Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Which Commune Would We Join? | Ear Biscuits Ep.284

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

Listen to Giraffe Kudzu and Trichinosis Rosebud (aka Rhett and Link) discuss different communes around the world and debate which one they would join by the end of this episode of Ear Biscuits! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is mythical. 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. 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 gonna move into a commune. We both have our laptops out. I mean, you know things are about to get serious when there's research happening. We've got a big decision to make because we just have to decide which commune we're gonna move into.

There's lots of them spread across this grand globe. You want a pinky swear right now? Yep. That we are gonna join a commune by the end of this thing. Podcast episode. Here's the thing, we don't believe that pinky swears are binding. That's the sort of the catch 22, don't get your hopes up.

But I am seriously considering it. So maybe there's a commune that's an anti pinky swear commune and will fit right in. People pinky swearing at all times knowing that it's always meaningless. Now a dinky square. A dinky square? A dinky square. That's like a really small square?

No, that's when you- Look at that dinky square. That's when you put your dinkies together. Did you see- What is a dinky square? A dinky square. That's like a really small square? No, that's when you- Look at that dinky square. That's when you put your dinkies together. Did you see- What is a dinky? I mean, I think it's another name. You're motioning something as if you're not making this up as you're saying it. A wiener. You're calling a wiener a dinky? I've never had before.

I was just trying to come up with a joke. You saw Bad Trip. I saw the first half of it and then I fell asleep. Did you get to the dinky part? Oh, yes. the finger trap. Don't, I mean. It wasn't fingers that were in there. Well, I mean, what a crazy movie.

Yeah, it's nuts, man. Dang, I don't know, I've got, it's my rec today. It's, but that's not your rec. I reserve the right to recommend the first half of Bad Trip. I don't know, it's kinda, you know, you know if you doze off and then you wake up and you're like, maybe I can just keep watching this.

Oh yeah, you can doze off and come back in. That happened, but there's so many points in Bad Trip that like waking up and realizing what you're watching is just like, it was frightening. Like I was shocked, it's like that's not how a man wants to wake up on the couch. Yeah. In a finger trap with other things trapped in it.

Jessie and I watched it together and the thing that she was saying, she was like, I don't know if you can make this kind of movie anymore. Like seriously, because- Well, it just was made. I know, I know, that's the thing. She was like, I don't know how I feel laughing at it because taking advantage of people

and like the idea of consent is something that if you're making really crazy prank videos, you're not getting any of that because you wanna get the authentic reactions. And I'm not taking a stand on saying that I think prank videos should be outlawed. And we don't know that they didn't get post-scene consent. I don't know, I think that's how some-

Yeah, but is that consent? That's not the conversation we're having today. Let's, what, let's get away from this. This is not, like, so yeah, I don't know if we're recommending it. It frightened me when I woke up. Yeah, yeah. So take that.

We just watched it. We're not recommending it, we're just talking about it. You know, I teased to this in the last episode, as the world, I mean, you know, we're looking through this Los Angeles lens of return to normalcy from COVID and being locked down, quarantined, safe, and doing all these precautions.

So maybe we're a little behind, maybe you're in a spot where you're listening and you're like, well, things feel kind of already back to normal for me. I'm mouth kissing strangers already. I mean, I don't know. But at this point right now, I am very much trying to figure out

how I'm going to reengage with my life as it was. And a lot of people I've seen, it was funny because right when I began sensing this in myself and I was talking about it with Jessie, she's a Twitter queen, she's immediately points me to like five tweets that had already emphasized the same sentiment, which is as things get ready to turn back to normal,

you start feeling a little anxiety about life returning to normal. Now for some people that might be like a- And sometimes not just a little anxiety. I mean- Some people it might be like a social anxiety, like I don't wanna get around people. That's not it for me.

It's just, and I'm not much of a routine person, but there's something about the fact that we've been able to conduct our business kind of uninterrupted, right? Like, so we're one of the lucky privileged that we get to do our business in a way that is, I mean, it's changed a lot, but it's unencumbered in a lot of ways.

Our business has been altered drastically, but we've gotten so used to it that it is the new normal. And I mean, that's a whole other podcast to get into all that. But being at home, not traveling a lot like we used to do. I mean, I haven't been going to the gym and I kind of turned my garage into a gym,

and I kind of am my garage into a gym, you know, and I kind of am into this sort of predictability and routine and sort of like the simple life, being home every night. I'm surprised to hear that from you because that's not something I would expect. That's not, maybe it surprises you that you have those feelings that well up. I'm ready to travel.

Cause for me. But I'm not ready for the day to day life to turn back into. Hectic. All the ways all over the place. Scramble. Yeah. But you know, for me and my personality type, like totally gotten used to my world being smaller

and more predictable and insulated. And it just feels, I mean, more narrow, but there's a good side to that too, because there's a sense of increased safety and for me, safety, control. Yeah, control, I understand. I mean, it started with safety. And so you kind of have this ingrained sense of like,

some people may struggle with this innate feeling of, I've trained myself to believe that safety is hunkered down. So going out must mean the opposite, even though being fully vaccinated and the realities of a full vaccination and the safety associated with that is just something that like, the facts don't immediately translate into feelings is what we're, that's a big discussion

that's happening in our home. You know, I was even telling Lincoln last night, I was trying to paint a picture for, you know, once we're fully vaccinated, these are some things that we can start doing. And he got this look on his face, like he hadn't even thought about it. You know, it's like, because you go,

you live in this space where it's like, you don't even, just don't even think about what could be or what you're missing out on type of thing. And then, so it's like you compartmentalize. And so me giving him, just starting to paint a picture for how things could open up, it was like, he got this, he just kind of stared for a while and then he got this big grin on his face.

It must be nice. You mean you're telling me that your kid hasn't constantly berated you for a full year about how all the stuff he can't do, constantly arguing with you about that? No, because that's the way it's been at my house. Yeah, so, you know, it's kind of like when you let a, you know, you got this dog in a kennel,

maybe they've been in there for a long time, maybe it's their safe cave space, and then you open the door and you're like, he's just gonna, he's just laying there. I think what you're saying- He's not bursting out. Is that your family is much more susceptible to being in a cult than mine. Which brings me to this sense of a commune,

because like, as we've been talking about communes, I've had to really work to not use the word cult every single time. There are- Well, there's a reason that they're associated. There's a different thing, but there's some overlap that we can talk about. But yeah, this like, instead of returning back to the big wide world,

what if I just skipped over to commune life where it's a defined group of people with shared values that are keeping things simple. And you have to imagine that most people who are in communes, who were in communes before COVID and in communes through COVID and after COVID, their lives have probably changed less. COVID what?

They're like, I mean, yeah, we're in a commune. Big whoop. I mean, sustainability, peaceful cooperation, no bills, no boss, no- No boss. No responsibilities. Think again, my friend. Just food that everyone gets to eat.

No competition. It does seem wonderful. It does seem wonderful. Connecting with nature and with strange people who are misfits in normal society but perfect fits in some of these communes that we'll talk about. I'm like, let's go. And I'm not saying it like the kids use the phrase as like just a form of-

They say let's go. Like a positive expletive. Yeah. No, like you mean like that's a new slang or? What? I mean, it's a few years old, but everybody's like, let's go if they like something. But this is like newer than just like 50 years ago.

Let's go. Like you would say to like a team that you're cheering for, this is like slang. I've heard your own children say this. I don't listen to what my kids talk about. You haven't heard like, I mean, if you listen to DaBaby, every so often, he's gonna interject, let's go.

And he's not asking people to come with him somewhere. He's just like, it's a celebratory phrase. But I don't think it's changed. I thought what you were saying is that let's go has changed meaning since like the 50s. And I don't think it has. Yes, it has. It doesn't mean let's gather together

and head towards the same destination. No, I'm just saying that like, let's go! Like get pumped up, yeah! That's not what it means now. Doesn't mean let's get pumped up. Okay, what does it mean now? It means I'm excited. It just means.

Feels like with some semantics here. No. Let's get excited. Oh no, what am I saying? Let's get pumped up and let's get excited. Sort of feel like the same thing. No, let's go is trying to pump someone up, like to conjure up the energy to do something. But let's go is like, it's just like, I love this.

I'm celebrating this. I don't need to conjure anything up. I have an overflow of emotion that now translates into a hip hop track interjection. So you're not saying you wanna go to a commune, you're saying you're excited about the idea. No. So you are using it in the 50s way.

I am using it in the traditional old out of touch sense that you should understand. I'm not confused. Let you and I head towards the world of communes and decide which one we want to physically go to and live. Okay, are we clear? Yeah, I'm clear now. But yeah, but they want them to be called

intentional communities because people intend to go there and they're not like held there against their free will. At least that's what they say. Communes have a bad rap, which we'll get into. Well, a throwback to a conversation we had with the, when we're talking about Pythagoras, he is credited as- We're always talking about Pythagoras.

As creating the first intentional community in recorded history at Homokion, Greek word, in 525 BCE. They tried to create an ideal society, Greek word, in 525 BCE, they tried to create an ideal society, gave up private property and meat and apparently beans as well as we discussed. I would just interject quickly here. People were getting killed.

I take issue with this. This is kind of like when a white guy in a boat like discovers something that brown people who've been living there for thousands of years have already known about for a long time. Well, I guess that's fair, yeah. Because intentional community is basically the history of the human race.

Like the idea of private property is something that the Western world brought over here to the Native Americans. So like the idea of intentional community, I think is actually the baseline understanding of human community, but it wasn't until agriculture and property on all that stuff that we then had to kind of undo that

to then create what we're calling an intentional community, I guess, in 525 BC. Yeah. Okay, point taken. Within the context of- Western civilization. BC. Yeah. You know. Okay, point taken, within the context of- Western civilization. Okay. Yeah.

Then you've got to have, if you have this shared belief or approach to life that it means you're gonna give up your personal belongings, which you have, if you're giving it up in order to be a member of a community where you're sharing everything- Basically post property ownership. The post the idea of property ownership, yes.

I mean, the early Christians, they lived communally. Few centuries later, Christian monasteries became a major form of international, I said international, intentional community. So we could become monks. You know, this is interesting because I'm reading this book kind of about early Christian history

and it's actually kind of fascinating just how, you know, whatever word you wanna use, communist, socialist, progressive, whatever you wanted to use, that early Christians were at the time. And I'm not talking about in the sense of the way they saw government or necessarily, but just the way that their community

was very much communist in the strictest sense of the word. And it was the lower class, it was men and women, and it was, and it's so interesting that Christianity got hijacked by the powers that be and kind of became what it has been for, you know, over well over a thousand years. But in the early stages, it was very,

it was kind of a different thing. It was a lot more about class and it was a lot more about kind of rebelling against the powers that be. And then the powers that be were like, oh, we can use this to our advantage and kind of created the hierarchy that we kind of see within the church.

Am I right in remembering that in Paul's letter to one of the churches, he kind of talks about the mechanism of sharing everything, right? And he kind of put some specifics in that about like, and like kind of like the heart and the motivation behind like giving up your possessions for the common good. I'm sure he talks about that. I mean, I think it's mostly in Acts,

Luke wrote Luke and Acts and so. Oh, that may be what I'm thinking about. Acts, basically the history of the early church kind of talks about what they did and kind of sold their possessions and came together and lived communally and were kind of specifically reacting to what was happening on a societal level

and that was one of the things that made it attractive and also controversial at the time because it was kind of saying that the authority doesn't lie with these dudes who say that they're in charge. Authority lies with God. So, but it quickly got taken and, you know, distorted. We could also- In my opinion. We could also go to Israel and join a kibbutz,

kibbutz, kibbutz, I think is how you would say it. So, I mean, those are around now, they've been around and there's like, there's the religious and the non-religious kind, and there's a lot more of the non-religious kibbutz. Sorry, I apologize if I'm saying that wrong. Well, and I would think that this is something that especially with what we're seeing

with what we've experienced in 2020 and 2021 thus far, you know, this deep wealth inequality and people just, so many people struggling. I think the idea of kind of stepping out of this pursuit of the American dream, and I know, you know, we're not talking about just Americans, but we're in America, is gotta be an attractive thing.

Like, you mean I can quit trying to keep up with the Joneses and worry about- The old cliche, the Joneses, the rat race. Going to the right college and getting the right job to pay off the deep debt that I acquired in order to go to college. The idea of saying, hey, can't we all just get along? I believe that this has never been a more attractive idea.

I mean, in recent history, this has got to be a super attractive idea right now. So I do think that we probably should start with some cautionary tales before you get too excited. Okay, yeah. About being a part of a commune. All right. Or an intentional commune. All right, let's get into the bad news.

Or just, you know, we need to tread lightly. The one that you've all heard about, Jonestown Massacre, where the saying, don't drink the Kool-Aid comes from. Late 70s. I did not know the details of this. Yeah, so lots of really good documentaries that you can watch about this.

But late 70s, Jim Jones was a preacher. He began his commune for social justice and equality. He was calling it the People's Temple. That sounds good. Yeah. For the people. It's got like the temple in it. That seems fancy. But then he made the move.

He moved it from San Francisco, San Francisco. San Francisco. San Francisco to Guyana. First of all, you just gotta, okay, oh, okay. Maybe a red flag here. He's moving further away from prying eyes, right? I mean, that's one way to see it. And I think that's what was happening.

So people started to, because there was a lot of American people who were involved with this, and they were worried that they were being held against their will and it kind of became this story, so much so that a congressman, Leo Ryan, decides to visit to make sure that the residents are okay. And this is the late 70s.

Late 70s. And he shows up along with four others and they are shot to death when they get out of the plane at the airstrip, so another red flag. Yeah, that's not a good start to the diplomatic oversight mission. Dang. And then shortly thereafter,

I don't really remember the timeline, but Jones, he forced or strongly encouraged his followers to drink a cyanide-laced flavor aid starting with the children. Poor Kool-Aid, it wasn't even Kool-Aid, it was Flavor-Aid. Right. You know, but now you got this saying, don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Matter of fact, I heard it on an episode of Survivor. You hear it everywhere, but of course I hear everything on Survivor, because that's all I listen to these days. Right, that's all you watch, it's your sole source of media. And that's gonna have to be in any commune I attend. Don't drink the Flavor-Aid, just doesn't sound quite, cause like what's Flavor-Aid?

So some people tried to flee and they shot them. Kool-Aid survived it, but those people did. Some people tried to flee and they shot them. Cause they didn't drink the Kool-Aid. And over 900 people. Including kids. Were killed, yeah. Almost a thousand people.

That is gross. So anyway, I mean it's- 900 people? It may have sounded awesome at the beginning. That's a. So anyway, I mean, it's- 900 people? It may have sounded awesome at the beginning. That's a lot of flavor aid. So that's one cautionary tale. Gosh, now you and I have talked about the Source family before.

We may have talked about it on this show. There was a Netflix documentary, like in the wake of, what was that Netflix documentary that the Duplass brothers were executive producers of? Country, back country. No country for commune people. Oh, Wild Wild Country. Wild Wild Country. Great, great.

Feeling when you remember something that you've forgotten. That was, so on the heels of that, I think we were looking for other stuff to watch and I watched this documentary. You watched it too on The Source Family. Oh, this is a great documentary as well. World War II vet who became known as Father Yod. Great name.

Yeah, I don't think that was his original name, Father Yod. That's one thing I love about comedy is that you can change your name. You can change everybody's name as Father Yod. That's one thing I love about comedy is that you can change your name. You can change everybody's name as it turns out. He created the first vegetarian restaurant in LA, had many young wives and had many younger children with those young wives. That's how children work.

They recorded music and sold the albums. Very hippy dippy, like 70s situation. But his caution, you gotta watch who you're following because this is when this type of, this is when you get into cult territory in both of these situations. But the thing that I didn't realize until I went back and read about this

was how Father Yacht died. They had moved, they'd sold their restaurant and moved to Hawaii in 1974. And then on August 25th, 1975, according to Wikipedia, despite having no previous hang gliding experience, Father Yod decided that he would indeed go hang gliding, presumably solo. Yod used a hang glider to leap off a 1300 foot, that's 400 meters, Rhett, cliff on the eastern shore

of Oahu. Spoiler alert, he died. I already said that. He crash landed on the beach, get this, suffering no external injuries. He just looked like Rick Rubin lying on a beach. You know, it's just like white dude with a really long white beard,

like Rick looks like these days. Just laying on a beach, suffering no external injuries, but he was unable to move and he died nine hours later. Now that's a horrible death. If that's what getting into a commune means, I'm out. I mean, there's a guy at the end of my street who has a hang glider. That's what leading the commune.

And I look at that thing and it freaking, it makes my balls hurt. I don't understand that. Yeah, you never stood on the edge of a cliff and your balls hurt? You say this every single time. It's a defense mechanism for not falling off a cliff or yachting your way down on a hang glider.

Well, I didn't tell you. My yachts tell me don't hang glides. I didn't tell you this. So, you know, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the eject button that you press in order to- Lots of convo about that, yeah. Leak the lizard.

And in our conversation that you weren't able to join last night with our college friends, it was confirmed that neither of them knew about the button. What? Yeah, they haven't pressed the button. So apparently something I thought was very common. We educated a lot of people is what I learned. Yeah.

So anyway. Especially me taking it to what I learned. Yeah. So anyway. Especially me taking it to the next level. Okay, so yeah. I don't know, I know how it ended for Father Yod. And first of all, I do remain open to the fact that I might be Father Yod reincarnated just because of the time of his death and the time of my birth and the way we look.

Your affinity for hang gliding? I like the idea of hang gliding, never done it, but it doesn't make my balls hurt when I think about it. But let's get into some current ones and make a decision. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure?

We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Okay. Tell us about a current cult that we might want to join. I wanted to start close, okay?

So any of you in America can join us. Sorry, commune, I keep saying cult, I'm sorry. I know, it's hard. And there's a reason for that. Intentional community. So let's go to central Tennessee near the town of Summertown, Tennessee. This place is called The Farm.

There's 200 residents. I like everything about this so far. It started in the 70s by this hippie guy, last name Gaskin. He still lives there. Gaskin. But I mean, in this commune, which is like, you know, it's out in rural Tennessee.

You got a whole bunch of buses that people are living in. Buses? In the 80s, it got up to like 1200 people in the 80s. And then they kinda, they had to change things in order to, they had a lot of debt. And then they had to figure out how to, okay, you can't, you gotta start supporting yourself. And of course, a lot of people left when they're like,

hey, it's a commune, but you support yourself. Yeah, what's the point? That doesn't work. But they kind of revamped everything and they developed their own little cottage industries. And now they're at 200 people and you can go visit for like a long weekend and decide if you wanna stay there. It seems like a lot of journalists go there

in order to write a little piece to titillate the minds of people like us. But I mean, I'll just point out some of the pros with this place. It's in America. It's accessible to us. I've been to Tennessee. If you need to get to Nashville,

you know, in an hour and a half or so, you can do that. Is it close to Gatlinburg? Because that's what I'm concerned about. They have an extremely successful midwifery. People who help you have birth? Yes, the wife of the founder, I think her name's like Ida May or something. She's more famous than him

because of the book she wrote about midwifery. In fact, the farm was the setting for the rebirth of midwifery for the United States and the creation of the modern home birth method. Wow. And movement. I love watching those on YouTube. So you can live in a bus and then have a baby in the bus.

So is this just people who are members of the commune who are having babies or is it like, if you wanna have a baby, you can go? I don't know, but I think because she's so famous, maybe people will go to her for, I mean, if you really wanna have a famous midwife, she's the one. She's the one. She's still around?

Yeah, you gotta be vegan. But that's kind of an assumption for all of this, right? Seems right. And there's a lot of, you know, with the whole changeover and everything, there are still some residents that were there from the beginning in the 70s and went through the whole changeover

and they saw it in all its glory. And like I said, even the founder and his wife are still there, but there's a lot of infighting between those boomers and newer residents who are coming in trying to do it differently. Which that kind of reminds me, you have this idea of you got this group of like-minded people that you're living off the land

and supporting each other and everybody helps raise the kids and you share everything. But, and this is not really that much of a legitimate comparison, but it's kind of all that I have to go on. Like in all the Bible study groups that I was involved in, you were involved in like growing up, especially like the young married groups,

like once we graduated from college, for me, it was like, it was no way like a commune, except that like you get together with these people and you start making these connections with a small group of people and it gets really exciting. And over the course of my life in that world, And over the course of my life in that world, there were a few phases or iterations of a small group getting together,

like a Bible study or like a family group or whatever you might call it. And you'd be like, this is a magical connection. We all really like each other. It's like now we have this like dynamic friend group and it never lasts more than like two years. Because you know what? It comprises of people.

You know, people getting, like getting in each other's business is a tough thing to maintain. And even when it just comes to, hey, let's get together once a week and encourage each other and help each other and in this case, study the Bible. It was like, we were all very well intentioned

and it wasn't that, it wasn't dogmatic in really any way, but still, the personalities and like, the slight different pulls of agenda. I want it to be like this. Well, I wanna do this and this is the vision I have and my needs aren't being met, my expectations aren't being met. It's so, any group of people,

it's not just a church thing or a commune thing. It's so hard to keep it going. There's an additional factor that may actually be the sort of foundational problem even beyond the personalities. Hang gliders? Not hang gliders. The fact that you don't have to be in that group.

In the modern world, every community that you're a part of, that's why they call it intentional community. It's not, we have no choice but to be this community. That's called a prison. Right. Or a cult. Well, no, but if you go back, okay, first of all, like if you go way back in the distant past where there was no choice but to be a part of your community

and even in some places still in the world where it's just like, I can't, I don't make the choice about where I go to church. There's one church in town. Yeah. I don't make the choice about what religion I'm gonna be. There's one option in this particular place. And when your community is constituted in that way,

there's just so few choices that those personalities are something you deal with, but in modern, in the modern world, in modern America, in the South world, and this is true all over America, but like if you think about this Bible study group, if I don't like the voice of the person leading the Bible study, I can go to another Bible study in the same church

or I can go to another church. Probably in the same house. Right. It's like, well there's a, if you want just an all women's one, that one's happening downstairs. We've got, we're overwhelmed with options. And so, I mean, you literally can go to a

first Baptist church or a second Baptist church, or even in some towns, I've seen a frickin' Third Baptist Church in the same town and that's just the Baptists and that's just the Christians. So- And let's not just pick on churches. I mean- I'm saying this is everybody.

This is all- Any group of people. Yeah. Like if you wanna talk about, you know, I mean, our friend group post church, I mean, there was a dynamic experience for like a little over a year and then things just, people went their separate ways.

Well, a lot of people have said, even after us telling our stories and because we exhibit an openness towards spirituality in general, and we're not trying to be like naturalists, atheists, and just basically rule out all mystical things, people are like, you know, it sounds like you guys would really enjoy a Unitarian Universalist church.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't, and I'm not saying that I would never try it, but the idea that somehow, because that particular group of people is committed to a more open or progressive mindset, that then there would no longer be the problems of people working together and ego, that's just not true. No matter how wonderful the foundational principles

of your community, like you said, it's still gonna be people, and it's still gonna be people in the context of this society where I can be like, I don't have to be at this place, I can just go to the other place. And as long as those options exist, long-term peaceful community of any kind

is gonna be very difficult. Even if you don't, to get back to communes, you don't have like a strong centralized leader, like a dictator that kind of makes it more cultist. I was reading about another one in Virginia that like, you know, they all shared the duties of raising the children in this particular commune. And there was a couple that wanted to have another child,

but there was a protocol that you had to go and get permission. Because we all got to take care of this. To have a child. So it's like, it's even coming from like a logistic place that makes sense, but you find yourself having to get permission to have a child. Well, but which is something that completely rubs up

against the rugged individualism of our modern society and especially America. The idea that I wouldn't own this piece of property and the fact that I would have to ask permission to have a kid, it seems almost offensive to most of us. But I do think the idea that, hey, I'm a member of this collective and every decision that I make is gonna impact

every other member of the collective, it kind of makes sense. It sort of follows, but it violates our sense of individualism. I mean, we went to different churches as newlyweds and as we graduated from college. Like we didn't actually, you know, we never went to the same, we grew up in the same church,

but we didn't go to the same church after college. Right. Until the point where we no longer went to church. We didn't think people could handle us going to the same church. I mean, it was good to have some autonomy, but I mean, so in that phase of life, did you have a similar experience to me that like,

you had this supercharged small group that you thought was gonna be like connected forever? Did you experience the magic before the disappointment? I wouldn't say it was as marked of a magic and a disappointment as it seems like you're talking about, but I completely understand. I mean, we had a pretty consistent group. There was sort of a core group of people,

probably for five, six years or so. But again, it was the kind of thing that we came together as a Bible study and it was a great time. But there wasn't a whole lot of interaction outside of that group and then Sunday, because everybody had other friends and everybody had their lives and their jobs. Again, there was nothing that was forcing your involvement

with the other family. And so it wasn't as, it just wasn't as stark. But yeah, I completely get what you're saying. I'm passing on the farm because I'm not gonna have any more kids. And I love the idea of living in a van, but not a bus. The reason I'm passing on the farm is because it just doesn't seem cool enough to me.

But I'm about to give you something that I think is getting into, because if I'm gonna do a commune, I wanna do, I want it to be weird. Let's go. 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... Anime! 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. How about Auroville in Indiana?

Or India. I thought that said Indiana. India, man. Big difference. Yeah, yeah. It's not Indiana. I was just throwing you a curveball. I said India. I thought that said Indiana. India, man, big difference. Yeah, yeah, it's not Indiana. I was just throwing you a curve ball. I said India. You gotta travel to this one. It better be good.

Now you can go to the Oroville.org website, which has got a lot of content. Okay, this is a multicultural city started in the late 60s. They believe in human unity and transformation of consciousness. Over 3,000 residents from 58 nations, residents are expected to build their own house and make donations to the community.

But beyond this, all necessities, including public school, utilities, healthcare, are covered by the community, which is technically partially funded by the Indian government, but let's not complicate things. Now, let me just say, I have created what I am calling the cool shit factor. Okay? Okay, yeah.

To judge these communes. All right, all right. And Auroville- That's really what it's all about. Auroville- How cool is your shit? Auroville has a lot of cool shit. And let me just tell you a few things. The first thing- I see these pictures.

Now, they started the community in this area, not Indiana, India, and they decided that the center of the entire thing would be this, I think it's banyan tree, I think it's how you say that, but those are those sort of iconic, you've seen these trees on like postcards if you haven't seen them in person.

The Buddha was enlightened under one. And so there's this banyan tree that is in the middle of this kind of stark landscape and they decided that this was the center of the community. I just like that kind of thing. You know, me and you with our like declaring a tree special. Yeah. We do this and, but they didn't just say,

here's a tree, no. Then they constructed this thing called the Matrimander. And this is- Matrimandir. It looks like a golden Epcot center, right? Yes. Or it looks like, well not, it looks like- It's a shiny Epcot sphere. The sphere at Epcot.

And this thing took forever to build, but, first of all, you can visit this thing. Like anybody can visit this thing. But inside this golden ball structure, there is the largest optically perfect glass globe in the world. And on the website, they go through how they had this thing manufactured.

So- So like a big paperweight. Well, but it's optically perfect. Hold on, optical meaning it looks perfect, but it's probably not. It's not microscopically perfect. Well, I think it says perfect. There's no other glass globe of this size

that is this perfect. And what did they do with it? I mean, I'm sure they get like energy from it or something. They look at it. I don't know. They meditate on it. It's cool. Do you sit on it and try to hatch it? I don't think you sit on it. I think that would probably be like a violation of something.

Yeah, that's probably rule number two. I don't even know if you can touch it or lick it. That's rule number one. But you can look at it. Yeah. And I'm sure we're gonna get facts wrong about this. Sorry, those of you who are like from, welcome, first of all, those of you from Auroville who are watching, welcome to the show.

Thanks, we think you've got some cool shit going on. It's a podcast called Ear Biscuits. We do it every week. We're coming for you. If you wanna broadcast this. I didn't mean it like that. You could broadcast this inside the, I know I'm saying it wrong, Metromander.

Put this on repeat, like this part of the podcast, just loop it. You know what, feel free, we are officially giving you permission to take this, our description of your place and put it in a little video vignette on your website, okay? In like a video brochure, if you will. Anyway, you got a lot of cool shit.

And there's also- I like that big focal point, the Epcot focal point. That's awesome. You wanna show up- I don't wanna just show up and see buses. Yes, exactly. I wanna see something that like, oh, an alien may have been involved.

That came from the heavens. Right. Yes. They don't just have that. They have a giant amphitheater, and in the middle of the amphitheater is just this marble urn. Just a marble urn. I see a picture where there's a huge fire.

Yeah, I mean, the website's got some very intoxicating images. So anyway, I know there's more cool shit. That's just what we're gonna talk about now. The pros of this one, you got your healthcare, your school taken care of. You can stay for a trial period. Okay.

How long is that? I don't know. As long as it needs to be. Large group, diverse group, very high cool shit factor. It was started by a woman they called the mother. And I wanna take a second to camp out here. Because you know, I'm generalizing, but you know. Does everyone camp out there?

When a dude starts a cult, 99.7% of the time, it's because he wants to get with a bunch of women. He wants to get his yacht on. Yeah, but a woman. Or get his yachts off. But in my experience, women are not just interested in ripping families apart and having sex with everybody,

as much as men tend to be. Wow, Rhett. So I think that there could be, this could be a purer motivation here. I think they call her the mother, and I think the fact that she started, now she's dead, but I think she, according to them, she passed on into a different form

and still is involved in some way. Maybe she's in the ball. Maybe she's in the urn, which would make more sense. No comment. Again, if you wanna take this part out of the little video brochure on the website, if I'm getting all the details about the mother wrong, I'm sorry, you can do that.

Yeah. I'm just saying I love the fact that a female started your commune. Okay. Cons, you gotta relocate to India. You gotta build your own house. You know, I don't even like to change light bulbs anymore. I mean, I'm just gonna be honest,

I did a bunch of manual stuff in my 20s. Yeah. I was like a Mr. Fix-It man, like working on rental properties and stuff. And I just, I don't like it. You bring up a good point. I think communes are really for that like young and vivacious type that wants to go grab life by the yards. There's a lot of things I wanna do though.

And then if you're old, it's because you've been there for a while. I like the idea of maybe gardening a little bit, maybe a little bit of woodwork, just for like an artistic standpoint, but not building a house. That's a lot. Yeah.

That's a lot. And also, and I don't know if this is necessarily a con, but the idea is to lose your sense of personal possessions and your ego, which I actually think that that's a positive. I wouldn't put that in a con list. Sounded like you did though. Well, I think you put this in a con actually. Yeah, I did.

So maybe that says- I love my ego. Maybe that says something about me. He's pretty great. The more, I would love to lose, if I lost my ego completely- Yeah, that'd be great. Then I would lose any desire for personal possessions. So I wouldn't care. So that's a positive to me.

If I go and I don't, I guess if I sit on or touch the glass orb, maybe my ego gets taken and stored inside the optically perfect orb. And then maybe if I want it and I wanna leave and I gotta go to America, I need my ego, I touch it and get it back. Is that how it works? You can take this off the website if that's not true.

I don't think that one just rolls into a commune and then explains how all of their very meaningful things work. Hey, I got news for you guys. I'm gonna be sitting on this orb and I'll post the times when I'm not on it if you wanna bring in tourists to look at it. Yeah, right. Otherwise, you're just gonna be sitting on this orb and I'll, you know, I'll post the times when I'm not on it if you wanna bring in tourists to look at it. Yeah, right.

Otherwise, you're just gonna be looking at me. No, I was just saying that like- Kinda nesting on this thing. No, no, I'm gonna spend a lot of time. I'm gonna deposit my ego into it and then I'm gonna walk out. Okay. And then if I need my ego for some sort of like competition

or like a sporting event, so I'm gonna go play golf, I need my ego. So you're losing your ego into this sphere, but you're basically doing that to assert that you think everyone would want to look at your ego, which kind of doesn't sound like losing your ego. That is how you're interpreting it. You can't see anything in the orb.

My ego is not the only ego that's in the orb. I'm assuming everyone's ego is in the orb. But it is an org, because it's oroville.org is the website. But what I'm telling you, Rhett, is that you're- You're misinterpreting everything that I'm saying, which is why you don't- No one's ego is in the orb.

So if you put- You wouldn't make a good cult member. If you put your ego in the orb, it's gonna be the only one in there, period. I think- You just can't tell people that, oh, you know, everyone's ego is in there. No, I'm making some assumptions here, and I may be wrong.

I'm just saying, you are. There are egos deposited in the orb or the urn or the tree. Then I'm part of that, I'll do that. Let's go to Scotland. I thought you'd be into this. Yeah, I was Scotland shit one time. The Findhorn Eco Village. Now don't get your hopes up, there is no hidden horn.

No, because they found it. That's not what this is about. Okay. You know, it reminds me of like, Christy went to Meredith College, all women's school where they, it was like, they did all these summer camp exercises, like by class, by like freshman class, junior C.

And I think when you were a junior, you were supposed to find the crook. Yeah. That was hidden by the seniors. And it was the crook, I think, I don't even know what it was. I think it's just, I've never seen it and I never asked Christy what it was.

I just have this, like a crook, like a picture of the shot top of a, the bent top of a cane or like a shepherd's staff. I don't know why, but that's what I always thought a crook was and I'm just now realizing I've never seen it or really asked Christy what it was. You could probably look it up on the internet. But it was kind of this game to find the crook.

Kind of like finding a hidden immunity idol in Survivor. Right, uh-huh. Boy, I actually don't wanna be the guy that keeps talking about Survivor. Well, you, don't wanna be the guy that keeps talking about survivor. Well, you, too late. It's just- We found that horn. But finding the crook is not like find horn eco village.

This thing started in the 60s, but it didn't take its current form until 1982 when residents made an effort to show that an environmentally unobtrusive community could flourish both socially and economically and obviously. Spiritually. No, like naturally.

Okay. It's been noted as having the smallest environmental footprint of any town in the modern world. Whoa, okay, all right. Yeah, their building codes encourage like using found materials, they use wind turbines or turbines, whatever your jollies are. And they got a water treatment apparatus

called the living machine. Okay, I like that, that's weird. Which makes use of algae, snails, and plant life to purify the community's drinking water. Oh, that's awesome. So this place is, you know, if you look on the website, it's got this Scottish countryside farm vibe,

but there's actually a lot of buildings and a good amount of streets, but- How many people do you know? I don't know. Everybody bikes everywhere. No one counts how many people there are. Okay. So don't worry about it.

Got it, got it. But yeah, I definitely want a drink of this living machine. I'm into this. Yeah, you have to build a house here too. Oh really? But I mean, there's more restrictions. You gotta build it out of found material. Can't you just take, like people leave or die,

can I just take that guy's house? Maybe. Like can I get on a waiting list and be like- My ego is gonna live here with you until you decide to move out and then I move in with my ego. I want a waiting list and I just wanna be like, hey, I don't really wanna build my house but is when Walter dies, he's tall,

he's probably got furniture that fits me and he's tall so he won't live long. Put me on the waiting list for Walter's house. Some houses are made from old wine barrels. That's kinda cool. That's a cool shit situation, right? You could maybe make an Instagram with that. Is that allowed?

I don't know. Do any of these places make an Instagram with that. Is that allowed? I don't know. Do any of these places have an Instagram? No, they just have a website. They're all kind of behind. They don't really seem to care about social media. Well, Instagram is all about ego anyway, so that's not a good thing to introduce. I don't think you can have your phone out in public

and then it's hard to get reception in some of these places. That's good. This one's basically a demonstration farm. People come and they visit and they're like, wow, look at how eco-friendly this place is and self-sustaining. It reminds me of the demonstration farm on the edge of Buies Creek that I never knew

what was going on there. It's like- The one near my house. Before you, yeah, when I would ride my bike from my house to yours, I would have to go by the demonstration farm. And it was a Campbell University thing, right? And they had sheep everywhere. And I do remember that we went,

we took a trip there in like younger grades. Well, the funny thing is, is we took a field trip there and because it was next to my house and I was a little boy who got into everything, I was like, I've been up in this demonstration farm a lot already. Yeah, you took me there. No, I would go and I would jump the fence

and I would run around with the goats and the sheep and pet them and I would get into everything at the demonstration farm without permission and then occasionally- Would people show up and would you demonstrate anything? I would be like, this is how a little, I'm gonna demonstrate how a little boy runs from the farmer and once he shows up.

I remember that we would both kind of scurry around and trespass in the demonstration farm. There was a male goat that would ram you. He was, yeah, he was aggressive. Very aggressive and I thought it was the coolest thing. But the daughter of the family that lived on the farm. Before it became the farm, that was Jennifer Pearson.

I didn't think we said last names anymore. Okay, Jennifer. Wonder what happened to Jennifer Pearson. Man, I had a crush on her. You did, you really liked her. I had a crush on her person. A man I had a crush on her. You did, you really liked her. I had a crush on her, man, in kindergarten. I spent the night at her house one time. Because-

Every time I say that I had a crush on her, then this is what you say. You gloat. No, no, no. That you spent the night with her. No. What? With her brother. She had a younger brother and you know me,

I would invite myself to anybody within- He was so much younger. Yeah, yeah younger brother and you know me, I would invite myself to anybody within- He was so much younger. Yeah, yeah, he was three years younger, I think. That's a lot when you're in grade school. I would do three years or three years younger, there was a six year range that I felt it was acceptable to spend the night at somebody's house because I was very interested in other people's homes.

I mean, you were like 11 years old and you're spending the night with an eight year old. That's just weird. I readily admit that it's weird, but it wasn't about him. It was about the goat? It was about, he lived on a farm. He had a sister my age.

And I mean, he accepted my invitation for myself. It was a white house, one story. I never went inside of it. I just thought a lot about what it might be inside there. I could tell you, I mean, it wasn't a lot of cool shit in there. Oh really? Yeah. I mean, maybe that's true of the eco village.

I mean, basically the only thing I'm touting is Scotland is fun. You can ride your bike everywhere. It's dangerous though. But you also have to ride your bike everywhere. It's dangerous though. But you also have to ride your bike everywhere. I'm on Broker Ankle there. Living machine water taste test. I like that idea.

Much. I like that idea. It was criticized a few years back for advertising alternative healing practices not recommended by science. They have since rebranded. But isn't that just part of being in one of these communities?

Of course, I mean the whole new age deal. I mean, of course they're healing in ways that aren't scientific. So I like- That's what it's about, right? They're teaching good things and they're like, they're not, I don't think they're religious or even philosophical.

It's more just about like eco-friendly self-sustaining. Well, that's attractive, but it's also hard to get people to fully commit. Right, it's a bit- You need them to swear off their own family and swear allegiance to something above themselves in order to be an effective commune, I think. So Scotland doesn't do it.

I think, you know, Gold Epcot. Right now, the leading candidate is Auroville. But I've got one that's gonna maybe shake things up. The Federation. I gave you all the good ones, man. Of Damanhur. This is a good one. In Italy.

First of all, always wanted to go to Italy. I mean, just right off the bat. The Federation of Damanhur, often simply called Damanhur, is a commune eco village, that's also an eco village, and spiritual community situated in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy about 50 kilometers, about 31 miles, north of the city of Turin, Shroud of Turin, anybody?

Oh yeah, you can swing by the Shroud and then go down there and visit. I know they make tours because I watched one on YouTube. Yeah, oh yeah, okay. This thing was founded in 1975 by a dude, Oberto. Oberto! So there is a questionable deal there just because a dude founded it.

But he founded it with 24 followers and by the year 2000, it had grown to 800. I don't know exactly what it is now, but they hold kind of a mix of new age and neo-pagan beliefs, which I think is, that feels right to me. We're in a sweet spot now, neo-pagan. Now, hold on to your yods because

the cool shit factor. Thank you for using that. The cool shit factor at this place is off the charts. But under the ground. The temples of humankind. Yes. We're talking hand dug 100 feet deep tunnels and chambers that have all this stuff, including.

I love hand dug stuff. But that's 100 feet too. I mean. That's crazy. I love hand dug stuff. But that's a hundred feet too. That's crazy. I love underground stuff. I haven't done a whole lot of it, but the idea of being in caves and underground, especially thing that's been dug into the ground, big fan.

I'm a fan of it as long as you can walk around in a pretty much upright position. Once you start to belly crawl underground. No, no, no, no, we're not talking speed-lunking here. I've done that before. We're not talking speed-lunking, we're talking the hall of spheres containing translucent orbs containing water imbued

with spiritual energy intended for use in meditation. So we're not just talking about one perfect, we're talking about multiple spheres with water in them that's been imbued. The Hall of Earth, which has a dreamlike murals of landscapes and extinct animals calling attention to human responsibility to the planet's preservation. Yeah, there's like paintings of these animals

all over the wall and it's kind of like walking through a human-sized ant farm. Yeah. It's like you go through this, there's a door and then it's, you can tell that things were built on and added as they went. Yeah, it's been around a long time. There wasn't some grand scheme to this thing.

It was more like big room, let's paint it, put orbs in here, let's make a tunnel this way. And so it's very ant-like. And I'm not done, hall of mirrors, an area for meditation surrounded on all sides by mirrors. I would expect no less. The piece de resistance. I don't know exactly where it's at,

but I can confirm that on the website, I saw a woman with a gong. And if you've got a commune and there is not a gong, you have done it wrong. Just remember that, okay? Commune with no gong, you've done it wrong. Now, so, and I've only scratched the surface, so to speak, I mean, you do have to go 100 feet deep,

but this is a beautiful area and their website. I mean, it's crazy. Their website is crazy. What is the website? I guess I just went to, this is the, I get a lot of this from the Wiki entry, but they've got a good website too with a lot of information.

And you can visit, you can also visit. Domonheer.org. Okay. You click on that. It should be.org. Sustainability is the present and the future. The thing that I noticed is that they've got like these different, what are they called? Symbols?

These symbols represent, there was a lot of organization in terms of like where you could fit in in this community and like your level of commitment. It's a grand system. But they're not trying to not be culty, which is something I appreciate. Let's just go ahead and admit that's what we're doing here, guys.

We are a cult, right? It's like, this is not, hey, an intentional community eco village. No, it's a freaking cult. Let's be honest about it. Let's embrace it. That's why we're doing this. So I like that about it.

And also I like the fact that they have four levels of participation, A, B, C, and D. Now- Well they call them classes, that's what I'm talking about. Just like this whole system you can assimilate into. So one class is you gotta live there full time, that's class A.

Class B, you gotta be there three times a week, like three days a week, and then class C and D. And contribute money. Class C and D, you can live anywhere, but it depends on what kind of course you're in. There's a lot of meditation, there's a school of meditation, there's this thing called the game of life.

What? I don't even understand it, but I'm in, and let me say this. It's like an underground board game that you could die. Yeah, the other thing is from 1983 onwards, members have assumed animal names, and not just animal names, you get an animal first name and a plant last name, so the founder is called

Falcon Dandelion, and I've already picked my name. I'll give you some time to think about yours. Okay, well, Falcon Dandelion, and I've already picked my name. I'll give you some time to think about yours. Okay. But- Well, Falcon Dandelion is- I'm going, and just so y'all know, look out for Giraffe Kudzu. Giraffe Kudzu, you got a long neck and you grow fast. That's right.

Giraffe Kudzu in the house. Where is he at? Is he in the Hall of Mirrors? You're tall, but it's not really the neck. No, he's at the gong. Giraffe's my favorite animal and they're very tall. That's simple. Kudzu is a southern invasive species.

With that beard of yours, it's like you don't even have a neck. It's not about the neck, it's about the overall height. Don't criticize my fricking name, come up with your own. Giraffe Kudzu will be gong, I'm coming, and I want to be the gong operator. That's the only stipulation. Multiple gongs.

In fact, I want a haul of gongs. I'm not necessarily gonna dig it, but I will supervise the digging and I will supervise the purchasing of the gongs and I will attempt to construct a long stick that I will use to strike the gongs. I think I can probably do that. You'll attempt to. You don stick that I will use to strike the gongs. I think I can probably do that. You'll attempt to.

You don't have confidence. Find a stick. I will be called Trichinosis rosebud. Is Trichinosis an animal? No, that is a disease that you get from raw pork. Right, but it is an animal. I mean, it's worms, I guess. I think it's the disease you get from the worms.

Trichinosis worm rosebud. I mean, it's worms, I guess. I think it's the disease you get from the worms. Trichinosis worm, rosebud. Rosebud, okay. So it's like, I'm entering into this place and I'm- TWRB, twerb. I'm basically- Can I just call you twerb for short? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that. Just call me twerb, but I want you to know that like-

Twerb, could you fetch a stick for me? I'm not trying to, I'm not a dog. I'm a man. I'm a man who's, you know what? I'm coming to you warts and all. Okay. Trichinosis. Okay. You know, I'm not trying to be something nice

or something I'm not. Well, what are you gonna do though? I'm gonna, you know what I'm gonna do. I've already decided that. I'll probably dig holes. I mean. You'll be a digger. I'm gonna do, I've already decided that. I'll probably dig holes. I mean- You'll be a digger. I'm gonna be a digger. I like, I mean, as a kid, man,

I would love to dig a good hole. You're also a good cleaner. You love cleaning things. Could you clean the gongs? Well, once you dig a hole, it creates lots of debris to clean up. I don't think you have to clean a gong very often. I'm not cleaning your gongs, no.

That's an emphatic no. I think you polish a gong. You like polishing things? I've never, your gongs, no. That's an emphatic no. I think you polish a gong. You like polishing things? I've never, you know what, I'm gonna answer this truthfully and thoughtfully. You've never polished anything? I can't recall polishing anything. The world of polishing.

I mean, I- Waiting for a twerp to show up. When I first got that pickup truck when I was 16, you know, I would wax it. Is waxing a form of polishing? Yes, I think waxing is a sub genre of polishing. And Trigonosis is an animal. Yeah, okay, you can have it your way, man.

I'm a hole digger, man. I guess if I'm a hole digger, I should be an animal that digs holes. Okay, I'm on board. I just can't think of one. Lot of pros here. A dog? Lot of pros here.

The names, one of them, Gongs, super high cool shit factor. You don't have to live there full time. I think you can come in at level C or D and kind of feel things out. Calling everybody an animal is some cool shit. Oh yeah. Now, there are some cons.

With all the pros that come from it being very cult-like, there are also some cons, let's be honest. Basically, the guru makes all your decisions for you. There is some estrangement from family. There's some typical cult situation things that are happening here. If you're not comfortable with that, if you don't like the idea of being brainwashed

and manipulated, which I understand some people don't, then this might not be for you. None of that came up in the tours that I saw. Like Fun for Louie, remember him? Uh-huh. He was there with, shoot, what is that gal's name who was in our cray, she was in our Crayon Colors music video. Remember way back in the day.

She was a vlogger at the time. I can't remember her name, but she, Nadine, I think is her name. Like they were there together, like many years ago and like posted YouTube videos. Just visiting. Just visiting and like vlogging about it. Just visiting. Just visiting and like, so like post vlogging about it.

I'm just saying I think. They went through the chambers. You can experience the chambers and probably the gong just by visiting. Do you think that the fact that I said that. But they didn't mention any of this cult like shit. Well, I'm just, I'm kind of, first of all, just for legal reasons,

might I say that everything I'm saying here is for entertainment purposes. Seems like that should go at the top. I'm just saying that there's been, they've been accused. Let's just say allegedly there are some cult-like things happening here and some control issues that are happening. But like I said, I don't think you can do this properly without that, you know?

And I'm not trying to, listen, people, cults, you know, people- They get a bad rap? People have suffered- What? People have suffered incredible horrors and traumas from cults. So I'm not saying I'm pro cult. I'm just saying if you're gonna do a community that's got a bunch of cool shit,

there's gonna be some mind control and some manipulation. It's just kind of part of the package. You know what I'm saying? So just keep all that in mind. You also, if you're gonna live there full time, you're gonna be in a house with 10 to 20 people. This isn't gonna be an adjustment. It's gonna be an adjustment, I mean, for you.

I think it would be an adjustment for me. Giraffe Kudzu is gonna have a tough time with that, but I don't know, I think I could adjust. I think I could adapt. I'm just gonna go back to Auroville and India. Or maybe Indiana, maybe there's like a miniature version. That quickly you went back? I mean, I don't know that Oroville

doesn't have some of the same, what are you afraid of at the Domino? You scared me off with the, I mean, not being able to make any decisions. No, you can make decisions, but you gotta make decisions that are approved. Right. That's probably the same at Oroville, man.

I'll take one gold orb and one really smooth orb within it instead of all those chambers, even though I like to dig holes. Okay. I think that's where I'm landing. I think I'm going to Italy, going underground, assuming that I can get these things that I've requested and assuming that the people are gonna still be okay

with the fact that I said the stuff about mind control. Here's what I'm saying. I understand that it's part of the deal and Giraffe Kudzu is showing up, he's gonna be on the gongs, he's willing to let his mind get controlled. So I'm just saying I'm gonna submit when I get there to my guru.

Okay. Okay? So don't sue me. You can just call me Tricky. If you call me Tricky, I might join you. That's better than- Tricky sounds like a carny that got fired. Short for Trigonosis, man. I understand where it comes from, but. Well, I've got the rec this week.

I'm gonna, so switching gears a little bit for a rec baby, rec baby, one, two, three, four. I'm gonna recommend a video. So. A video. Yeah, I just want you to watch a video. And this is more for you, but if like, you know, I think most everybody listening would get a kick out of this.

If you Google, well, if you search on YouTube, I've only eaten mac and cheese for the past 17 years, here's why, a video will show up called, I've only eaten mac and cheese for the past 17 years, here's why. A video will show up called, I've only eaten mac and cheese for the past 17 years and here's why. It's on the Vice YouTube channel. I know why you recommend it. It's almost got 10 million views.

Yeah, I saw this thanks to a Reddit post on the Good Mythical Morning thread. And it's a profile piece of, you guessed it, a guy who has only eaten mac and cheese for the past 17 years. And this video tells you why. He has, as we discussed on Good Mythical Morning, we did a whole episode about people eating only one thing

and it did really well. This is like for many, many years ago. I barely remember even doing the episode. Right. But I did remember a little bit and I knew from the Reddit thread that like there's a connection. Well, halfway through this Vice piece

as it's doing this profile thing, this is an 18 minute video. It's about five minutes in. That's when he gets into his story of after having eaten mac and cheese for a lot of his life, he talks about how he's watching this internet show called Good Mythical Morning. And they show a clip of us talking about people

eating one thing and like we talk about how there's a name for that. It's a condition. It's a mental condition. And he did not know that he had a mental condition until he watched Good Mythical Morning and we told him. The thing that, and then he goes on and talks about his treatment, it's a pretty cool video to watch.

And that's the only time we're mentioned, but it blew my mind and it actually, if you would have reminded me that we made that episode of GMM, and then that someone who has that condition would have watched it. And, you know, I would have cringed a little bit, but I hope we didn't hurt that guy's feelings. Oh, I think we helped him.

But we clearly helped this guy. Like we were the catalyst to get him on a path of coming to grips with what he's dealing with in treatment. Like there's literally, it's a little strange because it goes to a therapist session and it's filmed. You know, they filmed the thing. So there's a strange vibe in that exchange,

but maybe it was just because of the, you know, the fact that it was a therapy session being filmed, but overall, I was just, I was relieved to find out that we only helped the guy. And that, so, even though we might've gotten a kick out of people eating only one thing, it's more of a fascination than like making fun of. It's what, I think we struck a good balance. One so that we actually could help this guy.

So- Changing the world one person at a time, man. It's just, it was surreal to watch that a couple of weeks ago, so. And it's been out for a while. This video came out a year ago and then our video was like years before that. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So check that out. Did you say the name of it? I've eaten only mac and cheese for the past 17 years, here's why. Okay, so basically the title is the. Yeah, it's the thing that I've said multiple times. Vice YouTube channel. Well, thanks for listening to us.

Those of you who are in any of these intentional communities who joined us for this episode, thank you for joining us. Let us know. We may be joining you soon. About your experience. If you visited a commune or one of these places, hashtag your biscuits. And if we got something wrong, as I'm sure we did,

in the least, you know, how we pronounce some of these things, but some of the assumptions that I made about your establishments, let us know. Hashtag your biscuits, join the conversation, set us straight. We'll talk at you next week.