Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time, I’m Rhett. Yes, and I am Link. This week at the Roundtable of Dim Lighting, we’re gonna help you give a speech. Um, particularly if you are a best man and you want to give a best man speech in a wedding, but I think, the knowledge that we’re going to drop is going to help you no matter what type of speech you have to give. Even if it’s a worst man speech, which is a new trend now because of the internet. Oh my god. I’m kidding. I could believe you. I could believe you all day, Rhett. I could believe you. I could believe you all day. Just keep talking. There’s a worst man at every wedding, but it’s not official. It’s just an unspoken thing that everyone knows. Yeah. Everyone has a least favorite person in their bridal party. Oh, you’re talking about not just attending the wedding. Someone who you have to make a groomsman, or you have to make a bridesmaid, who you really wish you didn’t have to, but that person needs a name. Worst man. Worst woman. Worst. Worst. Worst. Worcestershire. Uh, we’re gonna do that. We’re gonna talk about some other stuff. Um, you know, I went to Death Valley. I heard about that. All alone. But with my dogs. Well, so that’s not really a solo trip. So this wasn’t really a solo trip. Um, I wanted to tell you a little bit about it. So I’m going to do that right now, okay? Alright, you ready for that? Um, you know, I just love getting in a rented camper sprinter van. And just driving. Away from every everything that I know and everybody that I know. Well, it sounds like you should keep that part to yourself. I just, I just, I like the idea of going out to the desert all alone, letting my freak flag fly. With no, with no judgment, with no observation. You know, I get it. God is watching. If you go out into the, and, and you know what, she’s fine with that. That’s good. If, when you go out into the desert, you can, you can stumble upon people out there in the desert who are just naked, uh, who are just, or subsisting. And I think I get it. And I feel the call every so often to just go back out there and just be with me and my thoughts and my actions. Because someone has to. It might as well be you. It might as well only be me. See? It’s this type of energy that, that sends me away. Right, exactly. Good. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Uh, you know the last solo trip I took, which was at the same time as you and we were in the same place in Sequoia National Forest, and we passed as two ships in the night but they were vans. That were identical. Identical vans. I actually think I rented the one that you had last time this time, but it didn’t have any beeping problems for me. Did you smell me in it? No, it was, um, it was cleaned. Did you use the awning? I, no, I didn’t. Well, that was my mistake. That was probably it. It was way too windy for the awning. But I took a Jasper on that last trip, and I missed Jade, so this trip I took the Jasper. Jasper and Jade. I got them in their little carrier that in their passenger seat, and they just like go to sleep there or just stare at me hoping that I’m going to let one of them sit in my lap when we’re driving. But no, we can’t do that. That’s not safe. And safety is on the list of items. Safety third. that I’m thinking about. Um, but as you can tell, after I tell you the story, it’s not number one. Um, we went to. Not Death Valley, technically, we went to the Panamint Valley, which is, uh, one valley over, so it shares the mountain range with Death Valley, but it’s on this side, and it was a shorter drive, because I wasn’t, we were working that morning, and then I was, leaving and the sun sets at like 430 and you don’t like to get to a campsite after dark, especially when you’re completely off the grid in a place you’ve never been. When there’s nobody else around, you know, it’s just not a good feeling to just show up in the dark. It does help when you’re in the van though. Oh, yeah, because you can just lock up. I had that happen a couple times and I was just like, okay, I could just see what this looks like in the morning. I don’t think I would go on a solo trip, much less in complete isolation in a place where, you know, if it turns out I wasn’t completely isolated and there was a murderous companion on my hill. I like to know that I can be inside of a van and completely locked up and I can just crank it up and drive over him, over, over her. Oh, so God and the companion in this sense are women. Uh, yeah, exactly, exactly. Um, women usually don’t hang out in the woods waiting to murder people, I’m just saying. Yeah, don’t, and I love women for that. I’m saying that they can do that, they are capable of that. Women are capable of murdering people. I’m just saying they usually don’t. Yeah, statistically speaking. But I don’t want to take that away from them. Because they can do it. They can murder just as good as men. The fact that they don’t is what makes them so great. So much better than men. Like us. We’re constantly trying not to murder people. I’ve almost murdered all of you in the last 30 minutes, just since we’ve been here. I mean, I’m constantly keeping myself from murdering all of you. The fact that I’ve never killed anybody is just a great credit to me. Well, I’m glad you gave it to yourself. Yeah. Uh, there’s a ghost town called Ballarat. Out there, you know, they’re looking for gold back in them hills. How old is the, when was it ghosted? I don’t know, Rhett. Well, you know, does it have a gas station? Oh, no. No it there’s there’s one structure and then well There’s two structures, one is like a general store kind of thing in a museum and there was somebody in there selling like Faygo and Koozies and a rock. Did he know that the town had been ghosted? I did not talk to him, but yes, there’s no, from what I can tell, there’s no power and there’s no cell service. There’s nothing. You’re completely off the grid there, but there are a few shackle, ramshackle RVs in this area and the sign when you’re driving, you have to drive through the ghost town, which is just this little general store in another, uh, structure labeled jail, which I think was actually the jail back when they, during the gold rush, what’s it called? Ballarat Ballarat B A L L A R A T. And, um, on the sign, it says it starts pointing different directions, surprise Canyon this way. I knew I was going through town towards Surprise Canyon to get an isolated, but established, primitive campsite in the middle of this valley. But the sign also said, enter at your own risk. But I think that’s just some gamesmanship from the local. Weed people out. Yeah. Turn around now. And don’t drive over 15 miles per hour because you don’t want to kick up dust on these people. They live in the desert, but they don’t like dust. So, I respect that. I drove through the town because I, I, the sun was setting and I needed to get to my spot. And, this valley is, the reason why I didn’t go into Death Valley was the timing, but also, there’s a lot of people in there, and there’s a lot more rules about where you can camp. But here, it was Bureau Land Management. Like, you can camp pretty much anywhere there’s an established firing or pretty much anywhere super super isolated like you you look in either direction there’s one road that runs through it but from where I was I couldn’t see the road and I couldn’t see anybody driving on it And I saw this I passed this one big RV that was like down in the middle of the valley and a more accessible place but by the time I got to where I was gonna get That RV was like a speck. I just couldn’t see anything. And it was like a slot canyon kind of situation. No, it’s a very broad, very wide canyon. Um, yeah, it was just like, and there’s hardly anything growing in this particular valley and it’s very rocky. Um, and so I, I, I camped the first night. Everything, everything was good. Uh, a nice little sunset. I get up the next day and I knew that I’d read about. Surprise Canyon, which is called that because all of these it’s got water running through it, you know, it’s on it’s basically the backside of Death Valley yet. It’s got these flash flood. Well, it’s got, um, spring fed stream a stream running through. That’s the surprise that there’s a surprise is that there’s a lot of running water in there. What was the temperature? It was pretty much perfect. Like at night, it got into the. Like forties and then it got to like 72 during the day. But the wind was pretty aggressive at times. It might’ve been 40 mile per hour gusts at one point. I had to, I had to park the van sideways so that I could sit outside and use the van as a wind break. Um, and then when I went to sleep. Both nights, like the whole van was just shaking because of the wind. And that’s why you’re so glad you’re in a van. That’s why a van is so good. Yeah. Would be miserable. Now, you rent, if you want to rent one of these vans, especially, I mean, out west, like, there’s so many places you can drive and camp, like, back east, it’s just, it’s really, you, you really can’t find all these open spaces and do this type of camping. Doesn’t exist. Doesn’t exist. Uh, you have to be on established campsites, so like, being isolated, Is something that I didn’t know I never heard anybody doing back in North Carolina. Well, you can go into the woods. You can go into the woods, yeah. um, but it’s so easy because you’re driving this thing Uh, the app is outdoorsy the one that I use to like rent the Sprinter van And then I use iOverlander to find the spots where I, where I camp. And they, like, people review the spots and mark them and you can Google Map straight to it, even if you lose cell service. Um, I lost cell service, like, an hour, an hour before I got there. Like, that’s how isolated this was. I was driving for an hour. Driving through a town where there’s like no service. But you got your satellite phone. I got that little spot on GPS thing. Which I used. Now, the iPhone update has a satellite communication capability now. You can send texts. And it knew that. I had updated, actually the night before. And so it said, would you like to send text via satellite and I said yes, and I tried to text Christy and it, it didn’t go through so I don’t know, Does your thing, If my hardware isn’t, needs to be, Can you, can you text? Can you text through your your satellite thing? I was not able to no. Oh, yes the Garmin yeah, the, the spot X device. Yeah has a full keyboard and you can text. Yeah yeah, and you can also like, I think we have the same thing. Send, like uh, it creates a website basically that tracks your progress that you can just share with a loved one and be like, this is gonna follow me where I’m at. This was the thing that I took comfort in when I decided on the next day to go on a little excursion up Surprise Canyon. Which I could, I could see it miles away like the road looked pretty established going up just like whoop and then right in between right up into this canyon that everything blends together so much that like, it’s hard to tell where one like mountain ends and another one begins and like where the valleys are in these things because it’s so desolate, like beautifully desolate, but still, it just all becomes a wash until the sun sets and then you can start to see dimensionality, right? And so I’m like, I’m going for that dimensionality. And so I start driving and I mean, it had four wheel drive, high clearance. So I was able to like slowly go on this gravel road. But the thing that I read about was easy. It is to get flat tires out there because of the type of, it’s very sharp rocks. And then if there are flash floods, it exposes. Sharper rocks, everything’s not worn down, but the road seemed pretty good and I had my portable, uh, tire pump and I got nervous and I was like, I’m going to deflate my tires, uh, to reduce the chance of getting a flat tire. And so I did that and then I started creeping up and going up this canyon and I just, I mean, it’s just a few miles of going up right beside this stream, a couple of places. I’m like, driving across the stream and I’m startin, you know, my armpits are starting to sweat a little bit cause I feel like, yeah, I don’t like, I’m taking a little bit of a risk here going up here, but the road was established enough. And, I was feeling okay, and I was, I was having a good time, so. No turn back now. No turn back now, that’s what I was saying to myself. I started using shorthand. These vans, in my experience, they’re no FJ Cruiser. No. Like, I, my FJ Cruiser could go through, uh, anything and I always felt like I was going to get out of it. It wasn’t, it wasn’t technical. It was never a point where like, it felt like I needed someone to get out of the van and tell me where to drive. I would never, I would never have done that. Even in four wheel drive, sometimes they’re like, they’re squirrelly spinning out and stuff. It’s a lot actually. So I was gaining elevation. And it was, um, it started to get more treacherous. And then at one point there was a big thing that I needed to go up. And I, and I, I saw that I could just turn around. So I, instead of going up this, I was like, you know what? Dogs, we’re going to stop here. I’m going to turn around. I’m going to get off the road because there’s a place to do that. I’m going to face the other direction towards the exit. Um, I’m going to go around this big rock. It’s almost as well. Not, it’s not as big as this table, but, um, uh, It was a turnaround spot around this rock, and it, the rock was big enough that I couldn’t put my arms around it. You tried to hug it, though. Well, I’m just trying to give you an idea of how big it is. That’s how lonely you’d gotten. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Well, when I tried to hug the rock, I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I, I will tell you that, uh, later on in the story, I, I did try to hug the rock. Okay. But, um, it wasn’t out of loneliness. So I, I turned the van around, uh, and I park it and then we start hiking and we hike not, not much longer than a quarter of a mile up the road. And then I can see, as I come around this corner, there’s like two identical Suburbans up there. Oh, Suburbans made it. Now, if they were black, I’d have been like, okay, there’s the, what is this? Secret service, right? Right. They were white Suburbans. Okay. So. No, but they were identical because they were rentals, which I don’t know how these guys do this in turn. There was one guy there and I talked to him and he was like from Kansas City and him and his boys were doing a Death Valley trip and then They were leaving once the guys came back from hiking and they were going to go to Vegas and um, quite a trip. So these are the only people that I saw and talked to my entire trip was these guys It’s weird seeing people when you haven’t seen people. Um, you, I hiked up a little bit. They said, we saw a rattlesnake, but it’s, there’s beautiful waterfalls up here. And I was like, I’m not going to take my dogs up here. There’s a rattlesnake. Um, I came back out and while I was thinking, I’m glad I pulled over. So that, cause they said they were leaving. And so by the time I went, I hiked back down, they had already packed up and they were leaving. They like, I saw their taillights and they were out of there. So then when I get back to the van, after looking around, it’s like old, uh, mining equipment and stuff up there. Pretty, pretty cool. Like a lot of relics and whatnot. You see a lot of that in Death Valley. It was a, it was a big surprise Canyon. They like this guy bought the land because they found gold there and he brought in all these people and that’s what created the town and just, just a boom town. But after being there for a couple of weeks up in surprise canyon, there was huge flash floods and it like destroyed the entire camp. And the guy had been creating a railroad from Santa Monica. Santa Monica, millionaire billionaire dude, was trying to build a, a railroad from there to Santa Monica and he started in Santa Monica. He never made it because then there was this flash flood and the whole thing got, the whole endeavor got washed away. These are the type of things that happen. There’s a lot of space between there and Santa Monica. I know! It’s, it’s on the sign and everything. Uh, I read about it. You think I would make this stuff up? It’d be an interesting thing to make up. Yeah, I probably have some of it wrong, but I know for a fact I’m right about it. Don’t look it up. Anyway, I get back in the van, and I’ve got to work up a slurry to wash my dog’s feet. Because, like, Jasper was walking in the water and I’m like, I don’t know what he could have picked up. I’m just like, so I’m, I’m washing him off. Then I’m eating something. Uh, and then I get in the van and we finally drive off and I was already like pointed in the right direction. You know, I’d made all these decisions of how I was going to exit before we even went on the hike. And so when I start to pull off, I’m turning back to the right. And I’m not going to go in the stream and I’m going to take it easy. And then all of a sudden, very quickly, I like not going. And the first thing, first instinct I have right or wrong, whenever I’m off roading and I, and I encounter some resistance, it’s a give it a little bit more gas because you don’t want to lose any momentum you have. And, uh, so I gave it a little gas and I did not make any progress, but instead I heard this, like, screeching slash crunching metal, frustrated metal sound. And, and I immediately put on the brakes and I was like, oh [bleep]. Oh no, oh no, oh no. And I’m like, I immediately begin, I’m like, I’m stuck. And what am I going to do? Because I’m way up here and these guys have left. And there’s not going to be anybody else. No, you’ll be hiking out. And I said, I turned to the dogs and I said, don’t panic. You know, it’s, it’s really good having dogs there. Cause I have somebody to talk to that is a lot more even keel than me. They didn’t panic. I got out of the van and I walked around to the back and remembered that big [bleep] rock that I totally forgotten about. That I had driven around and so then instead of it was right in front of you when you started to go it was beside the van when I started to go but then I turned right so that the, the front tire was already past it and when I when I went to the right a little bit It was in front of the back tire. Well, it was actually the muffler comes in front of the back right tire Cool the muffler so the muffler isn’t is in front of the tire and so the that’s what’s pinned against the uh, This rock and oh [bleep]. I mean and then so i’m like I grab I I get down I squat down and I bear hug the rock Try because i’m like, well, i’m just gonna move the rock kit. Will this rock move at all? No, and so I I, this is when I realized that like, strap your dogs up, I can’t do a mule, two mule team. I, yeah, I, I reached my hands around the rock. I could not get all the way around it. That’s how big this rock was. And I go, if I had been there, I would have said we shouldn’t try that. I mean, I was just, I was not panicking. You know, that was what was important. I was like, I’m just testing things out here. And then I realized, okay, it’s just against the muffler. If I, and then I, I realized if I, if I get back in the van and I turn the wheels totally to the left, I think I can, just skirt this rock and avert disaster. And, um, so I get back in the van and I, I do that and thank God it works. And then I just, I was, I was kind of shaken up at that point, but we slowly drove out of there. And like, there wasn’t actually any damage to the, um, to the van that’s, uh, visible, unless you like lay down and look underneath, which when I returned it, they did, they didn’t, um, I don’t think they did that. I wonder if they’re fans of the show though. I hope not. it, it was just, you know, it was just a little perturbed spot on the muffler, you know? No big deal. Normal wear and tear. No, we’re wearing normal wear and tear, we call that. But it, it, it really gave me pause. ’cause I’m like, you just don’t wanna be out there in the middle of nowhere with just two chihuahua poodles trying like stuck. Now I did have. I was able to communicate and if I had to walk, I could have hiked down to the town if I had to. Yeah, it would have been a long way. So I, I mean, I, and on this side, I probably could have hiked to that RV that was a spec. So I knew these things, like I knew where I could find people and I could communicate, but it would have been a real [bleep] day. Right. Probably a [bleep] two days. So I, the lesson that I’m taking away is whenever. You’re in a place like that, Link. And you’re about to, you’re about to drive off from anywhere. Look, give it a look, give it a circle. Get like, just go around. You think, you know what you’re doing, but maybe something changed. Maybe a rock crawled up underneath a rock group, a rock grew underneath there in between your hike and when you parked, just, just reacquaint yourself with all your surroundings. This is one of the, my takeaways from this trip is just, you got to start. You gotta be responsible for yourself. You gotta think about worst case scenarios and what you’re gonna do about it. Now that doesn’t mean it’s gonna talk you outta doing things, but you gotta have a plan. So I had like, I had the, you know, I had this, I had some sketches of a, of a plan. right? Con, concepts of a plan. Yeah. As, as, as it’s been said, I have con, I had concepts of a plan, but I didn’t have a plan. Right? I, so, uh, after that I just, I went back to the same spot. Parked and camped the second night and, um, didn’t take any more big risks. Um, I had Jasper tied up to, on a leash while I was in the van and he was outside as like the sun, the sun hadn’t set yet. It was like four o’clock by this time. And, um, he was, I had a blanket out there so I wouldn’t track dirt into the van. And so I look out of the van and he’s down there. He’s like, he’s at the absolute limit of the leash like pulling as hard as he can now Jade is in the van She’s too little to jump down out of the van herself. So she was secured inside of the van Jasper liked to sit outside. So I’ll let him do that. He was like stretching and had his nose on the ground he was like whimpering he was like trying to get to the edge of the blanket and He would not hush about it. And then I, I looked, I was like, what are you looking at? And I, I picked him up and put him in the van. And then I, I took this video. This is my, my, sorry about my bare feet. That’s, that’s for size reference. This is, see my blanket? And then right there. Oh, wow. That is a big [bleep] tarantula just crawling. I’ve never seen one of those in the wild. Right there on the edge of my freaking blanket. It is coming onto your thing. It’s crawling onto the blanket. And look, I’m grabbing the blanket and I’m shaking it to try to get him to run away. And look, nothing, doesn’t move at all. You can pick him up. Well, I was, and then he just wipes his butt with one of his legs and he just stands there. So, because he didn’t move, like, when I saw this and I, I freaked out, cause, I’m not fond of spiders. And the bigger and the hairier they are the less fond I am of them, but I do know some things eight legs They’re not point eight legs they’re not poisonous, but I’m I’m freaking out and i’m like talking to myself and saying like, okay, don’t freak out It’s not poisonous, but they can’t I think they could throw their their hairs as darts And I don’t know what that would do to a dog and I don’t know what a bite would do to a dog It would make them upset You So, for the next two hours, uh, we just, we stayed in the van with the door shut. You didn’t have anything to kind of sweep it away? I looked out the window or to pick it up with something. He’s still there. Well, I tried with the thing So then he was just so he was there So I just locked myself in the van for a while trapped by a spider and then when I came back out I was like, you know what? I’m, not letting i’m not letting this spider win. And so we went out we went back out there killed it. No, no, he’s after after After that time he was gone. Yeah, but I You better believe I was checking my shoes before it’s kind of crazy that you they’re all they’re out there all over the place. Yeah, but the number of times that I’ve camped in the desert and I’ve never I’ve seen scorpions, seen scorpions, never seen a tarantula. And I was like, there’s name there’s things named after tarantulas. I’m like, maybe they’re lying. Maybe they don’t exist out here. They do. Um, my friend was telling me that when he was young, he was going, uh, I don’t know. Like on an overlanding trip with his like dad or something and they got to this place in the desert and there was like a dark spot and they were like, what is that? Is that? Is that water? Is that a hole? And then when they got close to it, it was just a huge pile of tarantulas. Sex. Sex? Tarantula sex. Oh, they do it, they do it in huge groups apparently. Yeah, it’s a tarantula orgy. Going all across the road, and he said that they drove, they started slowing down and they drove as slow as they could, hoping that they would just like skitter away. They were going across the road as a big group? They were, they were, they were stationary. And he said that like, as he drove over them, the crunching sound was like, It was like, very, it was like Indiana Jones or something. Okay, so he did kill them. Well, he just had to, well, he killed the ones that were under the tires. Right. But there were like, hundreds of them. Maybe it was a transatlantic protest. Think about what a nightmare that would be. You never know, you never know what they were organizing for. Yeah, they didn’t have signs. If they did, he didn’t tell me about the signs. He told me about the crunches. And it disturbed me. But yeah, that kind of scared me. But then after that, I checked my shoes and I started wearing shoes. Outside. I wasn’t just chilling out barefooted. I noticed your blanket on the ground. It’s a moving blanket. Do you know that they, um, I highly recommend these, I got one for my trip, my last camping trip, that it’s a blanket that lets the dirt through it and then stays on top. I bought one of those for the beach. You can use, oh, use it while camping. It’s too thin. I need a cushion of your blanket. Put down the moving blanket, put that over the top of it. Okay. And then you keep surface, but there’s no sand here that you surface. It was too much. If there’s sand, that would’ve helped. But this is, this is only rocks in tars. I had a, I’m glad you’re okay. I had a great time. I made it back. Um, I’ll do it again. I’m learning a little bit more every time. Yeah. I, I gotta go back out. I gotta, I gotta schedule a solo trip. The best thing though was at the, um, you, you remember the episode where we both tried the. The wearable, uh, sleeping bags and you had the cheap one and I had the expensive one. Did you take that with you? And I said, I want this. And I took that with me and it was the best thing I have ever experienced camping. Yeah. Like it was so good. It’s just, it’s amazing. Everyone should have one if you’re camping in, in cold, windy conditions. So you just wore it outside. Did you actually sleep in it? No. Ear Biscuits is brought to you by BetterHelp. You know, one of my favorite parts of the holiday season is when you forget what day it is. Ha! Yeah, cause they’re all the same. There’s basically one time during the entire year in which you’re like, it could be Saturday, it could be Wednesday. And I could not tell you, I’m gonna have to look at my phone. Like you’re retired. Because you’ve disengaged from the hustle and bustle of life. For some people, it’s wrapping up in a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate. I could dig it. They think that’s the best way to spend the month of December. Well, therapy is a great way to bring yourself some comfort that never goes away, even when the season changes. We are huge advocates of therapy, so we want it to be as accessible as possible. So, if you’re thinking of starting, Give BetterHelp a try. It’s entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Find comfort this December with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp. com slash ear today to get 10 percent off your first month. That’s betterhelp, H E L P, dot com slash ear. Let’s hear a voicemail. Hi, I absolutely love the podcast. My name is Brooke. I’m 20 and I’m looking for a little bit of advice. Okay. Um, due to an unfortunate family situation, I’ve got to change my last name. And so since I’ve got the opportunity, I want to change it to something cool or funny. Um, it’d be a waste to, you know, spend all this time and money just changing it to Smith or something. But I also don’t want to regret it too much when I’m older. Okay. Um, so, I figured you guys are creative and funny guys, so you might have some suggestions. Uh, any advice is welcome. Thank you so much. Keep up the great work. Thank you for the compliments. It’s Brooke, right? I like Brooke’s tone. I kind of see brook like going like this Brooke seems pretty upbeat given the fact that they got to change their name, uh for for not upbeat reasons it sounds so this is turning. Oh, yeah lemonade into uh, I don’t know some sort of a sorbet Um, well, it’s interesting Brooke that you mentioned smith you because I think that this is an opportunity to name yourself in the way that people have always named themselves before we just became. You know, just absolute victims of our culture just woke up with the last name is that they would give themselves names. In fact, Smith comes from blacksmith, goldsmith, silversmith, people who were working with metals. And then they were like, they shortened it eventually to Smith or whatever. Right. Jack comes from lumberjack. That’s what those people were called. And then they just shortened it. Um, so all of the names. And even like McLaughlin, because like Lachlan was like of the lake or something like that, right? It was based on so you could He gave you information. You could. What are you into? Well, she’s not on the call right now. Right. But like I’m just saying, listen, we can assume some things based, she’s into podcasts. Okay. Er biscuits would be an example. I mean, there’s an opportunity. There’s an opportunity here. Brooke. Let’s go a little for branding. Brooke may like to listen to another podcast. Brooke VisKits? No. Brooke Mc. Listener. Just li. Listen. Brooke. Brooke listens. Uh, that sounds like. It sounds like the name of the podcast. So yeah, well, I mean I’m saying the thing we don’t know what she does What she wants to do and this is a way of manifesting it. She’s 20 uh, she could be embarking on a career thinking about that hollywood star Well, that’s I mean, let’s be realistic here. What what’s the most common job a teller? Just because statistically we since we don’t know. I mean, there’s lots of tellers I think it’s probably is it some sort of retail? Brooke, Brooke, I’m putting a Mick in there because I’m partial. Brooke McRetail. Brooke, Brooke McMerchandiser. Uh huh. Brooke Mc turn. Brooke McTurn Specialist, it could be something that in, it’s less about you, Brooke mc, target employee. Your, your, your vocation and more just like your, your, your sort of office in life, like Brooke mc, citizen of the world, Brooke Mc, and then it’s kind of like a Meta World. World piece. Okay. See, I mean, she’s upbeat. Brooke Mc, upbeat. There’s also putting o’s in front of things. Brooke, oh my God. Brooke OMG. Now, what about, I’m always a fan of doubling up. Brooke is a great name. Why change it? Brooke, Brooke Brooke. Brooke Brooks. Brooke Brooks. Ooh, that is a weather. There it is. That is a weather woman or potential, uh, uh, And you still have the E from Brooke. Brooke Brooks. It’s spelled exactly the same as your first name. Just add an S traffic and weather on the fives. Brooke Brooks. Brooke Manship. Brooke Mc Brooker. Brooke Brooker. Brooke Broken. You could probably do, Nope. You could probably do, Brooke. You could, while you’re doing it, you could have Brooke. Brooke Brooks. So there’s a hyphen between Yeah. Change your middle name too while you’re at it. No, no, no, no. It’s, no. This is a. I’m creating a hyphenated last name. Brooke Brooks. And you say it like you would say, Brooke, but Brooke, Brooke Brooks, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke Brooks, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke Brooks. What if she likes to read? Brooke Brooke, Brooke books, Brooke books, Brooke books. Yeah, that’s a good one too. That’s good. Um, how about Brooke Shook? It’s kind of like Brooke Shields. No. Brooke Shook. Brooke Shiles. Brooke, Brooke Shook. I I I Shook for Brooke, it would be like a poster if you were running for class president of a high school, you know? Okay. So let’s not do that. There’s also an opportunity to bring some last names back that just exist in like popular culture, like Doubtfire. So you can be called Miss Doubtfire. You could do that. What are some other famous last names that are not real that you can claim as your own? Uh, Brooke Aurelius. Go a little Roman with it. Um. Brooke, what about, uh, there’s a branding opportunity here, you know? You could, you could be Brooke Pepsi. Yeah, maybe, and if we get involved with that, we could get a percentage. Could you change your name to a, you could do that. There are rules about this. There’s probably. Yeah, I wonder could you change your name to there are certain things that you cannot name yourself because it’s but trademarking doesn’t prevent that I think it does Yeah, yeah, I think you can’t be like Brooke Home Depot, I don’t think you can do that. I think, I think you got to talk to the trademark Brooke. You got to talk to Home Depot first, but low Lowe’s, Brooke Lowe’s, and after Lowe’s it was Lowe’s, depends on who’s asking. Exactly. Cause then you got cover. The Home Depot is much more obvious than Lowe’s. Brooke Belk. It’s too regional. Oh, I don’t know where she’s from. That department store hasn’t made it everywhere. Brooke Sky City. What about, I mean, what about your favorite food? Brooke Chicken Fingers. Okay, I like that. Or just Brooke fingers. No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke. Is it, you know what? We’ve come back around, but that’s it. That’s it. We’ve we, and I applaud you for seeing this, the silver lining here. This is your opportunity to be creative and to be your future self. Take your identity by the horns and ride it. Into your future, Brooke, Brooke. And it could just be B R B R O O K S. Brooke Brooks. You don’t have to spell out the whole Brooke the second time. Brooke, Brooke Brooks. Brooke, Brooke. Okay. Brooke, Brooke Brooks. So take it, take it as you will. Take it as you will. So that one. Let us know. We want to see a birth certificate or whatever it would be. Hi Link. Hi Rhett. I am calling because I am the best man of a wedding coming up next summer and I have never. Had to give a speech In public like I will have to next summer and I’m pretty nervous I know you don’t know the circumstances of who I am or who the groom is, but I was hoping you could give some tips of what to say what not to say and what I can do to get over my nerves to get the speech thank you all so much. Love you. Say back. I know we agree on one thing Let’s just get that out of the way and this goes out that we don’t say it back uh this is you yes, we agree on this. This is a cardinal rule for speeches, and it is violated at least 60 percent of the time. It’s the most amateur move that you can make, and it’s so tempting. And you think you’re, you think of it, and because you thought of it, you think you need to go with it. Here’s the rule. In your speech, do not reference your speech. Yeah, don’t talk about the speech. Don’t be like, when I was preparing for this speech, Don’t say that! Don’t you do it. Just don’t! Everyone wants to say that! It’s an amateur move! Don’t do it! Take it out of there! Do not reference the speech! In the speech! You don’t want to be meta world speech. It’s a sign of weakness. Alright? That’s not you. You’re better than this. You have thoughts about other things than what it is you’re doing. Because you don’t want people listening to your speech to be thinking about the fact that it’s a speech. Yeah. You’re transcending speech! Like, you’re speaking in order to say something. It gets me every time and it happens at most weddings and I’m like, there they go again. When I was thinking about what to say, just think about what to say. Don’t tell us that you’re thinking about it. You should have, yeah, yeah, just when you were, you were thinking about what to say so that then you could say it. And now we want to hear it. And here we are. Here we are. We want to hear it. It’s filler. And it, I mean, it, the, the only thing that might be redeemable about it. And it’s not, but it might, could be. Are you about to confuse the issue? No, I’m just saying one can make an argument. I’m not making it. Oh, God. That, it endears you to the audience. It lets you pull, they pull for you because they know you’re not a professional speech giver, obviously, you’re talking about your speech. You’re, I mean, saying you’re nervous is like, akin to this. It’s like, Yeah, also don’t do that. Don’t do that. But that’s less, that’s, that’s, that’s somewhat forgivable because it just might be true. You know, and if you have, if you need to have it, something written down, that’s okay. If this is the only speech you’re ever gonna give, you can have some stuff jotted down. But maybe, you don’t have to just read it verbatim. Okay, but, hold on because I’m going off on this tangent because it’s like Because that’s the next place I wanted to go, so finish the thing about Gotcha. I’m just saying that it, you’re putting yourself out there, you’re showing some vulnerability, but there’s better ways, there’s better ways to show vulnerability than saying, so giving a backstory about how you were, you had to think about what you were going to talk about. And I, cause I think that’s the reason people who don’t have confidence in their speech. I know why people do it. Well, why do you think people do it? Yeah. Cause they’re not, yeah. Cause they’re not confident and they don’t do this on a regular basis. It might be the first time they’re doing it. Right. Okay. And so, you are thinking so much about the fact that you’re giving a speech that it’s the first thing that you want to say is you want to acknowledge the fact that I am doing the thing now that I am nervous about. But just let that all happen internally and then when you, because it’s one of the most It’s totally not engaging. It’s not a great way to start the speech. And it also kind of makes the speech about you right out of the gate. Exactly. When I was thinking about what I would say. Right. Versus, what’s the person’s name? Brooke McBrooks. Brooke Bro Brooks. You know, start there. Yep. You know, say their name first. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That’s what you do. Matter of, cause the other thing you might want to do is introduce yourself. Yeah. And let people know. Like the context with which you are related to this person or why the hell are you the best man? Don’t do that either at first. Yeah, here’s here’s a nice little thing plan the first thing you’re going to say To the people and we can have some thoughts about that. I have a good idea for that and then at a certain point after that, but still early on in your preamble, introduce yourself. So you’re gonna say a little something, and then, that’s your preamble, and then you’re gonna introduce yourself. My name is Brooke, Brooke Brooks, and I grew up with Mandy McManus. I like that. And then you keep going. First thing you can say, especially if you’re nervous, and you just need to adjust to the fact that you are standing up and all these people are looking at you. Even as someone who does this on a regular basis, in certain situations, especially like a wedding, I’m going to be very nervous. High pressure. I’m not nervous if I’m in front of a bunch of mythical beasts, because we all know what’s going on. Right. But mixed company, you know, I don’t know. I lose it in those situations. How do you think I feel? I know people don’t know how to take me. So it’s like I think a good way to start is to just say the couple’s name John and Amanda and then smile and then maybe make some like Yeah, yeah, you just let John and Amanda you can say it up to three times yes Yeah, you can okay. I think you can and this is you just my mouth still works, right? I don’t have to tell you about that when I was preparing for this John Amanda Amanda and John. You can reverse it! You should! It’s 2024. But then, if you’re doing it three times, you’re re reversing it so it sounds like you’ve decided which way sounds better. That’s not great. Amanda and John. No, let’s go with John and Amanda. I’m not saying you have to do that, I’m just saying it’s a potential way to start, if you’re nervous. But to the point of, uh, But make sure that you have something to say after that. I love the fact that you’re talking about, you know, I remember the first time I ever saw Amanda, you know, it was through her window in her backyard. Yep. Thought maybe I could marry her. So typically you wouldn’t. So if you’re the best man, you would not say, I remember the first time I saw Amanda. I remember the first time I saw John. Yeah. And so this is a, to use a story to establish your connection. And this is your life experience. You should be able to tell this without reading off a sheet of paper. But keep it short. To the point of reading versus not reading. Again, I agree with Link. It’s not bad to have something written down if you’re going to be super nervous, but my strong suggestion is that whether you write it down or not, there should be a speech written down somewhere that’s an outline of the ideas that you want to cover, the concepts that you want to cover. And if you can memorize that outline, or if you need to look at that outline, totally fine. Yeah. Encouraged, if not. And if you have to read it word for word, it’s better than not doing a speech, but it’s only a little bit better. Just being honest. All right. You know, you’re asking for the best possible advice here to make the best possible speech. We’re going to give it to you. Here’s a hack for that though. If you feel like you need some tracks to run on, you want to read after you’ve, Done your preamble, which is just saying the names two to three times with the right expression afterward. And then you introduce yourself and how you know the groom. Via story. Via story. Because then you’re off to the races. It’s a short story, you know. Then, if you still need something, you can have something that you’re motivated to read. Like, I’m going to read the email that, uh, John sent to me when he first met Amanda. Or the text, most likely. Text. And then, then you’re actually reading something, and you have, you have complete tracks to run on, and it’s motivated to read it. You wouldn’t have memorized this. You need to read it. And then, you’re feeling more confident, you’ve gotten some engagement, you might have even gotten some laughs, definitely smiles, and then you’re off to the races. And then after that, you’re just gonna say one thing. And I don’t know, it needs to be, I don’t, I don’t think it needs to be advice. I don’t think it should be advice. I think it should be something that inspires you about sharing of hopes Sharing of hopes and then at the end you can make it a little bit about you Like if you want to plug your Instagram, yeah Yeah, your podcast or your podcast or something like that Like you’ve won them over now is the time to just really capitalize on this moment for yourself maybe Maybe there’s a GoFundMe That, that, that, uh, , I spent so much time preparing for this speech, I had to quit my job. I had, I had to call in sick to work. , I have a GoFundMe to make up the difference. And then you, and then, uh, yeah, you pass the plate and sit down. Keep it, keep it short. Keep it short. Keep it short. Shorter than you think you need to keep it and practice it. And time it, you gotta do this, you gotta practice it, and you gotta time it And mm-hmm Don’t try to go off the cuff. I wanna wing it so bad because I hate planning and it, it hurts so much to like. Playing a speech and like to say it out loud in a room by yourself. Much less to like run it against somebody. You have to do it. Just do it. Just do it. The beautiful medium here is, or compromise between those two things, is Not planning every single word, but planning the conception, the conceptual aspects, and the flow of the speech is something that you need. And you need to practice a couple of times, and you can change some things up. Also, I think the humor should not come from planned jokes. That may not work, but if there’s going to be humor, and there doesn’t have to be, uh, if you’re not funny, don’t try to be. But, something like, oh, I’ve got this text that John sent me about Amanda one time. Now you’re just relaying factual information that will make people laugh. Yeah. That’s what you want. You know, you find that kind of thing, something real and authentic. That’s not like, Oh, he looked up a joke online or something. Right. You know, you can think of funny things that have happened. You can think of a funny story. You can find a funny text. Let that be the source of the humor. Keep it under three minutes, which is going to require. And that’s going to be, that’s going to come real fast. I was, you know, I was joking about the plug at the end. You got to have a strong closer. You got to have the last thing that you’re going to say. And that can’t be, that’s it. Yeah. Okay, again, just as important as the beginning not being about preparing the speech. You can’t have a word that’s like, well, that’s it. Thank you. You, don’t even say thank, you don’t, you, your objective is not even, you want to say something so you don’t have to say thank you. Well, I think the easiest thing to do, cause assuming this is at the reception, you’ve got your glass in hand, you, you say the last thing and you say, To John and Amanda. And then you sit your ass down. Or Amanda and John. Let’s go with John and Amanda. And then you’ve got to throw at it. Ha ha ha, yeah maybe. If that worked in the beginning, you could do that at the end. But like, just what, you’ve got to have that mic drop moment. You’ve got to know when to stop talking. And don’t say okay at the end. I’m so bad at that. Okay. I’m so bad at this. I don’t plan, and I’m like, I’m just gonna wing it, and it’s gonna be honest, and people are gonna feel it, and that’s, I’m, that’s gonna carry me, and I, you know. There’s a time and a place for a completely off the cuff. That’s the middle. That’s the middle. And something may come to, come, come to you. It’s not the beginning, and it’s not the end. It’s just the middle. It’s the safe, little, scrumptious middle where anything goes, because, People are only going to remember the end. Or the middle if it goes good. Or really bad. But the thing is, is just because something was premeditated does not mean it’s not authentic. No, no, no. Those things are not mutually exclusive. I’m saying I use that as a ploy so I don’t plan. And it’s a falsehood. We’re really passionate about this. Well, because, I don’t know. It’s just, every time I see it happening I’m like, hmm. Right. I have some, I have some thoughts. And we haven’t even taken Toastmasters. No, no, no. This is groups of people who get together and they learn how to talk in public and it really works. They’ll take you through things like where to put your feet and where you’re staying and where to put your hands. Yeah. Spread the legs, spread the legs. Oh, gestures. But the thing that, No pointing. The, the title of this episode we have to talk about this. Our best man speeches for each other. Uh, I did not give Link a best man speech because I was not his best man. I did not give Rhett a best man speech because I was not his best man. And only reason Link wasn’t my best man is because he got married first and didn’t make me his best man. Yep. So I wasn’t going to return the non favor. So I was not Rhett’s best man out of revenge. But you were not my best man out of tradition. The daddy is the best man. And that’s true for me as well. In the South, for some reason, your best man is your dad. Which, uh, now this is not, I’m sure that there are people who got married in the South who didn’t do this. But it was tradition. In the circles that we ran in, right? For your dad to be your best man, which he’s your dad, it just feels like it’s an opportunity for someone who’s actually not because of biological reasons, but because of life circumstances and choices is your best man. Your dad’s, your dad. He’s still there. He’s still in the wedding party, whatever, you know, I’m not saying that your dad’s not your best man. Rhett’s clearly still hurt by this, but what, what would’ve happened to, well, no, here’s the thing. For in, in my wedding, if it wasn’t my dad. A lot of people would have expected to be my brother, right? You didn’t have to worry about that. So making it, my dad was actually an easy way out to that. Be like, well, it’s my brother or Link. It’s like, everyone’s thinking that it’s going to be Link. In fairness, though, your dad can give a good speech and your brother can give a good speech. Oh, they’re both great at it, but better than me. Is that what you’re thinking? Oh yeah. Is that the real reason? Uh, no, I don’t even remember. We also, like, did, I don’t remember what the reception, I don’t remember how speeches happened in my reception. I don’t remember that either. Or your wedding. I remember your rehearsal dinner speech, which we’ve talked about before. Which I’ve, yeah. But yeah. Don’t, don’t, don’t address each person individually at any party from a place of giving the speech. Don’t do that. That’s uncalled for. Nobody wanted that. I did that and nobody wanted it. This is what happens when you don’t plan. When you wing it and then you create an absolute mayhem. An epic, an epic long speech. I mean, you can’t even call it a speech. It’s like, it’s almost like, uh, like when does somebody get up and they just read forever? I wasn’t reading, it was off the cuff, but it was just like babble. Babbling. Very babbly. Personalized babbling. I’m going to babble about you. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know man, I’ll renew my vows. You want to be the best man? See, now I feel like my dad still needs to be the best man. For a vow renewal? I don’t think there is a best man. Well, I would only be doing it for you. so I could do a speech? Yeah. It has nothing to do with you and Christy. I keep telling Christy the last thing I want do is a vow I renewal. I don’t, I don’t believe, that like, I’m happy for people who do it. A destination, like it implies this vow renewals are for people who’ve who, the marriages, they had to piece it back together. Yeah. And if that’s the case, Then go for it. It’s a great thing to do. It’s a re, it’s like a rededication. It’s like, right, I got saved and then I got you back. Actually saved you backslid. I got saved and then I got saved again. ’cause I wasn’t sure if I got saved the first time and then I had rededicated later. Because you were re, you were actually saved. So that’s why it’s a rededication. Yeah. You’re just, you’re manning up and you’re saying, I’m gonna do the right thing. And so in a marriage, that’s what renewing the vows are for. You guys have a way out of this, though. Your birthdays are so close to each other that you could have a birthday extravaganza that you have. And you also are turning the same age, right? So you want to be the best man at my birthday? No, no, no. I’m just saying that if you want to create a destination, like, when y’all turn, like, when y’all turn 50. Yes. Like, I mean, first of all, I’m gonna do something for my 50th. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but it’s going to be the biggest party I’ve ever had. And then mine will be after, so I’ll be able to top it. Yeah, and if, and there’s a difference in doing like a party in town with a lot of people, or a destination where just your closest friends are willing to go out of their way to go someplace. And you don’t have to leave California for that. That’s true. It’s a beautiful state. Lots of desert. But that’s the beauty about y’all’s birthdays being so close to each other. We can make a bigger deal out of it. Yeah, you can do a co birthday party, which you’ve done before. And then you, you want to give a speech there. I would like that. And I would like for you to be the best man at my birthday. I just got it. I’m the best birthday man? I would like for you to be my best birthday man. Not my dad. Okay. He’s invited, but he’ll be my dad. Because this is such a novel thing, I might start my speech with, when I was asked to be Link’s best birthday man, I was like, what the [bleep] is that? Because then I’ll get a laugh. You know, I might violate my own rule. You can’t do it. Come on, I take it back. My dad’s gonna do it. You can have more than one toast. I would like to get, But there’s only one best man. Let me just say, I got a lot of advice about this. And I think, given the time to prepare, I could do a really good job. What I’m not good at is the impromptu, you know, Oh, I didn’t know when people were saying things. Like, you’re not bad at that. Because I, once, once you can tell that it could happen, I can tell you going in that mode. And here’s what, here’s a good thing that you do. Like your, your brows furrow and you’re like, you start, you start brewing it up. Because you, yeah, because you’re not going to wing it. You’re going to plan something. You’re going to plan an opening. But you know who is like. expert at this. Yeah, Mike. Mike McHarg. Oh yeah. Uh, and you, and he, and I can tell when he’s coming up with something too, because he kind of, he doesn’t furrow his brow, he just sort of like gives a soft focus. Yeah. And the brain starts going to work. Right. And you, you do not, do not let him go before you. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You let him go last. Yeah, and he knows that. Cause if you go, if he goes first and it’s popcorn ain’t no more kernels are gonna pop. Well, what, the reason he’s so good at it is what he has the ability to do is he has the ability to construct the entire speech in his mind and then just say it. And so you can see he’s like piecing it together and he’s like. That’s not a fair comparison. He’s writing it and then he’s just going into that file in his brain and just reading it from it. Most people can’t do that. The best thing, and you’re good at this, is whenever you’re put on the spot, um, or even when you’ve got something planned, the best thing to do is, like, you’re reading the room and you’re present with the previous things that have happened. If there’s people who’ve spoken before you, or if things have happened, like the ten minutes leading up to you talking, you’re looking for something that you can, acknowledge, or refer to, that’s just like, and it’s not really the start of your speech, it’s almost like a, it’s like a soft launch, like when they open a restaurant. You remember five minutes ago when somebody farted and no one said anything? That was me. That was me. Right. And that doesn’t count as speech, that’s like, But you get, you get the crowd on your side. It’s like, you know, your mouth works and you’re, and you’re running, you’re, you’re, you’re ramping up to your actual speech, right? Yeah. We used to masterclass this [bleep], man. I think I love this kind of stuff because I think this is what makes things more fun. It makes like when somebody gets up and just knocks a speech outta the park. It feels so good for everyone. Everyone’s like, holy shit. Who’s dad? Is that? Like, right. I’m just saying yes. It’s just, it makes everyone feel good. Everyone’s like, that was awesome. And growing up that was like that was the type of entertainer we could aspire to be. Yeah, like because we didn’t know we didn’t know what else we could do It’s like I mean the whole reason we’re here right now is because we turned the rehearsal dinner speech for Greg into a into a comedy song. Yeah, that’s the whole reason that we’re here now, you know, because that was our audience That’s why, that’s why we’ve thought about this so much. Also, growing up in the church though, cause you’ve got like, Yeah, you’ve got the little speeches that happen. You might have to give announcements this Sunday. Yep. I mean, I preached a sermon at least once. Yeah, but like giving announcements or like, like praying before a meal or like, orienting people where the pot, how to go through the potluck. Like, I mean, church is full of popcorn type impromptu speeches. Yeah, and there’s not a lot of social settings, uh, just in the secular world. Yeah. That where that happens and so people aren’t great at it Yeah, but you get but you get people who come up in church and they are one of the people that had to say some stuff. Yeah, I might I might go back to church just for the audience. I’m here. I don’t believe any of this stuff, but I love to talk. And the bar’s lower. I’ll get in where I can fit in. I mean, I see that clip of, uh, that Tim Robinson clip. It’s not from I Think You Should Leave, it’s from his. Detroiters. Detroiters, where he goes up to that guy, the pastor, and he was like, I just want to let you know that that was funny. That was only funny because you were because you were, Beause you’re at church. Or was it a funeral? I can’t remember. He was just making a point. That was only as funny as it was because nobody expected it to be funny. Yeah, and boy, we know about those environments. That has been the key to our success. We thrived in those environments. Yeah, yeah. Where it was like, I wasn’t expecting this to happen. Mhmm, mhmm. And it’s not hard. It’s almost uncalled for. To exceed expectations because they’re low. Or spiritual. Yeah. So maybe I’ll get, maybe that’s my end back, back into church. Ripe crowds, ready to laugh. Maybe like Kiwanis. Yep. Yep. I could be like more Chamber of Commerce oriented. I just don’t, I mean, I don’t want to have to adopt a dogma, you know, that I don’t believe. Right. Alright. Well, um, good luck with that. I feel, I feel really good about it, I think. Uh. I think we gave so much advice it was overwhelming. But you have time. Just, just. Yeah, did we, did we build it up? Just play it again and again. Hey, yeah, look, here’s the last thing to say. No one’s gonna be thinking about it as much as you are. I mean, we just said that a great speech makes or breaks the entire reception. For us, but we won’t be there. I know we implied that. Like, you in your hands hold the power to make everyone have a good time or everyone have a bad time, but I want you to know that it’s really not that big of a deal. You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna do great. Yep, you’re gonna do great. If you follow everything that we said. Which is why we have a number. I mean, you call it, we listen to what you have to say, and then we talk a whole lot about it. 1 888 EAR POD 1. Next week, we’re gonna be doing our Top Moments, that’s right. Oh yes, favorite episode of the year. We are, uh, I’ve already gone through, I’ve already gone through my photos to figure out what happened to me. I’m gonna wing it this year. Okay. And, uh, I haven’t put mine in order yet, but I am excited to share those with you. And with you. Bye. Alright. Talk at you next week. Hey Rhett and Link. My name’s Mike. I’m from Michigan. Uh, I was in the Army for about 10 years. And I just want to say that you guys have helped me with my PTSD. I’m getting through a lot of dark times, so thank you. But, listened to this week’s podcast, and uh, I have an idea for a shirt. Where the L is it? Let’s go Link. Let’s make that shirt. Where the L is it? And I will buy one. Thanks boys. Love ya.