportunity to translate my experiences and my perspective into translate my experiences and my perspective into, you know, entertainment in some way that brings joy to people or maybe occasionally when we talk about something a little more serious

illuminates something or would give some perspective or whatever. And I just think about like, I think the main thing I think about is not squandering that. You know? And I feel like there are... Opportunity with a ticking clock. Yeah, and like, I feel like I have choices to make. You know, most people who do what we do, well, most people who do what we do,

don't do what we do anymore at this age. Just, I mean, from like a internet person. Yeah. Right. Like we're old. We're old within the profession that we're in. But even within the creative profession, when you get to be 47, you start really thinking,

is my best work in the past? Especially if you're you. Yeah. And I don't really believe that, but I just think I spend more time thinking about that. I spend more time thinking about what is it that is left to do? And at the same time, you said that you're trying to think,

care less about, demote what others think of you. Well, I mean, I've said it before that, like, if I wasn't on camera, then I would have already done something to, like, I'm not going full Steve Jobs, like, black turtleneck every day, because I also think that's weird, and I don't wanna see... Like, a guy who dresses the same way every day is weird in a way that I don't wanna be weird. You know what I'm saying? But that's a public perception that maybe you need to shit.

I think we're kind of on opposite... We're on different, closer to different ends of the spectrum. I wouldn't say we're totally opposite. Yeah, cause like, cause like you're on this, you're, there's, if I heard you say that you're trying to not take into account as much of what, how others perceive you, like, that's not a problem of mine. So, my thing is the awareness of that for my tendency and then say, all There's certain like knowing the certain times where I do take into account you know how I

Impact other people so it's it's kind of it's kind of an interesting Conversation that we're on different sides of it Yeah, cuz I mean obviously I'm still concerned about what people think, but it's a kind of a different, what I'm trying to do in the, what I'm trying to work towards is like, seeing the things that I do, not as a series of accomplishments, but service.

Okay. Service to my fellow human. Because, you know, it's been pretty transformative to think about what we do as a service. Yeah. And that's been pretty big for me. As someone who's very goal oriented, is very ambitious,

and like, is it about doing something and having somebody perceive you in a certain way? I think that we've got, I've done this for long enough now and I've been in enough circles where you're so-called accomplished, you know, where people see you as a good at something or whatever to know that there's really no life in that, right? Sure, maybe there's like another couple of levels of like traditional success that we could ascend to and like win, you know, traditional awards like Emmys or whatever.

But we kind of already know what that would feel like. Do you know what I'm saying? We know that winning some award or getting some opportunity that's bigger than what we've already won and opportunities that we've had isn't gonna make us any happier. You might be able to get into a slightly cooler party, but it's still just a bunch of people who are trying to justify their own existence. And once you start kind of seeing through that and

realizing that all these people are just trying to put on a front to appear a certain way. Like I'm much less concerned about those people, I'm much more concerned about the people who watch what we do and listen to what we do and like how what we do can be a service to them, right? So then I'm like, okay, well, how many more years do I have of like good? Where I can actually. Like that.

You know? So now that I don't wanna like, I wanna do things that are fun because I actually think that doing things that are fun and amusing myself helps me be better at the service. But ultimately I think that that's where the, service. But ultimately, I think that that's where the... that's kind of what motivates me to think about it. It's like, what are we doing next, and how is it going to, you know, bring joy, illuminate a subject, something like that, you know?

Yeah. I don't really... And as long as I have to do that, I kinda have to dress like I'm... I can't be a dork. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, I would probably be a dork if I could... But not being a dork enhances my ability to serve people in the context that we serve people. But that is honestly, I think about it in a very utilitarian way. That's just how I process it. I just think about... I mean, I like the service thing, but I also like to have

fun. I'm not saying I don't like to have fun. I like to have more fun than you do, though. Oh, yeah, you do. I don't know. Fun is just more fun for me than it is for you. Well, I know. I think it's... So, like, when I... the most fun I have... No, your fun is a little different than mine.

Yeah, the most fun I... Because fun, all you're really saying when you say fun is that, like, you are getting a reinforcing experience that is pleasing to you. It's pleasing to you, right? Yeah. But I would say communally. I like eating more than you because eating is more pleasing to me than it is to you. You have more fun eating than I do. Right. So I have a lot of fun all the time, but I'm saying that I feel like when I'm in a flow

and I am actually bringing something about that is in line with my potential, like how my experience, my life experience and my skills come together into something I'm passionate about that actually serves the greater community, that's the most fun that I have. When I'm doing that, it is better to me than when I'm doing an activity that I like. But I still like to do activities. But it's not as good for, it's not as good. I don't have as good of a time. Which is why you're not gonna buy a motorcycle. I'm not gonna buy a motorcycle because I have no desire to and my wife wouldn't let me.

But you did buy a bow and arrow to cultivate your personal happiness. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I wanna keep doing that kind of thing for sure. All right. I think that was, I don't think it's a crisis. I don't think I'm internally in a middle life crisis. I think externally it might seem that way.

And we're taking it back. It's a good thing. And I'm saying it's fine. It's fine. If you skip your midlife crisis... Yep, you're accelerating your death. What happened? You missed out. Okay, thank you for your questions. We didn't get to as many today because we spent more time talking about it. We had so much fun, though. You can call us when we hear your voice. It's the voicemail. 1-8-8-ear-

You didn't say all the eights. 1-8-8-8. 1-8-8-8. Ear Pod 1! I think I did say all the eights, but... Three eights. There's three eights. Talk at you next week. Aira and Link, I work as a food courier,

and you keep me company on the pike every day. It's nice listening to familiar voices when I'm on my own, so thank you for all the Ear Piscuits. Love you guys, bye.