Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Olll Gravel Hands

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

The Boyz go on strike! Walk the picket lines with the Quick Question guys and learn what's it like to stick it to the man. Also one of our hosts gets badly injured (again!). And as always thanks to our sponsors. Thanks Maev. meetmaev.com/QQ to get $40 off your first 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 favourite? 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 after we got a week's on? 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. So hello again and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, the podcast where two best friends and comedy writers ask each other questions and give each other answers. I am one half of that podcast, senior writer for Last Week Tonight, author of How to Fight Presidents, and surprisingly hoarse guy because he's been chanting and protesting all day,

Daniel O'Brien, joined as always by my co-host and striking brother in solidarity, Soren Bui. Soren, what do we want? Fair pay. Oh, over here it's contracts. Oh, that's fine. I think generally you get whoever's got the megaphone is going

to be like, hey, here's what we're going to say. And we're going to say, who's got the power? Union's got the power, or whatever it is., hey, here's what we're going to say. Yeah. And we're going to say like, who's got the power? Union's got the power or whatever it is. I'm like, what do we want? Fair contracts. When do we want them? Now. Or what do we want?

Fair pay. When do we want them? Now. So they give you like a little bit of leeway. They'll let you know beforehand. So you're not just caught unawares. Yeah. So for listeners who don't know,

Soren and I are part of the Writers Guild of America, and we are on strike right now until the studios give us our fair contracts. So we've both been out in the streets protesting, and I was doing that this morning. And it is shockingly exhausting to walk around in a circle for four hours screaming and chanting and hooting when like people knock their horns at us boots on the ground every day i'm in the shit man yeah i'm like i'm taking fire hypothetically like figuratively taking a fire um writing some some things on signs every single day like just going in without anything in mind and just being like what do i want to say today yeah and putting it on a sign so obviously i'm getting pretty famous for that um that's cool Like just going in without anything in mind and just being like, what do I want to say today? Yeah. And putting it on a sign. So obviously I'm getting pretty famous for that.

That's cool. And yeah, I've been picketing pretty much every day. I go, I'll be honest with you, Dan. I don't always do the four hours. I'm going to say that publicly. Sometimes I do like three and a half. Sometimes I do three. I mean, it's a a marathon not a sprint and uh like most marathons it would be better if you could uh tag out every once in a while and knowing that someone else is gonna fill your spot for a second and that's sort of what the

union has been doing i uh because i don't live in new york or la where the bulk of these protests are happening i don't go every day but I've been going once a week, every week of this strike, traveling into New York to do them. And even that is exhausting. And, you know, I'm just not, I just don't, I don't scream often. I don't like chant and hoot and holler.

So when I do it, it's like being on a trampoline for the first time in years. You're just using different parts of your body that aren't used to being used in such a way. And it really wipes me out. It is surprising. It's surprising how much, because you run, you run every single day. Then you're going to spend four hours of walking. And the next day your body's like, oh no, we weren't used to that. That hurts. And you're like, well, it's so close. It's it's like the it's it's running light. I was just doing the same motions, but slower.

Yeah. Your body's like, nah, it's different. It's different. Thanks to our new sponsor, Maeve, for supporting our podcast. Dogs need unprocessed, high protein, low carb diets that kibble and fresh food don't deliver. Make the switch to raw today. Right now, Maeve is offering $40 off your first order at meetmaeve.com slash QQ. Has anyone in any of your protests have strangers who are not protesting been antagonistic towards you guys?

A few, yeah. Wow. Today was my first time of that because we've had... What did you get? It was so bizarre that it's like kind of silly because the protests that I've been to so far have been like very inspiring and uplifting to see all the support within our union and other unions, but also just like people in New York who read the signs and know what's going on and they clap for us or give us a thumbs up or like cars honking.

Everyone in general, if you're walking around with signs that are like, CEOs have too much money and other people should have more money. Everyone, almost everyone in the world except CEOs is like, yeah, I agree with that. That's true of my job too. I'm on your side. And today there was one guy who was just standing off to the side of our protest and he didn't seem like he was unwell or anything like that. He had a, his hair was cut. He had a nice button down shirt tucked into slacks with a belt. Soren, forgive me, I didn't get to see his shoes.

I know that's a big tell for you, but I didn't think to look at them. And he had a professional rolling suitcase kind of thing. Like he's George Clooney and up in the air and he knows how to travel in airports like a professional. And he was reading our signs and looking at us. And then he was just like, "'No one likes your shows. "'Your shows suck.

"'You don't deserve any money. "'Your shows are bad. And I didn't want to engage with them, but I kind of wanted to. I almost wanted to stop and be like, because this is listeners. It's not like a localized last week tonight protest. It's not even like these are the striking writers affiliated with HBO or Max or Warner Brothers Discovery. affiliated with HBO or Max or Warner Brothers Discovery. We're just broadly all writers for television and movies. And there's no sign that symbolizes like

what anyone works on beyond like creating content. And he's like, your shows suck. Nobody watches them. And I'll be like, how do you, what do you mean? Surely there must be a show you watch and like. That's kind of cool that he came to just heckle you guys. Yeah. Heckle the idea of writers.

Yeah, on the grounds that television is bad now, full stop. Right. And then I'm curious, like, well, when was it good? Tell me, tell me the shows you liked. Because a lot of those people are probably out here still. That's fascinating. Yeah, there have been a couple of where I've been like, if I could just listen to them talk about what they actually think,

it would be great without having to actually interact with them. Like if I could hear somebody else talk to them, I'd be into it. But there's no way I'm engaging them. We've had some people that drove by that are like, pussies! And we're like, whoa. What is that agenda? I mean, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of your audience as a heckler, where it's like,

oh, you're going to call a crowd of writers pussies? What, you think this is the first time? And by the way, they've all called each other, called themselves way, way worse than that um we had a guy stop us and he said what are you what are you protesting we said that's not protest it's a strike uh this is for writers uh in the industry and he's like okay well what are you doing for the thousands of vets that are on the street right now and we're like you know nothing um jesus at right here like that's not our surely i mean that's obviously a big problem, too. Yeah. But we're allowed to focus on more than one thing.

And then there was a guy once that had a camera on his chest. He had, like, a GoPro on his chest and was standing off to the side, wasn't getting in the mix and clearly was doing this for his channel or whatever but also a little timid and didn't quite want to actually interact with anybody so he's just sort of like mumble shouting stuff at us and it's stuff like as i would pass him i'd hear him say stuff like uh you guys don't care about these blood-sucking corporate uh assholes you just want your cut of it. And like, you think that this is going to fix anything. You guys think you're safe from AI,

like kind of like taunting writers. He had like a good understanding maybe of like what it was, but then was like, his issue I think was with capitalism in general. Yeah. I don't know how to be like, yeah, man,

that's a problem too. We've got a vet guy and you, and like you, you you're all right every single one of you is right right but also i have to eat food yeah it's a very continue to live in this world it's a very frustrating part of uh i it feels like a a very modern problem of public social discourse. I might be wrong about that, but a very frustrating thing that if you stand and loudly declare a problem that you're trying to fix, someone's response to that without addressing the merits of your platform,

their thing is, well, let me bring up another problem that is also bad. And as a way of shutting down the conversation. And I don't know if that's new or not. Again, it feels new. And it's also, I almost always agree with those people. We just happen to be in a position where our platform can focus on this specific issue which expands beyond our industry and you know it's like anytime there's completely

shifting gears this comes up with women's rights and men's rights all the time where we'll talk about pay being worse across the board for women compared to men for doing the same job in the same amount of work uh and then men will be like but more men die in the wars and i'm like yeah that sucks too i like show me where you're protesting that and i'll go to that when this is done but like we can't i can't grab a sign and and parade around in front of warner brother amazon wb discovery halliburton whatever i work for now this giant mega media company i can't walk around with a sign and say writers deserve fair pay and also there should be paid maternity leave for six months and also veterans

should have jobs in tech and also tech should be controlled and also homelessness should end and there's probably stuff going on in turkey that i should be aware about and i think we should fix that too like no one could protest with every issue going on in the world at once. And like, we don't have an objective way to measure what is the most important issue that we can all get behind right now. So in the meantime, everyone should use their influence to advance their communities and their workplaces, their unions, agendas. And if we all do that in good faith, we will hopefully collectively make the world better. Yeah, you'd think so.

They don't think so. No. We've also got some people on the other end of the spectrum, which is I haven't been in the line of fire of one of these, but there's a guy that comes to ours at the Sony lot. And he's in kind of like a wheelchair, but he also has a cane so he can stand some, but he usually rides around in his wheelchair. And what he'll do is he will ask somebody to hold his cane for a second. And then that person who's holding his

cane is beholden to him. Like now they've got something of his and he's not taking it back. And he now wants to talk about, he has these crazy stories, all these crazy stories in his life. And you know, the problem is he just doesn't have somebody to write it. Yeah. So he's like out there to network, to like open some doors for himself. And so that one's rough. That's like the people who are there too. We ran into a kid who was in college, who was like more interested in special effects and everything. But as he's talking to us, he's talking to us as though we are staffed and work for the WGA. Not like a clear understanding of what the WGA is. And for anyone listening, that's the Raiders Guild of America. That's the guild that we belong to. thing but for anyone listening that's the raiders guild of america that's the guild that we belong to but he's just like you belong to that you are the you work for that like how did you get into

the wga how long have you worked for them and we're like no well it doesn't really work like that and then one of the guys that i was with was like no i work on family guy and he was like what you work on like he bewildered yeah he was like i love family guy right hold on what's your name and then he takes the guy my friend who I'm walking with gets his name and then right in front of him, IMDB's him. And I was like

this can't happen. You can't be doing this. That's such a funny idea to me that this person compartmentalizes and understands the idea that Family Guy has writers, The Simpsons has writers, friends had writers. And the writers guild is just a collection of writers.

Just like an office full of writers, just shuffling papers around and like really stressed out, handing sheets of paper to each other. I think he went home like so excited that, Oh, the writers guild is full of writers who are writing um yeah it's been a it's been a mix of people that i've encountered so far yeah how do you on the whole most people are like anyone driving by is just like honking and loving it and being like i'm also getting fucked and you're like yes we're all the same team yeah just honking and shouting something at us and i'm and i'm just like i didn't hear

everything that you said but uh one of those words was nurses my you're right you're underpaid my mom was nurse uh i'm with you we walk past it when we do low laps around the sony lot because the sony lot's huge and there's three different gates and we'll kind of like meander from one gate to another and then we'll chant there for a while walk around there and then if the vibe's no good we'll go to the next one and as we're doing that there's one block that we walk along where there's construction happening on their side of the road and those construction workers are like our biggest advocates those guys are so rad every single time we go by they all stop and just like whistle and cheer i feel very heroic yeah we uh uh today's protest was uh right outside of madison square garden but we only had

uh man i'm so bad with distances we're on seventh in new york outside of madison and penn station and we are just like penned in the line. We could, Jesus. We certainly didn't take up, we weren't allowed to take up a full block. I could make one lap of our sanctioned protest circle in under 20 seconds walking. Wow. So we were just walking this same very small circle

for four hours this morning. And you're seeing a lot of the same people, especially it's New York. So traffic's not moving. So you're really just getting to know the same cars as you're walking by doing your chants and banging on your sign. Yeah. So it's different here. Like you get a lot of turnover in cars. And then also there's like a lot of Amazon. Their studios are also very close.

You can actually walk from Sony to Amazon. So anywhere you're not feeling it, there's always a new place to go to. There is a lot of you're just crossing. When you go to a gate, you're just crossing that one stretch of road where you're like back and forth at a light until the light turns. And then you're waiting on a corner and then you're doing it again. And that for four hours seems like I would go absolutely insane. Like I have to be able to move from gate to gate or I would go crazy. I used to feed Jackson kibble every single day. Jackson is my dog, not a friend of mine. And I would feed him kibble every single day, morning and dinnertime with a little bit of warm water mixed in there. And it was fine. But now I've switched to Maeve and he is happier and healthier. And it's good because, you know,

a dog eating kibble every day is like a human consuming a diet of 100% processed foods. No matter your species, fillers, additives, and synthetics are not optimal sources of nutrition. Enter Maeve Raw Food for Dogs. Formulated by PhD veterinary nutritionists with real human-grade ingredients, you can name just by looking. I see carrots. I see peas. Plus, it's bite-sized and ready for your dog to eat.

Right out of the bag. No mess. No prep. Just open, pour, and enjoy. If you're like me, yousized and ready for your dog to eat. Right out of the bag. No mess, no prep. Just open, pour, and enjoy. If you're like me, you want the best for your dog, I want the best for Jackson, and the best for Jackson is Maeve. He loves it.

He loves the fresh crunch right out of the freezer, because you can keep it in the freezer, you don't need to defrost it or thaw it or anything, and he likes gnawing on this frozen, fresh, real food from Maeve. My dog, like your dog, is biologically primed to digest and absorb key nutrients from unprocessed, low-carb, high-protein, raw meat diet, and Maeve's raw food diet is formulated to meet your dog's needs. I was skeptical about Max at first because Jackson, my dog, is a picky

eater. He won't eat just anything. And a lot of things, well, that's not true. He will eat anything, just not a lot of things agree with him. So I slowly tapered him off his kibble and onto Maeve and he loved it. No issues with his digestion, no issues with his energy or his coat. He loved it and he's the best and he's very happy eating it. He asks me every day, he wakes me up and he says, Excuse me, Disculpe me, papa. Necesito Maeve, por favor, necesito Maeve.

Ahora, ahorita. And I say, and as always, I tell him, I don't understand what you're saying, but I, I, I heard Maeve. Maeve is the bridge between our two languages. So yes, son, I will bring you Maeve. The ad copy asked me to say, who should try Maeve? I'm going to say it. Everyone should try Maeve because we love it. And you can get $40 off your first order at M E E T M-T-M-A-E-V.com slash QQ. Dogs need unprocessed, high protein, low carb diets that kibble and fresh foods don't deliver. Maeve supports benefits you can smell, feel, and see from better breath and reduced itching and shedding to regular bowel movements and

maintaining a healthy weight. Jackson is the healthiest he's ever been. His bowel movements, I don't want to get into it too much, but they're great. They're top-notch, grade A, three thumbs up. Plus, there's no mess, there's no prep, there's no thawing. Just open, pour, and serve. It's that easy. Who else can say they get to eat all their favorite foods every single day? No one, just Jackson. Make the switch to raw today. Right now, Maeve is offering $40 off your first order at meetmaeve.com slash qq. Go to meetmaeve.com slash qq. That's M-E-E-T-M-A-E-V to receive $40 off your first order. Do it!

How have you been dealing generally with a strike otherwise? I don't know if you... It was touched on briefly in last week's episode. Did you listen to it at all? I would be shocked if you did. No, not heard yeah of course uh not of course like you're a jerk of course like like neither of us listen to this show um but we uh michael abe and i touched briefly on it that it's like it's very inspiring to be out there and also like the the we we are the writers are clearly ahead

on the PR war of this. And social media is like loudly on our side and it's cool to see celebrities out. Like all of it is very fun and inspiring, but like the, at the end of the day, it's like the studios have not come back to the table and have not asked us back to the table. And it's been like demoralizing that they that that that like writing is so

quickly discarded or or being used as a negotiating tool and it's it's it's been on my end certainly difficulty to hear and and and feel and into it and it's one of those things we I want to be like, no, no, no, no, no. As writers, we've been like self deprecating for our entire lives. Cause that's like, that's fun. And that's a running joke.

Writers are stupid. Who cares about writers? But like, you do need us, right? Like we just, we all just stopped working and you don't seem to care. like i don't know it's it's a weird it's hard to not hear that about the the thing that i've dedicated my life to well yeah i mean you're hearing silence yeah that doesn't that silence it does seem to suggest like disinterest but it's not the case they don't't think. I think this is like- It does feel like purely negotiating and like there's some business, business, business way

where proto-Jack Welch's have figured out if they wait a certain amount of time, they can make, they could turn one number into a larger number. And in the meantime, they could take the hit of not having new writing generated for however many months their business algorithm has told them is acceptable. It's crazy. It's crazy when you really drill down into the numbers of it, which I'm terrible at numbers. I'm so bad at anything that has to do with numbers. But fortunately, there's some articles and stuff that have really broken it down for me. And the negotiating committee of the WGA has as well.

And how much money these studios are losing because of this. And losing hypothetically, obviously, because some of them are just black boxes that you can't actually see into. But the amount of money that this is costing them, and it was costing their stock and stuff like that. It's so big already in comparison to what the writers were asking for like so much beyond what the writers were already asking for yeah that it is just a it's like a it's it's like a child that like doesn't want to lose yeah like can't is is just angry and doesn't want to be powerless in the situation and so we'll hold out as long as they can to be like, no, I'm going to hurt you in any, in any way that I can.

And that's kind of what the studios are doing right now. They can't win. They can't, they just can't because everybody is on board. They didn't anticipate how many people would be behind the writers in this. Yeah. And I, I, I think they probably did anticipate it. I think they, they knew from the beginning. I know nothing. I don't know shit about fuck. This is conjecture.

But they probably knew from the beginning, eventually we will reach a deal. And they have a bottom floor for the deal that they would do that would make sense for them. And they're just not even bothering to present it to us, which is the insane thing to me where it's just like, you know, why are we doing this? Why are you, why are you making us all shout in the streets? Why are you, why are all of your reputations taking a hit? You know, that people are going to continue to want that people are going to continue to want White Lotus and Bridgerton and Grey's Anatomy. And to a lesser extent last week tonight with John Oliver,

you know that people are going to continue to want these things. And we're not going to have a world where we don't have them and we don't have writers working. So like, why does this have to take months? Part of it is that they are... So the other contracts that are up are SAG. So Screen Actors Guild, and then also the Directors Guild, their contract is up. So I think what they're going to try and do is when those renegotiate in June, or one of them starts in June, maybe one of them starts in July, I can't remember. They will hope that the deals that they cut with SAG and the WGA will undercut with the

writers. Like be like, look, we can make deals with them. We're not unreasonable. We're making great deals and like we're giving up a lot. But the issue, and I think that maybe like for people who don't understand what's going on, that might make sense. But for anyone who does, the writers guilds, their issues are so specific to writers that it doesn't matter what happens with SAG or the DGA.

And I think that when they realize that after those deals are done, they will be like, okay, now we'll deal with the writers, but that won't be for months. It's really frustrating though. It's frustrating that we were mid-season. It's frustrating and frustrating for, it's a good problem to have in that I'm on a good show. I love my job. I make pretty good money at my job. The problems that the writers guild is running into are not problems that I have on my show.

And still we, you know, we're going to, but we're going to in solidarity, we will leave our show because if what's good for the goose is good for the gander, you know, it's like good for all of us. And it helps the future generations of writers. And that's just how guilds work. Right. You have to because like I also love my job and I've made a living doing it.

And I'm very lucky that way. And I didn't want to strike. No writer that I knew wanted to strike we all like working and we all know how incredibly privileged we are to be in this industry we just wanted a fair deal but mostly we're striking because like the reason that I have a livable wage now and the reason that I have health insurance now is because decades ago the writers guild struck when it was inconvenient for them

so I could have this life that I have now. So we are striking today so future writers can have a shot at a better life. Or not even like a better life, like we're hoping for them to exceed what we've got. We just want to make sure they can keep up and live a fair life. Yeah, they can have writing as a job where they don't have to also hold down another job just to do it. Yeah. Which is sort of what it's turning into.

Anyway, yeah. It feels very good every single time I'm out there. I'm out there with the exception of I went to Colorado for a couple of days. I'm out there every day, sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon. And it actually makes me feel better. I'd feel like a kind of a piece of shit if I just wasn't working at all and also not doing anything at all.

And I was just at home, just like waiting it out. It feels like every single day I know what I'm building my day around. And it's this strike. And so I can, now I'm going to head out there. I did, however, Dan, I think I want to talk about this right now. I did, however, on my way one day to the strike, endo off the front of my bike. I went, I was headed out to the picket lines and clipped a curb with my pedal. And then my tire immediately went into the curb and I went over the front of my handlebars.

My bike landed on top of me and there was a woman driving behind me and another guy that was like waiting in his car to like load some furniture. He immediately, as I was on the ground, was like, are you okay? Do you want me to call 911? Because I guess it was a pretty bad crash. Yeah. I said no while I was laying on the ground, but also laying on the ground. I wasn't like immediately getting up because I needed a second. I was like, did it hurt that much?

Right. And like first, well, sir, thank you. First, I need to just quickly confirm that I am alive because I'm not positive yet. I have to reach up to my head to see if I could feel brain coming out. Yeah. Or like I need to look over and see if my heart's on the ground over there. I, I,

the spill that I took was end over end. So, uh, and over the front came down on my right arm and then rolled to the shoulder and then shoulder and then head and kind of slid on the pavement for a little while on my shoulder and head with the bike on top of me yeah and this woman who was driving behind me as i got up and like turned my bike over to put the chain back on and stuff she drove up next to me and she was crying and she said she thought she had witnessed

a death and i was like no i'm okay um And I was like, no, I'm okay. And I was like checking myself. I had some gravel in my palm and I had, my knees were a little like bloodied. And then my helmet, well, my shoulder, I ruined my shirt. Like it was just torn open, but there wasn't too much underneath it. Like the shirt kind of protected me. And then my helmet has like a nice, like it really got shaved off in one section i didn't i didn't do i wouldn't have like had a huge impact on my head i don't think but i would

have probably scalped myself without it so it really did protect me i got up felt like shit went back home showered really quickly and washed it all off and then went to the picket lines thinking wow i came out of that pretty unscathed that was incredible and then throughout the day my wrist started to hurt more and more and started to swell and i was like i should probably go get this checked out and turned out i broke my wrist damn it that's it's are you in a cast now yes but i want to talk to you about it but yes go go on because you've been in a very similar situation it sounds almost exactly like when I fell off my bike and broke my wrist back in 2018. It was very, very going downhill. I didn't hit the curb, but like a car swerved and spooked me and I fell over the front of my bike. It's very interesting to me that you have such a clear idea of what happened because I really felt like I'm doing CSI.

Because I can certainly remember, oh, no, I'm falling. This is bad. And then I didn't black out or anything like that. Like I didn't lose consciousness. But it's such a blur. And then the next thing you know, you're like standing on the curb. I'm like, well, my bike is there, but it, it, it used to be below and behind me. And now it's way ahead of me and upside down. So that probably went over me. My, my wrist is hurting like shit. There's scrapes

on this hand. There's scrapes on my neck here. All right. All right. I'm no closer to knowing exactly what happened here. What, what, how, why am I injured on the top of my left head and the back of my right knee? How did this come to me? I mean,

there's some of that. I have like gravel in the palm of my hand, but also on the back of that hand. So I'm like, like, it's like a magic bullet situation where i'm like how did it get both sides did it go through uh yeah so i but for the most part like i have a pretty good memory of everything that happened also my backpack helped a lot i was wearing that

and when i flipped over onto that shoulder the strap protected me and I can tell because it's also pretty fucked up. And so I came out like thinking this is great. And I still do think that a lot. It could have been way, way worse than it was given how fast I was going and how I felt. But this wrist situation was like, do you remember the name of the bone that you broke? Radial? Okay. No.

I broke one that's called the navicula or the scaphoid, which is kind of like by the thumb. People break it when they're in fights and they don't put their thumb in, like their fist fights, or also on ski poles. I guess it's use it. Yeah. I don't. So there's so many fucking bones in there. And I, and when I broke my wrist on a similar accident, I know I'd never broken a bone before, like a serious bone before. I know I'd never broken a bone before, like a serious bone before. And I knew so little that like when I got up

from the accident and strangers were like, "'Holy shit, are you okay?' Cause the same as that woman and the guy moving furniture, people saw this and were like, "'Oh, this isn't just a tumble off a bike. I saw something real bad here." And I knew that the most pain was in my wrist. And so, my first thought was, is my wrist broken? And then I moved all of my fingers individually,

and they all moved. So, I was like, no, I'm fine. Must just be like a sprain or whatever. I wouldn't, would a guy with a broken wrist be able to give you a thumbs up right now? with a broken wrist be able to give you a thumbs up right now that's what i almost exactly what i did where i was like full mobility and then i started like move my wrist around and i was like that looks about right yeah like that surely this is like if i wouldn't be able to do all these like little like like make it limp turn it back like how could i do all that if it was broken and i hold my wrists up and i look at them and like do they look different i mean maybe they always did i don't know i never look at those guys yeah and then slowly it starts to swell like the size of a baseball and you're like oh okay so maybe that's not great let me ask how long because i had a similar i was on my way to

to church when i fell off my bike and after after church I was gonna go to brunch with my friends, and I still thought, well this definitely hurts, and like, I'm bloody, but I hate deviating from a plan, so let me just go to church, and like, I could sit and think for a while, and then let me just go to brunch and ask my friends what they think, and then maybe I'll see a doctor tomorrow.

But I didn't make it to the end of the block. It was within two minutes of deciding that plan. I was like, no, this isn't, I can't continue on the day now. I need to go to the hospital right now. How long between you breaking your wrist and you finding out that you broke your wrist? It was like 24 hours. Shit. Yeah, but it's also a smaller bone.

It's a much smaller bone that you have to really do specific things to really feel it. And when you do it, it's like, oh, fuck. And I thought maybe, oh, it's just a really bad sprain. And it started to blow up. And then that evening I was like, it's really, this is not looking right. I'll just sleep on it. And then slept on it the next morning. I was like, it's really, this is, this is not looking right. I'll just sleep on it. And then slept on it the next morning. I was like, okay, this is, something's really wrong here. I need to say something to our listeners right now. Cause Soren just said the sequences, the sequence of words, it's a smaller bone. It's such a small bone that you need to do a bunch of different things to it until you

can feel it. And then you're like, oh fuck. Of course we could, we could make jokes right now, but we're on strike, so we're not going to do that. We're absolutely not going to touch that one at all. We're going to just leave it. We're going to leave it and just watch it disappear in the rear view.

Do you want that joke? Tell Warner Brothers. Tell Paramount. And by the way, disappearing pretty fast in that rear view. It's so small. We'll be right back uh so yeah i i broke it then that when i went to urgent care and they're like yeah you fucking broke it and i was like well well like you still like doing the negotiation thing where i'm like but i have children i have to pick up and they're like like, well, don't. And then they-

That's just one of the things you won't be able to do now in addition to like tying your shoes and wiping your ass. Everything has become like, I didn't realize even right away. It's like you have to kind of, to get the full context, you just start living these experiences where you're like, well, I won't do this for fucking six weeks. Like, yeah, tying shoes has been a real problem.

Brushing teeth, left-handed is a nightmare. Shampooing your hair with left-handed opening. There's opening doors drove me crazy. Like, like driving, trying to reaching over myself just to put it in reverse or drive. It's like every, everything,

every trend to wash dishes. Yeah. I'm doing my daughter's hair. I can't comb and then, uh, put her hair up in a ponytail. I just can't do it. It's so funny and relatable that your first thought is like picking up your kids because as I'm talking with the doctor and I was like, will I ever be able to play the piano? Buddy, you're going to be really lucky if you could put your glasses on. if you could put your glasses on. Yeah, I can't even imagine living alone because I can't do dishes.

I can't lift a pan or like I need two hands. It really fucking struck me when I was trying to, I had a night guard. I took my night guard out in the morning and tried to brush it. I was like, I don't have, there's no means to do this. So I'm like hitting it down on the table with my elbow and like trying to brush it uh nothing

was going right also like the the original wrap that they put me in had my index finger my ring finger bound together uh and splinted as well to just keep away from the thumb and if they started to rub together and that started to blister and i was just miserable and finally the doctor was like you got to see a hand specialist right away. And I was like, okay. Because I guess this bone doesn't get great circulation. And when it's broken, you have to have it exactly right or it'll heal wrong. And then you'll be fucked forever.

So I was like, well, I can't. I'm going to Colorado and I can't change my trip. He's like, well, you shouldn't go. I was like, I have to go. I'm going to Colorado and I can't change my trip. He's like, well, you shouldn't go. I was like, I have to go. And it's so funny just because our stories are very similar.

And I don't mean to keep interrupting and talking about me, but it's very funny that like I broke my wrist and was like, okay, but so what's the medical like protocol on getting on a boat? What do you mean? Why protocol on getting on a boat? What do you mean? Why are you getting on a boat? Well, I had this, I was going to go to, to, to Catalina Island and like, like hang out Catalina, maybe, maybe scuba, maybe fish. Like, no, you can't do that. Like, no, doctor, you don't understand.

It's, it's December 4th. That's the anniversary of when I got laid off from crack. So I always like to do a big special trip on December 4th that's the anniversary of when i got laid off from crack so i always like to do a big special trip on december 4th so like as long as all i need you to say is that um medically i'm okay to be on a boat that it doesn't like fuck up with with yeah the atmosphere or whatever exactly the questions i asked i was like on a on a plane, pressure, that's okay. He's like, I mean, I guess so. And then he was like, you have to go to a hand specialist. I was like, can I just go to one in Colorado? And he's like, sure. I can't recommend any there. And I was like, that's fine. Great. I saw a great orthopedic surgeon there and he was like, you've got some options. I can just put a screw in it, do some quick surgery, put a screw in it and you know guaranteed that it will heal properly. Or we can put you in a cast. And I was like, what are the cast colors? He was like, no, no, no, it's different now. So, here's what they do, Dan.

Casts are removable for adults. There's a cast that they, it's a, it's like fully plastic. It's got little holes like vents in it. And it's got neoprene around it and they put it in an incubator and get it very hot. And then they slide it over my hand and then they form it specifically to my wrist and hand. Then there's a ratchet system like on ski boots or snowboard boots that you just twist and it tightens up the very end of it. So you can take it off to shower. You can take it off to like wash it. So all the really terrible aspects of having a cast, I'm not dealing with. Okay. So two things, my, my wrist, uh, first of all, fuck you.

My wrist break breaking was in three stages. There was the temporary cast thing that they put on the emergency room that I thought was my cast forever, but it was not. And then they put on a hard cast like you're thinking of when you're asking, like the Dear Evan Hansen signed my cast. I had an all black, hard, unremovable cast. Then they took that off and did surgery on my wrist and then they gave me a different cast that was that black um heated up thing that they mold directly to your wrist shape uh but i didn't get ratchets i got like foam and velcro and it was oh this is not uh important and it shouldn't be important if it's about your rehabilitation and and your your physical improvement but it was not sexy the

straps were like thick and soft and and bulky you could still like use them to remove your cast to shower and and and, and do your, your, your physical therapy on it and whatever. But while you're wearing it, it really looked like I went to a craft store and bought some foam and made a fake cast for attention and was bad at it. That's,

that's what my first rap looked like. Like it was like such a shitty splint that it was like what are you doing what is this little cry for help you're doing um but this thing is like it looks oh man it's it's very sleek yeah i get great when i run with it by the way i'm running with it man um i get no wind resistance from it. And it's got, yeah, this ratchet system that's like, it's awesome. It feels just like a normal cast, like it's hard and everything, but I can just pop it off whenever I feel like it. If I'm itchy, I just pop it off.

Now, I remember in the office at one point, another employee of ours, Bridget, she was itchy with her cast at one point and stuck something in there and lost it, like a knife or something like that in there oh yeah that's right immediately it was something absurd it was a pen cap wasn't it something it was a pen yeah she lost a pen cap in there she put a pen in there and then the cap came off yeah and so i was like living for these moments where somebody has a problem and no one can solve it because i'm like i want to solve it i want to be the one let me try let me try the puzzle. And so I was like, I got some ideas.

Let's do a coat hanger. Like, let's do a butter knife. Like, I had these plans. Very excited. And then as I'm, like, slowly, like, weaving stuff into her cast. Scratching the shit out of her arm. It's like a, yeah. And it's like a deeply intimate thing to stick something in somebody else's case because they're they're vulnerable they're injured and like you're it's like i immediately i was like i don't i don't think this is right i don't think

we should be doing this uh you should solve this on your own but no listen listen i know i'm the one who uh requested to shove a coat hanger down your cast but you should know i'm married this is this is inappropriate we're at work as i'm doing it and like we're you have to be very close to them as you're doing it and like i was like i don't know this this feels weird this is like taking a bullet out of somebody like this is our relationship will be different after i do this so i i ceased it um but man those were all the things i was worried about with this cast and i was worried that my fingers were going to continue to be immobilized but like when i got this cast i was so pumped in a way that i don't think the doctor was surprised by because he hadn't seen generally people get a cast they They're like, fuck, that's six months. I'm not six months, six weeks. But I was like, giddy.

I was so excited when I got this. And he was like, are you, are you sure? You sure you're going to keep this thing on? Right. And I was like, yeah, it's just, you don't understand. I thought things were going to be so much worse. And now I'm just like replanning the rest of my, my summer because I thought i was doomed yeah well that's good i'm still uh it it sucks you're going through this man broken wrist is is a no joke painful ordeal that that even if you're done with the cast it's still rehab lasts longer than you

want it to and it'll be a real while until it all like feels until you you're not thinking about it anymore uh but it sounds like you got a good head on your shoulders about it yeah things are things are fine i'm carrying a sign around i'm i'm doing okay it's just i can't can't tie shoes or or touch my you can't pinch anybody right now. Well, that's probably good. You don't want me pinching people? Why? Yeah. I think that's been a problem for a while. And it's not technically illegal, so none of us knew what to do about it.

And none of us wanted to immobilize you. But, you know, with enough prayer, these things sort of course correct. to immobilize you, but you know, with enough prayer, these things sort of course correct. Um, which you would have been doing had you not broken your own wrist before church. Um, I, I don't know. I, I feel like I'm going to heal fast. I've sort of like told myself I'm going to heal fast. Like it's the secret or something. And I have no idea if that will actually happen. I have to go in for x-rays again soon and they're going to tell me whether it's appealing properly again the circulation for this bone sucks so like there's a good chance that maybe it just won't and then i have to have the

screw and then i'm back kind of like where you were where it's like oh good i just sat in this cast for nothing for a while now i've got to have surgery yeah uh but we'll see i'll keep posted it is it's a if your doctors were anything like mine it's a ridiculous process where they they did the surgery and they put a metal plate and a bunch of i think 12 screws in my wrist that are just in there forever now and so many the doctor was like you'll you'll be good now you'll you'll you'll you'll be great this is going to be your wrist and it's going to take some rehab work, but you're going to recover and it'll be good as new. But if years from now your thumb starts body feel weird all the time man what do you mean everything always hurts yeah when they were describing if the bone is displaced even the slightest bit or there's a gap at all between the break it's going to heal improperly and i was like

well tell me what that means tell me like end game like what in my own real world application how is that changing things and they're like well you'll have less mobility um if you're an athlete it would be a big problem and also you're pretty much guaranteed to get uh arthritis and i was like when it's like i don't know 75 i'm like good i wasn't planning on living that long that's great okay i'm back to being excited again doc um but i was i emotionally i was in some very strange places in colorado as well so i was like as soon as i was in the doctor's office i hadn't even been seen by him yet i'm seeing other like children come out with casts on they can't be trusted apparently with these ratchet casts because they won't wear them

no absolutely not and they'll just lose them so uh as kids are coming out with their own breaks they'll look very similar to mine um they're coming out in casts that are like these electric colors and i'm in my brain going maybe i just get a hot pink cast that'd be weird that's a cool thing for me to do and it's so great that i didn't end up doing that i was not i was not in any position to be making a decision that big while I was there. It was, I,

for the brief time that I was in like a full arm cast, it was very frustrating to get dressed in general. But then separate from that, I was like, well, I've got this full arm black cast and i'm not gonna dress as if i don't have a have black on me and that just limits my options for what i can wear like it's it's a really dumb consideration i was like no i can't that's gonna clash you can't do brown on black brown

on black uh i did get very worried immediately after i found out it was broken about Michael's wedding, which we're both going to, because a cast, you cannot hide under a blazer. Like there's no, you have to like, you're in one of those weird situations where it's pushed up. Like you're in the eighties on one side and just sitting on top of the cast in a very uncomfortable way.

Cause the, there's no stretch to those worsted wool suits. And, and if you did one of those things where like your left arm was in the sleeve and your right arm was just down and the jacket was draped over it, everyone who is looking at you in like the audience for whatever that term is, they'd just be thinking like, hey, honey, do you think he's missing an arm? What do you think is going on over there?

Yeah, that's no arm. No arm? Okay. What do you think? Like look at him. Like farming? Do you think farming accident farming i'm gonna ask him i'm just gonna fucking ask him as soon as this is done there's no no one's listening to the vows you are now the center of attention guaranteed but because i can remove this i can basically take it off put on my suit and then put this on within the sleeve and it's just so excited about that oh i was the doctor had never seen

somebody so overjoyed to be in a fucking cast it was great um i love every thought process of that being at this new doctor in colorado and be like hey this cast is great it's so fun uh uh is this going to interfere i have a lot of questions is this going to interfere with like, I don't want to steal a lot of attention from my buddy's wedding. Like what? Good. Yeah. Guy just heal, man. Most people ask, how do I sleep? I asked, I sat with this doctor for so long, just asking questions. And after about like 15, I was like, I mean, I'm really sorry for doing this. Like, no, it's great. No one ever asked these. Then I felt really good. And, I was like, I mean, I'm really sorry for doing this. Like, no, it's great. No one ever asked these. Oh, good. Then I felt really good.

And then I was like, maybe too much after that. But I was asking questions like, okay, if I can, when I take it off, what is like my limitation in terms of like pinching my fingers together? He's like, I would never do more than a pound. And I'm like, that's fine. Should I be running with the cast on or off? And he's like, well, don't, maybe just don't run with it. And I was like, on or off, Doc?

Like, what's it going to be? But I'm training for American Ninja Warrior. I'm going to run. I'll tell you what, I'm going to run with it on. And he's like, I think you should do that. Please don't trail run. And I was like, no, I won't be doing that. I've got a, I was like, I don't fall a lot. I've got a pretty good track record.

Jesus. I've got a, I was like, I don't fall a lot. I've got a pretty good track record. And asking just like a thousand, a thousand questions, because I know that there's going to be along the way I've been, I've had enough injuries where like, I've been in a doctor's office. They're like, no, no questions. Good. See you later. And then I'm home and I'm like, oh shit. I don't actually know how to live my life

yeah there should i have a lot more things i should have asked can i swim with it can i go in the shower with it can i do anything can i get like and when will i be able to put weight on it again like all of this stuff um anyway it's it's of all things that all the ways it could have gone having like a scraped up helmet and a broken wrist is certainly not the worst uh how's your bike fucked um yeah the fucked in a way that i think is fixable though where i i can't ride it now obviously but i as i rode it home that day from picketing, I realized that one side where the brakes and the gears are, you know, it sits like right on the handlebar that's pushed way down. Like if you can't even grab it anymore, cause it just got dragged along the ground and

the tops of both on both sides where the gear shifts are. And it gives you that little number of what gear you're on scraped to the point where you can't actually read anything on it anymore. It's just like shaved. Um, I think with a rubber mallet, I could fix that first problem. But other of what gear you're on, scraped to the point where you can't actually read anything on it anymore. It's just like shaved. I think with a rubber mallet, I could fix that first problem. But other than that, I'm just sort of like, I'm just going to have to feel it from now on. I'm going to have to be one with the bike to know what gear I'm in.

Or get a new bike. Oh, I guess that's an option, yeah. See, the thing, I'm not really getting paid right now. Oh, that's true. That's very fair's, that's, that's very fair. Spent a lot of money on this new cast. Kind of got my own things going on. Yeah. I'm really hoping that at some point I have like, it's, it's been really deeply frustrating with working out that I can't work out at

all. And then I'm just, I can run and that's basic and do some sit-ups and that's basically it. I think it's very admirable that you are even doing it. When I, when mine was broken, even when I was out of the cast and stuff, but I was still in like the removable cast, I was, I gave myself like, first of all, I was just like, it's so depressing, uh, to not be able to do a thing that you used to be able to do that it was very frustrating and demoralizing to even try to work out. And separate from depression, which is like, I can kind of give myself a pass from not working out right now. And it's really impressive and admirable that you are still like trying to do it. impressive and admirable that you are still like trying to do it. Cause I was like, well, I've got a broken wrist.

So I guess I won't work out, run, read books, cook, clean up after myself. I'm doing it because I'm afraid that without it, I'm just going to like, I'm just going to get to a really dark place. Cause I, you work so hard. You and I, you know, cause you like to become a runner, to become like getting into like a good workout routine. It takes so much effort and to get it right. And then finally, like my body showing the rewards of like the fruits of that. And I was like excited about it. And here's this thing where I'm like, you're not allowed to work out again for two months.

Yeah. And I'm just like, fuck. I was so close. Like I had this thing. And so now I'm trying to do anything that I can to try and maintain. I think about that at this point, at this age and the amount that I've put into running, I think about that all the time, almost every time that I run that, which is every day that if I, if I did fall or get into some kind of accident that, that broke a leg or broke an ankle or something and a doctor was like, you just can't run for X amount of months. I'd be like, man,

shoot me up with whatever fucking shit you used to give those shaky actresses so they could stand on their feet in like the 1930s movies. Just give me, put something in me for me to not know what's going on because i can't lose a month i can't i can't stop running man i gotta keep doing it you show him that scene from boz lerman's elvis where he's like yeah whatever it takes whatever it takes give me that whatever that doctor's just with all right this is cocaine and adderall and some toothpaste we don't know what it does yet we're just gonna just keep fucking shoving this is cocaine and Adderall and some toothpaste. We don't know what it does yet. We're just going to keep fucking shoving. This is Gak. You remember Gak from Nickelodeon?

That's in there too now. Oh, he's up. Okay, good. Yeah, give me that. Just having a cast, and even though I don't have it bad at all, it makes me think back to school. A kid would show up one day with a cast that was attached to a piece of wood coming off their

hip to keep their arm up at a certain distance from their body and how how terrible that must have been for them at the time i was just like yeah he's got a cast on that's just how he is for him that that kid and his family like life was just miserable for two weeks i don't even know how you get shirts on and off i actually wonder how how when you mentioned that the kids can't be trusted with the removable casts. That makes me question if this removable cast technology is less modern than I think it is. Because my understanding of casts was the same as you. Like seeing kids in school growing up and my my brother Tommy broke his arm when he was like 14 or 15 and he had like a serious cast cast for a very long time

and it does make sense that these casts were so serious because kids really couldn't be trusted you really need to like force their body into a position or they would never heal properly. And I, I don't know. I'm just very curious if like, it's the same as like putting one of those fucking cones on a dog's head after surgery, which is like, no, no, no. You can't give a 13 year old kid the freedom to remove his cast. He'll take it off and then destroy it yeah

i mean it's possible they've been around for a while this was the first i'd heard of them i also thought for a minute that this was specific to colorado what like a uh a home team favorite i am like where i was i thought i thought like they had invented it i was like like, yeah, surely with all the ski pole accidents, like they just were like, this is untenable. Let's come up with a new technology. Yeah. And let's not share it with anyone just yet. But no, I think these are everywhere.

And this strange Ayn Randi and John Galt world of Colorado, where all the greatest specialists come together in a little bubble. I'm just saying, there's never been a better time to break your bone right now. It's so good. We've never had it so good. Absolutely. All right.

Well, Dan, I think we're out of time. We are out of time. I had so many more questions, but I guess we'll just have to keep doing the show. See you next time. It's not like the pickets will be over. It's not like I'll be healed by the next show. So I think we're going to be fine. And also like now knowing that all of your stuff was about a broken bone, I'm looking through my list of questions about, one of them is about bow ties

and one of them is about going to a doctor and everything being fine. So I'm glad that we could put some time between your thing and my thing. There's a thing that I definitely want to talk to you about next time, which is as soon as you start doing your intro, you had a different sound in your apartment because you live somewhere brand new and I can hear it. What is the different sound? Is it a weird echo? No, it's just different. I can tell that the room is different. Ooh.

Yeah. All right. We'll talk about that next time. You've been listening to Quick Question. Listeners, that's the real, that's a real teaser for next, next week. We're going to describe Daniel's apartment. Yeah.

So stick around. You can follow Daniel on Twitter at DOB underscore Inc. Or me, Soren underscore LTD, as long as we're still there. You know, we're both on, actually,

are you on Blue Sky yet? No. I'm not interested in joining another thing. as long as we're still there, you know, we're both on actually, are you on blue sky yet? No, I'm not, uh, interested in joining another thing. Are you honorable? I guess. Yeah,

I'm on it. Um, cool. Send me an invite. I'm over there. Look, I got to earn it first. It turns out I got to be there for like a month or two before I'm allowed to

send the invites, but you will get my first one. You can also follow a quick question at Qq underscore soren and dan we have an email which is qq with soren and daniel at gmail.com uh we have a sound engineer and editor producer in gabe harder you can't find him anywhere but gabe harder.com is a website you can also find us on patreon at patreon slash quick question our theme song is by Merex, and you can find their music at merex.bandcamp.com or wherever you listen to your music. That's it.

Solidarity. Solidarity. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. by the music on the record. So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When will I be remembered?

Was it out there? Where did all the good things go? 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