Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Our Top 10 Moments Of 2021 | Ear Biscuits Ep.316

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

From iconic family milestones to the comedic insanity of Good Mythical Evening, listen to R&L look back at some of their top 10 moments of 2021 in this episode of 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. Your mom hates it when you leave six half full glasses on your nightstand. It's a good thing mom lives on the other side of the country. And it's an even better thing that you can get six IKEA 365 Plus glasses for just $9.99. So go ahead, you can afford to hoard because IKEA is priced for student life. Shop everything you need for back to school at IKEA today. 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 wrapping up the season, the 2021, I mean, we don't really call them season, but we're wrapping up Ear Biscuits for 2021 by encapsulating the top 10 moments of each of our lives. Well, in 2021.

Yeah. So the top 10 moments of the year in order. This in reverse order. In reverse order, going down to the top. I love this episode. You know, it forces us- Well, you don't know how bad it's gonna be, man. To stop and- You're saying you like this category of episode.

This episode may be a train wreck. You don't know what's gonna happen. Well, I know what my tune are. You could have an allergic reaction to that jacket. Yeah, I mean, you haven't worn it very much. I don't know, anything could happen. I have a good feeling. Cause I like to reminisce

and I think it's very healthy to put things in perspective as I've prepared good feeling. Cause I like to reminisce and I think it's very healthy to put things in perspective as I've prepared for this. I actually experienced the positive benefits of kind of zooming out and having a perspective on this year. So we'll each alternate starting with our number 10 and culminating in our number one moments of the year. And I think this is a very healthy thing,

even if there's painful or negative parts of it. These are not, they don't all have to be positive moments. Well, mine are. Okay. Yeah. And we should say that, like you said, this is our last episode. We will be back with fresh new 2022 episodes starting on January 10th of that year.

Yeah, which I guess is also the first episode of Good Mythical Morning season 20, what is it? Season 20 what? I don't know, the next season of GMM. We'll be celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Good Mythical Morning. Yeah, celebrating the 10 year anniversary. 10 years of Good Mythical Morning, so.

I got quite a week planned that- Don't sleep on it. That second week in January, we're coming back strong. I mean, one of the things we talked about as we were getting, you know, independently putting these lists together is, the comment I made to you was, man, it's not, I mean, honestly,

it's kind of difficult to come up with 10 podcast-worthy moments. Now, it- You'd feel that way about this year. Once I dug into it, I realized, okay, well, actually, I ended up having to take some off the list and I got to 10 that I feel good about. But a lot of the things that I was thinking about

when I actually went back and looked at my photos and looked at my calendar, it was like, oh, that actually didn't happen in 2021. Like, oh, that was the end of 2020. Yeah, 2020 definitely blurred into this year. Yeah, and 2021 flew by and, you know, we were getting back into a lot of things and, you know, traveling more and kind of getting more normal

than we were in 2020, but man, it's a- Not quite normal enough. Yeah, it's still not normal. And you know what? I'd like to just get started with my number 10 because I think it plays right into what you're saying. Okay. So my number 10 meaningful moment,

my precious moment of 2021- Sponsored by Precious Moments? Is, no, wouldn't that be cool though? Christy would just go nuts. Do they still make them? I don't know. She doesn't collect them anymore. And she did.

She could probably get sponsored by them. Just in life. Just saying. My number 10 is getting my first vaccine in March. And I'm not trying to go political. Well, no, go political right from the start. I don't even want to- Vaccines aren't political, man.

Exactly and that's why I'm not going there even though somehow that's exactly where we still are as a country. But this was in March and it was a milestone. Lincoln and I drove together, we did this drive, we signed up and we did a drive through vaccination and there was so much buildup to it. When am I gonna, when can I sign up?

How's the app gonna work? It's like, what are the requirements? We've been through so much of, in 2020, and now we have this miraculous vaccine that happened miraculously quick. Suspiciously quick. It was just a moment. Joke, it's a joke.

Come on now. It's a joke. Stay with me. It's a joke. I'm trying to, this is about me. Okay. I just really had a sense at that moment that I was living history. And that's what I was telling Lincoln. We're living history now.

We're getting history shot into our arms. We're getting injected with an era, a time that people will always refer to. Now tell us about all the side effects you've been suffering from all year. Yeah, I have not gotten COVID. I haven't gotten it. Yeah, you know, this is not on my list, but I'll piggyback off of you.

I mean, wasn't it a moment for you to get the freaking vaccine? Because it represents so much that we've been through. This is what I remember thinking. So, you know, I've gotten a lot of vaccines in my life because I'm a person who lives in the 21st century, right? And this is sort of what we do to address disease and we've always done it this way.

But all of a sudden it became the mark of the beast this year for reasons that I don't fully understand. But I remember because so much had been made of how, I've never been scared of a vaccine. I've never had any hesitation about a vaccine. It's always been an afterthought. It's like, oh, you're gonna get this vaccine. You gotta get this vaccine to go to this country.

You gotta do whatever. It's just, you just go in, you get it, and you're a little bit, feel a bit weird for a day, and then it's over, right? Because so much focus had been put on these vaccines and oh, it's a new technology and oh, it was rushed and all the media's and this Bill Gates is trying to control you and all this stuff,

none of it that I believed, I found myself at Dodger Stadium when I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine is what I did, the first dose that you're in this, you don't even get out of your car, you're kind of going through the drive-through, they give you the dose and then they're like, okay, wait here for 15 minutes.

Yeah. And it was basically like, wait here 15 minutes to see if you have some sort of reaction that requires an emergency. I've never had any sense of worry or concern, but in that 15 minutes, the first half of that 15 minutes is when I was like, I started letting all the information and misinformation that had been going around kind of infiltrate my thoughts.

And I was like, is something gonna happen to me? Is something gonna happen to me? Of course, nothing happened to me and ended up going on. And then I got my second dose and I didn't even think about it at that point. And yes, I did get my booster already. And the booster was just like going into the pharmacy and sitting down and he was like,

which arm? I was like left and it was boom and I was out. There was no like, sit around and see what happens. It was like, we know nothing's gonna happen to you. Like very likely that you might die on the way home in a car crash, but you're probably gonna be fine. But yeah, that first moment was very significant because of what had been made of it in a way

that I've never even thought about a vaccine before. Yeah, I just thought of it as this is, we're making history here and this is something that will always be talked about. And in making it my number 10 moment, it represents something larger for, yeah, like you were saying for 2021, things started to open up, especially when you got fully vaccinated.

From a work perspective, I think at least for the two of us, not for our entire team by any means, but for us, our work lives approached normal. Like they're not really normal. It's kind of hard to remember what normal was pre-pandemic. But we kind of, we got back into work to a point and engaged to a point where we're very busy and it continues to ramp up.

But there was an incongruity, if that's a word, between our work lives really ramping up and our personal lives still kind of being stifled by the pandemic. And again, a lot of that still continues, but this is my moment to memorialize all of the steps that we went through and all of the little moments of the first time

that you go out to dinner outdoors with your family and you're taking your mask off at the table. And it's like, you start to have these strange feelings that whole swaths of humanity never go through. And of course, you know, we're fortunate and it's still very serious. Even this morning, Christy told me that some of her parents' friends,

a friend passed away from COVID like she found out about it yesterday. So this is not something in our rear view mirror, sadly. But let's leave it at that. But yeah, here we are at the end of this year. Well, my number- And it's still part of our lives. My number 10- And will continue to be. Does tie in a little end of this year. Well, my number- And it's still part of our lives. My number 10-

And will continue to be. Does tie in a little bit to this because it's, and again, this is gonna be the case for a number of the things on my list. And so for many of the points on my list, and I would assume the same is true of yours, there's a podcast episode from this year that basically goes into detail about this thing.

Yeah, maybe there's a little space you have a different perspective or an update. Or not. Well, this one is my trip to San Diego, with my family trip in the spring to San Diego, which is, when I talked about it on Ear Biscuits earlier this year, I talked about the moment of Locke and Shepard and I being able to surf together.

Oh yeah. And how that was just like a super special thing. And it was like Shepard kind of getting the surfing thing down a little bit more for the first time, but also me and Locke being able to surf together and actually kind of getting a party wave, like surfing next to each other on a wave the first time we'd ever done that.

That's a moment, man. You can close your eyes and just see it. So that was the, that's sort of the moment from that greater moment that I really remember, but in the context of the nature of the way our lives have been, that was the first family trip that we took. I think it was the first real travel

that we had done since the beginning of the pandemic. And it was also the first sitting down at a restaurant in San Diego, well, sitting outdoors. But it was the first time we went back and even did outdoor seating at the time. I remember that because when you told me, we had been on a beach vacation too, and we hadn't done that.

We just ordered in and I was jealous. And I was like, you should have told me you were doing that. Maybe that would have put me over the edge. But everybody's in their own little timetable of like what you're comfortable with and you make your own decisions. Yeah, I mean, obviously as I've established very clearly multiple times on this podcast,

that I take the pandemic very seriously. And I'm obviously preaching the vaccine, get vaccinated, this is the best way to get out of this thing. But when it comes to my own personal level of fear about COVID, it's actually very, very low. Like I don't have, like, I don't have this like- Anxiety.

Jesse has some anxiety about it. I don't, I'm just like, man, okay, yeah, I've been vaccinated, I've been boosted, I can still get it, it probably won't affect me, but maybe it will. Like, I don't obsess about that. I'm obsessed about a lot of things, I don't obsess about that.

I remember specifically us sitting down at a restaurant and I'm just like, man, I'm glad I'm at this restaurant, I'm taking my mask off, I'm eating. Yes, there's like this family over here within 10 feet of us who's also eating. And Jessie was like, they're pretty close to us. And I'm like, I just can't do it. I can't live like that with a constant preoccupation

with it because I take the precautions and then I let the worry go away because otherwise I just can't function as a person. Yeah, it is that thing of like, if you'd never been on a flight or if you've never been in a car before, you're very keenly aware of, or if like, and I'm thinking about this for Lincoln,

if you're like getting your driver's license, you're keenly aware of how close you are to death with someone coming across that center line. And then at a certain point, you put every wise practice into place and you just get on with driving. And if you kept being reoriented with the severity of the risk,

every time a car passes you, as if it was the first time it was happening, you would be debilitated. Right, you don't snap your seatbelt thinking about why, you just do it because you've made a decision and it's better to just always do it and just don't think about it. And I think this year has been just the slow,

methodical baby steps towards gaining a comfort level with COVID strains being a part of the news and a part of reality and saying, okay, I am doing everything that I can and I am getting on with my life. You know, we still have weekly tests here. We still have limited crew coming into work. It's still very frustrating for a lot of our crew.

And it's like, and I feel for them because they're in positions that are different from ours where you just can't be quite as engaged. And so we're all on these different timetables and it's not, you know, it's not the same across the board, but I do think that these moments, they're all, COVID impacts every area of our lives. And at a certain point, you just,

but you just get on with it. Well, you do, if you're lucky, you get on with it. If you're lucky. I mean, there's a lot of people who can't, maybe it's a specific like autoimmune thing, or maybe it's just the anxiety. I mean, listen, we're still in the midst. That's a different timetable, yeah.

We're still in the midst of a mental health crisis that we have only scratched the surface surface up. We really do not understand the level that society has been impacted by this and not just the disease itself is one thing, but the anxiety that has been induced by the way that this has all been communicated. I have a lot of opinions about that,

but I think that we're gonna look back and think about all the ways that this whole thing was fumbled by our country and by the world. Let me go to my number nine to switch gears. I chose as a moment, the Hazel Horror TikTok shoot. I debated between the release of it and the filming of it, but I wanted to hone in on, hone in on,

you got me in my head about that. In that context, just so you know, either one is correct. Well then I shouldn't have asked. But exactly in the way that you used it, Home is the original correct version. I wanted to home in on the filming of it, which was back in August.

Cause first and foremost, we did this for us. And it was just the experience of removing some creative shackles, again, for reasons that we've already talked about, limitations that we have been under, and then hatching an idea that we could take from start to finish and get out there into the world and there were no gatekeepers, we didn't have to convince anybody,

we just had to align our team. And so it was first about us saying, okay, we're gonna write something, we're gonna do something scripted, we're gonna do something experimental, we're gonna utilize TikTok and we're gonna twist it. And you got really excited about the horror aspect of it and the challenge of working with TikTok

and then involving our team and just the creative spark that comes from trying something that you don't know what it's gonna be like. It was very exciting and for me personally, it jolted me out of a creative slump. I mean, cause it's one thing to not be creating things outside of the playgrounds that we work in within the shows and the properties that are ongoing

and that we found ways to mitigate within the pandemic. But it's another thing to say, I'm gonna do something different. And I think I had gotten to a point where there was like a creative depression. And that was a very instrumental period. I remember when we first talked about doing it, it was, I had to make an active decision to say,

I'm gonna engage in this. And so remembering that is very encouraging to me because it was an instrument of kind of reopening that part of my creativity. And of course, then the payoff of it, I don't know where you put it on your list or if you wanna talk about it as a separate moment, because I'm just talking about when we went out,

we went out and we were working with a team. We were filming on location in the woods at night. And then in the creative house, like so two nights in a row, pulling all nighters, switching our entire schedules upside down and taking the input of other team members. It was just a lot of fun to do it. Well, it was my number five.

Yeah, and I didn't isolate it to one moment. If you're a member of the Mythical Society and you're present or you go and look at the answers to the AMAs, you may see that I said some things about, somebody asked about the Hazel Project and- Very recently. Yeah, kind of what our thoughts were about it. And first of all, let me just say that this time of year

is just bonkers for us, right? Every single year, everything, it's very difficult to communicate exactly why it gets so stacked up at the end of the year, but we've got projects that we can't talk about and we've got just the aspect of running a business and wrapping up seasons and all this stuff and it just getting ready to leave.

And there's some pre-taping for things that are in the new year, so then there's this like, you're living in the future, you're living in the present, and you're looking back at the year with like employee reviews, this podcast. So it's a lot at once, like being pulled in different directions, even in space and time.

Yeah, so it's difficult. So, and we had an AMA scheduled and of course it was like, like everything, most of the time you're around, it's just like, the AMA is scheduled, there's something before it and there's something after it. It's not like, it's just like, what do you have today? I have an AMA.

No, I have an AMA and seven other things, right? So I was kind of in, I wasn't in a great mood. It's probably reflected in some of my answers during that time. But somebody asked about Hazel and I kind of just, the way that I talked about it was, you know, in retrospect, it was a disappointment for me because, I mean, I agree with everything that you said

in terms of the, you know, the fulfilling nature of being able to create something from start to finish and put it out there. But of course we know that it didn't end up performing, you know, compared to like some of the really dumb TikToks that we do that take about four minutes to come up with and one minute to shoot to get 10 times as many views. That was a little disappointing.

We kind of know why that happened, but then we put it on YouTube, it was also kind of like, nobody really cared. Now, what I did say is that I was very encouraged by all the feedback that we got from Mythical Beasts. And this may have come across, I didn't mean for this to come across like an insult if it did, but I said that in some ways,

it's like I really appreciate all the feedback from the Mythical Beasts, but at the same time, it's like when your grandparents come to your school play and they talk about how great of an actor you are. And you're kind of like, are you telling me that I'm a great actor because I am or because you're my grandparents? In other words, we have-

And if only your grandparents are the ones telling you that, it really makes you question it. And so I think this is what I'm saying is that- We have a lot of grandparents, though. I see the Mythical Beasts as our grandparents. You guys, and thankfully, I mean, this is what I'm saying. We have a lot of grandparents though. I see the Mythical Beasts as our grandparents. You guys, and thankfully, I mean, this is a privilege, you have expressed a lot of love for us and for what we do.

And so we know if we put something out there that we've put our heart and soul to and that we're proud of, chances are you're gonna like it and you're gonna appreciate it. But we're always like, is it gonna break outside of the bubble? And the fact that it just kind of definitively did not do anything beyond the fan base

was discouraging for me, especially, and this is a personality disorder that I have, probably not a real disorder, but doing something and then it doesn't get the reaction and the feedback that you're looking for and therefore you, its value goes down. That's something that I'm working on. Being able to find the value in the process

and the execution and the putting it out there and having it be appreciated by just a person or just be appreciated by us. And that being the end of it and then if it's appreciated by more people and enjoyed by a large group of people, then that's just gravy, but that's not why we're doing it. I'm working on that.

But it was part of the reason why we did it. It wasn't just for the reason why I put it on my list, the reasons I gave. It was also to give an experience to dedicated Mythical Beasts who were gonna be there live. And we had to get together in my house, a live viewing party of the posting and reactions, and it was absolutely thrilling.

That was probably the best moment, actually. That was the best moment because it was special for those Mythical Beasts who were there for it and experienced it. To watch people. To experience the surprise. And to see them giving feedback in the moment. And realization of what it was.

And to see Shepherd with a blanket over his head and just his eyes peeking out over the top of it as he watched, I was like, oh, he's very, very scared. So we engineered it for us. We engineered it for dedicated mythical beasts. And we also designed it with the hopes that it would be talked about outside of our circles. And when it wasn't, it, yeah,

I think that is a legitimate disappointment and it's not related to any sort of disorder because it's what we set out to do and it didn't happen. So the fact that you put it at number five, even after all that, surprises me. Well, I think it's just in retrospect when I think about what it represents. I think me putting it at number five-

What does it represent? Just what we said? No, no, I'm saying I'm trying to have a healthy perspective on it. Okay, so actually putting it at number five- I'm putting it at number five in hopes that I'm becoming a healthier person that doesn't need things to be a success, an external success appreciated by people externally

in order for me to give it a high value. With Uber Reserve, good things come to those who plan ahead. Family vacay? Reserve your ride as soon as you book your flights. To all the planners, now you can reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance.

See Uber app for details. Okay, my number nine, which I guess is gonna be higher than nine on your list, Good Mythical Evening. Okay, it is on my list. It is number six on my list. Okay, okay. What a night, man.

I mean, you know- People wanted us to talk about Good Mythical Evening and we haven't. So this is us talking about it. Good Mythical Evening to me, there was a lot of, I wouldn't say I was nervous about, I mean, anytime you're doing something that is like,

oh, this is live, this is, I mean, I haven't been nervous about an episode of Good Mythical Morning in years. It's like that, I mean, okay, if we have a guest that I'm like kind of nervous to be around or something like that, maybe, which that hasn't happened recently. And there's a few episodes that demand more of us

from a performance standpoint, but. But something that's live, that people have paid for. That we've never done before. Yeah, and so. And not to mention that it's doing things we've never done before. Being, like being R-rated on purpose. And I think we might have different,

we might have different, we might have different, I'll tell you why it's on my list. To me, I mean, yes, it was fun to do in the moment. And I think that especially once towards the end when we were, you know, when Britney became a part of the show, you know who Britney is if you watch Good Mythical Evening. I mean, there's very few moments this year

from a comedic standpoint that are gonna be any funnier than when we were trying to manhandle Britney and get her eyes back in and all that stuff that happened. I mean, it's just like, this is stuff that you cannot plan, that we can't be that, we can write all we want and never be that funny with our writing. It's gonna, that's the kind of thing that's gonna happen in the moment.

So I like that aspect of it. But for me, you know, there's been kind of a very slow but gradual process over the past few years with some notable moments of us shedding another layer of this persona that people kind of understand us as. You know, obviously the first big thing we pulled back was talking about our spiritual deconstruction and saying, hey, you thought we were these guys,

but we were those guys a long time ago. And actually we're not, you know, we're not these conservative Christian guys that we were when we started this job. Yeah. We haven't been for a long time, but then being able to do sex timber, which is, you know, I'll talk about an aspect of that later,

but like being able to kind of talk openly about that stuff. And then it was like Good Mythical Evening came right on the heels of that. And it was just like, hey, you know, we do curse and we do like, we do drink. These things happen on a very regular basis in our lives, but we don't ever share them with you. So to me, it wasn't just like having fun

and not being ourselves. It was just like, and of course, yes, we were like, we don't, I can attest to the fact that, you know, when Link has drinks- I can speak to my experience. He doesn't always, you know, it's not like every time Link gets drunk, he is the, and I'm not gonna say he was drunk, but I'm just saying that like,

it isn't like Link is like that every single time he has a drink, but the fact that we were able to just be ourselves, that's the thing that I value. The fact that people appreciated it, but the fact that it's another layer of just like, hey, this is an authentic revealing of who we are. Yeah, I mean, again, I put it at number six on my list. And I think a lot of what you said is at play that,

I think for me, yeah, it put it on the list and maybe put it higher for that reason. First of all, yes, it was a gimmick. It was a marketing gimmick in a lot of ways. When we first hashed it, it was just like, you know, we had gotten to a point that we were, we wanted to show more of our full selves as responsible adults who can, you know, who can- Responsible is questionable.

Well, just being adults, you know? So yeah, it was a gimmick, but it was also, like you said, it's an evolution of our brand to say, hey, don't unnecessarily put us in this box that we're not in, you know? To never hear us curse. A box that we put ourselves in, by the way. That we built, yeah.

We don't wanna stay in the box we built, we wanna get out of it. And so it's like, okay, it would be fun. If you really think about it, you know, these guys curse, we curse on this podcast. But let's take that to 11 for a gimmick to just have fun with it. But then it expands people's,

it changes how they look at us. It expands us beyond the box that we've built, you're right. And I would say the other part of it was, yes, I was drunk, but I also leaned into it. You know, it wasn't planned. So the story is, of course we had two full rehearsals, like hours and hours long, were full rehearsals with the entire crew

where we stepped through everything. Yeah. And then we stepped through everything. Yeah. And then we did it again. Once we said, okay, we're gonna tweak some stuff, we're gonna fix some stuff from a technical standpoint, we're gonna tighten it. And then we did another like dress rehearsal. And then before we actually did it,

of course we didn't, there was no drinking involved. It was like, there were segments where we were gonna be drinking and cutting the fool. And you know, it was gonna be, we knew it was gonna be crazy. But then before we did it, there was actual drinking involved. And our discussion ended with,

oh, you know, we'll have some drinks. And then the thing that I didn't, you know, we'll have some drinks. And then the thing that I didn't, you know, you said you've never been nervous for something or like keyed up for it. The thing that I didn't realize was that I was a lot more keyed up than I realized. There was, once I had some drinks, then I went out there and the whole crew was like ready.

And it was like the adrenaline just started pumping. And that's when I gave a speech to the whole crew. And boy, I just really started feeling buzzed. Like it just like- I wasn't present for that. And you were not present for this. I heard, I just people, I walked in and people seemed confused.

Everyone had like a confused look on their face. I was like, oh, Link must've given a speech. Right. You know the look when Link has given a speech. And then there was a countdown, like to going live. And then like the heart rate with every step of the countdown, just like- This is not my experience, by the way.

I was just like, I was going through the roof. I was like excited. And so, yeah, when the thing started, I was inebriated. Yeah, we could tell. And- And it was, you know, it was dawning on me. I was like, oh no. Like, I knew that we were gonna drink throughout

and I was like, okay, or there was some segments we were gonna drink and, but like, I definitely wasn't feeling buzzed really at all. But then I could tell. You're a big man. But I was like, oh no, Link is, and so then it was, and it's funny because like hearing Stevie tell it, it man. But I was like, oh no, Link is. And so then it was, and it's funny, cause like hearing Stevie tell it,

it was like, Stevie was like, oh no. Because she's like expecting us to like hit different marks and stuff. So there was this adjustment period for me, which I think I would be much better at this if we were to do it again, not saying we are, but if we were to do it again, of like knowing that like,

I felt this responsibility to be like, okay, Link is not going to be a reliable source of structure. And so that left it to me is what I was thinking. And so I realized I was like, okay, no, I guess I don't have to do that role. Stevie's kind of gonna be responsible for that and think about that and tell us what to do next. I would say, you know, I'm not ashamed to do that role. Stevie's kind of gonna be responsible for that and think about that and tell us what to do next. I would say, you know,

I'm not ashamed of anything that happened. I'm not ashamed of anything I did and I don't regret anything except for one thing. And that was that the way that it happened, it put you on the ropes because it blindsided you. I know that the crew was surprised, but they weren't, you know, we're in this together and it was a, you know, this was a performance

that we had prepared for and that we, there was a give and take and I put you in a position where you had to respond and, but I know you know that I didn't do that intentionally because we had a conversation about it. I think at the midpoint where there was the one break, the point where Stevie came back and she was like, you got, can you just relate it a little bit?

We gotta make sure we can get through this whole thing. And I'm like, hey, I got this, I'm okay. I'm not gonna go off an actual deep end here. But my main concern was that I was putting you in a position where, you know, again, you had to respond and it was something that you were, I didn't wanna blindside you and I didn't do that on purpose.

And so that's what I was saying in the middle of the thing. And I appreciated your response. I think you understood that I wasn't trying to, I didn't know it was gonna come across that way. But as it was happening, to go back to the beginning, it was like, all right, I had a decision to make. It wasn't that I was so inebriated that I was, I didn't have any faculties.

The fact of the matter was I was very buzzed and I was, I made a decision to lean into it, to say, you know what, we've rehearsed this twice. The entire crew has, they've got this. So it became an exercise in complete trust in our crew and you that, you know, I had your support and it was a, I'll put it this way. I actually felt like it was a safe space

for me to just cut loose and to lean into how I felt. So that happened very early. And so it wasn't just, and so there were elements of a performance associated with it. It was harnessing the experience I was having for a performance. I would say it was an exuberant expression of letting loose.

But it was an expression of that, that I felt comfortable and safe doing that, not only with the crew, but also with the audience that was there, the people who signed up for this thing. And I knew that, there, the people who signed up for this thing. And I knew that, you know, and in the end, the reason why I'm not embarrassed or have felt the need to apologize for anything is because that's all it was.

Nobody was hurt besides Brittany. I don't think anybody was offended or crossed, you know? Yeah, which we didn't really, we didn't know. We didn't know. But because it was all live, I've never had a chance to communicate that to anybody. I just went with it. Well, I think, I mean,

I think the evidence is that everybody appreciated that. I, and at the end of the day. And it was unplanned and I found that very exciting. Yeah, and like I said, I mean, I think, I mean, I think the only open question is, will we do it again? You know, it's gonna be very difficult to capture the same thing that happened.

My knee jerk reaction was, I don't wanna do it again because I don't, you know, it's like this expectation that like, well, how crazy is Link gonna be next time we do this? But with some, having had some space from it, I think there's opportunities to dabble in how could we revisit this idea again? So I think the door's open. Yeah, I definitely think it's on the table.

And I think that maybe the novelty of it having happened, of us broken the seal is gone, but you know, it remains, the fact remains that we cannot do and say those things on YouTube because the platform doesn't allow it. You know, you can't, you don't get this, we're going to a different category. So it is something that we reserve the right to do,

again, potentially. But yeah, it was an exuberant performance of legitimately letting loose for me. And I think that that's ultimately why I put it at number five because- Or six. Yeah, I put it at number six. Was because it was, and I saw people tweeting this

that night, at least one person that was like, I appreciate the fact that Link felt comfortable enough with us that he could be, he could just let him just go with it. I can't remember how they put it, but I agree with that. I think that was my experience. Well, and I think that, you know, and that's where moving forward, I think I would say.

Maybe it was obnoxious at times and I will own that. Well, I think for me, it was, I'd be like, okay, well, just so you know, if we're gonna do it again, I'm not the master of ceremonies. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not on me. It's not on me to control what's gonna happen next, to move things through logistically. It would be like, I want to have the freedom to do that.

I didn't feel the freedom to do that because I felt like somebody had to keep things tied down. But if we were like Stevie, it's up to you. And it's all on you because I'm not gonna be, I don't like being the straight man. I hate being the straight man. Sure. So it's just like, I think that if we were,

but that could be so structureless that it's just people can't even follow it. I don't know. We'll figure it out. We don't have to talk about it anymore now. Embrace the summer vibes with Summersbee Hard Cider. Bursting with lovely aromas of apple, this light-bodied, fruity cider offers a crisp, clean finish. Perfect for sunny days and warm nights. Enjoy it well-chilled or over ice. That's refreshing. That's Summersbee. Must be legal drinking age. Please drink responsibly.

Carlsberg Canada Inc. Waterloo, Ontario. We need to move on because we got a lot more to go. Your number nine. Was Hazel Chute. So my number eight is going back to North Carolina, visiting family for three weeks. We devoted an entire episode

to talking about it. It was the longest I and my immediate family had been apart from our extended family since we moved out to California. So that was a big deal, you know, and there's a number of moments that will stick with us. Meeting Sylvie, our new niece for the first time and handling all the affairs

of the house and the estate after my nanny's passing, which I believe was a moment from 2020, not being able to go home for her passing and being there in her absence was a difficult experience, but one that I was grateful to have or absence was a difficult experience, but one that I was grateful to have and to serve my family in that way. So, I had already unpacked all of that. I think looking forward to going home

and seeing the family again for the holidays, much shorter time now, three weeks is a long time. We're doing much less than that, but it's nice to be able to get back into a rhythm of seeing everybody moving forward. That was, you know, the North Carolina trip back home was number six for me. Okay.

I got to see, like you said, I got to see family for the first time since the pandemic. And I got to spend time with my said, I got to see family for the first time since the pandemic. And I got to spend time with my family, the McLaughlins in the mountains. And I already told about all the stuff that we did. The highlight from that was probably like my dad, my brother and I getting to play golf together again. And then spending time with Jesse's family at the beach

and the incident of escaping the fire, the house fire. Again, those are episodes that we told those stories in detail if you have not listened to those. I don't remember the title of the episode, but it was in the summer after we got back from our trips. Yeah, so that was also the first, that was the first flight, the first pandemic flight. Yeah.

So the whole idea of like, okay, I'm getting on a plane. Gotta keep that mask on. Got my mask on on the plane. You're not giving us anything to eat. Yeah, and I'm like, okay, you know, again, I don't, once I take the precautions, I just kinda don't like, okay, there's a guy behind me who won't stop coughing. Am I gonna sit here and obsess about this

and be anxious about it the whole time? Or am I gonna just be like, okay, what can I do at this point? Let's just not worry about it. If you get it, you get it. But yeah, that was my number six. But since we've told those stories extensively, we don't have to spend any time there.

My number eight, which I also did a whole episode about, was my Florida Keys trip, Glitter Boobs. I remember, that one was more recent. Having just talked about it, is there anything new? Like, are you like, oh, now I'm going back twice a year. I gotta get back to those keys. Boy, I miss those glitter keys. I will say there are just times

when I'm doing anything at all, when just a set of glitter boobs just pops into my brain. I mean, I could be just doing anything. I mean, like once you've seen a set of glitter boobs. That's not true though, is it? Yeah, I mean, there's kind of nothing like them. No, I am thinking I will go back, not for glitter boobs, but just, and by the way, thanks to all of you who,

a lot of people sent messages with hashtag your biscuits about their experience. I saw that, yeah. In the Keys once I kind of told the story of everything that I saw. I think the best moment from that whole trip though was the pirate ship, giant vehicle with the masks on the pirate ship

were like stripper poles and people dancing down the street. That was probably the- Old white people singing WAP? Yes, or at least playing WAP. Okay, yeah. That was the highlight of that trip and fairly recent. That was my number eight. My number seven is,

it was a pandemic milestone that kind of brought closure to an era of the pandemic. In 2020, Britton and I started connecting through Instagram and doing listening parties where we would, you know, we would make Spotify playlists under a certain assignment and we'd collaborate on them. We'd present, we'd build it together and then we would experience it live on Instagram along with anybody who wanted to watch us live.

Lily showed up for a couple of those and contributed to some playlists and there's a lot of memories. And it was a, from the early on in the pandemic, it was a lifeline. And it was something that I talked about over 2020 and towards the end. And then in June of this year,

we had one final listening party. I say final, cause we, I mean, it's not like we said, this is the last one we'll ever do, but it's the last one that we've done. And we don't have any plans to do it anymore. But it was in June, the 22nd listening party, and Britton was there in person in my house. So it was very much, it was very symbolic,

that, hey, we've done this thing where we couldn't be together in the same space. And now things are loosening up to the point that we can be together with a certainty that we're gonna be safe. And so it was very celebratory. It had some pre Good Mythical Evening vibes to it because I was so charged up,

just so exuberant about the fact that like we were together and it just, there was a lot of symbolism in it for me at the time that made it very celebratory that people were like, is Link on something? And it was, but it was just, what I was on was just experiencing connection that we had been waiting for for a long time. And I know that a lot of, you know, with our families

and with friends over time, over this past year, we've had some get togethers where you have that first hug after a year and a half of not seeing or being able to touch this person that you love. And that's what that listening party symbolized for me and was very special for us because it was the conclusion of something that was a lifeline.

And it was the best way to conclude it is being in person, wrapping your arms around each other. And I know so many of us have been able to experience that. So that's why I put that at number seven, which is the number of completion. So you're done? No, I have six other ones, but isn't that what number seven is?

Yeah, it's a complete number for sure. Number seven for me is sex timber, but specifically having Jesse and Christy on the podcast. Again, for the reasons I already said, I think that I always enjoy, I like, I don't know, something about, I don't know what it is, but I like being able to talk openly about things

that I feel like we've held back, right? And there's only so much of that you can do, but the whole process of being able to talk openly about these different stages and sort of the, you know, the way that we thought about sex was a really liberating and empowering just for me personally. But my favorite moment was getting the ladies on the podcast and having them be able to speak from their perspective,

which I know was a big moment for them to be a part of that and to see the way that everyone responded to that. Of course, there's like so many people calling for, well, we gotta have the wives podcast, give them a show, you know? Listen, if they wanted a show, they would have a show. It's not, if it was up to us, they'd have one. It's not up to us, it's up to them.

But I think that that represents a pretty significant moment. And I'm not speaking for Christy, I'll speak for Jessie. I think that, you know, they've been through their own journey through this whole spiritual deconstruction and the worldview changing over time on their own pace, in their own way. It's their story is their story, not ours. Jessie, I know being able to kind of speak

from her experience, you know, what it's like to be a woman in that particular system in a way that we cannot speak to or really even understand. It's something that she talks about on a regular basis with people, you know people that she interacts with, it's something that she maybe talks about on Twitter or whatever, but she's never kind of come into our world

and given, had an opportunity to speak to that. And so, and I was able to see how much it connected with other women out there who have similar stories or at least can relate to their story in a way that they can't relate as directly to us. Yeah, it was a cool moment. Really, I guess I didn't put it on my list specifically. So I'll just steal it from your list

and because I 100% agree that it was quite a milestone, not to just have them on the show, but to let them share their perspectives. And that whole series, I think was very rewarding. And so that was your number six. Seven. That was your number seven. My number six, as I already said,

was Good Mythical Evening, which again, I think the common denominator between the two is experiencing freedom, actively experiencing being free at a level heretofore we had not experienced. Being able to speak openly about our views on sex and our experiences, past and present, was, it's a great feeling to say, I'm not going to be held back

by what I'm afraid people might think about me. I am going to be myself and I'm gonna embrace myself regardless of if other people do. And Good Mythical Evening was an exercise of that for me. And the sex timber was an exercise of that for me as well. And it feels good And sex timber was an exercise of that for me as well. And it feels good to experience freedom,

when, especially when it's a big contrast from how you've lived a lot of your life in maybe just in certain pockets. But to have those pockets open up is very rewarding. Yeah. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout?

Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. I've already talked about my number six, which was the North Carolina trip. I haven't talked about my number five,

which this may sound like a smaller moment, one just an hour in time, maybe an hour and a half, but it's something that it only happens once, at least with each child that you have. And so my number five is Lincoln's first driving lesson. Back in January, I kind of took him off guard because he didn't have his permit yet. We just went out to a parking lot that was, you know,

so it was still legal. We weren't on the street. And he was like, really, we're doing this? And you know, all the memories of when I learned how to drive, when my papa taught me how to drive that pickup truck that he surprised me with for Christmas, that by the way, I remembered when I told that story, it was a little bit different.

You had called me Christmas morning and we didn't answer the phone and you left a message on my answering machine. And mom and I could hear you talking about, did you get that big red four wheel surprise? And I'm running over to- Four wheel surprise. Pick up the phone because mom didn't know that you knew. And you knew because I told you,

because I knew that it wasn't really a surprise and I didn't want to ruin the surprise. And that's how it happened. But I remember when I'm telling Lincoln how to turn and he's like, like we talked about it. It's like, I actually don't, I never realized what it feels like to push the brake and turn the wheel and try to, you know,

everything is so awkward. And it just brought me back to that moment as a 15 year old myself in that pickup truck that he gave me. And it was this, it was a rite of passage for him and for me as a dad that he was nervous even though he was there in a parking lot and it was awkward. And he probably had no clue that it was like something

that was very emotional and like a real dad moment for me. So much so that I'm putting it at my number five. I have another moment with Locke that I'll talk about. But yeah, same parking lot, by the way. I think that was this year. It's crazy, it feels like Locke's been driving forever by this point, but yes. You don't have to top my moment.

No, I'm not topping it. You can just go to your moment. My number five was the Hazel Project, which we've already talked about. My number four, I'll go ahead and go with my number four. Okay, so we're gonna tell you in general about a project because I can't talk about this particular week

that was a highlight of my 2021 without giving you just the general. And we have alluded to it. Yeah, so in 2020- I know what you're gonna talk about. In 2020, we came up with an idea for a movie that we wanted to write. Now we have not, you know,

since Gutless Wonders back in the day when we were 14, we've never written a screenplay. Like, you know, we've written TV pilots, we've written seasons of TV, things like Buddy System and books, but we've never written a movie, right? And so, and it's just, we like to have a bunch of irons in the fire and we have this, what I will describe as ridiculous idea for a movie that we just were like,

man, let's just make this movie. Like, we've got this idea for a movie. Let's just move to the next phase of writing it. And then when people are like, hey, you guys got any movie ideas? We're like, yeah, we've got here, here's our script. This is what we wanna make. Maybe we can get somebody to help us make it.

Maybe we can end up just making it on our own. I don't know how this is gonna work, but like, let's at least get to the script. Let's not just talk, let's just not get a kick out of this crazy idea for a movie, bring it up occasionally, and then realize it's been three years and all we've done is bat around a concept for a movie.

And as you might imagine- Let's move this thing forward. As you might imagine, given all the content that you see from us, whether it's this podcast or Good Mythical Morning or Good Mythical More or everything you see on social media, everything you see on the Mythical Society and everything else that's going on,

finding the time to write a movie is not something that naturally presents itself in our schedule. So I remember this pie in the sky. I actually remember we had conceptualized and even sort of roughly outlined the movie at the end of 2020. And I was thinking I was gonna take some time over Christmas break of last year

to like get started on the script. That didn't happen. Yeah, I mean, I almost put down, and I'm not gonna steal your thunder here with what you're getting at, but in September, we did manage to protect an entire day to complete an outline of the movie. Wait, so it took until September

to finish the outline. And at the end of that day, or at some point towards the latter part of that day, I remember us having a conversation about how much fun we were having. We don't have that conversation enough where it's like, today was completely creative. We weren't running a business.

We weren't interacting with our employees as great as they are. You know, it was like, it was back to the basics of just creating and collaborating. It was extremely rewarding, especially for me saying- And it was probably the only day of the whole year where that was the case. Coming out of a creative depression

and then saying we have this day where it's like, hey, we still can have this experience. And so that day of outlining brought us to a point where it, that was, I mean, just that day was amazing for me. And then it was like, okay, and now we can, we need to move to writing. Yeah, and so, and I told Jenna, shortly after that, I was like, listen,

I know the stuff that we've got going on right now. And I know the projects that are beginning to happen. And we know how the end of the year is. We need to reserve a week where I can go to a cabin. Yeah, in your mind, it had to be a cabin. And- Because that's where writers write. And just do nothing but write

and see if I can write a movie in a week. And you're really talking about five days, by the way. Yeah, five days. And it might've been just four days. Because I was gonna get there on, what did I got there on, on Monday. I went there on a Monday evening. And then I showed up on the Friday.

And then you showed up on Friday. Actually you showed up at Friday at like 2 p.m. because we had to do that Facebook live thing with Hank. Was that with Hank Green? So I was like, okay, between Monday night and Friday noon, mid morning, I wanna write a whole movie based on this. Now again, there's an outline.

So it's not like pulling things out of thin air. It's like, I know what needs to happen in this scene, but like the characters have to come to life and there's gotta be dialogue and you're gonna end up writing 100 pages, right? And so I was actually like on, a couple of days before I was like reading stories about people who would like busted out scripts really fast.

Like there's just stories of people being like, I had to get this script done and we wrote for four days straight and we ended up getting it done. But I've never done this before. Right? Yeah. So we talked about it a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I was like, I wanna have a first draft done I've done this before. Right. Yeah. So we talked about it a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was like, I wanna have a first draft done. And I ended up that even that first night, I wrote about 15 pages that first night just to kind of break the seal and get going on it, right? And then over the course of the next three days, I woke up about seven o'clock, would start running about 7.30 a.m.

and would not leave the cabin, didn't even get dressed. I would just brush my teeth, I had food with me, and would write until I couldn't see. Because there was no light in this cabin. And it was, you had an outhouse, no electricity. Long story short, things, time began to blur. There was a couple of times when I would stop

and I would like read through it and I would be like, and I texted you and I was like, man, I've lost perspective. I don't have any idea if this is any good. I keep getting to these places where I think that what we've come up with is too crazy and then I just don't know if we should continue and if this is gonna be a huge embarrassment

if anyone ever reads it. And what did I say? It was very profound. You were like, that's a really good sign or something like that. Yeah, I don't remember what I said. If you're getting to the place where you think that what maybe what you're doing is too crazy,

you're probably in the right place. So I kept going and when you showed up on Friday, I was like- You sat there and you watched me read it. I was like, hey, I have a script, man. I don't know what, I have no idea what you're gonna think about it. But we have a first draft.

And again, it was great. It's just a first draft. It didn't like the first draft is, all we have right now is a first draft. We're working on the second draft. I don't know when it's gonna be, how many drafts are gonna be. There's a lot of notes, it's gonna change again. But anyway, but you're breaking that seal.

With Stevie and with Mallory, they're not going to let us go another year without finishing this thing, coming up with another draft. I think in the next month or so, they're gonna hold us to a second draft, which is their jobs. Right. And so it's very exciting.

But again, that made your list so high because why? Well, one of the things I've talked about with my therapist is that I find a, like my happy place is in just a pure creative process, right? And I get into a creative flow when writing where the things just start coming together in a way where I know exactly how this character,

I want this character to be represented in what they would say in the situation exactly how this character, I want this character to be represented in what they would say in the situation and how this character would react. And it feels like you're kind of reading a script that someone else wrote. You know, you just get to a place where it's just like, I know exactly how this character would react. And I just don't get to do, I mean,

that's the thing that I would do full time if I could. I would just create 100% of the time. That's just not how our lives work. That's not the business that we've built. So, I mean, it made my list because I was in the zone and I was getting to do the thing that I love the most. I was reminded that I wish we could engineer our lives and our schedules to a place where it wouldn't have

to be crammed into four days to write a script in four days. Right. Well, maybe it can one day. Maybe it will one day. So I'm just, I'm not getting frustrated about it as much as I'm just being thankful for the fact that it happened. And it's just like, once you get that,

once you move that, push that giant boulder up to the top of the hill, it's like, okay, now we've got, we have the potential for some real momentum. So it's just because I enjoy it so much. My number four, and once I get into my top four, well, it's tough to order these in particular order,

so I wouldn't read too much into these. But I put it number four, Lily and I making a permanent decision to get matching tattoos. I mean, it's a moment that's memorialized forever and it's extremely special to both of us. She's back home for Christmas break now and I see her tattoo, she sees my tattoo. There's like, yeah, there's like a little,

Yeah, there's like a little, you know, the connection that we have is there permanently unless she like, well, I guess she could pull a Pete Davidson and laser those things off. Or she could just have an accident with a laser. You'd have to have a few accidents with a laser or one accident with a crazy laser. But it was, you know, for her to turn 18 this year, for her to graduate from college, I mean high school,

and she's had so many milestones and it was great to be a part of one that like is such a headline reminder, such a visual reminder of our connection was so special. And the fact that it was her idea was really great. I'm getting in, my top three are similar. They're all about each one about my family members. I will say my number one's about my wife,

but number two and three, random order, whether it's Locke and Shepard, they're a tie. They're both tied for second. So my number three is getting, and actually I'm gonna get to do this tonight. When I leave here, I'll get to do this, is watching Locke play basketball. So, you know, this is, he didn't get,

you know, he's been playing basketball since middle school and he transferred schools kind of in the middle, like right at the beginning of the pandemic. He literally transferred to a new school in January of 2020 and then the pandemic happened and so he immediately like, okay, there's no basketball season. He was actually playing basketball for the other school.

Anyway, so it's like, okay, there's no basketball season. He was actually playing basketball for the other school. Anyway, so it's like, didn't have a basketball season last year. So it's the senior year in high school. He's at like a small school where like, you get a chance, you can play. And it's not, you know, it's not as competitive as a school that he was at. So kind of looking forward to him being able to play.

But you know, Locke does a lot of different things and his focus on basketball was not nearly as- Singular? Intense as my focus on basketball growing up. Like going into my senior year is like, there's a few things I cared about, but like you could count them on one hand and one of them was basketball.

And it was like being the leading scorer on my team and like us being a good team, like it was like being the leading scorer on my team and like us being a good team, like it was like a focus. And so as basketball season rolled around, like there was actually a moment where Locke, right before the season started, he was like, dad, I don't even know if I want to play basketball my senior year. It's just like, I have a lot of other interests.

And I was like, well, you've been going to these practices, you know, like the sort of informal practices and your team is really small. And it seems like they've kind of been counting on you playing. And I know his tendency to kind of move from thing to thing. So I encourage him, I said, I think it would actually be a good thing

to just like stay with this commitment and just see this through. And I think it'll be something you look back on and be like, I'm glad I made this decision to play. Or at least something that you put in your top 10. Yeah. Just kidding. No, but honestly, it wasn't this thing of like, a dad wanting his son to play sports against his will.

It was very much like, I know Locke so well, and I think doing something- It would be a healthy decision for him. And being committed to something that's got some structure to it is a good thing. And so, you know, they played a couple of games and I was like, I don't know how this is gonna go. They got beat horribly the first game I ever went and like, you could kinda sorta tell like,

ah yeah, Locke really hasn't been working on his game, he hasn't been practicing and I'm gonna be very encouraging to him or whatever. But over the last few games that I've watched him play, But over the last few games that I've watched him play, there's like something just awakened inside him. And it was, and it's like, you can see the competitive nature of him come out. And it's just like the other night he had 33 points.

Damn! And then he had 29 points. He hit six threes in one game, hit six threes in the next game. I was like, oh shit, he's gonna break my record of seven threes in one game, hit six threes in the next game. I was like, oh shit, he's gonna break my record of seven threes in one game if I don't watch out. Did you tell him he knows about your seven in one game? Well, he's already beat my scoring record

because my career high was only 29 points. Does he know about seven in one game? You have to tell him. No, he knows, I've told him that before. Well, then don't tell him too much. But in the other night they were playing and they were down by, I don't know, they were down by, going into the fourth quarter,

it was a tight game and like Locke just took it upon himself. He just kind of took the game over and he had, I don't know, like probably 15 points in the fourth quarter and just like making all these shots and they didn't end up winning. It was very close. It was very close, but like, I don't know. It's been so fun.

That would have been a better story. You know, it's so fun because, you know, this is an experience that I didn't expect to have. I mean, I did, you know, it's like, I've seen him do things like diving and that kind of thing. And I was never like, I'm not putting any, I don't think that he's gonna be a professional athlete. I don't think he's gonna be an athlete in college.

It's like, it's more just like, this is a fun thing to do. I wanna be supportive. I want you to have something that you're doing that you're succeeding at. But it's just like, I saw him playing and I saw how laser focused he became on winning. And I was like, wow, I mean, this is something that,

like, I remember what it's like to be out there. I didn't know he was ever gonna have this experience of being somebody who's just out there and is like, I'm gonna take, give me the ball. Like, not like, oh, the pressure's on, I'm gonna pass the ball to somebody else. He's like, no, the pressure's on, I want the ball and I'm gonna make the shot, just give it to me.

And so it's become, it's super fun to watch him play. But there's a connection there. Oh yeah. To your past and his present, so that's cool. And I'm glad that he gets that experience his senior year, you know? He's like, I wanna focus on lifting weights. And I'm like, okay, lifting weights is cool,

but lifting weights doesn't generate memories in the same way that being on a team and playing together against another school does. It's just a different experience, you know? Lifting weights doesn't, I'm not, hashtag your biscuits, all you gym bros out there and gym gals, whatever your- I'm just saying, okay, yeah, you get-

Lifting weights doesn't generate- You get, okay. I know what you mean. You get a new PR, everything, whatever, but I'm just saying it's a different thing than a team sport. My number three is Christy and I going on our Big Sur trip. Again, my top four is, nope, I'm not saying that Christy's my number three. Okay, well, you said it.

I know what you said, well, my wife is number one, so. Well, you could've switched it. You could've done it. Don't read into that with me. But yeah, it was a super special experience. The rain in the Redwoods, which I talked about pretty recently. And it was a rescheduling of our 20th anniversary after we had already celebrated

our 21st wedding anniversary. And I'll always remember the two of us in the cabin with the rain coming down and it was just about us. There was nobody else on the planet. And there was no place that either one of us wanted to be. And to be at that point, at this point in our relationship is, you know, a lot of people don't get to experience that. So I do not take it for granted.

I'll leave it at that. I'm gonna save my number one, but that's my number one too. Not being with your wife in Big Sur, but being with my wife in Big Sur. Well then wait until your number one. So I'm gonna talk about my number two. Yeah, that's your next one.

Well, but so far when we've had one coincide, we've said that. Okay, well if you have a little space, you could say the same thing and people might think that- Well, I'll say something different. My number two, again, tied with number three is, this is a general memory and then I wanna talk about a specific thing,

but is my time that I've spent with Shepard one-wheeling. Thanks to your idea of getting the one wheel. This is your number two? Yeah. Because of me? This is your number one? Sowheel. This is your number two? Yeah. Because of me? This your number one? So does that mean me your number two? Kinda.

I made your number two possible. Well, technically the company Onewheel did, but yeah, you buying a Onewheel was a very good decision. I'm glad you did it and I- I'll take that. I'm a part of Rhett's number two. And you know, the thing is- That sounded gross. Is. And you know, the thing is, That sounded gross.

is the, you know, this specific challenge with Shepard is the fact that he, you know, especially over the course of the pandemic, when you couldn't really do anything and you're doing all your school online, he really made a connection with a couple of his friends that he knows from real life and they would play video games together.

Yeah. And they're playing lots of video games together. Yeah. And I have just a classic middle-aged dad perspective on video games, which is, I think that they are a total waste of time. Now I know that that's not totally true, okay? And I know that video games are not as bad for you, say,

as just sitting there and watching television, right? They're interactive in a different way, whatever. But I just don't want his childhood to be defined by playing video games, and that's it. And so when you got these one wheels, because we will go out and do some things together, but it's like, okay, if we're gonna go surfing together, it's like that, you gotta go all the way to the beach.

We're a long ways from the beach where we're at. We don't really do the mountain biking thing because my kids never really learned how to bike in a way that they can go do that. Even if I wanted to, right? Hiking is hiking, right? It's work for a child in their minds. The moment we went over to your house,

when you said, hey, we've got these things and come try them, and it's just like, you know, Shepherd just got on him and just did it. You know, he just got on it and he was gone. And I was like, okay. And he's like that when it comes to those kinds of things. So I wasn't necessarily surprised, but the thing that I was sort of excited about,

I was like, because he said, "'Dad, you should get some of those. "'We should have those.'" And then I got him the thing, we each got one, and he rode it 100 miles in the first week on his own. And he goes all over the place on the thing, right? I don't even care anymore where he goes. As long as he's got his phone with him, just go, man.

Live a life. Be like a kid from the 80s. And a helmet. Wear a helmet and some pads if you can, if you remember to do that. Wrist guards and a helmet and a phone and you're good to go. But, and then we'll have these days where we're just like, hey, it's Saturday afternoon, let's go.

And just a few weeks ago, we went to just a really special, sort of, there's a lot of like parks and sort of open recreation wilderness areas in LA if you know where to look. And it's one that you've been to and you had told me about and Shepherd had been there because he had done like a camp there or whatever in the same area. But we went and we just had this day

where we were going on these trails and we just kept stopping and like literally saying things that you would say in like an afterschool special, which is like, I'm having such a good time. Don't do drugs, dad. Yeah, and both of us kind of realizing how good of a time we were having. And like, he will do it.

I don't, even if he's in the middle of like one of these quests on one of his games with his boys, if I'm like, Shepard, one wheel? He's like, guys gotta go, hangs up, and we go, right? It's like, I don't have to convince him to do it. He has such a good time doing it. And he's better at it than me,

because he's smaller, and so he's willing to go a little bit faster. He can go up things that I can't go up, so that's a cool thing that he's like, kind of leading and going in these things. Yeah, and he'll really remember if you take him out and he breaks his wrist. Well, I'm honestly very surprised

he hasn't broken something yet. It is inevitable. I'm referring to the fact that's what happened to Lando. It is inevitable. He's back on it now. He's gonna hurt something. He's back on it. But hopefully that won't slow him down. So that's in general, but that day,

just a couple weeks ago when we kind of had that incredible experience, found like these new trails and stuff and found these new parts of LA that we didn't know about, that's been really special. Yeah. My number two is we had an addition to our family join us in 2021. He is golden and peanut butter in color,

but kind of looks like my other dog, Jade. So yeah, Jasper came along in February of this year. And you know, Christy had been, I was like, as long as the, I just want another Jade and I'd love for it to be a peanut butter Jade. And Christy really wanted a dog more than I realized. Cause Jade's my dog. She's very loyal to me.

And I remember when she first showed me the picture, I was like, this is a peanut butter Jade. Let's go meet this dog right now. And I'm pretty sure, I don't know if I told the store here or on, yeah, I'm pretty, or on Good Mythical More when I introduced Jasper to the Mythical Beasts. But there, Christy has experienced a connection with this dog.

Jasper was already a year old and had separation anxiety really bad. Like the woman who was the foster mom said, "'I can't put him down. "'I have to carry him all the time "'because he jumps and cries.'" Just like- Put him down is probably not the best choice of words.

Put him down on the floor. I have to carry him in my arms. And so, yeah, for the very beginning, Christy had to like cradle this poor dog who was afraid of who knows what from his past. But his foster mom was a blonde woman. Christy's a blonde woman. It was, the handoff was very immediate.

And the connection that they have is, it was so much, I didn't realize the point, the extent to which Christy needed that type of connection at this particular point in the pandemic and what she was going through. And so she would say, I am so grateful for this dog. And I mean, we all love him to death. I have this connection with him as well. He's still like, everybody loves him,

but he's weird about other family members. It takes him a while, it's taken him a while to warm up, even having been almost a year with us, with everybody except for me and Christy. But he's brought so much into her life that it's just been, I mean, we can put up with the fact that he still has a lot of trouble with being housebroken. Oh man, we're having issues, we still have issues.

So it ain't all roses and slices of pie. I will tell you that by any means. I mean, it's like caring for a baby that you're trying to figure out. And he's trying to figure out life with us. Well, you know, I will say when I had to pick, I had to pick him and Jade up. That's right.

You know, from the dog border. The dog border sounds like someplace like the dog nation, you have to get, you mean like the, whatever the kennel or whatever you call it. And- The pet resort. Taking Jasper and Jade home, like as soon as I got, first of all,

when the lady handed, Jasper was like frozen. Like as she handed him off to me, Like a taxidermist? He was just kind of like frozen, just kind of like his eyes were like really big, but he didn't growl or anything. And I just kind of took him. He knows you.

And put him in the car, but he was in frozen mode with the lady and then frozen mode with me. Yeah. I put him in the car. I start the car up and immediately he just jumps into my lap. And then I'm like, oh, is this how it's gonna be? I was like, buddy, you can't be in my lap

because it's against the law, as Christy learned. You cannot have a dog in your lap. We have a special carrier now. He insisted on jumping into my lap and I kept having to move him to the passenger seat. And eventually I was like, okay, it's not that far, 10 minutes. He just sat in my lap with his head on my arm while we rode.

Yeah. And then Jade starts barking at me because she wants me to pet her. So I'm sitting here driving with one hand, your peanut butter, Jade, is in my lap with his head on my arm and I'm constantly petting Jade and if I stop for a second, she barks and growls and claws at me.

Yeah. And so I'm just like, good Lord, these Neal dogs are so needy. Yes. Yeah. It's nice to be needed, I think is what Christine and I say. I thought Barbara was like,

No. Barbara's super needy at home and she'll bark at you and stuff like that. When you drive, she wants you to pet her a little bit and then she'll go and lay down. But no, no, no, not Jasper and Jay. They're gonna give it to you the whole time. I noticed that Sokka did not make this spot.

Well, he was added last year. Oh, okay. But yeah, he's, I mean, we're definitely warming up to him and he's found his niche in the house, in the home ecosystem. But yeah, he's not gonna make my list here. But yeah, just to see that certain kind of love

that Christy needed that was different than the kind of love that I can give, that you can only get from a dog that adores you like a god, I guess. So it's just been super sweet to see their connection and for that to be just a part of really seeing how a connection with an animal can really be therapy. Oh, transformative.

It can be transformative therapy. And it has been for her. And so for him to be a bonafide member of our family is super special. Okay, my number one is my trip with my wife to Big Sur, which was also to celebrate our 20th anniversary, which it actually was our 20th anniversary. We had originally planned to go,

I talked about, again, there's another episode where we talk all about this trip, so I won't go into too many details, but we had planned on this go, I talked about, again, there's another episode where we talk all about this trip, so I won't go into too many details, but we had planned on this being our 20th anniversary in Italy, of course, that kind of travel didn't happen this year. So we went to Big Sur, and in a similar way, as you were talking about with Christy,

the level of intensity of our connection during that time was something that we have, you know, that was the pinnacle of the intensity of our sort of singular connection to each other this year. It was an incredible, it's hard to get that level of connectivity when you're at home with kids, with the jobs that you both have and both very busy.

And so we have the fleeting moments that were throughout the year, but there was this focus on one another and we took a whole week. You know, we basically were up there for a whole week. And because we were like, we're taking a whole week because we weren't gonna be in Italy, but we can't be, so let's just make it a week.

And, you know, we still talk about that. And we made us end up going to Big Sur for our anniversary from here on out. Probably not because we'd like to go to new places, but we talked about it because it's a super special place. And then the type of connection that we experienced and the type of sort of the level of the communication that we were able to have and the clarity of communication that we were able to have

for that week was just one of the highlights of our marriage, honestly. And then I talked a little bit about sort of the spiritual processing that took place on that trip. Once you leave an organized religion, you're no longer really a part of a recognizable faith community.

And there's not ritual and gathering in a book. You know, that's one of the wonderful things about organized religion in my mind is the structure and the community and the ritual and the practice. And that's one of the reasons it's so successful. And that's one of the reasons it's so successful. And that's one of the reasons that the community, communities are so vibrant because people need

that kind of connection. Most, a lot of people need that kind of connection. Now, since I no longer believe in a particular religion, and I'm no longer a part of religious community, the spiritual processing can be something that happens sort of just like in spurts, and happens sort of on an individual basis, and it doesn't happen as much in community,

and it doesn't happen as much, there's not as much structure and direction to it, and it can be super beautiful. That week for us, in a couple of different moments, and just the sort of the spiritual connection, and I'm not gonna go into too many details, but the spiritual connection that we had was also kind of feeding into the just human connection

that we were having and the love connection that we were having and the way that all those things kind of played together. I talked about some of those realizations that Jessie was coming to and she told, and she talked about that on her Twitter as well. But that was one of the things that made that special, is that, hey, we go months sometimes without having a meaningful spiritual connection

in the context of family. We have really sweet moments. We have really sweet moments. We have really loving moments. We have intense moments of connection with one another. But sometimes we don't have what we consider spiritual progress. And to be able to get that week was something that I greatly value.

That's a good number one, my friend. Yeah. My number one, maybe a process elimination, you can figure it out, was sending Lily off to college. I devoted an overly emotional commemorative episode to unpacking the details and all of the tears associated with that. But just realizing that our family is different now. It was a rite of passage for her and a successful one.

She's experiencing success in her first semester away, her first quarter away. She's back home, she's finished it up. She's got that under her belt. She's doing great. It's not without its challenges. It's not without its moments of being afraid or lonely or all the things that you might think

of an experience, she's had tastes of all of that, but it's been very much a positive in trajectory for her, which is a huge relief for Christy and I. And, but then also realizing that like our status as people have changed, like I have a child who, well, I have an adult child who's out of the house. And when she comes back, it is different. And I was being very dramatic about the way

that I was processing it. And I enjoyed that because it made it very meaningful. But yeah, it's like, she comes back and it's like, how do you feel being back home for Christmas break? She said, it feels like, kind of feels the same, but I know it really doesn't in every way. And for us, it's like, things will never be the same. We've crossed a threshold into a new era as parents

and as a family. And I'm grateful that it's going so well for her and for us, you know, that like she surprised me. And when I came home from work two nights ago and she was there, she had moved her flight and she came back early and it was like, yeah, I almost burst into tears of happiness to see her, but at the same, but I didn't actually, I didn't go that far.

It was like, okay, this is kind of our new normal and we're moving into the future. And it's like, everything associated with this can't be the most dramatic thing because it will be absolutely depleting. But yeah, it's, I just feel like it was a successful rite of passage and for her, I think it will only happen once.

I got two more that will have their own versions of rite of passage, but this was the year of that and absolutely became my number one. And when she put her hand in that glove that had all the ants on the inside of it and stung her. Right. When she got to college, that was one heck of a rite of passage as well. They did that at her college, right?

That's what they do that at all college. She told you but not me. But you know what I'm saying, right? So that's my number one. And there you have it. We have no zeros. That's it. You got a rec that's in line with this?

My recommendation for you is do the same thing. I think we made this recommendation last year, but I would have liked to have taken more time, but just even if it's taking 30 minutes and going back through your camera roll, I wrote down every month of the year and then everything that was the beginning of something or, you know, I wrote down like probably 35 things

and I did not think that would happen. But when you go through, like you said, go through your calendar, you go through your photo roll, you can go through your email or your journal. Like all these things will jog your memory and just writing that down, like I have this record of every year that we've done this that I can kind of go back to by month

and more than just the 10 things. The smaller things as well just mean a lot. When I went back and I read last year's and prepped for this year, a lot of memories flooded back. So I recommend you take the time to do that for yourself. And then if you have a podcast, turn it into an episode. Yeah, it makes a great episode. Speaking of podcasts, this one will be back

on January 10th, 2022. In the meantime, you probably haven't listened to every single episode and you know what? It is okay if you wanna listen to another podcast. But we prefer you just listen to archived versions of ours instead. Just make sure it does not replace this one in your heart. Hashtag Ear Biscuits, let us know

what reactions you have to this. And we wish you the best through the end of the year. Happy holidays, happy new year. We will see you in 2022.