Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Rhett Chases a Crocodile | Ear Biscuits Ep. 423

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Can one ever be too prepared for travel? In this episode, Rhett recounts his time in Florida with his family, scuba diving in shipwrecks, wild waves, seeing sharks, and even kayaking with crocodiles ���– but not before he describes his uncharacteristically large list of toiletries. Visit BetterHelp dot com slash EAR today to get 10% off your first month. Get $75 credit when you go to indeed.com/EARS. 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. Because the Skip app saves you so much time by delivering stuff like your favorite cool treats, groceries, and bevies, you get more time to have the best summer ever. Like riding roller coasters. Learning to water ski. Applying sunscreen to your dad's back. Yep, definitely the best summer ever. Ah! Applying sunscreen to your dad's back. Ah! Yup, definitely the best summer ever.

Squeeze more summer out of summer with Skip. Did somebody say Skip? Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we're talking about where you been? What you been up to?

I'm back. You went to Florida. Some people go there, they never come back. I'm back and I love the Red House. Some people start there and they never leave. Florida. Can I just say before I talk about where I've been, is as I've gotten older.

And you are. It's so good to come home. Coming home is the best part of leaving. Oh, come on now. It is. Which sounds like it would be a great slogan for like home goods. Coming home is the best part of going away.

Coming home is the best part of leaving. The best part of leaving home is getting back to your house. I mean, and let's be more specific. The best part of leaving home is coming back to your toilet. Like, when you got a toilet that's the best toilet. Yeah, I had some bidet-less moments. Yeah, man. I had some bidet-less moments.

What do you love the most about coming back home? Well... Is it just the cumulative effect of everything being how you want it? Because I'm a how you want it kind of guy. Well, here's the thing, Link. You've rubbed off on me, apparently. I know. Actually, I think that a how you want it kind of guy. Well, here's the thing, Link. You've rubbed off on me. I know. Actually, I think that you just got older faster than I did, because old people are routine-oriented,

and you've just always been an old person, I think is what it is. And I actually spent some years as a young person. Well, I'm not an old person, but I'm routine-oriented as if I were an old person. And as you get older, the routine becomes more routine-y, more important. And also, might I say, I carry so much shit with me in my toiletry bag now. Like, I know you've got the fanny pack. The thing that I've got is the toiletry bag. And when I left for this trip, I have accumulated things that I need for getting ready.

Ointments, creams. I've got several ointments and creams. I've got- Brushes? Several things for this mane of hair that I have somehow committed myself to which is no small task friend keeping it looking like it does and it requires special creams and special hair dryers and hold on now are you telling me you travel with your own hair dryer now? No, well...

Because welcome to the club. Well, I'm going to have to because... You're going to have to. What I discovered on this trip is I actually... Because I spent half of this time in North Carolina, which we'll talk a little bit about as well. Oh, that's right. And I got a hair dryer because we've got our cabin

that I actually stayed in for the first time, which is still not done, but we stayed there. We squatted a little bit. And, of course, when you've got curly hair like me, that diffuser attachment that as a child, and really as a man up until like four years ago, I was like, what is this alien-like thing that women put on the end of their dryers?

What are they doing? Is it a vibrator of some kind? No, come on now. The big disc that has the points coming out of it? You don't know about this? I've seen it. I don't think you need it, because you don't have curly hair. I don't know, would he benefit from it? I don't know how hair works. From what? A diffuser.

No, he wouldn't. What he's been doing is working for his hair. Yeah, he doesn't need it. Thank you for saying that. You're welcome. But I got this one on accident at the Target. And it wasn't just a diffuser that was flat. It looks like one of those things that lets you spy on other people's conversations. The Whisper 2000?

Yeah. You blowin' your hair with a Whisper 2000. And there's a new one. I don't know if this is new or not, but it did say on the box, innovative diffuser technology. And what it is is the disc. It said on the box. Well, I got it because it was the cheapest one at Target

that had a diffuser. But I just stumbled into greatness. This diffuser is cupped. It's concave. So when you go like this. He is bending over and all his hair is falling forward. This is the cup, right? And you've got it on like a low heat and you go.

Oh, so your hair stays in a dome like this. So he's gathering all his hair on the satellite dish of this thing, and then he's pushing it back up to his scalp. It's so wonderful. I would like to say that this isn't a new thing, but I'm so happy you found it. I've had the diffuser for a couple of years, and it was a great discovery, but the cupped diffuser. Yeah, yeah.

Like it's a bowl. It's like it's a bowl that gathers all your hair. Yeah, and so your hair crimps up into a perfect ball of curl, and then. And then when you let it go, it's just boom. And now, I will say. Hold on, hold on, you just said, when you let it go, it's just boom.

It's just boom. I did not do that to my hair today because I have a flat one at home. Your hair's not boom today? I was able to pull it off, but I got the cut one. It's coming from Amazon, so I can have them at home as well. But what you're really moving towards here is when I would be staying with my nana as a middle schooler, sometimes she would take me to the beautician with her. I'd have to sit there and watch her at the beautician.

And you know they got that thing? It's like they do the thing and then they move you over to the chair and they put the big dome down over your head. That's a perm thing. It's a dryer. But it's more of a perm thing. It's a dryer. But it's more of a perm thing. It's a dryer. But if you want... But that's when your hair is set in a certain way and you want it to dry.

You need to get one where you suspend by your ankles... Nope. ...and drop your whole head into one of these things. I think I'm doing okay. Have you looked at me lately? Yeah, you're getting older, as you said earlier. Okay. Name an orifice. Start at the top, name an orifice, and I'll tell you all the things I have in my toiletry bag for you. Well, I don't want to start at the top. I want to start at the bottom.

Name a body part. Well, I want to get the butthole over with. Okay. Currently, I don't have anything from my butthole. It's doing just fine. Thanks to that bidet. I used to carry hemorrhoidal cream. So did I. Preparation H, and I'm good now,

because the bidet has saved my b-hole. But what about a portable bidet? I had one of those, like a- The camping squeezer? It's like a sports bottle, and you just put it down there, and you just squeeze it with such force. We talk about buttholes too much, man.

Let's just move on. Let's move on. All right. Ask me about another orifice. Ask me about another body part. Obliques? No, it's too specific. Okay. I know face has a lot. But there's multiple things on my face.

What? Eyes. I got two types of drops. How am I not giving the right answer here? Because you haven't said a body part yet. You're just like face. Ear hole. Okay. Q-tips, of course. That am I not giving the right answer here? Because you haven't said a body part yet. You're just like face. Ear hole. Okay.

Q-tips, of course. That's a no-no. If you know how to use them, it's fine. Okay? Mark this. And I also have a- Let's come back to this statement. Rhett is not a doctor and it does not give-

And I have, if you're not a moron, you can figure out how to use them. And I, earplugs? Ointment? It does not give it. If you're not a moron, you can figure out how to use them. Earplugs? Ointment? I have this prescription ointment. For your ear holes? Well, let me explain.

It's called Promiseb. And if Promiseb is listening, I will do an ad for you. They're not. It's a moisturizer that I think is made with like Brazil nuts or something. I don't know. I don't know why it's a prescription medicine, but my dermatologist gave it to me for, you may remember I used to get like redness. I've always been a little bit of a red guy.

Okay. But I would get red splotches on my side of my nose and around my nose. And you don't really wanna put hydrocortisone cream, which I also have in my toiletry bag, on your face because it thins the skin. I'm starting to think you might need to go on a beauty channel. And then, I'm open to that, and then,

and so I started using it, and it completely eliminated, like, whatever that eczema was. But I also get, you know, I get the dry skin in the ear, and so I just kind of take it, my little promise-able fingers that are still a little bit wet, and I go, just do it, my little promise-able fingers that are still a little bit wet with it, and I go, just do that a little bit at the end. So I got stuff for the ears.

And when I get smaller, and they cross a little bit? And also, I have a ear and nose trimmer. That's in there. Oh, hell yeah. Okay? Nose, also the trimmer, but also my allergy medicine. Gotta get in there. You snort that?

I carry, I have an electric toothbrush that has a stand that I want with me at all times. I have my little mouth guard that I wear sometimes at night. I have a tongue brush. My toiletry bag, I got the biggest one they got on Amazon. It's an XXL. I don't know the brand This thing is as big As a small carry-on It has wheels

No It comes with a strap That you can wear over your shoulder Holy crap And So when I went On this trip I had

Doubles as an anchor If you're on a boat I started this trip With four toiletry bags. What? So three normal-sized ones, and then just a Ralph's bag. Dude. I started the trip, and then I was like, my life is so disorganized.

I have so much shit! What do I do? You go on Amazon, and I had one delivered to North Carolina. Triple X. And I spent 45 minutes going through it. This is not my personality. I know. You're rubbing off on me. I'm jealous.

What was happening is, for me, it's when the pain gets high enough. So, like, the inconvenience of four bags and not knowing. I used to have a system, and then it got mixed up. Now I took the four bags, not knowing, I used to have a system and then it got mixed up. Mm-hmm. Now I took the four bags and laid them out. I took the big toiletry bag and I got everything from the bags into the toiletry bag and I walked around with it in the house.

Yes. And I was like, Jesse, look at this! All my stuff is in this! Yes. She was not as happy as I was. No. It's good that you did that, though. I have a brush, I have a, though. I have a brush.

I have a water mister. I have one, two, three products for my hair. I would have celebrated it. I have shampoo and conditioner. In travel sizes. Yeah, I just have so much stuff. Anyway, I'm feeling great. I'm proud of you.

Because, you know, we're going on tour. Oh yeah, I'll have that big toiletry bag with me. I might start wearing it as a purse. The thing I have not done that I want to do is create an entire duplicate of everything. When I got home, I ordered

another toothbrush. Another electric toothbrush. The same one. And I was like, I want this have to pack it every time. Another toothbrush. Another electric toothbrush. The same one. Yeah. And I was like, I want this bag to be totally intact. And I don't want to have to take anything out of it ever. We travel a lot. Yeah.

So I'm on my way there. But it was so, also the thing that I really fell out of, again, you're rubbing off on me. The smoothie. Oh, yeah. My morning routine, which is basically typical middle-aged douchebag. You know what I mean? I get in an ice bath. Yes, I'm one of those guys.

I try not to talk about it a lot because I'm annoyed when I hear people talk about it. I work out and then I have a smoothie, which is really just a collection of nutrients designed for optimization and not for taste. You wouldn't want to taste it. I don't taste it. I don't taste it. I don't taste it. I don't taste it at all. If I could put a tube all the way into my stomach and just deposit it into my stomach, that's what I would do. But I take my pills with it. You could get a bottle that had like a tongue depressor that was really wide and

then went all the way down, like halfway down your throat, and it would create a slide. I could do that. I can open my throat. Go over your tongue. I take my big smoothie. It's still in the canister, whatever you call it. The blender. The blender bottle.

The carafe. Carafe. I go into my laundry room, which is where the medicine cabinet is, and I just take supplements with the smoothie. I'm becoming a robot in my old age. And so I was taken out of that routine. Your old age. You took your stuff with you and your shaker. I take my powder. I take my meal replacement powder. Yeah, which I think I might need to...

And my... I have a few pills. I don't really have... That's got protein and fiber in it, which is why I might need to do that when I travel. There you go. Anyway, when I was taking... I was just violently ripped out of the womb of my routine for two weeks. Oh, yeah. And I just wanted to crawl back into the warm place. And now I'm back, and I did that this morning and it was just like, I'm feeling electric. I feel electric. You feel at ease.

But I did have a great time. And I do think there is something about taking a break from the routine versus trying to maintain the routine on the road. First of all, even if you try to maintain the routine on the road, you can't, it's different. Everything about it is different. It is, but there's certain things that are non-negotiable. You gotta have your fiber.

Fiber. You gotta have your fiber. Even the young folks need your fiber. I mean, we really got hooked on fiber in college. We were 20. Fibering it up. You're not too young to start with the fiber. If you have a typical Western diet, you're not getting enough fiber.

It's just that simple, and you need it. Psyllium husk. Yeah, these boys that recently got colonoscopies together and had nice colons, a lot of that has to do with how much fiber we've consumed. So I'm happy. It's a delicate ecosystem. I'm happy to be back. But I will tell you, I actually did go somewhere and did other things

other than just take a big toiletry bag. I'll tell you about that in a second. But let's focus on grooming because we were just talking. Oh, yeah. Just segue. He's just waiting to happen. We do spend a lot of time with our heads and our hairs. We should sell a blow dryer.

You know? We got to team up with Dyson. Well, I have been trying to figure out, is there a way to get like, because I'm not able to use our, like, with your hairstyle and most shorter to medium length hairstyles, the Mythical Palmaids work very well.

Palmaid doesn't work well when you have really long hair. But what does work well is our beard oil and our beard balm. And our brush. Brush is great. This is all at mythical.com. We have a grooming collection. And we have lip balm. If you got hair like mine or shorter, mythical pomade, I use the clay pomade.

I swear by it. It's tip top. Get you some. I don't know how this hair is constantly defying gravity, it's with the help of clay. That's nothing. It's nothing but my blow dryer and then my clay. My mythical clay. Nothing else.

Mythical.com. There you go. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today. Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. First stop on the trip. It was Shepard's spring break.

Yeah. As you know. Shepard is your youngest son. And... He's 15. He's 15. And Locke's in Miami. So we wanted to go to a place where we can kind of like spend a little time with Locke. But also...

Go scuba diving. Florida Keys. Key Largo. Yep. Great spot for that. This is like your third time going down there at least. Cause you went with Chris and Ashley and you were talking about the Florida Keys. I think we may have gone twice. Key West is a distinctly different experience

than Key Largo. Oh, really? Okay, so you told me about Key West, which is like... Party Central. Yeah, going around on the bikes and stuff. What's Key Largo like? Key Largo is way bigger. It's interesting because there's this road that is the road that connects all the islands. Okay. And there's, like, one part that's, like, a seven-mile bridge.

That's pretty interesting. But... It's pretty far. For a big portion of it, and for, like, most of Key Largo, which is, like, the first... If you, like, look at the little archipelago or whatever it is like the first, if you like look at the little archipelago or whatever it is, the islands, like just south of Florida, there's a big one,

and that's Key Largo. And there's like a, you know those highways where it's two lanes in one direction and two lanes in the other direction, and then, but like real estate in between them, like businesses and restaurants and gas stations, in the median, this is not something that happens very often in America,

but there are places where it happens and the Keys is one of them. But you're not talking about the bridge anymore. Once you're on the island. When it gets, there's these large portions of the road, two lanes in one direction, two lanes in the other direction, real estate in between them. Okay. And of course, houses and resorts and stuff on each side of the outside.

So you tend to forget that it's not, that both lanes are going the same way? It just, I feel like it kind of defines the way that it feels. Like it's, because that setup is like fast cars. You know what I'm saying? I was kind of picturing this just like lazy, little sleepy, little island vibe, but it's just like, woo, woo, woo, trucks like going by on this road.

And then once you kind of get off of that road, it's like nice. You can kind of still hear the highway a little bit though, especially in that like Key Largo area. Okay. But the thing that we kept talking about was Roadhouse, the movie. Oh, because it was set down there. Yeah.

At least the new one. In a fake. I don't remember what the old one was, but the new one is set in a fake Florida key called Glass Key. And Shepard and I watched it because it was like, okay, yeah, this is like a fighting movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and Post Malone is in it. I didn't know to what degree he was going to be in it. And Conor McGregor is in it. And it's just- People talk about his walk a lot.

They're like memeing his character's walk. The whole movie is ridiculous, especially Conor McGregor. Austin did great. He's at the beginning. Okay. And I cannot say that it is a good movie. But what I will say is that

apparently it's a memorable movie and especially if you go to the florida keys right after you watch it like we kind of watched it not knowing that and then like a week later we're in the florida keys and there were so many roadhouse references the whole time because like you know that's like a biker gang and um you know florida it's one of the few places in america maybe it maybe, maybe there's more places, but you don't have to wear a helmet if you ride a motorcycle. And lots of people are like, okay, I don't need a helmet. Yeah.

Which is just a crazy, it's just a crazy thing to do. South Carolina is that way. To ride a motorcycle without a helmet, it's crazy. You know, it's like the most American thing that you can possibly do. But it only puts you at risk. So I think that's the rationale behind the law. It's like, well.

It only puts you at risk, but then like when you show up at the hospital, we gotta like put your head back together. It has a burden for everybody else. Oh, so you're talking about like the medical infrastructure of Florida? Yeah, I don't really know about- Is impacted by-

Like my personal philosophy on like people's responsibility to protect themselves, like wearing a seatbelt, wearing a helmet or whatever. I understand the people who are like, I shouldn't have to do anything if I'm the only one that's going to get hurt. It's like, yeah, well, I get that. But yeah, we kind of have to kind of worry about you when you get hurt. And now all of a sudden we're like, the ambulance is taking you to the hospital. My argument is more of, do I like the government legislating like strictly personal safety?

My, I don't, I don't, I don't like the feeling of that. It doesn't sound – I don't like the ring of it. But the practical application, if you think about it, it's basically creating a cultural norm to wear your seatbelt. Or I'll go with another analogy. Like when we grew up snowboarding, nobody wore helmets. Oh, yeah. And, you know, we both suffered greatly from- You a little bit more than me.

Feeling like just the choice was reinforced to not wear a helmet. Now when you go out, if you're just starting snowboarding or skiing and you're not wearing a helmet, you're like, well, apparently I have to wear a helmet because everybody's wearing a helmet. And whether there's a law or not, and I don't think there is. It's still the right decision. There's this cultural norm. You're reinforcing a positive decision that, you know. It also extends to like when you're making decisions for minors

and things like that. So, but yeah, so I think practically speaking, it's a good thing because people tend to follow these cultural norms. I mean, I think that, I mean, I don't know anything about it, so I'm just talking out of my ass, but I do that most of the time. The seatbelt law, I think, is simply about revenue for police departments. Isn't that true? Not, well, I'm gonna, if you assume the best, it started out as like, it's safety.

Well, no, no, but there, yeah, I guess- So they can give you a ticket? No, I know that obviously wearing a seatbelt is, even though like there are some people who try to make the point that like, a seatbelt will kill you sometimes. Yeah, airbag will too. And sometimes you will like, yeah,

but 90% of the time when you're in a wreck, it's better to have a seatbelt on than it's not, or 99, whatever the number is. But I think that these laws are attractive for local police departments because it's like, oh, this is another reason we can pull people over and they have to pay a ticket and it helps with revenue, right? Okay. I don't know. That's got to be part of it. Anyway, I don't know how we got off on that, but Roadhouse.

You said they got a lot of people helmetless going down the streets. But then, well, in the middle of our trip, because this contributes to the Roadhouse conversation, I met TJ and Ben for a little location scout. Right. For the show that we're making. And that was very fun. I can't, I'm not gonna tell you

the specifics of the location, Scout, because then I'm gonna like spoil something for you. But what I will say is that we ate lunch at a restaurant that looked exactly like the restaurant in Roadhouse, and we were all talking about it. And then every time we brought it up, Jesse was like, you keep talking about Roadhouse, I'm gonna have to watch it. And then every time we brought it up, Jesse was like, you keep talking about Roadhouse,

I'm gonna have to watch it. And then there's this, they talk about Fred the Tree in Roadhouse, and then we see like the sign for Fred the Tree. All right, well, we gotta go see Fred the Tree. An attraction? What is Fred the Tree? I gotta say, even though it has a 4.9 rating on Google,

I do not recommend Fred the Tree because you can't get to it, but they make you think that you can. What do you mean? What kind of tree is it? What's the... You can't even see the tree? You can see it.

That's all you can do. So that... Well, what did you think you were going to do? Climb it? That bridge, I wanted to touch it and see, but you can't even touch it. Okay, you wanted to touch it through.

That bridge that's seven miles long that you're driving on, right next to it, for most of the way, if not the whole way, there's an old bridge that's closed. That's completely decaying and falling into the ocean. Oh, wow. completely decaying and falling into the ocean. Oh, wow. And in the middle of that bridge, there's a tree that is growing up through the old road like a seed fell or something. And that's Fred the Tree.

And they make a big freaking deal out of this thing. And if you navigate to Fred the Tree, it navigates to a parking lot. So Jesse and Shepard and I navigate to the parking lot. We get out and I'm like, well, now we gotta walk to this tree, and you can see it. And you walk... On the old bridge? On the old bridge. People are like fishing off of the old bridge and stuff.

So it's allowed to walk on it? Parts of it. But right when you get where you can kinda start making out maybe some details of the tree, the bridge stops and there's a gap in just ocean. And you can't get to the part. You can't get to Fred the Tree. You can just look at him. That is a triggering image for me. That's a recurring nightmare of mine.

A bridge to nowhere? I'm driving on a bridge that's... Well, you can't drive on it. It ends, but I keep driving. Right to the water. I'm just free falling. You have this dream? Yes. I haven't had Right into the water. I'm just free falling. You have this dream? Yes.

I haven't had it in a while. I think I'm in a good place. But yeah, that's my recurring dream. Sometimes the bridge is going real high. It's like a ramp kind of thing. And then, whew, there I am just being launched. And do you wake up? No.

I had a nightmare last night, now that you say that. But I don't remember my fate at any point. I had a nightmare that is related to, I guess, something that I saw in the Florida Keys, now that I think about it. Um, Shepard and I got kayaks. I'll talk about scuba diving in a second, but we got the little ocean kayaks that sit on top kayaks. Okay. And because there's like a reef all around the Keys, there's no waves. It's very lake-like, you know what I'm saying? It's kind of like when we went to that when we were in Fiji when we were coming back from Australia from the tour. It's kind of like a lake.

It's like this beautiful ocean, but there's no waves. Right. And so you can kayak all up and down it. And people were talking about, if you go up there into the mangroves, you can see manatees maybe. So Shepherd and I going up in there. And we found this little path that you couldn't even see until you got right up on it

to cut through and then came out into this lagoon. Like a path in the brush? Path in the mangroves. So the mangroves are like those big swampy trees. That kind of grow. Well, they're kind of like- Just out of the water. They're just bushes, basically, like thick bushes. And most of the islands in the Keys are just mangrove islands

where there's not even any beach. It's just like they come right to... They're so important because they keep the islands there. You know, they keep the... That's why you can't, like, rip them out and build... They did a long time ago, but you can't really do that anymore. So you found a way through. Found a way through.

We've come out into this lagoon, and in the middle of the lagoon, there's a crocodile. What? A saltwater croc. And they had told us that these, they travel. Now, first of all, there's all kinds of alligators, different species, alligators in the Everglades, but they kind of stay in the Everglades, but the

saltwater crocodiles migrate from the tip of Florida or somewhere down to like somewhere in the Caribbean. And there's not many of them. There's like a few hundred, I think, that are left in this group that migrate. And they don't... Now, in Roadhouse, spoiler alert, but you really shouldn't care about having anything in Roadhouse spoiled, there's a dude that gets eaten by saltwater crocs. And so they really... When you hear crocodile, you get a little bit scared because they're bigger and nastier than alligators, right?

And so we saw this crocodile, but they had said they're kind of shy. How far away were you from it when you spotted it? 100 feet. Oh. And it was like eight feet long, so it wasn't one of the big, big ones. So you saw more than just eyes poking out. I saw eyes, head, and back, and tail. Like I could see, I could tell. And I'm going for it, I'm going right at it.

Okay. And Shepard's like, Dad, you're crazy! I'm like, they're shy! They've told us they're shy, like they don't bite anybody. So I'm chasing this crocodile. Oh, it starts. Through the lagoon. He goes away, like, I got maybe 20 feet from it, and he's just going away from me.

Shepard's scared. And he's like, you think you can bite the kayak? I was like, yes, but he won't! Because he's shy! And Shepard's like, very, he's like, I'm going to kind of like, stay behind a little bit. You don't want to fall out. I'm not going to fall out. There's nothing to, I mean, I'm not going to fall out. It's like very stable.

And then he goes under. And Shepard gets really freaked out at that point. But he kind of like went, I was like, yeah, he's off to the side or whatever. You didn't know where he was. So we kept going and we're trying to find manatees, you know, mermen, mermaids. Yeah, yeah. We didn't find any of those, but we found, like, a bunch of, like, cool little, like, Did they think that manatees were mermen at first?

Like, it's like, mermaids are, like, beautiful fish women, and then mermen are, like, pudgy, like the guy in Dune 2 Coming out of the oil sling Yeah, yeah, yeah Well, I think it was People that didn't see exactly What they thought they were seeing Probably Yeah

But, you know, we Naked fat men swimming You know, we had a really great time You didn't see a manatee I didn't see a manatee I did see a manatee. I didn't see a manatee. I did see a manatee in the, when we were getting ready to scuba dive. Okay.

Just hanging out in the harbor. I'll take that story. And now, have you seen a manatee before? No. Because you know, when we were getting trained for Campus Crusade for Christ. Yes, for the summer. Panama City, is that where it was?

We took seminary classes. El Caribe. And Christy's grandfather passed away, so we had to go up to the funeral. Oh yeah. And when we did, I think you went swimming with manatees without me. Yeah, Jessie and I and another couple

went to these beautiful rivers that come out of these springs in Florida. They're just this clear sea all the way to the bottom. And they let you, they did at least, they let you just put on snorkel gear and fins and just swim up the river. And it was just like these manatees, they don't care about people. They love people and you can't feed them or touch them, but they would let you. They don't care. But you don't. You don't and you shouldn't feed them or touch them, but they would let you. They don't care. But you don't.

You don't, and you shouldn't because it makes them bad. It makes them into bad boys when you start doing that kind of stuff. Didn't see manatees. Did see that crocodile. It was pretty cool. But then we were going to go scuba diving three times. We were going to do two two-tank dives. When you say a two-tank, that means you dive using one tank,

and you come up, you switch out to another tank, and you dive again. After a rest, yeah. Shepard was getting over this cold and this cough, and they recommend that you don't scoop it. He was coughing real bad the first day. I was like, well, I'm going to go. I'm going to go by myself. And I dove and saw the first dive, saw a shark.

First time I've seen, I've seen a shark before. How big was he? It was like a six foot reef shark. So a shark that could actually bite you, which I was excited about that. Was he shy? Yeah, he didn't get close. I swam right at him though. Wow.

They don't do anything to you. I mean, have you, like, they don't bite people who are scuba diving. They bite people who they think are like seals or something on the surface. Is that what they told you? No, I just saw it on YouTube. Okay.

If you have like food or you're like in a cage or something and you're like trying to like provoke them. If you're like bleeding. And I saw a big ray, big stingray, like big. Turtle. It was a cool dive. And then the second time Shepard went with us, because he was, two days later he's feeling a little bit better.

And they're like, we're going to do a drift dive. Okay. And they're like, it's going to be a little rough today. And they say a little rough. Oh. And I'm like, I take my dramamine because I get seasick so easy. Did it work? I mean, I would hate to have seen how I felt without it

because I felt horrible with it. Ooh. Yeah, that's the thing about it. So we get out there. Sea legs. something about it. So we get out there. Sea legs. It takes like 30 minutes to get out there. And then like, you know how you have to like get all the stuff on? And I'm so tall that like trying to like sit and get the thing on.

And like you're trying to like fasten things and like focusing on something that is right in front of you while the boat is going. And I'm saying these waves were like five to eight feet coming through. So this boat is going up and down and like, we get situated and they're like, we're gonna jump off and then this lady is going to have this rope. And this rope goes to the surface and there's like, it's a floating like flag. And we're gonna all drift with the current with her.

And so the boat on the surface can see where we're at because she's holding on to this line. Okay. And we jump in. Yeah, I guess I didn't ask any questions or I didn't listen. Equally likely.

We jump in, and you know how, you know, you let your air out of your BC, and then you start going down. And you're, like, adjusting as you go down. And I'm like, boy, we are going down really deep. You were following a guide? Shepard's supposed to go to, like, 60 feet. Yeah, so we had a guide with us, just me and Shepard. But we're also with 60 feet. So we had a guide with us. Just me and Shepard.

But we're also with the group that has a couple other guides. And, you know, I've got my little watch. It tells me how deep I am. And we're going and going and going. And I just begin to see the bottom. And then I look at my watch and we're 85 feet deep. What? And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I mean, I've never been this deep. I don't know what to do. It's fine. It's not like you're gonna die. But it's unsettling, right? Yeah. And so I'm like looking at the guide and I'm like pointing at Shepard and then so we go up to like 75. I don't really know. He's 15. He's like open water certified. I don't know what the limit is, but. And then we just proceeded to drift in this, it was the most like being in space because of the depth that we were at,

we could no longer see the bottom. And it was just endless blue in every single direction. And we were kind of like, is it like a, we wanted to see a hammerhead because that's what they said we might see. That'd be cool. That's an ugly-ass shark, though. Ugly? It's beautiful.

It's crazy that that happened. It's crazy that that happened. It shouldn't have happened, man. Maybe it shouldn't have happened, but it did, and now we should appreciate it. It shouldn't have. I mean, I feel like there's certain things that evolution created that I think are morally wrong. Ooh, wow.

That's an interesting take. Yeah. Yeah. It is crazy how it happened. You don't want that, I mean, you just don't want, you just don't want your face to just start clubbing out like that, like going to two, it's like. And then like, why did it happen?

And then the eyes are at the end of that. And the funny thing is... It's like, you don't want your eyes... I mean, that's dangerous. But the funny thing is... I also don't think that snail eyes are... I think that's an abomination. But, like, from a creationist standpoint, right? You don't want to really put your eyes at the end of something

that could easily just be locked up by, like, a weed racker or, like... Well, that... Yeah, weed racker. What is the evidence... Well, not evidence. What is the explanation if you're a creationist and you just think that God made that that way versus evolution created it?

Because in both scenarios, neither one of them makes a lot of sense. I'm sure there is an evolutionary explanation. It's just like, well, one time this shark got stuck behind a pole. Right, you wanted to see that. And he was stuck behind a pole for a long time and the whole family was stuck behind a pole.

And then they realized that the one that had eyes a little bit further out survived more, and then they kept just running into poles, and the next thing you know, they were hammerheads. Well, I think from a creationist standpoint, it's kind of like when you see one of those runway models, like one of the supermodels, like, damn, her eyes are really far apart. It's like, that's almost unsettling. Yeah, but still kind of sexy.

But it's strange. It's alluring. And alluring. Yeah, it's alluring. So I think God's like, I'm going to do that to a shark. Oh, yeah. So you're saying hammerheads are sexy. To God, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, whoa. You need to ask forgiveness. But I think it's immoral. God made hammerheads because he thought they were sexy. Well, alluring. Alluring. Alluring.

I still go, I'm going with my pole theory. Maybe whatever they hunt, they have to see around. So they can, so when they're hunting something, they're also hunting the next thing? No, no, no, I'm saying that like, if the wider my eyes are, I can see you on both sides, but it doesn't make sense that it's the only shark that that happened to.

Like, it's so weird, because it definitely, because evolution is all about modification, right? It's about the repurposing of existing things. It's not like you grow wings, your arms slowly turn into wings. All the same bones. It's fascinating, right?

If you're a bat, yes. Yeah. But it's modification over time. Right. So it continued in its evolutionary pressure, pushes things in certain directions. Like one of the most fascinating things that i that i studied when i was really into this evolution stuff was the evolution of the whale right because yeah it's so fascinating that there was some sort of land animal like a hippo or something like that not a

hippo but like an ancestor to a whale that was kind of like that like you know semi-aquatic and then eventually evolutionary pressures was maybe through food supply or something pushes them into the water, and they begin to develop like web feet. And you can imagine these little modifications over thousands of generations, right? But then the really interesting thing that starts happening that you can observe in whales is that there's a repurposing of the different bones, but there's also the migration

of the nostrils onto the top of the head and diffusing of them. So there's actually, you know, transitionally over the course of whale evolution, there's nostrils that were like here that kind of, they were kind of moved out and then they moved up and so there's like two blowholes basically and the funny thing is if you look right at a blowhole it looks like it's got like a

membrane in between because it's just the nose. It's the nostrils that move to the top because obviously that's the best place for them to be because you want that to be the first thing that breaks or the only thing that breaks the surface.

It's really fascinating. Anyway, what were we talking about? Spotting a hammerhead. But you were out there floating in the middle of nothing, which actually sounds

like a pretty boring dive. It was horrible. No hammerhead. If you don't see anything, it's bad. And then we did a shallow reef dive and this is when I started noticing something. All the coral is dead. Like so much of the coral is dead.

Like white? Yes. And so- Ashy? And with that comes lots less know, lots less life, lots less fish and cool stuff to see. We saw some really cool fish and saw some like blue parrot fish and some really cool things, but-

Maybe a little sad. Very sad. So then we get back up and I'm like asking the guides. I'm like, man, so all that like white coral that's sort of like broken, that's just dead, right? And they're like, yeah, we had a major bleaching event. This is something that's happening all over the world, right? Because ocean temperatures are increasing like crazy.

You know, climate change is very complex, but one of the things that's happening is the ocean is taking a lot of this temperature increase, like a heat sink. I don't know how it works. Lots of crazy shit is happening and will continue to happen. The jet stream or the Gulf Stream, whatever it is, might stop. Anyway, but like the Great Barrier Reef, it's bleaching. They lost a huge amount of coral in the Keys

because of how in the Keys because of how hot the water got last summer. And it's gonna get hot again this summer. And there's all these people doing all this really incredible work to like restore the coral. And there's some people who are breeding heat resistant coral and planting it. And then there's other people who are like,

well, we don't wanna do that. So we're supporting it in this way. There's people, just multiple people. It's funny, because I talked to one group that was doing the heat resistant coral, and then I talked to another group that was just doing something else, and they were kind of like had a difference of opinion,

but they were like, but we're all trying to address the problem. Mm-hmm. That was super sad. I'll come back to that when I talk about a book that you've read that I ended up reading while on vacation and kind of like the way all these things come together. If you think that's sad, don't let me tell you about the Drake, Kendrick, Rick Ross beef. Oh, my God.

So sad. But go ahead. Well, maybe you tell me about that next week. Okay, yeah. So sad. But go ahead. Well, maybe you tell me about that next week. Okay, yeah.

The dive that I was most looking forward to was our last dive, and it was a night dive. I've never done this. You got to. And Chase was telling me, like, this is the best. You're going to love it. So it is what it sounds like. You dive at night. And you dive with a light. And the way they did it on this particular dive is they take you out at sunset.

The good news—well, first of all, I didn't tell you about trying to get back on the frickin' boat after that drift dive. Yeah? The boat is going up. Up and down. Like, I'm like, how am I gonna get on this? Because there's a ladder. It's like slapping the ocean. Oh, yeah, and you have to get on the ladder. Mm-mm.

And you've got this heavy... Oh, yeah. No one realizes how heavy the equipment is. You see people on movies, and you're like, oh, they're just walking around, but, like, it's a lot of weight on your back. And the way the ladder on the boat is hinged, right? So it's like this. So it's hinged at the top and the bottom is free flowing.

Flapping. And I think it's just so as it hits the water it doesn't kill the person who it's landing on. But I grabbed the ladder and when I grabbed the ladder the boat went up and then came back down and it's like boom, like slamming. And then the guy's like, you got to put your weight on it. Put your weight on the ladder. And so I got my one foot on there. And then we went up and down again.

But it didn't flap because my weight was on it. I got out. And then Shepard got out. But that was harrowing. Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers Internet. Visit Rogers.com for details. We got you.

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Click the banner or visit bmo.com slash rise to learn more. But the night dive. Shipwreck. It was the best dive because not only was it a shipwreck, it was at night, but this was the first shipwreck that was, it was like the ones we did in the Caribbean where it was like an intact ship. Oh, cool.

Like a ship that was like a hundred feet long. How deep is this? 45 feet. Okay, that's good. So at that depth in the night, zero visibility without a light? So you start at sunset and you see the light slowly go away.

And they were like, you're going to get down there and there's like turtles settling down for the night. Oh. And there were turtles. There were sea turtles, green sea turtles that were finding their little place to kind of like settle in. And they were very particular about these animals are going to sleep, right? Don't shine the light at their face. Huh. Because Don't shine the light at their face.

Huh. Because if you shine the light at their face, A, it blinds them in the same way that it blinds us, but also it messes up their rhythm because they're like, it's nighttime. Oh, the sun's out. Whatever, you know, they get confused. They're dumb.

Yeah. You know, they think a flashlight's the sun, you know. They're not real smart. Okay. We're better. Yeah. Don't get it twisted. But there's all these sea turtles, like, you know, they're not real smart. Okay. We're better. Yeah. Don't get it twisted. But there's all these sea turtles like settling down for the night

and we're like shining on their butts, you know, which kind of illuminates it. And they just hold their breath all night. Yeah. I guess they might go. I wouldn't hate to have to do that. I wonder if they. I wouldn't really be looking forward to sleep if it involved holding my breath.

I wonder if they go up like we take a pee break. I'm sure they have to do that. I wonder if they- I wouldn't really be looking forward to sleep if it involved holding my breath. I wonder if they go up, like we take a pee break. Oh, I'm sure they have to at some point. Just get a little gulp of air. They don't sleep all night. But then they go up in the dark. I don't know. I should have asked this question. But this giant ship that had lots of holes

that I wanted to go into, but they weren't quite big enough to know. It wasn't like that one that we did, that me and Shepard did, where we went into the ship and went all around. Okay. You couldn't go inside the ship, but I would stick my head in and shine it all around.

There was fish doing stuff. And then by the time the dive was over, if you cut your light off, you couldn't see anything except the other lights. Oh, wow. And it was a, like, if you cut your light off, you couldn't see anything except the other lights. Oh, wow. And it was a little unsettling, because I'm constantly worried about Shepard, right? He's a 15-year-old.

Yeah. Not paying a lot of attention to anything. And I'm like, I'm the dad. I'm responsible. Try to be. You know? Can't be too much about me having fun here. So I'm constantly checking him and checking his air

and making sure he's not got a leak or something, you know. Because everything feels a little bit, the stakes feel higher when it's nighttime. Same thing as with a night shoot. We've only done a few night shoots. Everything's different with a night shoot. You feel like you could trip on anything. You're trying to stay awake.

It's a totally different world. I don't like it. I don't like shooting at night. Oh, I do. The part I don't like is not sleeping. Highly recommend the night dive, though. And boy... If your light malfunctions, and then you're just floating out there... Yeah, I almost took two lights. Well, yeah. But I was like, I'm with these guys, and they both have lights. What are the chances that all of our lights go?

Yeah, but when your light goes, they can't, unless they shine a light on you, then they have no way to know where you are. But you can see them, and you just swim to their lights and hit them on the back and say, Oh, that's a good point. My light's dead. Stay with me.

Okay, yeah. That's right. You can do something. I think I would just sit there. Stay with me. Okay, yeah, that's right. You can do something. I think I would just sit there, oh no, now I'm gonna drift away. I will say, I've made this observation about scuba diving, and I think this applies to a lot of things, which is while I'm doing it,

there are times when I'm thinking, I just wish I was back at the hotel. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like, it's a little bit, it's hard. Especially when it's like, I just wish I was back at the hotel. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like, it's a little bit, it's hard. Especially when it's like, you're sick.

Like, the shepherd threw up after that. Oh. When we got done with that drift dive. It can get cold. It wasn't cold there, right? The water temperature was, they were wearing,

like the guides were wearing five mil because it was cold to them. I don't remember what it was, but it was, you know, it's beginning of April in Florida. So it wasn't anything like July and Grand Cayman, which you feel like you just have a bathing suit on. So you're a little bit cold. You're getting kind of seasick.

Yeah. But then when you get back and you start thinking about what you did, you're very glad that you did it. And I'm trying to get better at being like, I'm in it right now. Oh, there's a turtle going to, settling down for the night. I'll shine a light on his butt and see what happens. I'm trying to really take it in and enjoy it as it's happening.

I know what you're talking about. Like you really have to, you've got to get past the discomfort and really start to, I think there's a certain level of practice to know how to enjoy it. Like anything that takes work and that has discomfort. The longer you do it, the better you get at it. Yeah, because you kind of know where to put your energy. And when you get it.

And you know when it's, this is the best part. This is the part that I'm supposed to be enjoying myself. You're not like, is this it? Am I, you know, is this where I'm supposed to be having fun? And then you have expectations of how much fun you're supposed to be having. And once you get your buoyancy down, which I've kind of got that, I've kind of dialed that in.

Yeah. Where I'm not like, once we get to where we're diving, I just control my buoyancy with my breath at that point. I don't worry about the BC anymore. But it is a, it's a skill that takes a few years unless you're going like every week. Yeah. Like as much as we're able to go.

Yeah, I had to watch like a refresher course. Oh yeah. Little 10 minute refresher about what do the symbols mean? But, okay, I had one of those moments where something that I'm reading and something that I'm experiencing in life have this sort of interaction. I love when this happens.

Some sort of synchronicity. Okay. And, so you told me about this book a couple years ago and then when I found out it was going to be a show,

I was like, oh, I got to read this because when you told me about it, it sounded really interesting. Yeah, I've talked about it on here. Three Body Problem. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's a trilogy, Three Body Problem being the first of the trilogy.

I just started the second one. But I read the whole thing last week, just the first one. And boy, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Now, if you don't like science fiction, you're not going to like it because it's hard science fiction, meaning that this guy's really smart and he's actually like,

the stuff that he's saying and talking about is like he's got reasons to think that it's grounded in some sort of scientific knowledge. And not that I understand any of it, but I understand enough to be able to appreciate it and to kind of be wowed by it right like i don't know if you remember like just the chapter about the proton unfolding and folding yeah every time he he every time he introduces a concept i I'm just like, ugh.

And then the other thing we didn't talk about is it's a much more sophisticated story, but it's interesting how close the premise is to that pilot that we wrote. Which pilot? The Kurt Sutter thing. Oh. Like, in turn, how? I don't remember. So, same exact, I mean, you remember,

I created that doc that was like 15 pages, unbroken, just text, that was the background of how the world building. And it was that there was an alien civilization that's world was dying, and they needed to get to another planet, but the way that they wanted to get to another planet

was by inhabiting, it was basically, there was a spiritual element to it, so it was they had figured out that they did have souls and your soul could be transmitted across the universe in like a quantum way and they could inhabit and possess humans and that was how they were migrating.

They weren't actually traveling here physically, they were traveling here spiritually. That was the premise of the thing we came up with. Which is not exactly what these aliens are doing in a three-body problem. I'm just saying the fact that it's a alien civilization that found a way to communicate and there were these transmissions that take place.

Don't you remember the transmissions? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were in this, they were, and I hadn't read that book and I read this and I'm like, oh, this is how it's actually done, you know? It's like, and I don't think you had read that book by that point, because you would have said something. I don't know yet.

But I was like, oh, this is the same thing. Like aliens, and it's probably like, it may even be a trope. I don't read a lot of science fiction. I'm going to now though, because ever since, and I talked about it a few weeks ago, this, the speed reading in quotes yeah which really was just a new way of forcing myself to actually pay attention and get through the text and i've like modified my reading and i

actually i read and like actually read like not skimming I read every word and comprehended every sentence. I'm going to recommend another novel I read in an afternoon. It was like a three hour, you know, reading session. It wasn't that long. It's a short, like 250 pages. Read that, you know, and it's been a long time since I sat down and read a book and finished it. And it gave me this sense of like, I can read. I don't have to just listen to books, you know?

Because I've gotten into this thing where I'm just listening to books. Right. I can read. I can read. I don't think I can read, so I know what you're saying. Well, it's tough, we've been, you know, social media, attention span, like it's really hurt us.

Yeah. But I sat down with three body problem and got like 50% of the way in the first day, and then over the last week, was able to finish it on a plane on the way back. But, but what was the synchronicity with? Yeah, the synchronicity, the synchronicity. And then I'll say it also happened while I was watching Dune two, same, the same thing. Cause he explores a similar concept.

same thing because he explores a similar concept. So in Three-Body Problem, he really, he talks about like the influence of, there's an anti-science movement that is being perpetrated by the alien civilization to stop the progress. And first of all, spoiler alert, if you wanna read this whole thing, I don't think this is gonna step on too much stuff. I don't know how quickly they get into this on the show. Oh, you haven't watched the show? No, I was waiting to finish the book.

Yeah, it's a spoiler for the show. Okay. For the first half of the first season. It depends on- A little late to say that, I guess. Well, but it depends on like your definition of spoiler is any information. I'm not telling you an outcome.

I'm just telling you world building premise stuff. But like, if there's a certain amount of time that it takes for an alien civilization to arrive at earth and they know based on where we're at in our technological progress that by the time they get there, our technology will exceed their technology. The only way to guarantee that they will win any sort of battle is to stop our technological process, our progress.

And the one way to do that is to undermine confidence in science in scientific institutions and of course this is very near and dear to my heart because one of the reasons that i'm no longer a christian um is my how my view of science, but specifically in the way that the type of Christian I was, which really didn't let any... It created this false dilemma where there was some, you know, science and religion were against each other, which I actually don't believe that now.

You know, I don't think that that's ultimately the thing. But there is a – and then in Dune, again, there's this like religious thinking and religious commitments like cloud the way that you interpret events, right? You try to – and when I say religion, I'm not talking about just spiritual things, but there are people who are just ideologically committed to something, left, right, whatever, that can be religious in their thinking, and then they interpret all possible evidence to make sure it falls in line

with their pre-existing, their pre-conclusions. And it was just funny being down in Florida, which obviously, you see some Trump flags, you see some of those. Not so much in the Keys. And I thought, I was like, this is interesting because these people are on the front lines of the effects of climate change.

These people who work for these dive companies, they go out, they see what's happening to the coral. They know that it's because of temperature increase. And they know that this isn't part of a cycle of nature. Like cycles, natural cycles of nature don't result in unprecedented bleaching of coral in this way. This is something that's happening because of the way that we've worn the planet. But it kind of hit me, this is something that's happening because of the way that we've warmed the planet.

But it kind of hit me, it's just like, oh man, what are we gonna do about this? And also sea level rise and everything. The Keys are one of those front lines where people are experiencing hurricane strengthening in intensity and in quantity. Every sort of impact resulting from climate change, they're gonna feel the brunt of it, literally.

But we kind of live in this time where there is this undermining of science and scientific institutions that we can't even agree that we have a problem that we cause that we need to correct. You think it's the aliens well no it was so interesting because i was like um in the book it's very much like oh this helps to explain this helps to explain um sort of the state of the world and in this nobody everybody thinks that everyone is in somebody else's pocket and

you can't trust anybody and of course there's like whatever like the russian propaganda stuff from the past couple of elections where it's like bots like saying things to create the create and increase the polarization politically in america and that kind of thing i don't know i wasn't hopeful i'll just say when i was down there and I was like, man, this is a huge problem. There's these people trying to fix this. But when you just get back to your normal life, like the average person is like, I just don't have time.

I don't have time to think about this. And I was just like reading this book and thinking about how people- It puts it on the forefront of your mind, which that is the struggle that I've had in watching the show. I haven't finished season one because I've started feeling like it's pretty bleak. Oh, I don't have a lot of hope. It's had an impact on my attitude.

And it's just like it's kind of been a bit depressing. You know, I start to think about like impending doom. You know, like this impending doom of like these aliens coming and everything that you're talking about. I start to feel that in like other ways. Like, yeah, I'm thinking about my own death. Of course, I also rewatched the Barbie movie yesterday. That helped. No, because she was thinking about my own death. Of course, I also rewatched the Barbie movie yesterday. That helped. No, because she was thinking about her own death too.

She had her own existential crisis. But it's a good ending. She can't go, yeah, what's that sequel going to be like? Not as good. And I don't know if they're going to order more seasons of this. If I knew that they had ordered a second season, I think I would be, I would finish the first season, but now I'm on the fence. It, but the concepts that they, that they set up, it's like, I enjoyed it because it

was so creative and scientific and it exposes you to all of these different concepts. And it's pretty, they're very large, it's very large in scope. It's very, I mean, the guy is so intelligent. And it was adapted by the creators of Game of Thrones, the television show. So it's pretty high quality. It was like my favorite book in a long time. And just how innovative it is. I've got to watch it. It's pretty high quality.

Because it was like my favorite book in a long time. Yeah. And just how innovative it is. But there's just something about how susceptible we as a population are to having... All you need to do to succeed in stopping our civilization from addressing an existential problem like climate change is to just find one or two things that you can make people think are more important and it's just they did it so it's just like it's so difficult to imagine any other outcome other than just we're just going to collectively experience the effects

of climate change and then we're just going to deal with them and i i'm i'm hopeful that you know through i don't think that the human i don't think the human race is going to go extinct over this and you know um i mean it's possible long term maybe but like i think we'll figure out how to counteract some of these things maybe with really crazy technologies that we really can't even imagine right now. But we're already experiencing the impacts of it. And I was just talking to this other lady when I got, I was like, oh, what were those fish? Those blue fish that came in

and they were all chomping on the coral. It was crazy. She was like, oh yeah, those were the like parrot blue, midnight blue parrotfish. It's so cool. They were like nuts. They were crazy. They were really big and they were all chomping

and it was loud and you can hear it. Oh. And she was like- They were eating the dead coral? No, they were eating some live stuff. They were eating something off of the live parts. Okay. There were still like live parts.

Then we were diving the live parts, but we would like cross over like graveyards of coral to get to other parts. She's like, yeah yeah and you'll see some of the rainbow parrotfish you'll see a few like when i started working here they were everywhere and now there's just a couple left and it's just it's kind of crazy that so quickly this person who in their lifetime and their time that they've been an employee at this place for like 12 years. They see this drastic environmental change around this species.

And this isn't something that we think. We just don't think about it. We don't think about it. We're like, yeah, I think maybe there's something to this, but I don't know what I can do. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. But then if you were to even bring this up, it's just so crazy how it is in the US. It's just like, if you just pick a random person and you bring up this bleaching, coral bleaching,

there's like a 50% chance that they'll just be like, I don't believe that's happening or I don't think that we have anything to do with that. I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. And you're just like, well, what do we, how do we, how do you counteract that? You can't even have a conversation. Step one is agreeing that we have a problem

that we should be solving. Right. Yeah, it's ideological, right? Yeah, it's just a commitment. It's just like my ideology is so intact that you cannot penetrate it with a problematic piece of evidence or a fact. And again, I'm not saying that this is just one side because it does happen regardless of your – but on top of this particular issue, which is like the existential issue for civilization, there is one side of the political spectrum that is admitting that it's a problem.

Whether or not there are solutions for it are going to be adequate is an argument that we can have. But if we were in a place where the entire political spectrum was like, yes, we have a problem, we have created it, now let's solve it. And there might be somebody who says, well, I'm a little bit more on the right. And I think that solving, we can't solve this problem in a way that completely neuters our economy. We need a strong economy in order to actually solve it. We need private institutions to innovate technologies. Okay, we can have that conversation, but we're not having that conversation. The conversation we're having

is whether or not it's happening or not. Yeah. And all you gotta do is just go and look at it and see it happening. I think the parallel with the three body problem is that all of that is explored on like a global cultural level of, all right, the really bad news, you don't want to hear it.

You got these aliens coming. By the way, they're like, you know, how many generations away? 450 years. Yeah. 450 years away. And so it's like, what do we do with this? And even amongst the people who agree that they're coming, there's a great division. Right. People just want to be divided. That's just what we want.

We want to just be in our little group. It's like, okay, you can be in your group, but like, we got to do something about this shit, y'all. You know? We got to do something about this shit y'all you know just we got to do something about it we can still we can have a discussion about how we solve it okay let's have a discussion about how we solve it but let's not let's stop having a discussion about whether or not it's a problem yeah it's fascinating and you're and and it seems it just seems like a it just seems like a unsolvable problem because everything that is happening right now in terms

of like people's trust people's ability to manipulate the media people's ability to like literally make people say things that they didn't say. Like, it's difficult to be hopeful. I mean, what I will say is that we'll make people laugh right until the end. That's what we gotta do. Right until the whole world burns. That's what we gotta do. And you haven't done a lot of that in the last few months.

Oh, I think I've done a good portion of it. A little bit early on. Towards the end, this guy, you know, it's like you came back from, you were so excited at the beginning of this podcast. You were back home. You had all your- Well, I was face to face.

You had your toiletries. I was face to face with it. Like, it's so easy to not be face to face with it. Like, I mean, you know, we can be, once we're back here, it's like, I'm not really, I don't experience directly the evidences for climate change here. The people who live in the places

that are seeing the change, and when you go and visit the places that are seeing the change, you're kind of like, oh, God, I gotta, oh, man, I gotta think about this. I gotta talk about this. Something's gotta be done about this. Yeah. Yeah. talk about this. Something's gotta be done about this! Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, we didn't solve it. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. I do have a rec, though. The other book that I read. Okay. Let me bring up the title. It's called What Strange Paradise by Omar El-Akkad. Very, like... What Strange Paradise. up the title it's called what strange paradise by omar el akkad um very like what strange paradise

super short novel uh about a syrian uh boy who's a refugee and like his story of, you know, getting out of his country. And like I said, I read it in an afternoon on the beach, and it kind of was like a spark for like, oh, I can read. I read again. Why do you recommend it? Well, I mean, first of all, it's just this guy is an incredible writer. This won a few... I was like, best novels of 2023 or whatever.

I wanted to read something that was current, that was like people thought was great and was short. That's why I picked it. That's why I recommend it. Timely issue, you know, thinking about a whole nother global problem that we're trying to solve. But I always find these books that put the question of other problems that people are experiencing in the world, that people are experiencing in the world,

tell it on their terms versus what happens most of the time is that you filter those people's plight and their stories through your terms, right? Mm-hmm, okay. If you turn on the news, you're like, we're being invaded, you know, by people from other countries or whatever the way that it's said. And it's just like, what does it look like to see that story

from the perspective of the person who's trying to change their lives? And it's just, it's a beautifully written book. Like this dude is just, you know, not a word wasted kind of writing. You know what I'm saying? Like, it says a lot with a little. Moves through it very quickly. So, What Strange Paradise by Omar Elikot. All right. Well, I'm glad you made it back. And I don't know what else to say, Rhett. You made me kind of existential. Yeah, I'm going to try to cheer you up.

I'll bring some energy. Well, I'm looking forward to it. As always, we want you to call us, leave a voicemail with your response to what we talked about. 1-888-EARPOD-1. We'd love it if you'd leave us a review. Oh, yes, please. Be honest, but be complimentary if you can get it going. Well, I'll say it like they do at the end of your, when you go diving.

If you had a great time, leave us a review. If you didn't have a great time, leave a review on another podcast. Oh. You know. And the joke I always hear is like. My name is. If I did a great job, my name is Bob. If I didn't do a great job, my name is Rob.

Right. That's what I was trying to say. They all say that. I was trying to say that. They all say he's trying to say that they all say that hi this is regarding the newest ear biscuits with link and jenna just wanted to thank you both for that and jenna you're awesome and i hope you have a great time with your aunt around europe and budapest i think you said i really admire your adventurous spirit and your ability and willingness to just grow as a person.

I think it's just wonderful quality to have. And I hope you guys have a really great day. Thanks a lot. Bye.