Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Our Top 10 Moments of 2023 | Ear Biscuits Ep. 407

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

It’s the end of the year, and that means it’s time to look back on all the things that made 2023 great! In this episode, Rhett & Link are recounting their top 10 moments of the year – from commencement speeches to solo camping trips to staying on anxiety meds and more, this year was truly one for the books. 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. How you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. My voice sounded shaky. This week at the Roundtable of Dim Lighting,

it's maybe my favorite episode of the year. It's an episode of reflection where we look back at our experiences over this year. Pretty meta if you think that this is one of your greatest moments of the year, is this podcast, because this is all about the greatest moments in our lives. Yeah. Top 10. Did you do 10 again? I did 10 again.

My top 10 moments, which, you know, we always expand to kind of like experiences or happenings or occurrences of the year. Did you have trouble narrowing it down to 10? Because that's also an indication of how good of a year you've had. I feel like this, no.

This year, I did not. Oh, you had trouble making 10. I didn't have trouble making 10, but I don't think I have as many honorable mentions. It was a simpler year. I deleted my honorable mentions. I don't know why I did that. Yeah, I'm not going to mention mine. But I think when I. Honorably unmentions. It was a simpler year. I deleted my honorable mentions. I don't know why I did that. Yeah, I'm not going to mention mine.

But I think when I... The honorably unmentions. When I went through my first batch of just sort of thoughtless thinking, which is what we almost called this podcast, I had 12. And so I was like, oh, that's a pretty good year. You can think of 12 things that you were happy about. Well, the thing that I do is I write down everything that happened, and I don't put a filter on it.

I probably have a list of like 40 or 50 things. Everything that happened? What do you mean? That was of note. Like anything that was a milestone or anything that happened or anything I did. But you sit down and think about everything or you're saying you go to some note that you've been taking notes on? I usually look through my photos. Yeah, I definitely do that.

And I look through my notes and I look through my letters, my physical letter correspondence with my pen pals. It's funny how our photo albums have become our journals. Yeah. If you don't journal, which I don't journal enough for it to be a reliable indicator of all the things that I did. It's funny. I was listening to some psychologist on some podcast. You know how you get drawn into some podcast.

psychologist on some podcast. You know how you get drawn into some podcast. And he was saying, you should only journal your negative experiences. And then he had some long reason for it. That sounds horrible. No, and it actually was, I'm not even going to go into it. It was kind of fascinating.

I was like, well, that would be an issue. Maybe we'll do that next year. The top 10 worst things that happened this year. The bottom 10. Yeah. But let's, let's, let's go. Let's go. Um, where do you start? You get on long sleeves. Oh, okay. Gotta have a reason. I'll say, I'll start. Why you think your number, your number one is going to be the, I guarantee you that your number 10 is not my number 10. If that's what you're wondering.

Yeah. But if I go first and that means your number one, unless, well, things get out of order, but you're number one is last, and I want to make sure that the very ending of this thing is the best of the best between the two of us. This is another reason why I wanted you to go first, because I am reasonably certain, if not completely certain, that my number one is on your list. But I don't know if it's your number one, which is interesting. But it is definitely my number one. So we're doing something different. We discussed this a second ago.

We've been doing this wrong. In the past, when we get to a moment that we both share, we let the guy who had it ranked higher talk about it then. But that steals the thunder of the guy who has it ranked higher, especially if it's his last thing, because then he's talking about his best thing before the end. Right. And so this is an effort to make sure that we both get to talk about our number one last. Yes.

I'll go first. So I think we'll get there regardless of who starts. Coming in at number 10 for me of the year is a milestone that will never happen again. Turn in 40. It's one of those things that only happens once. Colonoscopy. The 2,500th episode of Good Mythical Morning. Quite a milestone.

Wasn't on your list, was it? No, it wasn't. I realized, I was like, man, this is, you know. It's not that it doesn't mean a lot. Right. It wasn't on my list. And then I'm like, well, this is a, that's a nice round celebratory number. I'm waiting for 3,000 to be on my list.

I think 2,500 is a better number than 3,000. I don't know. There's a five in it. I want more O's. I like a good five. Five is my favorite number. I didn't know that. You didn't know that?

Five is your favorite number. You got five fingers on each hand. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You got a five-inch pecker. Let's see what else. Don't laugh at that. Let's see what else.

Don't laugh at that. I'm talking about when it's flaccid, man. I mean, it was a joke. Flaccid. I'm talking about flaccid. Laugh at it. I'm talking about flaccid, man. It was just a joke, so you can laugh at it. Flaccid. It's a compliment.

You know what's a... Jenna's like... Don't put a camera on me! Okay, all right. It was quite a milestone. Yeah, it was. I regret not putting it on my list. No, I have a GM-related thing.

The fact that we're still doing it. We're still doing it. You know, we sang the song. We wrote the song. We sang the song. We had a good time celebrating, and then we put it out into the world, and, you know,

it was a sentimental episode which reminds us of the special place that Good Mythical Morning holds in people's lives and their daily routines and it's a it's very relational and there's like a there's a deep connection that goes beyond just are these goofballs gonna make me laugh today or not or how many how many more times are they gonna eat you know once you really get involved in it um it's it's so friendly that it's almost familial but sometimes friendship is better than family because it's by choice wow i'll leave it

at that choice every day i just wanted to acknowledge that we after doing it for so many years for so many episodes it's um you know it's still an important part of our lives yeah and i think that one of the reasons i mean but only number 10 obviously the reason that we say okay let's there's a round number let's celebrate it is because when something and this is probably why it's not on my list because gmm is this fixture right it doesn't feel like a moment so it doesn't cross my mind in the same way it's like on my list? Because GMM is this fixture. Right. It doesn't feel like a moment, so it doesn't cross my mind in the same way. It's like a lane, a very important lane in my life

that I'm kind of always in. Don't plan on getting out of it any particular, you know, not soon. I'm getting out of the lane soon. But it doesn't really register as a moment. But that's why we dressed up in orange suits and sang the song. I just forgot about it.

But my number 10 is GMM related. Oh, it is? And I actually think this is probably not in your top 10, but I think you enjoyed yourself as much as I've seen you enjoy yourself as when we watched my frickin' real world audition tape on Good Mythical Morning. That was one of, oh, that's your top moment.

Well, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be, I'm going, this makes it on the list because of the significance of it. Did I enjoy it? No, it was horrible, it was torture. And I think I said it on the podcast, and maybe I said it on the show, I didn't know we were doing it as an episode. I knew that we were doing it on the podcast and maybe i said it on the show i didn't know we were doing it as an episode i knew that we were doing it on the mythical society right and i remember sitting there

watching it and first of all i was like not only was i you know i was embarrassed by my old self for all the reasons that anyone is embarrassed by their old selves you don't like the way you look or the way you sound it's just cringy and embarrassing that makes you feel better about it but um i was also like hesitant about the fact that i was i i was such a different person and i said some things that i was like is people going to be mad at me for the things i used to think you know how people are these days yeah people get mad at you if you did something in the past even if you changed and so i was sort of like i there was a part of me that was like i was on the the verge of being like, I don't know if we should release that real world thing on the society. And then I turn around and I show up one day and they're like, we're doing it as an episode today.

And somehow it just, I usually know the things that we're going to do in general. But somehow, because it's funny because we were in the meeting the other day and Kevin was talking about how it was his idea to, he was like, he watched it. He was like, I think we've got enough here to make this into a GMM episode. That'll be perfect for bringing people over to the society to see the whole thing. Yeah. Thank God they didn't ask you. And, um, you know what? I'm glad they didn't ask me. Cause if they had asked me, I would have said no. And I'm actually glad that it, I'm glad that it got out there because if they had asked me i would have said no and i'm actually glad that it i'm glad that it got out there so is that what what makes it number 10 is that it was a visceral experience that it was unforgettable or something more no i think for me the reason

that it carries significance not too much just number 10 is i think when we shared our stories in 2020 and we were able to finally like peel back the history of who we used to be and we had been concealing that very strategically for a really long time because it was difficult to explain and embarrassing and all that stuff yeah there was this sense of like when you take the part of you that you, that you are like, have the most shame about, and you bring it out into the open, into the public and just talk about it. It, for me, that was a really transformational thing that changed the way that I see the way that I talk on the internet about myself. Right. But to not just hear me talk about it but to see that guy yeah is a different it's a it is a few levels up of exposure and vulnerability that i think yeah at this point nudes of me could leak

and it would be like okay whatever i don't care don't care. You know what I'm saying? I don't think I've got any that could leak. But at this point, I wouldn't care if they did is ultimately what I'm saying. If it's a nude and you are leaking, that's really bad. Well, leaking what, though? Exactly. Anything is going to be bad. I'm sorry I said that.

Should I go to my number nine? Please. Okay, yeah, I'm like, where did I put it at number nine? Okay, this was the year that I got my tattoo. Oh, yeah. My plant quarter sleeve. Yep. Jade was at the end of last year, but both sessions of the plant were this year.

But the moment is, it's kind of a two-for-one here, because it's the fact that I got something that now is big and is on my body forever. But there was this, what we discussed about the picture going viral and like the whole butch twink thing and what I said about it at the time. Yeah. Link the boink. I got to be honest. I think that after the episode, I continued to – after recording the episode here where I talked about it and I said the thing about like – I said something about I don't – Stinks. I don't sweat the stink and – I follow instincts.

I follow my instincts. And stink makes you smell. And this is who I am. Something like that. Honestly, on the i think that well there was more reflection for me okay after that all right and i'll say that um i had a difficult time after that and i realized that what i said on this podcast about it was a little aspirational. You want to be a twink. What do you mean? I want to not care what people think about my tattoo. Got it. And I want to not care

about labels that people put on me and say that I look like something that I'm not. And I put my best foot forward and say, you know what? I'm going to assert that, that just yourself be as weird as you. I'm going to go into that zone and say, I don't sweat labels, and I'm going to say something that is, I don't know, that you can put on TikTok. You were manifesting. I was manifesting that a little more than I realized, honestly. Emphasis on man.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty good, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every once in a while. It's still a little hard for me to laugh about it, but I'm not going to say that, I don't know. What I'm going to say is it's part of the story of my tattoo now that

the thing that i'm that i've had to learn is i really it really tested my resolve of am i standing by the decision i made and who and who i am and not some sort of label or somebody saying something offhand that might get millions of views just because it's funny. There was a point where I thought about it. I engaged in my mind a little bit too much after the fact, and it shook me up a little bit, and it was a test of resolve, and am I going to – do I really care too much? We don't experience a whole lot of being misunderstood. It does happen.

I do feel like the feedback – the internet is becoming more of a place where there's more and more pitfalls of feedback. There's more and more opportunities to make a healthier decision for us to tune things out, to not take certain feedback into account i think a lot of the internet it's just that's been something that i mean people may be thinking what i'm saying is like well this is nothing new you know people have always been this way on the internet but i feel like we are experiencing more of this and there because and i chalk it up to a cultural shift oh yeah i mean i don't think we're... I think we're putting more of ourselves out there and maybe that's part of it.

I mean, I've been talking to you about... But it's just a cultural shift. I've been talking to you about this for the past year or two and I felt like every time I said it, you would say, I don't know what you're talking about because I would tell you about how,

regardless of the source, I'm not going to name sources in terms of where the comments are because they happen to be everywhere. It would stick in your crawl or get in your head. Well, I've always been someone who is not, I don't spend a lot of time in the comments, but it doesn't take much time at all

to find something that strikes a nerve, right? Yeah. You've heard every YouTuber in the world say you can see 100 positive comments and then that one is the one you remember. And I've always kind of just been like, I've got a thick skin and I know we're not for everybody.

I'm not for everybody. But the thing that you're talking about, which is like being misunderstood or being misrepresented, being mischaracterized according to the way you feel about yourself. I feel like that's something that has increased in frequency that I've seen. And so I've been in a place where I was like, man, I've been doing this for 15 years and it feels like the frequency with which

I'm thinking about this is increasing. So the frequency in which I'm looking at anything that's said about us is going down and down and down. So yeah, I think it has increased. And I do think it's cultural. And I think the reason why this is a moment for me, or the second half of this moment is about this experience is because, yeah, it was the first time that I feel like it got in my head, and then it started to spill into what you're talking about, like people's criticism of me or assessment of me on Good Mythical Morning. And I think it started to have an impact on me. It started to have an impact on what I thought of the audience I was talking to.

And I, you know, I started to get angry. And I started, and I'm no longer talking about just the tattoo response. Because then I started to let in, I started to pick up on more of these, like, critical comments about all types of stuff. Oh, picky eating or personality or what's the word? Attitude. And then it became this self-serving thing that's like, oh, people are criticizing my attitude and now it's giving me a bad attitude. Like, and it's giving me a bad attitude. Like, and it's impacting my performance. It's impacting my ability to be the best version of myself.

And that made me more angry. And so it was like this negative spiral that I don't know if the tattoo thing started it, but it was a big part of it. And, you know, I feel like it was, like you said, you were coming to these realizations or having these experiences at a different point, an earlier point, when I was like, oh, yeah, I'm not phased by it. And I wasn't. But then I had this point where it's like, damn, I'm getting really phased by this. And I know this is not a good headspace for me to be in. And I'm like, okay, at this point I should give some sort of update that should be. And you know what?

I got over it. Now I'm totally great. I don't think I can say that. It's not that I, I think that I've, I'm, I've processed it in a way that now I'm still trying to figure out how to fully integrate this. What's the word? I mean, I'm fully integrate the conclusions I'm coming to into the practices, fully integrate the conclusions I'm coming to into the practices, like the way that I read comments, the way that I – the amount of power that I give. I think it's just having my guard up a little bit more and being a little bit more sensitive to how I process things

and knowing when to step away. And it's something that I would have advised other people to do but i never experienced it in this in this way and allowed it kind of allow the negativity to get inside my head i think it's the first time that really happened because you can release something that's outside of yourself you know maybe it's a serial and people are going to criticize it and it's like there's you have to it's different it is challenging a process right but it's different than putting yourself out there and that there's there's a line right yeah in that the personal aspect of it so i think this is the year that i was like, okay, this shook me up, and I think it's a good thing. I'm grateful for it. And I'm adding to my tattoo.

What are you going to do? Go down my arm. With what? A surprise? A surprise? More plants. Oh, more plants. Specifically. Which is what you were planning on doing. Yeah.

Right. Exactly. Yeah. There we go. There's a whole podcast. There's a whole podcast here. In this. I think when we do our...

This is a long, long teaser. Well, it's not that long because we usually talk about our like – give our like deconstruction updates in February. A lot of what you're talking about has been an element of what I would call roughly my spiritual attempt at spiritual growth. And this has been, because some of the things I've been reading have been directly informing the way that I've been processing some of these things. Okay. And so more to say at that point.

It's ultimately a positive milestone of personal growth for me, and I'll take it as a good teaser for what you're going to talk about next. Yeah, and I will say that that is the big thing, is that it is good. I think it's good. Actually, having received it makes you a better person. It's ultimately what I'm saying. Yeah, and I'm not mad. I'm not mad at anybody.

Number nine. My solo camping trip. I thought it might be higher than this. Okay. I know why it's not. But if I'm ranking it on in terms of, you know, like meaningfulness or enjoyment, like, you know, I had the incident with the van sound, which when this comes, when does this come out?

What date does this thing launch? It comes out on 12-18. Okay, so by this point, when you're listening to this, I will have put, it's the last thing that I recorded when I went up for that trip is me in the van.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I still had never launched it because I kind of forgot about it until I went through this. Oh, I've got one more video I can put out. But anyway, yeah, it was still a really significant thing for me, that trip, and reminded me that make time for myself and need to ideally do it every single year, but if not every single year, no more than like every two years have time where I'm going out and spending some time alone.

So yeah, it was- And you'll check that van beeper before you do next time. I could have checked it before and it just started while I was out there. That's true. Yeah, so I think that I kind of, the significance of it is I learned

what I want to do differently next time. Ultimately. You know what I mean? Yeah. But still reinforcing the importance of doing it. You have a longing to do it again, right?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I definitely want to do it again. My number eight is... What about your number nine? Oh, you already went. Yeah. My number eight is a solo experience of a different type. I've actually put... What? What's happening?

Oh. This comes out on my wife's birthday. And you knew that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You knew that December 18th was... Oh, of course. Right. I don't forget my wife's birthday. It's a week before Christmas.

What was I saying? My number eight is a solo experience of another type. Okay. It is the Streamy Awards. Yep. Streamy Awards, you left me in a lurch. I was hoping you'd put this on your list because I didn't. You had COVID.

COVID. I did. I was watching Citizen Kane while you were up there. Because you weren't watching the streamings. No, I did. I finished Citizen Kane right before the streamings came out. I put this on the list, and I'm going to refer back to it with something else on the list. In my mind, it's related to something, but I'll just share the portion of it.

Yeah, just the fact that like, okay, something that we have always done together, I had to do by myself. I had to do, I had to introduce an award, and then I had to accept show of the year. Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't get to do that. But I had to be ready to do that. I'm sorry we didn't get to do that. But I had to be ready to do that. And so going up there and, like, doing a comedy bit in front of all of our peers and, you know, all of the world watching, it was a higher-pressure situation than I wanted to admit to myself.

Like, it felt like, it's like, oh, man. Like, it felt like, it's like, oh, man, I, my approach is generally to, like, it's very, I'm more seat of my pants kind of thing. And you're more like planning and we make a good team when we go up there on stage and do something like that. And it was so last minute that I just felt like it was a, it was a test and I didn't know how I would do. And I was very – I was relieved that I pulled it off, that I did good. It was very funny. It was maybe the funniest thing that happened that night. And funnier than if we were there together? Not a high bar, but –

Maybe, but just as funny. It was the funniest thing that happened. Just as funny as if we were there together? Not a high bar, but— Maybe, but just as funny. It was the funniest thing that happened. Just as funny as if we were both there. So it's, you know, I just think that it was a milestone moment for me where I had to deliver. And I couldn't, you know, you just can't— We have the luxury at certain points. I mean, I feel this way. I hope you feel this way sometimes where it's like

hey in certain situations when we are put on the spot as a duo you could you can cut your eyes at the other guy and know that he's got it yep you know yeah for sure so and that we're there's we're so good in that mode that we learn to depend on each other in certain ways that like the parts, the two parts equal the whole so it's not it's not about ever doing that comedic especially going out, you know, going out there on a stage

and there's not even a podium in front of you you know, you're not hiding anything so yeah, it was a big test and a big win. And it was kind of a first of its kind for me. Well, maybe you have to get sick next year so I can see what it feels like. See what it feels like. Yeah, I thought it went well. And I mean, I could tell you were a little nervous because we talked beforehand. Oh, because we had an idea.

Yeah, we had this... If we won show of the year, you were going to call me. Right. I called you and I pitched what I was doing and you gave notes on it. Yeah. And then we talked about what we would do. So I was going to call you if we won.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't win. You remember that we didn't win. And I found out we didn't win when it, you know, about before the announcement, like seven minutes before Show of the Year was announced, I knew we hadn't won because of the way that it was announced by getting letters from people.

And I saw letters that weren't in Good Mythical Morning and knew someone else had won. Remember how it was done? Yeah. Hopefully they don't do that again. Yeah. That's not a great way to do it. 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. Number eight for me was our college friends Colorado trip. Go.

It's not on your list? No, it might be my number one. Maybe it's on my list. If it's higher on your list, I can't talk be my number one. Maybe it's on my list. If it's higher on your list, I can't talk about it now. We wait until it's... Oh, yeah. Keep going. Oh, snap!

Our boys are going to hate us. You're on your own. This is like the streamies, man. I'm not even a piece of cardboard. It was the best trip, except that Tim was late, and he screwed it up. And I think that's why it went off the list, because he had too much flight trouble. Wow. This is surprising to me.

I'm going to be completely honest. You forgot about it. I feel like that we got feedback that we talk about our trips so much, that I de-emphasized trips on my list this year. Ooh. Because it's a privilege to be able to go on the trips that we go on and the excursions that we go on, friends and family and all types of stuff. So I kind of got self-conscious about it.

Okay. Well. But yes. Tim. I thought you weren't worrying about the comments though Hey If you're a man who took some trips Hey I'm a man who took some trips

And I got my instincts And my stink don't smell Cause I go to Colorado with my friends That's not how he said it It was quite a moment boys I guess I'll talk about it since it is on my list But you just didn't do it For me this year.

You could say that it was great and it would be on your list if you weren't self-conscious about seeming like a rich dude who goes on trips. Yeah, it was great and it would be on my list if I wasn't trying to do some like... You know, image management. Image management. I'm beyond image management. No um i'm pat i'm beyond image management no i'm trying to be but anyway there was i had a good trip i mean it's only number eight i mean don't get too excited guys um i uh this has become an annual tradition we're gonna do it again in 2024 yeah it's the only thing that we do like this

where it's like... Still haven't nailed down the plans. Boys who get together, college boys who get together. It is very special. And I actually think

that that moment, if I am to pick a moment... Pick a moment. Because I am trying to do that within the moment. You know, the general moment

being the trip, but the specific moment I actually think is while we were waiting for Tim. Because... Yeah, yeah yeah the phone call yeah well we like conferenced him in that was that was the moment and you know he was we talked about it before but it was a way of including him when he was driving across the entire state of colorado it seems like and um yeah and also the fact that we didn't die in that river,

that was pretty cool. Right. But I think that's become, it's a really special time and it, you know, it's a,

what you might call a novel experience, right? We, by design, we are trying to have a novel experience when we hang out

with those guys. It's not like, hey, does everybody come over to somebody's house. It's like, let's meet in a place and have an adventure, create a memory, do something that's somewhat dangerous. In order to create a milestone that kind of makes it seem like your life isn't going by year after year. And the next thing you know, you're just going to be dead. With no friends. And I will say that the recent Bigfoot sighting

was on the train that we were on. That's right. Mm-hmm. I mean, it was just a guy in a suit. That's right as well. But the recent Bigfoot sighting in Colorado on the Silverton Mine train or Silverton, whatever,

that train is the train that we took up to get into the water to come down. And we didn't see the big feet. We saw no big feet. I love you, boys. Should have been on the list. That's my bad. So I am at number seven. Number seven for me is the experience of my father-in-law, Christy's dad's, brush with death. I actually unpacked this story completely, not on Ear Biscuits, but on my other podcast with my dad, Dispatches from Myrtle Beach. So if you want to

hear me talk to my dad and like tell him the whole experience, it was very scary. You know, just in a nutshell here, Chrissy's dad was fishing and reached into a bait bucket and pulled out a minnow and it was in the river water, and, like, cut his arm, and, like, it was bleeding, and he dressed it, and two days later it was, like, infected. And Vinny was in not only the emergency room, but in the ICU for over a week. He ended up having a special bacteria called Vibrio that has like a 50% survival rate.

Yeah, not good. And he survived. I mean, he's still dealing with the infection in his arm to a certain extent now. He's going to a wound specialist and still trying to figure it out. But, I mean, within a few hours of finding out that he was in the ICU, we were, like, booking a plane ticket. The moment for me is the decision to start booking that plane home. Like at 3 a.m. we were booking a flight that we would be on a few hours from then. And when I told Christy, uh, take your big suitcase

and pack what you would wear at a funeral. You know, it's like, that is a, that's a moment that I'm just not going to forget. And then when we show up and we're like taking turns spending the night in ICU with him so everybody else can go home and sleep and stuff like that. And he was always conscious. And he, you know, he was always making he's making positive progress. So it was like it was it was the scenario was pretty encouraging, but still very scary and, and certainly still touch and go. And, you know, you've got family members, loved ones who are, like, going through stuff, and you have to make that decision of when you go home and how quickly do you get there. You know, something clicked in my brain. It was like, you know what, I've got the means and the ability in terms of how we run the company and stuff like that to drop everything and be where I need to be. And, you know, I know there's some people who don't have that luxury. And I was like, this needs to be a no-brainer. And when I got there and we were there

caring for Christy's dad, there's just something about the feeling of knowing that you're doing the right thing and that you're putting your love into action. There's a – I won't say it's a reward, but there's a satisfaction in knowing that you're doing the right thing for the people that you love. And sometimes it's hard to have clarity when an emergency hits to make a decision – to make the right decision. You know, I felt like we could have waited. Well, you know, we'll see how he does, and then we'll go home. And for us, it was the right decision to, like, we're going to get on this next plane. And so logistically, everything worked out to be there, and it was, you know, when we went home for Thanksgiving,

it's like, I mean, Christy's dad is a different person because of the this near-death experience you you can tell by the look on his face like personality wise no but posit in terms of his attitude like I mean uh he's uh he's got a he's got a new lease on life he's got a new lease on life, and you can see the gratitude associated with that. And I could tell that it made a difference that we were there. And he let us know in a way that he doesn't normally talk to us about these things. It's like, so to see that he was impacted by the fact that we were all there for him was very powerful. And it's the type of thing that, like, you know, when I'm on the,

one day I hope to be on the receiving end of that whenever something happens to me. You don't be on the receiving end of bacteria like that. No. Come on. But you know what I mean. Don't manifest that. So it was a big moment. Thank God he didn't die.

I mean, the past few years, I would have a moment about somebody dying. That's what it's been for the past couple of years for me. So I'm glad it didn't happen with him. That's my number seven. My number seven is giving the commencement at NC State's engineering graduation. All right. You're going to have to save that one. Okay.

So that's your number seven. Yeah. All right. So am I going to have to save that one. Okay. So that's your number seven. Yeah. All right, so am I going to my number six now? You go to your number six. Yeah, number six is next for me. Yeah. My number six is Scooter Club. Now, I've talked about this in a number of different ways,

but I've never been, I don't usually always just call it Scooter Club, but I am a member of a club, a social club called the Scooter Club. And I also call this – Why? I'll tell you. I also call this my dad friends. Okay. Or parents of Lando's friends.

We all met when Lando was on a flag football team two years ago. And then the parents, we all would show up, and we all kind of hit it off, and we started hanging out. But then the next level was the dads, just the guys started hanging out. And so occasionally we'll do that. Maybe it's like once every two months or so. And then we like planned a trip to Vegas. We went to Vegas earlier this year.

So all of a sudden, what was like this social group that I was like folded into this bona fide. Well, it's not a Bonafide. It's still an unofficial but almost official club. During the pandemic, there were like two – there were up above us in a different part of the neighborhood. They would all get together and hang out in their front yard socially distanced. And they built a friendship and maintain some sanity through the pandemic. And their kids, the kids would, like, be scootering around in the neighborhood

while they would be, like, sitting in the front yard socially distanced having a beer. So the kids were on the scooters. So the dads called themselves the Scooter Club for their kids to be on the scooters. And so there was a point where I was officially invited to be a part of the club, along with a couple other guys. Have you made your hats yet? And then we had, like, somebody bought patches that say Scooter Club, and I'm putting them on hats, and it's not completed.

Now, if you go back to Vegas, are you going to do the thing where you all wear the same hat so you can find each other and they're all hot pink? Yeah. No, they're going to be black. Like a youth group? It's more like a biker club, but it says Scooter Club on it. I mean, at this stage of life,

it's nice to find a whole other group of friends. You know? I like to be social. And I don't want to wear out my welcome with you or with... I've got really good friends. You're one of them. Mike's one of them. Our college buddies are long distance, some of them. They didn't make the list. They didn't make the list and these guys't make the list, and these guys did. Sorry. Now I have a group of dad friends.

We're hanging out. We're doing something Saturday night. It's just nice to have another social outlet where we're just like, we're all on the same page. Just chill out, hang out. All we need is a good fire pit. It's nice. And this was the year that that solidified.

Now, as we know with friend groups, it might fall apart at any moment. We know that. And also, your Scooter Club connection ended up... That was the pie-eating in contest, too, was that group. Yeah, but that ended up getting us into... Trouble? Halloween Horror Nights.

That's right. That's right. I had a connect there. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh, for the Halloween Horror Nights. One of your scooter boys is like... See, you're benefiting from this. He's like the man over there.

Yep, yep. Yeah, I mean, I'll benefit from your scooter club a lot, just as long as I don't have to be in it. As long as I can benefit from it. Yeah, it's going to be totally separate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're never going to meet these guys. Well, I've met that one.

I've met that one. Yeah, you met him, but it was in a work context. My number six. They've actually asked not to meet you. Yeah, well, that's good. Well, because I, yeah. I made it very clear. They also don't listen to this podcast or watch any of our videos.

Yeah, I prefer that for your fans and for my fans. Me too. Me too. So we can talk shit about them. Yeah, that's true.

My number six was the release of my James and the Shame EP. I thought this would be higher. Okay.

It's the second one. I think, yeah, I, you know, I think it's where it is. I'm sure that, I'm sure, I don't remember, because I don't remember much, but I'm sure that last year my first album was higher on the list.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's funny because I was just, we do our AMA on the Mythical Society You know I was just talking about this on the AMA You know I one of the things that I've been trying to figure out is well about You know the James and the shame stuff is like the whole point of it is for it to be it's a hobby It's a hobby. It's like a real it's a release, right? It's a get to, not a got to. So many of the things that we do, I mean, first of all, our whole job is a get to, not

a got to, but as anyone who has a job that they really enjoy will tell you, lots of the get to's become got to's as soon as you need to make money off of it. Or it needs- A lot of get to's become got to's when you got toos become got-tos when you've got to go through. Right, and when you've got a team and a business and all this stuff. And so while even something like this podcast, which is like, this is not work, let's be honest. It's not work, right?

But when you take a step back and you think about... It's not as easy as it looks. You think about the product that is Ear Biscuits, and you think about all the meetings we have, Jamie, about what we're doing here and how to make it better. There's a work element to all the things that we do. And the other thing is every single thing that we do, that's a part of mythical, we have to talk about. We have to tell people to watch it, right? It's the marketing side of things.

Like, oh, we got to, in fact, we've already skipped over where we were supposed to do the ad in the middle of this episode. Let's do it right now. This is a good point to do it. Like literally right now. Let's do it right now. Just as an example, like we want you to know that you can get 20% off all gifted plans to the Mythical Society.

So when you give a plan to someone, probably including yourself if you want to cheat the system, between the 19th and the 26th of December, you get 20% off. More information at mythicalsociety.com. Do you see? We interrupt your podcast to bring you breaking news. Tim's Classic Breakfast Sandwiches are just $3 when you buy any size coffee. You heard that right, $3.

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Get rewarded for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Terms and conditions apply. Click the banner or visit bmo.com slash rise to learn more. Something like that AMA we was talking about. I am happy. You can experience that. I am happy to do that, right? But if we get excited about something,

then we also have to find a way to get someone else excited about it, right? We're constantly like, every time we get a new piece of merch, we're taking a picture, right? But I don't, so what's the, is there a contrast coming? Yes.

I desperately do not want what I'm doing with my music to become that. Do you understand? I don't want it to just be another thing that I'm trying to my music to become that. Do you understand? I don't want it to just be another thing that I'm trying to get someone to care about. But there's an element of it like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do the photo shoot and I'm going to release this merch and I'm going to do, I'm going to go and record myself playing these songs. Right. But the part that I enjoy

about what I do in my music is the the music I enjoy writing songs and I enjoy recording songs and if you're going to record them well you should release them and I and I do enjoy people who enjoy the music connecting with the music right but the moment that I start thinking about it in a way where I'm like this has to work or this has to make money or this has to become this thing that I promote and takes up space in my mind. Yeah. It's just not fun anymore. Like, I want it to be fun, you know?

So are you saying that's why it was number seven on your list? No, it was number six. Well, it's number six because, yes, you know, obviously, like, the first time, the first album. Okay, yeah. And the meaningful sort of theme of that album being around deconstruction and it was like yeah it was the it was the first

and this was like the follow-up but i do think that it was the year in which um because there's more going on at mythical that I'm creatively excited about than I, than was going on last year than I was creatively excited about. We'll talk about that at a later number. Um, I think that it was kind of like, all right, I, you know, I don't have a lot of space in my, in my brain for this other than it being the thing that like i go home at night and sometimes i'm like i don't want to watch tv i want to get my guitar and i want to start playing and then next

thing i'm writing a song and that's a fun activity for me i'm never going to stop doing that but if i'm like i've got to set aside time to do this thing that's work then it's no longer fun do you know you know the band fun which I'm a fan of. You know, they called it Fun because they were like, we're going to do this because we think it's fun and we're going to do it until it's no longer fun. And that's why there's only like two albums or maybe two albums. They broke up because they were like, it's not fun anymore. Yeah. Because that one album was so big.

It can happen. And they were like, oh, this is too big. Everyone's coming to our shows. And it's not fun anymore because now it's become this thing that we have to maintain. And so I think that it's been good. It's on the list because it's been really significant, and I love it. But it's lower on the list because the level of enjoyment in the second round was like, every time I do it, I'm learning a little

bit more about what I don't want, the parts that I don't want to do. And I think the part that I don't want to do is to promote it at all. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, so maybe I'll do another album at some point, but maybe- You'll never hear about it. Maybe you won't even know about it. Or maybe you'll find another compromise that won't send you that far. I'm sure I'll do more music. I'm not done with music. I've already written another seven, eight songs, but I'm just saying

just because I'm constantly writing, but I am not going to be like, all right, I got to go set aside a weekend and make a music video, etc. My number five is this is two moments at different points in the year that when combined make a milestone of this year as the year that I decided I am not going off of my anxiety medication. Okay. Of my anxiety medication Okay I have This is the year that I've made that decision

And it took me going off My anxiety medication Twice Yeah, I went off And I think I talked about it On this show, didn't I? Did I? Yes

Back in like April Earlier in the year And if I And I I would cringe so much if I watched it back because I'm probably going to say the same thing now that I said then, which was, you know what? I just felt like I was in a good place and I had a number of things in place. Ongoing therapy. It's been a great year for therapy for me um you know

wrapping up my second year with my therapist like that's going great uh yeah so i i talked about making the like being lulled in this position and thinking that like oh i don't i have enough of a support and i don't need this. I don't need the medication. And I went off and then I decided to go back on. And I talked about it after I decided to go back on. And now, and then it was, yeah, it was just this past month that I decided, yeah, when I got back home from, like, Christy's dad being in the hospital,

I'd forgotten to take the medication with me when I went. Oh, and then you were like, well, maybe I'll just go for it. And when I got back, I was like, you know what? I've been off of it, which, first of all, don't go off of medication cold turkey. Don't, and if you find yourself that you skipped and, oh, this is – that doesn't make it a convenient time to just not take whatever medication you're on. That was not smart for me.

But I was like – I kind of – I was like, you know, I want to go off and I have my reasons and I'm not sharing them because they're not good reasons. But I was like, it was, I made it more, it seemed more eloquent to me than like, oh, I don't need the medication anymore because I know that that's what people say. And that, that means that the medication's working. And that's what I said back in April or May. And here I am. I was like, I mean, it's, you know, I just feel like, I mean, I'm eating a little bit of crow here, but I think it, I just want to,

it's something that I've really decided. It took me forgetting and having to go through it a second time to realize that like- How long did you go off of it the second time and what made you change your mind? It was, the second time it was like, it might have been five weeks. Might have been six weeks. And I just, you know, and did it coincide with some of what I was saying about like the tattoo stuff and the comments and things getting in my head?

Yes. The tattoo stuff and the comments and things getting in my head, yes. Like the level of rumination and like downward spiral of like, I just found that there were things that I was, and there were other things too, like challenges that we were facing here at work that like, I remember at a certain point when I would get up and walk the dogs that I would look up and I would see the trees. And I had space in my life to enjoy the trees.

And then I found, I observed that when I would walk my dogs, I was looking down. And because I was not, my eyes were just making sure I wasn't going to trip because my brain, I was in my brain. I was just inside of my head obsessing about the challenges that we were facing or something that I was concerned or upset about. And that's rumination. It's just a downward spiral. It just keeps going. And I would say to myself, you know what? You're not getting anywhere. Stop. Just don't think about it right now compartmentalize something that i've been

really good at in the past and i could not do it i could not do it i was like oh two beats later thinking about it again intensely all right no no just put it aside that's all i got it it's like you know so i observed that i observed like just a level of reactivity irritability um some of it is coming maybe someone's coming off the medication but then i and but for me it was also like just quality of life. Quality of life, quality of relationships. And so just kind of saying, all right, I'm not going to fall for my own tricks. So at this point, because, I mean, like every time you talk to my wife about this, she tells you the same thing. Yeah, yeah. She's like, I did it years ago, right?

She's like, you're going to come off of it a couple of times, and then – I'm not saying – people who want to come off of the medication for whatever reason and are successful in doing it, great. People who want to stay on it, great. We're not telling you one's right and one's wrong. But at this point, do you – is it the kind of thing that like you've discussed with christy so it's like hey don't let me do that again because it just seems like it happens to everyone i know right yeah we we've heard the story a lot like you had to have somebody me i thought i was

the exception you have to be having somebody in your life who's like okay remember what you said to yourself so that's Christy at this point. So it doesn't have to be me is what I'm saying. Oh yeah. Unless you want it to be me. It doesn't have to be you. It can also be you. Okay.

But I- Because you didn't ask me either time, you just did it. I didn't ask Christy either. You're not obligated to ask me, but I'm saying, if you want me to hold you accountable and you're inviting me to do that, I will volunteer as tribute, I will do it. But if you're inviting me to do that, I will volunteer as tribute. I will do it.

But if you and Christy got it handled, then I'll back off. I will say that I didn't tell Christy about my decision. She was still back in North Carolina, attended to her dad, and I was back at home making this decision and then not wanting to have that conversation. You know, because I knew how that would go. You were hoping that you would be cool like a month later and be like, you know what?

I've been on vacation. Exactly. And I'm cool now. I did talk to my therapist. No. And I was embarrassed to say it to my therapist. Oh, you didn't. I didn't even talk.

Yeah, forget about that. All these are. Always consult with your therapist. All these are huge red flags. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're not telling the people that love you the most the decision that you've made, red flag. If you're not telling your therapist who you talk to every week, red flag. Yeah, that's a big one.

And I see this much more clearly now. this much more clearly now. And I think I'm getting to, I'm getting, I'm starting to get back to the better place I was, but I'm not completely there yet. But I can tell that I'm

making, I'm heading, I'm experiencing the benefits again. I'm getting there. Well. I'm getting there. Well, I'm happy for you. So yeah, I do invite you to be a part of this conversation. As a listener

to you, I do not invite you to... Oh, too late. Conjecture on... Too late, bro. Is he off his meds again or starting to map things that I've done in the past. Hey, it's how some people entertain themselves. Just let it happen.

It's fine. Yeah, I guess I won't be reading those comments anyway. My number five is, I mean, we won't talk about trips. A trip. Another trip. The spring break trip that I took with my family, my immediate family, my boys and my wife, where Shep and I went scuba diving in the shipwrecks. Right. And, you know, obviously the diving in the shipwreck, it stands out as the most sensational novel experience.

That's what you remember. the most sensational novel experience. That's what you remember? However, I actually think the most significant moment was, you know, we had been down there for a few days, just me and Jesse and Shep, and then Locke was going to fly down and join us. It was Shep's spring break, not Locke's spring break, but Locke was going to join us on that Thursday, you know, spend a few days with us. spring break, not Locke's spring break, but Locke was going to join us on that Thursday, you know, spend a few days with us. And that first night of like having dinner together as a family and thinking like, it was the first time, you know, we had been to see Locke

at college and he had been back home to see us, you know, over Christmas and Thanksgiving, whatever. But it was that, okay, this is, I'm with my children on a vacation my and one of them is an adult who's living his own life who is now joining us for this vacation and i'm like this is kind of the way that it's going to be yeah and it kind of registered right like yeah we're gonna see each other holidays whatever um so i mean it was a good vacation we had a great time i mean lock and Yeah And it kind of registered Right? Like Yeah we're gonna see each other Holidays whatever So I mean it was a good vacation We had a great time I mean Lock and Shepard

Did get into that fight That I told you about On the podcast But yeah I think it was Formative for both of them Okay You shouldn't If you would not have mentioned it

You would have increased The chances of not remembering That part of it Yeah well actually And by accessing it And re-remembering it I actually shaped the memory itself i know you did uh but yeah i think it was significant in that uh a milestone moment

of you know that represents just a new stage in life of having one kid that is off, doing his own thing, living his own life. The default is that they're gone, so when they come back, it's a return. It feels different. Well, and them not coming back to our space for the holidays, it feels different. Them coming home, but like, no,

we're going to meet in this place that is equally foreign to both of us. And we're together, like we're on vacation together. You know, I haven't really processed it much, but it stands out as like this moment of like, oh, there he is. He's this kid that grew up in my house and we're having dinner and you know how many more times and you know i'm gonna see him quite a bit but like i'm gonna see him a lot less than i was seeing him like you start thinking things like that yeah uh let's see we're to my number four we are at my number four

Let's see. We're to my number four. We are at my number four. I have given this the special spot for my solo camping trip. Okay. I just had, like, the best time. I'm glad for you. I had such a better time than you did on your solo trip. Even though we did meet.

Even though we did meet. On your solo trip. Even though we did meet. Even though we did meet. My relationship with Jasper the dog is forever changed in a positive way. Is he your favorite now? No. Okay. He's not going to get a tattoo?

I don't know, maybe. Someday. I don't know. After he dies. No, I don't know. Someday. I don't know. After he dies.

No, I don't know. But now when I look back at it, I do have this longing to, like, spend this time alone and knowing I can do it. You know? It's the most time I'd ever spent alone, so it was quite a milestone. And it was extremely rewarding and rejuvenating. And I just crave it. I now have a craving for it. Had you not done a solo trip before that?

Yeah. I thought you had. When I went to Slab City, I was interacting with people all the time. You mean just by being completely on your own. To be isolated. Yeah, my previous trip wasn't like that. So that's it for me. My number four is a two for one.

I have been able to – do you want me to scare you, Jamie? Yeah, just real quick. I'll just stop paying attention and then repay attention. Jamie, hiccup. That was going to scare her. This is actually kind of phenomenal that I thought about it. I was able to go to

two NC State sporting events with my father this year. The Carolina State basketball game and the Carolina State football game and we beat their asses both times. Okay. And like, it doesn't their asses both times. Okay. And like, it doesn't happen hardly ever in basketball, right? Mm-mm.

So most, so I should never go again. Yeah, I know. I feel like I just ruined it, right? But this past, it was, you know, just this past Thanksgiving, you know, very recent. I had this idea, knowing that we we were gonna be back in North Carolina for Thanksgiving I was like you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna it's like I'm gonna get is I'm gonna buy as many tickets as you can buy at once to this NC State Carolina game cuz every year though Saturday after Thanksgiving for

the past I don't know how many years State Carolina have played that every year did they play each other that last game. And it alternates whether it's at Keenan or Carter-Finley. It's going to be at Carter-Finley. I don't think I would want to go to the Keenan game. But it's going to be at the Wolfpack house.

And you know, I bought these tickets before the season started. When I had reason to believe that we might lose. You know, I bought these tickets before the season started when I had reason to believe that we might lose, you know. But I was like, it'll be great to, like, take Locke and Shepard and my dad and Cole, my brother Cole, to the game. And then, you know, I'll have, like, three other tickets for, like, what other family members want to go.

And we went to the game, and I think it had to be the first football game I've been to since we were, like, right after college, I think. Oh. I think I went maybe to a couple of football games. No, I went to a couple of football games in the years that we lived in North Carolina between, like, a decade, a couple. But it wasn't a regular thing. But I, I mean, I've made it clear that I don't care about a lot of sports in general, but I've always just had this affinity

for NC State sports, which makes me a man of great character. How intense was the experience with them winning like that um nc state fans are crazy man i love it we're bonkers like we and we just hate for no no rational reason we just hate we hate them we hate carolina and i just love i just love it i it. We all, I think most of us know that it's all kind of pointless, but it's just there's something about it. If you're like a huge fan of some, you know, soccer team, right?

There's a bunch of Americans who are just big fans of, you know, football, overseas football. Apparently, yeah. They're just crazy about it, right? And the rivalries. So that's the closest that I understand. You're a part of something, and you brought your family. And also, it was a night game.

It was cold. It was 37 degrees. That's cold. 37 degrees is cold once you've adjusted to California weather, right? Yeah. It's always as cold once you've adjusted to California weather, right? And also, the stadium is so much cooler than it was when we went there. When we went there, there was some grass above the end zone where some people sat.

It's a full bowl, and they've got this giant screen. There's all these LED lights that immediately change the colors. Fireworks go off after every touchdown. There's jets that fly over before the game starts. Is there nudity? No nudity, unfortunately. Maybe next year. But 56,000 people, not an empty seat in the place. It was just

so packed. And then we just beat the hell out of them. We went up 20 to nothing. And I was kind of hoping for a game, but it's also just so great to watch them lose like that. Okay. And I was like next to my dad, which my dad's so funny because he is a huge sports fan, but he is a huge Georgia football fan. And Georgia was playing Georgia Tech. And as I was telling my dad, I was like, you know, Georgia's not going to have any trouble with Georgia Tech. Georgia's the best team in the know, Georgia's not going to have any trouble with Georgia Tech.

Georgia's the best team in the nation. They're not going to lose at Georgia Tech. But my dad has a buddy. You remember Dan, Dan Teat. Remember Dan Teat? Huge Georgia fan. So they text constantly when they watch Georgia football together. Sometimes I think they may be on like a phone call.

I don't know. They are like, they are in it. Yeah, I remember you told me about it. And so my dad is like texting, Dan Teat is texting my dad as my dad is sitting there at the NC State game. My dad's like looking at his phone. Not that he wasn't present. He was watching

the State game, but he was, boy, he's got to know that Georgia's got this thing under control. Yeah. And then, of course, my brother went to Carolina. He's in his, and he was like, he was actually, he's not like an obnoxious Carolina fan, which is an oxymoron.

I mean, he is one of the exceptions. But, you know, he's not one of these guys that just thinks that they're, he doesn't think that he's better than everyone because he went to Carolina. You know, like my wife does, for instance. Okay. I'm just kidding, Jesse.

I love you. She doesn't really care about the rivalry. But he was like, I don't know if I'm going to wear. He was questioning whether he was going to wear his stuff because he's not, like, crazy about it. I was like, no, wear it. And I wasn't like, wear it so that we can make fun of you. I was like, wear it because you went to Carolina.

You should be proud of it. I'm happy to bring you along. But he told me, he was like, the stuff that was said to me. He was like, as I went to the bathroom, he was just like, the stuff people say to you, they just say anything to you. And it was like, there's Carolina people all over the stadium. Do you have a quote for us? No. no.

And I don't remember exactly what he – I don't remember. I can't remember what he said. Probably more cheap shots. But it's just cheap shots, just people just say something to you just in passing. Just like he was sitting on the edge next to the aisle, and he just said, everybody going by would just say something. Don't buy one of our wieners. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

That kind of a thing. So anyway, that was a great, it was a great experience. You got two NC State on your moments list. It's kind of like, I don't know, man. It can't get any better. I just don't think it can get any better. It doesn't get any better than being in Carolina and being there in those atmospheres.

Maybe if you sang the national anthem. Yeah. Before him. Well, Scott, you know, Scotty McCreery was the one that got up there at the beginning and got in the end zone and fired everybody up and said, Wolf, pack! And I was like, when do I get to do that? I mean, yeah, okay, Scottie McCreery, American Idol, I get it.

Great guy. Has he given a commencement address? I don't know, but I'm like, here I am. I'm ready to go, man. Put me on the field. My number three, just to stay on theme, is the NCSU commencement address. Yep. So, did we tell you to hold off on yours?

Yeah. It was number seven for me, so you go first. Well, we did them separately. Right. Yours was number seven, and it was number three on my list. It means more to me than it means to you. Okay. I don't know why. I think that it means number three to me because, you know,

when I was talking about the Streamy solo thing, I had the added confidence that I needed when you left me in the lurch at the streamies because of the experience I had given the commencement address. I mean, and I just feel like, do I have notes? And yes, do we fully analyze it on the show? Yes. But before I get into like my thoughts about it again, just the fact that we had the opportunity to do it is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was just such an honor and an awesome opportunity to do it. And so we had to say yes. But then it's like you approach it with some trepidation.

It's like, well, am I going topidation it's like well am i going to be able to bring my complete self to this thing and i think that's where that was the experience for me was that like something that was such a high honor and such a milestone that uh few people Few people get to experience. I brought, I was my true self there. And that made it a little strange. And I like that. And that, it gave me, it gave me confidence. It did the opposite of what I was talking about earlier of like, okay, I, this is me. And I'm going for it and I'm going for it.

I'm going for me. You know? I'm totally going for it. The link of it all. And I'm glad. I'm glad that I did that. And I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do it. And I think it, yeah, it had a lasting impact.

Yeah, it was meaningful for me as well. I, you know, I think that there is, it can be difficult to kind of understand what it is that we've done with our lives, I guess is how I would say it, right? Right. Because, I mean, I would say we've been doing it for so long, and at this point we've gotten feedback from individual people who say that the things that we've gotten feedback from individual people who say that the things that we've done, some things that we've done

have been very meaningful for them and have been, you know, helped them through difficult times or whatever. And I've heard that enough to now, like not have like embarrassment and shame about people actually finding what we do meaningful, which is not an easy thing for me to do. I don't know what it is.

I grew up in a family where it was like it was all about performance, but it was always like there's an act like you've been there before kind of vibe in the McLaughlin family, right? Like you score a basket, you score a touchdown, you don't act like an idiot. You just walk into the locker room. Of course you were going to do that, right? And I think that there is this like – there is a reluctance to accept the like –

somebody saying this was meaningful to me or what you do is meaningful. Because I always just want to be like, yeah, but not really. Wait until the next thing I do. That'll be meaningful, right? That's just my disposition to just not accept the praise or whatever. And so I think that there's something interesting about when you're asked to give a commencement speech at an engineering school, it feels very serious. And it almost feels like we don't deserve it.

Like, yeah, we went here. We got our engineering degrees, but, like, we don't use them. You know what I'm saying? So I think that when people – especially, you know, people came up after and and were very um you know they said a lot of really nice things about like taking the time to do this or this your speech meant this to me or whatever and that it was meaningful for me but i think i have a difficult time um accepting that sometimes you know as is that what I'm getting at? Yeah, I do. I also think that there was,

I just think that we interact with things a little bit differently. Like, I think there was a big question in my own mind of if I could do it. And not that I could pull it off in a certain way. And I think for me, it's like, should I do it? Yeah, we had different questions on our mind. You know what I'm saying? You know? Yeah, so I understand that.

That puts you at what? Number three. that puts you at what? Number three. Number three for me was getting SCUBA certified with Shepard. And probably the moment that is most meaningful from that is, you know, when we went to the second part of the certification, when you go to Catalina Island and you actually, like, get in the water. Yeah.

And, you know, it's like Shepard, he's a teenager. He's a teenager, and he's a 15-year-old kid, and, like, he's a cool 15-year-old kid. And, you know, he doesn't get – he likes a lot of things, but, you know, he's not going to let you know all the things that excite him that he's into, right? He's not going to let you know all the things that excite him that he's into, right? He's not going to be like super enthusiastic about it. Yeah.

But he was very enthusiastic about diving and just loved it. I mean, almost was like he was using all his air because he was so excited when he was in the water. And I was like, why is he using all his air? And Hal, our teacher, was like, well, he's because he's moving around a lot and looking at everything and breathing a lot. He's using a lot of air because he's excited. And then that translated into us being able to go scuba diving, you know, on a vacation and then with you and Lincoln and – or you and Chase.

Lincoln couldn't go that time. Right. I just confused Chase with Lincoln. Me too. Yeah, you didn't correct me. But also, this is a little bit of a two-for-one because that turned into Shepard's experience of going to dive camp. Right. That was a pretty pivotal experience for him

in getting down to a place where it was super humid and hot and mosquitoes, and it was a difficult experience, and it was the classic I'm at summer camp and this is difficult. And this was an experience that I've really wanted for him for a really long time to like go have a difficult time and get through and then on the other end be like I wouldn't trade it for the world and that's essentially what happened to him and so um yeah I am you know I'm grateful for it. We need to go again. It's too cold now, though. Need to go again.

That was very dad of you. Yeah. That was a very dad one. That's good. That's good. My number two is going to pull me into daddom. This was the year that Lincoln went off to college. So the moment for me is Lincoln's, we went on a beach trip right before he left for college. And it's like between that and then like a week later, moving him in like that, that's like such a huge moment. But like everything that we were doing, like what we would do for spring break or different things over the summer,

there was this awareness that, hey, this is your last hoorah with us in this way. We know with the experience with Lily and what you're talking about with Locke that things change a little bit there's like you're about to cross a threshold and it it was uh it was it was special to like have this year with him and to send him off in that way and I think about the moment of like we're all walking on the beach and like we're talking about his expectations and um you know having already sent lily off to college and knowing that like having that realization that um that the relationship changes but it can still be very robust and it can can grow, and it can develop in new ways. So bringing that confidence to the interactions that I was having with Lincoln and sending him off, and it was less sad,

and it was more celebratory the second time around. And very special. And then I think the fact that he's thriving and when we've gone to visit him and when he's come back home, it's my version of what you were saying with seeing Shepard really connect with something and to get excited and to take on a challenge separate from you, like when he went to camp, and then seeing that Lincoln's taking on these challenges and thriving and becoming more of his own person, is that this is the year for that. And arguably should be my number one in a lot of ways. And in many ways is.

But, yeah, that's it. That's your number one. Technically my number two. Okay, my number two is a very specific moment, and that was my forest queen and little twig boy moment that I had with Jesse that I have talked about on this podcast, which, as I also covered, was a moment that was not far enough removed from the moment where I heard you and your wife having sex.

So that's unfortunate. Not for me, it wasn't. My second best moment of the year is very, very, like, so close to the time when I heard you having sex with your wife. It's like it's still echoing in your moment. My moment, or I'll say our moment, was echoing in your moment. But the reason that this is so high on my list, not only was that a great trip to Big Sur, wore the t-shirt. You know... What's a t-shirt?

I am really enjoying my wife these days. Good. And I believe that my wife is really enjoying me. Relationally. Yes. I mean, sexually as well, but that's wife is really enjoying me. Relationally. Yes. We, I mean, sexually as well, but that's not what I was saying. Is that what you were trying to say? Yeah, you're saying relationally.

I'm talking about relationally. I'm talking about the time that we spend with each other, right? Like being each other's, no offense, favorite people, you know, like, and it's something that we're kind of like realizing as we get older, not saying that we want Shepherd to leave the house. But I'm just saying that as the years draw short of us being empty nesters, we are very excited about it. We like spending time together. And so I felt like that was, and again, that was a weird moment in which we were role-playing

as these characters that we invented on the spot, the Forest Queen and the Little Twig Boy, which I still regret that we did not go through with becoming these characters for halloween we talked about it we had a little bit of a plan something happened around halloween that was a distraction that i can't remember what it was and we didn't end up doing it but it's but it that that moment of connection of like silly connection was emblematic of this something that is happening more often, which is us really enjoying our time together in a way that's like getting better, which I'm just very grateful. And I'm not saying

it's something I've done right or she's done right. I mostly am just like, oh, wow, we're lucky. We're lucky that we like to spend time together and we're liking spending time together more as we get older. So yeah, I don't know if there'll be more role-playing and I don't know if the Twig Boy was a one-time thing. But it was a special moment in a special year where we found ourselves saying that more and more often. I love that for y'all.

You're each other's biggest fans. Yes. Isn't that? We are. It could be dangerous, you egging each other on. What do you think is going to happen? I don't know. This brings me to my number one.

Well, brings me to my number one. Okay, it brings me to my number one. Okay, so I think we have the same number one. I was hoping, I'll be honest with you, I was going to be mad at you if this wasn't your number one. Because I was going to feel betrayed. Oh, good. You'll notice that I put my wife as number two. Just so we're clear, me connecting with my wife was the second best moment of the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said that the Lincoln thing should have been my number one, but it wasn't. Okay. This was the year that we relaunched programming content videos on the Rhett and Link channel. Oh, that's not my number one. I'm just kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. That's my number one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. That's my number one. I am so excited about next year because of what we've done this year, because of the process that we undertook and the creative processing and development. I believe that we will look back on this year as the year we restarted something. We started, not restarted something, we started something new on an OG channel, but something completely new that then became a defining part of our careers. Hell yeah.

How would you put it? The thing that is so exciting to me about what we're doing and what we are going to do is that this is the first time in many, many years in which the thing that I am most excited about creatively is not something that might happen if someone lets us do it. Right. It's a thing that has happened, happening and will happen if you know there's not an accident meaning these ideas that we have in this process that we are currently undertaking

all the pieces of the process that will result in a actual piece of content that someone can enjoy. Like, we are in control of as much of it as you can be in control of. And that is, I don't know. You know, I actually think that that is when, you know, I alluded to this earlier when I was like, in relation to the stuff, my music stuff it's just like you know I had more time last year I mean we never have much time but like in terms of just like creative space you know we were doing what we've always done for the past few years and we were like trying things and having conversations with people etc etc and then this year shifted to

like no like when I sit down and I start thinking about things that excite me creatively, I'm trying to find a way to put it into a video that will work on the Red Link channel. And so it's just changed the amount of creative space that I have to do anything else other than that. do anything else other than that uh i would also summarize it as being um just getting re in touch with our inner artists you know in a in a way that i i don't think we ever have before before like we're we're at a certain point in terms of age and just like personally as people that um we're interested in expressing ourselves and creating things and um experimenting being

curious about moving people in different ways i I mean, still by and large, mostly within the realm of comedy, making people laugh, but moving people in all types of ways, emotionally, mentally. And it's just very, it's very creatively engaging. creatively engaging. It's getting back to our roots of just making stuff together, but we now have the creative freedom that we always wanted. And we are, for the first time, realizing that we have it and taking full advantage of it. I mean, I wrote in my journal many years ago, you know, I would write all these really aspirational things that I thought we should do. And one of the sort of like long-term goals that I had like 20 years ago was, and what I thought this would be is I thought it would be a movie, right? Right. I was like, I would like,

if we could get to a place where we could make movies that are a, every movie is an amalgamation of all the things that we do. And not, and this is before we even knew what we did, but like a little bit of documentary,

some music, some sketches, but thinking that it would be some genre of film that we would do at some point, right? Yeah. And that's what we're doing on the Written Link channel now, right? It's like you have an idea, you have something that you want to do, you have a you have something that you want to do you have a scene for something that you want to do

and there's a way to put it into this bucket that can take anything that we can do you want to sing a song you want to do a sketch you want to do something for real you want to have it transition to something else and i'll just say first all, I couldn't be more excited. Second of all, we have just scratched the surface. Like 2023 was scratching the surface, like figuring it out a little bit. 2024 is leaning in even more. And I will say there's aspects of it that have not been easy, that have been difficult. Yeah, I mean, we're still learning.

We got a lot to learn still. And I think it's directly tied to our personhood. That's what's so powerful about it, is that it's not a professional development. It's an extension of personal development and opportunity. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm so excited. And I don't think, well, we didn't discuss this.

You tell me if you think we shouldn't. I would like to hint at least at how we're going to approach 2024. Go for it. Because you're a special group of people who listen to Ear Biscuits. So the way 2023 has worked has been, you know, we've got a very small team, very small, but very talented team that helps us make these videos.

And, you know, we've been all working on, this is like the primary thing that this team has been working on this year. And you can see, I don't't know how many videos have we made genesis six like what seven i don't know eight okay so like eight videos in a year it's not a whole lot it's i mean we do eight videos in eight days when it comes to gmm right these are different it's a different thing it's a different experience. And we've also been working on them constantly

and then when they're done, we set a launch date and it's kind of hard to predict. It's basically like normal YouTubers. It's like, when it's up, it's up. But because we have so many things going on all the time and there's all this content that's coming out, we've decided that for

2024, we want to treat the Rhett and Link content a little bit different. First of all, we're going to come up with a name of what we call whatever it is that we're doing over there. It's not just going to be like Rhett and Link content because that's what we keep calling it. And we realized that we need to call it something so that people can be like,

oh, they do this thing as well. It's going to be what you've seen. Now that we know what it is what it is as a series now that we know then it should be called it should have a name we haven't named it yet there's lots of names that we've had no one has shared with each other yet you have a list i have a list right no tj has a list what there's lots of names we'll figure it out um the second part of that is that, you know, we really, we're so proud of what this team has created

and what this team is capable of creating that we wanna give this series its best chance at kind of breaking through the noise and being seen. Like, it's not, you know, our goal isn't to have this thing get millions and millions of views. Our goal is just to make the best show that we can make and whoever watches it, watches it. But we feel like we wanna make it special.

And so we're actually gonna be working on it throughout the first part of the year. And then at some point, which we'll obviously announce, we're gonna release it as a season of a series that'll come out weekly over a period of weeks. So there'll be a moment in which it's like, now the show is on, check it out. That's the tentative plan right now. So just to say that...

And it will be on YouTube. It will be on YouTube. It will not be... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll be on the same channel. It'll be on the Rhett and Link channel. But what I'm saying is that we're so excited about it and you might be like, oh, I can't wait to see what's gonna happen in January. Well, you're gonna be waiting. we're in january and february and beyond we're gonna be working on this show harder than we've worked on anything it's been a long time and and then

releasing it together and then doing it again and again and again you know so that's that's the plan so we appreciate your your patience um and and you know we want you to we you know we know that you guys are going to be supportive but we want you to understand that we're seeing it like for lack of a better word a tv show in the way that you would enjoy a tv show which is like oh there's a season's a season of it, and you enjoy it, and you talk about it, and then you wait for the next season, and that's how we wanna do that show. Yeah. Well, that concludes our top 10 moments of the year.

Do you wanna make a quick rec? I do, it's a very selfish rec. It is that you go and watch some of the videos on the Rhett and Link channel, because I am so excited about it, and I know that most of you who are listening... I wanna take them down and then put them back up. Maybe we'll do that. Have already watched what we've made over there, right?

But I know that there's somebody who hasn't. You've been like, yeah, I'm not interested in that stuff. And I would just say, hey, go check it out. Go check it out. Like, we... If for no other reason than you see how excited we are about what we're doing, I guess go and watch the most recent one, We Got a Chicken Across the Busiest Road in America, because that's up.

Or any of the other ones you want to watch. All right, let us know what you think about anything that you heard today. You can call us. 1-888-EAR-POD-1 And please, if you like what we're doing here, leave us a review on the platform that you listen on because that is very helpful. And we'll speak at you.

When's the next one? In the next year? Yeah, January 8th. Oh my gosh. January 8th. Okay. Bye-bye. love you and happy new year hi guys it's bailey from ohio and i just have to say after listening to you both try to come up with a ch car name for your maserati milk discussion that you guys said everything but challenger and charger even after ret said something about Dodge a few minutes before, and I just can't get over it.

That being said, I was also the Maserati of milk when I was a toddler, because once I drank a full cup of chocolate milk so fast that I threw up. So there you guys go. Love you. Bye!