Hello Internet - H.I. #113: Thelma & Louise

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

Grey and Brady take a Southern road trip. Sponsors: Squarespace: head to squarespace.com/hello for a free trial and when you’re ready to launch, use the offer code HELLO to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain Fracture: photos printed in vivid color directly on glass - get a special discount off your first order at fractureme.com/hi and don't forget to pick Hello Internet in their one question survey Listeners like YOU on Patreon Show Notes: Discuss this episode on the reddit Deep South Brain Stem 2012 Random Acts of Intelligence 2014 ThinkerCon 2018 Saturn VI

Don't let me distract you. Yeah, no, you're not distracting at all. We are in parking space 35 at Alabama Airport in a car about to start our road trip from Alabama to Tennessee. Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge. This is the first time I've ever been in a car with grey driving. And then later on, when and if we have the courage to do a swap,

it will be the first time I've ever driven a car sitting on the left-hand side of the car and driving on the right-hand side of the road. And you will be in the car for this moment. I'm not going to lie. I'm a little nervous about that. I'm going to wait until we find a very empty section of road to get started with you. All right.

This is going to be an interesting first Hello Internet road trip. How are you feeling about the car? Are you happy with what we got and, you know, all that? Set the scene for us. Yeah, we're in a nice SUV since I'm not the best of drivers and Brady is in a foreign land. We're nicely protected and armoured. And I'm feeling comfortable right now,

but it's probably because we haven't started moving yet. It is a Sunday afternoon, which I think works to our advantage, and we are in kind of a quiet part of the south, so I'm hoping all will be all right. We'll also talk later on about what we've been doing in the South and what's going on. There will be hot drops. There's already been a hot drop. There has.

Parking space 35. I put a little hot stopper in the sign. But I'm sure that'll be gone by the time anyone hears this. It never hurts to check, though. You never know. I'm looking forward to the hot drops, too. I wonder if we'll do a few or yeah no we've got to be like a johnny apple seed of hot stoppers on the southern route of our road trip the southern trail like in years to come it will

be like a pilgrimage like route 66 yeah the southern hot drop the southern hot drop route yes yeah and so uh what are we going to do about navigation have you are we going to use your phone or do you want to use the sat nav here or oh i never want to deal with whatever the car has i figure i'll use my phone gonna use your phone yeah good old reliability what are we going to use your phone or do you want to use the sat-nav here? I never want to deal with whatever the car has. I figure I'll use my phone. Good old reliability. What are we going to do? Are we going to mount it somewhere or hold it? It's a pretty straight route. I think we'll be good.

What's the name of the highway we're on? Sorry, the interstate. It's an interstate highway? I have no idea which one. It's all one big river system of America, Brady. All right. Let's do it. Thelma and Louise.

Oh, no. Let's start. No, that's terrible. Oh, yeah, that didn't end well, did it? No, that's a terrible road trip reference, Brady. Sorry. Sorry. All right, let's go.

All right. But you concentrate. Here are some early ground rules. If one of us is driving and the other one starts talking for some reason, then you can just say, shut up. Shut up. That's allowed. There will be no offense taken.

What? Shut up is the code word for stop talking? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Okay, good. I'm glad we've settled that. And also, what's going to be our policy about backseat driving, like the other person saying you should change lanes?

Are you a backseat driver? Is that what person saying you should change lanes or like, like, cause obviously you were backseat driver. Is that, is that what's going to happen? I am normally not. And I normally don't like being backseat driven, but I want you to know when I'm driving, I'm totally cool with you over coaching me. And I won't be like,

yes, I saw it. I'll be like an abundance of caution is all right. You get yourself set up. You get yourself in the zone. He's putting in the details into his phone. Basically just heading out of Huntsville, straight on to the interstate. Interstate 565.

And then that's it? Yeah, interstate 565 for 200 miles and then we're at Oak Ridge. So you go out of the airport, turn right, and then you get to Oak Ridge. Yes, that is 100% correct. This is how driving works in America. I was hoping for one of those, you know, when you on TV you see those junctions that they always shoot from the air and they look like these beautiful

symmetrical spirals. Oh, those interchanges? We'll pass through some of them. But just like under them? Well, I mean, or over them, right? I mean, if you want, we could get off and then get back on the interchange if that would make you happy. Let me have a look at one first and decide. All right.

We'll see. All right. Let's do this. I did go to get in the wrong side of the car right from the start. It's easy to do. This guy is driving the wrong way. Exit left. And yeah, you have full permission to backseat drive until I decide you're too annoying with the backseat driving.

Okay. No probes. I don't know what level of backseat driving to expect, but feel free to start high and then we can adjust low. Oh no, I'm going the wrong way. Now you're going against the arrows. How am I going against the arrows? It said turn left. Oh no. I don't think it matters. Oh, there we go. Airport exits. We got it. We got it. We're almost out. In one mile, keep right to merge onto the 565 east towards Huntsville. That's way too loud. Good for podcasting, though. Yeah, it's okay.

You've got to figure out the cruise control after we get on the highway. I did notice when we got in the car, the first thing Gray looked for was the cruise control settings. Before he looked at seatbelts and seat positions, he was like, where's cruise control? You're obviously a fan of this technology. That's how I drive, Brady. It's lane assistance, cruise control, a lot of American Truck Simulator. I now primarily drive through cruise control. So yes, I was a little nervous when I thought for a moment,

there wasn't any, but there is some. So we'll get there safe and sound. In fact, the only time I've ever seen Grey drive was on truck simulator. And you were making an absolute mess of a truck in a car park. Look, I'm very good. That is just an example of distracted driving, not truck simulator driving.

So this is going to be just fine. Don't you worry. It's revving very high, isn't it? Are we in the right gear? It's intuitive. But no, that is crazy high for the revving, right? Like it's revving at 4,000. Is that the right place? Use the right lane to keep right to merge onto the 565 east towards Huntsman. It's not supposed to be there, is it? No. Like it will not go any lower. To the right. What's to the right?

Oh, yeah. That's right. Okay, there we go. Yeah, there we go. We were in the wrong gear. We were in the wrong gear in an automatic car. This is the level of car savvy you're dealing with with Graham Brady in the car.

Look, I've never seen a gear shifter like that that was unreasonable for me to know how to put the right gear for an automatic car that's the whole point of the automatic car no but i don't need to know no but if you're over that side that's where you can go you can control going up and down the gears who wants to do that in an automatic car i know i know i used to have a car that had the paddles on the steering wheel you could change gears with but but it was also automatic, and I was like, I never use the paddles. Continue straight on. Yeah, see, there we go.

85 miles without a turn now. Okay, here we go. What are we going to have for lunch? I don't know. We're going to get one of these, like, road stops. What do you call these in America, like, services? In England, you call them the services. What do you call the facilities on the side of the road where there'll be like four or five

junk food places and petrol? I think it's like a rest stop. A rest stop. Yeah, I think like it's an exit with a service. A rest stop is normally like a state maintained little park or something to stop in. All right, let's do it. Let's see. Let's get to our first rest stop. Well, we've been going over an hour now. I think Graves maybe turned the steering wheel once.

I've got it on cruise control. Yeah, that's the way you drive. Nice and straight. I hope you've been okay with my driving so far, Brady. Very smooth, very smooth. We've mainly just been gossiping and talking about YouTube the whole time. We probably should have been recording. It would have been a really nice Hello Internet episode. Maybe a little bit too gossipy. Yeah, well, we've just come from a

conference that was full of YouTube and full of people. So yeah, we're very reflective on the whole thing on this ride so far. We might talk about that at the other end if we have time. We don't want to tease too much out of us while we're supposed to be concentrating on being behind the wheel but I've been very impressed by the scenery. We've chosen a magnificent day. I've been in Alabama for a week and the sky has been very grey but today glorious blue skies and we seem to be going through not mountains but hills and they're very very tree covered and the colour is a lovely mixture of green and sort of autumnal colors. So this is, despite the fact we're on an interstate

with some pretty ugly billboards and pretty tacky takeaway shops on the side of the road, the actual scenery is glorious. Yeah, I know. Autumn is clearly the best season and this is like a perfect autumn day to do a little road trip. So I'm very happy with this.

And you've enjoyed the drive because you don't drive a lot. You've been, you know, like riding a bike a bike you've been pretty you seem pretty comfortable there. I've been in America for about 10 days and I specifically practiced driving when I first arrived when I was with my parents so that I wouldn't be too rusty for our road trip so I'm feeling good about it because I practiced for you Brady. But you wanted to impress me. I didn't want to do something terribly embarrassing, like get the gears wrong in an automatic car as we're pulling out of the parking lot. So I thought I better drive around a little bit to make sure I've got the whole system down. Lights, turn signals, just want a little bit of practice.

And we're going to stop for coffee and food in a minute after we do that. You're going to let me loose? If you're ready ready if you feel ready for it brady i'm feeling all right if the road continues like this just straight with no turns and and because we're in like a dual carriageway where the lanes are split you can't even hit cars coming the other way it feels idiot proof yeah i don't want to i don't want to phrase it in that way, but I would say that, yes, you would have a very hard time. Oh, we just crossed into Tennessee. Oh, okay. There was a sign that said, oh, and Gray nearly drove off the highway.

No, I was paying attention. I didn't swerve at all. Yeah, we're in Tennessee. Welcome to Tennessee, Brady. Welcome to Tennessee. There we go. See you later, Alabama. So we've quickly pulled over so that we can do a hot drop at the Tennessee state sign. Grey did quite a dramatic U-turn to get us here. Some pretty hardcore driving. One thing that just occurred to me, though, Grey, was I always hear so much from people, especially since my comments about saying where you're from in America.

Everyone tells me about how important states are. And they're almost like nations and things like that. It felt like that border crossing was very understated. It didn't feel like we were going from one state to another. I will agree with you that I think the border crossings should be much more dramatic. Some of them have sadder border crossings than others. California, I'm looking at you. You've got the worst, saddest, tiniest signs.

Some states are amazing. Wyoming, I'm looking at you. You've got the worst, saddest, tiniest signs. Some states are amazing. Wyoming, I'm looking at you. You have the best, enormous signs to let you know that you're wandering into Wyoming. We've got a medium-ish sign here. But yeah, I think there should be more lights and fanfare when you cross over the state borders. But you can still tell people that you're from a state, Brady. That's what you should be able to do. Should we go and do a hot drop?

Hot drop time. Let's go. This is our first ever joint hot drop, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah? All right. Let's do it. On the side of the road. I don't know if we're supposed to park here, but we're doing it. Yeah, just walking on the shoulder of the highway is totally illegal to do.

I think there's an exception for state signs. Where do you reckon, Gray? Should I put them at the base of the sign, or where do you think I should put them? Yeah, base of the sign, that's where we're going to go. Tennessee, the volunteer state welcomes you. How many? A bunch. Put down five. Also, there's atomic fireworks for sale. Big billboard right next to the state.

Awesome. Let's do a regular selfie. Let's see if we can get one. I don't know if it'll work. Can we get the state sign and us? There we go. Awesome. See, that was worth it all right i'm in i'm in the car on the wrong side for the first time in my life grazing the passenger seat we've just done a hot drop at an arby's where are we we're in kimball

arby's in kimball it was my first everby's. What did you think of it, Brady? Bloody delicious. See? Now, the reason we went to Arby's is because if I'm doing a road trip with my wife, Arby's is forbidden as a food for me to consume. So if I'm ever doing a solo road trip, I'm always going to stop by an Arby's and get their delicious roast beef sandwiches. And this is the first time I've been able to do a road trip with someone else in the car. And we both go to Arby's. So I'm very glad you liked it, Brady. Basically, while the wives are away, the husbands will eat Arby's.

Yeah, it's fantastic. But yeah, we're here in Kimball, right now in the parking lot of Arby's, and there may be some hot stoppers growing underneath the bushes, underneath the Arby's sign. Should we not tweet that one and just make that purely a podcast hot drop? Yeah, I think that's a podcast hot drop because those ones are pretty secure. So Arby's, Kimball, where do you say? Under the bushes, under the big sign. Under the bushes, under the big sign. Under the bushes, under the big sign.

And you reckon they'll last like a week or two before this goes out? I think they will. They'll make it. There's five of them there. All right, Brady. Here we go. All right. What was that ooh?

I don't know. Like the brake had like a cushiness that I wasn't expecting. Obviously, I drive a car almost every day. I'm very familiar with driving cars, but suddenly it feels like the first time again. I have a really dumb question. The pedals aren't reversed, are they? No, the pedals stay the same.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. That does make me feel a little better. I never really thought about it until this very moment, and you seem surprised by the pedals, which caused me to be very concerned. It was more just the feel of different pedals, like any new car.

Yeah, I am. I'm constantly reaching to my left to change the gear. Brady looks very confident. He's got his serious Brady face on. I was talking to a friend of ours, Matt Parker, the other day, who is also from Australia and England, about his experience driving on the right. and he said something to me and i'm already think i'm feeling it and that was sitting on the other side of the car makes driving on the other side seem more natural like it kind of kicks in kind of automatically what to do and i'm already feeling it like it feels less foreign

than i expected like yeah i think it kind of just the moving me on the other side has flipped everything in my head almost already we're currently just tooling around the parking lots yeah we're not really on the street or anything it it feels very natural when we're in a completely open space where there's no obstructions anywhere i think i will yeah you can go out that way all right let's do it like turning right into that lane felt like it just feels natural it's all right whereas when i'm sitting at home on the sofa thinking about it it's all how do i do it what do i do but now it's like it feels pretty natural okay we're now approaching the first real street that actually has lanes and you're going to

make a left up here brady all right you're exactly in the middle of two lanes here, so... Fortunately, the guy behind us is going to be making a left too, so we're good, but I feel very concerned about this turn. So you want to go towards the Waffle House. The Waffle House is your target. All right. How long until I get beeped at for the first time? Hopefully never, Brady. Hopefully never.

I would definitely get beeped at in the next ten minutes. And then when I get over there, where am I going? It's going to be another left. I know. I would definitely get beeped at in the next 10 minutes. And then when I get over there, where am I going? It's going to be another left. Another left. All right. First turn successfully accomplished by Brady. We're going to go under this bridge. I know you like your interchanges.

You were very excited about that. So we're going under this. And once we're under it, we're going to make a left-hand turn. Also, again, you're sort of driving in the middle of the road. The dashed lines are going directly under me, the passenger. That's the thing that's different. Where to position the car in the lane. That's what I haven't got the feel for yet.

I need to... I'm looking right at the dashed lanes coming at me. Left here? Yes, left here. Yeah, that's the one thing I haven't... That is different. To not... In the driver,

to get as close to that as possible. Yeah, so now you're all the way over properly. Okay. But I was realizing, I'm doing this, Brady. I'm leaning over in the car when you're driving. All right.

That's the trick. That's the thing I have to learn. Yeah, so just left here and then we're merging on. Okay. Luckily, we're merging on. Okay. Luckily we're not in New York, we're down in Tennessee. They're a little bit more forgiving. Here we go. We're about to hit the interstate.

Well, so far I'm going to give you perfect marks. We've merged onto the highway. And aside from just being in the road a little bit, this is great. How are you feeling? Confident? Yeah, I am. I'm feeling alright. I I'm feeling all right. I'm liking it. All right, great. Let's see how this goes. Yeah, much to our surprise, we just passed into the great state of Georgia. I didn't realize that our road trip takes us on this very slight curve just into and then out of Georgia on Highway 24. So that is now two out of two road signs spotted by Brady Haran on our road trip.

We're coming around. We're going to go back into Tennessee in, I don't know, maybe five minutes. If you want to risk the driving, you can try to pull over and see if we can capture a Georgia sign on the other side. But it might not work at all with this highway we'll see the roads are a bit busier here I seem to have hit Sunday peak hour so I'm having to actually have my wits about me a bit but um yeah I mean I'm just racking up the states now aren't I I've only been driving for 15-20 minutes and I'm I'm going to be crossing a couple of state borders. Yeah, I'm an old hand.

How are you feeling about the driving? As we discussed in our last little short section, positioning the car in the lane is the only thing causing me any difficulty. I have this natural tendency to try and hug the right lane markers, which on this side of the car means I'm throwing grey out into the trees and the lakes and things. So I need to get into the habit of hugging the left lane with my brain so that's my so occasionally I'll be my wheels will start going over the markers on the wrong side of the road Gray to his credit is not whinging or complaining or calling me on at all he's being very patient

but I am aware I'm doing it I mean we are attempting to pass other cars Brady's in the left-hand lane now and when we do pass the cars I to pass other cars. Brady's in the left-hand lane now. And when we do pass the cars, I'm a little closer to the cars in the right-hand lane than I would otherwise prefer. But you are doing a much better job than I would have expected. I would have expected this would just completely break your brain, even just driving on the highway like this. So you're doing very well. And it looks like we're coming around to Tennessee in maybe like two minutes. Here we go again. Looking at the clock on our recorder, we have spent exactly four minutes in the state of

Georgia. And now, right now, we're back in Tennessee. And we're over the line. Where are we? What time is it? It's like, it's very dark for 5pm. The sun set surprisingly quickly and I think caught us both out. And we've just pulled up outside a Dunkin' Donuts. We're living the bachelor lifestyle on the road here. We really are. It's like, well, can't go to Arby's normally.

Time to go to arby's dunkin donuts break don't mind if i do i was like do you want to stop for a coffee gray and gray said yeah and then he went and i think i want a donut too we don't we don't need to talk about that but it's fine everyone knows calories don't count on road trips but yeah we're at a dunkin donuts in athens about a athens yeah we're about an hour away from our final destination. All right. So I did my... How long did I drive for? Are you going to review my performance?

Yeah, you drove for about an hour. Yeah. And I kept squishing over a little bit in my seat. But you did pretty well. Like, you did way better than I was expecting. Yeah. And you were clearly getting better staying in the lane as time went on. Everything was great until the very last second when we were just pulling into Dunkin' Donuts.

And I think because you weren't thinking about the car that's on my side, you missed the car next to us as you pulled in by maybe two inches as you were swinging around. A very important two inches. Yes. No no we missed it that's all that counts but no i i think you did great you did way better than i would have done in your situation so i'm i'm uh i'm quite impressed how are you feeling i think clearly this is the issue i thought the problem was going to be like the road rules and what lane to be in and like getting confused there that was not an issue. The problem and the thing I haven't yet adjusted to

is actual car awareness and that the car, the bulk of the car is now on the right side of my body and not the left side of my body. That's the thing that didn't come instantly and probably takes another few hours to get the feel for. I think it's going to take more than a few hours. I think that's the kind of thing you need to sleep on

and your brain, like your brain then learns to think of the car as the extension of your body. Yeah. Because that's really what it is when you're driving. Yeah. Your brain like extends the body envelope around the car in a way that's just like almost like a reflex. Yeah. I don't think if we kept having you drive tonight, you would like have that by the end. Yeah.

I think you need to sleep on that. And then your brain reprograms itself. right so what kind of donut are you gonna have i think i'm gonna go for some classic glazed donuts are they like are they like as good as crispy creams like dunkin donut glazed so well crispy creams i find are like so much donut they're horrifying it's like some kind of event horizon of donut. And it feels like I'm eating a black hole of glazed sugariness. You say that like it's a bad thing. Krispy Kremes, I can eat them

but boy do I regret it. And I maybe don't enjoy them. So these are much less than Krispy Kremes but I view that as an improvement not a detriment. I'll grab some hot stoppers in case there's an opportunity as well. All right. Let's go in.

Let's refuel. Donut time. We're back from Dunkin' Donuts. It was quite the experience. But the best thing of all was we were in there having our donut and our drinks, and I'll let you tell everyone. Plane crash investigators came on the tv and you seem very happy about it brady you spotted it straight away we sat down we're enjoying our donut and oh look we can watch a recreation of people dying in a horrible plane crash

it felt like a very hello internet sign like a sign that this road trip is going well yeah very good so gray's gonna bring this home he's back at the wheel and he's gonna bring us into to oak ridge where i am going i'm the reason we're going to oak ridge is actually because i will be filming at the national laboratory at oak ridge tomorrow gray will not be joining me he will be flying off for further adventures proper night time now so it's time for some night driving so I don't think you're going to need your sun I don't know why I pulled out my sunglasses I don't know why I did that, that's just a reflex

alright, let's do it let's bring this home you're going forward oh Jesus Christ, yeah look, we all know driving is very complicated and you can put things backwards. So, look, reverse, drive, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. So clearly, I have problems with car positioning.

You have problems with the gear stick. I don't have any problems. I'm doing great. Everything's great. It's the final mile of our trip, of our day trip through the south. Hot drops have been done, unhealthy food has been eaten. The destination is on your right, Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Oak Ridge, Knoxville. So we've made it to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The reason we have Tennessean on the periodic table, that's the reason we are here.

Gray's done a magnificent job behind the wheel. We're looking for our hotel. It's not what I expected. It's pretty much like everywhere else in America with McDonald's and all that sort of stuff. I was imagining some leafy, amazing place on the edge of a science facility, and it's just like, it's a bit disappointing, really. Brady Brady, you know, everywhere in America is the same America. But it's also an incredibly diverse nation that has regional differences like you wouldn't believe. But it's also the same everywhere you go. It is. It really is the same everywhere. Like, this feels exactly like when we were in Huntsville.

Even the shops' names are all the same. But, you know. Got the hotel in view. I can see it. It's big. It's a light shining in the distance. The only possible final hurdle is parking, which I nearly mucked up before, but I'm sure Gray will nail it. As long as I don't have to use the shifter at all.

But I'm also noticing the time, and somehow we have turned what should have been a three-hour journey into a six-hour journey. So we took a very long time. There we go, we're pulling up. Plenty of parking spaces. Yeah, look at this.

Can't muck that up. Boom, can't possibly muck this up. And done. No, but aren't you straddling the line? No, look, I'm exactly in the middle. Yeah? Can't possibly muck this up. And... Done. No, but aren't you straddling the line? No. Look, I'm exactly in the middle. Yeah?

Yeah. 100%. Okay. All right. Well done, sir. We made it. All right. Let's do it. I'm glad you experienced your first American driving with me.

You did a good job as well. And we both survived a little road trip with each other. We should do a longer one sometime soon don't you reckon i mean let's not get ahead of ourselves hello internet say you wanted to track all of the places that brady and i have been on this epic road trip and share it with the world. All the great state signs, all the great pit stops. What would be the easiest and best way to make something like that and share it with the world? Well, the answer, of course, is Squarespace. Squarespace is the

fastest and easiest way to take your idea and turn it into a real website. Putting up a map of the epic journey from Huntsville to Oak Ridge, it couldn't be easier with Squarespace. Everything you need to showcase the work you do or to publish a blog or to promote your online or physical business or sell goods is simple to do with Squarespace. They have just the easiest to use drag and drop tools that allow you to assemble the whole thing together. Easy peasy. They do this by giving you beautiful templates created by world class designers that you can pick and choose from and then customize to be completely the way you want them to look. They have analytics that help you grow in real time. So perhaps you can expand from just a website about a single road trip to all of the road

trips anyone might ever possibly want to take. And they have built in search engine optimization and will automatically rescale your website to whatever size device anyone is using to look at it. So Squarespace encourages you to make it yourself. Head to squarespace.com slash hello for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch your amazing website, use the offer code hello to save 10% off your first purchase. That's squarespace.com slash hello and offer code hello to save 10% off your first purchase. Thanks to Squarespace for supporting the show. And thanks to Squarespace for making everybody's websites so good looking. So Gray, I guess we should explain

what we're doing here in the Deep South. Is it the deep south? Is this the deep south? I think Alabama counts as the deep south. That's deep south. All right. And Mississippi is definitely deep south. And Alabama is right next door. So I think it counts as the deep south. This is something that has its genesis in numerous things that we've taken part in,

whether it's Brainstem, the very first place we met, and then Random Acts of Intelligence, where we also had some good times. Like it's sort of built from all that, isn't it? Do you want to be the one to try and explain how we got here? I mean, I would just say we're here in Alabama because Destin brought us to Alabama. He invited many a creator from far and wide and we all came to Huntsville for a little conference Destin was putting on, ThinkerCon. ThinkerCon. And it was, I would call it more than a little conference. I think there was something like a hundred, all right, I'm going to say it, a hundred creators. It's completely unavoidable. Content creators, a hundred, about a hundred people or so who were like YouTubers and not

just YouTubers, there were all sorts of other types of creative people all with that kind of educational bent. And we sort of came together and hung out for a day or two and got to spend time together. And then it culminated also with a big public event at the US Space and Rocket Center where Random Acts of Intelligence was held a few years ago underneath the big Saturn V rocket.

And there was a big extravaganza with, was it 700 members of 700 members of the public or close to 1,000 people in the building. It was a lot of people. Intermingling and shows and things like that. It was quite the feat that Destin, along with a few other people on a committee and a few sponsors made possible, but I was impressed by it yeah i had uh fond memories and flashbacks to us being here years and years ago uh which now feels like it was a very long time ago but yeah dustin uh dustin knows how to put on a show and putting on a show in a venue

where there's a gigantic saturn 5 rocket overhead overhead is always bonus points for awesomeness. What have you taken from it? Like what's been, you know, has it been useful for you? Has it been a good use of your time? Obviously, you're not someone who loves a public event, but you are someone who loves hanging out with fellow YouTubers and stuff. And there were lots of pretty cool people at the event. I was not so much on the public side.

But yes, I was here for the company that Dustin had invited. And there were very many cool people at the event. I was not so much on the public side. But yes, I was here for the company that Destin had invited. And there were very many cool people here. And one of these things about doing the job that we do is a lot of us are just, like we're all in our own little places working on our own little things. And so it's really nice when someone like Destin puts in the effort to get us to all come together.

And even me, who's not perhaps the most social of us, it's really nice to have an environment where you can hang out with other content creators in your field who are doing things like you do and bounce ideas off of people or just get different perspectives on how other people do their work. So that that to me is like one of the reasons why i come to this this kind of thing it's like i always think of it as colleagues you know people who are broadly in the same world you know working on working on interesting things what about you you were part of like the public side of it brady well let's come to the public side of it in a moment okay because you did you did come out to the public for a while i saw you with your queue of people we had these two parallel queues and we were signing signing stuff and meeting many a team i will i will come to that because i do want to talk about that but i want to talk about a few more parts of the hanging out with creators beforehand part i'll start with a serious question and then i want to talk about a couple of the less serious things. One thing was, you know, you must have had like,

you know, a hundred conversations over the course of a couple of days. What kind of things do you find come up most often when you sit down with people who do the same kind of work you do? Is it always like very businessy or is it always very much about the creative process or is it about you know problems with comments or like all the different things that youtubers might gossip about or complain about or just want to share did you notice any themes or is it completely scattergun yeah i don't know i think i would say it's pretty scattergun it depends on who you're talking to i feel like the pattern for many of these things is finding out what somebody else does. And then you end up discussing what the commonalities are between your work or, you know, or like what I like is meeting people who have made a thing

that I've enjoyed. So like there were a number of times where you meet someone and you're talking and then they're describing what they do and you have that moment of realization of going oh you made this thing that i really like that's a great experience but like no it just depends so much on the individual person and yeah i just i really just like talking to people about what they're up to and trying to find like overlap in what problems they face but i don't think i don't think there's a clear consensus about what people are being like what's on people's minds uh complaining about comments or any of those kinds of things yeah so there were some fun things that were organized because they wanted to put on a bit of a show all

the people who were in huntsville and i have to say perhaps one of the great highlights of the event was there was a little like kind of like opening night party and we were given like activities and things to do. And one of the things was we had to make these bottle rockets where you get like a bottle of soda and then they like pump it full of air, don't they, to a high pressure and then pull some cord and they go shooting into the sky. So we all got broken up into little tiny groups where we had to like design our rocket around this sort of two liter bottle of soda.

And you could make it, you know, you could put a tube on it and a cone and fins and, and decorate it. And everyone was trying to make the most impressive rocket and Gray and I and, and Steve Mould, who's another YouTuber and creator who was there, we were in a little team of three and we went, I was pretty proud of what we created. We created a rocket that I would describe as memorable. Without a doubt, it was probably the most memorable rocket that was there. Although she may have not flown the highest of any of the rockets. She wasn't pretty, but she had it where it counted.

Yeah, exactly. And you dubbed her the Saturn 6. yes it's quite enjoyable yes but yes um and we inscribed was i also inscribed a a message for alien civilizations on it just in case the rocket was more successful but you gray was in charge of lighting you put the fairy lights you put the fairy lights on it and you you had like i would say a 50 role in the design of the nose cone i was very bad at attempting to roll paper into the shape of a cone you were you really struggled i don't know why somehow i could not conceptualize how to turn this piece of paper into a cone to stick on the top of our rocket but like everyone else i didn't everyone else like cut theirs down shorter when they put like the cylinder over the over the bottle and i didn't initially i didn't because it

didn't occur to me it was an option but then once i saw everyone else cutting theirs down to a size to make it small and streamlined and light for maximum height i was like no we must have the biggest we must have like this the show-off satin one and then i went looking for things to make our cone extend higher and a little popsicle stick to put on the top just for height but like all the people who were overseeing the activity when all the rockets were finished and made and people were saying and i went up to them and i said which one are you most looking forward to watching have launched like later tonight when the launch has happened you know they all said saturn six of course of course it was the most standout rocket.

And then, and the launch itself, there was an astronaut at the event who came along and he did the launch for us. So we even had an astronaut do the launch. Like it was all about the spectacle. Yes, it was all about the spectacle. Yeah, we put a single fin on the rocket just so it looked more like an awesome shark. It just didn't really contribute to stability or anything no i really had this feeling of when we got assigned to these different tasks and we're going to be making a bottle rocket it's like oh god i'm having these

ptst flashbacks of of being a physics teacher like and all these kinds of things but i was looking around and i think all of the other teams, I mean, these are a bunch of science creators, serious people. And it seemed like a large number of just like eager beavers working on their rockets very seriously. They were awesome. All beautifully designed, artwork on them. Yeah. And I felt like we were the total delinquents in that group.

Like we were the kids in the corner making this ridiculous rocket. But I loved it. It was great. We'll put we'll put some pictures in the notes so people can enjoy a picture of its magnificence and they all had to have eggs in them steve mold where he was in charge of egg safety on our rocket and he did his job because our egg didn't shatter there was a nasa team there and they they built a rocket like these were all nasa employees and their rocket like it was pretty cool and I think

I don't know if it went the highest but it went really high and it went really fast and then I was there afterwards when it hit the ground and they were taking it apart to like take their egg out and then I saw their egg protection device and I've never seen anything so impressive like it I couldn't imagine that anything could have happened to this egg it was like it was in aerogel or something it was all like in this deep and they took it all apart to get it out and all the crowd was watching just like to revel in their magnificence. And when they finally prized to open their protection device, it had completely shattered.

There was literally egg all over their faces. It was brilliant. I'm ashamed to say I reveled in it a bit too much. I think it shattered just from the sheer awesomeness of the launch. You were having a very fun time. You were so proud of Saturn 6. Now, are you going to reveal to the people where Saturn 6 is right now? I wanted to bring it back to England so that it could eventually end up in the Hallow Internet Museum. But I couldn't figure out a way to get this huge bottle rocket on the plane. So I have left it with Destin,

and he has promised me that he's going to preserve it here in Rocket City, Huntsville, where it belongs. But he has said if the museum ever opens, he will arrange for shipping so that it will be displayed for all time. I feel good knowing that Destin is the protector of the Saturn 6. Did you do any of the other little play events they had organized for us? Did you do the axe throwing where you got to throw axes at targets? I have one great regret from this weekend, Brady. And that it is I did not make it to the axe throw. Like, okay, so

like a fool, I thought, day one is very busy, saying hi to everybody. And I thought, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna catch axe throwing day throwing day two. And if there's any lesson in life, if you have an opportunity to do the awesome thing now, don't tell yourself, I'll do it later, because you won't. And so day two rolled around, I had to arrive late for various reasons. And then there was a thing and it's like, I missed the axe throwing. I missed the axe throwing. And I'm like, I'm really gutted about it. Totally. I was like, there was a room where you could go in and throw axes. And it was like, it was the number one thing on my list. And I didn't get to it.

Well, great. It's important to say this. There were actually two rooms where you can throw the axes. And I'll tell you why this is important. Because now I will say from the start, safety was an absolute priority for this company. You had to do all your disclaimers. and, you know, they were really well supervised. So this was a very safe thing. But there were two rooms where you could do it.

And it felt like one room was a bit stricter with the supervision than the other room. It was like the mothership room. And there was like a second overflow room when there were too many people wanting to throw axes in these like cages where they had these wooden targets. And the second room, which I was lucky enough to find myself in, it felt like there was like less adult supervision. And we were doing some awesome axe throws in the unsupervised room

because they were letting us like throw two at the same time at two different targets so you had an axe in each hand. But then it got to a point where like with the correct training and i'm sure and safety in place we were like throwing them in the air and then catching them and then spinning through 180 degrees and throwing them like a like in a movie or something it was amazing i think in his own mind he had become gimli in this back room and was just like a man loaded up with axes and throwing them around and admittedly your pictures did look very cool yeah maybe like in my head i was slightly better at it than than i actually was yeah all right i'm gonna keep just going with

the good memory so the public event there were loads and loads of people who i think listened to hello internet there judging by the number of Hello Internet shirts and flags and things like that. And I got to meet lots and lots of them, which was amazing. Signed lots of flags. Did you meet? Did you see the guy who proposed in a black stump t-shirt and then got married in one? He was there? Yes, I got to meet him.

He was one of the people right at the front of the line. So yes, I got to meet him. And that was of the people right at the front of the line. So yes, I got to meet him. And that was amazing. I have plenty of time for you, man. Like you get married in the Hello Internet shirt. That's amazing. He was a celebrity. I asked to have my picture taken with him.

He like came up and I said, can I have my photo with you? Like he was like a superstar for me. And did you see the guy wearing Hello Internet official sneakers? Yes, we saw Hello Internet shoes. Yeah? Yeah, there were rice hen and swamp rat shirts all over the place. Like, you know, it was great. It was great to see people bring things out.

So I had a couple of, like, responsibilities I had to do on stages. And the rest of the time I was able to go out onto, like, the main floor and meet Tims and like say hello and things like that. But then I know at first I noticed you were like, you were secluded in a private place. And then suddenly I saw you appeared on the, on the main floor and quite the queue formed. And I could see you like just in the distance. Cause I was like a few meters away and you were like, you know, meeting all these people and talking to them. And there was this queue stretching like the length of the Saturn V five and i thought gray's gonna be here all

night and then you weren't there anymore and i still don't properly know what happened did you get a bit did you get exhausted because i know you were pretty tired anyway what happened well i mean okay so so listeners to be clear with this conference there there were like people who were publicly doing shows and things and then there were people who were sort of attending the conference and i i was but a humble attendee i was not like a master of ceremonies like brady you know doing a doing a show doing that kind of stuff so i was just there and not once not twice but thr, I attempted to make it to the front of the room, make it to the tip of the Saturn V rocket. So walk the length of the hall.

To walk the length of the hall, yes, from the back where we were by the engines to the front. Because I thought I wanted to have a little bit of a memory moment of a memory moment of like we did a thing on this stage a long time ago and I would like I would like to get to the front of this rocket and just to see this thing like I'm not a big memory person but that was that show that we did was it was like a big event and it was like a moment for all of us and a really enjoyable time and like I'll always think of it fondly so i thought i want to go back up to the front and see see that place i did not make it no i did not make it any of the times and yes i got a little swamped and a little overwhelmed yeah and in the time that i did have i tried to say hello to as many people as possible.

But there is not infinite time at one of these events. So I do feel bad. Do you have a message for those people who were waiting and then saw you just like turn tail and walk away? Well, I mean, I didn't just turn around and walk away and say nothing. But, you know, it's like at a certain point, like there's other things that need to happen and you need to go. But I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't get to say hi to everyone.

It's great that all these people are there, but it was an overwhelming number of people and I never made it to the front of the rocket, Brady. I've never been somewhere where I could walk such a short distance without having to stop. And some of the people said to me, like some of like the people running, the volunteers running the show, like they were really surprised by this. And they said to me, your life must be so difficult. This has happened to you all the time. And I said, I promise you, this happens never, ever in my life anywhere else and will never happen again.

This is the only place in the universe where I will ever get stopped and have to do this. I can go weeks without anyone ever speaking to me. This is a very, very special set of conditions. Rocket City is the epicenter of Brady fame. Well, an event where people have come to see all these people is. But, yeah, there were lots of cool people to meet. I will have you know that i reckon over the course

of the last few days i have been asked at least 15 to 20 times where you were or what you look like or people who would like point you out and i refused every time so i did my job thank you i was not i was not the cause of any security breach at any point thank you i appreciate that i kept my mouth shut it means a lot me. I was talking to one chap though. I think he was like a volunteer or someone involved in like one of the other days. And he'd said like, oh, I'm quite looking forward to meeting CGP Grey and having a chat to him. I really like his work, but I'm not exactly sure what he looks like. So I'm not sure if I'll know him when I see him.

And he said that he was waiting at this event, like where we all walked in through the door and everyone was coming in. And he said, then I saw this guy in a long dark coat come sweeping in. And the first thing he did was went straight to the hand sanitizer. And I said, that must be CGP Grey. And it was. So if you ever want to trap a grey in the wild,

I think you need to use hand sanitizer as bait. I mean, look, there's a lot of people whose hands you're shaking and all of these things i just got off a bus filled with other germy people like i'm gonna use the hand sanitizer right you gotta get through these things without getting sick but yeah i guess that is a that's a better place to try to spot a gray. Is that your local sanitizer watering hole? That's a tell. You may have heard in the show, Brady and I took a little selfie in front of the Tennessee state sign. That photo would be one of tens of thousands of photos forever lost in the endless stream

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definitely print them out using Fracture. There really is something about seeing a photograph that you've taken, not only printed out, but printed onto glass, which makes it look just amazing. And if not for yourself, Fractures make fantastic gifts for others. My parents have definitely gotten a few Fractures that they totally love. It's a great gift. And you can feel good about them because Fracture is a green company operating a carbon neutral factory, or Fractory as they like to call it, in Gainesville, Florida from U.S. sourced materials. So visit fractureme.com for a special discount on your

first Fracture order. And don't forget to pick Hello Internet in their one survey question. It helps support the show by letting them know that you came from us. So that's fractureme.com slash hi. Go get your photos made real. Get your road trip photos made real with Fracture. I feel like I really need to address the elephant in the room, Brady. In my hotel room that we are currently in. Right. Okay, yeah. So I think we were thinking we're going to sit down and just like record an episode in some ways. But once again, you're right here in front of me. And we haven't discussed our recording situation, which is we have completed our road trip. Yeah.

Our road trip to Oak Ridge. And we are now in your hotel room. Yeah. Sitting at a table it's always strange recording in person but what's extra strange is you and i are sitting at this table sort of 45 degrees apart from each other touching distance like touching distance like grace physically touching me right now right uh he stopped now and it was only for a second yes and i'll use my hand sanitizer later yeah but we can't seem to decide whether we should be looking at each other while we're recording

what we're recording right now or if we should not like i keep trying to not look at you but we can't set up in the room so that i don't see it all in my peripheral vision so i keep turning to look at you and we have these moments where are we talking to each other? Are we not talking to each other? This is the strangest recording setup we've done. It is strange. Well, let me tell you the situation because as Gray says, we're kind of at 45 degrees. And if I look straight ahead towards my microphone, I just look at a wall. Like I pretty much don't see Gray. But where Gray is when he looks straight ahead,

he's kind of going to see more of me. He's going to see the side of my face. But like I thought to make things more comfortable for you because you don't like doing the face-to-face. You prefer down the line. So I've deliberately not been looking at you. I've just been looking at the wall to make you feel more comfortable. But every time I do like a sneaky sideways glance,

you're looking right at me. And then I feel like, oh, he does want to have a conversation. So then I'll start looking at you. So now I don't know whether I should look away or be looking you in the eye. And it's like the worst of everything. We keep doing like this weird dance of half talking to each other, half not talking to each other.

Which is your preference? I don't know. I think we have to just talk to each other half not talking to each other which is your preference i can like i don't know i think we have to just talk to each other because this is so strange to bounce back and forth between the two of them yeah and it's also as as a mobile podcast recording setup is always kind of weird and ridiculous that i'm sitting in this really low chair so that the pillow is high enough that the microphone is at my mouth, but it makes me six, seven inches shorter than you at this table as well. And my microphone's perched on a pile of like four pillows, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa with a microphone sitting on top. Yeah, so I don't know how on earth this is going to be edited together. But the actual timeline is that right now,

it is the very end of the day after the conference has been over we said goodbye to everybody in the morning and then we spent six hours taking it what should be a three hour road trip and we have arrived in oak ridge and are now awkwardly recording this podcast in a room together so tell me about like road trips and long drives because you do them yeah you do a few of them what's like standard operating procedure like what do you like to have in the car with you do you like do you like to have like loads of bottles do you like to have snacks on hand do you prefer to stop for your snacks do you have like a two-hour interval stopping and like what do you like to wear

talk me through your you know like do you like wearing like will you wear like jeans or do you like a pair of comfortable trackies will you wear a hat or no hat but i want to know the whole like the whole thing now you're making this sound like it's it's much more it's much more thought out than it really is no brady the point of a road trip is to enjoy the road trip and also do not die so you need some basic supplies in the car yeah some basic food some basic water if you're driving across the deserts in america make sure to have a lot of water and a lot of food yeah because people do die by the roadside when cars break down um and then you're in the middle of nowhere yeah but now you just want to have a good time and like we did today everyone knows calories don't count on a road trip so you you want to make stops and have some junk food.

It's not a road trip if there's no junk food at all. That's a fundamental law of the universe. Yes, I agree. But no, it's just about having a good time. Although the thing that's a little weird for me for today is I really do prefer road trips to be a solo experience. For me, that's very much a fundamental part of the road trip is you're going a long distance, you're on your own,

it's time to reflect, to turn inward mentally and think about your life, looking at the terrain in front of you, the distance that you've gone. And it normally doesn't include a Brady within touching distance right off to your side. Because I think we're pretty good mates, but we haven't reached that point where we could be in each other's company and be silent. Yeah.

Although we did have sections today, little sections on the road trip, but this was like a little testing of, oh, we're going to be in an enclosed environment for three hours together like this it's not a social environment we're just going i think if we were doing a longer road trip by tomorrow already we would have sections where we're just like we're just driving and we're just quiet that's important i think you do need to be able to do that so when you're doing some of the road trips you've done over the years. Obviously, we're in a Project Cyclops era, so things might be different now. But normally, what we have in terms of sound, we have silence and just the drone of the road, or we put on a podcast or music.

What's your preferred listening? Well, because no one's around, you can play road trip music, which is the best. You go music? Yeah, you can go music for road trips. I thought you weren't into music, like you didn't like music. Music serves emotional states yeah and i think that a road trip is a is a particular kind of emotional state so i have a i have like a road trip playlist with some songs that i feel is like the right kind of mood setting for this experience yeah and the other reason why it's probably good that i do road trips like on my own

is because I will often put a song on loop for like an hour. What, the same song? Yeah, like the same song. And it's just like loop over and over and over for an hour, which a passenger might grow rather tired of very, very quickly. I would do that sometimes. Maybe like six or seven times in a row. Six or seven, okay.

Yeah, maybe not quite an hour. Is most of this music like with lyrics and spoken word or is it normally instrumental? Yeah, no, it'll be something with lyrics, but it just becomes like nothing in the background. You won't sing along with it? There might be singing along sometimes. Wow.

There's nobody around. Oh, my God. My brain is not even capable of imagining you singing along with a song on a road trip it's you know it's a special time it's a special time right oh gosh so so when you're driving what makes you stop what will you stop for you stop for snacks snacks but like is the catalyst your hunger or seeing the like the rb sign is it like which is is it what stops you i think uh the the primary function in road trip stops is how far is it until the next exit with surfaces yeah that's that's the thing you want to keep your eye out for is like

is are we going to enter like a big zone where there's going to be nothing like we did today right i was looking at the map and realized oh we were about to enter an area for an hour where there was nothing to turn off of so we we stopped off and got a coffee you're making a face brady i feel like like i feel like on today's trip there was never a point where it felt like you know i'm i know you're from america and it's a big country but i'm from australia and it's very empty country yeah no this this section was pretty superb it felt it felt very settled all the time. And we were never anywhere where it felt like if we broke down, like we were going to die.

Whereas in Australia, you can break down and not see another car for a few days. No, no, no, the southern section was pretty settled. I just happened to do the search for coffee. And it's like, well, there's coffee five minutes from now and there's coffee one hour from now. And those are your two choices. So it's like, that's a good time to get a cup of coffee.

So if you're doing one of your US sojourns,ns like you know one of your big ones is each day planned will you get out a map at the start of the day and think here's a rough plan or is it there and i'm gonna sleep there tonight or will it sometimes just be i'll end up where i end up i'll eat where i eat i've never done a road trip that doesn't have a a. So that's always what acts as the impetus for it. As in the hotel that night? No, what I mean is, like if it's a multi-day trip, there's always some place that I'm supposed to be, right?

It's like three days from now, I need to be here. And then just the rhythm of the individual days dictates like where do I end up. I don't think there's any point. And I think it's also super unfun to plan out meticulously each particular day. I think that's anti-road trip fun. So you won't know where you're going to sleep that night?

No, no, never. Like that's, you know, you're smiling. It seems surprising to you. Well, I have very limited experience with trips where I don't know where I'm sleeping that night. You don't strike me as a guy that's just going to walk into some shady motor in on the side of a highway in the middle of Hicksville, USA and say, you got a room? Like, it doesn't seem your style, like to slap down some cash and like, it seems so dirty and unplanned. It doesn't seem your way.

I have stayed in some very small hotels and some very small towns on occasion. But like this moment right now, when we're in this hotel, much of America is very much the same as other parts of America. And you can be on the highway and you pull off and there's a little section where it's like, oh, here's a days in hotel and there's a gas station and there's a box restaurant and maybe a couple of other services and it's like this little island that just exists and then it is clone stamped a thousand times across the nation and so it's you know it's sort of like i can't remember where i heard this but a long time ago i heard some i heard someone describe all airports as a single location distributed geographically across the world.

But that like the airport is like airport land and you're just visiting different parts of it and it's ultimately like a contiguous single region. And a lot of the places where you can stop in America have that feel of, oh, I'm in Days In land or i'm in hilton land right like it's always just the same sort of place oh this is service land on the side of the road so it's it's much less adventurous than it sounds because i'm imagining like you know the baits like motel like that little four or five rooms on the side of a road and nothing but you're staying usually in chains and you know if there is a chain available i will take the chain yes i've been at places where there isn't anything and like those can be interesting experiences but it's actually i'm just thinking through like very often you don't really have the choice of like not being in the chain right it's

like the like the places to stay is just like the hotel that's been clone stamped across the whole of the world. There's something about that. They feel like the same places. I tell you the best road trips that I've been on, and they are road trips in planes. Because my friend who's a pilot used to take us on road trips across Australia. But instead of driving, we'd just fly to another city. You need to explain this more. Do you mean you are taking a plane like hopping between

cities yeah or like a little no just like a little force eater like and he'll just like there'd be a football game in another city like you know and you could drive there for nine hours or he would just fly us in a small plane and we'd go there and like those were the best trips because like that's like the ultimate road trip because you're like you're flying i don't know i don't think it's a road trip if you're flying that's just flying no is that a road trip because it's still just like you can't pull the plane off the side of the road and and enjoy a like a local rest area you could you can stop in a different town like in a country strip and stuff like that a really cool thing we used to do was because australia is like you know so big and unsettled and it would and we were

sometimes flying through the night it would be like completely dark and it would be all black below. But in case there's an emergency and you have to land or you have to go to an unmanned airstrip, they would have, there's this button you can press on a plane that will make automated airstrips down below light up and all the lights will come on and you'll see the runway. So, because this is just like, it's just like outside some small town, there's no staff. The lights aren't on all night for like a runway because you're not going to burn all these lights all night for a runway airstrip so planes have these things where you put like a little code and you press a button like beep beep beep like morse codey type thing and it speaks to a receiver on the ground and that automatically switches on the lights for the airstrip in this country town in my head i'm

imagining this like a garage door clicker that you have in the airplane and you like you click it and the lights go on it's like oh that's where i'm gonna park like a garage door clicker that you have in the airplane. And you like, you click it and the lights go on. It's like, oh, that's where I'm going to park. Yeah, it's almost like that. But so that's really interesting. So sometimes as we were flying, there would just be this like big black mass below us. And then we'd say, oh, can we can we press the button? And he'd go and he'd get abuse.

Yeah. And he'd be like, all right, and we'd press the button. And it would be a guess as to where the first like runway was going to light up. And it'd be there it is. It's out to the right. We just turned one on. and it would be a guess as to where the first like runway was going to light up and it would be, there it is. It's out to the right. We just turned one on. It was like, it was really exciting. I, the first time this mate ever did a road trip for the guys, I wasn't there, but I heard

this story and he was still quite like a new pilot. He's a really good pilot, super responsible, really like, you know, capable guy. So he organized to take all the people on this trip across to the other side of Australia. And they all got in the plane. And there were four of them. And it was really, really cold. It'd get quite cold in those little planes.

They're not very well, you know, protected from the elements. So they're all up in the plane flying at whatever altitude they're at. And they were all rugged up in these coats and scarves and beanies because it was like, apparently they were all shivering. And then suddenly they hit this like really, really bad unexpected weather. The storm just came from nowhere, which ended up requiring them to like dodge the storm and like land. And they ended up having to land, I think for a couple of days to see out the storm. It was like, but when they're up in the sky and the storm came, they were all a bit worried, but they were all still absolutely

freezing cold. And the story is they were all still absolutely freezing cold, and the story is they were all rugged up in these huge coats and shivering, shivering like, and they looked at my mate who was flying the plane, and he was just wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and there was sweat pouring off him out of every pore as he was trying to fly through this epic storm that he'd never seen before.

They said that was really unnerving. Yeah. Oh, God. That would have been you today if you'd turned to me to see how's Brady handling driving on the other side and I was pouring with sweat. No, you handled it very well. You handled it way, way better than I would have guessed, Brady.

It was fine. It was beginners, wasn't it, being on that side, being on the interstates and stuff. I think a city with lots of turns and intersections you know that's next level yeah on our baby road trip today how many turns do you think we made 10 in the in the entire trip and i did three of them yeah it's in a it was a smaller version of it today but like one of my favorite things ever is is on a road trip when you punch in the directions and the sat nav says like oh yeah make a left-hand turn in 300 miles and it's like that was we did this the tiny version of that today but yes i

think there were basically 10 turns today and six of them were because you missed that turn off and then we had to like wiggle around to find our way back up the interstate because we were too busy talking and not listening yeah that's true we were paying zero attention to the sat nav uh and we were just chit-chatting and yeah i completely missed the turn off that's that's what makes it a road trip is you slightly slightly lost for at least a little bit yeah we got to go and see a whole other bunch of mcdonald's and daisies yeah it was a very different experience. So, Grey, you've got to watch me driving on the other side for the first time.

I know you've obviously lived in the UK for a very long time. Have you ever driven on my side of the road? No, I have never driven on the other side of the road. And as you laugh at me on the occasions when we drive somewhere, that even after all these years in the UK, I still always try to get in your car on the wrong side. And you always laugh at me. And I think it's completely reasonable. But you seem to think it's hilarious every time that I try to get into your car on the opposite side.

I do it. And I do it when I come to America. So, no, I've never driven on the other side but as part of my thoughts about trying to have a little bit more novelty in my life i'm toying with the idea of maybe trying to get a driver's license in the uk do you what was that involved do you because when i moved from australia to the uk I was able just to convert my Australian driver's license to a British one. There was like, I don't know, there's some treaty or some rule. So I didn't have to do like a driving test or the road rules.

They just like, show us your Australian license. Okay, you're legit. And they issued me with a British one. I think that's because you were part of the empire. Right. Whereas as punishment for breaking away. Right. Wasting all that tea i am not able to convert my u.s driver's license into a uk driver's license so you've got to like do the

whole so i've got to do a physical driving test to get a uk driver's license how do you feel about that well i found out from a friend that apparently there's a little bit of a trick, which is you can look up what the pass rates are in different regions that give the test. And everybody assumes that you have to take the test in the region where you live, but you don't at all. You can basically jurisdiction shop for which place seems to have the kindest teachers when it comes to the test. So I think if I ever do it, I'm 100% going to do that.

But yeah, it basically requires me as though I was a citizen of the UK who had never driven. Like I have to go through the whole process and there's some kind of written test as well. But I do find it, like I find it, it's a thought that I just, I've been having more frequently in combination to like what we've discussed about going into nature and hiking is like, well, if I want to do that kind of stuff more frequently, which I find myself attracted to, it's just not practical with trains to try to then go someplace to hike. So I've been thinking about maybe getting my driver's license, but I don't like the idea of taking a physical test because when I was a boy,

taking my driver's license test the first time, I didn't do very well. Right. And I couldn't parallel park for absolutely anything. Oh, I made a mess of my first parallel park. Parallel parking is a ridiculous skill. This should not be part of the test. I don't think this is a requirement.

Well, in all seriousness, in New York State, it's like a requirement that you can parallel park. Yeah, automatic fail if you don't nail it. Right, so I went to parallel park. What, like between two broomsticks in traffic cones sort of thing? Between two sticks? No, it was on an actual road somewhere. Oh, between actual cars?

Yeah, between actual cars. See, mine was just, they just set up two sticks in like an empty car park and you could get up between the sticks. Oh, that's, okay, that sounds much better to do it that way. Well, I still made a total mess of it the first time, but yeah. Yeah, no, my driving test was just on the roads in New York. Oh, you do it on the road, but made a total mess but yeah yeah no my driving test was not just on the like roads in new york oh you do it on the road but the parallel parking they would take us off into like an asphalt area to right oh i guess the idea is they don't want all these students

damaging yes but you had to do it you had to get it between two actual civilian cars two civilian cars and so you know you do the thing where you're like you line up with the first car and then i don't know you're supposed to look over your shoulder and like turn in the opposite direction who knows i immediately i just immediately mucked it up yeah and the woman who was giving me the test gave me this look like i was a total moron and i'll never i'll never forget as long as i live she said to me she said honey do you want to try that again? Which she's not supposed to do. And I was like

yes I really do. I really do. And so like we drove around a little bit and I tried it again and I did it just as badly the first time.

And I could not parallel park. I couldn't do it for anything anything but at the end of the test honestly this like sweet angel of mercy from heaven she said you did everything else great you're an incredibly cautious driver we're just gonna forget about that part about the parallel parking and she passed me oh she passed me even though I shouldn't have passed. I'm outraged by that. I got failed for it. Well, you know, that's what should happen.

So you passed your test first time. I passed my test and no exaggeration, I've literally never parallel parked in my entire life. Oh, that will change if you end up driving in England, especially in London. No, no, I'm only ever going to drive out of the city and then back home. I'm never going to drive out of the city and then back home i'm never going to parallel it's so easy now with sensors and area with parking sensors i

literally could parallel park with my eyes shut now because of sensors but if you if i ever drive a car now without sensors i will be completely like it's like a completely gone skill now but but sensors make make it so much easier i want one of the cars that does the automatic parallel parking if i ever have to do it right where you press the button and it just does it. But this is why I don't think you should have to do it on the test because it's like a whole lifetime of driving. And, you know, it's like all these skills in school. They're like, oh, you're going to need this every day.

No, maybe you don't. And parallel parking is like my driver's test version of this. Like, oh, you live in New York. You need to know how to parallel park. No, you don't. Not if you pick your parking spaces carefully and you don't mind walking a little farther. Yeah, fair enough.

But it is a very useful skill to have parallel parking. But I can see how if you're willing to make sacrifices. And when I was a new driver, I would avoid parallel parking at all times. So I failed my first driving test on parallel parking and that was fair enough. I made a mess of it. My second driving test, I was absolutely fine, and she gave me an automatic fail for allegedly making some other car

slow down far in the distance, like something I did, made some car like in another state momentarily ponder, maybe I will slow down for just a moment. And I swear this phantom car never existed that she says I made slow down as it was like. I'm still bitter about it. What, do you think she's just out to get you, the driver? Yeah, I do. I think I also, because they get paid per test as well.

And I think there's a whole little racket because my driving instructor would then pay their friend to do my test. Like, you know, here's my friend Bev and she does driving tests and she does driving tests for all my things. And then I've got to pay Bev a hundred bucks and do my test. And then she fails or passes me. So she's completely incentivized to fail me. I never, I never, I don't know if the system works the same in New York, but that sounds like a horrifically corrupt, like, like a cartel, right? Yeah. That's what I think it was. think it was oh yeah brady's mom's got a few bucks she'll probably pay for what do you reckon three tests before she loses patience so we'll we'll make harren a three tester uh so and so so and so's parents like they're gonna

they'll get pretty angry so they can get there straight away like i swear i swear outrageous i was i'm still a bit i'm still a bit better about it so but anyway i got it i got it in the end so how are you feeling about driving on the left like do you have trepidation or nerves or do you just think oh you know it'll be fine or just well i mean there's two things today watching you drive for the first time made me feel genuinely much better about, oh, this is probably a much more achievable skill. Because I think we were talking about it how you've been in America a bunch and you've never rented a car because you're thinking it's a much bigger deal than maybe it really is. And it seemed like you didn't think it was as big of a deal to switch sides as you were expecting. Yeah. And me seeing that gives me another piece to think like, oh, I've never really pursued driving in the UK. Partly because I live in London and it's not necessary.

But also partly because I've always assumed surely this must completely break your brain. But seeing you do it actually has inspired me. No. And gives me the confidence to try it in in the UK but in Euro Truck Simulator right when you switch between the continent and the UK is the hardest part of the game and I mess that up all the time but maybe because I'm not taking it fully seriously because it's a virtual game. Does the side of the truck you're driving on change?

Because I'm going to reference Matt again, Matt Parker, who I was talking about this problem switching with. And he said to me, when I come to America, it's easy because I'm on the other side of the car. But when he drives his British car over to the continent and has to drive on the other side, but in a car where it hasn't switched, he says that's really hard. That's a hard thing to get your brain around to be on the your usual side of the car so on the right side of the car for a brit but driving on the right hand side of the road

he says that is a brain breaker ah yes okay i could see that i could see that the seats don't change in truck simulator because i i put the camera to be on the top of the truck so it's like i'm flying over the road there's no seats at all and maybe i'll blame it on that are you gonna have like presumably you're gonna have like paid driving lessons when you when you go through this process like you know get taken out with an instructor and yeah i guess i don't know and then i'm gonna get sucked into this racket where they're where they're like oh this gray guy it looks like we can make him a five tester. But I imagine you're someone who wouldn't take well to driving lessons. Like it doesn't seem...

No, no. I mean, if past experience is anything to go by, I liked exactly none of it. But you know, you got to do stuff you don't like to get things that you want. And if I want to be able to drive in the UK at some point, I'm going like i'm just gonna have to suck it up and do it but uh no i don't anticipate that i would take well to driving lessons especially being in this situation of like i'm a grown-ass man who's driven thousands of miles like and now oh this is how you turn left in the car like yeah i know i know how to turn left in the car it Like, yeah, I know. I know how to turn left in the car. It's just, I've got a different problem here. Yeah. Is there a place in Britain that's like top of your list that once it becomes attainable, because you can drive, you go? Is there a place like in the UK that you've been thinking for a while, I'm gonna go check that one out. And you haven't been able

to get there yet. And you go, you know, that's going to be high on the... I would say one of the places that my wife and I have been joking about for the entire time that we have lived in the UK is the Lake District. And we love it as a joke because it's like every English person ever will reference to you and be like, but have you been to the Lake District? Yeah. As like, well, like we are pushing over a decade of having not been to the Lake District. But you really must go to the Lake District. And I feel like that's a thing that it seems like you just absolutely have to have a car to do it

in the proper way of like getting around and things. So it's not exactly a target, but we will finally close the circle in conversations where we can say, oh yes, we have been to the Lake District. You guys are basically taking the piss out of the term, how like how it's called the lake district yeah it's like you hear it so much it becomes this idea of like oh this place that must be amazing right the lake district it's where posh people go on holidays yeah so yeah i prefer the peak district i'm a i'm a peak

district man where is the peak district the peak district is like derbyshire so it's the peak district derbyshire helps me not at all. It's like... Why are you giving me these tiny geographic regions? Like, is it in the United Kingdom? Is that where Derbyshire is? Okay, great. Like, it's in... The peak district is sort of like

the middle of England. Near Nottingham where I used to live, which also probably doesn't help you because you used to just get a train there. It's close.

And the Lake District is further north. It's like beyond like Liverpool and Manchester getting up towards Scotland, but not quite. You're not quite inotland but towards scotland i'll tell you where you should go and funnily enough it's is it's not in the uk and that's ireland so you just get you'll be able to just nip across to ireland and ireland is a lovely place to drive around and do road trips for like

a week like around the ring of kerry and that's a very beautiful place to go driving. Yeah, but I don't think, I don't need my UK driver's license to do that. I think I can show up as an American tourist and go, hi, and rent a car. Just hire a car. Yeah, I don't live here. No.

I've just arrived from America. Can you please rent me a car? So I think I can do that without it. Maybe that's where you should go and practice your left-hand driving before you do your UK thing. Okay, that's not a bad idea. That's not a bad idea. And I think in in this very moment it had not really occurred to me that ireland also does left-hand

driving i know this is going to sound crazy but in this very moment i just realized that i had imagined like northern ireland does the left-handed driving and right and the rest of ireland doesn't do it that way they do it the right way so when you cross the border you swerve across like a scalextric set where you have that crossover like yeah like obviously if i had ever thought about it that couldn't possibly be true but i'm just realizing in this moment i hesitated for a second where it's like why are you bringing up ireland is this thing it's like oh right of course it's gonna it's gonna be the whole way it's gonna be the same you don't switch sides of the road when you cross from Ireland to Northern Ireland. No, you do not.

Yeah. Do it. All right. All right, I will. Good luck with the driving test. Thank you very much. Do you think they'll let me sit in the back and record it for Hello Internet? I will not let you sit in the back and record it for Hello Internet.

That will not happen, Brady, no.