SPEAKER_02: 0:00

I'll just hang out in her driveway. I'll just block her in again and be like, I need you to taste

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

this. Which won't be suspicious at all. At all. Yeah, yeah. I promise it's just whiskey. Or

SPEAKER_02: 0:18

bourbon. That's it.

UNKNOWN: 0:22

Cut. We're done.

SPEAKER_02: 0:28

listening to premeditated opinions because yes we thought about it and then we said it anyway i'm pamela

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

and i'm josh and we are just two people who somehow share a brain and decided to weaponize our brains with microphones

SPEAKER_02: 0:41

each week we unpack the chaos the politics and religion to petty internet fights and existential dread like it's our unpaid job

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

we are not experts we are just way too confident so with all that being said let's get started All right, so on the way in, you were telling me about something cool that you saw. What did you see on your way to recording this morning?

SPEAKER_02: 1:02

Okay, so normally I don't get all excited about seeing electric cars anymore, but I was taking my daughter to school this morning, and out of one of the neighborhoods we passed, a brand-new VW bus called the IQ Buzz pulled out, and I was like,

SPEAKER_00: 1:25

They're cool. They've got a great aesthetic.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30

They do. And I was intrigued. I haven't had a chance yet to kind of dig into anything about them. But I was excited that they brought it back. And it's sharp. And I'm sure it's really awesome on the inside.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46

It is. So we actually bought Krista's Jeep from a VW dealership. And we walked past one on their showroom floor. kind of in the process of buying her car. And the sales guy we were working with was like, well, do you want to look inside? I was like, absolutely. And so we didn't get a full tour of it, but what little I saw was really cool. And I just like well-conceived cars. And what I mean by that is like I love it when there's sort of new ideas brought to the table with cars because, you know, we're all just sort of used to a pretty generic vehicle experience. But even in looking around like the way you don't like

SPEAKER_02: 2:31

inbreeding within your vehicles.

SPEAKER_00: 2:33

Exactly. Yeah, I need to. I want diversity among the. So if you want if you want to find something that's kind of new and different and in fairness, there are brands that are doing cool and different things. Maybe

SPEAKER_02: 2:49

society could learn from that. You know? Anyway,

SPEAKER_00: 2:52

moving on. But, you know, the Teslas of the world and a lot of electric car manufacturers, Lucid and Rivian and stuff like that, they're all kind of doing cool new things. And even inside, the inside of the IQ Buzz, if I'm remembering it correctly, like you could, you could even change like seat configurations and things like that. And the front is really sharp with, it's all screens and LEDs and you can customize what the LEDs do and when they do it. And so, I don't know. It's just, it's nerdy and beautiful. I love it.

SPEAKER_02: 3:22

Yeah. I mean, I am kind of a car snob. You know, we've talked about we're gearheads. The one thing I do like about Volkswagen is they... they usually are very eclectic.

SPEAKER_00: 3:37

Yeah. No, I'm with you on the cars. I drive a very generic vehicle that I just need for work stuff, and we have a travel trailer, and it pulls a travel trailer very well, and that's great. I love... everything from old school muscle cars to just classically restored, like, you know, vintage vehicles to, you know, I'm, I'm pretty open-minded as far as new cars and, you know, there's plenty of cool stuff. And honestly, I'm not, I, I used to be kind of anti-electric car, but that ship has sailed for me. Like I'm, I'm all in at this point. I just need the infrastructure to catch up to, Yes,

SPEAKER_02: 4:22

that's the biggest issue. Until you can charge at any gas station, we've got some ways to go.

SPEAKER_00: 4:32

Well, you had kind of a cool experience in the last couple of weeks. I know that you're a huge fan of Jen Hatmaker. That's an understatement. So for the uninitiated, Jen Hatmaker is an author and a speaker and just kind of has been a huge presence in I don't know. What would you describe her demographic as?

SPEAKER_02: 4:56

So she started off as a Christian author.

SPEAKER_00: 5:01

She was a darling of sort of the evangelical conservative Christian.

SPEAKER_02: 5:06

Exactly. Midwest, you know. I actually started following her in 2016 or shortly after. So in 2016, she had a moment where... She came out as affirming. Affirming, for people who don't know, is basically just saying that we agree with LGBTQ, we're okay with marriage within that community, we accept that community, we want them in our church, and people lost their minds.

SPEAKER_00: 5:41

Oh, completely.

SPEAKER_02: 5:42

Her books got ripped from the shelves, they were taken out of publication. She pretty much very publicly lost everything. Um, it was very, a very devastating moment for her. Um, I, I had a friend who had reposted something of hers on Facebook and that's how I found her. And she, this was post Christian demise.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

I don't know. Um, cancellation. Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 6:13

And she was still kind of rebuilding and picking up the pieces.

UNKNOWN: 6:17

Um,

SPEAKER_02: 6:17

And she was just funny.

SPEAKER_01: 6:19

Yeah. Like she was

SPEAKER_02: 6:20

very funny and very relatable. I followed a lot of her content, you know, around her kids and getting them ready for school and all the things. And as she evolved over the years, I really... started kind of learning a little bit more about her. I started reading some of her books. I hadn't read any of her books. I think her first book I read may have been... I don't know if it was For the Love or if it was Of Mess and Moxie, but I immediately related. And we have histories within the evangelical church, so... And a lot of the things that she was questioning and things that she was being ostracized for were things that I had also had questions and similar experiences. thoughts about similar opinions about and I just I don't know she's just very endearing and you know she she also she lives down in Austin she's only a couple hours away so I can stalk her at any time um so uh that's one reason why I agreed to move to Texas

SPEAKER_00: 7:39

oh but you you know less than a four hour drive away from yeah

SPEAKER_02: 7:44

I'm sure I have like a restraining order or something at this point but But in 2020, went through another milestone, another very devastating event. Very public. Very public. Where her and her husband of 26 years got divorced. And at this time, she was actually releasing Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire. And I was on the launch team

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

for

SPEAKER_02: 8:13

that book.

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

So how did you get on the launch team?

UNKNOWN: 8:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

Just stalking.

SPEAKER_02: 8:19

Probably.

SPEAKER_00: 8:19

Standing outside her house.

SPEAKER_02: 8:21

I wrote her a letter and just

SPEAKER_00: 8:26

handed it to her personally. Did you use magazine clippings for the words? I just sat in

SPEAKER_02: 8:31

her driveway until she had to leave.

SPEAKER_00: 8:36

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02: 8:37

Meanwhile, I still lived in Louisville at the time.

SPEAKER_00: 8:40

That was expensive stalking. It required a lot of effort. So you got on the launch team for that last book?

SPEAKER_02: 8:50

I did. I didn't know that. I think that it may have just been a call for members, either on Facebook or at... It may have been an email. I'm not sure. I can't remember. But I got accepted and I was so excited because you get an early copy of the book and that one was really good.

SPEAKER_01: 9:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 9:17

Really good. But it came out as her life was basically shattering all over again. And so this new book that she has coming out is basically kind of about that time. Yeah. But the difference with this is it's her memoir. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 9:36

yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 9:37

yeah. So she kind of walks us through that period of her life, but also flashbacks a lot to special periods of her life or things that... She's just a very interesting person. Definitely. And she's very relatable. She's very funny. She's very great with words. She's got a way of putting things... And a perspective that is just incredibly relatable.

SPEAKER_01: 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 10:07

Yeah. And so this time I'm on her launch team. I got accepted on her launch team for Awake. I think it releases here at the end of September. Yeah. And I'm super excited about that. And I'm supposed to be going to that book tour. I think it's like a week after her book releases. But yeah, I've started reading it. I'm about 60% of the way through. I wanted to talk about it today, but we'll talk about it next time. But it's so good. All her stuff is so good. And while she tends to write more for women and in that perspective, I've recommended her books to guys before. Oh, absolutely. And just said, hey, her Fears Free and Full of Fire really... changed my perspective on things and gave me a more positive or encouraging outlook, you know, like to really take care of yourself. And, you know, outside of just like, Bubble baths and Starbucks coffees, like actual self-care and what that looks like spiritually, emotionally, physically. And I don't know, this sounds really ridiculous, but I swear this woman has changed my life.

SPEAKER_00: 11:36

Oh, I don't think that's ridiculous. I don't think that's ridiculous at all. I think we... I think humans often look to creators to help make sense of just the world that we are, the world we have inherited. And those creators can be authors, they can be speakers, they can be musicians, they can be actors. Like we use all these different resources to sort of make things make more sense. And, you know, for me, and this particular author has changed a lot since he wrote some books that were very impactful for me, but for me, a guy who I think changed my life is a guy named Donald Miller. Any

SPEAKER_02: 12:14

relation?

SPEAKER_00: 12:15

No. Unfortunately. But he is a really, like, honestly, his professional life has kind of taken a different path now and he does a lot more sort of corporate things. And I throw no shade. Like, do your thing. You know, it's fine. But he wrote some books kind of earlier in his life in a different era of his life. One called Blue Like Jazz that was incredibly formative for me. And then another one called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. They've reshaped a lot of my perspectives on the world around me, on the faith I was trying to practice, on the relationships that I had. And so I don't think it's ridiculous at all to... kind of crown somebody within a more creative atmosphere as like, oh, you have been super impactful on me and my perspective. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 13:07

And so one thing I really appreciate is she's got a podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 13:11

Which you all should go listen to. Not right now. Finish this one, but then go listen to hers.

SPEAKER_02: 13:15

Yeah, we come first. So anyway, but the guests that she has brought on have been, I mean, I don't know how she finds these people, but every one of her guests have always given just amazing interviews and just really have... I don't even know how to... quantify or qualify the impact you know and it's been almost 10 years I just realized I'm like 20 26 is coming up like that's 10 years um but yeah between her podcasts and her books and her social media and all of these things I just I really kind of look to her when things feel uneasy, unsure, chaotic, you know, I'm kind of like, where is Jen's headspace at with this? Like she kind of, and she doesn't know this, but I mean, she really does kind of help ground me. I don't want to say she's like a Northern star, but like, I'm almost like if Jen's not panicking, I'm not panicking.

SPEAKER_00: 14:34

Sure. If

SPEAKER_02: 14:35

Jen's panicking,

SPEAKER_00: 14:36

I'm paying attention.

SPEAKER_02: 14:37

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:39

Well, and, And so I want to talk more about her. I want to read the book as well and have you do it. But I will say... before we jump off the Jen hat maker train, which is really fun to be on. Um, when she, um, basically came out in support of the LGBT community, it's because her daughter came out and this is all public. You know, I'm not, I am not, you know, I'm not revealing anything that is not out there, you know, in depth. Uh, so yeah, don't at me, but the, uh, When that happened, I was already in a place in my own sort of spiritual life where I was at a real impasse with a lot of the perspectives of the way that I had grown up. But I also didn't feel like I had a model yet, because I didn't know where to look. I didn't have a model for what faith could look like, what spirituality could look like, where was there space for perspectives that definitely did not align with the way that I grew up, with the community that was around me, with the church I was involved in, all of that. And so now here's this person who was already on my radar because she was such a darling of the... And these are her words, not mine. Don't at me. She said, She was the darling of the white evangelical soccer mom.

SPEAKER_02: 16:02

That's in this book. She says

SPEAKER_00: 16:04

that. And so she was already on my radar just because of that. She had done tons of speaking tours, and I don't know that I had attended anything she had spoken at, but she was on my radar. I was following her on social media channels and things like that, had seen tons of her content. And so... She comes out in support of that community to support her daughter and was absolutely annihilated by just conservative Christianity. I mean, overnight she was dead to everyone. And that revealed two things to me immediately. One, I am a part of a system that is really focused on who I'm hating more than who I'm loving. And two, if we can't stomach some level of disagreement or different perspectives inside this kind of religious experience, then I'm starting to get less and less interested. And I'm not interested in being told who to hate. I'm not interested in being told like, I latched on to her big time at that point and have had tremendous respect for her ever since.

SPEAKER_02: 17:20

Absolutely, because she got annihilated. She lost everything. Everything.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

Every speaking engagement, every book deal. Overnight. Everything.

SPEAKER_02: 17:29

And she held firm.

SPEAKER_00: 17:30

Yeah. For her kid.

SPEAKER_02: 17:32

And she weathered that storm and she, I mean, that was a big sacrifice. Yeah. You know, because she could have just stayed quiet.

SPEAKER_01: 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:42

She could have just gone along and she didn't. And the thing about that moment is I think there were several people kind of in that same camp that were like, I don't think I agree with this. Right. And what she did gave people permission to say, you know what? I can love, you know, my gay neighbors and friends and lesbians. Family members. Exactly. And all that. And still be a Christian. Right. And still have faith. Like, this is not about Christian hating or any of that. It is... basically tearing down a lot of the rules that are just made up. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 18:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 18:33

Yeah. And, and, and she just really barreled through several of those walls. Um, and she will admit, like it came out at a time that she, she didn't have a lot of time to prepare. She, she knew she'd had the interview, um, They gave her basically 24 hours and then it released and it opened the floodgates. But now I hear so many stories on her podcast and other forms of media where people are like, you don't know what that did for me. Like you, you know, help me get out of a bad marriage or get out of a bad, you know, religious situation or help me see that there is a path forward here. Like these two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.

SPEAKER_00: 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:27

So yeah, we could go on all day.

SPEAKER_00: 19:30

Oh man, this could be the Jen hat maker appreciation podcast. Yeah. But I

SPEAKER_02: 19:33

suggest, I definitely recommend, I know I'm not through, but the book is very quick. It's a very quick, easy read. It's not her typical. She does have humor, but it's not her typical kind of like where you kind of get it throughout. It's a little more serious, but it's It's good.

SPEAKER_00: 19:53

Yeah. I mean, she's basically a stand-up comic

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

who,

SPEAKER_00: 19:56

you know, writes. And I heard her say on a podcast recently that, you know, at the end of the day, the thing that she considers herself to be is a writer. Yes. Sure, she does speaking gigs. Sure, she's a podcast host and all this other thing. But at the end of the day, she sees herself as a writer. And that really comes through even just in her social media presence. Like, everything is quippy. It's well-written. It's... But you also feel like she's just talking to you, which is really amazing. But her commentary, too, on a lot of just current events and political stuff. I mean, to your point, she is kind of a bellwether of like, okay, there are certain people in my life that when– Things are going crazy. I sort of glance at to be like, are we okay?

SPEAKER_02: 20:44

And I hate that she's the one that had to be crucified for it, but it was not done in vain.

SPEAKER_00: 20:50

Right, right. But even, like, there's so much about our current political climate that it's hard to know how to respond to. And so, on one hand, like, I don't want to be an alarmist and constantly think that the sky is falling and constantly be worried and concerned about, um, the state of Washington and our political leaders and things like that. And so I probably put too much emphasis on looking to people like her to be like, okay, are you using the fascism word yet? Because it's starting to seem like this is what we're doing. Are we okay with the fact that... It

SPEAKER_02: 21:33

kind of tempers your alarmist.

SPEAKER_00: 21:35

Yes, it does. I don't know when to reach for the panic button, but if they're reaching for the panic button, then oh boy. And there's plenty to panic about. Right? I've got a dear friend in Washington, D.C. that she... She actually works for a local politician there. She was posting on one of her social profiles recently. She was having a very pleasant day, and she had done some reading and done some work and all this, and she was walking past a lake by where they live, and there was like a National Guard checkpoint that had been set up right at that sidewalk. And it just seemed so weird and dystopian to me that, you know, I realize that there are crime in various places, but I've also spent a lot of time walking through Washington, D.C. because I have a major client in that area. So I've been there a ton, and I've just not really felt all that unsafe. And so to have things like National Guard deployments, and then I read this morning that there's a Texas National Guard deployment that might be happening in Illinois. Why are we sending one state's National Guard to a different state Crime? Well, and that's

SPEAKER_02: 22:54

not what they're there for.

SPEAKER_00: 22:56

Right. That's

SPEAKER_02: 22:56

not what they're trained to do. They're not trained law enforcement. Last I heard, they're not even doing anything. They're cleaning up trash. Right. Exactly. They're walking around like they don't know what to do because this isn't what they're trained to do.

SPEAKER_00: 23:13

Well, and thankfully, we have such qualified, capable leadership at the very top of our governmental organization. That is sarcasm for people who cannot see my face. We have such qualified leadership at the top of all of our organizations that we just have nothing to be concerned about because I'm sure they have it under control. Right, Jen Hatmaker?

SPEAKER_02: 23:32

Right. So, okay, and then I don't want to belabor this point, but like, oh, there's so much crime in D.C.

SPEAKER_01: 23:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 23:39

Okay, what kind of crime? What are we talking about here? What kind of crime is going on? I mean, they're not dispersing riots. Like, are you going to happen to catch the person who happens to be walking down the street with a gun? What are you going to do? I mean, technically, I have a right until they actually shoot somebody. Well, what do you, I mean, how are you preventing that? Like, you're not preventing drug crime. That's not going to happen out on the street. Like, what are you, to me, it's just, I got thoughts. I got thoughts, I got opinions, and I'm just like, it's

SPEAKER_01: 24:14

bullshit.

SPEAKER_02: 24:16

It's just, I'm like, oh, yeah, we got to fight crime. What crime?

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

Right. I'm stealing this from a podcast that you also should go listen to if you're listening to ours, a brilliant podcast called Pantsuit Politics. They're also big Jen Hatmaker fans there.

SPEAKER_02: 24:32

And they're from my state of Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00: 24:33

They are from your state of Kentucky. And they love it there. They speak fondly of that part of the world. And so Beth, one of the hosts of that podcast, said something that I thought was so smart when they were talking about this. She said that the... Instead of sending National Guard people, send that budget to local law enforcement so they can expand their own presence in ways that make sense for their local districts.

SPEAKER_02: 25:05

Exactly, because they know what's going on. They're on the ground. These are their beats. These are their neighborhoods. They know who these people are. They know the offenders. That makes perfect sense. Because send a National Guard, National Guard doesn't know what's going

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

on. Right, and it's more people to figure out, okay, where do we put all these people? people? Where do we put all the equipment they're bringing with them? There's so much in the way of logistics when you're deploying a unit of National Guard versus if you're just empowering local law enforcement. I don't know. To me, that makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_02: 25:36

I'm glad we took money away from Medicare and Medicaid to fund

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

that. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Anyway,

SPEAKER_02: 25:44

moving on.

SPEAKER_00: 25:46

So have you ever had the experience where you find a show and you get really excited about a show, and then as you are watching the first couple of episodes, you find out that it's already been canceled? No, never. It's never happened to me.

SPEAKER_02: 26:01

Happens to almost every show I like. So

SPEAKER_00: 26:05

you are partially responsible for this, and actually another friend of mine had mentioned this show to my wife and I previously. I

SPEAKER_02: 26:12

shan't be held accountable.

SPEAKER_00: 26:13

You shan't. No, absolutely not. There's this brilliant show on Netflix called Chaos, K-A-O-S, and it's genius. And so another friend had recommended it, and then our families were all hanging out a little while back, and you threw an episode on just because y'all love it. And in 10 minutes, I was hooked. I was like, this is brilliant. It is. It's a great concept.

SPEAKER_02: 26:41

It's so creative.

SPEAKER_00: 26:42

It's so creative. So the general concept, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but the general concept is it's sort of a reframing of Greek mythology based on actual characters from Greek mythology.

UNKNOWN: 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:55

But the stories are told in almost a modernized way. Yes. Is that fair to say?

SPEAKER_02: 26:59

Yeah, it's like modern day.

SPEAKER_00: 27:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:01

As though Crete is still an empire and Sparta and all of those. And yeah, so you've got Eurydice and Orpheus and their story. You've got Icarus and Daedalus. But yeah, it's kind of like if those gods, like if we still believe

SPEAKER_01: 27:25

right in that

SPEAKER_02: 27:26

today

SPEAKER_01: 27:27

yeah

SPEAKER_02: 27:27

as though those empires never fell

SPEAKER_01: 27:29

right

SPEAKER_02: 27:30

and I love Greek and Roman mythology and so this is like right up my alley and has Jeff Goldblum yes who is Zeus yeah yes and it's it's just very clever yeah it's very creative it was very well produced

SPEAKER_00: 27:51

yes yeah Netflix spent some money on it you know they the cast is excellent and Jeff Goldblum is I think probably the biggest name but it's got a lot of very recognizable it

SPEAKER_02: 28:05

has Helen

SPEAKER_00: 28:05

Mirren oh Helen Mirren yeah

SPEAKER_02: 28:08

she's Hera

SPEAKER_00: 28:08

yeah that's probably definitely your top two cast but absolute genius show it's so funny

SPEAKER_02: 28:16

not safe for children

SPEAKER_00: 28:17

no don't watch it with your kids but it's hilarious it's so smart and creative I loved it and it's gone now. And I have a chaos-shaped hole in my heart that I didn't even know I had. It was really, really brilliant. But what else should people be watching? What else have you been into out there in the entertainment scene?

SPEAKER_02: 28:42

We're also watching the new season of Wednesday Just Dropped. Oh,

SPEAKER_01: 28:47

yes.

SPEAKER_02: 28:48

And so I grew up loving the Addams

SPEAKER_01: 28:52

Family.

SPEAKER_02: 28:53

Addams Family values All of those. When Wednesday came out, I was super excited. We actually didn't watch it with the kids. We watched it first. It was not quite what I was expecting, but I'm not sure how else they could have done it. Because Wednesday kind of becomes like a Harry at the Spa.

SPEAKER_01: 29:16

Yeah, yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 29:17

yeah. And I'm like, this just doesn't... feel like Wednesday but I don't know how else they could have like I don't know what else they would have done

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

yeah and I think that they took so Tim Burton is directing I love Tim Burton he is absolutely brilliant I love his approach with how he developed a lot of the characters and things like that it is it's intense and there are parts especially towards the end of the first season that lean a bit violent so if that something that you're sensitive to, especially as far as kids are concerned. That's a good thing to keep in mind. Tim Burton really took some creative license in ways that I think work. I've been impressed nonstop with Jenna Ortega's performance. The I read early on that she tried really hard when they were doing any close-ups of her to not blink.

SPEAKER_02: 30:17

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:17

I heard about that. Just to make herself a little bit more imposing and intimidating and for it to be a little bit more disconcerting. But, yeah, even that cast is absolutely stacked. I mean, Catherine Zeta-Jones is in it in the first season. It's got Gwendolyn Christie in it, who is awesome as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones. She's also the silver stormtrooper from the Star Wars movies like it's really just brilliantly done and I'm excited about it but yeah that show has been a pleasant surprise and then the second season just came out and I've watched probably about half of it I need to go back and rewatch a couple episodes so I wasn't paying enough attention more recently but like that's been a blast and I've really enjoyed all of that I'm hoping that Netflix keeps it around it seems to be one of their major players so I I think that's probably the case. So we have kind of a silly tradition around entertainment at my house. We are normally watching a couple of more serious shows, and then we have just absolute garbage that we watch. Unashamed, Love Island garbage. That's our garbage of choice right now. I haven't tapped

SPEAKER_02: 31:31

into that, but I've done Love is Blind. I've done Perfect Match.

SPEAKER_00: 31:36

We did Perfect Match, too. Too

SPEAKER_02: 31:37

Hot to Handle.

SPEAKER_00: 31:38

We did Too Hot to Handle.

SPEAKER_02: 31:39

Just...

SPEAKER_00: 31:41

Crap. Oh, yeah. Junk. I'm

SPEAKER_02: 31:43

like, we could get rid of a few of those and have a budget for chaos.

SPEAKER_00: 31:47

I mean, you're not wrong. The problem with reality shows is they're really cheap to produce because you're not paying major talent. Even down to the kind of crew that you have on a show like that, most of those cameras are remote controlled. They're not even paying a ton of cameramen and stuff like that to be out there. And so those shows are really inexpensive to produce. which is great but also means that we have too many of them and then like one of the shows that we just finished we watched it on a delay but the we were huge fans of The Last of Us on HBO oh yeah

SPEAKER_02: 32:26

yeah my husband was a big fan of the game

SPEAKER_00: 32:30

yeah

SPEAKER_02: 32:31

and so when the show came out we had to literally had to get an HBO subscription

SPEAKER_01: 32:36

to

SPEAKER_02: 32:37

watch it and that's the only time we have HBO is when the That show comes out.

SPEAKER_00: 32:43

Yeah, I mean, it's incredible. And everything Pedro Pascal touches has been turning to gold. And, like, he just...

SPEAKER_02: 32:51

He is a treasure.

SPEAKER_00: 32:53

He is a treasure. And, man, I'll die on that hill. That guy is incredible. And he's not just incredible, like, in the various acting roles that... He's in because he's freaking everywhere all the time.

SPEAKER_01: 33:05

He

SPEAKER_00: 33:06

also, from the outside looking in, seems to be a wonderful human being. Oh,

SPEAKER_02: 33:13

yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:13

Just a delightful guy. Did you know he just turned 50? That dude is 50.

UNKNOWN: 33:21

Like...

SPEAKER_02: 33:22

I can see it only because they aged him in The Last of Us. So when I realized that that is not his default persona, I was like, oh. Because he just plays that character so well.

SPEAKER_00: 33:40

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 33:42

And yeah, to find out. Doesn't he have like an accent?

SPEAKER_00: 33:46

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Is he Chilean? I think he's Chilean. It's either that or Peruvian. It's somewhere South America. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 33:53

I mean, to play... a guy from Texas that's, you know...

SPEAKER_00: 33:59

Who's got a southern drawl and... All of that,

SPEAKER_02: 34:01

yeah. And then,

SPEAKER_00: 34:03

yeah. But in The Mandalorian, he basically has no accent. He has to be, like, super flat, you know, as far as that's concerned. And he does a wonderful job in that show. And so, yeah, I just... I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of his. The Last of Us is so brilliantly done. It was a great show. And, you know, I... Stuff like that, though, I have to have a palate cleanser afterward. I'll watch one of those, and then my wife and I will be like, okay, so now I want to watch something stupid. I need a food show. I need like, oh, have you ever watched on Netflix Somebody Feed Phil?

SPEAKER_02: 34:44

No. Never heard

SPEAKER_00: 34:46

of it. I'm excited to tell you about this right now. Okay. For real. So Phil Rosenthal is the host of this show. Phil Rosenthal kind of rose to fame because he was one of the writers and showrunners for Everybody Loves Raymond.

SPEAKER_02: 34:59

Okay, I was going to say that name sounds

SPEAKER_00: 35:01

familiar. So he had some huge hits in the 90s and early 2000s as far as sitcoms and things like that. He was very, very instrumental in the writing for those shows and then just the development of other stuff. And he might be the most likable person I've ever seen on television.

SPEAKER_02: 35:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 35:21

He is... hilarious. He's also unfailingly kind. And he has a way of just getting away with saying whatever he wants and making you feel great about it. Interesting. But his show on Netflix now is called Somebody Feed Phil. And it's a food show where he travels the world and eats in all these different places. And he eats in restaurants and people's homes and street food and all sorts of things. And he always is working with a local fixer of some sort. So he's got a guide. One of my Yeah, yeah, yeah. and local fixers and producers and whatever. And I love that about it as a production guy because it sort of brings a little bit of humanity to something that usually is not ever seen. So I love that. But also Phil's the kind of guy who, like there's an episode, I don't remember what city he was in, I think it was somewhere in the States, but he is at this pizza place, a famous pizza place, and he orders just a ton of pizza. And there's a line of people out the door. And so he walks out the door and he literally just starts opening up his pizza boxes and he's like, hey, you want a slice of this? And he's literally just giving away food to everyone who's in line waiting. He is just remarkably kind and funny and the whole show is a palate cleanser. It is impossible to watch that show and be in a bad mood. It's so good. So anyway, I'm going to force feed you some Somebody Feed Phil at some point. You know,

SPEAKER_02: 37:19

and I'm just sitting here thinking like, They could have done, they could have had fun with that title.

SPEAKER_00: 37:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 37:26

Like, eat your fill. Or.

SPEAKER_00: 37:30

Oh my God, that's really smart. Eat your fill or

SPEAKER_02: 37:33

something. I don't know.

UNKNOWN: 37:34

Eat your fill.

SPEAKER_00: 37:35

Oh, that's so good. We should call Netflix. it needs a rebrand

SPEAKER_02: 37:40

yep anyway no that sounds like fun

SPEAKER_00: 37:44

yeah we'll definitely check it out no it is a lot of fun one of the things that I know you're pretty excited about that's coming up in March of next year there's a huge festival in Austin Texas called South by Southwest and it does it's kind of a lot of different things it's evolved a lot over the years and I think and I'm sure there are people who can correct me on this but I think that it actually started purely as a music festival um And it's evolved into almost like a music and tech thing. So I know you're interested in it, excited about it. What do you know about it? What drew your attention towards that? What makes it interesting for you?

SPEAKER_02: 38:22

I've just seen some posts about it and people talking about... They always just seem excited about anything that's kind of coming out of that industry. Conference or whatever it's called. I'll be honest. I thought it was put on by Southwest Airlines. I was like, South by Southwest. And then I'm seeing all this tech stuff and I was like, interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 38:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 38:50

Having trouble putting those pieces together until I realized they don't fit. So, yeah, I don't know much about it, but I did see like it's in Austin in March. And so I put a feeler out to our group chat just saying like hey I kind of want to go to this

SPEAKER_00: 39:08

yeah well so I've been it's been a few years and it's it is both a tremendous amount of fun and something you have to have a lot of patience with because Austin as a city is a decent sized city. I mean, it's obviously the capital of Texas, but it's congested. Exactly. Austin's already congested and then you bring a huge festival into that space and it is worse. And so that's where you have to exercise some patience and it's going to take you forever to get around. It's going to, you're not going to get a restaurant reservation at all. You have to think through the experience you're wanting to have. The actual event itself is incredible. I actually had a friend a few years ago speak out there he's a South African friend of mine who has done a tremendous amount of work in like the conservation space and a lot of environmental work and stuff and he's used his knowledge of video production and specifically virtual reality video production to just create a lot of awareness around environmental issues and things like that and so he was invited to speak out there a few years ago and I wish I had gone when he was there I don't remember why I couldn't but it's just, it is a unique experience for sure. I want to go to, I think our crew should just all go down there and make plans and just know that it's going to be a little bonkers. But it's, it's a ton of fun. And if you're into live music at all, it's a great place to be. And they usually bring in some really legit headliners and, When I went, so they'll convert parts of like the open air spaces in Austin's parks and things like that. Last time I went, they were using some of those spaces as venues. And so, you know, there would be stages set up and people everywhere and vendors everywhere, you know, And being in March in Central Texas, that's usually a pretty good time to be down there. The weather in March here can go a million directions, but it usually is a pretty great experience. A lot of bands work really, really hard to get into South By so that they can kind of get in front of larger audiences, have an opportunity to open for bigger acts and things like that. One of my favorite bands, a band called Lawrence, they kind of had their big break prior to South By, but then that got them a lot of attention when they actually played that festival. It's really cool. And Austin's just a fun place to be. Oh, I

SPEAKER_02: 41:57

love Austin. I love it. So Louisville steals a lot of culture from Austin. Several years ago, there was a Keep Austin Weird.

SPEAKER_00: 42:10

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's an

SPEAKER_02: 42:12

initiative. And Louisville took that from Austin. They did credit Austin, but yeah, there was Keep Louisville Weird, Which then became the slogan for the Louisville Independent Business Alliance, and I volunteered for them. Oh, cool. This was several years ago, but I used to have a Keep Louisville Weird sticker. They just draw a lot from Austin because it's a really cool culture. It is. It kind of reminds me almost, and I think friends back home will understand this, it's almost like if you took Louisville and Nashville and put them together.

SPEAKER_01: 42:48

Mm-hmm. is Austin.

SPEAKER_02: 42:50

There's a little more cowboy, but it's got the eclectic feel.

SPEAKER_00: 42:58

It's very artistic. Yes,

SPEAKER_02: 43:00

very indie.

SPEAKER_00: 43:02

So I've only been to Louisville once, and it was for work, and I stayed like one night, and I squeezed in one distillery tour while I was there. That was the only kind of touristy thing I did. But what makes Louisville weird? So if they're embracing that kind of language, what is it about them that is... It's

SPEAKER_02: 43:24

a very indie culture.

SPEAKER_00: 43:25

Cool.

SPEAKER_02: 43:26

It's a very indie culture. Now, granted, we've been gone for a couple of years. COVID made the mess. The Breonna Taylor situation kind of rocked the area.

SPEAKER_01: 43:39

And

SPEAKER_02: 43:40

I think there's still some... fall out from that a little bit but it's live bands local bands uh very foodie city um you know there are a couple of streets that i hung out on in my teenage years uh college years um where we literally just walk up and down the street and go to different shops and um yeah i listened to live music and there were some clubs at night but they were all Irish-themed pubs.

SPEAKER_00: 44:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 44:18

There's just a certain culture there that you don't find everywhere. I think it mimics Austin a lot. I don't think that we... I think they were both kind of naturally in their respective cities, and then maybe somebody just went to Austin. It was like, wait a minute. They have like a sister city over here.

SPEAKER_00: 44:43

Yeah, no, it's fun. The distillery tour I went on, I went to Angel's Envy and did that whole tour and learned a ton. It was fascinating, and I very much enjoyed it. There was a season in my life where I was really big into bourbon, and actually I was collecting it. And kind of part of the resale market and stuff. And I've gotten out of all of that. It just got too crazy expensive and all that. But it did kind of endear me to that part of the world. And I would have loved to have spent more time even doing like big distillery tours and stuff. I know there's a whole, the bourbon trail that you can go on and check all that out. Because I don't, like I still know a lot about it. But I'm pretty out of the, I'm out of the like aftermarket bourbon scene. Because it was just. The

SPEAKER_02: 45:30

bourbon black market.

SPEAKER_00: 45:31

Yeah. Basically, yeah. It

SPEAKER_02: 45:32

is what it is. It's crazy. It's fun. I have friends who are involved or were involved. I'm not sure if they are anymore. It's kind of an exciting, fun little thing to basically hear that very rare bourbons are going to be available at some obscure liquor store around the city and people line up to get it and there's raffles and all sorts of things. Now, I'm going to get crucified for this, but But I've never actually been on a bourbon tour.

UNKNOWN: 46:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 46:06

Just like I've also never been to the actual Derby. Now, to be fair, locals don't go to the Derby.

SPEAKER_01: 46:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 46:13

But I haven't done the bourbon thing.

SPEAKER_00: 46:16

Well, it's kind of like I've lived in Dallas for, I mean, ages. I've been in North Texas most of my life. And just last year, I finally went to the JFK Museum and Memorial.

SPEAKER_01: 46:31

that's here

SPEAKER_00: 46:32

and I've been here forever and so I think when you're a local you tend to not gravitate towards the things that are more touristy and I'm sure there's plenty of other stuff in Dallas I haven't done that you know people would be like are you serious but yeah I mean I just

SPEAKER_02: 46:49

what's so funny is my relationship with bourbon is kind of like a sibling like it's not like we don't get along but I will fight somebody like Over someone saying, oh, yeah, I had bourbon from Tennessee. No, you didn't.

SPEAKER_01: 47:08

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02: 47:08

Nope. You had whiskey because only bourbon is made in Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00: 47:12

Right. Yeah. And it's a fun kind of subculture, too. That's part of why I got into it. It was just the entertainment of following these distilleries and really– I don't know. Being interested in the manufacturing process, the flavor profiles, all that. I don't know. I really nerded out on all that stuff and I enjoyed it a lot. Anyhow, I wonder if Jen Hammacher likes bourbon. We should ask her. You should ask her. Write her another letter.

SPEAKER_02: 47:39

I'll just hang out in her driveway. I'll just block her in again and be like, I need you to taste

SPEAKER_00: 47:44

this. Which won't be suspicious at all. At all. I promise it's just whiskey. Or bourbon. It's not. That's

SPEAKER_02: 47:57

it. Cut. We're done. I'm out. You just

SPEAKER_00: 48:01

committed a cardinal sin. I know, but I figured I'd draw you off sides. That worked beautifully. I'm really going to have a

SPEAKER_02: 48:11

restraining

SPEAKER_00: 48:12

order

SPEAKER_02: 48:13

now. Well, that's it for Premeditated Opinions, where the thoughts were fully baked and only mildly regrettable.

SPEAKER_00: 48:18

And if you enjoyed today's episode, congrats on having truly excellent taste in podcasts and also opinions.

SPEAKER_02: 48:24

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SPEAKER_00: 48:32

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SPEAKER_02: 48:39

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