Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - ED HELMS Wanted To Take The Big Wild Rafting Route

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Ed Helms joins Seth and Josh on the pod this week! Ed talks all about going to camp when he was younger, campfire ghost stories, the impact of a firm handshake, his dad going for the slow scenic rafting route, his love for history (just like his dad’s), AND Ed talks all about his new podcast, SNAFU!AirbnbFamily Trips is supported by Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much more at airbnb.com/host to learn about hosting.LinkedInStart converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today and get $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/familytrips to claim your credit. Terms and Conditions apply. DraftkingsScore big with DraftKings Sportsbook - the BEST Place to bet touchdowns. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code FAMILYTRIPS. That’s code FAMILYTRIPS for new customers to get $250 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks MandoControl Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code TRIPS at shopmando.com! #mandopod 

This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Hi, Pashi. Hey, Sufi. I feel a little bad about something. What's that? Well, last week in a listener episode, I talked about how mom and dad were here and I did not tell the story of their great glory.

Oh, please. So we go to the beach, first couple of days they're here, and great beach days. You know, we're, go to the beach, first couple of days they're here. And great beach days. But then, day three, there's this place where they cut out, basically they cut through the sand

between a pond and the ocean for the purposes of draining the pond, which has collected rainwater over the course of the summer. Okay. You with me so far? Yeah. And because of the water elevation, the water from the pond then drains into the ocean,

but it takes a few days. But there's this really fun current now that is going back and forth between the ocean and the pond. And so if you're a kid on say like a boogie board or a skim board or you know an inflatable tube It's like a it's it's like the rapids. Yeah a skim board won't work in there, but go ahead. No, okay great and Also a skim board won't work anywhere if you're one of my kids So

there's this real excitement over we're gonna go we're gonna go to this cut and But there was a lot of prep with mom and dad. And my brother-in-law, Zach, his parents were there too. And it was a lot of just be forewarned, it's a long walk from where you park to the cut. Yeah. And it was a lot of that. And so everybody was explained and they were like, Yeah, no, of course we want to do it. You know, we'll spend the day with our grandkids. We're gonna do it. We can

walk down the beach. So they walked down the beach. The part that was left out is we had to cross this cut. We had to cross this sort of like water that's flowing very quickly. And it was a lot deeper than we'd been led to believe. Now it wasn't over your head deep, but it was sort of waist deep. And to paint a picture, it was like we were sort of, is fording a river? Is that how you cross a river? Yeah, I think so.

Hold on, let me see, ford a river. Cross a stream without using a boat. Yeah, there you go. So we were ford a river. To cross the stream without using a boat. Yeah, there you go. So we were fording a river. Yeah. And a lot of like softer sand than you'd want. And you know, mom and dad, they're very active, but you know, even I was a little,

this is not comfortable. Yeah. But I just want to say they made it. Did you tie each other together? Were you? Mom and you know, again, it was very loving. Mom and dad were holding onto each other very tightly, or I should say mom was holding onto dad very tightly,

as she's known to do. And we got across, and the part that was most impressive, not one complaint from mom, who I would say this would be historically in her wheelhouse of things to complain about. How do you get your children across this cut? Because it would be over their head. Great question. Glad you asked. There's two ways to make it. One is the way we went. The

other way is via boat. But it's about a 15 minute boat ride and you don't and the boat was too small. So couldn't we didn't want the guy who was nice enough to offer our kids a ride in a boat to have to shuttle back and forth and get you know, yeah, and stuff. Yeah. So he he did one ride. Yeah. And we did. And so that was all the gear kind of went that way. Gotcha. But I did say Gotcha. But I did say, when we got in the water, I said to mom and dad, like, I am, you know, I do think we're gonna make it, but I would like to say my goodbyes just.

I think maybe the hardest I made mom and dad laugh on the trip is we got in a car and to all drive here and there were again, I think there were like six of us in the car, me, Zach, both of our parents. And while we're getting in the car, Joanne, my mother-in-law and her entire family were arguing about when the last time she had COVID was. And whether it was two Mays ago or the previous November. Uh-huh. This was being discussed at a very intense, there was a high level intensity to this conversation.

Yeah. And we got in the car and Zach started driving away. And I said, actually, do you mind waiting until we get to the bottom of this? Yeah, there are those conversations where it like, it really, it just doesn't matter. Yeah. If you have the answer, it's like, okay. Right.

Right. There's no like protocols of like, what do you, how do you act around somebody who had COVID, who last had COVID in May of 22? What's the- Yeah. And also if it's last November, it's still like, if you're talking about, do you need a booster now? It's like, yeah, well, you're past that. Yeah, you're ready. You're due either way, if you're that kind of person. Ed Helms joins us today. Yeah. Funny dude. Funny dude, lovely dude, sweet guy.

He's got his own podcast. He's got his own podcast called Snafu. So when we're done with this one, you can listen to that one. Yeah. Please enjoy it. We enjoyed making it. Family chips with the Myers Brothers. Family chips with the Myers Brothers. Here we go. Hey, fellas.

How are you? You know what I'm very excited about, and I wish I'd been keeping track of this because I bet you're not our first, but you're what I like to call a classic tweener. Do you know what I mean by that, Ben? Tweener what? Like between acts or something? You were born between Josh and I. There's a two year gap. Oh. And look, we're not gonna get into- I'm a Josh and Seth tweener.

Yeah, we're not gonna get into specifics because I'm pretty close to starting to lie about my age. So I'm not gonna give any dates out, but classic tweener. Yeah, because there's another way to interpret that that's a bit more- Yes, this is about dates. You know. Not those kind of dates.

Right, calendar dates. Now what kind of dates are we talking about? Bejewel. Are we going on dates? How are you? And it's been too long. I'm pretty fantastic, all things considered. Where are you in the world right now?

I'm in Los Angeles. Nice. Which is where a lot of the movie and entertainment business is centered. Yeah, I'm here. That's what they tell me too. They say it's all around me. Okay, how far away are we?

I'm right in Hollywood. I'm right by like the old ArcLight. Oh, I'm by like Bird's, La Puebel, that little strip, UCB. We're like five, 10 minutes apart. Yeah, this is great. Cause now we're just- Should I just walk over there right now? Our listeners are saving so much money on star maps,

which they would have to buy. This is now, we're just giving out. You know what, drop a pin. Why don't you guys just drop a pin in the chat and we'll- Yeah. There we go. Ed, I of course, first from New York City, but you are from Atlanta.

Are you from the proper suburban Atlanta or downtown Atlanta? What part of Atlanta are you from? It's a big old place. It is a big old place. I grew up in midtown Atlanta, like between Buckhead and midtown, if that resonates for anybody. I grew up in a little neighborhood called Brookwood Hills, which was a very bucolic kind of little cut into, right off of Peachtree, which is the sort of main artery north-south

through Atlanta. And yeah, I was born right there in Piedmont Hospital and grew up right there. Youngest of three. Correct, yeah. Oldest sister, yeah. What are the age gaps? How far away are they? So my sister is about six and a half years older than me and my brother is about three years older than me.

So yeah, we got a good spread. And did you guys get along growing up? You know, I would say, like probably on the more positive end of that spectrum, I would say yes. Yeah. But like any siblings, you know, we didn't try to kill each other,

but we were at odds a lot. Uh-huh. My sister was kind of above the fray. You know, we didn't try to kill each other, but we were at odds a lot. My sister was kind of above the fray. She was the kind of old, cool, cool one. And then my brother and I were just at each other all the time. Wait, what's the age gap with you guys? Two years.

Two years. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And what was that, Dynette? How was that vibe? It was always pretty, it was a pretty good vibe. Yeah. Like, I mean, I would say Seth How was that vibe? It was always pretty, it was a pretty good vibe. Yeah.

Like, I mean, I would say Seth, I was also friends with Seth's friends, or I would hang out with him and his buddies. Seth would hang out with my friends less. The reasoning behind it is they were dorks. I just feel like, I don't want it to be like, but I was big timing anybody. It was just, they were hard, they were hard company to keep.

I will say the interesting thing is that Josh got hurt all the time by accident and Josh hurt me all the time on purpose. Can you say that's accurate Josh? I wanted things to level out. I was told about justice. Well now wait a second. Wait, who's older?

I don't even know who's older. Seth's older, Seth's older. Okay, all right. I mean, when I injured him, like, I get, wait, who's older? I don't even know who's older. Seth's older, Seth's older. Yeah. Okay, all right. I mean, when I injured him, like, I mean, I injured him with a golf club once, that wasn't on purpose. You chased me another time with a golf club though, and I would say that was on purpose. And I put that, the head of that golf club

through your door, your bedroom door. We put a sticker over it. That was a good fix. But somebody had put a golf ball there and it was very distracting. Oh. So, yeah. I mean, in your defense.

That would have been, and then our parents would have come home and said, I don't know, it just came through the window and stuck in the door. Yeah. What about, I would imagine a sister who's six years older. They're, I mean, and again, having two younger brothers must just be a tough road to hoe for her.

Because now my daughter is our youngest of three and her maturity is very helpful to us because she's catching up to the boys. But I would imagine for your sister, she must've felt 10, 15 years older than you guys. I would suspect that that's true. And of course, like the oldest sibling with that kind of age gap is gonna be babysitting a lot,

which puts them in a sort of default more, they're like maturity is foisted onto them a little bit more. And the younger kids are sort of allowed to mature slower. And of course, being boys, like, I mean, I'm still, I'm still trying to catch up to the women in my life. And you should just assume you never will and be at peace with that.

Cause that's genetics I think, or whatever. However, you want to scientifically write that one off. Yeah. It might be some- I do feel bad. Did you feel like when she was a babysitter, did you see a softness in her that you could take advantage of, or do you feel as though you actually feared her? Oh, that's a good question.

as though you actually feared her? Oh, that's a good question. I think it was mostly, I think she was a pretty cool babysitter for the most part. I had big crushes on all of her friends and was like trying to impress her friends all the time, like with somersaults and cartwheels and like dance moves and stuff. That's what girls like.

So funny. Girls grow six years older? that's what girls are into. To this day, it's really paid off for me. Do you feel like there's ever been a wedding toast in this great nation of ours where the bride has said, and then he was my best friend's younger brother, six years younger, and the first time he somersaulted through the room,

I knew he was the guy. I mean, just the folly. I was jealous. I mean, we didn't have an older sibling, but I had like buddies with older sisters. And the same thing, like the idea, I would want to go over to their house for the purpose of just taking another run

at their sisters, just on charm. And I think about it now and they just just been like, what do you think is going to happen here? Yeah. I remember I had a little Fisher Price record player, and I had these Disney records. And I thought there was one and I was like, you know, these are for, at a certain point, I kind of switched into like,

oh, these records are for kids. But then I had one that was like, that was like, that was like a Disney, like parade song and it had like electric guitars in it. And I was like, this is the cool one. And I cranked it as loud as possible just so that my sister's friends in the next room

would be like, oh, he's cool. Listen to those tunes he's jamming out to. I don't love this parade song, but that guitar is shredding. Yeah, that's some cool dude tunes coming through that door. The funny thing is obviously someone at Disney, it's that thing where people try to guess what is cool to kids, and somebody was like, let's put in guitar, that'll work.

And maybe you're the only person they worked with. There was one, there was one kid in America who were like, this slaps. Yeah. Yeah. That Imagineer hit the nail on the head. Yeah. My first two crushes in my life were the female guitar player from the great space coaster.

I don't know if you remember that show, Ed. Who was not human, right? Or was she? No, that was a human girl. That was a mixture of sort of puppet people and humans. And then Pat Benatar. Yeah, you did have a real. I liked those rockin' girls.

Yeah, mine was, you know, I grew up in the South. My first crush was Dolly Parton. Yeah, fair. You were not alone in that. I would assume that's a real get in line for Southern boys in our era, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's something, I don't know.

I feel like the whole world had a crush on Dolly Parton. Were you ever like thinking, did you ever think, I might pack up this Fisher-Prey's record player and try to go to Dollywood and maybe get lucky? Well, Dollywood didn't exist when I was a kid, because believe me, I would have been so... Right, of course. I would have forced my parents to take me to Dollywood.

Have you ever gone as an adult? No, I have never been. But we did vacation in Gatlinburg, which is where it is, or right by where it is in the Smoky Mountains. And I spent summers in the Smoky Mountains in Brevard, North Carolina up there. So, like, Dolly was present. And, of course, my mom is from Nashville, so, like, the whole country music world always felt kind of close. And then I think it was when 9 to 5 came out, and I don't remember what year that was,

but we had HBO or cable or something, and it just was playing all the time. That's what really, in my head, Poltergeist is that movie that's always on, but you're right, Nine to Five was, I feel like, twice a day. Yeah. Yeah, because Nine to Five,

they could run during the day. Right. They famously said it was a Nine to Five movie. You could run it anywhere from Nine to Five. Yeah, exactly. I fell in love with Dolly. It's also like it was a very comedically formative movie for me because Dabney Coleman is so funny in that movie and so outrageous. I mean, the whole cat, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, everyone's incredible.

Yeah. That's, hey, it's why I do what I do. I had a moment where I presented once at the Emmys, and those three ladies presented right before me. So I got to be backstage making small talk with Lily and Jane and Dolly, which was a bummer. Because all I wanted to do was talk to Jeremy Corbyn. and Jane and Dolly, which was a bummer.

Because all I wanted to do was talk to Gavne Corbin. I'm so, could you keep your cool? I was just like, I feel like you guys gave Gavne a hard time in that movie and I feel like, I was like, it was a different time, you were allowed to do all that stuff. Yeah. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break

and hear from some of our sponsors. Family Trips is supported by Airbnb. Hey, Pashi. Yes, Sufi. You know we have an annual trip. Yeah, we sure do. We get a couple of regular trips, but which trip are you talking about? I'm talking about the fact that you and I and 10 of our closest college friends get together

every September for our fantasy football draft. Such a trip. Very little of the trip is about a fantasy football draft. Yeah, I always feel a little nerdy saying that we're going on a fantasy football draft, but we're going to hang out with our buddies. Yeah, that's why I say it's a fantasy friendship draft. Would that make it less nerdy, or is that making it worse?

No, I think it's charming, it's sweet. So this year for our fantasy friendship draft, we have a fantasy location booked. And it's all thanks to Airbnb. We found a place that has enough space for all of us and enough bedrooms for all of us and has a lot of outdoor activities. A fire pit.

There's a fire pit, Pachi. There's a fire pit. I want to say there's a volleyball court. Yeah. There's a pickleball court. There's a lot. It's driving distance to a hospital that a bunch of 50-year-old guys are going to have to go to when we blow our ACLs.

Yeah. But in general, it is so nice that it has all the things that we could not get with our group at a hotel. Oh, absolutely not. Because what you want is you want to be able to hang out together for as long as you can. And then if it's time to go to bed, you go to bed. But everyone else is sort of in the same place.

And one thing that we're sort of focused on on trips like this is no new friends. No new friends. We don't want to meet them. We don't want to make them. We're happy with who we are. And maybe you're someone who's thinking, you know what, my home could be a great get together

for old friends who are not looking to meet new people. You've put a lot of time, effort, and work into your home and someone out there would probably love to experience it while they're traveling. And then they would rave about how it was the highlight of their trip. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

Support for Family Trips comes from DraftKings. Hey Pashi. Hey Sufi. NFL week one is here and a new season means new ways to get on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Pashi, you know me, I bet with my heart. Yeah, I do too.

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Additional NFL Plus premium terms at nfl.com slash terms. Here we go. So Great Smoky Mountains, was that a regular vacation spot for you guys? What was a Helms family trip like or where did you guys go? Well, let's see. Yes, because I went to summer camp outside of Brevard, North Carolina. And like I said, mom's from Tennessee. So we were just always kind of around up there

in the summer times. Gatlinburg was kind of a tourist trap. It has been for a long, long time. I think that's why they built Dollywood there. Because there's like a million theme parks on that strip, right? Lake Adlenburg? Yeah. Yeah, it's one of those places where you would like check in to the local Holiday Inn and there'd be a kiosk with like 40 glossy brochures

for like the Alpine Slide and the cave exploring and the zip line and the the the historical reenactors, just like a million different kinds of chintzy family activities. We did them all. There was one Thanksgiving that we actually had our family Thanksgiving in Gatlinburg, and I'll never forget because we have a photograph that's still hanging somewhere that is where we, my family made t-shirts.

And we stayed at the Buckhorn Inn, which I think is still there. And we had these t-shirts that said Thanksgiving at the Buckhorn 1983, I think, or like I was around nine or so. And it's just the most, it's the most 80s family picture ever. And we're all sitting in this lobby of the Buckhorn Inn.

And that's where we had our Thanksgiving that year. That, I wanna go back to that brochure wall because that, I'm sure it still exists. But it was before the internet, it was the internet for vacation. Like you would just look at that wall and it was, it was Yelp before Yelp. Just like, here's everything you can do.

Yeah, and it all looks so good. Like to a kid who's like, oh my God, we can go tubing. I mean, we did all those, those caves and, you know, a little storybook village kind of things. And there was, like the gas stations would also have these kiosks and like some local graphic designer was just making a killing on very bad graphic design work for these folding pamphlets.

I would collect those because they were so exciting and exotic to me. Like, oh my god, I got to save this because we're going to go to see Ruby Falls on our next trip, or I'm going to make sure dad takes me to the, to the incline railroad on, in Chattanooga, next time we drive through. It was, yeah, those were, those were exciting times.

The brochures. Would you like check into this, you know, the Buckhorn Inn or whatever the Holiday Inn was and lay these brochures out and come up with a plan? Or did you know the things? Did your parents have a plan before you got there? No. I think my parents, what I mostly remember is that it was disappointing

because there'd be like 50 brochures and you just pick a bunch of them. Then mom and dad would basically be like 50 brochures and you could pick it. You just pick a bunch of them and then mom and dad would basically be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and no. Then yes, we can go see the historical reenactors. You're like, what? Come on. We're going to watch a blacksmith for three hours. Can't we just go on the zip line or whatever? But yeah, so I don't know.

I think my parents tended towards the more sort of educational low-key non-action sporty stuff, and I was always frustrated by that. Did you have a parent who was an educator? Is that right? Yeah, my mom, I guess, she worked as an administrator at a school, but also ran a summer camp and was very much in that space. My dad was, to his credit,

he was just a very intellectually curious guy, so he loved the historical reenactments. It's funny now because I sort of, now I get that and sympathize and I love that stuff. And it's hard to convince my family to get on board. But it does, it has its place. I have some good memories of like cool shows. I think we saw, like we went to one at the Lost City of,

was it Roanoke or one of those, yeah, one of those colony historical reenactment places has this huge amphitheater and a show where, and I just, I was like, oh wow, I learned so much about our nation's history. I feel like the one we went to was because we had family in Salem, Massachusetts was that was like the most historic, like going to watch people act out Salem witch trial stuff. Although I think now that I'm thinking about it was like weirdly shaped clay people or like weird puppets, right, Posh?

I don't recall. Did they have to actually burn an actor like every time? They did, yeah. They did, but again, and like it was, I think singeing is, I mean, they kind of looked like cartoon burnt when it was over. But we had a place, there was a place, Strawberry Bank is in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and that was sort of a very colonial vibe where you can go from house to house

and see how people used to live. Would you make return trips to these same historical reenactment places, or do you think once you did it, I mean, I think to most people, once you've done it, you've done it, but it sounds like maybe your parents are like, well, let's go get some more of this.

Maybe we missed some nooks and crannies at the lost city of Roanoke. No, I think those were mostly one-off occasions. There was a big trip we took to out west. We had a like a, and it was kind of like every And it was kind of like every bit of my parents' vacation sort of values and aspirations like mashed into about two weeks, I think, which I was, I believe I was eight years old for that trip. And it was just sort of my parents being like, we're going to introduce these kids to the whole Western United States in two weeks. That's bold. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah.

It was actually, I mean, I have fantastic, it was, it was like, I have great memories and terrified memories. And it's funny, I texted my brother and sister and I was like, do you guys remember much from this? And it started this whole cavalcade of funny recollections. But the best part about that trip is that it started with my dad or one of my parents realizing that Chex Cereals was having some huge promotion

with like Delta or one of the big airlines. And if, I don't know, I don't remember the math or I don't think I ever knew the math exactly, but basically how it wound up for us as kids was like, if you eat a thousand boxes of Czech cereals and have like, you know, proofs of purchase or whatever, remember proofs of purchase? That was like a thing for all kinds of sweepstakes, yeah.

Much like the brochure wall, this is of a different era, but it was a huge part of our childhood too. Yeah. Yeah, so like, literally a year, we ate so much Chex products, like all the Chex cereals, Chex mixes, mom would like make Che like souffle out of, like every iteration of Czechs food, we were eating it.

In addition to the cereal every morning, of course. I just want to say you already, which vacation or not, this sounds like you're winners, because I would love this much Czechs in my life. It got, it felt, it felt a little like we were all, we all, we needed medical attention after a while. Cause we weren't eating anything else. He guess I had to go get checks ups.

But, yeah, there you go. But it was, however it happened, we wound up with like, you know, 500 cereal box tops, and we were able to like afford these tickets to fly the whole family to Denver. Now they, I would hope they don't make an announcement, right, and say, and now everyone who got their tickets via checks can board.

Yeah. We had to wear like checks branded clothing to get on the plane. Like uniformed checks personnel. Well, I had a, I always had a hunch that it was one of those things where like, you know how there's like usually, like back in the day there would be like

a serial sweepstakes of some kind. And then there was like, there was the sort of loophole that you could just like really exploit if you went nuts. And that always felt like what my parents did. It was like, oh wow. Maybe it was like, like you could get like a few extra Delta miles with some box tops. But then my dad was like, no, no, no, no.

We're going to Denver on checks. On the checks no, no, no. We're going to Denver on checks. On the checks coming, on General Mills. We're flying to Denver. And then, yeah, it was too much checks for a while. But it was an incredible trip. We flew to Denver, rented a car, and then just drove everywhere. Like, I'll hit all the big sites.

Like national parks mostly, or were you, did you swing through Vegas or where'd you go? I don't think we hit Vegas on that trip. But we did go to, I mean, Glacier National Park, Yosemite. Oh, that's exciting. What I think, I think like Zion like Zion and Bryce and all those. Yeah. Did you ever board a boat? Did you ever get on a raft?

Oh yeah. We rafted on the snake river. And how? I forgot about that. At eight years old, do you remember being excited or trepidatious about the river or have no memories at all? This is so funny. I haven't thought about this in forever, but I do remember that there were two options.

Like you could take the sort of slow, scenic Snake River, like day trip or the like wild rapids. And of course my dad is like, I want to go on the slow scenic one with the naturalist who's going to like tell us about the trees and the mountains. And I was like, no. It was, I want somebody to raft like they did in the 1700s.

Yeah. I wanted to go on the big wild one. And we didn't. We went on this sort of slow plotting one. So of course, I was like a bored kid. And the other memory I have of that was thinking that the Raft guide, who was like this jacked dude with a beard and a big life jacket, that he was like the coolest dude. And I couldn't stop asking him questions. And it got to the point, my brother and sister always teased me about this for years, because

apparently I asked him at some point about the raft. I asked him, do babies ever chew on the raft? And that's what finally prompted my dad to say, hey buddy, I think that's enough questions, okay? I'm just picturing him like one of those like GI Joe figures that's like, he's not like one of the military ones. He's like a specialist. He's like a raft guy.

Yeah, exactly. He's an operative. Yeah. Whitewater operative. I just like from rafts. It's such a question of like someone who's desperately trying to find something interesting to say on a first date, you know, huh? This kind of rubber like you ever been troubled with babies or like dogs chewing on this? trying to find something interesting to say on a first day. You know, huh, this can't rub it.

Like, you ever had trouble with babies or like dogs chewing on this? Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. It's that thing where like, I just wanted this raft guy to think I was cool. So I was just talking to him. It does bring up that amazing thing when you have kids yourself,

a little bit of authority goes such a long way and getting your kids to be the best version of themselves. Like, I think my kids can smell that I'm an expert in nothing. And so everything I say, I feel like their take is, or my way is right. You know, we don't wanna. Right.

Like they took, you know, they take sailing lessons and all of a sudden, you know, they're like the quietest most attentive kids because there's just somebody who You know looks like an old salt and they realize this guy this guy knows who he's talking about when it's knots and no sales 100% kids don't it doesn't even if you are an expert in things like they just It doesn't compute unless there's some external validator. I was yelling at my kids the other day like, hey, that's Poison Ivy.

And they looked at me like, bitch, you never don't have it. Why am I gonna listen to you about where the Poison Ivy is? They could say all that with their eyes. They did. That was just a look. And we'd also, I They did, they did. That was just a look. And we also, I should say, they take sailing lessons and they go to this very intense eye acting school. A lot of nonverbal. Yeah, of course.

You, when you were doing camp, that was in North Carolina? Yeah, mm-hmm. Boys camp, mountains. I mean, that sounds to New Englanders like us. I think North Carolina camp sounds rustic and outdoorsy. Was that what you were dealing with? Yeah, yeah, very much.

I mean, it was a pretty typical camp, I think, in most respects. My mom was the kind of, she knew the director and so she became the sort of Atlanta rep for the camp, which I think gave us a big discount to go there. And then she worked at, she was, she did like the nature program at the sister camp to the boys camp that we went to and my sister went to that camp. But when, so my brother and sister started going to camp at a pretty young age, I think they started around eight, but that meant that there was really no one to look after

me because dads in the eighties can't be trusted with a child. And so my mom sent me to sleepaway camp starting at six years old. And I think in her mind she was like, well, he's at the camp like right across the street from me, so it's safe, like I'm here. But in my mind it was like, oh, we're sending Ed to Antarctica and he's gonna be by himself. And I was horribly homesick for that. That's a little extreme, right?

Six years old. I mean, you have to be the littlest one in the cabin, don't you? Yeah, but this camp, I guess, I don't know, I remember other kids around my age. It was just kind of psycho. Do you remember, were there any kids who weren't homesick at six years old?

Were there kids who were just ready for the freedom at that age? Because I do, we have friends who send kids that young and it's all friends of ours who went to camp and love camp and are like creepy about camp even today. But camp creeps, that's what Josh calls them. But they send their kids at six and I'm like, what? But some of them I think take to it pretty quickly.

I think you're right. I think that certain kids are fine, but I've always been sort of plagued by a very fertile imagination, which has served me well professionally, but it also has, it really, as a kid, it allowed me to catastrophize and just be like, to scare myself a lot, whether it was watching

a scary movie or TV show or being alone at a sleepaway camp at six years old. Like, I just had a, I was in my head a lot and I think I wasn't the right kid for that. Yeah, I mean, there's a classic, I mean, camp thing of ghost stories by the campfire and I imagine those went down and with an imagination like yours,

it probably didn't do you any favors. Truly, and this wasn't until, this was a couple years. So when I turned eight, I was able to switch to the camp where my brother was, and that was like the full on sort of like really mountainy tough guy, like outdoor camp. And that's where I almost, I think I almost had a nervous breakdown because of a ghost story that this counselor told us.

And I couldn't sleep for like three days because it was one of those ones where it's like, if you stand in front of a mirror and say this like 10 times, then this ghost will appear in the mirror and tell you whether you're gonna live or die or something like that. And so I'm in bed and I just remember thinking like, I can't stop saying the phrase in my head. And so I'm surely my back is turned

to some mirror somewhere and I'm gonna wind up walking in front of that mirror with no idea that I, and the ghost is gonna appear, and I'm gonna die. And that's definitely gonna happen to me. Yeah. That's how my brain, I think, worked against me. I'm fascinated to find out. First of all, the best way to start a camp story

is to say, this, the story I'm about to find out. First of all, the best way to start a camp story is to say, this, the story I'm about to tell you happened here 20 years ago, right? That's like a good way, make it real and scary. Or it happened to me and I was like with my friend and he's the one who got hurt or he's the one. And this counselor was like fully like, like Hollywood level storyteller. And yeah, got in our heads. I just wonder if this day and age, like the heads of the camps, the counselors, like don't

like don't say a murder happened here. Like just on a legal level. Oh, by the way, there was a there was the story. It was like an ongoing story at our camp of the hatchet man, who would just come into cabins and hatchet people. And then to really drive it home, they would put hatchet marks in the trees. Oh, that's great. With like red paint. Love it.

And it was like, that is psycho. It should be enough to just leave home for six weeks. That's scary enough. Like, I don't know why there has to be an extra layer of, and there's just a slight chance of murder. Just a slight, doesn't happen every year, has happened enough for it to be a ghost story at the campfire.

I do think a lot of kids, a lot of kids do love that stuff. But there's like, there's a few of us for whom it is just traumatic. There's no upside. Yeah. And I don't know. I'm pretty, my kids are lucky because their grandfather,

my father-in-law, he just likes telling them stories of people who died in real life. Just a lot of like real life, just flipping through the paper. Extra fun if they've met that person so that they can actually have like a physical connection to a person who is now dead. I know that. I have a figure like that in my life and it's like the more gruesome, the more like detailed they will go in. Like if it's some kind of car, it's like, they're just as a, some, something they get out of like explaining gruesome

all things. It's weird. The weird thing is though, he doesn't do it with the tone of a ghost story. There's a real lightness to it. It's like, well, Bob fell off a bike and his head chopped off. Okay, you guys remember Bob. Anyway, should we go out?

And she's like, Jesus, Tom. Yeah, God, the kids are rattled. They're just like, it's crying. What are we gonna eat pizza? The children are sobbing. I'm sure, I mean, you and your brother must have crossed paths when you were at sleepaway camp, but I imagine you're in different cabins,

different age groups. Would you sort of acknowledge one another? Oh yeah. Yeah. He was, he kind of, he kind of looked out for me somewhat, but we were, had mostly pretty separate experiences. And, and I will say like,

I'm focusing on the traumatic aspects of it, but it was a phenomenal camp. I actually got so much out of it over the years. I think the camp director had this funny thing that was like, the one thing he would teach you, all the kids, he was always emphasizing, give a firm handshake and look him in the eye. And I always thought that was kind of weird, but it's like you had, if he ever came up

to you and greeted you, you had to give him a firm handshake and look him in the eye. And I've often thought about how that affected me very positively in terms of having more confident interactions with people. And also, I have since pondered it from just a camp marketing standpoint. If you're a dad and you send your son to a camp and that kid comes back and all of a sudden he's looking you in the eye and giving you a firm hand, you're like, wow, this camp nailed it. This camp is handshake. You're like, wow, this camp nailed it.

This camp is like really special. You're right, it's so smart. Cause it would stay with the parent. I would be so impressed. And then I would probably be a full three weeks later where you're like, oh, I think that's all they learned. I thought it was going to be more stuff. It might just be this handshake I think.

But I do think like anytime I encounter, you know, my friends with kids, a handshake, looking you in the eye with a good handshake will go so far. I don't anticipate we're gonna have a great conversation. Like, oh, me and my buddy's 11 year old really got into it. But if he looks me in the eye and says, hi, how are you?

Like, right away, you've won. Right away, you're better than most of them. Especially in the phone, in this era of screens, like nobody, like adults don't look each other in the eye very much. It's very, this is a very awkward time. I also, I highly recommend, I feel like I missed the boat with mine,

but I think there's some parents who very wisely teach their kids to talk like they're from the 50s. And so it's a lot of, it's a pleasure to see you again. And I'm like, fucking love it. I'm like, no, even by the way, I want to be like, I know your parents, they don't talk like that. They're teaching you, they're teaching you a bygone jargon. Didn't you use, use, didn't you call all your friends, parents,

Mr. And Mrs. So and so? Yeah. Or no, did you call them? Yeah, of course. And now that seems insane. friends, parents, mister and missus, so and so? Yeah. Or no? Did you call them? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, of course. And now that seems insane. Like if I asked my kid to call our,

like another adult in her life, like mister or missus, so and so, it seems crazy. Like even their teachers at schools are like going by like nicknames and stuff. It's like, but I don't know. That's why, that's why we're the greatest generation? Yeah. My kids called Josh. The tweeners. The tweeners are the greatest generation.

There was this weird two-year period and then everything in between. And they were the tweeners and they led us into glory. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support for Family Trips comes from LinkedIn ads. Hey, Bashi. Yeah, Sufi. I imagine as a B2B marketer, you know how noisy the ad space can be.

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You'll have direct access to and build relationships with decision makers, a billion members, 130 million decision makers, and 10 million C-level executives. I can't believe there's 130 million decision makers out there, Pushey, and no one lets me make any. Well, yeah, that's what your wife's for. Yeah, don't just throw out ads into the world willy-nilly. Get LinkedIn. Start converting

your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you a hundred dollar credit in your next campaign. Go to linkedin.com slash family trips to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com slash family trips. Terms and condition apply. LinkedIn. The place to be. To be. Support for family trips comes from Mando. Hey Pashi. Yeah Sufi. You know what's the most stressful part about a trip for me? What's that? Packing up. Oh, Pashi. Yeah, Sufi. You know what's the most stressful part about a trip for me? What's that? Packing up.

Oh, I'm a bad packer. I'm a bad packer. And you know what I always forget? What's that? Toiletries. You know? It's just I'm so focused on clothes, making sure I have the right gear.

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with our exclusive code that equates to over 40% off your starter pack. Use code TRIPS at shopmando.com. S-H-O-P-M-A-N-D-O.com. Here we go. When you took that trip out west, where were you guys lodging at night? Were you going to hotels? Did you do any camping? Great question.

We didn't camp at all, but we were, it was always like, Howard Johnson's was like a big win. We were always excited for Howard Johnson's because there was like, I think they usually had a diner and you could get pancakes. Pancakes. My mom was like a very big health nut. So sugar cereals and like sweet breakfast things like waffles and pancakes were rare. It was like maybe like once or twice a month on a weekend, you get waffles and pancakes. But at Howard Johnson's, it was like all like once or twice a month on a weekend, you get waffles and pancakes.

But at Howard Johnson's, it was like all bets are off. Or if you're having dinner, like you're getting an ice cream sundae. I don't even know, are Howard Johnson's still around? I haven't, I feel like I haven't seen them in a while. I feel like they might not be. I feel like they maybe are not. Yeah.

I feel like there's, you're saying that in a way that makes me think it's a little bit coded, like there's some dark story there. No, I feel like, I think, I'm always loathe to bring a SNL around Josh, but I think so. I remember somebody writing a sketch about the last Howard Johnson's closing when I was there.

Also impossible to Google. And just to our listeners, that's about all we can tell you. Wow, it sounds like there's some kind of sorted demise. But no, it was Howard Johnson's and Holiday Inn's and it was the whole family in one room. Right. Add on a cot? Right. All right. Ed on a cot? Susan, my sister got the cot.

Okay, I guess that's better. Yeah, so it would be my brother and I in one queen bed and my parents in another queen bed. And I remember, I just remember we used a lot of towels. Like showers and baths and all this stuff. Were you a game playing family? Would you have, like, would you busy or? Oh yeah.

Yeah. Monopoly was a family favorite and it was always fun because my dad, my dad was one of those people who has a hard time playing board games because of like, you know, we all, don't you have these friends that are like, they're just a little too competitive or like, they get mad too easily playing board games. Yeah.

And, and we, yeah, we would, we would take a lot of joy in infuriating my dad because whenever we would beat him, like when children beat adults at board games, it usually infuriates them. Monopoly was big. Boggle was big. We were a huge Boggle family. Boggle's a winner. Very big Boggle. Very big Boggle crew.

That was like the beach house. We would rent beach houses on Paulies Island in South Carolina, and that was always bog all time. What's a beach house vacation in South Carolina like? At the time, do you know Paulies Island? It's sort of near Hilton Head and all the, it's a, it used to be a very rustic kind of beach community. And it was the kind of place where the beach houses were all pretty far, like spread apart. And they were just like kind of like wind and sea battered, like slapping screen doors

and not a lot of insulation, all like rotted wood. But it just had this- It does sound very nice. I think it had a motto, something like elegantly shabby or something, or arrogantly shabby. So they owned it. So it was like self-aware. Hurricane Hugo, I remember, like decimated the island

and since then it got built up very extravagantly. So now it probably would have been out of my family's price range. But it used to just be this really gorgeous, rustic like beach getaway. And yeah, we would take my mom, my cousin, really gorgeous rustic beach getaway. And yeah, we would take, my mom, my cousins from Nashville would meet us there.

We'd have big family get togethers. Lots of my granddad had a- Would that be a week long trip? Yeah, yeah, probably a week. My granddad had a sunfish sailboat. Oh fun. And it was so, so fun. You, Seth's kids would be so much better on that than Seth.

Oh my gosh. Oh my God, yes. Yeah. Or any of us for his kids. We didn't know what we were doing. But my granddad would wear one of those like, you know, captain's like skipper hats to sail his sunfish. And it was the cutest thing.

I mean, I look at these pictures, I'm like, oh my God. Yeah. Would you ever get, cause on a sunfish you could do two people on those, couldn't you? Yeah. So would you ever go out with them? Two adults and a kid.

Oh yeah, yeah. Usually it was like, and my mom was pretty good at it and she would take us out. And my cousin, as we got older, we got pretty good at it and we loved that thing. There's an inlet or a creek behind Polly's Island that was better for boat activities. It was tidal, so there would be

a pretty wicked current going through this creek at the tidal changes, and you could tube from one end of the island to the other. Oh, fun. That was great. Crab pots, you drop them off the bridge with raw chicken in them and catch some crabs, boil them up for dinner. So it's technically correct to say you have

eaten a crab in your life that you caught. Oh yeah. Great. Yeah. We caught a lot of crabs back in the day, little blue crabs, sometimes big crabs. So this is based on bridge, I'm gonna guess, the driving to Island to get to Polly, you could drive? Oh yeah. Yeah. There's like a little causeway. It wasn't, I think it was really just separated from the mainland by like a big marsh. So yeah, you drive to Pauleys and it's just a barrier island right there. And then most houses would have a little pier. So there's just one road up and down the whole island for most of it. And then there would be houses on the beach side of that road, on stilts, kind of these, like I said, rustic, kind of windblown houses, torn screens, all of it.

And then, and the decoration, I remember the decoration would just be like an old, rotten fishing net hanging on the wall with like some, like some conch shells glued to it. And it was like, oh yeah, that's just totally sets the mood right there. On the creek side of the road, opposite your house would be like a little dock into the creek where people would have boats or whatever.

And they're in a good swimming spot. And then you could drop your crab pots off your dock. And do you think when a hurricane sees those big houses on stilts, they're like, mm, me likey. Like, just like, oh. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Magnets, magnets for chaos.

Yeah, they were like built on toothpicks, basically. If they're thrilling, as a kid, those houses are the most exciting things in the world. When you pull up to a house on stilts, you can't believe it. Yeah, and you park under it, and all the boogie boards and stuff are in some tattered little closet.

There's the outdoor shower. How many people were you all told once you count cousins and extended family on these trips? So my cousin's family had roughly the same profile as mine, three kids around like in the same ballpark age. And so, that was 10 of us. And then, oftentimes, my mom's third sister and her husband would come, so that's 12, and then my grandfather, so about 13 usually.

And sometimes one of us, like an older kid, would bring a friend. Like there's like some wild card. Like, oh, who's this? Like, we got some. And then of course the likes, I think, I forget who the biggest cheerleader for this was, I think it was my aunt always wanted to have

like the talent show or like the big show at the sort of end of the week where everyone, you had to like sing a song or do some skit or whatever. Yeah, and I always thought it was too corny, but. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I would think you would thrive on that. Yeah, I was guessing you were gonna say, and I was like, obviously one every year.

I don't know why I always thought I was like a little too cool for school for some of that stuff. When it was with my family, I was like, oh, come on, you dorks. I get that. Why we have to do this. I get that you actually, because you are a gifted performer,

you were kind of like, this isn't just for everybody. Well, no, it wasn't that. Because at the same time, I would be in the school play, like, he-ya-da-da-da-da-da-do. And then with the family, like, come on. I don't want to. You guys are just dorks. I know I get it.

You were like, look, that's my school job. I just want to be on vacation. Yeah. So would you not perform? Would you just sit back in the sand? No, I would. No, it was usually, this would be in the living room of the beach house. And I think everyone had to do something.

So maybe I would play my guitar or something. I was gonna ask like at what age are you, could you fiddle around with a guitar? Well, I got my first guitar at 13. So that was, but, and I have pictures of me playing it with my grandfather at Polys Island. So, it did make it there. But there was a lot of music.

My grandfather was very musical and he and my mom and her sisters played recorders. I mean, how 1940s is that? They would sit around and do these like recorder duets and trios and stuff and it would be, you know, like three blind mice in like three part recorder harmony or whatever. And they had these little recorder books. They would, they would sit and like looking back, it was very, it was very cute. Like, I wish I could see that.

It is very cute. I also picture like a 13 year old at Helm sort of standing in the wings with a guitar strapped on listening to Three and Five Blind Mice being like, I'm gonna fucking clean up. Yeah. They're gonna be so ready for what I'm bringing to the table. Oh yeah, yeah, come on.

Get off the stage losers. They want some teen stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna play some Neil Young. I like an organized talent show if you can actually get the kids to buy in. That's really fun as opposed to, kids saying we have a show. That's usually bad.

But if it comes from the top down, I think that does sound deeply cute. Right, so you discourage your children from putting shows on unless you have, unless you're the director. I don't know if this is the right or wrong way to do it, I just take them aside and I'm like, look, your daddy's really good at this

and you're gonna embarrass yourself. And maybe you took some from me. You could have taken some of these skills. I correct me if I'm wrong, but you founded the annual LA bluegrass situation festival, true story. Oh yeah. Yeah. True story.

Yeah. How many years, how many years ago did you found this festival? Well, it was, um, gosh, I guess it's been about 12 or 13 years, but- Fantastic. The first, yeah, the first one was 2010. So, but it's been a little like intermittent. There was a pandemic. Yeah, right.

Yeah. And then I remember you felt very strongly that COVID was make believe and that was the year you were like, everybody, we're going to do it. Yeah. And we put on, I spent, I spent a million dollars of my own money on this thing. And everyone just drank the COVID Kool-Aid and no banjos showed up.

Yeah. That was, it's still known as the banjo plague, right? In LA. Like how many people, how many lives were lost? That's to me. I keep trying to get that to catch on, but no one calls it that. But yeah, I didn't start playing banjo until, I think it was my junior year in high school,

so I was probably 16 or 17. And so yeah, that never made it into the family talent shows. And the talent shows were not frequent. I'm having one specific memory of one, but I don't feel like that was like a thing that we did all the time. But it is definitely something I know that my mom and her sisters loved that stuff. And they loved like writing goofy songs to sing for each other and for all of us. If you're going to be together with that much family for a week at sort of, you know, at a remote location,

it seems like you should do something to pull everyone together. And a show is a great idea. And like just having everyone get up, I think that's a great idea. It's also not just getting everybody to perform, it's getting everybody to pay attention to other people performing. Like that I think might be the more special moment to actually get everybody to quietly share

the moment of attention. Yeah. Do you guys have a special treat or food that was a thing that you got on vacations that you didn't get in normal life? Is there some... Because for us, like I said, my mom was a big health nut, so we didn't even really have cookies around the house very much, but nut or butter... It's not funny.

Uh-huh. Nut or butter cookies. Nutter Butters. Oh, funny. Nutter Butter Cookies. I have such a strong association with like going to Polly's Island or going to Gatlinburg or whatever and having Nutter Butters and just being so pumped for a goddamn Nutter Butter. Yeah. And it was doled out like two a day. Like it wasn't like, here's a box, have at it.

It was like, oh no. Yeah. Special occasion. And your mom is very, I would say, fad forward to be into health food based on when we grew up. I remember when the first health food store opened, our mom would go there, but it was, I feel like it wasn't quite,

like there was a lot of those giant like scoopers of like, yogurt balls, which were, when you look back are equally unhealthy, but there was- She was also drinking a bunch of Tab. Yeah, she was pro-Tab. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I miss Tab. Little pink cans, it's very charming.

You can still get them at Howard Johnson's. They still have a Tab machine get them at Howard Johnson's They just have brochures of people who died yeah, oh yeah my mom was also the one who would get the The the freshly ground peanut butter at the cricket like there was the A&P, the A&P at our, in our neighborhood had like a peanut butter grinder and you would just like dump scoops of peanuts into it and get these like little plastic cups of really chunky like, like peanut paste. Yeah. And it was supposed, and that was like my mom's,

that was supposed to be like as good as Jif or Skippy. And I was like, no, this is disgusting. It has no sugar in it at all. Like, are you kidding? It's just peanuts. Also, I felt like it would make a spoon bend. You know, whatever peanut butter has that makes it easy to scoop was not in that peanut butter.

Whatever chemical was added. It was just like, just cock itself alongside the walls of whatever container it was. Oh yeah. Yeah, people used it for spackle. A lot of houses on Polly's Island are held together by peanut paste. Yes. Ah Oh boy. These are fantastic stories and we're gonna let you go. First of all, I do wanna say, because it does kind of tie into the fact

that your dad liked historical reenactments. Your podcast, Snafu, like you are kind of now fully your dad. You're just doing a history podcast. You tried to run from it and you just ended up right where. I did. Yeah. Okay.

Full circle. That's right. Guilty as charged. Did you see it coming? Did you know? At what point were you like, I'm gonna be my dad? Yeah. I think I fought that reality right up until having kids.

Yeah. And I, it's funny. I think I thought that reality right up until having kids. Yeah. And I, it's funny, we were at the beach this weekend and I said to my wife, I had these like, you know, sort of Bermuda bathing suit that had like a floral print on it and I said, you know what, I think this is the first trip and I've print on it. And I said, you know what? I think this is the first trip and I've had them for years. And I said, I think this is the first trip where I'm now wearing

these floral bathing suit shorts, not ironically. Like they are now appropriate for who I am. Whereas before I thought they were kind of like funny. And like, hey, look at me wearing these sort of dad shorts. Now I'm wearing them because they're the right thing to wear. Yeah. And that's, that's a big change.

You've entered the Tommy Bahama zone. I'm not going to lie to you, they are, they're literally Tommy Bahama shorts that I was wearing ironically. I was wearing them ironically up until yesterday. When your age merges with irony, it's a real like, oh, it's we've reached the singularity. Yeah, it's a wake-up call. Do you remember when wearing like a sweater and a blazer

kind of made you feel like you were in like a cool New York movie from the 80s or something. And you were like, like as a kid, as like a 20 something in a sweater and a blazer, you're like, I'm, you know, I'm like in Annie Hall or something. Yeah. I'm Tony Robbins is literally what I was thinking. Yeah. And then, and then you get to a certain age where it's like, oh, no, no, no, no, that's now you just are a guy who should be in a blazer. Like that's, it's not, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nozer. And you're like, oh, is it a blazer restaurant? They're like, no, we just feel like you. It's true. The rest of the diners would like you to be in a blazer. Everyone feels uncomfortable with you not in a blazer. You are trying to look like a cool skater kid, clearly, and it's not working for you.

We don't like it. It's funny, I will say, I bet we know some of the same people, there's still some guys our age who are like really pulling it off. Like I said, I feel like I'm watching like the like, like just before the fall of the Roman Empire, but like skinny jeans, concert tees, like, like those tiny leather jackets where you're like, look at this guy. And I'm like, but you got to be in shape. You gotta be in good shape to pull that off. And I feel like I might just have crossed that threshold.

I'm fighting, I'm fighting to get back. And as soon as I get back to being in that shape, watch out, skinny jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm putting you on. All right, we have some questions for you before we let you go.

Josh is gonna open it up. Wait. These are for all our guests. Hold on. I have to jump in and cut you on. All right, we have some questions for you before we let you go. Josh is gonna open it up. Wait. These are for all our guests. Hold on. I have to jump in and cut you off, I'm sorry. But you brought up my podcast and then I immediately started joking about something else.

SNAFU, season two. But I really do wanna talk about it for just a second because it is my inner history nerd fully realized and I'm insanely proud of it. Season two just came out. It's all about these citizen activists in 1971 who broke into an FBI office and stole all the files and started leaking them to the Washington Post.

And it's what eventually took down J. Edgar Hoover and revealed Co-Intel Pro, which was like the FBI's official program to harass and completely go outside the law to surveil and harass law-abiding citizens. So it's fun. Now it sounds very serious and scary, but it's actually quite cheeky and fun at the same time.

And yeah, it's my version of going to historical reenactments as a kid and sharing that with the world. And it's way funnier than the lady who was like, here's how you churn butter. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the podcasts I listen to are history podcasts. I'm very excited about this one.

So, yeah. Oh, good. You are history podcasts. I'm very excited about this one. So, yeah. Oh, good. You will love it. I'm so glad. Yeah, I have every intention. I'm gonna tear through these. So yeah, so congrats with that. I also didn't know, I was just listening to

some of the season one and I never knew what Snafu stood for somehow. Seth, do you? Oh. Wow, I do know, but now I'm not gonna pull it up. I keep thinking foobar, which isn't snafu. Yeah. It's close. Nope, I don't got it.

Yeah, it's situation normal, all effed up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, or fucked up. Okay. Okay. I think the actual... For any of our listeners who are like a little like on the fence of what the F was. Thank you.

And again, this is the sort of information you get from Ed's podcast. He like really spells it out pretty good. Yeah, and a real quick snafu story. We, Mike Schur, a friend of all of ours, we were watching soccer with him. We were watching a World Cup once and there was a player named Caffoo. And Sher at this viewing party had brought a yellow and a red card to give to people

for party fouls. And Caffoo made a bad play and he said, that's a Caffoo Snafu. And then he instantly red carded himself. Yeah, and left the party. Good, good, good. Yeah. Yeah, that's, first of all, the whole red card, bringing red cards and yellow cards to party,

to a party is such a make sure move, but also something we should all start doing. Yeah. Shouldn't we just be giving out, I have another friend who has these cards that just say, they're like business cards and all they say is, please stop talking. And she'll give them to people in various situations,

like at a dinner party or, you know. All right guys, be honest, be honest, because I feel like I withheld something in this podcast. And I want you guys to be honest if it would have gotten me a red card, okay? Yeah. I was gonna say, Ed, you know, we actually now I'm already regretting it. Our mom, you know, she also used all those proof of purchases, you know, for those checks to get us these tickets. And then, you know, we got to the airport and it turns out they had been counterfeit cereal boxes.

And the way we found out is the checks bounced. Yeah. I mean, that's a yellow card. I still feel like I should have yellow carded myself on saying that you needed a checks up. Yeah. I felt like if I had done it right after your checks up joke, posh, Ed would have left the chat.

Yeah, that might warrant a please stop talking. I think so too. I think like both would have been fine. Please stop talking hard. But yeah. But I actually appreciate, I feel like the shaggy dogness of that joke. Yeah.

Like just the sheer duration of it and the bit that it took to get to that. I'll waste your time. When my punchline doesn't pay off. I'll waste your time. When my punchline doesn't pay off, I will waste your time. Like truly, that's what I respect about it. That's what's kind of bringing me back around to like, you know what, high five.

The checks bounced. Terrible pun, but great, great setup. Yeah, I mean, but organic. Long runaway. Organic to the story. Yeah, it was a real. Yeah, and you're right. And topical, exactly. Yeah, it was, but organic. Long, long way. Organic to the story. Yeah, it was a really, it was- Yeah, and you're right. And topical, exactly.

Yeah, it was a long story to get there. Maybe it was just to catch us up, but it fell. It was topical, it was organic, it checks all the boxes. Oh. All right, get out. Yeah, red card. John, you gotta take over here. I'm gonna take my half of it.

All right, speed round, here we go. Ed, you can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational? Wow, this has been an evolution for me. It used to be adventurous. It is now, I think it became relaxing as I got older. And now that I have kids, it's educational again.

Just like your father. Yeah. Yeah. What is your favorite means of transportation? Train, plane, automobile, boat, bike, walking, et cetera. Hmm. Ooh, I love a long flight. Unless it's like the full family and I gotta like keep everyone entertained.

We all knew what you meant. But like, everyone entertained. We all knew what you meant. But like, but if I, I know what you meant. If I'm on, it's precisely because I have a family that I love a long flight to where I can just put on headphones and watch movies for six hours. I want to, my dream vacation is go to Australia

just to take a flight home. My wife and I have joked about that. Like how heavenly would that be? Just like get on a Qantas and go and come back and just hang out and have like champagne. And meals, yeah. They'll bring you meals. I do love a boat though.

I will say I love a boat. I have got some kind of nautical thing. If you could take a vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family, what family would you like to take a vacation with? Hmm. Boy. I mean, what are some fictional families? I don't know. I'm blanking. Real families. fictional families? I don't know I'm

blanking real families I Mean I have some dear friends who we love that I love going on and and I won't name them Because they're not in the public eye, but we love taking family trips together Okay, so you'll just say as a placeholder we'll say the Manson family. What's it cool? I think like going, can I say like it would be, I think it'd be really fun to go on like a vacation with a band. And here's the part that's gonna be really lame. Like I want to vacation with a band. And here's the part that's gonna be really lame.

Like I wanna go with a bluegrass band. That's all I wanna go. And there's a cruise that's like all bluegrass bands and it's supposed to be amazing for people like me. And I haven't been on it yet, but maybe I should. I feel like this is my East Coast bias stereotyping, but I do, in my head, most bluegrass bands are a family. Yes, that's fair.

I feel like family is in the title of most. Yeah, the Carter family is my answer to that. Or Johnny Cash. Who is your favorite bluegrass band other than the Lonesome Trio, which is your bluegrass band? Thank you for my little band plug there. That's a tough one, but I really love Del McCrory and his family.

It's actually he plays with his two sons. Okay, great. Robin, Ronnie McCrory. They're one of my favorites that are still sort of on the circuit. But going back in time, I'd probably throw out Jimmy Martin is probably one of my favorites. Yeah. Okay. Good to know.

Yeah. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be? Wow. That's gonna get me in trouble. With one member of my family? Wait, my immediate family? Could be, you could extend it.

Some relation. And marriage is considered related. Okay. My father-in-law, he's hilarious, and I think it would be a lot of fun. Yeah. And he's incredibly resourceful. So we would like... Yeah, I've got one of those.

We'd like survive, I think. Yeah. Great. You're from Atlanta. Would you recommend Atlanta as a vacation destination? I would, yeah. Since I grew up there and then I moved away to go to college and seek my fortune elsewhere, but I've since been back for extended periods for work because so many movies get made in Atlanta.

And I love it. There's so much cool stuff going on in Atlanta. It's just got so much character. There's so much cool stuff going on in Atlanta. It's just got so much character. It's so diverse. It's so interesting. And you can find anything and everything. Great. It's a great town.

And then we kind of know the answers, but Seth has our final questions, but take it away, Seth. Have you been to the Grand Canyon? Yes. And a couple of times. Is it worth it? Oh, a hundred percent, yeah. Wait, are you kidding me?

Have you ever been? Seth's not interested. I've been to the rim. I'm very interested in doing it a lot more and really getting in there, but Seth thinks overrated and some of our guests over the time we've been doing this also think not interesting. I'd rather an old man in a pilgrim costume teach me how a sewing machine works.

Well, that's a very anachronistic joke because obviously they didn't have sewing machines, but I will say this. I will say this. So presumably a reenactor would not be teaching about sewing machines, but anyway. But it's really, wouldn't it, can I just jump in with a really good idea? Yeah. It's a reenactment theme park, but none of it's right. And so you tell your kids, I know you think this is gonna be boring, but none of it's right.

Yes, no, but that would be fun for 20-year-olds who like sketch comedy and nobody else. If it's a pirate thing, like, ah, this be a Commodore 64. Yeah, I love that. All right, I'm back on board with the sewing machine pilgrim. But wait, what was I saying? Oh, so on that Western family trip I was talking about,

we did go to the Grand Canyon when I was a kid and I have great memories. My mom read us the book Bridey of the Grand Canyon on the long drives, which is a great book about a donkey that was like a pack donkey in the canyon. There's actually a statue of Bridey at the Grand Canyon by the way. Then I also went about, gosh, like 12 years ago,

I took my whole family and my wife's family on an epic eight-day rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, and that was truly life-changing. So Seth, get your head out of your ass and get get on a raft, and get down that canyon. Yeah. All right, well, that's as good of a sales pitch as we've had. Although I do, I am a little unsure about this sewing machine thing.

I mean, they did wear clothes. Um, and thank you so much. Everybody check out Snafu, Ed's podcast in season two. So you got a full season to listen to and then a new season available. Get into it. Thanks guys. ["In Tennessee"]

In Tennessee, a kiosk at a holiday inn with so much to see made Ed's head spin. He didn't know where to begin. Maybe zip line or alpine slide Or people who would reenact history They headed out west, a two week trip was the purpose. It was all thanks to Chex. And their proof of purchase. The Snake River scenic route. Jacked guide so rough and tough. Young Ed was super cute.

Asking questions till Dad said enough. This river was wild. Do you ever canoe on it? But of this raft, do babies ever chew on it? Three was in a forger, a Smithy and Roanoke And found that one interesting, it was a lost colony you