Welcome to “Ear Biscuits”, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Link. And I’m Rhett. This week at the Round Table of Dim Lighting, we are talking about our recent trips to North Cackalacky. North Carolina. Unexpected trip for you. That’s where we’re from. Yep. A planned trip for me. Basically how this ended up working is you originally made plans to go to Mexico. Cabo San Lucas. And this was an exciting thing for you. Me and Christy were gonna have You decided to go with another couple other than me and my wife, which- That’s right. We did not, you didn’t consult with me. That’s right. But we’ve worked- Keep you on your toes. We’ve worked through it. And when you made that decision to be gone over a long weekend, Jessie was like, “Hey, the weekend that Link and Christy are gone, we should go back to North Carolina because she’s got cabin business is what we call it. And that’s not a euphemism for anything. That’s just we, you know, we have a place that we are fixing up in North Carolina and we needed to meet the contractor, et cetera. Yeah. So we planned a trip that would coincide with the exact days that you were gone. And then things happened. Little did I know that family members and close family friends on Christy’s side were gonna be dropping like flies. Okay, yep. Yeah, I went to two funerals in one day and I want to tell you all about it. Is that a record, you think? No, probably not. It’s a personal record. It’s a personal record. I don’t think I’ve ever been to more, to two funerals or memorial services, as some may call them in one day. Who called them that? Well, or you can call it a celebration of life. Like that’s made its way into the country. Yeah. You know what? The funeral brochure at the country church that Christy grew up in, for the second funeral we went to, it said, “Celebration of life”. I was like, “I like this”. That’s pretty nice, I like that. I like this. Did it feel like a celebration of life? I would like to discuss that. Oh. Ooh. But first I would like to acknowledge that we’re both flannel boys today. Yeah, we’re in sync today. We both chose Flannel boys with the black T-shirt with the white ink. What are we doing? I don’t know, but. We’re in sync, man. This is gonna be a good podcast. We decided to not talk about it until now. And we also decided not to change because it’s like, it does, you know- It’s different, but the same. If you’re just watching a clip from, “Ear Biscuits” this episode, you’d be like, “Oh, they decided to wear a uniform today.” Yeah. Plaid and black T-shirt. But no, it just happened. We’re just tap, we’re tapping into the same life stream of apparel. This is a synchronicity, Link. This is a synchronicity. I will say briefly- What do we do with it? I will say briefly, I’m not going to talk about this at length right now, but I’m sure we will at some point. But people have pointed out multiple, you know, whenever we talk about things, like when I did my deconstruction episode and I was talking about some of these things that were happening and, you know, “Is this challenging my worldview or inventing a new one?” Whatever. People point out the fact that, which is not unexpected, that all of these things have been talked about ad nauseum by many other people other than me. It’s just I tend to not be very well-educated about a lot of this stuff, right? Because, you know, we got a technical education. I’ve been making internet videos. Meaning, what I’m saying is that all the stuff that we’ve been talking about, there are people who are educated and informed and for, you know, centuries have been talking about some of the things that we talked about. And I’m just sort of riffing and just talking about my personal experience. Shame on you. But one, but no, but actually it’s, no, it’s, I think it’s good. It’s good to hear people talk about that. Because people point me to people who’ve talked about it. Okay. And then it’s very helpful for me to process. And so I- So they’re not critiquing you? Well, some people are, but it’s not, I’m saying some people are giving helpful suggestions. Some people are critiquing. I’m taking it all as helpful suggestions. But one of the things I had really had no idea about, I mean, I had a little bit of an idea about, you know, CG or Carl Jung, which I always just said Carl Young. And apparently he is the one that made a lot of some of these concepts about like the collective unconscious and synchronicity and all this stuff. Because he was very much a guy that was like, one part of his brain was super rational, logical. And the other part of his brain was trying to figure out what was going on beyond and trying to develop- Mystical and practical. a way of thinking about those things together. And so I’ve been reading, I haven’t been reading him directly, because he’s kind of hard to read directly, but I’m reading modern people’s takes on him who can explain it in a way that doesn’t make me fall asleep. Why did you say he was CG? I thought it was CJ. No, CG. What’s the G? I don’t know. Gustav, I think. Oh, oh, oh. But Jung starts with a J. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah. So we’re having a Jungian synchronicity right now. Well, we’re probably just, we probably just have similar, we have crossover in our wardrobes and it’s inevitable that we’re going to wear similar things on some days, but we can choose to believe that there’s something else going on and it’s more fun. I would like to harness it. Yeah. I’d like to harness it. Let’s harness it and see if we can just work something up today. Well, since we’re getting stuff off our chest. Yeah, I would say, so thank you. Thank you, for those of you who suggested different books and resources, because I do appreciate it, because I admit, I’m not very well-read in a lot of these things. I’m just kind of experiencing life and then just going on a podcast and talking about it. So I do not take offense at any of those recommendations. I welcome them. Speaking to suggest a book, I’d like to suggest a book. Okay, is this your rec? No. Okay, this is an ad. I would like to suggest a book that has nothing in it. It’s up to you to fill it and we sell it. Mythical Always Creative. Mm. You know, it’s good to have a creative notebook that says nothing. It’s the doodle book. This actually features a doodle from Caleb. Yep. Our artist in residence. Yeah. And so the only thing that’s on the book is the Mythical M. And then you can put the dragon on there, your doodle, anything you want. You don’t have to doodle what Caleb doodled. And then every day or every moment is a blank slate for you to doodle, express yourself, distract yourself. I recommend that. That’s my favorite book right now. The Mythical Doodle Book available at mythical.com. The book with nothing in it. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. I’m toying with a slogan and this is not BetterHelp’s slogan. Okay. This is just something that I’m toying with. Okay. Keep surprising yourself. Hmm. What about that? I like that. How about that for like a life motto? There’s something fun about surprising yourself with yourself, learning things about yourself. Like little Easter eggs that you put around in your life and maybe you’ll forget about it and you’ll be, “Oh, there’s the $5 I put into that crack”. Yeah, it’s a rewarding experience, which happens to me in the context of therapy. I mean, I surprised myself a lot. As you learn new things about yourself. But as I learn new things about myself, it’s surprising. It’s like, “Oh”. Connecting dots, making connections between my actions, my fears, my thoughts, my desires, my past, my present, my future. Yeah, you’re doing the work. There’s always- They call that doing the work, yeah. There’s always something new you can learn about yourself and therapy is a great way to keep learning and understand why you are the way you are. Which I think is the, that’s for me, what I once would have regarded as like, you know, self-obsessed naval gazing. I’ve actually come to learn that figuring out why I am the way that I am and how I got to be this way and understanding that is the first step to changing the things about myself that I want to change. If I don’t know how I got the way that I am, I can’t take the next step to change and adapt. And as I’ve shared on this podcast before, learning to be much more self-compassionate frees you up to then love other people more. If that’s something that you’re interested in, you should give therapy a try and you should give BetterHelp a try because of how it works. It’s convenient because it’s entirely online. So you can take your appointments from anywhere you want. All you gotta do is fill out a questionnaire, then you get matched up with a licensed therapist that meets your needs. And if they’re not a great match, you can change at no extra cost. Discover your potential with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/ear today to get 10% off your first month. That’s BetterHelp H-E-L-P.com/ear. I wanna apologize for my tardiness today. Of course, you were also tardy. I think I was tardier than you. I was running late because I had to flick my shower nipples. No comment. And once I got started with that, I couldn’t stop until I was done. Please elaborate. I thought I’ve told you about my shower nipples before. Because you know, I’ve got the shower head beside me, but then I’ve got the raindrop shower head overhead and it’s like, it’s- Got a bunch of nipples on it. It’s got a bunch of nipples on it, like, and then all the water squirts out of the nipples. Because of the hardness of the water in our area, they get clogged. Yeah, and the nipples are black rubber. And then I can look and I can see right at the tip of the teat of each one, they’ll be like a little white thing. And if I reach- The frosty nip, they call that. If I reach up there and I just pinch the nipple, the frosty nip will come off. And the water will flow again. And the water will flow or not be like boo sideways. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I notice that sometimes if I go long enough without flicking my shower nipples, the intensity of the remaining free-flowing nipples is such that it feels like I’m being shot with like a bunch of lasers. Yeah. And then there’s one laser hitting the wall and one laser hitting the shower door. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. I feel like I need to be dropped from the ceiling like Tom cruise and- Well, the intensity of- To dodge it. The intensity of flow is proportional or inversely proportional to the number of nipples. Of course I know that. And this is why Chase, who has a third nipple, which he’s talked about, has a very low flow in his nipples because he has, you know, he has a relief nipple is what they call it. Well, the design is optimized for all of the nipples to be free-flowing. And you tend to forget. It’s like all of a sudden it’s like, “Man, this hurts. I don’t even wanna turn this thing on.” Right. But then I went up there and I like system, and sometimes I’ll just like, I’ll just rake my hand over it. I ain’t got time for this. Just like get all the nipples at once. It doesn’t work that way. You gotta sit there and you gotta systematically. You gotta take your time with your nipple. Go in a circle. I did it. It took me so long, my arm got tired, I had to switch arms. And you’re just standing. You’re not like on a stool. I’m not on a stool, no. Yeah. And then, and then I, I got so tired I had to switch arms back. From what I remember in filming that video in your shower, which is on the internet, don’t get any ideas. It’s about this tall. I mean, it’s this tall. I had to reach pretty straight to get to it. It’s a pretty tall shower. So I just systematically pinched all of the shower nipples and got all of the little granules out. This is the only reason that you were late? And then, well, it took a long time. And then I turned, I turned that shower head back on. And let me tell you . It was like a brand new morning. It was like a delicate rain. I was just underneath a delicate rain. I was like, “This is what this thing’s supposed to do.” “This is what it was made for.” Sometimes you just gotta flick your nipples. Sometimes you gotta flick your shower nipples. First thing in the morning. You know what? Stop what you’re doing, drop what you’re doing. You can keep listening to this. Make your way to your shower head at your next available entree- Well, hold on now. and start flicking those nipples. Now you’re assuming that everyone has a rain. I mean, this is pretty privileged of you- Yeah, sorry. to just assume everybody’s got a rain shower. If any of, whatever your shower head is, you know, you need to dunk that thing in some vinegar water. We definitely had no nipples in my shower growing up. You gotta get that shower head clean. The shower head in my- No matter what it is. Use some vinegar. Bathroom growing up was I don’t know if you remember this, if you ever took a shower at my house growing up. I remember. The shower head started like left the side of the wall at my goozle height, neck height and then released at the top of chest height. And this is the shower that I grew up taking showers in. And probably at age- You were standing in a bathtub. Nine, I outgrew the shower but continued to shower in the shower until 18. So you would bend over to wash your hair? Yeah. Or if you didn’t wanna wash your hair, you didn’t have to wear a shower cap. I didn’t wear a shower cap until I got this hair. Growing up, I’m gonna say this is just growing up with just a mom. ‘Cause the time that I grew up in the Hold on, you just really, really, really Messed up the synchronicity? Messed up the synchronicity. I got hot, I had to take it off. Well, feel how thick my thing is. I’ve got, mine’s quilted. I’m hot, dude. Mine’s quilted. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I’m just keeping mine on. Mine’s just quilted as yours is. I’m keeping mine on for now. I’ll take mine off in a little bit. I shouldn’t put this on my mom, but it was her idea. As a kid, she was like, she would tell me things like, “You need to wash your face every night with Noxema”. She didn’t have a daughter, you know. Well, no, that was important though. Forget gender norms. That was important. I’m open to this. I mean, she taught me skincare at a young age. That’s a lot of things a lot of boys growing up around my time didn’t get taught. I think you may be. And then, but here’s the other thing she taught me. I think you have a misconception about this, just so you understand. Well, how about this? She said, “And you know what, if your hair is good, you can take a shower with a shower cap.” And as a kid, there were many times when I would shower with a shower cap. Well. That’s a very middle-aged woman thing to do. I think that’s a little unusual. But what was the- You ever a showered with a shower cap? I said yeah, now I do. You have a shower cap? Yeah. Look at my hair, man. Man, how embarrassing. If I’m not gonna wash it. How embarr- I can’t even sit here anymore. I’m glad I took my jacket off. But here’s the thing. What I have found after having a shower cap for like the first two years of this hair, is that if I just put my hair up- Same thing. and just kind of stand. I don’t have, we don’t have a rain shower. Let it hit your goozle. I just let it hit my face and a little bit of hair gets wet. But what were those- Aren’t you afraid- It was called Oxy- of walking around with a shower cap? Like aren’t you afraid if you forget to take it off, you might come to work with that thing on? No, because in our bathroom, we have a mirror. Oh. Yeah, yeah. So I usually see myself after I get out of the shower. I had to make a choice, you know, rain shower head or a mirror. Oxy pads. Do you remember? I’m living with that choice. Is that what they were called? Those. Yeah, Oxy pads. So we had the wash that came with that. And we had those pads. I remember you had all that stuff. And we had Clearasil. Dude, every teenager has a, should have like a face wash routine because of acne, bro. I used Noxema. I used Noxema. So I’m just saying that I think that you thought that you were the only boy that was getting the- Primp and proper. Face treatment. But like we were all burning our faces up trying to keep the zits at bay, you know? Yeah. They have different treatments now, I’ve noticed. Tell me about North Carolina, man. It’s wonderful. You know, it’s a wonderful state. The pine tree, the Pine State. Tell me about your specific experience. The state bird is the cardinal. The state tree is the- The main export- Longleaf Pine. Was tobacco for a long time. What is it now? I bet it’s potatoes. No, not potatoes. I’ve never seen a potato farm. Well, they’re underground. We grow a lot of cotton now, I think. Anyway. Well, the main thing that, when I found out we were going back to North Carolina, I looked at the calendar just to check and see if our school, our, I can’t say this word, but I’m gonna try it alma mater. Good. Is that right? Good. I tip my shower cap to you. A’s, L’s, and R’s, not good with me. Was hosting, yes. Hosting the University of North Carolina Tar Heels in basketball. Boo! This has been a pretty good year, if not a great year for NC State basketball. And it is proving to be a pretty bad year for UNC and- I love it. And the fact that they have historically, at least in since, you know, since the ’80s have dominated us. Let’s just be clear about that. In fact, having won 35 of the last 40 games that we’ve played. Ouch. As we just hate them with a deep fiery passion. And I was like, “You know what, I’d like to go to that game ’cause I don’t go to NC State sports games anymore ’cause I don’t live there. And it’s on the weekend. You know what I’ll do? I’ll reach out to the person that we know at the engineering school, Dr. Jerome Lavelle.” Who we know from the time we took a tour of NC State’s engineering school a few years ago. Yeah, it’s when we were on the Bleak Creek tour. Yeah. And so we reached out and I was like, ’cause I mean, I looked and all the tickets, the whole thing was sold out already, so- Yeah. And he was like, “Yeah, you know what, actually it works out. The dean’s personal, two of his personal tickets he’s not using or whatever.” So I was like, “Oh, great, I’ll take my dad to the basketball game.” Great father son bonding, get to see the wolf pack play. Nice. And he was like, “I’d love for you to stop by the engineering school on the Friday before, if you’re gonna be there for, you know, Friday through Monday.” These tickets aren’t completely free. “And, you know, show you around, show you around a little bit, maybe have you meet some students.” And I was like, “Sure, I’d love to do that”. That’s cool. Because last time that we were there, we did go over to the Centennial campus where the engineering school is, but we didn’t really go into many things either. It was just the time of year, I don’t remember exactly what was going on, but I got a way better tour than we got, just so you understand. I’m gonna tell you about some things that I saw. Yeah, it was classes weren’t in session or something. Okay. It was a strange time. It was cool to go back, but yeah, we didn’t get to see that much. Well, as you know, most of the engineering buildings are on the Centennial campus, the newer campus. Yeah. Which you have to kind of, I mean, it’s a little bit of a drive to get to. And he was like, “I’m gonna take you into some of the labs where some students are doing some interesting work.” Okay. And I mean, I don’t think I have to tell you how much NC State has changed since we went there. You know what I mean? It’s been a short 20-something years since we graduated. Centennial campus was just getting started when we were there. Just getting started. It was like very ambitious. Like the buildings were huge, but there wasn’t anybody there. Yeah. It was like hardly anything was happening. We didn’t, I took no classes there. Oh yeah. It was right after us that they started populating more stuff over there at that remote campus. And this is, there’s been a huge change in just the philosophy of architecture in building spaces for universities and in corporations. The very open, airy, natural light, all that stuff is kind of a new thing that’s happened over the past 20 years. And it’s just infiltrated corporate America, but also American universities and any new buildings they’re building, right? So ’cause if you think about. Of course, they still only use brick at State, right? On the outside, yeah. But like we walked past Mann Hall, which is the building that I took a lot of my civil engineering classes in. It was the civil engineering building. And it’s currently being completely, like redone. And I don’t remember what building you did most of your classes in, but I’m sure it was a very similar approach. Park Shops. Okay. I think is what it was called. But like when you went into the front door of Mann Hall, there was a lobby area that was a lobby like the size of a, like a mansion or like, like a foyer in a large home, you know what I’m saying? It was not a big space. Yeah. And it was one story and there were barely any windows in there. And there was like a little seating area. Like maybe like some stuff on the wall. Built in the ’50s maybe. But now when you walk into, so there’s this, interestingly, the civil engineering and the industrial engineering departments are in the same building. Synchronicity. So there you go. There’s like a, you know, Dr. Lavelle was like, “It’s like the Rhett and Link building.” He didn’t ask me to make it the Rhett and Link building. But he was planning a seed, right? I mean, I mean, I don’t know. I mean, they’re not gonna turn away donations. They didn’t come out and ask. How much does it cost to name a building after you? Way more of them we’re willing to pay. Yeah, I didn’t even ask that question. Like, I didn’t even ask. So, but I was just blown away as we walked into these buildings with just the lobbies. I mean, I’m just, I was getting fixated on just the lobbies. I didn’t know you were a lobby man. I am now. I didn’t know I was a lobby guy, but I’m a lobby guy. When you’ve got a lobby that’s three stories high and this, all this open seating and all this natural light and it’s just, it gives you a feeling of I wanna learn. Are there hammocks? Do they have hammocks? No. Because to me that’s- That sends the wrong message. That’s the final frontier. ‘Cause every college lobby is just, it’s all about, “Where am I gonna take a nap next?” That’s how I felt about it. That was for you. And I don’t think that’s a widespread practice because more people or most people have shame. There’s this concept called shame. And we are well aware of the fact that you don’t. I definitely have shame, but it ain’t got nothing to do with, shame leaves the building when I’m sleeping. That’s the great thing about me and shame. Well, here’s- and naps. They need hammocks in more campus places. Well, there’s these cool things called dorm rooms and there’s these better things called beds- Don’t patronize me. that are in those. But then he took me to the actual lab areas where the students are doing these experiments and just, I gotta just, I don’t know what kind of, you know, sort of like robots and stuff you had access to at the industrial engineering school. I don’t think any. No, none. It’s crazy now. What are you talking about? You saw robots? Oh, yeah. I don’t mean like “May I help you” kind of robots. I don’t mean like- “Welcome to the lobby.” Personal assistants. I mean, there’s this giant- “May I help you navigate the lobby?” There’s this giant, I mean, I’m sure they’ll have that soon, but there’s this giant multi-story open area with all these stations. And, of course, you’ve got your 3D printers and I don’t mean like your little, I mean 3D printers the size of this table around and then robotic arms doing things and just all throughout this facility, all this stuff that we just didn’t have access to. And maybe if we had have had access to it, we’d still be engineers. So I mean, you know, catch 22 there. But he was like, “I want to take you to some labs where students are doing some interesting work.” And it was pretty cool because, at least for the most part, it seemed like these students, these graduate students, whether they be, you know, just a graduate student or a PhD student had been prepared, you know, “We’re bringing by an alumnus and he’s an internet comedian. He doesn’t do any engineering anymore, but he wanted to go to the state Carolina games. I’m gonna show him a good time.” And they had been prepped, they had a little something to say. Oh. You know. “Welcome to Moe’s”. It was almost like that. But I went into one lab and there was this long chamber that, like a water chamber that was, they were doing some work on it, but it’s basically like to generate a wave to like study erosion and that kind of thing. Okay. But then there was all these pipes in there and there was this woman in there in a white coat and, you know, safety goggles. And she explained that what she is working on is she is working with fungi that are designed to break down certain waste products in wastewater systems, whether that be plastics or whatever. And there’s also some that, you know, those fatbergs, you know, the oil deposits, the grease deposits that get into city sewers. Yes. And they’re sometimes- Oh God, don’t show me a picture of that. Great internet videos. Well, they’re developing, you know, fungi that are going to, that can attack this stuff and take care of it. And of course, the first thing that I’m thinking, “The Last of Us”. I’m like, “Have you watched “The Last of Us”?” I mean, that’s all I can do. You asked her that? Being out of this field for so long and never really having been in that particular field of getting that technical. I’m an entertainer. Can we talk about a show? Yeah, and I said, and so that was kind of my ended up kind of being my go-to thing, as you’ll see as I talk about the other place that I went was this idea that this woman is working with- Mushrooms. She’s working with a fungus that, you know, it felt like it could turn on her. And that was, I just said, I just said, “Be careful”. That was basically my advice was I just, “Listen, I’m only four episodes in, but I just gotta say, be careful. I really believe in what you’re doing.” Can I ask a potentially dumb question? Because- Yeah. You can, more than one. What? You can ask more than one. Well, I never have. This is my one. Maybe this isn’t a dumb question, but like, I don’t know, I’m seeing it from a different angle. Like you’ve been talking about fungus and then I’m like, “Yeah, mushrooms”. And then I realize that, like when you get a fungal infection, when you get a fungal infection, is that mushrooms? Well, no, mushrooms is a type of fungus. Oh, good. Because yeast is a fungus as well. Oh, that’s right. That’s right. Yeah. So no, it doesn’t necessarily mean. So they weren’t, so she wasn’t working with mushrooms, per se. No, but in “The Last of Us”, it is a mushroom. I know that. Yeah. So I mean, maybe if, does yeast eventually become a mushroom if you let it go? I don’t think so. No, because bread, dude. Yeah, it just becomes bread. Is bread a mushroom? I mean, this is a good point to say they’ve invited me to give the commencement address at the industrial engineering school, and listen to me talk right now. Well, and- What on earth? And you know that, and is this, is this been confirmed that I am giving the commencement address at the civil engineering department? [Person Offscreen] Yes. Okay, yeah. So, yeah. Thanks to me. Well, hold on, okay. Let’s get this straight. I feel like the industrial engineering department is a fan of mine. In 2019. They gave me an award. Or maybe 2018 or maybe ’20, I don’t know when it was. We were both asked to give the respective commencement addresses. We turned it down at the time because of schedule. And then when it resurfaced, the conversation was about you giving the commencement address- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. At the Industrial engineering, and so- They thought better about you. And then when you decided that you were gonna do it, I was like, “Well, I should probably offer my services to the civil engineering department”, And so that is what is happening. No, that was what was gonna happen and then it was COVID. And it didn’t happen at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there was an invitation again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was to me. Well, it was to me this most recent time. I like, my version of the story is. Your version of the story always puts you in the center. We know, Link. ‘Cause I was asked to give the commencement speech again, and then you were like, “I’ll offer my services again.” Well, because I, if you’re gonna go, if you’re gonna take a, like your trip, if you’re gonna go take a weekend away- Right. I mean, if you go back to North Carolina. And here’s the thing. I, having taken a tour of the engineering school and interacted with some of the students, which I’m about to tell you about, I feel like I’m probably better prepped than you at this point. Well, that was my point exactly. I’m not prepped in any way. Well, I, after talking to- I have no business doing this, I’m honored, but I have very little business. Well, as I will make clear, I don’t have any business doing it either, but I don’t think that’s why they’re talking to us. Yeah. I, after talking to the fungus lady, went into a materials lab and there were three guys in there and they were ready, man. They had a little, they were ready to talk about it. Song and dance? And he was handing me stuff. ♪ Welcome to our lab ♪ You know, it wasn’t quite that engaging, but he did say, “We are working on self-healing carbon materials.” Carbon fiber and some other material. I was like, and that was the moment I said, What’s in that? “I feel like every time, every conversation I start in this place feels like the beginning of a dystopian thriller, you know? Yeah. So I ended up, just so you know- This could go sideways. Ended up telling them to be careful too. Oh yeah? So I am, so my message, just letting you know, I’m giving you a little preview of my commencement is be careful. Be careful, y’all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don’t know the power that you wield. Yeah. You’re gonna be the reason that this all implodes. Self-healing, self-healing. How does that work? So essentially, like let’s say you had a wing that was made out of carbon fiber, you know, which is a great idea, right? We’ve got a very light, strong material. Well, they actually talked about a heat-activated adhesive and I said, “Like a chip bag, right? We’ve done that on “Good Mythical Morning”. We resealed a chip bag with a flatiron.” You know, that was what I had to offer, just so you understand. Yeah, you made yourself the center. We’re still doing engineering. Yeah, we are. That’s what I learned. Right. And so they basically have layers of- They’re like, “No, not exactly.” They have layers of heat-activated adhesives that are inside the carbon fiber structure. And then they have very small wires that go through that so that they can conduct an electrical current through it that will activate it. And when there’s a break or something, it automatically activates the current? I, once they, no, I don’t know exactly. I mean, I’m sure that might be what they do at some point, but I think you can turn, like hit the self-healing button. Again, we’re in the early stages of this, Link. We at the NC State Engineering School. Okay. You know, I’m a part of that. I’ve been to on a tour. Yep. But anyway, it was super cool. I didn’t, once he started talking about how it works and how it lays itself back down and that was when I, I was like, “Yeah, self-healing. You had me at self-healing”. He had me in the lobby, really. And I talked to somebody else who was doing something else, but I- Can they make it cry? It’s not a, it doesn’t have a soul yet, okay? Like, I feel like when it gets hurt, it should cry. And that should be the, that should be the external notification that, “Hey, I’m self-healing right now.” You can put that in your commencement speech, but then- I wanna fly in a plane that cries. Dr. Lavelle was like, “I’ve gathered some students”, engineering scholars, I think he said. Oh. He was like, “They’re basically like engineering students who are leading in different areas. I’ve gathered them in a room.” Smarty pants. “They’re in there with some pizza and some soda.” Oh, hell yeah. “And I would like you to have a word with them.” Oh, yeah. I would like you to give them some remarks. Here we go. And he was like, “Do you need any time?” I was like- Do you need any time? I was like, “No, man”. “Oh, God”. You’re standing there. I was like, “You’re about to ask me to do what I do best.” Impromptu speaking. Which is just start talking to people in a crowd. Do you need any time? I would’ve probably been like, “Yeah”. And then I would’ve bolted, man. And I love the fact though, so we sit down in there and he’s like, the way he framed it was “Rhett has some things that he wants to share with you.” And I was like, “Oh, do I?” Rhett has some, “Do you need some time? Because I’m about to tell him you got some things that you.” Yeah, let’s see if I do have some things to share. Yeah, what did you do with that? Well, I kind of went off of the fact that I had just experienced these things, these very cool things. And I used that to talk about, first of all, the fact that I felt like every conversation that I was having was the beginning of a dystopian novel and that they should be careful. So I kind of took my be careful theme and I gave it to them. Can I ask you? Another question? Is this a dumb one? This is a smart one. Okay. How many students were there? 20. Did you say? 20. So that’s a tough- Size. That’s a tough size. How loud was your speaking voice? Like what tone did you use? Demonstrate that Did you talk to them like you’re talking to me right now? No, it was more like- Did you talk to them? It was more like, “Thanks for having me”. ‘Cause it was in the lobby and it’s a very large- You were on the other side of it? Yeah, it was a large lobby. But you kind of have to make a point of like, did you go into speech mode or were you very much in like? No, I was leaning back. I was leaning back. You’re leaning back. Yeah. You were seated? Yeah, yeah. You know, my voice projects pretty well. But you were seated? Yeah. Okay, all right. Yeah, I didn’t stand up. Okay, good. I don’t wanna do that. Yeah. I’m already, you know, I’m already their height when I’m sitting down. You’re their standing height when you’re seated? But then I said, and again, this wasn’t planned. This just, this was kind of just happened. I thought this was a good one. I thought this was a good way for the thing to develop. I said I was in town to see us beat Carolina tomorrow. Yeah. “And Dr. Lavelle wanted to give me a little tour of things and show me the latest and greatest in the engineering school. And in going around and talking with these individuals working on these different things, I just want to let you know that you’re doing really important work unlike the students at Carolina.” So, so that was kind of my bit. My bit was- They were loving that. the students at Carolina think that they’re doing important things, you know, in the humanities, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But what they’re doing doesn’t have an impact on the world. What you, you guys are solving real problems. You are helping the state, the nation, and the world in significant ways. Were they laughing? Yeah, some of them. Just smiling? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Smirking. I got some laughs. I got, you know, 20 is it 20? You know. 20. It’s- Yeah, they’re not gonna roll on the floor or anything. There’s not gonna be any cl clapping, I don’t think. Yeah, I mean, I did leave out the fact that like their, you know, UNC has a good medical school. I kind of set aside the medical sciences for a second and was just kind of talking about like journalism school, you know? Pay no attention to the medical sciences- Yeah, yeah. Happening over here. Did you mention, I don’t know, you know, me? Probably. You probably came up. I mean, I don’t recall it specifically. You don’t recall it. Okay. No, I’m sure I talked about you and I said that you were an industrial engineer and that I was a civil engineer. Okay. I ended up saying that, you know, I talked about, I told my story of almost changing from communications to, from engineering to communications once I decided I probably wasn’t gonna be an engineer forever. But then my dad was like, you can do everything that you. “Everything that you can do with a communications degree, you can do with an engineering degree, but not the other way around.” And that logic made sense to me. So I stayed and it ended up working out. Huh. And I kind of was just making the point of like, listen, I’m not doing important things, you guys are trying to- That’s probably not true, by the way. You guys are- I just wanna go ahead and say that’s probably not true. I think it probably is- I don’t think it’s true. For the most part, I think it’s generally true. It’s not. I’m sure there’s gonna be examples, hashtag Ear Biscuits, things that a communications major can do that an engineering major can’t. Yeah, there might be exceptions, but in a general rule, most of the jobs you can get in communications don’t require special training. So you told them What was the, you were telling them not to switch? You kind of figure it out. No, well, there was a girl who had changed, they went around and said where they were from and what they had changed, what they were majoring in. And one of them was like, “I just switched to marketing, but I’m still in this thing.” So you belittled her? And so I kind of, I singled her out. I was like, “No, listen, I know you just changed to marketing.” “I know you just made a huge life-altering mistake.” “Some people gotta do that. Some people gotta tell the story of what’s going on here. There’s some awesome stuff happening.” I spun it pretty nicely. But what my point was is that what we do, I said, “You guys are doing important work. You’re getting the fatbergs out of pipes, you know? I’m determining what’s the best flavor of Pop Tart”. Which is not even really helpful because it’s just what I think and what you think. Yeah. Even though I was making light of what we do, I understand why what we do is important. But it’s not really important for the utility of what we’re doing. It’s more important for the vibe that it’s creating or whatever, you know. But it made me think, I was like, “They are actually doing really important stuff.” Like, I’m not saying that I had never thought about this. Okay. But, I was, yeah I was like, “We have all these problems that we are facing as a society and a lot of these problems are being made worse by things like climate change, you know?” ‘Cause there’s coastal engineering is a whole department. They’re thinking about the coast, they’re thinking about erosion, they’re thinking about the forest along the coast and vegetation and all this stuff, those environments. They’re just doing really, really important things that, you know, have an immediate impact as soon as you graduate and start working in these fields. You’re kind of making me nervous about my commencement address now. I mean, it’s like it would matter. Was this a dry run for you? You think you’re gonna go back to the State Carolina bit? I considered it. I considered I might use a little bit of that. I might, there might be a little riff- Yeah. in there about how what they do matters, unlike Carolina. I’m starting to percolate some ideas for my speech and I think it’s, right now I’m just really, I think I want to go weird. Well, I fully expected that. Yeah. Yeah. I think I’m gonna teach them a lesson. You’re gonna confuse a lot of parents. Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna confuse the parents. Yeah. I’m gonna teach them a lesson for asking me to do this. And never, and ruin all our chances of ever giving like the school-wide commencement. Right, right. We’re just on the college of engineering levels. I kind of see that. We can’t get to the big level. I kind of see that as my role in this tandem operation is that my role is to secure us a spot at giving the school-wide commencement at some point for NC State. Yep. And to make them have that awkward conversation. It’s like, “Can you not bring him because of what he did?” Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that, “Well, maybe if the tall one’s here”. I got some more time to figure it out. But honestly, I think about it way too much. Like there’s a little bit of nervousness there, but like, I’m trying to psych myself up to just not even think about it. Like I might end up going in- I wouldn’t encourage that. Totally, totally, you know, unprepared. [Person Offscreen] Don’t, don’t give too much away ’cause this comes out before you give the commencement speeches, so. Yeah. Well I ain’t got, I don’t have anything to give away. [Person Offscreen] We don’t want them to hear and reconsider. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [Person Offscreen] We don’t want them to reconsider. You know what? Link’s gonna do a great job. Oh, you don’t want them to, You think they’re gonna rescind? [Person Offscreen] I don’t know. Link’s gonna do a great job. I’m gonna make them regret this. [Person Offscreen] A couple things y’all have said are not helping your cases. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Link’s gonna do a great job. Hey, I didn’t ask. You will not regret it. Rhett’s the one who asked for it. I’m the one who was invited to do it. [Person Offscreen] I’ll just make sure no one at NC State listens to this podcast episode. Oh man. I mean, when we did go back, it reminded me of the time that we did go back and it was fun. Oh, yeah. It was fun because we went before a crowd of students and we did like a panel and I just really, I really had a blast just cutting up, you know? Yeah. Everybody goes in that environment, they take themselves a little too seriously, you know? “We gotta shape the future generation.” Eh. Nah, I’m just gonna give them a little comic relief. I’m gonna give them a little confusion. Take them off their balance. Just so you know, I do think that the expectations are pretty low. Yeah. You know, for the individual. This is not even the engineering school, this is the individual department graduation. Yeah. I don’t even know how many students are gonna be there. You know, what are we talking? 80. 120. I don’t know. They’re trying, there’s like 10,000 students in undergrad engineering total. Are you? Yeah. Let me talk to you about my trip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do that. ‘Cause I went to a couple of funerals. Yeah, yeah. We saved the best for last. I was reminded of something at one of these funerals. The speaker, the preacher, you know, seemed like a great guy. I’m not critiquing the guy, but he reminded me of a principal. And that is at a funeral, when you’re talking about this person and you’re, like referencing their faith. There’s like, there’s this thing which he referred to as preaching somebody into heaven. And, of course, you’re talking about the dead person. Yeah. Preaching the dead person into heaven. Now this is not a belief that somebody can get into heaven after. I think that’s a Mormon belief, but it’s not a country church Christian belief. No, right. That after somebody dies, well, their fate is sealed. That is the belief, their fate. Once you die and you go to the other side and you’re there for eternity, heaven or hell. And so you gotta make your decision on this side of that for yourself. And can’t nobody preach you into heaven. But, and the reason why it came up was he was talking about the deceased as someone that he knew his faith and he like, it’s like I can certify, I don’t need to preach him into heaven. Now I don’t preach people into heaven. To clarify, you said what it, you said what it wasn’t, but to say what it is. To say what it is, is when you, is when a preacher is preaching a funeral and the deceased, they have their doubts about the deceased person’s faith. Yeah. And if it has qualified them to be in heaven now. And of course, you wanna provide comfort to the family and within that belief system, you want to be able to say, “Well, they checked the boxes of faith in Jesus Christ in this particular way that we all agree is the way that you get into heaven.” So if you want to give the people comfort that this person’s in heaven, you’ll see them again. But if there’s doubts about it, you kind of gotta spin it in a hopeful, positive way that this speaker, preacher, described as preaching them into heaven. I knew exactly what he was talking about. Preaching about them as if they are in heaven now. Yeah. Even though he or she, the preacher has their doubts. Right. You know? And he said, “I don’t do that. I don’t preach people into heaven.” Okay he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t do that. It is common practice though. But he was making the point, “In this case, I don’t need to do that ’cause I know that he’s there.” Does that- “I knew his faith well enough to know that he’s there and you got nothing to worry about. You can be comforted.” Does that mean that there are times when this preacher thinks somebody might be in hell, that he says that? I don’t. Yeah. I don’t know what he does. Or does he just refuse to do the funeral? Maybe he refuses to do the funeral. I don’t think so. He’s like, “I can’t preach them into heaven, so I’m bowing out of this one.” Hmm. So that was like one of the points he was making to give comfort to them. But like for me, and then I was kind of, you know, I’m in this interesting place, right? So it’s like, my vantage point is I was not only thinking about me, but other people in the crowd who were like, “Well, I don’t know if I’m, if, if you, so you would, you certainly wouldn’t certify that I’m going to heaven.” Oh gosh. I just spilled my drink. It just made me feel, it made me feel a little weird. You know, it’s like I understand that you want to give people comfort that, in especially if they believe in heaven. You know, that people are going there, that their loved one is now there. That they moved on to a better place. But I don’t know, it just, and I don’t know, it just made me feel funny, man. Well, did he turn it onto, to the crowd? Because my experience of going to evangelical funerals is that- They don’t make it about the deceased person, they make it about you making a decision on this side of death. And I will say- To seal your fate. That there are many people who die, who want their funeral to be, to bring people to a point of decision about Jesus. Right. So I don’t think it’s necessarily disrespectful to the deceased person, but I have been to funerals in which I knew that the deceased person did not want their funeral to be turned into an invitation for people to make a decision for Jesus and to examine their own lives. But that was the preacher’s prerogative and so that’s what he did. Yeah, that’s what feels a little weird too. And it kind of brought that up. You know, it’s like, ’cause the other funeral was the one that said “Celebration of life”. And it was much more just about bringing comfort to the family through like, there were scripture readings and like a little sermon. That it was very much just about comfort. It wasn’t about, “Okay, this is where the deceased person is and that’s why you need comfort.” It’s just, you know, “God’s here for you.” And, you know, it was more generally comforting. It wasn’t about like asserting someone’s eternity. And it was also, you know, people spoke and it was a celebration of life. And you know what, even with the first one, the one where, with the preaching, preaching somebody in heaven happened, that was talked about, the best part was that a handful of people got up and spoke about the deceased. I love that. That is great. That’s my favorite thing about a funeral, celebrating, like people sharing from their heart about how they’ve been touched. People who don’t like to speak publicly and have like, by their own admission say, “I have no business being up here. I hate this. But I love this person so much that I want to be up there and saying something.” Like, I love that. I’ll keep going to funerals because, for that to happen, you know? But this whole like, you know, you gotta feel like, “All right, this is my chance. We got everybody here thinking about death. Now’s when we’re gonna get them. Now’s when we’re gonna get them. Now we’re gonna get them into heaven.” Yeah. You know? That just felt, yeah. I just don’t, I don’t love that. I don’t love that. I don’t want that at my funeral. Oh, well. ‘Cause, well, I’m gonna change a lot of my plans now because I was, first of all, I was planning on doing your eulogy and I was planning on making it a really, really intense, intense moment. Intense moment where everyone’s gonna have to, like, you can go around, point at everybody and they gotta say where their eternal functions. Well, I was once at a funeral where someone speaking about the deceased paused for an uncomfortably long time. Okay. Probably a minute and just didn’t say anything. 60 seconds is a long time to not talk. Well, the reason I say a minute is- Without a heads up. It felt like two. And so I’m gonna say that it was probably one. And it was one of those things where the question in my mind was, “Is this person getting choked up?” Because it didn’t seem like they were about to get choked up. But sometimes you can get choked up. You know, when I get choked up, I have trouble just getting any words out. And so I was like, “Okay, well maybe that’s what’s happening, but I don’t see any evidence of that.” And then he said, “That was awkward, wasn’t it?” “That was uncomfortable” actually was the words. “That was uncomfortable, wasn’t it?” Oh no. “Well, one minute of discomfort in this service, compare that to an eternity in hell.” Oh my God. This was at a funeral, dude? Yes. In making the point. And because the woman was a Christian, the woman was an evangelical Christian and this is what she would’ve wanted. I mean, maybe not exactly that. But again, it’s just like- Wow. I just remember every funeral, I remember the way we would talk about it was- That’s a threat. “Preacher did a good job, preacher did a good job. And the gospel went out.” It’s a threat. And that was the standard. The gold standard for a funeral was if the gospel was presented clearly. There are many positive ways to present the gospel, to present the good news that you can have a relationship with God through Jesus for eternity. If that’s your thing, there’s plenty of positive ways to do that. I mean, and a lot of that happened in the service and it was mostly through the people sharing about this person’s life and celebrating it. And the fact that their faith was a part of that was very winsome. You know, it’s like no threats needed, you know? It’s like people get damn heavy-handed because they feel like they’ve got to. You know, it’s like, “Well, it’s life or death, you know? You gotta act this way.” But it’s just not effective. And it feels kind of, it feels kind of icky. Well, I think that’s the interesting part of this- I mean, that one, that one especially. The interesting part of this is if I was being, not that I am, and I would not accept this, accept this offer. If I was being, serving as a consultant to an evangelical church who was looking to make an impact on people. Yeah. I would be like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This push energy. You know, I heard somebody recently explain- Yeah, yeah, yeah. The push versus the pull. And so if you’re trying to persuade someone of something- Exactly. Pushing them towards that thing is almost always going to be met with resistance. Right. But if you create a situation in that they will be pulled and attracted towards whatever it is that you’re trying to persuade them of, first of all, it gives them the power of the choice and decision, and it makes them, and it’s much more likely that whatever decision they make will be long-lasting. Exactly. If I push on the shower nipple, what’s gonna happen? Boo! The water’s gonna go shoot off to the side as far away from me, as quickly as possible. But if I pull on the shower nipple and I release, I don’t know how that fits into the analogy. If I release the little rock- I think we understand where you’re going. Then boom, instead I’m getting sprayed all over the face with it. And this can be a very difficult- It’s coming to me. This is a difficult principle to follow. I mean, especially for somebody like me. I, you know, I tend to get into a place where I just want to just persuade someone of something, you know? And it not only- Just tell them like it is. And first of all, I want to, I am and have been for quite some time, letting go of that. First of all, once you become more and more unsure about these things, you become much less interested in persuading people of anything, right? Yeah. In fact, I’m much more persuaded to persuade people to be less sure about the things that they think about the, you know, that’s kind of where I’m at right now. But even then, I just don’t want to be forcing an idea on somebody or critiquing, and I’m not saying, I do, I do end up doing this. I fall into the trap of critiquing and pushing. But I think if you can just be like, “Hey, can we create an environment?” And I mean, this is free advice for churches everywhere, “Create an environment that people are attracted to, you know?” Yeah, and many do that. Yeah. I mean, this is not, the things that we’re talking about are not a blanket statement that is just like, I don’t know if funerals are fraught with this, but I mean, we’ve run into it enough over the years to know that it’s something that happens, but it’s not, I’m not given a church-wide critique or like a denomination-wide critique. No, no, no, no. It’s like, but I’ve seen- But it is common. I’ve seen it enough. And it was more common in the past. And, you know, I was asking Lando about it afterward. I was like, “What did you think about the funeral?” And he told me some stuff and I was like, “What did you think about, like the sermon part?” And he was like, “You mean the part where that guy was yelling at us?” And he actually, you know, I didn’t, I wouldn’t have characterized it as yelling, but he, but oh, it’s like, “Oh, through his lens” that’s, he was like, yeah, that’s exactly how he. This guy was yelling at you. There’s an intensity to, there’s an intensity to things that you say from the pulpit that if you don’t come from that tradition- Right. You’re like, in any other walk, in any other scenario in life, if someone was speaking in this way, they would be upset with me. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But we just kind of like, “Oh, that’s just a preacher yelling. That’s a preacher preaching.” Yeah. And there’s also another thing that happens that preachers do that I’ve observed quite a bit, which is when they want to get kind of fake emotional about something, and they’re making a point about something and you’re like, “Dude, you’re not actually upset about this. This is the third service of the Sunday. You’re doing the same thing. That this is a prepared thing that you’ve come up with, that you’re trying to make this point. And I just wish, I just wish that you would understand this thing that I’m really passionate about.” But you’re not passionate about it right now. Well, that’s, I mean, that’s more of a pull. So not all pulls work. No, well. If pushing is yelling and pulling is crying. I feel like that’s still pushing. Yeah. I feel like that’s manipulative. Yeah. And the funny thing is like, okay, Lando, perfect example of this as a young person, he’s a young person. Empathetic guy too. But in general, the younger generation- Oh yeah. They see through everything. They see through everything. They know the moment that you are trying to project something that isn’t authentic. And it’s just, and again, I’m not, obviously there’s plenty of religious leaders who have figured this out and are now using these principles to manipulate people, the appearance of authenticity and vulnerability. But so I, you know, and, but I think that, you know, this generation. What generation is Lando? What do you call that? I don’t know. He’s, he’s about [Person Offscreen] Generation Alpha. He’s 13. Alpha? [Person Offscreen] Yeah. They’re going to the Greek alphabet now. Starting over. He’s Generation Alpha. Generation Alpha more than anybody, man. They see through everything. So born in 2010. That’s still Generation Alpha? He’s not Z. He’s too young. No. I just didn’t know if he was Beta. [Person Offscreen] It says the first year is 2010. So he’s on the cusp. 2010 is the first year of Alpha, there you go. So all our kids are Alpha? No, Lando’s my youngest. Yeah, but if the first year, oh. Okay, it started in 2010. So he’s the only one that’s Alpha and all the rest of our kids are Z. [Person Offscreen] Yeah. Huh. Because 2004, 2008. Wow. Well, 2009, 2000. 2010 starts Alpha. Anyway, all in all, the funeral experiences were nice, especially because the second one, the deceased loved fish stew. And everybody stayed, was invited to stay and eat fish stew. I thought, the way you started that sentence was like, “Especially because the deceased came back from the dead.” Like it made it, I’m sorry, but it just made it seem like- No, he didn’t. The deceased set up and said something. The deceased loved fish stew. And it’s on TikTok now. Fish stew. And everybody got fish stew? Everybody ate fish stew. Which is like a downy staple that Christy makes. Has she made it for you? I don’t know if I’ve had her fish stew. Is it tomato based? Tomato based. So it’s kinda like Brunswick stew, but with fish. Is that how you would describe it? Yes, yeah. It, they’re not, it doesn’t have to be tomato based. They had a clear base and a tomato base. And then it’s potatoes. They had two options? Yep. Big pots of this. My goodness. And they had flounder in it. But you can also, like put canned salmon in it. Well, that’s an example of pull energy is when you serve fish stew at the service. Everybody wants to stay. So there’s fish, potatoes, shrimp. In the really good ones you throw in some shrimp, onions. That’s pretty much it. But it was an acquired taste for me, but now I really love it. And you like cut up cheese and like you make your bowl and then you put cheese in the side and then that like big hunk of cheese will melt. Of course, Christy taught me this. Fish and cheese? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re not supposed to do that, according to Leviticus. And then some white bread. They had, every table had a loaf of white bread on it. Oh man. So I can critique, you know, hometown faith, but I can’t do it too much ’cause they got a lot of stuff right, too. Every table’s got a loaf of white bread on it. It’s like- That’s good stuff. That erases a world of preaching people into heaven. Yeah. In my mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll keep coming back. The food is so good, man. I keep coming back for more, baby. So that was it. I made it through the funerals. We supported the families and I’m glad we were there. It was the right thing to do. I’ve rescheduled my trip to Cabo, don’t you worry. Okay, so I’m still not invited? Nope. I’ll close by telling you a little bit about- You sound like a preacher right now. I’m gonna close- I’m gonna close with a story. by telling you about one of my experiences. The basketball game. So I know you’ve made it clear that you don’t care about sports, but a lot of people do. And I also have cared, you know. I respect sports. As I have aged, I have been able to detach myself a little bit from or to recognize how ridiculous, when you really think about it, how ridiculous it is to care about these students who go to this school that you went to 20 years ago and their ability to get a ball through a basket better than the students from another school that your wife went to. Like, I understand that, if you really break this down and look at it, it does not make sense, it’s not rational. You should not have emotional attachments to these outcomes. It’s a farce. That being said, I also understand that on a deep psychological level that I would probably be able to articulate well, if I had read more and taken more than Psych 101, it is connecting with something deep within us that is just a part of our DNA, right? And we don’t have those outlets. Like we live in a modern society. Like I don’t have to defend my village against the other village. Like I just don’t have to do that yet. I mean, maybe that’ll happen as the world continues to fall apart, but right now I just kind of just, I say hey to the garbage man. You know what I’m saying? I did that today. Like I say hey to my neighbor. I don’t worry about my life as I’m traversing to work. I’m also not, like looking at an opportunity to like get a deer to bring home to my family. We live in the modern times, right? We do. We do. But because we’ve got all these systems in us that are geared towards defending the village, we put that into sports. And even though you can step back and observe it and understand how ridiculous it is, I find myself getting so caught up in it. And of course, I hate Carolina for reasons that I cannot even articulate. Mostly because they have beaten our brains in for years. And I was like, “Okay, there’s an opportunity here. We’re good this year. They’re not good.” For some reason, that usually doesn’t matter. And they always end up like playing really well against us and beating us anyway. Yeah. So I kind of went into this, the game with these low expectations. And then it’s like the game starts and we’re not playing well, shooting horribly. Our best player’s not really scoring. They start kind of building a lead in the second half. And it just had this narrative that I began to play out in my mind, which is, “I was excited about this. I knew I shouldn’t have been excited about it. I knew they were gonna beat us again for the, you know, 36th time in the past 41 tries or whatever it was.” And then we just kind of, we turned things around and there was an incredible little run. We scored like seven or nine points really, really quickly. Oh wow, they weren’t scoring baskets and they started scoring more baskets. Yes, and- That sounds really dynamic. The energy in that place was crazy. Like, and it was, you know, I just haven’t been, I’ve been to like a Clippers game and you’ve been to a Clippers game with me. Yep. But, you know, NBA is different and sports in Los Angeles are different because everybody, you know, 40% of the audience is rooting for the other team because they’re from somewhere else and they prefer their hometown team more than they do the local team. Especially if the Clippers. And so I haven’t been in this, everyone is really into the outcome of this game and everyone is really committed to it. And to see it turn around, it was, and I’ve got the video on my phone of like when we had gone up by 12 with a minute left. And there was moments when, you know, my dad is pretty impartial. He’s got one son that went to Carolina, one son that went to State, he’s got a nephew, I mean, he’s got a grandson at Carolina right now that he goes and sees quite a bit. So my dad wore green argyle to the game, which is, I get it. Did he get caught up in it though? I mean, once we started coming back, he’s standing up like, we’re, you can’t help yourself. He’s gotta be with you on this one. I mean, we’re standing up and just like giving high fives and just, it was, I mean, it was electric and I was like, “Oh man, I love this. I love it.” Now if it had gone the other way, it would’ve like ruined my day. Yeah. But there’s something about giving yourself over to this outcome that That’s stakes, man. That’s stakes. you have very little impact on. Knowing that your day could be awesome or ruined. Hey, that’s stakes. And I’m choosing to, I’m like, “I want to have that kind of experience, you know, when I can.” I’m not gonna like go back and watch a bunch of games, but boy, when we win like that and we beat them, we beat them. Yeah, I know it when they’re down, they’re not great. They’ve lost like the past four out of five games or something. But I don’t care. We beat Carolina. It feels, it felt so good. I loved it. Highly recommend, highly recommend watching your college beat their rival. That’s your recommendation? It’s my recommendation this week. No, that’s just a general recommendation. Well, listen, it’s my recommendation and I got a good one. If you’re not into sports, this is for you. If you are into sports, this is for you. If you’re into instrumental music, this is for you. And if you’re not, this is still for you even though it is instrumental. Check out, oh my God, I think this is gonna stay as one of my favorite albums of all time because it so fits a certain mood. Like it is a sweet spot, this niche that this album occupies that I didn’t have an album in this place. You know, a completely instrumental vibey, listen to it, use it for what you want. But I think that it’s gonna, it’s gonna fill a little niche. I know it will for me for the rest of my life. Mac DeMarco. Mac, I love you man. This is an invitation to come on “Good Mythical Morning”. I’d love to have you come through. I’m very inspired by your album “5 Easy Hot Dogs”. “5 Easy Hot Dogs”. He took a road trip, I believe it was up the northern California coast. Yeah, he went all the way. Well, he went all the way up from Gualala, Crescent City up to Portland. Like he went all the way up to Vancouver, Edmonton. He went all the way up there. Well, then he went to Chicago. That’s not actually. He took a road trip. He took a road trip. Chicago is not in Northern California and neither is most of the places that I mentioned. But he made this music as he traveled. It’s all instrumental. It’s very, I played it for you, isn’t it awesome? Hard vouch for this, yes. Hard vouch. “5 Easy Hot Dogs”, just give it a listen. It’s a vibe. Mac DeMarco “5 Easy Hot Dogs”. You’re welcome. Thanks for joining us for another Ear Biscuit. Join the conversation on the internet, hashtag EarBiscuits. Also, you can call us. We have a number. You can leave a voicemail with thoughts, questions, critiques, book suggestions. 1-888- EarPod1. Love ya. Hey, just listening to the Ear Biscuits episode that came out today. Something that gives me a tastegasm is the Nerds Rope Clusters. I’m so addicted to them. I go through literally a bag in two days, so I’ve had to stop myself from buying them because they’re probably so bad for me. If you guys haven’t had them yet, you should definitely try them. Thanks, love the podcast. Bye. To watch more Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous episode of Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist to the left. And don’t forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it’s available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your mythical best.