So... Alright - An episode unstuck in time

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Geoff isn't sure when this one comes out, so he discusses his recent 50th birthday and some viewer mail. Love Island talk sneaks in as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And chicken chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, in the world, my closest friends, my daughter. Yeah, there's some family that I would love to have visited with, but what are you gonna do? I'll see them soon. It was an absolutely heartwarming day. I tend to, honestly, I tend to like to be alone. It kind of annoys my wife, but I tend to want to be alone on my birthday. I find it to, not a somber day,

but usually a really quiet day for me, a day of reflection. I don't know why it's not something that I intend to do going into my birthday, but I always find myself just kind of wanting to sit in a room and just evaluate my life and just be still and calm and think about it. And not in a negative way at all, in a room and just evaluate my life and just be still and calm and think about it. And not in a negative way at all, in a positive way, but it's kind of always been the vibe I've

felt on my birthday. But for some reason, this one felt like a party. I woke up in a good mood. I wanted to be around Millie and Emily all day. I was able to be, and I just wanted to, I don't know. Why wouldn't you want to celebrate your birthday? It's just not usually how I'm feeling. I usually just kind of feel awkward and shy, and like everybody's staring at me at a party. I don't know, I'm not crazy about being the center of a party.

But I really, I gotta say, I really enjoyed turning 50. It was a good day filled with good food and good friends and good family, and I got some phenomenal gifts. I really did. My wife knocked it out of the fucking park with my birthday gift. She got me a watch that has blown me away.

I feel, I don't feel important enough to wear it, if I'm being honest with you, but I'm gonna do it anyway. And it is, it's been interesting, very different from most birthdays, like I said. It really did. I just I was just happy to be alive, I guess, after 50 years. Spent almost no time on my birthday or since reflecting or doing any of that shit that I've done in the past. Just kind of rolled from my birthday into the next thing, which is a ton of recording because as always the schedule is wonky and we are trying to figure out how to get everything recorded that we can because people are going out of town. We were all just out of town. Gavin was out of town. Nick was out of town. I'm about to be out of town twice. The other people are going out of town.

It's just, it never ends. And it makes a, well, it makes a production like ours, difficult at times, but not in such a way that is a bummer. Just more than anything, it just makes you wish there was more time to create all the stuff that you really want to create. We came up with a ton of really good ideas, I think, when we were on our Las Vegas vacation, where I threw that baseball and I really just excited to dive

into them, uh, head first. But. You know, we got to kind of meter it out. We had our Monday morning meeting today and we kind of planned out what we're going to be able to film for the next three weeks or so, and there's some stuff in there I'm really fucking jazz to get to. But I wish we could do it all today. You know, I'm not good with patience, not one of something I'm really fucking into

like regulation. But anyway, I'm here. I am talking about regulation. I should be talking about anything else. Although I guess this is my podcast. I can talk about whatever the hell I want to. This is either coming out right after the interview I did with R.J. at the Las Vegas Aviators game or right before I have that edit in front of me. And I'm going to try to edit it on a plane on my laptop,

which is an atypical that's a very Gavin thing to do. I'm a creature of comfort. I like to edit in my setup that I'm used to that I've been editing at. That's only changed once in the last six years. So I'm sure it'll be totally possible, and I'll be able to do it. But if for whatever reason, I can't get that edit done, I know I can get this one done in about 10 minutes. So this is either hot on the heels of a really great interview with a really interesting dude, or it's leading into next really great interview with a really interesting dude or it's leading

into next week's interview with a really interesting dude, RJ, who is the marketing director of the Las Vegas Aviators. Because I'm doing travel, I'm doing that thing I always do where I record a bunch of soil rights in advance out of sequence and therefore I feel like I needed to give that warning because I'm just, you know, like I said, you just don't know ahead of time how it's all going to how all the pieces are gonna fit together. Speaking of pieces fitting together, I'm looking at my puzzle desk right now.

You know, in the old house I had the puzzle nook. In the new house I have a puzzle desk. But the puzzle desk is also the baseball card desk. And so I have room for exactly one project at a time. Right now it's covered in every project. It's covered in regulation gear, It's covered in regulation gear, it's covered in a bunch of books I wanna read, it's covered in a million baseball cards

I gotta go through, it's covered in some of Millie's art actually, which I need to hang up. But it's also got three puzzles sitting on it that I'm really excited to get to, really fucking excited to get to. And I don't know why I can't manage to clear this fucking desk off so I can get to it. I think it's the baseball cards are my block. I know I need to do stuff with them and I just don't want to.

I don't want to go. Sometimes you have those hobbies that you have, those obsessions, those passions, those things that you fucking love. Like, I don't know. Maybe it's crocheting or needlepoint or gardening or putting puzzles together or baseball cards or playing D&D, whatever it is. And 99 times out of 100, you would drop anything to do that. But every once in a while, you just look at it

and you think it's the last thing on earth I wanna touch. And it stops you from, I don't know, going into a room or cleaning up a garage or cleaning off a puzzle desk, it turns out, because I cannot make myself touch these baseball cards and organize and sort them and put them away. I really, I'm really turning into a lazy baseball card fan right now. I guess I just, I just need a little break right now. I don't know.

Maybe I just want to be a dirt bag. Anyway, no agenda for today's episode. I just thought I'd kind of go with what's on my mind these days. Being 50, I went to the doctor this morning to have my big 50th physical. At least I assumed it would be a big physical. You know, you turn 50, they want to check everything. And I'm trying to be responsible. I'm trying to be a grownup about doctors and dentists and those kinds of things. And so I have been going to the doctor every year for the last, I'd say, four years or so. And I really did. I budgeted a lot of time for today.

I thought today would be a whole thing. It wasn't any different than 49 or 48 or 47. Honestly, I got to go get a shingles vaccine, but they don't do that there. So there was nothing, you know, additional there. But mostly the turn 50 physical is identical to every other year's physical. They check your lungs, they check your ears, they check your extremities. They ask you a bunch of questions about whether you're depressed or not.

Make sure you're not ingesting anything super dangerous. Give you a little lecture if you are. No lectures from me. And then they just take a bunch of blood just like they do every year. I thought I'd have to get a colonoscopy this year because I turned 50, but it turns out it's only been four years since my last one. And so I get to wait until the end of 2026 to do it again, which came as a great welcome surprise. Not that getting a colonoscopy is the worst thing

in the world, but the last one I had, I had the whole pastrami incident and I'm not looking to revisit that anytime soon. So I have a year reprieve from needing another colonoscopy, which is great. He did listen to my, I will say, my doctor did listen to my heart a few times and he was like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and send you off to get a heart CT scan Want to go ahead and get that? Scheduled somebody's gonna contact you in the next couple of days and we'll get you on the books for that and then he just kept Going with something else. I go. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa What something wrong he's like now, why would something be wrong? And I was like what you were well, you were just listening, you were just listening to my heart and then immediately said, I want you to get a scan,

a CT scan on your heart. And he's like, he started laughing. He's like, oh no, no, I can see how that might've given you that impression. No, I just remembered, hey, this is something you should do at 50. Listening to your heartbeat jogged my memory. I need to send you to get this done.

Totally normal, everybody does it at 50. It's not a big deal I didn't hear anything weird at all. But anyway, it scared scared me a little bit for about I don't know seven or eight seconds there Until we cleared it up. I thought what the fuck did he just hear? apparently nothing out of the ordinary just Just normal precautionary stuff That's always really good to hear though, when your doctor, I mean, it means nothing to you

when you're young, because you expect to be healthy all the time. But as you get older and you expect things to start breaking down, whether you want them to or not, you know that in the eternal fight, time is undefeated and you know it's coming for you. So when you hear a doctor say, you're good for a year, it just, man, like the best news you could expect to get in a day.

Doctor looks you over and says, yeah, you seem fine. Well, we'll look at you again when you're 51. Aside from this heart CT scan I've got to do, which is totally normal. Well, I'm sure they'll look at that and they go totally fine. We'll see you when you're 51. Anyway, I thought getting older would be scarier. It is scary for sure in some ways, but well, I don't know how I expect.

I just, I thought it would be scary and painful and I would feel death coming more, you know? And that's just not the case. Being 50, for those of you that are younger than me, being 50 feels pretty similar to being 40, which felt pretty similar to being 30. Now I won't say being 50 feels similar to 30, but I will say 40 felt similar to 30,

and 50 feels similar to 40, and you can extrapolate on that as you will. But aging is like, it's okay, you know? You take good care of your body or at least mostly take good care of your body and it'll take care of you. Just like in the army and you got to go down to the motor pool and do your weekly maintenance. You just do your occasional physical maintenance and you know, don't live like a fucking lunatic and it's pretty easy breezy for the most part.

Obviously I probably don't have the stamina that a younger me had, although I don't know, man. I'm riding my bike as much as I ever did and it doesn't seem to affect me anymore. I handle the heat okay. I will say bending over is a little different. You know, you definitely creak and you definitely like make noise. I definitely creak and you definitely make noise.

I definitely make noise when I bend down now. Involuntarily too. I couldn't stop if I wanted to. And of course, pissing is different. Prostates change. You have to get up to pee in the middle of the night more than you used to. And I could piss for about a year straight now.

Whenever I go, it's hard to stop. But other than that, it's really okay so far. Let me tell you, for those of you who are scared to get older out there like I was, so far so good. Honestly, it is not the thing that we build it up in our minds to be. At least in my experience, it hasn't been. No frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door

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Shop now at Ikea.ca. I've been watching a shit ton of Love Island, US and UK. I started on Love Island US this season with Emily. I feel like everybody did. Hanging out with Gavin and Meg the other day, we found out they were watching Love Island UK. So we jumped onto that as well to have something to talk about with them. Apparently they had, we found out,

we found out a couple of days later that they jumped ship on UK and switched over to US. So they're playing catch up on US we're playing catch up to where they stopped on UK. So we we're going to get to a point where we have tons to talk about. But I've been watching Love Island US a lot and we're all up to date on it. I gotta say I have found it to be as gripping as the NBA finals was. I had a tough time switching between game seven of the finals and episode. I don't know whatever it is. Seventeen of is it 17? I don't know. Whatever last night's episode of Love Island was

and trying to catch up on the UK still because I want to be. I want to watch both of them, honestly. It's just the US version has been so fucking dramatic this year. And it's been man. I got to say, I used to always get bummed with how toxic online communities could be that I was a part of. You know, sometimes the Rooster Teeth community could get pretty. Get pretty dark, you know, and it was something that we struggled with a lot. Just the negativity and some of the just the the eminence that

comes from people. And it used to really bum me out. I'm really jazzed about how supportive and positive the regulation community is. And I feel like we all are a part of something really special there. And I want to do everything in my power to protect it and keep it from from souring in any way. But every once in a while, I'll dip my toe into some other online communities.

And God damn, it reminds me we were it was we were not unique in that front. If anything, the Roosted community wasn't as negative as I thought it was. I had to leave the Howard Stern Reddit community because it was so fucking. Just gross how negative it was. And I am close to doing the same thing with the Love Island, US Reddit community because that is a negative fucking place on the Internet. And those poor people on that television show can do nothing fucking right, according to the commenters on the Internet.

It's like each week I watch the online Love Island community argue about A, A switches to B, and then the next week they bitch about B because it's not A anymore. And it just goes back and forth. And there's some obviously some legitimate criticism to be made of all things. And I tuned into the Love Island subreddit because I like to see what other people think about it. But I'm just continually surprised by how it sometimes I'm like, are we watching the same show? Are you that worked up about this thing? That's I don't know. Anyway, that's the internet for you. Right. Regardless, Love Island UK hasn't caught me yet. I'm only four or five episodes in. So it's I

think they just kicked their first person out an episode ago. So it really hasn't kicked into gear yet for me, but Love Island USA, I am deep into, I believe Casa Amor is like tonight or Thursday night or something, it's like, it is this week. So that season's pretty deep in and just been really surprising so far,

some of the decisions they've made wild to see out. Another thing that I think is interesting is the community seems convinced that the producers are choosing who gets voted out by the cast. And I just don't think that's the case. I think it's pretty clear who the cast wants in and out. And I, I wasn't surprised. I was a little surprised by Hannah getting voted out, but I also could totally see why they voted her out and not the other two girls. And I expected them to vote Jeremiah out.

I thought they were telegraphing that with conversations for a couple of days. And I feel like ACE has been campaigning to get rid of Jeremiah for a while. So I don't know why people online think that the producers were pulling the strings there. It seemed pretty clear to me that the like I mean think about it Nick wants to get rid of them to clear the space for him to go with the new bombshell if he wants to leave Sierra and ACE always had some sort of a weird competitive thing with him or always seemed to have an issue with him and when you've got two people that are you know having a Pretty clear agenda or a reason to get rid of a person and nobody else feels super strongly his biggest supporter in

Love Island was probably Austin who was also up for elimination It's just a totally made sense to me. I don't know why people have a hard time believing that the other castmates would do that Anyway, what are you gonna do? It's all just silly TV. Let's check a couple of emails This is from Cody. Hey Jeff Jeff. Love the show. This show and regulation are probably my best parts of my week and I'm super happy to be along for the ride as regulation grows. I had a couple of ideas for so I write that I thought you might enjoy. All right, lay it on me. What are the most used street names and what are the most used city names in the USA? Can't wait for the next season of Good Morning Gustavo. Love everything you and

the boys do. Keep on keeping on Jeff. I can't wait for it too. It's ready. It should be up. I thought it was going to be up this week, so I'm going to guess next week because obviously it didn't come up this week. Let's look, let's answer your question. What are the most common street names in the US? Let's think about this before we answer it. I'm going to say MLK is a very popular street name. I'm going to say Elm Street. I'm going to say Main Street. Yeah, how about let's go with this? According to a study

by Atom Data Solutions, the most common street name in the United States is Second Street. While Main Street might be the most iconic, Second appears on more streets across the country. I guess more than First, huh? Which I guess, you know, that makes sense. No, we do have a First Street in Austin.

But we also have a Cesar Chavez that operates as a First Street, but then we do have a, oh boy. Most common street names in America. Let's look at a full list. Well this website sucks. Let's find a better one. Main Street, Second Street, First Street, Third. All right. Well, once we get past the numbered streets, Park.

Oh, I didn't think about that. Oak, Maple, Pine, Washington. Well, I was wrong on MLK. I thought that was a more common street. Well, disappointed. Main, second, third. I keep finding different lists, but they're all similar. Yeah.

OK, well, there you go. The most popular, depending on which list you look at, the most popular street names in America are either main and Second or Second and Maine. Then you're gonna have a couple other numbered streets you'd guess, and then behind that is Park Street, Oak Street, Maple Street, Pine Street, Elm Street, Cedar, Walnut. Washington is the first non-tree name,

I guess after Maine, and then it goes down to Church, Sunset, et cetera, et cetera. What was the other question you asked? tree name, I guess after Maine, and then it goes down to church, sunset, etc. What was the other question you asked? What are the most used city names in the US? That is a good one. What is the most used city name in the US? The most common city name in the United States is Washington with 88 different cities and towns bearing the name.

This is likely due to the popularity of George Washington. Really? Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. All right, so number one is Washington. There are 88 different cities named Washington in the United States. Number two, it's a distant number two with less than half is Springfield. There are 41 cities named Springfield in America.

I wonder if that includes where the Simpsons live. Franklin has 35, Greenville is 30, Bristol is 29, and Clinton is 29. Bristol, I wouldn't have expected. All right. Washington, Springfield, I get. Franklin. I guess I get. Greenville. I think I get. Bristol and Clinton surprised me a little bit. Interesting. Wow. Thanks for that email. You learn something new every day that you open your inbox. Let's look at another one. This is from Jacob. So hi, Jeff. This is my favorite email today. So hi, Jeff.

I suppose I'm now a comment-leaver, but will trade in my regulation listener status happily to send in this email. My name is Jacob and I've been getting into punk music. Congratulations for the last few months and I'm a big fan of the band Cheap Perfume. It is a feminist punk band and the bassist is another Jeff. I was wondering if you've ever listened to them and if so, if you have any suggestions for bands with similar sounds, love what you've been doing, much love. All right. That is an awesome email.

Let me look this band up feminist. What is it called? Cheap perfume. OK, I'm going to throw them on my playlist. I don't have an answer for you just yet. Because I haven't heard them yet and I can't stop the podcast to do that. But I'm going to add the song, It's OK to Punch Nazis. And I'm going to add the song Slut Game Strong. And I'm going to add.

The song No Men. OK. And I'll get back to you with some recommendations on bands that sound similar. Thank you so much, Jacob. Let's do another email. Lucy Blocker. Oh, TV recommendations. I asked you guys for TV recommendations and here we go. I've got a couple right here. I'm desperate for some, actually, because I'm down to pretty much now the NBA playoffs are over. I'm down to two seasons of Love Island running concurrently.

There's a couple of bright spots in July, but still a couple weeks away though. First, happy belated birthday, thank you. We hope you had a joyful start to a fresh decade. I did, I really did, thank you. My TV recommendations come with a bit of a barrier. It's become increasingly difficult to enjoy American procedurals.

I would say that that's because American procedurals are in a pretty formulaic, uninspired place. Now I know the idea of the procedural is the formula. But I feel like we did procedurals a hell of a lot better in the 80s, in the 70s, and even the 90s. And we really, we're really in like a just a boring, uninspired place in America in that genre. It's a shame to me as someone who grew up loving them. But the British versions are still doing it for me. So I'm using Brit Box.

I coincidentally started a Rosemary and Thyme rewatch when you mentioned it. Oh, hell yeah. I loved Rosemary and Thyme. I've done two full watch throughs, but I'd be willing to do it again. I followed it up with Ludwig, less cozy, but still a good quirky one in my opinion.

Ludwig, okay. Death Valley is also growing on me They make a good change of pace if you're looking for that. Okay, so Ludwig and Death Valley I'll have to check out in a long throwback to something Gavin brought up He could in fact be vacuum packed relatively safety safely It's a Steve Spangler experiment. We conducted often with my kids during time at a science center. Okay, that's good to know. We can vacuum pack Gavin if we decide to. We've been very much enjoying all the regulation content.

Oh, thank you so much. Even our 21 month year old loves colors. Pico Park. Thank you very much to the whole crew for all the hard work you all dedicated to entertaining us each week. Thank you so much, Lucy. And I will let everyone know you said that. Let's do one more email. Hi, Jeff. I was lucky enough that my high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, put us through a whole unit dedicated to Latin America literature. OK, cool. So this is in my response to requests for good Latin American authors.

And now I have a deep, deep love for magical realism. It is the essential Latin America genre. Oh, OK. Magical realism. I've never heard that term before. Two authors you cannot afford to miss. Juan Rulfo and his classic Pedro Paramo. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, primarily 100 Years Assaulted.

You know, I've never read 100 Years Assaulted, but I have read a little bit of Gabriel and I'm a little familiar with his work. So maybe it's finally time to dive into 100 Years Assaulted. Love your stuff and hope you enjoy this wild and weird genre, JT. Thank you so much, JT. I really appreciate that. And thank you to everybody else who I haven't responded to yet,

who also I got a bunch of emails here of recommendations for Latin American authors. So I really do appreciate it. I'm going to do my best to get to all of them. All right. Fuck it. We'll do one more email. Nick says, Jeff, I just finished the So I'll Write episode on Forgotten Bands. I actually just saw them at the warp tour 30th anniversary in DC last week. I think we're talking about dancehall crashers. Yeah. And

after listening to that episode, I looked into them a bit more. They played two shows in San Francisco earlier in June. I think one of those San Francisco shows is the one that I saw on tik tok that made me bring them up in the first place on so all right. But the announcement of their appearance at the Warped Tour which has been on its own hiatus since 2019 broke a 21 year hiatus for Dancehall Crashers which might be why you had forgotten them.

Well, that's a pretty good call if they hadn't done anything in 21 years. I don't know why I'd be expected to remember them. I also caught Streetlight Manifesto at the Warped Tour which I had no idea was formed from a member of Catch 22 who I know because of you, yeah, Thomas. I only started listening to both after they were announced the Warped Tour, which I had no idea was formed from a member of Catch-22, who I know because of you. Yeah, Thomas. I only started listening to both after they were announced for Warped Tour when I was

checking everyone out to see who I should try to see, but they were both really awesome live. Anyways, love the podcast, love regulation, yada, yada, yada. Thanks for being a constant voice over the past 10 years. I've been around. Nick. Thank you so much, Nick. I appreciate every email you all have sent.

I haven't obviously been able to work through all of them. I got a bunch of birthday emails I want to get through and respond to as well. But I will do my best to bring more up in episodes. I don't want it. I just don't want it to become an email only show where I'm only answering email questions. I kind of do want to do that, but I kind of don't too. I feel like maybe maybe there needs to be a little bit more variety in the show. And I like doing my deep dives on stuff,

but I also kind of do like just having the email conversations with you. So we just have to find the balance. It's all about finding the balance. Anyway, thank you to everybody who showed up at my birthday stream and hung out with me the morning of my birthday. Thank you to everybody who wished me a happy birthday.

Thank you to everybody who sent me an email about birthdays or not. Thank you to everybody who sent me an email about birthdays or not. Thank you to everybody who has listened to or supported this podcast or any other production I have ever been involved with. I started this journey way back in probably 2000 or so with Gus creating content on the internet and here we are in 2025 and I can't believe I still get to do it. I feel like the luckiest 50 year old on the fucking planet and you

guys are such a big part of that luck. I owe you everything. I love you to pieces. I'll see you next week. All right.