Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Dan Solo

Episode Date: July 17, 2022

Daniel talks about slapping butts, and Soren tells a great story about topographical maps! And as always big thanks to our sponsors. Thanks Everlywell. 20% off an at-home lab test at everlywell.com/qq. Thanks to Jiminy's sustainable dog food made with cricket protein. Save 25% on your first purchase, go to jiminys.com/QQ25 and use code QQ25 at checkout. Thanks Raycon!.  For a limited time, go to buyraycon.com/qq for up to 15% off your entire Raycon order.

I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favorite? Who did you get? What do I be? What's it up with? Oh, forget it I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien When will I be remembered? Was it out there? Where did all that go? Did we not? Oh, forget it Saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien

Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer, they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here. for that podcast, senior writer for last week's Night with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents, and no spoilers, we'll get to what new type of guy I am later. Daniel O'Brien, joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Soren Bui. Soren, say, ooh, hi. Ooh, hello. I'm Soren Bui.

As Daniel said, I'm a television writer for American Dad, and I'm so excited to hear what type of people Dan is now. Yeah. Do you have any guesses? Yes. I think you're mountain people. I'm mountain people now. That's right. Oh, I knew it. I had such a good feeling about that. Recently in Colorado for a wedding and because of work remote situations, every like one thing I have to like every one day event that i have to do i'm

going to turn into like a week of staying somewhere new just because you can so i had a week in fort collins colorado and i did some like ran the gamut of uh what can be considered hiking just like very basic nature walks around like devil's backbone in fort collins area and like slightly more challenging 5k up something called Arthur's Rock which has like a thousand foot elevation change and then a 10k uh in Boulder at Bear Canyon which had a massive elevation change especially at the end and you get some great 360 views at the top and then the last day before I went back home, did my first outdoor rock climbing climbing,

where you're like, you're in a harness and you've got a rope. And I'm that type of person now. I'm a climber now. I'm very, not just a mountain person, not just hiking. I am climber now. Now, do you know what the rating was on the climb you did? No. Okay.

Were you wearing actual you did? No. Okay. Were you wearing, were you wearing actual climbing shoes? Yes. I was borrowing the bride and groom for this wedding took me and my friend Elise out the Monday after the wedding to go climbing and they had spare harnesses and helmets and all the gear that we would want. And, uh, and we just traded shoes back and forth. Okay. That's called top roping. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And did somebody go up, did somebody lead climb it and set the top rope

or did they walk up around the top of it and set it? There was, we pull off the side of the road and it's like a five or seven minute walk to the top of this cliff overlooking water. And there are like already anchors set up at the top. this cliff uh overlooking water and there are like already anchors set up at the top this is a popular climbing areas there there are anchors there uh the groom attached his stuff to that anchor and he climbed down by himself the rest of us sort of found a way to to scramble down and meet him at the bottom okay so you guys are up with

this i see yeah so that's great that's like a great introduction because your outdoor climbing is very, very different than indoor climbing. And I would say like a million times better because I know you meditate, Dan. And when you're sitting there on the rock, trying to like find your next handhold, it could be anything. It's not like you have like, there's like, you don't have like four options and you know what they look like. Cause they're all bolted into a wall. You're just like, okay, let's see. Yeah. Could I use that? No, that's going to peel away. Oh, that. And like, you got, Oh, this is all dusty. Like you just, you find it as you go. And it's so, it's so like, it's all you think about in the moment. It's wonderful.

Yeah. There's, there's a lot more lot more uh make it up as you go that i then i thought there would be there's still like you can see if there's a part of the rock face that is super chalky you can put together that like yeah people have used that a lot so that's probably a good way to go um but there's not there's there's not like when i sat with the the the people we were with before doing it i wasn't i wanted to know like all right so what do you what what route are you taking what path are you taking and they're just like well we're gonna go up we're gonna use our our hands and feet and our bodies and we're gonna go up this thing until we're at the top and there really is a whole lot of like pausing midway through the thing and being like, all right, now what?

Let me try to like scramble to the side. Let me move laterally to see if that's any better. Nope. All right. Back to this other part. And really just like figuring out in a way that felt like cool and natural. Thanks to EverlyWell for supporting. Quick question.

EverlyWell is a digital healthcare designed for you, all at an affordable and transparent price. With over 30 at-home lab tests, you'll be able to choose the test that makes the most sense for you to get the answers you need, like the women's health test or food sensitivity test. Everly Well is offering a special discount of 20% off an at-home lab test at everlywell.com slash QQ. This episode is brought to you by Jiminy's, maker of sustainable dog food made with cricket protein. Cricket protein is a superfood that is delicious, nutritious, and easy to digest for dogs. Save 25% on your first purchase.

Go to jiminy's.com slash QQ25 and use code QQ25 at checkout. Thanks to Raycon for supporting Quick Question. With Raycons, you can get the same quality audio as other premium audio brands, but at half the price. Go to Raycon.com slash QQ to get 15% off your order. Exclamation point. Now, we had a saying, Dan, when I would climb. 40 years ago.

Whenever I used to climb in a different life there was no falls no hangs no slips no drips no errors and what that means is like as you're climbing if you're you're never using the heart like your weight is never on the rope at all there's always like some slack in the rope every single move you're doing like you're not your feet aren't like scraping down the wall of it that you're as you move like you may not always put your hand or foot in the right place but like it's everything is really deliberate and you just make it up the wall without anything that looks like oh oh that was a mistake and And trying to flash a route, which means like, you're just going to, you get to the bottom of it, you look at it and then you send it. And

like on the first try, that was like, that was the best thing you could possibly do on a climb. Did you do that on this climb? No, I think because it was my first time and the bride and groom and their friend, who's also a regular climber, they've like done this introductory climb with a bunch of people. I was getting a tremendous amount of help from the, the, the very fit 200 pound person who was belaying me. Yeah. There was,

there was a lot. I was, and I saw pictures of myself afterwards where I'm just like, like hands and knees perfectly parallel to the wall, like Spider-Man. It was it was like okay so that's not entirely me yeah there is definitely you can if you're belaying somebody and like they're stuck in a section you can it doesn't take much for you to just like essentially lift them past that section yes yeah and i i do think that happened at one point where i was really struggling with

one part of this difficult climb and then i heard the guy from down below was like hey you made it past that one section so i think you could just move your foot there now and i was like i don't remember moving it past that section but here i am um i have i have so many questions because i because climbing was uh i was reincarnated as whatever i am now and i used to be a clammer um but did you belay at all no no okay i think they they really these these friends of mine really like have this down at this point to like introduce new people to climbing and give them the the easiest possible track to do it did you enjoy the language of belay uh like climb climb on belay belay yes yeah i love that shit give me a give me a some some codes and rituals

absolutely 100 oh my god it's like it's it's just fits right into that wheelhouse of mine of like these are the rules and this is how it goes and and you're like you're told what to do and if you Oh my God. It's like, it's, it's just fits right into that wheelhouse of mine of like, these are the rules and this is how it goes. And you're like, you're told what to do. And if you do it right, then that's how you live. And I'm like, yeah, I love that. I love that. Cause for people who don't know, you see on somebody's belaying, that means that they've got the other end of the rope while you're climbing. And they've, they've got this device called an ATC and like the rope's just feeding through it, and they're using both hands on that. There's a real skill to it

because you can't let go with one particular hand or the other person could die. And at the beginning of the climb, the person who's on belay says, or the person who's climbing says belay on, and the person says on belay, and then they check the ropes. They make sure that the person who's climbing says belay on, and the person says on belay. And then they check the ropes. They make sure that the person who's climbing

has a figure eight tied into their, a figure eight knot tied into their harness. And then a little safety knot at the top. They like examine it for the other person. So there's a double check there. And then they say, okay. And then the climber says, okay, climbing. And you say, climb on.

And like, that's like a real like back and forth. It's like Marco Polo thing that happens every single time for every climber. It's wonderful. Yeah. It's great. And so that's why I'm a climbing guy now. And I'm looking up new equipment that I could buy for my climbing lifestyle.

It's going to, it's, I, I, I feel like such a strange child lunatic that every year when Christmas or my birthday rolls around and I tell my parents, my family, everyone in my life is like, hey, I'm into this now. I know last year I wanted you guys to chip in and buy me an easel and some paints, but forget all that. It's climbing now. What about your fishing? Fuck fishing. Who even is talking about fishing? Fishing. That's killing animals.

I've always been against that. I'm a vegan climber. What is happening? Well, you'll be excited to know that I found a new thing I didn't know existed. Have you heard of REI resupply? Yeah. Is that in they have like their own stores for that now right or is it just yeah it's it's nordstrom the rack for rei yeah i i when i found out about this i lost my shit

uh this a couple days ago because we're going camping with ronan and gilly very soon and there's a bunch of things that i clearly don't have for gilly yet like a sleeping bag and i don't have a i don't have a two burner stove. I didn't, I wanted to get a big camping mat, like a big, big one that we could all sleep on. Just one second. Yeah. Just leave it. Just leave it. Yeah. And so I, there's like tons of stuff that I wanted to get. And so I went to REI and I'm kind of like looking around and I'm like, fuck,

I forgot how expensive camping stuff was. And as I'm walking around with this guy, he's being very helpful. And he was like, Hey, you know, you could try and find a stove over at the REI resupply. And I was like, what is that? He's like, Oh, there's like two stores over. There's this place where you go that all the returns come there that are too damaged or too whatever to not go back on the sales floor. So it could be that they just didn't have their box anymore. Could be a lot of different things. Somebody used it like a sleeping bag that has some hair in it.

They won't put that back out on the floor. And so all the stuff goes out to REI resupply. And I went there. It got everything. Like everything and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't know I needed there. Because it was like everything i could possibly need i found the mat that i wanted for like less than less it was like 60 off and i was like they're like but it leaks and i'm like yeah i know how to fix a leak it's fine and so just took it home it has a patch kit with it you just find the leak fixed it and it was took me like half an hour and now it's the

best mat in the world yeah um but they had climbing shoes there and i was like do i want to get back into climbing i think you do the opportunity is here there's a gym that's very close to me um outdoor climbing closest places like malibu but there's climbing to be had here. Yeah. It's, I mean, I think if you want to strengthen our relationship, it would really go, like it's, in any relationship, it shows to the other person how much you care if you take an interest in things that are important to them. So like for me, it's climbing. If you would just show an interest in climbing, which I've always been passionate about, that would really be meaningful to me. It like for me, it's climbing. If you would just show an interest in climbing, which I've always been passionate about, that would really be meaningful to me.

It is. Yeah. It is strange that I haven't until this point, because this has been such a lifestyle thing for you for so long. Why do you think I moved so far away from you? I shoehorned running into this podcast so frequently. I should have been focused on your real passion. Absolutely. into this podcast so frequently, I should have been focused on your real passion. Absolutely. I moved away from Los Angeles to New Jersey.

We're climbing abounds. I don't even know where you'd go. You have to go all the way to Poconos? I'm going to go to the Gunks in upstate New York, sort of like Catskills area. There's some really beautiful pictures online if you want to look it up and they're also uh scary every picture of the climbing is scary i found well so there's there's different types of climbing obviously you know at this point because you yeah you're climbing people but there's i'm the guy i'm i am free solo. I'm John Solo from that movie.

From that movie. Okay, so trad climbing. Have you heard of that? No, who's he? Okay, trad climbing is the next guy below Joe Solo. Oh, wow. No, trad climbing is

climbing with like it's not sport climbing. There's no like anchors along the way or there's no, it's not sport climbing. There's no like anchors along the way or there's no little bolts along the way. There's just, you're just like on a rock face that no one has touched and you're climbing it and you're setting gear as you go. You're setting these little nuts.

There's all kinds of little tools that you can like cram into slots to try and like protect yourself. But if you fall on that stuff and it doesn't, it just like rips right out of the wall. And like a lot of times when people do try climbing, they'll set lots and lots of gear because they know that when they fall, at least like two of those are going to rip out.

And then you end up falling like 30 feet before you catch on something, before you catch on a nut or something. It's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. And I don't get it. And I got to plunge all these nuts into the gunks. It's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying, and I don't get it. I've got to plunge all these nuts into the gunks. It's going to be so tough. But then there's sport climbing and lead climbing and sport climbing,

and that's way more, I think, yours and my speed. What that is is you've got a sling around your shoulder, and on it are what are called quick draws, which are carabiners on each end of this little piece of climbing webbing. It's like a foot long of climbing webbing. And as you're going up, as you get to an anchor,

you're just popping one off your sling, hooking it onto the bolt that's in the wall and then setting your rope through it, like feeding your rope through the other end. And so as you fall, anytime that you fall, you're never gonna fall further than that anchor. You know what I mean? And so it is scary. It's because there's definitely between anchors, there's maybe like, depending on the

route, there can be like 15 feet. So that means that when you fall, if you fell all the way to the next anchor, you're not only falling that 15 to the previous one, but the rope now has an extra 15 feet in it. So you're falling 30. You know what I mean? Yeah. But, but you know, don't, as long as you're doing routes that are like, Oh no, this is, I, you know, your wheelhouse, like, you know, like I, I'm like a five, nine climber. I'm not going to go any higher than that or whatever. Yeah. Then you can, you know, when you're on a five nine route you're like oh i know i could just do this and then as you're going you're just setting these

and it feels so cool to be setting them and like setting the anchor at the top it's like that's where you start feeling like i think i might be a climber i think i'm really good at this i think i'm i'm pretty pretty far off from setting anchors personally. I don't think so. I think you'd find that you could do it pretty. If somebody just showed you, you'd be like, okay, when I get up there, I'll set that. Yeah. My coworker is a big climber and I was talking to him about this and he's very excited.

And he has sent me a whole bunch of gear to check out, which is, which is not, I look at any opportunity to go to REI. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take it all. But he has completely jumped very far ahead in my climbing life. What's he sending you? He is sending me, I want to make sure I find this exact thing. Hold, please. Yeah, he was sending me this one black diamond climbing package.

But the problem he describes with this one is the ATC belay device it comes with is good. But I'm not going to want that because I'm going to want to climb multi-pitch where you climb up to the anchor, gather the rope, and then keep climbing up after you get to the top. And I'll need a different type device for that. And I'm like, I'm not sure I'm ready for all that. He wants to take you on a multi-pitch climb. Yes.

Yeah. I mean, that sounds cool. It does. It's terrifying though. I've climbed once. Yeah. Boy. And he says, so that ATC doesn't work for a multi-pitch?

I mean, I guess I've never really done a true multi-pitch i mean i guess i've never really done a true multi-pitch i i it's gonna shock you but neither have i yeah crazy crazy i mean it was in your blood that you haven't done it yet yeah um you know you know what that is though right blood yeah i'm not a coward multi-pitch is so you're like i guess what he's probably talking about is you get to a level of where there's like natural rock where you can like, you can set up shop and you're okay. You feel comfortable on a ledge. But you look at people like they're doing half dome or something like that. No, El Cap.

Sorry, El Cap. That they, as they're going up, like it's just a rock face. So they get up to a certain point where their rope basically doesn't go any further. And they're like, all right, we'll set up here. And then they bivouac there, which means that they set up like a little platform, a fabric platform up there on the side of the wall. And they're like, okay, let's go up the rest of the way. And that's wild to me.

I've never done anything like that. I don't yet have it in me to do the scarier and harder version of a thing that is already pretty scary and hard i'm gonna spend a little time doing this novice level scary and hard before i work up if i ever work up to something else i have a i have a big question for you go and this is a like this is a safe place you can be honest here you got to the top and you touched the anchor. And then they're like, okay, come on down. What did you do?

I slapped my ass. What are you supposed to do? Did you just lean back? Like you're like, I trust this rope completely. And now I will belay down and I'll just lean back all the way. Yeah. Or did you freak out up there? No, I leaned back.

lean back all the way yeah or did you freak out up there no i lean back uh it's i trusted this person who i'd met two nights ago uh with my entire life with my literal life and even the first person who belayed me was uh the groom and then the second person who belayed me was was a friend of the groom and as he was like offering to blame me, he was like, now I understand if you want to go with him, if you know him better, like, like truly, I understand, uh,

relationships are important. And I was like, that fucking rules. I trust you. You're awesome. That's the best. More like relationships. Get on there.

I'm going up. What do you, did you not hear me say relationships? Oh fuck. No, I thought you said relationships. No, he said it. And then I said it to you, and that's why I liked him.

Yeah, I don't know that I like him anymore. This is what I'm talking about, where I feel like you're not taking an active interest in the things that are important to me. Take action today for a healthier tomorrow with Everly Well. Their at-home lab tests and vitamins and supplements can help you get the knowledge and support you need so you can become a healthier you. Hey, you ever walk into a store and you

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much more quickly than I was even getting them from my doctor. It was really helpful to see it all laid out for me and to know exactly what I needed to do and where I needed to go with my own doctor to figure out how to make myself just, you know, peak performance. What's Soren on his best day look like? I want

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Come over here and get your Jiminy's. To learn more and save 25 on your first purchase go to jiminy's.com slash qq25 and use code qq25 at checkout that's j-i-m-i-n-y-s.com slash qq25 with code qq25 say good night jackson all right you little scamp. So I freaked out the first time I had to do that because I got to the top. I had never, there had been no weight on my harness. And then all of a sudden they're like, all right, now just lean back into your harness. And I was like, oh, fuck you.

Like, it's just a fall behind me. If I lean back, I know what happens. The guy who, the groom who taught us there is a teacher in real life, not of climbing, but is a very good teacher. And you could feel that energy when he is very patiently going through everything. And even in the beginning, he was like, all right, I'm going to have you go up just a few feet. And then I'm going to have you lean back into the harness so you can feel what that's like. Just so it's not a surprise when you get to the top. And so I was prepped for that thanks to his incredible teaching.

Oh, this guy rules. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't do that. I got up there and I was like, oh. They're like, let go. Let go of the rock. Let go. I'll just climb down. No, I live here the rock, let go. I'll just climb down.

No, I live here. I live here now. I could just, you know, we're not at the top yet. I could just keep going up and we'll see where like, maybe I could walk down once I get up there. Especially if you do ever do like an overhang or like, there's a sort of like bulge in the rock where you get to the top and you can't see anyone below you. Yeah.

And you're just like, all right, walk off the rock backwards. No to the top and you can't see anyone below you yeah and you're just like all right walk off the rock backwards no that doesn't feel great okay yeah like falling fall on yeah ah well hold on when i did that when i said the thing about uh slapping my butt is that not a thing you do when you're ready to descend? No, we would say falling. Oh, we would slap our butts. I like that better, I'm going to be honest. I think I might steal it. I think it's such a, like, that's a steering into the skid moment

because the thing about climbing, we learned, is that everyone who's down below, you're just getting so much ass. And that's one of the other, certainly one of the issues if you're up there you're like, hey someone take my picture. It's like, no you want the person taking your picture to be like also climbing and on your level or someone coming from above because every shot looking up at you is pure ass. That's not flattering. Yeah, there's no demure way to do it so i think when i'm at the top i'm like hey i'm gonna i'm gonna slap the only thing you've been able to see this

whole time to let you know that i'm ready to come down now yeah it's hard to get like a good pose for a picture while you're climbing yeah you think you're doing like some cool ass shit like you're like look at these this little tiny jib that i got my fingers on get a picture get a picture and then you see it and it's just you're kind of like hunched over and it looks kind of like you're like, look at these, this little tiny jib that I got my fingers on. Get a picture, get a picture. And then you see it and it's just, you're kind of like hunched over. And it looks kind of like you're maybe climbing a ladder. It's impossible to tell how difficult what you're doing actually is. Well, Daniel, you became a mountain man. I did, yeah.

Not only from this climbing in Fort Collins, around Fort Collins or wherever you were in Colorado, but also because you went on a mountain trip before that, right? I did. I actually went on three mountain trips total. Okay. Before I saw you, I was in Topanga Canyon, which is kind of mountainy, and did a hike every day while I was there. And there was a really cool tree, and I hung out at the tree.

I know that sounds very silly, but the Airbnb listing was like, right in our backyard, there's a 300-year-old tree that was important to Native Americans, and people get married there, renew their vows there, and they take lots of pictures.

You should really check out this tree. And I'm like, bullshit, it's just a tree. And then I saw the tree, and I was like, I think I'm going to spend every morning, and I'm like bullshit it's just a tree and then I saw the tree I was like I think I'm gonna spend every morning and I've never done this before paying tribute and thanking the tree I think I need to like honor this tree for just being this like a big-ass tree like it was very spiritually moving tree to me okay sure that oak just a really old oak yeah okay and I love the shit out of it.

The other great thing about this spot, it was I had like three days to kill in Topanga Canyon before I moved on to the next part of our trip, which we'll get to later. And I was like, I'm going to spend this whole time hiking and writing.

It's going to be a nice writer's retreat, and I'm going to wake up and hike every day. I didn't do a lick of writing. I did a whole lot of hiking and writing. It's going to be a nice writer's retreat. And I'm going to wake up and hike every day. I didn't do a lick of writing. I did a whole lot of hiking and exploring and running. And the other thing I loved about this place, it was like this very old Bohemian cottage thing. And when I got there, the Airbnb host was a bundle of stress because a bunch of things were broken in the Airbnb house. And I recognized how stressful she was. And I was so excited because I never get to be the chill presence for anyone. I'm never the calm one.

I can't pull it off anywhere I go because everyone knows me too well for me to pull that off effectively. But I'm a stranger i'm a complete stranger to this person who on airbnb goes by the name d i'm d when i'm on vacation and i and she's like d i'm so sorry that this is broken that's broken and i'm like hey hey don't worry about it it's fine like she was like offering to give me refunds for things i was like i don't need this is exactly what i want it to be you're really great no no refunds for things. I was like, I don't need, this is exactly what I want it to be. You're really great. No refunds necessary. And one of the things that was broken, she was like, I'm just, the toilet's broken. And I was like, does it still, does the toilet still flush? And she said, yes, it still flushes. And I was like, that's what I was going to use it for.

So I'm, I'm, I'm not worried. Remember, I'm very chill. And she was like, I know, I just don't want you to cut yourself on the toilet. It's like, well, in that case, say more. Apparently, the person who had used it last had like shattered the top of the tank lid, that thing that comes off and on. And this is one of the toilets where the flusher is built to the top of that. So the flusher still worked, but like the lid was like fucking jagged and gnarly so like you really did need to pay attention if you were gonna sit down on this toilet which i i i did from time to time but it was fine it was it was uh

broken toilet and then there was also like ants in no the the kitchen and d was fine with that d was super fine with that when Dee was super fine with that. When I was talking to this woman about the ants, I could see her like sweating and turning red. And I was like, lady, an old house with a finicky toilet and ants. I've been training for this. You couldn't get a better guest for this kind of situation. I'm your guy.

This was your slumdog millionaire moment. Yeah, absolutely. Your whole life had led to this. Yeah. And then after Topanga, I went to Idlewild, California for what, Soren? Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. Soren Bui's 40th birthday party. Woo.

I realized my voice broke when I said that and it didn't come off as, it was kind of like cool as I wanted it to be. Sure. Do you want to do another take? No, you know what? This is ass you're talking to. He doesn't give a shit.

Oh, absolutely. Uh, yeah. So we had my, I feel like I'm back in a nineties commercial for sketchers. Cause it's the S I had a question, a quick question for you actually about my birthday

go do you enjoy yourself i had a fucking blast okay that's great to know because just like at the end of our wedding uh i didn't i didn't make any ordinarily when you're playing host to something or like it's you are the one who organized a trip um during it you're like you're one of your main goals is to make sure everyone is like you're checking in whether you're doing it in a very explicit sense where you're just like hey are you doing okay are you having fun or you're just like you're getting you're doing a heat check on everybody around you to make sure everybody's having a good time i didn't do shit i didn't do any of that i just it was entirely selfish i only did stuff for myself

on the trip and then at the end i was like huh i wonder if everybody else had a good time i think it was it was like like a palpably fun and chill time for everyone you invited a bunch of great people you got us all little cabins in this in this compound so we got our cabins to retreat to and there was a great outdoor space for food and drinks and hanging out and playing uh lawn games and if you ever wanted even more alone time you could just walk into town and explore this cute little very specific artistic mountain town it was great i not a single complaint i was talking about it to everyone i knew uh when i when i got back from it it was just just just the incredible host no complaints my only weird

thing and it had nothing to do with with this party but like uh two impulses that i found in myself that uh are difficult when i'm around you in real life now one One of them was when I got there, I had things to say to you, but, but impulsively I thought I should save that for the podcast. I should, I should hold back. I haven't seen you in a year and a half. I, but like, I think this Topanga stuff would be good for the pod. So let me just, just like keep that in the pocket for a while and not tell him. And the the other the other difficult impulse is the whole time i'm on this trip i'm thinking about how i would describe this to you on the podcast like well no he's here now he like but that sucks because this is the only thing i'm doing

this is if soren wasn't here this would be like an episode's length of, of information and stories to tell. But now I can't, I'm just like, I'm just burning through this content. You can't ever move back to Los Angeles because the podcast is over at that point. If we hang out, it like the, there's, there's this, this whole thing doesn't exist anymore. There's no point to it. Um, yeah. So it was great to see you. was great having you there yeah uh and we put you in a room that was uh i would say i think after like looking at them all i decided was the worst room really uh yeah i just it was so much smaller and the air conditioner was uh was not as good man i was taking pictures of it and sending it to my friends i was so excited i was so excited because the toilet worked and it wasn't full of ants you saw that my brother in amy's room

and that room was that had like a living room or that cabin had like a living room and stuff yeah what was i going to do with that i think it's the the exact right size for the amount of space I realistically need. Good. That's good to hear. Okay, good. And then I also, you got me a present on my birthday. I asked, I said that I wanted you to get me something. I said, you don't have to get me anything, but I said, if you, but you should get me something and it should be something that hurts you financially. Correct. It didn't matter what it was, as long as it was damaging to you in a fiscal sense yeah and you found me a a hat from topanga canyon it says topanga right on it yeah to ping on it and let me know the trip uh yeah the whole thing of it is, it's your birthday weekend was the purpose for my trip to California,

but it was prohibitively expensive to fly in just for that trip. Like the day of the trip, if I flew in Saturday morning, that was a more expensive flight than flying in Wednesday, which is when I did fly in. But then if I'm flying in wednesday i have to get an airbnb for the few days before the trip and i have to rent a car too and so i think between like flights and airbnb and car and like all the restaurants that i went to the three days that i was staying in in topanga that adds up and and you throw in like a hat at at tourist prices, then it's really adding up. Well, this was a financially irresponsible thing for me to do. Right.

And I'm, I wanted you to know how appreciative I am that you did. Oh, thank God. I really liked that you did it. And I'm so happy that you were there and I had a lot of fun. And I wanted to make sure you had fun because there were definitely times where I loosed drugs, I loosed drugs on the crowd and encouraged. And I said, Daniel, do you want some? And you, without fail, said no. Yeah, I think it's, I don't know if we want to name the drugs because we're not narcs. And I don't care who did the drugs. Everyone is responsible or a responsible adult.

And you offered me a drug that was like, to me, a scarier drug. And I was like, oh, no, thank you. I think if I'm ever going to try that, I'm not i'm not gonna do it like i didn't know everybody here super well and i was in a new area and like i don't want to put a new drug in a new area around new people that seems like uh like a scary situation to me if i'm having a bad time with a drug i think if i'm gonna do this drug i'm gonna do it you know quietly alone in prison i don't know like a controlled situation. So I was like, no, thank you to this drug.

And then you were like, okay. And you offered me a much more normal drug. And I was like, oh, no, thank you to that also. I lied before. It's all drugs. They're all scary to me. I mean, it's just, so everyone knows, it was just crack. It's just like a little bit of crack.

A tiny bit. We just wanted Dan to just like a little bit of crack a tiny bit like we wanted dan to just try yeah and again like if it was just you and me driving around sure i'd do it but we're in the mountains what if i get lost you and me on a road trip we're bored anyway because we're absolutely driving yeah got nothing else to do let's do a little crack come on we're done playing i spy we did all the road games we wanted to do and now there's crack and it would be stupid not to use it because it goes bad um the drug the drug that i offered daniel first was a hallucinogen and uh we were all taking what i thought were going to be very small doses and um got like as I'm like handing it out I'm like this is how much we're supposed to take like this would just be like a fun night it's not gonna get it wouldn't be crazy or anything

because that's what I had heard from the person who gave it to me yeah and a thing I think should be pretty clear now is that like the person who gives you drugs cannot be trusted on what a normal amount of drugs is they don't know that should be true across the board anyone who's like has the drugs and is giving you drugs like they're there's they have calibrated their systems to a different amount than you yes um and so we we took it and immediately like within half an hour 45 minutes everyone is just like, oh man, oh man, this is going to be a night. And they're like, all right, we're all going to dinner. Oh, okay. All right. Let's all go to dinner. And like, so there's just kind of like a cadre of

people within larger group who are all very, very, very high at dinner. Like really trying to keep it together and i gave a when i was kind of peeking on it i gave a speech uh to the table yeah about how happy i was to have everyone there and also thank my wife because she yeah organized the whole trip and in the middle of it i was just like i think this is going bad i think this is going bad and freaking out a is going bad. And freaking out a little bit. And then like, just like hustling through it, getting through it and then sitting down. But at the end, I was like,

you know, you didn't have to do it then. You had lots of opportunities. You didn't have to just do that right there. I would say no one seemed like they were super freaking out or anything. The only times I felt like I noticed something would be like I would on the walk from our cabins to the restaurant. I did one of my bits or jokes to someone like, like just, you know, a funny little observational thing.

The reason that you want me at a party. People expect jokes from me. And I could like see there was like recognition from the person that a joke had happened. And there was like a little bit of laughter to it. And I was like, Oh, they find different things funny right now. They're,

they're, they're responding to a different kind of thing than what I can give them. Like this, like sharp ass joke is not going to be as interesting as that tree or that sign. They're like, they found a new level of content to explore. Right.

They're the sunglasses that they're wearing are producing such a strange, colorful hue on the universe. They're like, oh, you're doing jokes. Oh, that's cute. We passed a barbershop that was called Mountain Dews,

like hairdo. And I loved it so much and I was pointing it out to everyone and I was like, why doesn't anyone like wordplay right now? Why is the wordplay joking up? This is the funniest fucking sign I've ever seen in my life.

Why am I alone in this? The M's were mountains. Yeah. It was a good sign. If you're like me, then you bike 3.2 miles to the gym every day and then you bike 3.2 miles back and then during that time,

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And now I can't get enough. It's been great. And what's made it great is my Raycon earbuds, because as I'm riding, I don't get that whipping sound in my ears that I get from all my other headphones when I'm trying to ride my bike and listen to headphones at the same time. My earbuds from Raycon don't have that. And I don't understand why they just fit so snugly that it's not an issue. Well, we're teaming up with Raycon. Go to buyraycon.com slash QQ to save 50% off Raycons. Raycon everyday earbuds look, feel, and sound better than ever. With optimized gel tips for the perfect in-ear fit, these earbuds

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My guess is that you're going to want to leave a five-star review too. Go to buyraycon.com slash qq today to get 15% off your Raycon order. That's buyraycon.com slash qq to score 15% off. Buyraycon.com slash qq. But yeah, I had a great time. I had an absolutely wonderful time there with everybody. And then it was exactly the right amount of time too. Yeah. And I think you did what is like what must be an amazing gift because everybody else at that party, except me for very cool reasons, was married with children. And for a lot of them, this was their first time away from their children. And that's like i you you knew that and did it on purpose and organized this six months in advance and i you could see in everybody

what like a a rare gift that was to just to be able to sit around and be an adult and not have to worry about kids running around everyone obviously loved their kids and talked about their kids the whole time and checked in with their kids often. But it's also like, it's your birthday, but this was such a nice win for everybody. Just a really well put together shindig. Thank you. And I will tell Colleen that as well, because she's really the one who put it together. But that was a super important thing to me was that the kids weren't there because also it's just sitting there and talking with people without children. I was like, oh, I haven't actually spoken to you in six years where like, I see these people, I see them in my life occasionally, but there's always your,

your, your attention is divided and you can't like have like a real conversation. Right. You can get into something, but you need to be something you can walk away from at any minute when your child swallows a thing. Yeah. I thought it was very strange and very telling at one point where you're like, so Colleen, where do you work now? What are you, what do you do? Are you still mostly doing the same stuff? What's up with you? Are you happy where you are? Yeah, it was, it was so much fun. It such a blast for me and i got to like it just like getting ready for it knowing like okay these are the games i want to bring i brought games that we never even ended up playing but just like i knew we wouldn't get through everything but just

i wanted to have it already i had the slack line we never set that oh man yeah i'm not about that that would have been fun but i i don't know when we would have done it because it was really yeah uh uh a chill but still like packed weekend there was still stuff to do and i had a very strange thing for a person to have on their bucket list but i really wanted to run with a friend of yours who's like a super competitive runner i watched him run uh at i think both your wedding and your bachelor party and i was still running for both those things but not running as much as i am now and i remember leading up to this party being like is he gonna be there and then looking at

the email list like all right he's gonna be there i'm gonna ask him if i can run with him and i did that which was like like i was very excited to be able to run with a very serious runner who was generous and going slower with me than he would normally like to run and running fewer miles than he would prefer to run but it was still like felt very cool to me like yeah i can't wait to go to soren's birthday and run with his friend from college yeah no i totally get that he's it's like somebody who's it's their life you're like yeah oh let me see how i stack up against somebody who's like this is their entire existence yeah and he's very generous where he's a few yards ahead of me trotting along and he's like what do you think

should we turn back down like yeah i think maybe turning back would be good we both made this decision together yeah he is a that's my friend, Will Mead, who is an athletic phenom. Like it's a, he's never, there's never been a sport that he is bad at. And he's like insanely good at everything. And not just the macro skill stuff. Like he's good at basketball. He's good at football.

He's good at ultimate Frisbee, but also like very minute stuff. Like if you were going to play beer pong with him or something, he'd be like i don't know i don't really play and then you start playing he'd just be like sinking everything because his hand-eye coordination is just excellent yeah you've you've uh accumulated a very specific group of friends and it was never more clear than we were at the we did this you took us on a hike and then a picnic at the top of the hike. And then you and your college buddies, it was like four people, all very fit, all very nice, juggling.

Like, this is a very, I'm so glad you all found each other in college and stayed close. This is an incredibly specific. Well, first we threw rocks at a stump. Yeah. First we had a competition to see who could hit a stump. Played that game for a while. Well, everyone else just sort of stump. Yeah. First we had a competition to see who could hit a stump. Play that game for a while. Well, everyone else just sort of waited. Yeah.

We all watched you play throw rocks at stump. And then you all juggled for a while. And then everyone just started juggling. Yeah. It's great to see you thriving exactly where you belong. You've found your tribe. Thank you. It was also two other things that were

great one what i talked to a co-worker of yours who said so many great things about you at american dad and how confident he is in your position there in ways that i don't know if he says it to you but he's like i think soren's he's like in his he's secure i I think he's really, he was really bragging about your latest script. Oh, wow. That felt good for me to hear as your friend. And the other thing I didn't know until this trip was, and like I knew you were good at your job, but it's still cool to hear from someone. It's always amazing. Who was just like, hey, I don't know if you know this about your buddy soren but he's he's kicking ass

at his job and i'm like i assume but it's it's validating to hear that um but the other thing i didn't know how fucking fast your wife was she and her college friend were talking about competitive races that they used to do yeah she's running like sub five minute miles like a like a fucking maniac holy hell yeah she used to uh her and her friend meredith who was also there they used to run uh d3 but they did were an insanely good team it was like a weird circumstance where a bunch of uh these women all fell into this d3 school but were should have been like d2 d1 runners yeah uh so for they ran track but mostly it was cross country and in cross country they were just they excelled they were so good and uh it also it made them a

little crazy during it too you know because when you're when you're dedicating yourself to a sport and then you're also doing school and then i was like hey you want to be my girlfriend there's like another thing there all of a sudden where i didn't realize the damage i was doing where i was like oh we're going out tonight she's like i gotta i have to run at six in the morning and then again later that day and i was like yeah but i don't so let's go like forcing her out so yeah it is a very specific thing like when meredith was talking about there was a time where they thought they would just be runners professionally. That is a different world. There are not many people who are runners professionally.

Yeah. I mean, I don't even know how you'd make a career. I guess you'd have to win events and that's. Yeah. And get like sponsorships or go to the Olympics. I don't even know. I don't, I have no idea. I have no idea how to do that.

But yeah they they it was like their world for a long time and then they just very they gave up on it and they've like found other things to be obsessive about yeah now she's the fastest at throwing birthday parties for you soren how does that feel you robbed the world of the fastest woman alive sir i will say that when we sat down to dinner the second night we basically we had a room at a restaurant that was for us and our big group at a giant table it was really nice and then these menus came out and they said soren's 40th birthday menu and it was like this decided on menu yeah based on meals that i she knew i liked and that we thought other people would like and uh i was like, oh boy, what did we do for year 40? Because at this point, like she found the place.

She found the place where we stayed. She found the restaurant. She'd been talking with them. And there's like an attitude in Idlewild of like, let's just see what happens. And that's not what she wants for a very chill party of 13 people where she's like i'd really like to be confirmed that we can get catering on this day and they're like well yeah i mean it's fourth of july weekend so we'll see and she's like no no no uh hard verbal confirmation would be better um but uh

she spent so much time like organizing this thing in addition to her normal job, which takes up a ton of her time. And I just am so lucky, so lucky to be with her. Um, but yeah, I, I had like these moments. It's like a moment, like when my son was born where I'm like, Oh my God, you're kind of a superhuman. Yeah. Are you sure you want to be with me?

I wonder if she second guessed anything because she sets up this this very specific menu with your name on the menu and went to all these lengths and then to see you finding so much joy throwing rocks at stump she must have been like why the fuck did we even leave the backyard he's gonna be i could just stick him anywhere and he's happy why did we do this yeah i should ask her i should ask her like at any point that was disappointing to her there wasn't a laser on the floor and watch him chase it for a while when we first got there and we were like colleen they went around and we we got there a little early we and got into all the cabins and turn on everybody's air

conditioning so it would be nice when they got in there and as we're like going in she's looking at the rooms like she's just like that's not right that's not oh why is that like that and like as people start to arrive she's almost like apologizing as people are getting in about stuff that they haven't even seen yet and i like pulled her aside and i was like colleen everything here is incredible yeah don't apologize like everything is perfect don't apologize for anything this is exactly what it should be she was like you think so okay all right thank you thank you yeah i would have loved my cabin even if i hadn't just come from one with a violent dangerous toilet uh yeah it was there was also like a communal area where we were that was just like perfect for our size it was just she did the best she did the best thing in the world i felt bad but not bad for

like the one party at this uh uh airbnb campground yeah uh airbnb they they stayed in the cabin and they weren't part of us and uh you just have to sort of not give a shit about them we were never rude to them or anything but like i almost wanted to say like hey i understand this is your vacation but like we're gonna be in all the cool areas the whole time and that's all there is to it and you're welcome but you're not welcome and i'm sorry about that you're gonna see us have a lot of fun in the best spots and uh and i'm gonna stop thinking about you when i turn my back right now that's good to know because that's how i felt the whole part the whole party i was like well i hope you're all gonna have fun because i am and then i did um

but yeah i really appreciate you coming dan thank you so much for having me. I was really impressed. I had so much fucking fun. I want to steal it for a future party, my own self. You should. And probably will. If you do it, I will come. All right. Hell yeah. Well, I mean, that's not as big of a thing as when I came for yours.

But so you're going to do something else well it's travel thing it's like you'd have to do something that costs as much as flights and airbnbs and takes as much time and you don't think so i'll let you know know, which direction the earth turns. Flying from the West coast, the East coast actually takes a little less time, but flying home, obviously a little bit more time because you're flying with the current, with, with the earth moving. So there's like a lot to be considered. Yeah. In terms of my time. Perfect. Yeah.

And I would probably go out there and get an Airbnb or something. And then I would go to your party. So we can see how it shakes out at the end. We'll just put the two time consumption. Okay. I can see what the confusion is. I'm doing exactly what you did. My party is in Idlewild.

I need you to take as much time getting to Idlewild from Los Angeles as I did. I see. Maybe that means you walk there. No, no. You have a lot of friends who you do a Poconos trip with. I thought for sure. I just assumed, oh, this will be an East Coast thing.

No. I like, I'm going to have Colleen plan mine as well. And I want her to make Soarin' menus uh and do uh just about everything exactly the way that you did it i love people too i like those people those were fun that's a fun group um yeah so that was the other thing is like that group is not a group that all is like they all kind of know each other but not everyone in that group is super tight with each other yeah but they're all tight with us and so that way it was much like my wedding as well where i was like no idea how this dynamic will shake out but it's all for me so i'm just gonna do it

uh should we get to wrapping up this episode i think we should i don't think oh yeah 50 minutes okay yeah i hope uh i wonder if this will be alienating. We talked about climbing as a hobby, and there was someone who reached out to us who was so mad that we spent too much time talking about golf. A person who, I think if I'm quoting correctly, sat through so much. I put up with so much already,

but then you talked so long about golf that I couldn't take it anymore. And that's a direct quote from someone who used to be able to follow me on Twitter. I think moving to something even more esoteric is a pretty good bit. That if we just continue on with climbing now, it's a pretty good bit specifically for that person. If every episode we just list different mountain towns, it was like, man, the golf thing was alienating. All right, let's get back to basics. Nature.

Nature we can all agree on, right? So I was climbing the Gunks. I was scaling Half Dome in Yosemite. Yeah, our next podcast should just be about like different types of kayaks. Yeah. Like other stuff that just less than 1% of the population is doing.

All right. Well, you can follow Dan on twitter at dob underscore inc except for that guy because i'm pretty sure dan probably blocked him you can follow me soren at soren underscore ltd or you can follow quick question at qq underscore soren and dan you can also contact us there my dms are open i'm going to explain right now i'm just going to say it you want to come in there you want to say something You don't like something on the podcast. You're allowed to tell me. You're allowed to say what you want.

And your DMs are open. Oof. Yeah. You don't have yours open? No, I mean, it's mostly, I briefly open my DMs and because of the job that I do, it's a whole lot of people

who want to pitch to Last Week Tonight. Not necessarily commentators, but a lot of people who want to pitch to last week tonight not necessarily commentators but a lot of people who are just like you need to talk about this very sad thing that's happening in in this part of the world i understand like you're trying to get the word out but like our our uh like hr hr policies or show policies whatever are so specific about uh like i can't even i'm not even supposed to read a pitch from someone right if it's if i'm starting to feel like it's supposed to be a pitch like a friend of mine i went to college with dm'd me and as soon as i saw that it was a pitch i had to like respond to him with basically a form reply that was like hey we don't take outside pitches uh i'm letting you

know that i'm not reading this and I'm taking screenshots and I'm sending it to my producer and this other person in HR or legal or whatever it is, because that's our we're just so strict about like, right, where we can and cannot. For good reason. Yeah. Yeah. And as soon as I opened my DMs for what I thought was supposed to be love was just a bunch of work and

like pitches about the sad news so I had to close it yeah I can see I guess it's different for you I can see how that would dodge right because you're going to get people who want to say they like you or they like American

Dad and I'm going to get DMs that are like the turtles are dying in canada yeah you know what's happening greyhounds when they retire from racing there's no system in place for them in society yeah and i'm like no i don't know what happens is it good tell me it's good i bet it's great right our email is qq with soren and daniel at gmail.com we have a sound engineer and editor and just generally great guy his name is gabe harter can't find him anywhere though so don't even try we also have a patreon which is patreon slash quick question and our theme song is by me rex and you can find me rex's music at me rex.bandcamp.com. Bye. Bye. We could talk tonight So what's your favourite? Who did you get? When will I be remembered? What's it over?

Word it over How do we know? Oh forget it I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here