Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - LISTENER EPISODE: Sibling Stories

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Seth and Josh are back with another listener episode! From travel stories on planes, in cars, and all the way to the Grand Canyon, this episode is packed with hilarious family trips! Plus, we hear from a special guest at the Grand Canyon Conservancy. NissanGo find your next big adventure, and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at NissanUSA.com FidelityLearn about the planning effect at fidelity.com/planning effect SquarespaceGo to Squarespace.com/TRIPS to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain Eight SleepImprove the way you sleep by using my link at eightsleep.com/trips for $200 off plus free shipping on their high tech Pod 3 Cover  

This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan. Nissan SUVs have the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. Learn more at NissanUSA.com Brothers, family trips with the Myers Brothers. Here we go. Hi, Pashi. Hi, Sufi. This is very exciting. This is our siblings episode.

Yeah, because that's what we are. We're siblings. I have a question for you. I think a lot of people would say they're friends with both of us. A lot of people would say, oh, I'm friends with the Myers brothers, right? Yeah. Now, a lot of that has to do with the fact that we went to college together, and then we worked together in Amsterdam,

and then we've met a lot of people together as a duo over the years. Yeah. Who's the best set of siblings we're friends with? Oh. Right? I think it's rarer than we think that people get to be friends with both siblings. Yeah. I mean, we're definitely like, we're friendly with lots of siblings, but the best friends that we have that are siblings. Right. For example, we're great friends with Egbert and Holtz. We also really like his brother,ny right we haven't spent a ton of time with johnny but yeah i saw him recently watching a football game and it was

fantastic um yeah i guess what i'm saying is well i've stumped you here yeah i mean i was gonna say maybe the macarthur's scotty and hayes but you don don't know Scotty as well as I do. Yeah. Again, another guy I love. Wonderful actor, Scotty MacArthur. What I'm saying is, I think it's rare, and I just want the people who are friends with both of us to know how lucky they are. Because I think it's very double-barreled good times to be friends with brothers. Because I think it's very double-barreled good times to be friends with brothers. Yeah, I think there's also, you know, there's a bit of a plug-and-play aspect to us.

Like, if you get just one of us, it's sort of like having the other. Yeah. And so if someone's a better friend of you, and then I have an occasion to, like an afternoon with them or something or be at a dinner, there will be something in that that resonates for that friend of yours. It'll be like hanging out with you to a degree. It'll be like hanging out with you, but different. I think you're being very kind.

Here's what I actually think. Anybody who met me first would rather hang out with you. Everything about you is more, there's more activities that are all of a sudden open to you. Oh yeah, that's true. You bring assets to an event. You're the sort of guy who, I made seven mixes

for the different parts of the weekend and I brought a wireless speaker that I will carry everywhere we go. You golf, you ski. I mean, if a bunch of dudes were going to the Grand Canyon, I don't need to tell you which one of us would be a better plus one. And ultimately what I provide, I just feel like is the most easily replicable, whereas you bring

a uniqueness. So for example, you see, and again, they're now our college friends, but I met him first. You see him way more than I do. Yeah, because there'll be like golf trips or there'll be things. You even went to see Fish in concert with my college friends. And guess who I don't like? Fish. Yeah. That's your Grand Canyon.

I needed to confirm it. I needed to confirm it, but confirmed. I wonder how many of our listeners right now are going to be taken aback. Because I feel as though your profile does sort of line up with Phish. I don't think people would be shocked if you liked him. Right? No. I mean, I wasn't going to be shocked if I liked him.

I wanted to go see what all the hubbub was about. And oof. All hub, no bub, right? Yeah. And look, to the people that love them yeah amazing have at it and they do uh they do and they love it and they enjoy it and it's like yeah i want i want people to enjoy things in their life um i just don't have to when people find a community and it brings them joy, I am not looking down my nose at that. Again, I'm not mad people are at the Grand Canyon right now. I'm just happy I'm not one of them. Right. One more quick story about your college friends who

were in a fantasy football league with... It's your group originally, but now I'm sort of, I'm embedded. Now it's your group and they just keep me around because it'd be awkward. There was a year we were on Cape Cod, whoever wins hosts. And one of the guys, his parents had a house on Cape Cod. So we kicked his parents out for the long weekend and we went there for our sort of draft weekend. And I was out on this little sailboat, this little like sunfish sailboat. There was no wind. So we were just sort of tacking back and forth. And our buddy Dave Baggeror was on an opposite boat and we were just sort of drifting next to each other. And he was like, hey, Posh, how'd you get so nice?

how'd you get so nice? And I think it was meant in contrast to you because it was like, we really had a moment of like, there was nothing to do, but just sort of be out there and reflect and sort of lazily chat on these boats that weren't going anywhere. And it's like, hey, I got a question. Son of a gun.

It's such a fair question. Also, he couldn't have asked me that if he and I were floating on boats next to each other because all I would have been saying is, we got to get the fuck off these boats, dude. You're just a nicer person to spend time with. That's all I can say about it. You know, I feel as though maybe a lot of listeners would have thought, based on the things Josh likes, I'm surprised he doesn't like fish.

You know what mine is? What's that? Lord of the Rings is my fish to you. That you don't like it. Yeah. Yeah, but I feel like people would be able to call that. I don't know. I feel because I like comic book-y, sci-fi type stuff.

Yeah. Love Game of Thrones. You know what I mean? So I do feel like people are often a little surprised when when I don't like Lord of the Rings but are you mean about like are people like oh there's this great Lord of the Rings thing and you're like I hate Lord of the Rings like Tolkien sucks I do like to make jokes about how long it is yeah yeah but ultimately I don't begrudge anybody their joy if they enjoy watching hobbits journey by foot they got those big old feet big old feet and

day long walks i think the first one of those movies ends with them like basically the the end line is well about halfway there i feel like that's my memory of it and by the way i've only seen it the one time. So I apologize. People might want me to watch it more. And I do remember it was the only movie going experience where a movie end and I went, oh. So there you go. Oh, I have another thing. Yeah. Since it's a sibling episode.

Yeah. And it fits in very well with the last one. Ash. Your son. Yeah. Is friends with brothers. Ooh. And these boys are only a. Yeah, is friends with brothers. Ooh. And these boys are only a year apart, which I think helps.

But their family, Dane and Beck's family, took Ash skiing for the weekend. So it was the first time one of our kids left for the whole weekend. Pretty good for a seven-year-old. Very proud of him. Did you, like, call him every day? Or did you just look? He did not really want to talk to us. We checked in with the mom. Great.

Good for him. Yeah, he was not needy at all. Yeah. He'd done a night with them before, but this was a whole weekend. And based on the thousand yard stare of Dana Beck's wonderful mom. When I picked up Ash, I do feel like the one night went better than the full weekend,

but he's like family to them and he gets to hang out with brothers. But I'll tell you this, what a joyous weekend. And we love Ash very much. Having Ash out of the house for a weekend was just a dream come true. I think anyone out there with three or more kids, even two, subtracting one does not make the others worse at all.

It really, it was, I feel like our other kids went from standard to high definition with the removal of Ash. Do you see bits of Axel and Addie's personality come out that you don't otherwise see

when Ash isn't around? There's just space for things to happen that would not happen with the extra chaos. Axel and Addie had a tea party on the floor of the kitchen, and that just never would have happened with two boys. Also, they just become a little bit less, masculine's not the word,

but maybe just bouncing off the walls. Addie's energy brought them down. It was very sweet to watch them have their tea party. And then Ash came home Sunday night, and within five minutes of him coming home, Axel was screaming in a way that he had not screamed the whole weekend. And I just went over to Ash and I said, he hasn't made that noise for three days, so it's you.

He wasn't screaming with joy that Ash was back? No. You've known Axel. He's got a real shriek in him. Yeah. I was thinking recently, I was thinking how fun it would be to take just one of your kids if I was in New York to go get lunch or go get a...

Oh, the dream. Yeah. I haven't done that. I feel like I've gone for a walk with Ash, but I don't know that Axl and I have had one-on-one time and just how interesting that would be. It's sort of like when you sit around and everyone puts their phones down, eventually a conversation will happen. And when you're walking around or spending time with like a five-year-old kid,

also with Axel, a conversation is going to happen no matter what. Because the kid talks a mile a minute. And I just think it would be fascinating to get him uninterrupted. Got to do it. When you come and visit, you got to do it. Yeah, well, I'm coming. I'm coming in a couple of weeks. Permission to take him on a luncheon.

Great. This is very exciting. We asked people for some sibling stories. We are going to play them for you. And then we're going to have the joy of reacting to them. This is the first time that Josh and I have heard him. So let's tee him up and listen to some of your stories. So before I play some of the stories, I actually have a sibling story that I wanted to share with you guys really quick.

Oh, great. Oh, my God. This is our producer. Sam is going to share a sibling story. So I have a brother that's two years younger than me. We're really close. And I just wanted to share this story because I think it's so crazy how we got to our destination. So in 2015, I had met a girl that was from Switzerland. She was in the US on a year-long student visa. We became really good

friends. And after she went back home, she said, oh, you guys should come visit me and stay with me. I'll drive you all around Switzerland. I'll give you like the home tour. You should come visit. So we said, okay. So me and my brother and my boyfriend at the time, he had worked for the sister airline to United Airlines, which was SkyWest. So he could put people on his standby fly list. So we thought, okay, I don't know if we can go all the way to Switzerland on standby, but maybe we could get halfway. Well, we ended up going the whole way to Switzerland standby. But first we flew from LAX to the Philadelphia airport on just economy standby. And then I don't know what overcame us, but we got to the Philly airport and we thought,

let's try our luck and let's see if we can fly first class standby all the way to Switzerland because when else are we going to get that opportunity? So we ended up getting on. I will say my brother, he was lower on the standby list. So at one point, me, my boyfriend at the time, we got cleared for first class standby and he's just sitting there waiting, wondering if he's going to be called or not. But he did end up getting called and we flew both ways, mind you, to Zurich, Switzerland, stayed there for about 10 days and came back, got first class standby. And guess how much it costs? All we had to pay were the taxes. It's like 250 bucks, right?

Yeah, less than that. I'm guessing less, yeah. I'm guessing 100 a person. Yeah, 125 a person. Wow. Total. And then that wrecked me for life because, you know, when else are you just going to get to fly first class everywhere?

It was the best. Also, SkyWest didn't have a carrier that went from Philly to Zurich. Was it Swiss Air? No, I think so. SkyWest, I think we took from LAX to Philadelphia. And then it was, I think it was United. I don't really remember exactly. I think they went international, but I don't know.

It's a long time ago now. But that's the best. Also then, you land in Switzerland. Yes, yes. One of the greatest places on Earth you land in Switzerland. Yes. Yes. One of the greatest places on earth. Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful lakes. I mean, we went to this lake where we are in the center of the lake and it's so deep

and you can still see the bottom. It was incredible. Wow. And also my friend's uncle owned a bed and breakfast in the Swiss Alps. I mean, it was the trip of a lifetime. I like that every part of this trip trip, it was the most beautiful thing. We spent $7 to stay in a hotel. Also, then my boyfriend's cousin invented fondue. Never had to pay for it. Yeah. It was a pretty amazing trip for being a broke college student. And I mean, we wouldn't have gotten to do that trip if it weren't for the standby and

also just having a friend that lived in Switzerland. So we had, was it United as well that our cousin worked for? So Josh visited me when I was living in Amsterdam. Same thing. He would, though, have to fly standby. And how many mornings in a row did you go to the airport and then come straight back? Like four or five. Yeah. Yeah. Until we eventually just had to buy a day of ticket to get me home. Okay. So this brings me to actually the last part of my story,

which was coming home. We did get from Zurich back to Philadelphia. But getting from Philadelphia to LAX, it wasn't looking so great for the standby list. So what ended up happening was me and the boyfriend, we got called and we were sort of just in the waiting area to board. And there was something going on on the plane. I'm not sure what the holdup was at that point. But the person calling the names out told my brother, it's not looking so good. So he's like, all right, you guys can go ahead. At least you can get on a flight and I'll see what I can get. But then they're kind of, they're not really letting people board because there's some sort of commotion.

Turns out someone is drunk on the plane and they're getting escorted off. And then they say to my brother, it's your lucky day. You can go on. And so he was the last person to get on the plane because they had to escort a drunk person off. Oh my God. I can't believe you almost met our mom. You know, this, it was a woman and she was throwing some attitude. So one year I was flying home for Christmas and I got to the airport and unbeknownst to me, mom had upgraded me to business class just as like a Christmas gift. And I was tired and like,

I didn't want to drink, but it was, it's like free booze up there. And because mom had done it, I felt like it was incumbent upon me to have a couple cocktails. And I remember I did, and I watched that Dennis Quaid movie, The Rookie, about like the old baseball player, and cried my eyes out. Of course. Yeah. That sounds like, I mean, I might cry just hearing you say you watched it on a plane. Yeah. Well, I think it's time to get to the reason we're here, the listener stories. Thanks for letting me share that. Oh, my God.

Of course. But I'm really excited. We have some great stories. So I'm going to queue up the first one for you guys. Hello. My name is Gonzalo. I'm from Santiago de Chile. So international fan here.

Really love the show. So my traveling story is I was around 15, 16 years old, and we went with our family to Buenos Aires, Argentina. So next door from Chile. The whole family went. So my parents and my three older sisters. Anyway, we rented a small French car, Citroën. I don't believe you got those in America, but it was a small four-door hatch called Saks with an A, not with an E. It's not that French. And one day with one of my sisters, we went to buy some groceries, and we were driving in the middle lane of the Three Lanes Avenue

when all of a sudden a wheel cap of our car, because it was a cheap car, fell off and rolled to the sidewalk. We were just in a red light, so I quickly got off and went to grab the wheel cap and run back to the car because the light was turning green. Then I tried to open the door and it was locked. So I couldn't believe my sister was teasing me in the middle of an avenue in a foreign country. So I got really angry and started repeatedly trying to open the door while I knocked on the window saying, come on, come on, open up.

Ábreme, ábreme. In this point of the story, you must know I'm a car guy. I can recognize them easily. So when I looked up and see, in fact, that the car in front of us was the Citroën that with my sister driving it, I realized I'm not trying to open the right car. So I leaned to look in the window of the car as I was trying to get in and see the most scared woman I have seen in my life yelling and shaking with a face like, please don't rob me. Oh, my goodness. That's really good.

Yeah, that's amazing. That was really good, Gonzalo. Thank you for sharing that story. Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. And also we're aware of French cars, Gonzalo, because our first car was a Renault Le Car. Renault Le Cars were famous for making Citroëns look like Ferraris.

Yeah, we bought it for $200. But yeah, I can just imagine jumping out of a car and going to grab a hubcap and trying to do everything so fast that yeah, you could get that wrong. I want to know, because as much as I have friends who love pranks, I don't know anyone that would lock me out of a car

while I ran to get one of the hubcaps. I wonder if Gonzalo's sister is the sort of person who would do that more often than not. Yeah, I feel like if anyone is going to do that to someone, a sibling is top of the list in terms of the family feud answers. Yeah, that's true. What kind of person would lock you out of a car? Josh, of our college friends in our group i want you to think of which one of them would lock you out of a car yep got it at a red light do you have it yeah okay so we're gonna say it together one two three

their name one two three jake yeah 100 jake yeah that was a fabulous story yeah thank you Gonzalo the thing about our Le Car couple of details if we haven't talked about it vanity license plate was Le Seth it was a real piece of garbage I kind of can't believe mom dad let us drive it on the highway to school every day

I remember it had a rag top that you would have to sort of fold up like laundry to make it close. Yeah. And there was one time we drove it down a hill and instead of using the brakes, we just opened the top and used it like a sail

to make the car stop. But I loved it very much. Oh, and it also didn't, the gas meter was broken so you never knew how much gas was in the tank and i ran out of gas on the highway maybe 10 times in high school yeah it also i feel like it had a gas tank that held like four gallons or something right dad always said write down exactly how many gallons are in it when you fill it up and then you'll know. And I never did that. And yeah, I probably should have. All right, let's hear our next one. About 10 years ago, my sister and I flew to Miami for a distant relative's funeral.

We spent a couple of days hanging out with family and taking in the sun. Fast forward to us leaving, we're at Miami International and my sister gets flagged to have her bag checked. In her bag was her sacred teddy bear that she never traveled without. Somehow, Teddy didn't make it back into the bag, and we didn't realize until we were sitting in our seats. My sister is in hysterics, asking the flight attendants if she can run back and get it, but they are apologetically saying no. I'm trying to console her, and this continued for about five to 10 minutes. Shortly after we are still at the gate and we start to hear the entire plane cheering and applauding. The pilot comes to our seat with Teddy in hand. We realized that the delay of us taking off was due to the pilot running off the

plane, going back to security, retrieving Teddy, and running back. But what's most important of all of this story is that at this time, my sister was 25 years old. Now, the thing I want to know most of all is, did the pilot know that before he got to her seat with the teddy bear? Oh, yeah. Because I bet someone said we lost a teddy bear and the pilot, like a pilot in an airline commercial. That's the last time you would see a pilot make that sort of sacrifice.

Yeah. So he takes off running. Certainly he's not doing this for a 25 year old who has an irrational connection to a stuffed animal. Yeah. No, of course not. I can't think that. Also, like why?

I wonder why Teddy got taken out in the first place. Just like just in the casual search of a bag. They were like, it was Miami International Airport. And according to a study I read, 55% of stuffed animals that leave that airport are filled with cocaine. At a different airport, you're not going to check a teddy bear. But they're basically stuffed drug mules. Did you ever lose Popsicle?

Popsicle, I remember Albert chewed Popsicle's eye off, but I never lost Popsicle, no. Okay, Popsicle was Seth's treasured teddy bear. Yeah. His neck was squished because of how hard you'd hold him under your arm. Still around, I think, right? I think so. I think Popsicle has some relic status in the house.

Those old teddy bears. We had some people over for the Super Bowll and our friend's two-year-old daughter came over. We don't have a lot of toys around the house. And so Mackenzie, my fiance, went and got her bear for this little girl to play with. And it is like, it's like missing an eye and it's beat up. And, but it's clearly like treasured. And we like, we put it on the couch. It was under a blanket. And the following day from work, Mackenzie called me. And she was like, hey, can you move that bear?

Because Woody, our dog, if he gets it, he's going to rip it to pieces. And it'll be a bad news situation. Also, you famously had a flight with our good friend Liz Kikowski. Glad you brought it up. Liz Kikowski, an incredibly talented comedian and writer, also worked at Boom Chicago with us in Amsterdam, and was a writer at SNL when I was on SNL. And we were flying back from Amsterdam,

and she travels with a teddy bear that they couldn't take out of her bag because she brings it on the plane. So she has her teddy bear. And I don't know this. We board the plane and we are in coach, but we're in different sections. So I say to my seatmate, guy sits next to me, and just to speed it up, I say, And just to speed it up, I say, hey, my girlfriend's in 21B. Let's say I'm in 31B or his seat's 31B.

I'm like, do you mind just going up and switching with her? Dude's super cool. Definitely recognizes me. I've been on SNL for about four or five years. So he's thinking, I'm going to go see Seth Meyers' girlfriend, right? Walks up. There's our adult friend, older than 25 at the time, just to let our listener's sister off the hook. And she comes back holding the teddy bear and looks at me.

She's like, hi. I'm so mad. I was like, Liz, now that guy's going to walk around the rest of his life saying Seth Meyers was dating some feeble-minded woman. Schneider. I think her dog, her bear's name is Schneider. I'm pretty sure. I think you're right.

In my head, she also had already put on a headgear, but I don't think that's true. But that's how young she looked. She got to her seat, took out Schneider, put on a headgear and footie pajamas. And some dude went. Your boyfriend wants to sit with you for some reason. All right, let's hear our next one. Hi, my name is Laura, and I'm from another Core 4 family. And wanted to share this incredible adventure I went on with my brother, Grant.

We're from a family of cyclists and love the Tour de France. So when in France in July, we went to a stage of the tour, specifically a mountain stage. And this was on the Tour Malay, one of the highest peaks on the tour. We were both in grad school and needed to get there on the cheap. First, we took a plane, then a train, and then a bus to a village at the base of the mountain. The next morning, we walked 20 kilometers up, 12.4 miles, to the summit carrying foam corn hats so our parents could identify us on TV back in Iowa. About 100 meters from the top, we cheered the leader on, who looked mystified by our strange hats,

but our mom's plan worked and they saw us back home. After the cyclist and caravan were through, we hitchhiked down the mountain, eventually walking because of the traffic caused by the tour. We then were able to catch a ride in the Tour de France caravan, hitchhiking. And this was all, of course, on Bastille Day, making it even more epic. Thank you so much for the podcast. That's really good.

Were they foam corn hats? It does sound like they were foam corn hats. Is that how you heard it, Sam? Yeah, yeah. Foam corn hats so that they can be seen on TV. Yeah. It's really great because I feel like there are two ways to go to France as an American tourist. One is to try to hide at all costs that you are an American.

And the other is to bring matching giant foam corn hats. It's one or the other. Although I imagine people, it's a pretty rowdy scene around the Tour de France. When you go to those little villages, people get pretty hyped up. It's not exactly the Phoenix Open, but people go for it.

Is that something you'd like to do, is stand on this side of the road in France while bikes go by? Yeah, I would enjoy it. You would have a lovely day in a village in France. Is that something you'd like to do, is stand on the side of the road in France while bikes go by? Yeah, I would enjoy it. You would have a lovely day in a village in France. Yeah, there you go. And for a little bit, you'd go out and you'd see some bikes flying by. And you'd be like, whoa, cool. And then you could go into a cafe and you walk around.

You're in this little mountain village. That appeals to me. I do remember there was a Tour de France where there was a pileup of like 50 bikes because they all got distracted by something on the side. Yeah. They were like, attendez le maize. Wait, how did you say? I think maize is corn, right?

I think you just said, wait for the corn. Maybe look out for the corn. Maybe that's what happened. The leader assumed there was going to be corn. Yeah. And so he threw on his brakes and said, attendez le maire. Voilà. There was a pileup.

When Alexi and I were hiking in Europe, not the Tour Mont Blanc year. Where did we go the other year without you guys? The Dolomites. We were in the Dolomites. We were hiking and we had to cross the road and there was a bike race. And they were coming downhill and they go so fast. Yeah. It's crazy to me how fast they go.

I've never seen it in person, but it just, it has to be nuts. Because I know how fast I can go while I'm biking downhill. And at some point I get scared. And if you're in a race, you're with people who will not get scared or they don't care. They're just like, I'm going to trust my skills. Here's how fast it was.

Oh my gosh. For those of you just listening and not seeing Seth, he made a very fast gesture. I just, I mean, I zoomed my hand across the zoom screen yeah yeah i mean could you imagine but now picture that my hand but it's a bike it's a thousand bikes when you had to cross the street that the bikes were coming down how do you pick your

moment because i imagine there's got to be terror in it. I will say, I feel like the bike race that we were having to cross was a big group. They were all sort of close together. So we had to wait for about 10 minutes. And then they opened up traffic for everybody. Yeah. We were at a crossing. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah.

You got to let that Peloton's got the right of way. Yeah. Pardonnez-moi. That was what I said. In Los Angeles, I don't know if they still do these. They used to do these critical mass rides where everyone would get together like Friday night at 5.30, you meet at some place. And then you'd ride, do like a huge, like 20 mile ride around the city. And there would be a police escort.

So police would block the intersections. But it's the only time I've ridden in a Peloton. And it's like, it's very exciting. It's also like a little dangerous. Yeah. But it's cool. That's fun. That's great.

No interest. Obviously, I think anybody listening would know I have no interest in any of this. Yeah, that clocks. Yeah, yeah. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by Nissan.

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That's if they answered the phone. Yeah, that's true. So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Now go find your next big adventure and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Support for Family Trips comes from Fidelity. We've all got old things lying around. Listen,

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as you do. Learn more about a 401k rollover at fidelity.com slash rollover. Consider all your options and the applicable fees and features of each before moving your retirement assets. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC. Member NYSE SIPC. Hey, Seth and Josh, this is Elena. I love the podcast. It's so much fun to listen to. So my story has siblings and the Grand Canyon in it. When I was 11 or 12, something possessed my not very outdoorsy family to decide to combine with some family friends who are also kind of extended cousins to hike the Grand Canyon. I think my older brother was the inspiration. I think he'd done it the summer before with his Boy Scout troop. So the plan was the two dads would take six kids, ages 15 to nine-ish, four boys, two girls, and hike from the North Rim to the South Rim while the

moms took the youngest kids and dropped us off, then drove around to pick us up. This seems insane now and super ambitious for a family that never really camped or hiked to do this multi-day hike where you have to carry your own shelter and food and pack everything out. But we did it. your own shelter and food and pack everything out. But we did it. I know we did eat those ready to eat meals. And I'm sure Beef Stroganoff was involved. But I think we did it for like seven miles a day and slept twice in the canyon. So where the siblings get involved is you hike in the first day, it's beautiful, gorgeous, crazy rock formation. It is very impressive. But as the day gets on and you get more tired, my older brother was acting like the king of the Grand Canyon, like that he knew everything about

it and was just getting more and more irritating, pointing things out. And also I was on the younger end of the group. So there was a lot of just general sibling harassment going on. But I think things were pretty good until the end of the day, everybody's worn out. And my brother just keeps saying, oh yeah, I recognize this. Yeah, it's just around the next bend. The campground's just around the next bend. And we go around the next bend, not there. Oh, okay. I know where we are now. It's just around the next bend. And they kept saying it was just around the next one for maybe 50 bends so we keep going and at one point they finally they point out a sign it says campground and it says they look it's just

three more miles and i lost it i tore off my backpack i threw it on the ground i laid in the path and i'm like that's it i'm done i'm. I'm not moving. Get a helicopter, get a mule, or let me die in this canyon. And then pretty soon everybody starts laughing and laughing and they point out that the sign doesn't say three miles, it says 0.3 miles. So eventually I'm able to get up. I do think my dad made my brother carry my backpack for all the mental torture he'd put us throughout at that point. And we got to the campground and really the next memory I have is climbing

out of the South rim. There's all these switchbacks. It's hot. You're dodging donkey poop. At one point we sat down to take a break, get some water. And right next to us comes this huge bighorn sheep. So impressive and beautiful.

So I guess I recommend the Grand Canyon if you can schedule a bighorn sheep. So thanks, guys. Great show. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to Google, Elena, I'm going to Google a picture of a bighorn sheep and feel pretty good about it. I know with some firsthand experience, the pressure that's on, I mean, you can't be acting like a know-it-all, but the pressure on the person who everyone has determined like, hey, how far until the thing is pretty great. And you just naturally... The pressure is great. It feels awful.

Yes. And so you want to keep spirits high and you want to keep people optimistic and happy. So I understand the inclination to be like, yeah, we're almost there. We're almost there. But like, it's as far away as it is. And yeah, that's tough. But I love the laying down and the trail. That's the right move. Yeah. The closest I had to that was when the four of us,

you, me, Mackenzie, and Alexi went to Iceland. I don't think we've told this story about when we went to the hot spring. Because it was December, freezing cold. And we had hiked up to this hot spring in iceland and you lay your clothes out and you basically in your bathing suit jump into this hot spring and then it's the warmest it's so great yeah but it's not worth it because the whole time i know that we got to get out dry off and get dressed as fast as possible because it's so cold. Yeah, you do. There's a little buffer of when the heat from the water still has you warm.

It's like, yes, it's colder going from your clothes to the water than it is from the water to your clothes. But then you do have to get dressed. And I am fabulouslyulously famously a bad dresser so we got out and i just stuff went wrong i made some bad choices about the order to do things and i also my extremities turn white i that's one of the reasons i hate skiing the tips of my fingers just they turn white i bad circulation and so my hands were so cold i couldn't get my gloves on and i remember saying with genuine sincerity just leave me here i remember looking at alexia and said just leave me here to die i was in so much pain i forget if you were bent over or like squatting like a catcher, but I remember you very specifically saying,

leave me here. Yeah. Yeah. And Alexi, not the last time she had to put gloves on me like a child in a ski slope parking lot, but she did save me. Yeah.

Well, I mean, if you're going to tell that part of the story, I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't tell the getting in me. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're going to tell that part of the story, I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't tell the getting in story. Because if you're a bad dresser, I was a bad undresser that day. Because you want to lay your clothes out and you want them not to get snowy. So you're trying to put clothes on snow where they won't be completely snowy when you have to put them back on.

And we're hiking. We have a guide who's taken us up here and you guys are all already in the water and I'm trying to get out. And I've got like, I want to say a couple layers of long underwear and I got socks and I'm trying to get out of my clothes and my foot gets caught in my long underwear that's like sort of upended. And at this point, I'm completely naked in my midsection and we haven't seen anyone else. And then a group of like 12 people rocks up and I'm just trying to get my clothes off and get in the water as fast as I can. And I'm just like flopping around. Not super chill about it, if memory serves. Not super chill about it.

No, I was, yeah, because my foot was stuck. And man, those poor people that just wanted to go see the beauty of Iceland and this geologic wonderland got to see me full naked. I will also say we all wore swimsuits. Our guide didn't. And I'm going to leave it up to the producers of the podcast if they want to leave this in or not.

His penis looked weird. Not good or bad or anything. It just was maybe one of the more uniqueness I've ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You. Yeah. You remember his name? No.

I feel like once I saw what he was rocking, everything that radiated out from his genitals was sort of a blur. Do you remember his name? No. No.

Do you remember those dumb horses we rode? Oh, yeah. That was bad. That was a bad scene. I'm sure you could go on great rides. In Iceland, we went on the worst ride. They were like weird, dumb ponies.

Is that what they call them? Dumb ponies? They're Icelandic ponies. They're beautiful. They're nice and furry. But we were just on a road. We just rode down a road and back. Yeah yeah it's the most beautiful country in the world and they were basically like you want to see one of our roads and my fiance was with us and she's an equestrian like

that she rides and uh the guide there was this couple who was with us in this group, this Asian couple, and the guide was deaf racist against Asians. And Mackenzie had to sort of take over and be like, here, the Asian woman, let me switch horses with you because this horse isn't doing anything that you want it to do. And basically had to take over and lead the group. I will say the one thing I liked about the dumb ponies was i remember when they trotted i lexi laughed really hard when they went a little bit faster because they were so dumb and their legs were so short and it was they have a unique they have a unique gate uh unique to only icelandic ponies yeah it's called the gum gate wait what was it called it's called a tolt is it really yeah

you remembered a tolt but you didn't remember our guide's name yeah well i i mean with being with a horse girl you sort of latch on to some things but a tolt is very smooth you should be able to like there's a great video on youtube of someone holding a glass of champagne and it's like you just move straight forward. That was what was super funny about it is their legs are going crazy, but you're very steady. Yes. That was what was fun about the Tolt. Also, if you're wondering, Tolt is spelled with like five J's.

T-R-O-T. The way you think you're going to say it. All right. Well, there's some Icelandic horse facts. And now we have a very special guest we are going to get to. But first, some of you sent in some questions. We're always happy to answer them. And now Sam is going to read them to us.

Okay. The first question is from Sarah. And she wants to know, as brothers, did you ever talk the other brother into something they should not be doing? This wasn't a dangerous thing. Do you remember you won $50 on a scratch-off? Yeah, I remember. Josh won $50 on a scratch-off. Our uncle owned a liquor store,

and we used to work for him and then get paid in scratchers yeah and you won 50 dollars and i basically convinced you to give me 20 yeah the premise being that if you had all 50 mom and dad would love me less i thought it was that it had you won you would do the same for me i don't really i don't i mean i know that not to be true but i don't know what i was slinging i don't know what i was slinging that day what other commit i mean i you know i feel like so you are a very people could see this as a good or bad quality you're pretty rigid i think you're very hard to convince to do things yeah but i'm also i would say i'm more

adventurous so the stuff that you might be like hey do this i'd be like okay man like that's not right i think if my friends came over we could convince you to maybe do a unwise bike jump but i don't remember one yeah nothing's popping out to me. I will say the other thing, this is not convincing. There was a 10 year period where I took a bite of every sandwich you ever had. Oh, you have sandwich tax. Yeah, there was a,

somehow I just decided as a big brother, I had a sandwich tax that I could levy at any time. Yeah. Like prima nocta, but for sandwiches. Look it up. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. We are supported by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online.

Stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything, your products, content you create, and even your time. Posh, you love a website. I love websites. I'm always on them. I'm always looking at websites. And maybe you want to make a website of your own. Yeah, but I'm not good at that. I'm not technologically inclined.

No, Posh. I know you're dumb when it comes to tech. And I would have told you a year ago, just give up. You're never going to have your own website. But then I heard about Squarespace. And thanks to Squarespace, they're going to do the hard part. You're just going to punch in some information. They're going to help you sell custom merch. They're going to help you stand out in any inbox with Squarespace email campaigns. You can collect email subscribers and convert them into

loyal customers. They're going to help you host video content. You love putting together some good video content. Maybe record yourself singing one of your songs in your closet and then they can see what that looks like. That's a good idea. How about an asset library? What if you took all those songs and you put them online for people to hear? They can help you access all your content from one place. You'll be able to manage all your files from one central hub and use them across the Squarespace platforms. You know what I think I'm going to do? What? I think I'm going to go to squarespace.com for a free trial. And when I'm ready to launch, I'm going to head to squarespace.com slash trips to save 10% off my first purchase of a website or a domain. That's squarespace.com slash trips

to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Family Trips is supported by 8sleep. At this point, I'm sure you've heard of 8sleep. Their buzzworthy mattress cover called The Pod can be added to your existing mattress to automatically cool down or warm up each side of your bed and in turn improve your sleep quality dramatically. Hey, Pashi. Yes, Sufi. This isn't just a gift to yourself.

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using my link at eight sleep.com slash trips for $200 off plus free shipping. On their high-tech pod 3 cover, that's 8sleep.com slash trips for a better, smarter sleep. Let's hear our next one. Okay, this next question is from Catherine. I've been loving hearing you and your parents talk about your life. It makes us feel like we're a part of the family, which is really cool. But I was wondering if your lovely wife and fiance would ever join the pod. I would love to hear their perspectives.

I think the best way to have Alexia on the pod would be to have her dad on the pod first and let Tom tell stories about the family trips he took with his family, and then let my mother-in-law and his two daughters come on and just do a whole podcast about how he was wrong. Yeah, correct the record. Setting the record straight. Yeah. My father-in-law, at our wedding, gave a toast,

and immediately my wife started yelling corrections from our table. I can't, to this day, he said, I'll never forget the time we went to Madrid, and she screamed, we've never gone to Madrid. That's everything you need to know about them. I don't know. I will say, I don't think Alexi would want to be on a podcast. So I do want our listeners to know I would like it, but I'm not sure if she would like it that much. Yeah, I feel like Mackenzie might want to come on to correct the record in some places as well.

Okay. But yeah, I don't know. I'd have to ask her. I mean, look, the more the merrier. I will say my wife acquitted herself very well in the Strike Force 5 podcast, but that was only, she texted in a lot of very

funny things. So maybe she's got a little bit of that podcast Jones now. Yeah. When we did the episode with our parents in Pittsburgh, I feel like that kind of setup would be good. If we were all in the same room, I think that would be helpful. We, on our show, Thanksgiving show, one year we did the newlywed game. Yeah, I hosted. You hosted. And so this was our Thanksgiving show, and it was me and Alexi, Tom and Joanne, my in-laws, and then our parents were the three couples.

And a lot of fun. Josh did a great job hosting. Everybody loved it. But then Alexi, who, again, is not a performer, was very nervous about being on TV. I thought she was very funny. She then made the mistake of reading YouTube comments the next morning. Yeah. Shouldn't have done it. Nope. And a lot of them said she was mean. Now, she was being mean to be funny, and she was very funny. But I remember her spinning out a little bit on the comments

and at one point saying, someone wrote, Seth's wife hates him, and he doesn't know. And my response was, I know. And that's why I think she doesn't want to do the podcast. Yeah, those comments, those comments are trouble. I've said before, like, I don't, you know, we don't read comments. Every now and again, I'll flip through them. And I do, but I take some joy in ones from people that don't like me.

Where are you reading comments? I feel like I've seen things. Like, something happened recently where Mackenzie's comments i feel like i've seen things like something happened recently where mckenzie's mother had like posted something on instagram oh yeah when she was uh in the audience of your show sitting next to mckenzie when we announced the engagement and someone on instagram or facebook like had like a mean comment she was was like, who is this person? I was like, it doesn't matter who they are. They're just some random person. You know, they're just a troll.

And then I started like looking up some negative comments for myself to be like, look, see, like people, there are plenty of people who hate me. Yeah. Or have mean things to say about me, but you can't take them to heart. My favorite mean thing recently that was also a lovely compliment about Alexi is someone wrote, Seth's, because I had shown a picture of her on the show, Seth's wife is hot. So that's nice, right? Yeah.

And then they ruined it with one word. Do you know what the one word was? No. Seth's wife is hot. Why? So there you go. I was like, well, that's really, I feel like that's an assassin who only had one bullet

and made sure to put it right in the brain. That's well played. That's very well played. Okay. Our last question is from Heather. Have you ever pretended to be the other brother? No. Yeah.

Also, no. Sometimes I get recognized as Seth and then I say, I'm his brother. And then they say, no, you're not. And I'm like, you just thought I was him. I've been on a walk near your neighborhood when I stay with you. And sometimes a person will say hi to me, and I will think my memory has failed me. So I'll pretend to know them until something clicks. memory has failed me so i'll pretend to know them until something clicks and then i realize they think i'm you which puts me in an awkward situation because if i say oh i'm seth they would

then be well within their rights to say who did you think i was right because i've been pretending to know that so i think those times i maybe just let it slide yeah hope and hope nothing comes up where they've given me an important piece of information that i then feel like i have to pass on to you i will say you i feel like you pretended to be the guy i pretended to be on my fake id in college yeah so there was a person we never met that had been here i mean i think though by the time it got to you, that dude was probably 30 years old. It was an actual old driver's license.

Yeah, it was a bad fake ID, but it worked. It worked enough. They just wanted to be able to tell the cops they looked at it when they came in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish I could remember the name on that ID. Yeah, so never, I never. Oh, wait, this is something though i was doing

a show in edinburgh called pickups and hiccups so this is the show that got me hired for snl and i was doing it with my partner jill benjamin and we were doing a run at the edinburgh fringe festival a month-long run 30 shows and i had been hired by SNL earlier that summer. So I knew when Edinburgh was over, I was going to move to New York City for SNL. And then I got a call that they wanted the first day to be August 20th. I think I had a week left of shows. And we didn't want to cancel the shows. And Josh had seen it a bunch of times.

And you just stepped in. And we never announced that the role of Seth Meyers will be played by Josh Meyers. Yeah. And there were people that saw that show multiple times because it was sort of, it had a framework, but it was improvised and people would be like, you seem like, you just seem like a bit taller, a bit like bouncier or something. And I was like, oh yeah, here we go. Back to the beginning of this podcast. You seem more fun. You seem like an upgrade. What happened? And you also, yeah, you were up for an award and we didn't want to take you out of contention

for the Perrier Award. It really would have been something if you won a Perrier, but I had been there for the victory. Also, I showed up at SNL. There wasn't shit going on. I definitely could have finished my run. Yeah.

It was really fun because I would finish a show and then I wouldn't be able to do the curtain call and then I would run up these cobblestone streets and get right into your show and jump on stage. I was doing two shows in Edinburgh at the time, two two-person shows. I was doing one with Jill Benjamin and I was doing one with Brendan Hunt,

who is Coach Beard on Ted Lasso and a dear friend of ours. And our friend Andrew Moskos stepped in for me in that show, which is called Ironic Yanks. And the takeaway here is that I am as replaceable performer as you'll ever find. You couldn't replace Brendan and you couldn't replace jill that's true it is that's true they when i i said i had to leave they're like but what are we gonna oh wait i know all right you guys we promised you a special guest and it's as special as we could possibly have on really is this podcast her name is laisneros, and she works for, I hope I'm saying this right,

the big old canyon. The Grand Canyon Conservancy. She works for the Grand Canyon Conservancy, and she's going to make her case. Do you think she's going to sway me, Posh? I don't know. You're pretty rock solid against, but I don't know.

You're not one of those persuadable voters, it seems to me. That's true. I do not consider myself undecided on it, but she's very charming. She's very smart. And we hope you enjoy this conversation. Ah, hello. Hello. How's it going? Welcome from Grand Canyon. Thank you. It's beautiful. Is that what it looks like? You've got a wonderful backdrop. There you go.

Grand Canyon at night. That's the Milky Way galaxy, I'm guessing. That's the Milky Way. Popping off. Yeah. Oh, my God. I feel like you guys have known each other forever. I have no connection.

Forgot to tell you. This is Lauren Cisneros. Am I saying that right Lauren wow yeah you're like the first person ever to do that right Lauren could you just tell everybody here your actual job title absolutely I'm the marketing coordinator for Grand Canyon Conservancy all right basically it's a fancy way of saying I run all the social media for Grand Canyon Conservancy gotcha and so are you hip Lauren to how Josh and I have divergent opinions about your beautiful canyon? I love it. I think it's awesome. And I'm here to settle this debate.

Yeah, I love it. I love that too, because I know you're on my team, or I'm on your team, more appropriately, I think. Well, I want to ask, obviously, about the Grand Canyon, and your incredibly biased views about it. But real quick, Lauren, how did you get this job? Well, that's a great question. So actually, I only started going to the Grand Canyon in 2021. A lot of people I know, they went to different national parks as a kid or they went on different road trips with their family, right? For me, I never had that growing up. And so I actually met my partner who told me he was a park ranger. And I said, what is that? You can have a career in being a park ranger? That sounds awesome. Like wear the flat hat, you know, go to the National Parks Gift Programming, talk to

different visitors from all across the country, all over the world. And so I did that in 2021 with my partner. I just applied and we both got hired to the North Rim of Grand Canyon, which is the more remote place. And quite literally, when I first got there, I thought there was just a green screen in front of me. And I didn't believe it was real. I mean, I was like, pinch me, pinch me, and this is not real. And it was unbelievable. And I just started working there. I had no experience to any national parks before. And I just started working as a park ranger. And then two years later, fast forward, Grand Canyon Conservancy said they were hiring for a marketing coordinator,

which again, this is running social media and just being fun online and being that digital ranger. And so now I do that. And I work remotely in the winters. I'm actually in Avon, Colorado in the wintertime because I also teach skiing out in Vail. Oh man, you got the life. And in the summer I'm at Grand Canyon. Soail. Oh, man, you got the life. And in the summer, I'm at Grand Canyon.

So, yeah. Wow, I am jealous. It's a good balance. My takeaway, and for all our listeners as well, if you ever see a park ranger, know that they probably have almost no experience and just decided one day to do it. Yes.

There's actually, yeah, that's so true. I mean, there's a park ranger on the North Rim. He's been doing this for 50 years. But when he got his start, he also had no experience, but he stuck with it that long, and that's how much he loves it. Yeah. We actually decorated a flat hat and made a decommissioned one, don't worry. And we made it gold and wrote 50 on it and gave it to him at a party

to celebrate his 50th season at a national park. It's pretty awesome. That's fantastic. So North rim, when you work in the North rim, what is your commute to the North rim every day when you were a ranger? Because I would imagine you'd want to be like at least 10 feet away from it.

Well, so funny you say that to the North rim. First of all, it's, it's three hours away from the town called St. George, Utah, which is the closest town. That's the closest Costco. That's how I determine the closest city is. Where is the closest Costco, you know? Yeah.

And then I stock up on groceries and a little freezer. I actually live in a camper on the North Rim and I live right next to the helipad. So when we have medical events or any kind of, any special VIP that comes to the park, you know, there's been presidential visits. There's been like, the superintendent will fly over sometimes. There'll be special folks that just come over and check it out. But the helipad is, is about 40 feet away from the edge of the Canyon. And so I would say I'm, I'm about a hundred feet away from the Canyon,

but I get the best sunsets. So we always say we're paid in sunsets. And there's no fear that 40 feet away from the edge is like, that's an erosion situation. Like we're not going to put, they're putting a helicopter down. You're pretty confident you've got some. I'm pretty confident. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's millions of years of erosion. Yeah, but it has been eroding. If there's no erosion, there's no canyon. That's right. As you were saying VIPs land there, I was about to ask if podcast hosts get that treatment.

But 40 feet is no good for me. 40 feet is not starting. You're going to have to talk to the superintendent, Ed Keeble, about that. See if we can make the magic happen. I'm going to write that down. Who's the last president who's come by there are you allowed to say yeah president biden was just on the south rim on the north room i don't actually know the answer to that one but the south room was president

biden presidents always want they want more people around they want more credit so they're gonna go south rim got a big posse the more hardcore sort of outdoorsy types would be North Rimmers, correct? That's right. I'm here to give street cred to the North Rim, right? So the North Rim is better, but don't tell anybody, okay? Right, yeah. The North Rim, it's better in a lot of ways, and I'll tell you why. So the North Rim, it is that more romanticized view of a national park.

So you have less people to bother you, less screaming children, if that's an issue for you, less families around. But also at the same time, you have nature all around you. It's quiet. It's not as busy. You have the beautiful night sky that you can take in all on your own. There's one lodge that you can stay at. You have no choice. The Grand Canyon Lodge. Well, the South Rim, you do have more amenities. So it's kind of pick your poison. So I always tell folks, you know, it's nice to visit both sides because the North Rim, you get that romanticized view, less busy, I think better views. And then the South Rim, you have your choice, right? So you

can go to Desert View, which is this beautiful watchtower on the other side of the park. And then you could go to the other side where you can visit Cold Studio, for example, if you're really into history and you want to learn about the Cold Brothers who were amazing photographers at Grand Canyon. So, and then there's all the history in between talking about indigenous history and the 11 tribal communities

that call Grand Canyon home. And there's just so much history to understand and learn as well too. So it's kind of, you pick your poison and there's something for everybody, which is what I love about it. How big is the Grand Canyon L canyon lodge is that what you said the name grand canyon lodge it's on the north rim how many rooms are are in a place that's three hours

from a costco so it's not actually a hotel per se it's more of uh there's cabins so you pick your cabin kind of thing and you actually have to book it six months in advance. So hurry up and you got to book that. Yeah. Well, the Phantom Ranch is at the bottom of the canyon, correct? Correct. Yes. That's even harder to get into. Yeah, I know. Like, I want to say three Christmases ago, my fiance was like, Hey, I want to take you to the Phantom Ranch. And I was like, great, like you have have to enter a lottery and you have to be awake on like the first of the month. And we've never been. Yeah, it's, I mean, the nice thing though is that you can get on their website

and you can look for cancellations and it's in live time. So you can find that. The other cool thing too is at Grand Canyon Conservancy, we have a program called the Field Institute. So Field Institute, we have different programming. So including backpacking trips, hiking trips, day trips, you name it, even river trips.

And one of the ones we just ran was actually going down to Phantom Ranch, staying down there, pretty awesome experience there. Yeah, I bet. How do you get down to Phantom Ranch? How do you get there? You got to hike? Yeah. Or you can take a mule. You can take a mule. Yeah. You can take a mule with a concessionaire that goes only from the South Rim side, though.

The North Rim side does have the mule rides, but only goes down to an area called Supai Tunnel, which is about three miles down into the canyon. And then you turn around and you go back up. Or you can get there by river trip. That's the other way to do it. Oh, yeah. No hiking can get there by river trip. That's the other way to do it. No hiking involved there unless you want to. And it's called Phantom Ranch because most people who try to get there have died and are now ghosts? No, not at all. Not at all. But bring a rolling suitcase. It sounds like this is a rolling suitcase situation.

You would be surprised at the amount of people who have actually taken rolling suitcases down into the canyon, like start at the top of the trail, right? And like they go down the North Kaibab, the South Kaibab Trail, the Brangel Trail, whatever. And they actually try to go down into the canyon. Park rangers have actually stopped people and said, where are you going? Oh, I'm just trying to get to the Altavar. And it's like, oh no, that's on the rim and you have a wheeling suitcase and you got to go up 3000 vertical feet. You got to turn around. Just how long does the hike take to get to Phantom Ranch? Oh, it depends on the person. We always recommend at least a day, you know, spend the night, take your time. The biggest thing with the program we also fund called Preventive Search and Rescue

is the slogan there you might've heard is down is optional, up is mandatory. So, you know, you really have to plan your time as you go down. It could be really hot, could be really cold. There could be snow. There could be no snow. There could be rain. There could be storms. You name it. All kinds of conditions exist at Grand Canyon.

And the North Rim and South Rim are also different. The North Rim is actually 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim. So about 8,100 feet on the North Rim, 7,100 feet on the South Rim. And when you get to Phantom Ranch, the elevation is about 2,000 feet. So if you think about it, it's a lot of elevation change to get out of the canyon and to go down. And the biggest thing that people get in trouble for is that they go to hike down in the canyon. They feel awesome. They feel great. Oh, this is great. You know, no problems here. Right. And they get to Phantom Ranch down there. They look at the Colorado River. It's absolutely beautiful. And their legs are shot because of all the downhill and all the steps that they've had to go down.

So and then they have to turn around the next day or whatever their itinerary is. And then they have to hike out. What percentage of people do you think are using hiking sticks when they're going down the canyon? A lot of people, actually. I don't know the exact percentage. Smart people. a lot of people actually i don't know the exact smart people smart people are but the amount of people i've seen take a um you know six ounce water bottle down to the canyon and think it's going to be fine yeah uh that happens every day i've seen crocs in the canyon i've seen i've seen i've seen women in heels i've seen everything you can imagine i've been to a few national parks and it's amazing when you get on a trail and like, it's always near the biggest parking lot in the park.

It's like the most popular trail or whatever. And you see people walking and you're like, you're so poorly equipped and like these little slides, like I'm wearing my shower shoes. And it's like, come on. People think it's a casual, you know, walk in the park and it's not, it's serious business. And that's why we have, that's why we have so many volunteers in our preventive search and rescue program we also have park rangers too that have been hired federally because of that as well and the amount of contacts that they make per year is astounding i mean thousands of contacts every year meaning you're wearing your loafers

on the trail right and it's like hey man you gotta you gotta put on some real shoes okay if you're going down to phantom ranch we gotta talk about this so yeah do you feel and i uh i appreciate that you might have your eyes open to this even more because you do social media can you always clock oh this is a person who is here to take instagram photos not a person who is oh yeah i can i can see the influencers um that's also a big problem too though though, is that the selfie sticks, for example, people take out the selfie sticks, they get on an edge or on the rim and it can be pretty serious.

It can be fatal. And it's really unfortunate that people go to that length to take a video. But there are people out there as well that are just on the trail and they're taking video non-stop and it's it's really entertaining i would like to just say real quick to those people i'm never going to want to watch your video of you hiking in the grand canyon and i don't think any of your

friends want to watch it either that's right that's right. Speaking of someone who this was actually not being irresponsible, but Wyatt Kaufman, we've talked about him on the podcast. This is the kid who fell and happily is recovered. But this was a real ordeal and really speaks to the amount of training and expertise that the staff of the Grand Canyon has. Were you around that day? I was. I was there. So tell us a little bit about how you found out about it and then just the process. I can imagine it was a real all-hands-on-deck situation. Yeah, so there was over 30 people involved with this search and rescue. Just a year prior to this, there was a man who fell 200 feet and

did pass away. I was also on that as well as the first on scene. It's quite traumatic when you get the call out, because I'm also part of the search and rescue team on the North Rim. When you basically have a radio, you get a page out and the page out says, you know, individual, you know, seven, approximately 70 feet over the edge, you know, and you just hear this, right? And your heart drops, sinks to your stomach, you hear child involved, whatever it is, right? And it's scary. But the biggest thing you do as a first responder is you immediately respond, right? And you have to check in with yourself. Unfortunately, a lot of first responders, they don't check in with themselves and they just go because they just want to get out there and help.

So anyway, I did get out there. This boy, unfortunately, he's over the edge. He's conscious. He is breathing, which is astounding. Usually people do not survive something like this. This boy fell approximately 70 to 100 feet over the edge at Bright Angel Point, right near Bright Angel Point. A lot of the media said that he was on the trail, which he was, in fact, that he was not. He was actually off the trail.

At the end of Bright Angel Point, there's a rock on the side that's very enticing for people to climb up on. And so he did that, and that's where he fell off. Where Bright Angel Point actually is, there's a railing around it. It'd be pretty hard to fall off of that point. And then the man that passed away last year that was in a fatality, he was off trail as well to the side of Brangel Point, pretty close to where this boy fell. But there's a handful of people that do fall off every single year. It's not common, but it does take a lot of resources. It takes a huge team. It's a lot of trauma involved. Unfortunately, it's hard on the

first responders. There's law enforcement involved. There's volunteers involved like myself. There's, you know, EMTs, paramedics, park rangers, you know, everyone that has a radio basically comes up and helps. And there's actually training that that's done every single year. Actually, a week or two prior to this incident, there was actually search and rescue training that was done on the North Rim that I took photos of. And they did a mock scenario in a very similar location, actually, where they had someone go over the edge. You know, this is very controlled environment. They use different devices. They have lots of ropes involved. There's this device called a vortex device, which basically helps repel someone down and then helps bring them up.

There's a lot of equipment involved as well. But accidental falls, I would say overall at Grand Canyon, they're pretty rare, but it does happen. And the North Rim is more remote, like I said. So the North Rim, it's all hands on deck. So a little different from the South Rim when they have slightly more resources. The North Rim has a bit less because it is that much more remote. And so with Wyatt, how long did it take from his fall to actually getting him out and to the hospital? Time is such a hard thing when you're on a call like that and you're in this trauma response,

right? And you're just trying to get things done. I don't know the exact timeframe, but I know that we did it as quickly as we could. My role in it was I was staying back. I was the person running back and forth, grabbing gear from the ambulance, bringing it to the folks that were over the edge, back and forth, grabbing gear from the ambulance, bringing it to the folks that were over the edge, responding to him. And then I also was the lead for the carryout. So basically the way it works, just to kind of paint the picture. So there's a call, right? So dispatch 911, you call dispatch, that page out comes out, responders get ready, they hear what's going on, they determine how much rope they need, what resources they need, and they organize accordingly. Everyone gets on scene, everyone's assigned a role based they organize accordingly. Everyone gets on scene.

Everyone's assigned a role based on experience and what's going on. Then there's a person who's called a hasty responder. They go over the edge. They respond. They get onto the patient, get them stabilized. Typically, it's a paramedics. They get medication on board and all that. And then from that point, it's making sure he's stable, making sure everything is okay, and then getting him out of there. They initially wanted to use a helicopter to, Duisvang called a short haul out, but where this boy was, it wasn't feasible. So we had to pull him out via ropes, got him to the rim. Then we set up basically a litter. So imagine kind of like a stretcher with a bike wheel, actually, like a mountain bike wheel in the middle, and then a litter team. So everyone is around the litter, and we hike him out of Bright Angel Point.

From Bright Angel Point, we get to the Grand Canyon Lodge area, put him into the ambulance, and then from the ambulance to the helicopter that was waiting, a life flight. There's several contractors that Grand Canyon works with there, and then from there to a plane and then from that plane to an ICU, I mean, it's a quite a big process and it's incredible that he survived. It was a miracle that day. We just applaud the efforts of you and everyone involved. It is, it, I cannot believe, uh, how many people have to, uh, have to join up, uh, to make something like that, have a happy ending like it did.

Isn't there something to be said for the fact that you, the people that should go to the Grand Canyon are the people who should enjoy it the most? You don't want a guy like me clogging up your trails with my snarky comments. Yes, we do. But this has been really wonderful, Lauren. Thank you so much for sharing your story. And you have made a really good case. Like all story. And you have made a really good case. All jokes aside, you've made a really good case. Well, just remember

the Grand Canyon Conservancy Field Institute creates custom programming. So if you say, I want to just be at a bougie hotel, stay on the south side, what up? Hang out there. Nowhere inside the canyon. I just want to see these cool views and check out

a park ranger program they can do that all right i mean that's that's the nicest i mean i'm assuming josh if that happens you'll be elsewhere yeah no i'm gonna be i'm gonna be on uh the most primitive campground i can find in the park below the rim we can help you with that too. You're going to go down to, what was the one at the bottom called? Ghost Cemetery? What's it called? Thank you so much to Lauren Cisneros. What a delight talking to you. Thank you, Lauren.

You as well. Thank you. We'll see you soon at Grand Canyon. You bet. Hope so. Gonzalo was in Argentina In a Citroen Saks Ran out to retrieve a runaway hubcap Door was locked when he got back He started yelling at his sister

Saying get this door ajar That's when he looked ahead and noticed He was banging on the wrong car Today we're talking about siblings How they make us so mad But we can't help but to love them

Cause we've got the same mom and dad Yeah, we've got the same mom and dad Next listener went to a funeral For someone who clearly died Pilot had to get a sister's teddy bear back on the way home. Sister was 25. Later, Anna Bro went to the Tour de France. Wanted to be seen by their family back at home.

Iowa style gave them the best chance. With giant corn hats made of foam. Today we're talking about siblings. Embarrass embarrassing at times but they can also be buddies, genetic partners in crime. I later went to

the Grand Canyon and the bro said the campground was close saw a sign that said three more miles and was positively gross light up the campfire meyers brothers we have a woman on the line who works for the Grand Canyon, and she'd like the opportunity to make the case for this American treasure,

and maybe, with a little luck, even get Seth to change his tune. Gosh, I don't know. Seth's such a naysayer. He's a curmudgeon. He's stubborn as a mule. She's the marketing director for the Grand Canyon, so this isn't her first rodeo. If anyone's gonna get through to him, it's her. He feels like a long shot, but can't hurt to try. So I say, let's do it. We talked to Lawrence's narrows from the Grand Canyon Conservancy. Said some things that

didn't sound so good to Sue, but they sounded pretty good to me. Got into parts where she and her partner met. Said the North Rim's as good as it gets. Views of the Milky Way gets paid in sunsets. Ooh, sounds pretty sweet. You could stay in a fancy cabin. Or a ranch that's made for ghosts. Or camp in a lovely campground. Whatever you like the most.

Okay, this ain't about siblings, but what was I to do? Gotta give some props to Lauren, cause one day she might rescue you.