Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Rhett’s North Carolina Trip | Ear Biscuits Ep.296

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

Fire in the house! From outdoor family adventures to surviving his first house fire, listen to Rhett look back on his recent trip to North Carolina in this episode of Ear Biscuits! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast, where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Link. And I'm Rhett.

This week at the Round Table of Dim Lighting, we're catching up with each other and with you. We're talking about our trips back home to North Kakalaki, the first time that we have been back to the homeland since pre-COVID. I visited my family over the course of three weeks. Woo, three weeks is a long time to be anywhere that's not where you normally are.

No offense to my family. I might offend them later when I talk about things. You may have already done it based on that statement. Whether it's, I mean, if you have the luxury of going on a vacation for three weeks, or what I did, which I don't call a vacation, I call it a liaise with family to reconnect. It's just, you shouldn't go anywhere longer than two weeks

and two weeks might be pressing your luck. That's why I went for two weeks. Unless you're some like, like gap year backpacker person. I've thought about being that. And then you can just- I think it's too late. Who knows no home. Could I just do a gap year now?

How would that impact you? It'd be so lonely. Rhett's on a gap year. I think we would have to call it a sabbatical at this point. Oh yeah, yeah, you reach a certain, because we have tenure, you can take a sabbatical and then not have to worry about whether you can come back or not.

Do we have tenure? Are you? I'd like to think so. I do. Do you think that you would, I mean, like, let's just say for a second, if sabbatical was on the table and it wouldn't disrupt things, are let's just say for a second, if sabbatical was on the table and it wouldn't disrupt things, are you telling me that you couldn't do a sabbatical

for more than three weeks? Are you saying a sabbatical is different? First of all, is this, I've only heard the word sabbatical in reference to a preacher who like- Professors do it too. Who preaches every Sunday at a church and then I was like, where's Pastor Jerry?

Where is he this week? He's on sabbatical. I think the root of Sabbath- Which is code for we're covering up something. Is that it? That he's having trouble with. Yeah, Pastor Jerry had an affair with the secretary. But Sabbath is rest, right?

So it's like sabbatical. And they were like, we can't say sabbatical. That sounds like an idiot. So sabbatical, let's take the H out. I don't know. I'm not an entomologist, which I think is someone who studies insects. Can you leave- I don't know what the word is

for someone who studies words. What is it somebody studies words? A linguist? Well, that's somebody who studies languages. The origin of words is- I know what you're talking about. A wordologist. I know, hold on.

Jenna's gonna look it up. I hate doing this because I don't know if you're aware of this, but there are people listening. Yeah, they're just listening to two old friends. What is it? Two lifelong friends. There are so many of them listening. We should have said two old friends. There's so many of them listening. We should have said two old friends.

There's so many of them listening that some of them, and you know what, in our listenership. Etymologists. Etymologists. Entomologists. Now entomologists, insects. There's an N. No, that's insects.

They know it. Etymologists. They knew that before Jenna had to tell us and somebody's mispronouncing it. It's not N, there's no N in it. Yeah, cause that's the one with the insects. Oh, so the difference between studying words and insects is the letter N?

The letter N. Really? As in insect. Everything that we talk about, there's always someone listening who thinks they know more. Yeah, that's why I say so many different things. To make other people feel smart. I wanna make-

Oh, is that been your motive all these years? I wanna make as many people feel smart as possible so I touch on a lot of things. By asserting your knowledge, you're giving people opportunity to feel smarter than you in a wide variety. I'm a content individual at this point in my life. I'm not trying to prove anything anymore.

So I took a two week sabbatical to North Carolina. I had not seen my family since Thanksgiving of 2019. And I'm gonna, I think from the little that I've kind of heard and looking at your visage, I think you had a pretty fun trip. On a scale of one to 10, a zero being torture. And a 10 being like ecstatic.

I was gonna say orgasmic. But I don't wanna do that to you in this trip. I don't wanna put that on you in this trip. I don't wanna put that on you. It wasn't that kind of trip. Jesse wasn't even with you, I know that. So 10 being like you're ecstatic, like the happiest you've ever been. It was, I mean, it could have been a seven or an eight.

I had some really good times. I'm still processing my trip. If you pressed me to give a number right now, are you? What's your number, Link? Thanks for asking. I mean, I'd probably say a four. I mean, there was- That's not too bad.

It could be worse. It's nobody's fault. It was the nature of what I was reentering into and some of the stuff I had to navigate back home. So I wanna take this episode and I just want you to go for it. I want you to give me that seven or eight experience and then-

That's what my mom says when she like goes to a restaurant and gets French fries as a side. I'm going for it. I'm going for it. I want you to go for it. And then next week I'm gonna go for it in a different way, which might, it might have some heavier aspects to the conversation.

Okay, well. I feel like that would be good to- I'm gonna see how heavy I can get. No, mine was just, I've got some good stories, some things that happened. I don't know what it, I don't, I've got some good stories, some things that happened. I don't know what it, I've kept the full update at bay. I mean, we only had really one point of textual contact over the course of my three week trip.

And it was an update that you were still alive because you were texting, but apparently the house that you were staying in at one point almost caught on fire? Possibly. That's the only tidbit of information that I really have to go on. I would go as far as to say it caught on fire.

So there was a fire that I will talk about. And you weren't there for July 4th either. No, and it wasn't my fault. Well, I'll be the judge of that. Yeah, so that's a tease. There's some other stuff that happened. But you know what I wanna do? As your friendly neighborhood content creator

and concerned citizen, I'm going to dip my toes back in these waters just real quick and talk about the vaccine again. I'm gonna be that guy. Okay, yeah, people are still talking about that vaccine. You know, I got it. I got it a second time. Me too. The second one.

And I was like, well, I'm good to go. Isn't everybody good to go? And I remember when you talked about it on this show and there was a lot of info and I just kind of zoned out, bro, because- I'm not gonna give this much info. I made my decision and I just, and I feel like either people are gonna,

people wanna listen to stuff they agree with, man. And they don't wanna listen to stuff that they're not gonna agree with. So who is your audience for this little dip in the toe here? As we've already established, the only reason I'm talking about this is to make other people feel intelligent. Okay.

No. You're gonna make people who are fully vaccinated feel intelligent. No, no. So again, I don't know who the audience is, who cares to listen. I'm kind of of a mind right now that if you have decided to not get the vaccine by this point, there's probably not a whole lot

that's gonna cause you to get the vaccine. So I guess I'm talking to those people who are still holdouts and kind of still feel like there's a crack in the door that I can kind of stick my foot in right now. Or maybe a listener knows someone and they can put their foot in their crack. Yeah, right in the crack,

which is not where the vaccine goes, unless you request it. They'll put the whole syringe right up your ass. So- And then you squeeze your cheeks together. You self-administer. And then it- It's no touch is what they call it. It shrinks the syringe.

No touch vaccines. I think you're supposed to put it in all the way and then rotate it for a count of five. Or is that your nose for the test? Okay, I think everybody at this point is beyond the whole herd immunity thing. That's not gonna happen. So I'm literally just-

Beyond the whole, that is what they say when you're putting in the syringe. I am only appealing to your own personal protection. Like I tried to do the thing last time, which is like, this is, we're all in this together. This is about the population. Yeah. I mean, we're obviously, that's not gonna happen.

There's gonna still be a significant number of people who aren't vaccinated and this thing's gonna be around for a pretty good while and it's gonna become endemic and et cetera, et cetera. But the Delta variant- And now I'm scared again. Now they're giving it to me with that Delta variant. The Delta variant has changed the game.

And I just wanna talk a little bit about that just very briefly. Now, Delta variant significantly more contagious than the Alpha variant. Now, there's a lot of people and the numbers are going up very, very quickly. The numbers are going up very, very quickly. The numbers are going up very, very quickly in the states where the highest numbers

of unvaccinated people are. And also, the people who are going to the hospital and experiencing severe illness from this are by and large, unvaccinated people. Again, there was some talk back in the early days of the vaccine, some vaccine conspiracy theorists were like, you know what, actually this vaccine is gonna make people more susceptible to the virus

and we're gonna see all these side effects, et cetera, et cetera. Those things, not surprisingly, have proven to not be true. The safety profile of the vaccine is what was indicated in the trials, meaning that there is a low risk of side effects and long-term complications. Not saying they don't exist, but it's still a very low risk.

And also, it isn't making people more susceptible to infection or more susceptible to severe illness. It's doing exactly the opposite, which is what vaccines are designated to do. So, but here's the thing. I feel like most people who haven't gotten it at this point, chances are that you are in an environment and in a community, in a family,

there's a setting that you're in where there's a lot of pressure against getting the vaccine at this point, right? Here in Los Angeles, super left wing situation, of course, there's a lot of pressure to get the vaccine. I acknowledge that. But there's a lot of pressure in a lot of pockets in the United States to mock people who get the vaccine,

to say, I'm not a guinea pig, don't be a guinea pig. Don't use an accent. Well, I'm just saying a lot of it is in the South and I'm from the South, so I'm gonna use that accent. Don't bring guinea pigs into this. Guinea pigs are not native to the South though. So my plea at this point is that, again, the science is pretty clear.

I'm not sure that that is gonna make a difference at this point because people will believe that where I'm getting my information from is not a trustworthy source and that I'm being lied to, et cetera, et cetera. So, but I'm just appealing to that person out there who is like, well, I actually don't really know what I think about this,

but I'm kind of scared of this Delta variant because one of the things that's happening is younger people are getting infected more readily. That's who's in the hospital right now is a lot of younger people. And the issue, we said this before, but I'll just state it again, the issue is not the mortality of COVID.

That is an issue for people who are older and who are in high risk groups, but the issue is long-term complications, long COVID and long-term complications from this virus. We're seeing all kinds of things. Every day that passes, we get more and more evidence that the long-term complications associated with even a mild case of COVID are,

this is not a pretty picture. We're seeing the brain fog and we're seeing people's senses being messed with. We're seeing erectile dysfunction. That'll scare some people. There's just all kinds of things that happen with unknown and novel viruses like this. And that's where the real risk is right now.

The real risk is not with the vaccine on any significant statistical level. The real risk is with these long-term complications that are happening to people who are healthy, young, vibrant, people who exercise, have good diets. The virus don't care. So here's what I'm asking. I'm just saying, consider this.

If you're in a community where there's a lot of pressure to not get the vaccine, just get it and don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. Don't tell your parents. Don't tell your kids. Don't tell your spouse. Don't tell your preacher. Just get the vaccine. Don't tell your spouse. Don't tell your preacher. Just get the vaccine.

Don't tell your doctor. Hold on, wait, because this is my thing. If you got to these nebulous reasons and like foggy fears associated with the vaccine, but then it's like, why not ask your doctor? Like ask the doctor that you trust that if you were dying, if you had some condition, it's like, I think I'm dying. I'm going to the emergency room

and then the doctor comes up and says, well, this is what you need to do. And you know, then you're gonna start searching stuff on the internet and just talking to friends who are really passionate about certain things. And then you're gonna say, you know what, I'm not gonna trust you, doc. It's like to talk to your trusted doctor

and take your doctor's advice. And they will almost assuredly tell you to get the vaccine and they're not part of a giant conspiracy, they're just doctors. Why would you trust a doctor who you barely know because they're a doctor with your very life yet not go to them to confirm or redirect your anti-vaccine stance?

But it just baffles me. I don't want you to be one of these people that's literally, this is what we're seeing now, you got people in the hospital in the moment before they get put on a ventilator or they get intubated, they're asking for the vaccine. God, please give me the vaccine. Too late, it doesn't work at that point.

And listen, I'm serious. Stop fighting the culture wars. Don't tell anybody, don't try to convince your people. Do it secret. Just do it secretly. Okay, if you can't convince your community and your family to think about this correctly, just go get it yourself. Don't tell anybody, don't even tell yourself. Just get the vaccine, you'll be fine.

You know what, you could ask the nurse administering the vaccine that you're meeting with in secret. You say, you know what, just put it. Well, we've already explored option number one, which is up the rectum. That's actually not our advice. But you could say, hey, why don't you just put it, put the syringe needle up on the ground

and I'm just gonna fall into it. And then it'll be a secret, but if somebody finds out, if I'm pressed, I'll be like- I didn't get the vaccine. I actually- Might've stepped on a nail. No, it was an accident. I fell into the vaccine.

I fell on it. Yeah, yeah, it was definitely not my, I wasn't willing to. Whoops. But I am now vaccinated. Yeah, I fell twice, two weeks apart. Yeah. Or is it three weeks? I can't remember. I've I fell twice, two weeks apart. Yeah. Or is it three weeks?

I can't remember. I've been enjoying the vaccination so long. Okay, got that out of your system. And there are people who, if you're skipping, this is the point where you can stop skipping. This is it. We're not talking about the vaccine anymore. 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. Okay, man. So I experienced what I might call a tourism commercial for the state of North Carolina. Because what is the one thing that we used to say growing up in North Carolina when people ask us

about North Carolina? It's got the mountains and it's got the beach and it's got the Piedmont. I remember at Buies Creek Elementary School, the posters that were up everywhere were not motivational in nature, they were tourism in nature. Yeah.

They would have a picture of a scenic part of North Carolina and then it would just say in bold letters at the bottom, North Carolina. It's like, we really walked the halls of, it was like a tourism bureau. Yeah. And so we really had this appreciation of how much our home state had to offer.

Well, here's the thing. Sandy beaches and lighthouses and Blue Ridge Parkway. I feel like we have been, we were spoiled. We grew up in North Carolina and now we live in California. So from a landscape standpoint, Options. I never understood. You know, there are people who are living in states

that don't have the beach or the mountains. A lot of states don't have either of those things. And we were just like, of course we've got both. Of course we're within two hours driving distance of both if you live in the Raleigh area. You know what I'm saying? Like it's a wonderful place. By the way, that place is growing.

Fastest growing place in the nation I think or like one of the top places right now is the Triangle area. And like, haven't been there in 18 months and just a couple of streets that I went on, a couple of routes, like going from my brother and sister-in-law's house to my brother's house, unrecognizable because there's just so many communities going on.

Oh my gosh, it's crazy. They just cleared everything out. I mean, and you go south, like you go Apex, Fuquay, down into Lillington to Buies Creek, where I'm like visiting my kinfolk, all of the fields are now cul-de-sac, cookie cutter communities. We're not farming crops anymore, we're farming people.

And I don't know how they're building stuff when you can't get with the supply chain. Don't get me started on the supply chain. Yeah. I mean, there's freaking houses popping up everywhere. Where are these people coming from? Well, you know Apple's coming in. Amazon, I think. Amazon's freaking houses popping up everywhere. Where are these people coming from? Well, you know Apple's coming in. Amazon, I think. Amazon's coming in.

Amazon came in. It's growing like crazy. I mean, get ready for the traffic, y'all. I drove through the neighborhood I lived in and it's like, it's an older neighborhood, but when we moved in, the trees were short. Now the trees are tall and it looks like, oh, this is meant to be.

They grow. I was blown away by all these houses they're building. So. It's off-putting really. I like a good field. I experienced the mountains, the Piedmont and the coast over a period of two weeks. And really I experienced the mountains and the beach.

I just drove through the Piedmont. I spent one night, maybe two nights in Fuquay, but then it was the beach, I mean, it was the mountains and the beach. And boy, you know, I was like, I took this place for granted, but this is a night, I mean, of course I've got both of those things too here. Now, nobody lives at the mountains or the beach, so.

Well, there's quite a population there, but you mean people that I, my family. Your relatives, I mean, you went all the way home and didn't see anybody? I know, your approach was. Actually, Jesse came up with the idea to take, and again, yes, Jesse and Locke, it was just me and Shepard.

The story on that essentially is that they all went back before, like two weeks before for some other events. Locke's had a lot of stuff going on this summer, getting ready for college, job, et cetera. So Locke and Jesse ended up staying at home. Just me and Shepard went. But it was Jesse's idea that we do something with the McLaughlin clan in the mountains of North Carolina,

which interestingly, you know, a few years ago, we took the McLaughlin clan to Scotland to find out that we're Irish, but we- And to break your mom's ankle. And to break my mom's ankle. Let's not forget that. And interestingly, and technically we're Scotch Irish, so a little bit of both, but you know,

the Scotch-Irish people migrated to America and largely settled in the Appalachian Mountains. And so a lot of the things that you see, because we were near Grandfather Mountain, which we'll talk about that in a second, Banner Elk, Grandfather Mountain area. A lot of the things you see out there are sort of Scottish or Irish themed. A lot of the things you see out there are sort of Scottish or Irish themed.

A lot of Scottish themed stuff, including the Highland Games, like the North Carolina's version of the Highland Games is right there on Grandfather Mountain every single year. And it was there while we were there and we didn't realize it. Actually the day we got there was the last day of it and we didn't realize it until the next day,

so we missed it. But it was interesting. So you basically decided to plan a vacation and then your family was gonna drive. You flew into RDU, right? You didn't fly to the mountains. I flew into RDU and stayed in Fuquay for a couple of nights, then we drove.

And then all the McLaughlins, you guys went to the mountain. You've never done that before. It's not like you were carrying on some sort of tradition. No, but you know, we've learned, especially if you can get everybody together in one place, like getting everybody away from their homes and getting into this like this nice log cabin

up in the mountains, like the basic on Grandfather Mountain. It redefined your entire vacation, right? Because it changed from just being, I'm gonna visit with you and where are we gonna eat now? Yeah, and so we made plans for an activity. So let's vacation together. Plans for an activity every single day and then reservations at a restaurant at night.

And you just were like, this is what we're gonna do. We went- And everybody's of health to be able to do that. Yeah, well, Mama Di tends to be like, I just want to watch y'all have fun together. Sure. And so, I mean, cause we did- She was able to make that drive.

Well, yeah, yeah, she can take the drive, but she didn't whitewater raft. Okay. We went whitewater rafting. What? We went, all the kids went zip lining while my brother and my dad and I played golf in the mountains, which was great.

What? We went on the Alpine roller coaster. So there's this thing that comes down the mountain. You know those like European style roller coasters where you're just in a car? Unlike a cement? By yourself. Or some sort of half pipe? It's based on those that aren't safe

that you can like do in Europe, like back in the old days, there was one in Slovakia. But it's not on a track and it's not attached to anything and you have a pull brake. That's the old school ones. Yeah, I've seen those on Instagram. This new one is like two years old. It is fully on a track, it's obviously very safe,

but you control it and you have a handbrake. And you go down, you get like three rides. Shout out to the staff at this place. They were a bunch of mythical beasts there. What place? You can't shout out a place. I think it's called Alpine, you know, it's in Banner Elk, it's just Alpine Roller Coaster.

So let's call it something like that. And we went, what else did we do? We went- How long of a ride was that? Like, is it like a water slide length or was it like so long that you would get bored? Was it scenic? Was it fast?

I think it takes probably two minutes to come down it, which is, I mean, that's pretty, I mean, that's like a regular roller coaster length. And then you could just go, you just buy three rides if you want and you just stay on the cart and go right back up. Well, the Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland is like a 20 minute ride.

Oh, well, this is not Disneyland. This is the Alpine roller coaster. I mean, you all- I'm so jealous. I'm just trying to- I'm trying to notch down your experience. I also paid like, I don't know, like $20 for three rides or whatever it was. Did you ever feel like you're in danger?

I mean, I did the brakes the first two times and third time was when I let it go. Oh, no brake. The third time I didn't use the brake. There were nets on the side of it in certain places and I was like, those nets are there for a reason. Phones. I think they're there for people.

Cause it's just a regular seatbelt. It's not even a five point harness. So you have, I mean, there's a sense of danger. Went trout fishing in a pond filled with farm trout, which is probably a controversial thing. But my niece Ad, loves to fish. She does? I mean, she had like, she brought her fishing poles,

multiple poles, she has like fishing brand like hats and shirts that like have fishing brands on them. Really? And we kept talking about how we gotta find a place to catch some trout, we're like looking and like passing like rivers and streams and stuff, and then on the way out at the bottom of the Grandfather Mountain, it says trout fishing.

I was like, okay, well, let's just go there. And you just go there and there's just a pond with a bunch of trout that you can literally just see. And you literally like try to like get them to bite the thing. But she caught three, I caught one trout, she caught three trout. Well, if you can see them.

And they filet them for you right there and you take home the trout filets and you eat them when you get home. So they took them all home to carry. So it was- And you zip? I didn't zip line, I played golf. I would have zip lined. And that was super fun.

Now I saw- Now if there were zip lines on the golf course, I might start golfing. There were, I saw, and I'm sure you've experienced this as well. Like I saw more rain and heard more thunder, saw more lightning than I have seen, maybe in my time, my last decade in California. Like every day there was like a little thunderstorm,

you know, which I kind of missed that. Yeah. We don't see that. I've probably know, which I kind of missed that. Yeah. We don't see that. I've probably heard thunder three times in California. The smell of an oncoming storm. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anubay!

Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show with the best celebrity guests

and hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. One of the funnier things

that happened was we went to this steakhouse one night and we had a big group. I guess our table was like 10 people. So they had set us up in the middle of the main dining area at the biggest table. And this is a place, it's a steakhouse so they serve prime rib, which a few people in our party got prime rib.

Okay. And then at some point during the meal, my sister-in-law, my brother's wife, Teresa. That's how sister-in-laws work. She, well actually no, because my sister-in-law could also be my wife's sister. That's also how they work. They work two different ways.

There's probably a third way, can't think of it right now. She texts. That's the thing about a step sister. She texts me and Cole. From the table? From the table and her text says, the woman behind us, at the table right behind us just received her prime rib and is giving it back

to the waiter because she thought it was going to be ribs. Is she looking over your shoulder and seeing this happen? You think that's funny, huh? Yeah, I think it's hilarious. I mean, a prime rib does sound like the best ribs. Like, it's one, no, it sounds like one good rib. One good rib, yeah. Like, give me your primest rib.

So, of course, the McLaughlins have fun with stuff like this. You know, you've been around the McLaughlins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We love it when somebody gives us a reason to make fun of them. Now, of course, we don't do it to their face. We just have fun with it as a family.

Over text, apparently. I don't wanna, I'm not gonna make the, I'm not gonna point it out, I'm not gonna laugh at the woman. You know, I don't know. You know, I don't know where she's from. If she's from America, then I don't know how she got to this point.

She was probably 30. I don't know how she got to 30 point. She was probably 30. I don't know how she got to 30 not knowing that prime rib is not a rib, but it can happen. Then the conversation turned to- I mean, I'm sympathetic. Why? You know what prime rib is.

I didn't eat a burrito until I was in college. She's 30 and it's 2021. I'm saying it's just an unusual thing, right? I mean, one of the two words in the title is rib. It is from the rib, but it is not what you, it is not- The only place I've seen a prime rib, like when I think about prime rib, I think about like a banquet at a hotel.

Like, I don't know why, but like we would have banquet dining at, for like conferences and then that's where there'd be a guy slicing prime rib in the corner. Yeah. And so either that or like a wedding type thing. But if you haven't been to a hotel banquet, then maybe you, and you've never ordered it.

I mean, you don't. Maybe if you're a vegetarian and you haven't had that much interaction with meat, but she's obviously there ordering what she thinks is ribs. It is funny though, so go ahead. So then the conversation turned to, because what ended up happening is she wanted to give it back. Now I understand if you think you're getting ribs

and you get prime rib, I mean prime rib is a big slab of meat just for those of you who don't know. It's very pink, I don't like that. And it's very, if it's done correctly, it's done medium rare, so yes, it is pink. And if you like meat in that way, which objectively is the correct way to like meat, then it's gonna look pink.

But if you don't like that, it's gonna be gross, and you're gonna be like, I thought I was gonna get some ribs with some sauce on it, and so then you're gonna wanna give it back. So then the guy that she was with, who we thought was maybe a boyfriend, but we didn't know if it was an early date or a late date, you know, like this first date,

we started to talk about, was this a surprise to him as well? Or is it a surprise to him that the woman he's on a date with doesn't know what prime rib is? And if he were a McLaughlin, it would be over. Well, it would be a red flag. We give people some chances. I wouldn't break up with someone

because they didn't know what prime rib was, but then I would ask a few questions about it and I would find out why. And then I might break up with them depending on the answer why. Yeah. But- We could never date. This is probably true.

But- I don't know what all this fan fiction is about. It would never work. Yeah, right, you just don't know enough. I'm just kidding. So- I'm just kidding. So, um. Gladly, I have a blissful headspace.

But that just put us into a jolly mood, right? Okay, okay. And so I'm sitting next to my brother. Now we moved beyond prime rib lady. That just, she just primed the pump, if you know what I mean. I got you, I got you. And so now we're just having fun. I'll take the prime pump. And so now we're just having fun. I'll take the prime pump.

And so you know how my brother is. Yeah. And you know how my brother laughs and you know how I laugh. He's like, so if I'm really tickled at something, I go, ha! Yeah. Right?

And I scream and it's loud. Yeah. And it's in a small, relatively small steakhouse. Everyone can hear it. My brother- It's like you've been bit on the ass by a badger. My brother does it twice as loud and four times as often. I mean, that is what he does.

And so- If he really likes it, he'll force it and it's jolly making. It's a reward, it's a gift to those who are sharing in the experience. It's like he finds it so funny. He's forcing it into like a megaphone. But it's not a gift to anyone else in the restaurant. No.

Let me just be clear about that. It's almost scary. Well, cause you're like, how could someone be laughing that loud here? Over and over again. And so then my mom starts getting a little embarrassed. But one of the things that really gets my brother going is my mom cannot stand it when he curses.

And so he curses. Because it makes him laugh so much, the way that she responds. And so we got into this, we just were laughing so much. And then now Teresa is, she's saying, the table behind you is very unhappy. It's like, we were ruining people's dinners. I feel bad about it.

It can happen a number of ways. Like none, it can't impact any other table in a positive way. It can be distracting, it can be annoying, it can be scary. What are these noises that people are making? Is this how they communicate? What's wrong with them? Are they being bitten on the ass by badgers?

Right, are they trying to vaccinate themselves? It could be, it could just be envy. It's like, I wish I could have half as much fun as they're having right now. We were having too much fun for a steakhouse. I'm the first to admit. I'm over here having no fun compared to these dummies. Yeah, but we were having too much fun for a steakhouse.

Also shout out to, let me just say. Random Steakhouse? Let me just say, no, it was called Stonewalls. Okay. In Banner Elk. And after we finished the loud meal, several of the staff were mythical beasts and we got a picture together.

Now, I don't know what your experience was. And it's been a while since we've been out and we've been out, you know what I'm saying? Period, yeah. And North Carolina is our home state. It's where we got started, you know? It'll always be our home. And so it's not, I would say that more people

in North Carolina than most states might be familiar with us just because we're the hometown boys. But it still is unusual to be recognized or for somebody to be a fan, right? I mean, it's still a sporadic experience, even when you're in North Carolina. But let me tell you about the people-

Come out of the COVID hole and then being recognized, it's like there's a reacquaintance to it. The people of the Banner Elk area, that is a mythical beast stronghold. We got the people at the Whitewater Rafting Company, edge of the world, shout out to the edge of the world folks. Several mythical beasts there. Mythical beast Brett actually was my river guide.

He took me down the river. We got- I wanna talk about that, but I'll come back to the rest. We got mythical beasts at the Alpine Roller Coaster. We got mythical beasts at Stonewall Restaurant. I mean, I was just like, this is a stronghold. They've set up camp here in the mountains. I mean, just spoiler alert for what's coming next week.

It's like, I don't know if you've got more, if you had more fun, but you know, I didn't do anything like you did. I'm pretty upset with you right now. Good. I'm very envious. I'm at the other table saying, man, share a little of the fun. That was my intention.

But that being said, I did notice like when we would eat, I mean, if we did eat out, it was like eating outdoors at like more of a fast food type place going from one family member's house to another type situation. And there were way too many instances of, I mean, the kids would say, you're being recognized right now, but then we wouldn't be approached,

which is nice when we're eating. And then, but people would then drive off and there were lots of people yelling, get me the commanding from cars. There was a lot of, I mean, again, I'm in the Piedmont, I'm in the middle. I don't, I can't speak for Ben or Elk, but there's a lot of shouting from cars.

And a lot of people who did talk to me, every single person who mentioned my name thought my name was Rhett. Well, good. My marketing plan is working. Like everyone, you know, it's like, Rhett? I'll be like, close. I get called Link.

It happened a few times. I wasn't called Link once. I was probably called Rhett eight times. It annoyed my family more than me because I kind of know that it's like, okay, first of all, you know the level of Mythical Beasts if they don't know which one I am. Right, yeah.

That's not a Mythical Beast, that's a casual fan. It also means they don't know which one I am. Right, yeah. That's not a Mythical Beast, that's a casual fan. It also means they don't know which one you are, by the way. Right, yeah. So it's not like- It's just my name's first and so they're just going for it. Yeah, so I don't take it personally, but I thought it was sweet that my family thought I might be taking it personally.

Well, when I was at the beach, which I also played golf at the beach, I had a golf outing in the mountains and the beach. The course on the beach was on the sound. And we played, so it was me, my brother-in-law, Chris, and then Lance, our friend from Beard and Lady, maker of Beard Oil and Lip Balm's extraordinaire of Lance and Lacey.

We played and they paired us up with a guy who's playing by himself. David from Virginia, shout out to David, civil engineer from Virginia. Shout out, you gotta calm it down. He was a mythical beast as well. Really?

And he didn't tell me until we were a couple of holes in. Couple of holes in, yeah. But. He played it cool, that's good. He called me Link a couple of times during the round. So if that makes you feel any better, good shot Link. Really? Yeah.

And then he'd be like, man, I've called you Link a couple of times. I was like, dude, I answer to both. I answer to both, especially when I get a shot like that. When people do that. And I'm on the Links. When people do that, I just let it go. I never correct them.

It's never, it's not worth correcting. It's totally fine. So anyway, great time in the mountains. Well, you went to, what class rapids? Three is the top. This is the Watauga River. So this is the river that, the namesake of the Watauga Medical Center,

which by the way, do you know where the kids ziplined? Hawk's Nest. Where I broke my pelvis. The site of your incredible pelvis breaking and concussion event. So during the summer, it's ziplining and maybe mountain biking or whatever.

Yeah, I'll never forget the sign. Well, I'll actually continually remember for the first time the sign. It was the Watauga River, which is a beautiful river. You have broken your pelvis. You are at Watauga Medical Center. But really what they do is there's one class three rapid. You have a concussion.

And they have this particular rafting company, Edge of the World, according to them, they're the only rafting company that does the Watauga River that owns or leases the land next to the class three. So what they do is- I know what they do. You stop at the class three, you eat lunch, and then you walk back up with your rafts

and you go through as many times as you want. Oh, that's cool. So I'll put some pictures up that were taken as we went through the rapids. Anybody fall out? No one fell out, but- You need a good class five to fall out. Shepherd got close to falling out.

I would love to go whitewater rafting again. Remember that time we went, I mean, this was when I still worked at IBM or like right after that, we went whitewater rafting in West Virginia. That was Upper Gauley. Upper Gauley, which definitely has class five rafts. That was awesome.

And so I think it turns, it gets to six during certain points of the year. My dad was there. Yeah, and Greg's dad. And you know how Greg's dad rode the bull on the front? Yeah. So what they do on this class three, which is significantly smaller,

is they put people on the front. You can ride the bull, you can put two people on the front. And then if multiple people want to, they put you sideways and you go down sideways with everybody sitting on one side of the raft. And then other people sitting and like holding, I was like holding Shepherd or holding Adeline like from the back, you know,

trying to keep them from falling in. We had a blast. Man. And then we drove across the state. Oh, well, speaking of mythical beasts. I feel like Owen Wilson in the Royal Tenenbaums right now. I so much wanna be a part of your family. Okay, well, it could probably be arranged.

Just for the activities. I mean, you might be too judgy, the prime rib and all. Oh, well, I'm not making even more jealous. When I get to the, I landed and got in my rental car and the guy, this happens often, people look at me and look up and see how big I am and then say things like, depending on what your profession is,

if you're a rental car guy, you say, you need a upgrade to more leg room. And I was like, okay. He's like, I'll give you a free upgrade to more leg room. And of course I'm not gonna turn that down. He says, okay, your car is in spot so-and-so. It's a Dodge Charger. That has more leg room?

I don't think so. I think he's just trying to get rid of it. It's like a sports car. Which was weird and loud, and I drove this black Dodge Charger all around North Carolina. It was so loud. And I don't know, I kind of felt like,

hey, I'm in North Carolina, I'm driving a Charger. Anyway, I'm driving the Charger across the state. Oh my gosh. To get to the mountains. And I've got Shepherd and his cousin, who my brother's youngest child, who is the same age as Shepherd. They're two peas in a pod, love each other, love hanging out with each other.

So I've got Shepherd and Adeline with me. We needed to stop and pick up a couple of last minute supplies before we got to the place. So we stopped at a super Walmart. Great. Somewhere in the western parts of North Carolina. Few mythical beasts working at this Walmart. Now, Shepherd being a Los Angeles kid

doesn't have a lot of experience with Walmart, much less super Walmarts. I don't think he understood that we were walking into essentially a town. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes, we actually went in a Walmart. When I visited my dad, Lando and I went in a Walmart because I had to get my version of coffee.

Like I can't have any family members version of coffee because who knows what you'll get. And we were walking through Walmart and Lando goes, I don't think I've ever been in one of these places. Yeah, it's crazy how big it is. So there is one in Burbank, but we don't go in. So what I didn't, is that super? No, it's not super.

I mean, this thing, there's nothing in Los Angeles that is this big, maybe the tar pits. I don't know, I mean, it's so big. And I failed to orient Shepard to that fact. And so we go to a particular section and I'm kind of looking for something and then I kind of turn around and I'm like, Shepard and Adeline are gone.

And then it immediately hits me. I'm like, this is a super Walmart. This is like someone, this is like your kid, you're at Disneyland and the kid is, you can't find your kid. You start thinking logistical questions like, who do I talk to? Do I need to go to the speaker?

Yeah. Of course I was like, do the smart thing, stay in this section because they'll come back because they're not stupid. They're just not thinking right now. Okay. I stayed in the pharmacy section for about eight minutes, during which I was party to a conversation,

or at least listening in on a conversation. There was a dude who was in the stop smoking section of the Super Walmart, which in this part of North Carolina, this is a big section. Okay. Okay, we got a lot of people who need to stop smoking. Okay, yeah. And he was doing the wife on speaker thing.

And he was like, all right, honey, which one do you want? She's like, what? He's like, which patch do you want? Well, what are they? Well, they got five. Now you're only quoting his side of the conversation. But it was on speaker. No, this is back and forth. Oh.

Because it's on speaker. They sound the same? Pretty much. Okay. And he says, "'Well, one of them's got three stages.'" She's like, "'What? Three stages?'' Well one of them's got three stages. She's like, what? Three stages. Well how much is that one?

$75, good lord. What else have they got? So that was, it was a lot of that. It's like a rocket. Yeah. It's like where do you land on that one? They settled for a lower tier one, what you might call a bottom shelf nicotine pack.

Okay. But after this conversation had come and gone, no Shepard and Adeline, and so I just made the decision to be like, well, they probably went to the toy section, which is right next to the sporting goods section. They weren't in the stop smoking section, which would have been my first guess.

Right, so I go there, they're not there, and then I'm like, okay, now I've done it. You gotta get on the mic. Well, I proceeded to- Please tell me you got on the mic. I proceeded to do a lap, which takes eight minutes. Now, I know Shepard well enough to know

that I would not be concerned that he would be scared. Oh, he wasn't scared, no. Right. He was only scared of what I was going to say when I found him. You know what I'm saying? He might be avoiding you. He's scared of me, but he's not scared of Walmart. Yeah.

So I go back to the pharmacy and I wait for another couple of minutes and I'm like, that's it, I'm going to the speaker and then I turn around and they're walking up. I thought he had a phone. He didn't take it into the Walmart. Okay. He left it in the car. Left it in the charger.

You should have gone to the speaker to give him- Well, I wanted to. I was like, not only is this going to find them, but it's gonna teach them a lesson. Anyway, we had some words after that. Mostly like, Shepard, this is a super Walmart. Yeah. You'll probably never be in another one again.

But just in case. It's like a black hole. You could have never come back. Yeah, this is like going into a national park. You don't go in without a plan. You don't go in without a map. You don't go in without some form of communication and an exit strategy.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, I think all you had to do was pull up People of Walmart before you go in and he would have entered with trepidation. I hope that's still going. It has to be. So, well, I'm sure it is. So then we finished our incredible action-packed

mountain trip with the trip, just me and Shepard, driving in a Charger right across the Piedmont. No broken ankles. Stopped in Winston-Salem, not for the cigarettes, but for, I wanted to show Shepard Old Salem because Stevie's always talking about Old Salem. She's always talking about Old Salem. It's her favorite place in the world.

It's like Colonial Williamsburg, but in North Carolina. But in Winston-Salem. And I was like, well, this'll be fun. It's right off the highway. We're driving through it anyway. Old Salem at the time was closed. So it's just all the buildings, there's none of the people dressed up in character.

So since COVID, they really haven't, I think they've been closed for a long time. Well, good, you encountered a little disappointment. So Old Salem was just a bunch of clothes. We did use the bathroom there. Why are you getting this detailed? Because we got a guy to open it up for us. He was the one that told me the deal.

He was like, I can open up the bathroom for you, but everything else is closed. Okay, this is an important podcast. I mean, you gotta choose what you're gonna tell us about. Well, I just, I mean, I took a leak. So then I get to the beach. Now, we- How long of a drive was that? It was six and a half hours.

Because we had to get up to, my in-laws have a place up on, it's not really a beach house, it's at the beach, but it's a spot on sort of a branch of the Neuse River, kind of like the Sound area, there's so much like fingers of water that come into the North Carolina coast, if you look at the map, right?

I did look at a map. And it's just amazing what all those fingers do is they create just miles and miles and miles of more shoreline than you get in most states. Definitely more than you get, you know what? I'd like to see somebody do the math on the amount of shoreline in North Carolina versus California, which California has almost the whole

half of the entire United States, yet it doesn't have a bunch of meandering things. They may be pretty close. North Carolina might have more. I don't know, I can't do the math. I mean, if you count the sound- Both sides of the Outer Banks. Both sides of the Outer Banks. Both sides of the Outer Banks.

Man, anyway, it's awesome. And they have a spot that's way, way, way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere, like 30 minutes from anything that you need. Well, if you've seen the notebook, you know what we're talking about. Yeah, it's this old house that they've really kind of fixed up

and it's like an Airbnb situation, but the family had reserved it for this week. And you know, just having a great time is pretty low key out there. You like can kind of kayak out into the sound and that kind of thing. Well, like two days into the trip, and this is when Lance and Lacey and their kids joined us.

So this is basically my brother and sister-in-law, Lance and Lacey and their kids joined us. So this is basically my brother and sister-in-law, Lance and Lacey and their kids, me and Shepherd. And my in-laws have a place on the beach. So we're kind of like getting together with them, but they're not staying at this place. And there is like, there was a pretty much every day, there was a thunderstorm. Now there was a thunderstorm in the morning,

like very early in the morning. And Lacey was actually downstairs having coffee at like 7 a.m. And she said that it sounded like lightning struck in the backyard. Like she said she heard like a sucking sort of boom before the boom. Wow, a sucking.

Yeah, and immediately the power goes out. Of course, I remember that lightning strike because it woke me up, but I also didn't think at the time the power's out because it was still dark, as far as I can remember. Anyway, I wake up at, you know, I'm sleeping late because of the- Time difference.

Yeah, and so I'm waking up at like nine o'clock and then there's a text from my sister-in-law and she's like, the power's out. We've gone- Order the prime rib. To Dunkin' Donuts to get coffee and breakfast because we can't make any stuff. In fact, and the way that this works

because it's at sea level, maybe that's the reason. You don't have water. There's no water in the house when the power's out because it works off a pump. So we didn't have water or electricity, can't wash your hands. So we're all sitting down, they get back and we break out the Dunkin' Donuts,

coffee and biscuits, et cetera. We're enjoying our time together. This is when I started to communicate with you because we were supposed to have our company-wide meeting via Zoom. Yeah. And I was like, I got no power. So I can't do that.

Yeah. And you were, you had something else. I have dial up at the house I'm at right now. So we had to postpone that. But anyway, as we're sitting there eating a late breakfast, power's back. Somebody had been, they saw a crew as they were coming in and they saw a crew was working on the transformer

at the top of the neighborhood. So we don't think that the lightning strike in the backyard cut our power out. We think that it maybe was actually a little bit further away. Anyway, so it was several houses. So somebody called, they've restored power within hours. So power's back up.

We're like, all right, back to business. Five minutes into the power being back on, first person to say anything was Lacey. And she said, what's that smell? I think there's, it smells like plastic is burning. So we immediately are like, oh, well probably, somebody left something on a burner. Somebody left something in the oven and like it's come back on. So we're like looking around the

kitchen. And then as we're sort of following the smell towards the laundry room, right when, I can't remember who was first, someone was first in line, gets to the threshold to the laundry room. There's a giant pop on the electrical panel. There's two electrical panels right there. And at that point, I look at the electrical panel and you know how like you've got the metal sort of face of an electrical panel and then you've got all the switches in the middle for the fuses, right?

Yeah. And there's like a crack behind it that you can sort of look through and see sort of, normally you don't see anything, it's just darkness. There were flames. Flames. Full, like, not just like a flicker, a raging fire behind the electrical panel.

Just like this whole thing is on fire and it's plastic that is on fire. Good gosh. This is the fire I was hearing about. I learned a few things about- If you're following along. I learned some things about myself because I've never been in a house fire before, right?

Yeah. The first thing that I thought thankfully was where's Shepherd? It wasn't where's my laptop? So I was proud of myself. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, good dad.

I mean, my laptop is backed up in the cloud. Shepherd is not. No. So I am like, and we don't know where the kids are at because they've been gone. And this is a big house, three stories. There's a crow's nest thing at the top.

We let the kids do whatever they wanted to. So we didn't know if they were, they play hide and seek all the time. So the first thing I'm thinking is- Evacuation situation. Also, I also learned that I immediately went to the worst case scenario. I was 100% convinced that the house was gonna burn down.

I was like, we can't put that fire out. What are you gonna do? Throw water on it? No, you shouldn't do that. But I did stop a second and think fire extinguisher, but then there was talk of, do we have a fire extinguisher? And then Ashley, sister-in-law says, there's one on the top floor.

So my nephew Isaiah runs to the top floor. He comes back down with the fire extinguisher. And also during that time, someone points out that the kids are all outside down at the dock like playing, swimming or something. This is happening pretty quickly. The fire hasn't spread from the box. Right, but it was just, it felt like it was a matter

of time that the flames are gonna come out and then catch the wall on fire. Yeah. At which point, we're just gonna have to get, I was thinking like, okay, I know Shepard's safe. What did I bring that I should get out of the house? Because I don't think I'm gonna die, but I don't wanna be inconvenienced

to this level as well, right? It's like, I mean, yeah, my laptop is backed up, but- You're thinking this before the fire extinguisher. Yes. Yeah. And then I was like, man, I've got a lot of moisturizers and ointments and stuff that I just, I kinda use just to make myself happy

and regulated and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I've got my fiber, I kind of use just to make myself happy and regulated and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I've got my fiber, I brought my fiber, I gotta get the fiber because I don't want to have to go back to the super Walmart and get lost to get the fiber. You know, these are the things, these are the things that are running through my mind

very, very quickly. And I'm like, what clothes do I have? I think I brought a lot of, I brought a lot of shirts and brought all my shorts. You brought a lot of shirts? I don't want to get my, I don't want to buy any shorts. I just got a couple of pairs of brought all my shorts. You brought a lot of shirts? I don't wanna buy any shorts. I just got a couple of pairs of shorts that I was excited about wearing,

haven't even worn them yet on this trip. How many shirts? You said a lot. I mean, more than I needed. Too many shirts, I brought too many shirts. Give me a number. 13 shirts. Damn, okay.

And by then the fire extinguisher comes back down. And also by then Chris, who was the most level-headed person in the crew at this point, was thinking what should have been obvious, I think I should be cutting the power off. Now it wasn't so obvious to him that we could also go outside and hit the master switch.

So what he was doing is he was grabbing anything he could think of to try and hit the main switch on the deal. Which was on fire. And the closest thing to him was a bottle of bleach. Oh my God. He was using a bottle of bleach to hit a fire? Well, which it was almost empty,

but also as he picks it up, he realizes that the top is not screwed on because again, nothing against my sister-in-law, but it is a family tradition in my wife's family to just put tops on things without screwing them. You just, as long as the top is in contact with something, it is considered closed. As you can imagine, this leads-

We know what prime rib is. No, that's your side of the- This leads to several problems, including when you're trying to put fire out with bleach. Oh my God. But he realized it and was able to, well, I think he ended up using a paper towel roll, which is also flammable,

but it was the nearest thing to hit the switch. And it went off, and when he hit it and it went off, the fire slowly went down and just turned to smoke, which then now the whole house is beginning to smell like that crazy burnt plastic, but we're like thinking, we hear a sizzle, but we think that the fire is out so we don't have to, but we're ready with the fire extinguisher. I wouldn't have thought that turning the power off

would have stopped the fire. Cause at that point I wouldn't think that it was, it's not like the electricity is fueling the fire. I think that it is though. I think that in this case, the electricity was still coming in there and- Re-sparking? And fueling it to some degree.

Okay. And then, credit to me, the one thing that I did right in this situation is I was like, I bet you there's a switch outside and I went and there was a master switch and I cut that off. So now power is off. So did anyone use the extinguisher?

Because my fear- No, no, no, we didn't. Is not, like you get the extinguisher and it's like, well, there's different types of extinguishers and I've never really used one because you don't wanna use it because then it won't be usable later. Do you hold it upside down? I think that-

It's an electrical fire, should I use the powder one? I don't know the answer to which one you can use. I think you can probably use either one of them. It's a wake up call. Whenever you go into a new environment, know where the fire extinguishers are. There should be at least one on every floor. Yeah, yeah.

But hey, listen, the first time in a house fire, and it really wasn't a house fire, it was a small electrical fire that ended up being contained. But what that led to- The only time I've used a fire extinguisher was in the T-shirt war video. Yeah, which was a mistake.

Oh my God, because it was the- You set one of those powder ones off and it's like you're cleaning it up for days. We just left it in there. It was everywhere. But now we couldn't stay there because it was the- You set one of those powder ones off and it's like you're cleaning it up for days. We just left it in there. It was everywhere. But now we couldn't stay there because they literally had to do a full panel replace,

two panels, which is something that takes a long time and was gonna take at least the rest of the week. So we ended up joining my in-laws and their place, which is on the beach in Emerald Isle, which is an awesome place to stay. So it wasn't like, I mean, it was kind of an upgrade in some ways, right? So, but then the last piece of my vacation

that I found really satisfying was something that we started doing for the like last three nights that we were there. And you know Lance and Lacey, and so they've always got something that they kind of, they want you to watch or whatever, and they wanna watch it with you and then talk about it, right? And they like watching a movie

and then having a discussion. That's cool. We should do, first of all- I like watching half a movie and falling asleep, but go ahead. We should do that specific thing more often. Like I actually thought to myself- Like a book club, but for movies.

Yeah, but like it's gotta be a movie that's thought provoking and usually, I mean, there are fictional movies, like narrative movies that kinda maybe scratch that itch. The new Jackass is coming out soon. But it's really documentaries that kinda get you thinking a little bit more, things that are a little bit outside the box. So we've talked about this,

talked about it on the Mythical Society AMA recently, but they had been saying, you gotta watch Bo Burnham's Inside, right? And I was like, well, you know what? I'm gonna wait to watch it with you guys at the beach. And now secretly, as I said in the AMA yesterday, I always have a little bit of a hesitation to watch something from someone who is kind of doing

a similar thing to us, but in my estimation, doing it better, right? Like I just think that Bo Burnham is so talented and I think he's so funny and so original and innovative. And you know, and so there's this, there is a- It's not that he's actually doing a similar thing, but he started on YouTube, he was musical comedy. He's still a musical comedy.

I'm saying his approach to comedy and the fact that he's a musical comedian, and also the fact that a lot of people are like, our music, people have been talking about how our music sounds similar in some ways, you know? But I was like, I don't really wanna watch it because I know it's gonna just give me this like, artistic angst and frustration that I get sometimes

when I see somebody do something really, really well and I'm like, I wanna be able to do something like that. I wanna be able to do something with that kind of impact. Right or wrong or whether or not this is based in any reality or if it's just a delusion, it's a problem for me to be able to just sit back and free myself up to enjoy something. Oh no, I totally get it.

I mean, that's why I had not watched it. Like Lily watched it and we were gonna watch it together, but then when she watched it alone, that drastically decreased the chances of me watching it because like watching it with her was gonna put me over the edge to overcome what you're describing. Well, we watched it and I,

it was therapeutic for me to tell Lance and Lacey right up front, because they completely understood. I was like, my hesitation to watch this is, what I just described is like, I know how it's gonna make me feel because I know I'm gonna like it and think it's great. And then I'm gonna start thinking about, well, why haven't we done something like that, right?

Like that's what it's gonna do to me. And so I just have to prepare myself going in. But acknowledging that and kind of speaking it before it happened kind of freed me up to be like, to put myself in the observer's seat and to observe myself watching it, but also to be able to enjoy it and I did. I really, and you've watched it now,

we're not gonna spend a lot of time talking about why Inside is great, but it is in my estimation. It is great, but it is, I mean, it does help with the way that we would process it to know that he experienced such a torturous experience himself that I'm not envious of. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then we had this, what ended up being also a very therapeutic conversation as I, and Lance and Lacey as well, we were kind of like just talking about what it made us think about and spent quite a lot of time kind of talking about like the way it made us feel about somebody doing something like that

because they in the same way have like these aspirations for things they're trying to do. And so that was awesome. And then the next night we all watched another thing. I'm giving a bunch of recommendations and I'll probably just pick one for next week to be my actual recommendation when you talk about, cause I know it's your recommendation today.

Oh. We watched another thing that I think you should watch that a lot of people talked about, but for some reason completely missed, my radar missed it was, there's a Hulu special called In and of Itself. Haven't seen it. Which is, I don't want to say anything about it

because if I describe it in any way, I feel like you're going to bring some kind of, you're gonna bring something into it that may taint your experience, but the discussion that we had, we talked for like two hours. It's a documentary. No, it's a special.

It's a special, but it's not a comedy special. Oh, okay. Here's what I'll tell you. It's a show that a guy did in a small theater in New York City, like 552 times. And then they filmed a bunch of them and put it together into the special on Hulu. And it's just, the thing I was watching inside

and then watching in and of itself, I was just like, man, the standard for specials has just gone up so much. Like you can't just be funny or you can't just be impressive in the way that this particular guy's impressive given his profession, which I don't want to say what it is because then you'll judge it. You got to do something that is original

and you got to do something that is innovative and you got to do something that challenges a paradigm. You got to do something that is vulnerable and you gotta do something that challenges a paradigm. You gotta do something that is vulnerable and personal. Like, you know what I'm saying? I was just struck with the choices that both of these guys made in order to do something that actually gets noticed in this media landscape that has so many choices.

Is there a sock puppet? There's no sock puppet. Okay. And then the last night, we watched another documentary with everybody, kids included, which I can heartily recommend, and I can tell you a little bit about it because it's not the kind of thing that can be spoiled.

Some Kind of Heaven, Which You Will Love, which is a documentary about the village's retirement community. In Florida? In Florida. The world's's retirement community. In Florida? In Florida. The world's largest retirement community. And there's a young filmmaker, Lance Oppenheim, I think is his name. He's only 25 years old.

I think he made this thing when he was 22 or something. And it's in the tradition of an Errol Morris documentary. Okay. And the way that- So it's people- It's a portrait of people. Oriented. Very much about people and these older people trying to-

And their golf carts? Oh, the golf carts. To find identity and belonging and relationship and connection. Super funny but also just very poignant. And we talked about that. And then again, and then we were like, hey, well, there's one more, let's do one more.

And we watched a Netflix documentary called "'Tell Me Who I Am, which has some sensitive, it's a trigger warning, definitely. You should read about it if the idea of there needing to be a trigger warning for anything, but I can't tell you what it is because then it spoils it. So if you don't want it to be spoiled, I'm just saying. But anyway.

If you don't want to be triggered, you need to be spoiled. If you don't want to be spoiled, you might get triggered. Right, and this one is just this fast, again, this just like super fascinating and original, like this one particular situation that could only happen, seems like it only happened like one time in the history of the world and these guys documented it. And we just sat there and talked about that too.

I mean, I was going to bed at like 1 a.m., 2 a.m. and I was always the first one to go to bed and they were like talking crap to me because I was going to bed. You're on Pacific time. Anyway, I gotta say that, and not to make you feel bad about your time, but it was a really fulfilling time.

Like had this activity filled time in the mountains and then had this, you know, we had lived through a fire and then to have these like film forum discussions late at night, I just had a really good time. And I honestly didn't know, one of the things that I was thinking that I was a little bit apprehensive and anxious about, and maybe you'll talk about this next week,

but this is the first time back in North Carolina since going public on this podcast about the fact that we're not Christians anymore. That's right. And going back to a place where being a Christian is a much more important part of identity and the culture. It's much more influential in the culture than it is in California.

Out here, it's just like, oh, you're not a Christian anymore. Cool, there, it's you're not a Christian anymore, why? What's wrong with you? Yeah. And I kind of, I actually had this expectation that I would get into a bunch of conversations about that. And I was like trying to think about like, I don't wanna be argumentative

and I'm not trying to like defend myself and debate. I just wanna love people. And I, you know, but it honestly did not, it wasn't a thing. It wasn't a thing. And we just, everyone just had a good time together and just kind of connected through enjoying things together. So it was a good time. Obviously I wish Jesse and Locke had been there,

but it was a good time for me and Shepherd. Shepherd is like, I mean, I kind of just every once in a while I would just sort of see him roll past me and he would just be like covered in something, whatever the last thing that he had gotten into, you know. He had a great time. Sort of like this let loose in the wilderness kind of feel, you know.

I like look outside and I'd see him riding this golf cart through the big front yard of the place on the river and he would be like going full speed and then he'd be getting out running next to it and he was ghost riding the golf cart at full speed. I mean, again, this is not safe, but he needs a little bit of not safe in his life, you know, because he lives in the city.

So it was a good time for him as well. Well, I'm glad you had a great time. You know, I celebrate that. I mean, it wasn't, I don't know. You know, I got a little time to continue to process my experience, to pull it all together. You know, I think there's a good takeaway there. But sometimes I'm glad I got a little more time I think there's a good takeaway there,

but sometimes I'm glad I got a little more time to process. But yeah, I look forward to telling you about it. If you can hold on, just hold on until next week. So I got a rec, right? I mean, you've been full of recs. Yeah. Today. Mine, one of the milestones of my three week trip, something that I was looking forward to for months,

something that, yeah, I had no control over when it was gonna arrive, but I knew when it did, it was gonna change my life. And that is the new John Mayer album. Now, I mean, of course, you know, I'm not a fan of John Mayer's music. I'm now a fan of John Mayer, the person. Like I'm a fan girl.

I mean, I told the guy that I love him. Right. And you know what, I stand by it. Okay. And I think my mission in life, the thing that Lily and I were talking about, the Neils are all fans of John Mayer. I'm recommending his new album, it's called Sob Rock.

In all of his discussions about it, he doesn't use the phrase yacht rock ever, but he's channeling that energy. I don't know if you've listened to it yet. Yeah, yeah, I have. He's channeling that energy, but like the subject matter, a lot of people when they define yacht rock,

they forget that the subject matter is a part of it. That it's like- It's about yachts. No, it's just, it's not about anything too heavy. It's not about anything that will make you sob. Right. Yeah. So I think he took this, this is just my description of it. He took the stylings of Yacht Rock as an inspiration.

And he's a lot more eloquent than I am in talking about how he put this album together. But just in simple layman's terms, the subject matter is more sobby. You know, it's like unrequited love and him being our age, like literally same age as us, but not having somebody. So it actually makes me feel good on that front too. That's like, man, I got something John Mayer doesn't have.

And that wants desperately. Yeah. Which is, it may be some woman from his distant past that he keeps writing messages to her in way too many songs. It's great, it's a light listen, it's 40 minutes. I love how he went about the marketing for the thing. And like this bold choice with all of his marketing to like really lean into it.

You might think that it's parody until you listen to it and it's like, okay, this actually works. Yeah, I really like it. He threaded some needle. I really like it. And I was talking to Lily about how, I think my mission in life is to find a way to just be friends with the guy. You'll be disappointed.

He's not a hero. I don't, he's not a hero on me. I mean, he'll disappoint you. I think, yeah. I think you should hold on to the idea of being friends with him. Yeah, but not actually. But not actually.

Not actually be friends with him. I recommend Cy Brock. Check it out, my favorite song is Wild Blue right now. Got a little Dire Straits vibe happening. Sultans of Swing, you know that song? Anyway, that's my rec. Well, thanks for joining us on this ride. Link will take the wheel next week

and get a little bit more serious.