Professional Disciplinarian Miss Kelley May

Her hand, paddles, ceiling fans, boat oars. You name it and Professional Disciplinarian Miss Kelley May has spanked or been spanked with it. We sit down with the Headmistresses of Spanking University to talk spanking, discipline and accepting who you are. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Regional Restaurants.

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Interview with Professional Disciplinarian Miss Kelley May

0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode spanking and regional restaurant,

0:20

and there's this association of a feeling like, I'm not supposed to tell anybody about this. And I don't think that I'm supposed to be interested in this. But I am this idea of like, you're in trouble and you're gonna get punished. That element is really compelling and very popular to a lot of people. I've spent people with ludicrous things I spend someone with fire hose, it's thinks someone with a ceiling fan tricks with photo doors.

0:47

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out. If you're a new listener. Welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is a professional disciplinarian and the headmistress of spanking University. This is Miss Kelly, May. Were you always drawn to this, or did that kind of happen later on?

1:21

No. So I've always been interested in spankings, specifically in my fetish. So it's you'll find that's very typical of people that identify as fetishists. So people that have a specific interest, a lot of us remember thinking about it and being interested in it in childhood as early as like five years old. At that point, you don't know what it is, right? You don't think, Oh, I have this sexual interest. You're just like, Oh, I'm like, interested in this I, we talked about looking at up in the dictionary a lot. So being like a dictionary kid, like, you'd look up the word spanking in the dictionary and all the sort of associated words, if it came on on a cartoon, or in a book you're reading, you'd kind of be like, and there's this association of a feeling like, I'm not supposed to tell anybody about this. And I don't think that I'm supposed to be interested in this. But I am. And then kind of as you grow older, and you hit puberty, you start connecting some dots here. There are some people that will come to this later in life, you know that. But I'd say for people that are what we call like an obligatory fetishist, or an exclusive fetishist. Somebody who like their fetishes, their whole sexuality, often and usually will have noticed it in childhood. I'm not necessarily because of a trauma or anything like that. I was not spanked as a kid, you'll find that, statistically speaking, it's about the normal average of whether people were or weren't spanked as a kid. So like you

2:51

were drawn to it even before you were kind of sexually attracted to the idea of sex like this was this thing and then,

2:59

so I'm not interested in sex, and I have never been interested in sex. So, um, but yes, but I understand in the sense of like, it is pre sexual. Yes, it is a interest that precedes like a sexual awakening. But I have no interest in vanilla sex, what I what I would consider a call vanilla sex, right? Sex that doesn't contain spanking or any sort of thing. To a lot of people when they hear about fetishes or kinks or BDSM or spanking all these things, they kind of assume that it's like dessert, right? It's the or an appetizer, right? And it's the whole meal.

3:41

You're not interested in just missionary. Hey, I got five minutes. Let's do this. Like this is the whole thing.

3:50

Yes. So that like missionary sort of set like that has zero interest, zero out of 10. I think a friend of mine who also does like spanking discussions in education work. And the way she talks about it is like, what is the thing you think about when you masturbate? Right, like, and most people think about sex in some capacity. Right? I don't think about sex at all. I have never thought about sex masquerading. It's always been thinking. If that makes sense.

4:21

It does. It does. What is it about it?

4:26

That's a question for the ages. Right? So I don't it's everything so it's the details. It's the nuance. So I kind of the way I describe speaking as being made up of four components specifically. So they are discipline, power, pain and humiliation and some combination of Those things via spanking is the interest. And whether like so when I was younger, it was very discipline driven, I was really into the idea of like, being in trouble and being punished. I had very toxic love with the idea of discipline and being fixed stuff like someone's rescuing and something saving me. And then sometimes I'll be really into the idea of somebody else just being in control as a top. I love humiliation. I like being in control as well. And then there's the aspect of this hurts. This is a physical sensation to it, right? There's a masochism sadism element to it. But what it is that I like about it is an odd question in the sense of it's, it's everything about it. Um, I can't imagine not being interested in it. So therefore, like, individual aspects of it aren't more appealing than others.

5:55

I like all of it, not necessarily one single aspect of it. Now, do people seem to assume one role generally, like I'm either the spanker or the Spanky, or? Yeah, we'll kind of go back.

6:07

No, that's a good question. So I forgot you, you said you didn't have any background knowledge. And that's, that's totally fine. So you're typically one of three orientations. So you're either a bottom, which is the person getting spanked, you're the top or the person doing this thinking, or you're a switch, which is what I am, which means you do either roll and you like both roles. So I often think a lot of fetishes or switches, because in some ways, I just love the act. I love the thing itself. In some ways more than I love my orientation to it. This is gonna sound really wild. So like male male platonic discipline, spanking is my favorite. Like, that is the laugh. That is the chef's kiss my favorite thing. I am not involved in that scene. Even a little bit. Like I have no interest in it. But I love it desperately. Because I love it is a perfect representation of, of speaking in my fetish. But then, for example, my husband is a top and he's only a top. And then plenty of people are bottoms and only bottoms. So I just want to be involved. I just like it. And so I sometimes say I'm a bisexual switch. I'm not indecisive, I'm greedy. I just want to do all of the things I

7:28

want to do everything. Yeah, doesn't matter what it is. I'm down.

7:32

I'm in I'm here for it. Now is

7:35

that okay? Do men and women do they tend to assume traditionally, a certain role like usually a man is this usually a woman is this like, fall along those kinds of lines,

7:46

you will find more male tops and more female bottoms. Those are the the, if somebody is just the top, it is almost always a male. If someone is just about him, it is often a woman. But there are lots of male bottoms, there are fewer female tops. There's a lot of female switches, though. There's a discussion going on in our community right now about how women, especially as they age are more valued by our community as switches than they are as just bottoms. So there's a bit of an incentive for women to start topping as they get older. And there still is some stereotyping against male bottoming, right. So there is still unfortunately a bit of stigma. So guys that will top like big, primarily top. But even if they really wanted to bottom, they might not ever do it. Because there is sometimes there can be the association of like, oh, you're not a real top.

8:50

Oh, yeah, like just can't you? You can't do it at all. You got it?

8:54

Yeah, there's a it's a very kind of like gross misogyny of this idea of like, the alpha male, and like the submissive female. And if the alpha male were to submit in some capacity to someone, then he would no longer be the alpha.

9:09

When do you kind of when do you go from like, I'm married my wife and I like, give her a little pat on the bottom. But when does going from a pat on the bottom to like spanking to like, whoa, that's some spanking. Like, where did how does this progress?

9:25

That's a great question. So I'd say you're sort of like typical average, like, beginner, spanking would be with just with a hand over someone's knee, like on a sofa or in a chair and probably on bare bottom. So that close and go for a minute or two, like a couple of minutes to the point that the bottom would be feeling kind of like worming and in pain, but Not so much pain that they're trying to get away. If that makes sense, there's, it's the phrase to spanking, it's supposed to hurt, right? Like that always is gonna apply. But you can definitely do speaking at a level of just casual, playful, not taking very long. And just kind of you wind up with a nice warm, rosy feeling and you're happy and gone to like, you know, I can beat someone with a strap for an hour. So, like, I could take a belt to somebody for like, an hour. Um, there's a huge range in the middle. And it all depends on kind of what you're going for some of the time, if you're going for a role play, right? If you're going for discipline, seeing if you're going for the idea of like, you've been naughty, and you're gonna get punished. You kind of do this thinking as it fits the scene in a way, right. So like, it wouldn't make sense. If I'm scolding somebody say for like, you know, if I'm pretending to be a professor, and scolding somebody for not turning in an assignment, it's not going to make a lot of sense for me to bust out like five paddles and two straps and a cane and like, go for an hour spanking them, it'll make more sense for me to do like a contained scene that takes 510 minutes, right, maybe 1520 minutes if you include all the scolding in the end the before. Um, but if what somebody's going for is one of the things you can try to get, which is very BDSM concept, rather than the spanking concept of subspace and endorphins, basically, like, when you were in pain, your body floods your brain with endorphins. It's what happens when you run. Like when people get runner's high. It's just your body being like, I have some endorphins, you're doing something very silly. And so you can make you can like, create that feeling. In which case, that'd be like a longer a longer scene. In reality, a spanking scene is primarily not the spanking. It's the scolding the lead up the rituals of all the things and then a bit of the like aftercare and the comfort and the cuddles and the forgiveness. And the spanking can sometimes take up very little of it. Like the physical action, or it can take up a ton of it. That means, does that make any sense?

12:31

It does, it's the whole situation, right? It's the you're gonna get spang I'm about to do it. You're in trouble. You're comes during your lesson, right? I kind of get that.

12:42

Exactly. Yeah, that I think that's where a lot of times people that aren't into thinking or aren't into any fetish, right? It's those details that people that are like obsessed. It's I mean, it's the way people that have a hobby. And then there's you meet somebody that like has like an obsession with this hobby, right? And you're like, oh, yeah, I'm into, I don't know, Pokemon or something. And then somebody's like, Oh, do you know about this, like, third generation with like card that only you can get? Like, you know what I mean, where it's like, really, really detailed. And so fetishists are like that about the, okay, you're gonna come into the room, I'm going to be sitting here. And then I'm going to confront you. And I'm going to ask you questions like, Where were you? Where have you been? And you're going to come over here, and I'm going to sit with you, and I'm going to look at you and be like, That's unacceptable behavior. And I'm going to lecture you about it, then I'm going to stand you up. And then I'm going to do, I'm going to have you put, I'm going to take down your giant, I'm going to take down your jeans, or I'm going to make you take down your jeans or like those details are what keeps us up at night. You're

13:49

acting out a fantasy.

13:51

Yeah, so for roleplay a lot of times it is it's like acting out a fantasy. Most bang goes a lot of singles, you'll find are really into the idea of, of real discipline of domestic discipline of being spanked for real life things and being punished for real life things. I very complicated feelings about this. That is my fetish as well, like I have that core interest. I'm not convinced it's like good for anybody are good for us. But in which case, you're going through the idea of like, I have done something wrong, and someone is going to hold me accountable for the thing that I have done wrong and punish me for it.

14:24

That would be the one question that I would have. Right? And maybe this comes from my kind of a more traditional background is a sense that let's say you're like married with kids, right? Like, how do you go from doing that to like, Alright, we gotta go pick up the kids at school. Like, can people have that kind of turn it on? Turn it off? Air quotes normal life? Yeah. Or is this like, No, you're in it. And this is, this is the core of your relationship?

14:49

That's a really good question. So I find that in practice, most people turn it on and turn it off. Eventually. So Oh, the fantasies that you live it 24/7. And in the beginning, you can, when you're at the beginning of your relationship, and everything is new and shiny, and you have that new relationship energy that everybody gets, right, everybody gets a new relationship. It's just like the honeymoon phase, right? Where you have sex all the time. And then vanilla people don't you know, you're not just gonna, like, go have sex on a random Tuesday at 3pm. Because you gotta go pick up the kids. Right? It's the, it can have that sort of element to it. And discipline is one of the ways that this falls apart in real life. Because in fantasy, a top is perfect. In the fantasy the top never messes up. In the fantasy the top is infallible. And in real life, that's not how it works. Yeah. And so sometimes it can be hard if you're like, Oh, I'm in trouble for doing this. But I'm kind of annoyed at you, because you didn't take out the trash yesterday. And you said you were going to take out the trash and like,

15:58

it ruins it. Yeah, it ruins it, it affects it,

16:01

it affects it, exactly. It affects it. And so spanking can end up with people that are in long term relationships and committed relationships, people that have families, things like that, it can kind of become more of that. Fantasy, or roleplay, or one off thing the way sex is for most people in a married couple, right? It's like, oh, we have a weekend away. Like, let's go. Yeah. So it becomes more like that. Whereas there are people that you know, if they're single, or they're live their life will try to live 24/7. But I find the people that typically say that they live 24/7 either don't or are, don't actually live with their partner 24/7 that they'll be long distance. Yeah, that

16:49

would be a hard thing. And I'll like speak from my personal like, I couldn't imagine like, putting my wife over my knee for an hour and then being like, All right, we gotta go do the grocery shopping. Like, I wouldn't know how that would. Yeah, that would work.

17:04

In those situations, that would usually be more of like a two minutes sort of situation, right? So like that I've done with my husband, where it's like, oh, I want a spanking. And we've got like, 20 minutes, like, I can take, I can get a few snacks and feel like, Oh, that felt nice, I feel happy. Like we did, we had a little bit of connection, and a little bit of like something quick and fun. And then we can go get groceries. But ya know, we don't have the big elaborate role plays that we used to do. When we first got together, where, you know, we'd text about it for a week and then be like, okay, so you're going to be an American revolutionary Guardsmen. And I'm going to be you know, and you have this really elaborate thing. And now it's like, Hey, can you think do you give me a spanking? Like? And he's like, Yeah, that sounds nice. Or it's like, oh, I put on a pretty dress. And it's like, so in some ways, we're just like, vanilla is the, it's just like sex in that sense,

18:02

right? Like, everything becomes normalized after a certain amount of time. But then I would imagine that this is the thing that can go too far.

18:09

Yes, so explain what you mean by that.

18:12

Somebody getting hurt. The nice thing about spanking

18:15

compared to other BDSM things is it's not particularly dangerous, right. So rope, like bondage, which is a really common thing for people to kind of, like casually try out is if they're like, dabbling into kinkiness is actually wildly dangerous. And people just think it's like, really entry level, and it's actually deeply, deeply not thinking, on the other hand, is pretty entry level. Because like, especially if you're using your hand, it hurts your hand. So it's actually difficult to hit someone harder, like hard enough to cause them damage that wouldn't also cause you damage.

18:53

Yeah, that makes sense, right? You can only do it so hard,

18:56

right? But if you start using implements, you can definitely cause injury and I think that there is there comes up to a level of like so we call it risk aware consensual kink rack. It's this idea that all can can all fetish work with all things like this that involve pain and are inherently risky. I'm asking somebody to hurt me. But just right. I want you to hurt me exactly the way I want you to hurt me. But I can't really tell you what that is. I just kind of need you to know it. And learning those communication skills of how to articulate what it is that you want from a seen versus what you don't you talk about limits a lot and swinging and in kink in general, you'll say. So, I have a limit against this implement in this implement or this type of scene. I have a limit about like, broken skin. I don't play at the bottom like on broken skin. I don't like bruises either. Some people don't have those limits, right. So coming to terms with whatever it is that you are willing to do and how much risk you are willing to take and understanding what the risks are that are inherent, like I said, spanking is relatively low risk, as far as BDSM goes, right. But a caning, which is like a very traditional British form of spanking, with like a rod, like a cane is much higher risk, like you could you could do some damage, like, like you could you could hurt someone with that, right. And so knowing what those risks are, so that you're able to consent to them or not is as the bottom is really important. And as a top, it's just critical that people learn how to do stuff properly. There's a lot of technique to it, and being technically competent is a is a thing. Something I really value.

20:46

Where would you say, on the level of like one being like, oh, like pat on the bottom, like 10? I'm getting a running start with a hockey stick and SWAC and right, like, Where Where would you say that most people are on that kind of level? Like when somebody is interested in this enjoys this? How far do they usually go?

21:09

Like a five? Like I'd say most people play it. So that's actually a really good question. And I so I actually asked people this when I said, Should I use a zero to 10 scale of how much something hurts. And I usually people want to stay between like four and six. If I want to push someone, if they want to punishment seen if they want to feel like something really hurt, I might briefly take it up to like a seven or an eight, right? And kind of like push them into a spot where it's like, I'm this hurt, they don't like it, and then pull them back down. But there there are people who are like, No, take a running start at like, hit me with a two

21:49

by four. Seems like a really hard. Yeah, it was

21:53

it does go for it. I mean, some of it is about pain tolerance, right? So some of it is personal, like how much pain can you take? And how well do you process pain. And then some of it is just like interest, right? So if somebody is really obsessed with paddles, and hard paddling things, that that's going to be what you're going to do, even if you have a low pain tolerance. But somebody who has a high pain tolerance, but doesn't like the idea of implements at all, we'll just not use them. So does that make any sense? I'd say the majority people are in the middle where it's like, most people like a hard hand spanking and the occasional hairbrush or belt,

22:33

get this may be a little bit personal, right? So then after after you do a spanking, right? Well, then, do you then have sex afterwards? Or is there just there's no sex involved in this at all.

22:42

For the most part, there is no sex involved in this at all. That is not true for everybody. So there are thinkers who like to have sex after or do sexy things, you know, even if it's not traditional sex to do sex, things after I have sometimes enjoyed doing sexy times after spanking. But typically, like a traditional quote unquote spanking scene is like build up spanking and then what we call aftercare because you are full of endorphins, and you're full of floaty fields, and hypothetically, scenes can get very emotional if they have to do with forgiveness or shame or guilt. And people can cry. There's a lot of pain. And so then comforting somebody and holding somebody and letting them come down through that space. And connecting in that moment is a really important part of a scene. So usually intense scenes will end in that and not in sex, but it can in index.

23:53

So if if it doesn't go then is it sexual? Because to me that kind of sounds like ordering a meal and not eating it.

24:01

Yeah, so whether or not spanking is sexual is a hot, hotly contested debate in the thinking period. I am firmly on the stance that it is because because I'm not interested in vanilla sex, there's a there's a phrase use kind of to describe sex in non PIB situations, right. So when you don't just have a man and a woman having sex? What is sex? What is what is two women having sex look like? Right, that sort of question. And the idea is, it's the farthest it's the farthest you could go with any individual person, like the most you could do with someone the most you would be willing to do right. And so if sex is off the table for me, because sex is not of interest to me, the only thing that I'm interested in doing is thinking so how so doing a spanking scene with someone is inherently sexual. But it's not inherently okay. This is going to Get really in the weeds. So tell me if this is like it to BPD it kind

25:03

of sounds like it changes your definition of sex. Oh, like maybe I don't have sex, but this is sex free.

25:09

Yes. So this is sex for me. And certain types of spanking are more intimate than others. For me personally. So discipline scenes are deeply deeply intimate for me. And age play scenes, the scenes where like, my partner's, my, my, my husband has lived with me, and I call him daddy sometimes. So like, those sorts of scenes with that sort of intimacy are very impactful for me. So those are scenes that say, like, I won't share with other people, so I'm not comfortable with him doing with other people. And I don't do them with other people. Because that is the thing that I consider to be like sex. But like that is the farthest quote unquote, that I will go that is the most intimate that I get. And then if I just were to give someone like a playful spanking, or to receive a playful spanking, it's still sexual. The way that like making out with someone is sexual, or touching someone's boob is sexual, but it's not sex.

26:07

So how popular would you say that this is

26:11

pretty popular. So spanking is one of the most common fetishes. So your most common fetishes are going to be bondage spanking, feet, usually, and any form of sort of like humiliation?

26:29

That's like, what would it be above feet? Because when I think of like, okay, fetishes that I've heard about, and oh, it's like, up there, it's above feet,

26:38

it's above feet. Well, it feet is complicated, because we earn income. Like it's actually a lot of things. So I don't have a foot fetish. I don't understand foot fetish. But I know about them, right. So there's like, yeah, you can have an interest in the actual foot, you can have an interest in like, the feet crushing things, you can have an interest in like sucking on. Like, there are very specific instance interests within feet, if that makes sense. So probably spanking is probably about as big as like the whole foot umbrella. But it's definitely bigger than any individual one. spankings also wildly well organized. So it's, we sometimes feel very big as a result, there's a lot of people and a lot of people who are otherwise kinky who are into feet, or humiliation, or pain, or sadism or bondage will also be into spanking, they just won't be into spanking the same way that someone like me is. So the level, if in terms of people that are in this, yeah, and it's those optional, preferred and obligatory, you can be interested in something as just like a general interest that's non sexual, or it's like it's a non normative thing that you're into, but it's optional, or you can be into a non normative thing, and you prefer to do it, or you can be into a non normative thing and like have to do it. So a lot of people like spanking somewhere along that line. The like the number of us that are like obligatory spanking, but it's just I don't know, I probably say we're like, top five would be right there. But discipline, like spanking, overlaps with the discipline a lot, this idea of like, you're in trouble, and you're gonna get punished. That element is really compelling and very popular to a lot of people. And spanking just works really well with that. So a lot of people kind of end up in spanking because of that.

28:35

Is it more women than men? I actually

28:37

think it's one of my favorite things about fetishism is that it's like a genuine cross section of humanity. It is there are no specific types of people that are more or less likely to be into something. There are specific types of people that are more or less likely to get involved or to engage with their fetish. But you will find like the one of the events I run, we had like 500 people at an event and it was aged 18 to 83. from seven different countries. 5050 gender split. And I think we had people from 39 states, and it was just like, all the different political beliefs, all of the different financial situations, all of the different life situations, and the only thing we all have in common is this stupid fucking interest that

29:34

everybody wants to spank somebody.

29:35

Yeah, we're all just over here being like, Hi. What do you feel about? How do you feel about the movie blue? Why

29:42

do people though within it, I'm gonna use this word very loosely. Yeah. Do people within it, view it as odd?

29:51

Oh, that's a really good question. So I think we all know that we're weird. Yeah, so the answer is definitely yes. Like, you grow up with a lot of shame, there's a lot of shame. And there's a lot of embarrassment. I am the oddest person to the weirdest person to talk to about this question because I have the least amount of shame about my fetish of anyone that I know. I very early on, like I said, I got the internet and I came to terms with the fact that like, this is what it is. And this is who I am, it's not going away. And so I'm gonna go with it, I still did have the feelings of like, don't tell anybody. You can't tell anybody. This has to be a secret. i I'm very out. So like, I'm doing this interview, I'm out to my family. I was out in work and school contexts. But the almost no one else's, like, everybody else has a feeling of like, this is a thing that I'm supposed to hide, which I don't like. And I makes me very sad. But, you know, it is a situation where like that I do know, people that have been outed and have been fired from their jobs, because someone found out that they were into this. So you know, you do run risks. So we all are over here thinking that knowing that other people think we're weird. And the people that come to events and get involved are the people that are most have come the most to terms with it, and are the most Okay. With themselves and kind of being like, we're all freaks, we're just freaks together.

31:35

You have a commonality. So correct me if I'm wrong here, but you have a you have a university. So is there a is there a correct way? To sprang? Like, what's the correct way to do it?

31:48

There's no one correct way I would say there's lots of wrong ways. Um, but I do have a I have a YouTube channel Helsinki University where I do a lot of like, practical things. YouTube doesn't like when I do like actual literal practicalities. Um, but I can talk about them. But no, there's there are ways to basically make it so like you were saying, you know, our people are at risk of getting hurt. This nice thing about it, but doesn't have any major organs. It doesn't have it. It's, it's really well designed to get to take smacks. And so if you are using implements and using techniques correctly, you will not hurt somebody any more than they want to be hurt. If that makes sense.

32:34

That does make sense. Yeah.

32:36

And if you're just guessing and throwing things at people, that's gonna report late. But I mean, a lot of people do spanking wrong. So like even people that are experienced BDSM. And like kinky people, you'll see them using tech, I'll see them using techniques that I'm like. It's not a great spanking technique. Partially because spanking does have this rootedness in punishment and this rootedness of like a traditional punishment thing, that there are elements where it's like, if it's not, at least kind of making a nod towards that, of like, someone is over a knee getting spanked or spanking someone with your hand like this, right? Like you're going down. If somebody is like, spanking like this, with like a button front of them, and the tops of your fingers are going to hit on their lower back. Like that's not spanking that's just smacking someone's ass. totally valid. asses are great. Smacking acid is great. It's just not spanking if that makes sense.

33:38

It did until I thought about it. Like, wait a minute, what? Okay,

33:44

so a spanking is typically like, your like it was just talking about hands, right? So it's like a hand hitting a but for the purposes hypothetically, of like punishing really creating redness of something stinging and hurting. Usually you are perpendicular to the butt. So like, someone would be laying across me like this. And I would be thinking like this. So like their butt is here and I'm going down like this.

34:12

You coming down on it and down at an angle. Yeah.

34:14

And if and my hand is like sideways to there, but if they're in front of me, like if someone is like, okay, so it's like it's like you're having sex like doggy style, right? And somebody just like smack somebody on the ass strikes me that there is no way you are hitting apogee, like you are that is mostly hip, right? That is mostly like the tips of your fingers are mostly like on the hip. And Bridgeview thinking it needs to be like you need to be getting the meaty bit

34:44

So does it make it more or less enjoyable depending on the size of someone's but

34:49

it depends. I find all that's equally enjoyable this but like the amount of space that you can spank does like change. It can make things hard better or easier?

35:01

Can you look at someone and be like oh that's a good spanking but yeah, definitely.

35:07

Like they're I mean everybody has their own preferences I should say it's like in those preferences run the gamut inside of this thinking world just like to do outside of the world. I like like a button that has a little bit of like something

35:22

on it. It's got to have some muscle and some jiggle.

35:25

Yeah, it's like the if like if it's all muscle it just you kind of just feel like you're running your hand into a brick wall and it's really painful. Yeah, it's like my my right hand is like literally larger than my left hand. Because like the bone density in my right hand is like higher from having like spank or so. So weird. Like if you can tell when people have been like thinking for a really long time because they've had that they spank with is like usually kind of gnarly. This a little bit bigger. Yeah, very slightly like the second like, so you but like, the palm area is like, slightly bigger. So firstly, I am very good at clapping and very good at high fiving

36:07

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Sure. Happy best thing to spank someone with worst thing to spank someone with.

36:16

Okay, best thing. There's a lot of things. I've spanked people with ludicrous things of Spanx one with fire hose. It's think someone with a ceiling fan. Fix it with both doors. Like I we speak I was when they're called convertibles, we are really good at it. Um, best things a traditional hairbrush or wooden spoon. Those are like the easiest. They're hard to fuck up, or harder to fuck up. And they're very traditional, which I really enjoy both as a top and bottom. There's like a sort of like maternal feeling to them very punitive feeling to them. They hurt like hack. Worst thing would be anything that has sharp edges have like a very strong feeling about this, anything with sharp edges, anything that isn't sanded on the side. So like, slotted spoons where they haven't been sanded. And they're just like really sharp on the heads that can cut anything that can cut is basically a no for me. I also hate leather paddles, I have a personal vendetta against almost all other paddles. They're usually poorly made. They're usually from sex shops. And they're like, if you get one from a good employment maker, like they can be good. But also they usually don't hurt the bottom at all. And they take so much arm they like the like the amount of work you have to put in for a leather paddle versus what you get is not not there for me. But I am alone in this opinion.

37:43

Now you do requests I guess I don't know what the phrasing would be here. Right. But people can you do sessions?

37:50

Yeah. So I do sessions. So basically, I do like people can apply. And I have like a website and you submit an application. And I do one on one scenes with people. It's like a paid service. So it's not full service. I don't do I don't do traditional sex. So I classify myself as a sex worker as a result, but I am not a sex worker and that I don't do full service sex work. So it depends on how someone wants to classify that. But like, I also make porn. So you know, read that Hi, well, but yeah, so people can apply and have a one on one scene with me. Where I taught them and I spank them and I make fantasies come true. As long as they're spanking related. People ask me for other things. And I'm like, they're amazingly qualified dominatrixes out there that I'm sure could do that. I'm just not, not one of them.

38:46

That kind of feeds into one of the most common requests that you get most interesting requests that you've had.

38:52

So the most common requests that I get is for a really traditional discipline seen, usually Mother Son, so that's usually like a very traditional Auntie son. Sort of a like, role play of like, middle school or high school era, like skipping class, getting caught and getting spanked for it. That's kind of the I see both men and women and then reality I probably see more women now but I'd say that over the years that has been the most often done scene. And that was the other part of the question. The oddest

39:34

I would say most interesting. I don't know. It's interesting. Yeah,

39:37

I don't. I'm the most. I mean, I've gotten some fascinating requests, but I won't go into all of them because they are it's some of them. I don't want people to feel bad for sending me messages. But I'd say the most interesting ones that I get are typically people who are brand new. So I love when I get messages. and people that have never been spanked before, but have been thinking about it for a really long time. So like, I got a message from somebody and I ended up having a session with somebody who was 72 years old, who'd been fantasizing about spanking his whole life, and had never been spanked. And so we met and I got to give him his first ever spanking, and it was like a wonderful experience. So those those always are really fun. It's always a very fascinating story. Good for him. Oh, yeah. No, I was like, Absolutely. This is amazing. I love I'm always so proud of people when they are able to like take that first step, because it is really hard. And it's really scary. And it's amazing when people take the leap.

40:46

Okay, but how did you do logistically do it with a boat? Or? That's the one like, I'm always fascinated by logistics, and like, where did you get the boat? Or how did you find the room for it? Because that's

40:59

what's outside. So that one was an outside scene. And it was in Florida, and somebody that had like a canoe. And so it was like the boat or canoe, oh, no, I did another boat or scene with somebody actually, in a hotel room. It used to give yourself a lot of space. So the person was like laying down and then you kind of like measure it out, kind of go like this. And a lot of things like that the big implements, it's like the, it's like golf, right? They say let the club do the work, right? It's the left the implemented the work at a boat or is really heavy, I do not need to swing a boat, or I can just kind of raise a boat or and let it fall in a controlled manner. Autobot. And then you kind of ramp it up and ramp it up and ramp it up. Bars are really steady. So people that can be really, really yummy.

41:50

That is that is one of our letters. Probably the last listener submitted question is, how much of it is just the sound.

41:57

I think sound plays a really important part in thinking and I prefer certain implements over others because of the sounds that they may. So like, I have a hairbrush that I really love. It's beautiful. It's this antique ebony blood. It's a stunning vintage hairbrush. And everybody loves it because it's of its aesthetics. And it feels really nice. But it makes the worst noise. It just doesn't give you got like really crisp sound. So I don't like to use it nearly as often. Um, sound is also a big part of like, my girlfriend has migraines. And so sometimes we've had issues of like she really wants to play and like really needs a scene and like we really want to connect in that manner. And spankings loud. And it sometimes is literally too loud for her migraines. And so we can't play because it's hurting her head more than it hurts her. But yeah, so sound can make a big difference of what people like sound is also a big part of the anticipation of things. I love doing scenes by play with multiple people at the same time having somebody not watch but have to listen, like hear it from the other room. The anticipation that can gin up the like the fear, the sort of like, oh, what's coming? Oh my gosh, it's gonna hurt hearing the reactions and the cries. And the sound is really, really powerful.

43:28

Like waiting outside the principal's office.

43:31

Exactly. Yes. And that's usually the same. Or something like this, right? Yeah. So I run like a massive detention scene at one of my events where it's like, it's I run one that's fun and funny. And one that I'm like, This actually seems like a miserable thing was held Saturday school. And I make people sit there and do like write essays and do a city homework. And one at a time they get pulled out their name called and taking into another room where the nurse spanked. And everybody is sitting in this room doing essays silently, and the doors closed, but you can still hear them getting spanked when they come back in.

44:07

I bet that drives people wild it does

44:09

write really like this. Yeah, it's a really good event.

44:11

I'm not even into this. But that sounds like I've you know, like for people who are into that, like, I bet they love that. Yeah, it's like, oh, that's probably like, chalk your

44:22

skin to like discipline and you're into the idea of that. That anticipation and that fear is so hard to come up with because you have to trust the person. You're doing something with so much in order to do it. It's this interesting balance of like, I want to be nervous and afraid. But I don't want to be nervous and afraid because I want to know that you're not going to hurt me. And so being able to sort of like manufacture that. that nervous energy is it's very fun.

44:55

Best scene in a movie worst scene in a movie.

44:58

favorite scene is blue. Why? Without a doubt My personal favorite thing, I think the best thing I think it's like if somebody wants to understand a spanking fetishist that has a discipline kink in particular, particularly people that have a bit of a rescue fetish. The spanking scene in Blue Hawaii with Elvis is sorry, I just did this long as is but the it is my absolute favorite. I adore that scene. I watched that scene over and over and over again, as a child. I could do it from memory. It's so good. The spankings decent. It's still not great, but that's not the point. The point is the scene you've rescued her and then she says nobody cares about her. And then he says she needs a spanking. He's like you know what? You need a good old fashioned spanking. She says maybe I do know whatever character about that he goes, if someone if that'll show you somebody does care and then he pulls her over his knee and spacer, and it's so hot. Um, worst man. There's a lot of candidates for that one. I, I don't know if I can think of a word anything where somebody looks like they're taking a belt to somebody and it's going on their back. That upsets me. i The other most famous thinking scene in a movie is MCLIN talk.

46:18

It's one of my favorite movies and I when you were talking about Blue Hawaii, and I was always like, Oh, I remember McClintock I would think that that would get people fired.

46:29

What is the most famous? It's like blue McClintock and then Blue Hawaii. There's two spankings in McClintock actually, um, which is wild. I love that you've even seen this movie. i The idea that somebody that's not into spanking has seen McClintock is wild

46:43

to me. It's a good movie. It's like a

46:47

It's a classic. It's a John Wayne. John Wayne classic. I love the first spanking in the cleantalk. There's a scene where the girl tries to get John Wayne to shoot her boyfriend. She's like, shoot him daddy shoot him. Because he like

47:03

she's daughter, right? Yeah,

47:05

it's John Wayne's daughter. And she tries to get John Wayne to shoot her fiance. Because she's like, in a fight with him and she's being brat. And then the he like fake shoots him with a starter pistol. And then the boyfriends like, horrified, and he's like I'm so then he spanked her. And John Wayne hands him a coal shovel to like paddle her with love that soon. Then he chases O'Hara. Catherine O'Hara through the town. That's the senior thinking of the very famous

47:41

one. He's like, it's his wife. And she's been

47:44

it's Taming of the Shrew. Yeah, so it's a retelling of Taming of the Shrew. And so he chases her through the town. She falls into a water trough and then he spanks her in front of like the whole town. But he uses somebody's hands of a coal shovel. And it makes this like they put in this ridiculous like Boo, boo noises on top of it. That for me, kind of ruins it. But for a lot of people, McClintock is their their favorite.

48:14

Um, that's pretty much all the questions I got what's kind of coming up next for you? How can people learn more get hold of that kind of stuff? Yeah, sure.

48:20

So if you're interested in learning more about me just like my background and or interested in a session, then my website is Miss Kelly mae.com. And you can find out stuff there. And then the other thing is I run the Texas all states thinking party, which is coming up in the beginning of June. It's the largest thinking party in the US and it's like five days of space faking shenanigans and fun. So that is Texas Allstate speaking party.com. There's like some my website as well. And then if people just want to follow more of me or see a bunch of naked pictures of me, I have it only fans. Under Princess Kelly.

49:06

I want to thank Kelly, so much for joining us if you want to connect with her. We have linked to her on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included her information in the episode description. If you're listening to this on May 17. The YouTube version of this interview will be out on May 18 at 430. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. So do you remember the first TV show and or movie that got little John fired up? Like oh, I'm becoming a man.

49:49

It was actually a magazine. I believe it might have been a teen Bob or whatever they're called kid. No, not Kidz Bop, teen pop, maybe I don't know. But it was Uh, yeah, it was a magazine for sure.

50:03

Wait a minute. That wasn't the kind of magazine that male children generally bought at that time. So did you buy that? Or were you going through the grocery store checkout line,

50:15

as I was probably in the checkout line, and then saw who was in the magazine and was like, Oh, I'm, well, she looks pretty. And I'm gonna what was I 1011? Nine, I read I forget how old I was. But who was it? Britney Spears was my first celebrity crush.

50:32

Did you buy the magazine? Did you try to get your mom to buy the magazine? Like, what did you do? How did you try to capitalize on these new feelings?

50:39

Well, I was in love from from first, you know, first sight. Yeah, you know, I tried buying it. Or trying to get my mother to buy it. I didn't get it. Yeah, and I didn't, I did end up getting a magazine a little bit later in my teenage years, like a GQ or something where she was in it, but it wasn't the same as you know, that first time.

51:01

Did you know what was going on? Or were you confused?

51:05

I mean, I don't really remember it. I'm sure it was a little confused. You know, I mean, when you get those feelings for the first time, I think we all can can agree that it's it's a it's a different kind of adrenaline rush, whether you're a man or a female.

51:21

Little Johnny, little Johnny was you? I gotta tell you it was in the grocery store. In the grocery store. Yup.

51:31

I gotta tell you, it was a completely different ballgame, though. When I when I was introduced to Shakira than it was, you know, this game on at that point?

51:41

I don't know if I've ever had a like a celebrity celebrity crush. Like a celebrity that I'd be like, yeah, that did it. For me. It's always been people that I kind of actually knew.

51:55

Oh, yeah, no, I, it's really actually nobody that I've known. My crushes. It's pretty much always been celebrities are unattainable. People will call them.

52:06

Well, it's good to have hopes and dreams.

52:09

Yeah, sure. What's funny is you see the knuckleheads that these people end up with and you're like, I can't be that worse off than them.

52:17

Yeah, there's always something about them that maybe you just don't realize what it is like, you look at somebody like the most recent example. I don't like to mention his name just because I get sick of it. But the most recent example is like Pete Davidson. It's like, Wait a minute. They're going for that. I've where was I? Right? Like, I didn't realize they were sitting selling Mercedes half off. Like I would have picked up on that sale. That's kind of what that makes you feel like,

52:41

isn't the thing with Pete Davidson, though he's supposed to be like, really, really well off as a for a man. Isn't that like,

52:48

I don't? I don't think and talking to the person we had on the show. One time his name was I think Mike blacksmith a sex toy designer. What he always said is that in reality, women want much less than men think that they do. He said that most of his entertainment toys are fairly small. Even compared to the average sake. It's much smaller than you think is what people really want this.

53:12

This brings me to something I was going to ask you about. But, um, so you know what crocs are right. You know, the kind of shoe crocs

53:22

Yeah, I think everybody knows what crocs are. They seem to come and go and they seem to be back at the moment.

53:27

Well, my children have a pair I'm against it. By the way. I don't like crocs. I think they're useless. I think I just don't think they should exist. But regardless, my wife comes home the other day with a bag of what looks to be pins. But wait a second. They're not pins. They're bluey characters, and they're called jibbitz. Have you ever heard of jibbitz?

53:50

No? Yeah, they're basically what does this have to do with crocs?

53:53

Well, they go in the holes of the crocs or like, they have a like a pinnable back and you put them on your crock and you walk around around but the I don't really care about that. I care a little like who thought of that name? giblet

54:08

Well, I mean, it's Australia. Maybe giblet means something else there. It's not a bad name. It's a better name than crocs like hey, man, you got the jibbitz? You got the crocs I don't have a problem with jibbitz I think that's actually kind of good. Oh, see, I've I have a problem with buying worthless shit.

54:28

But, I mean, what's the last worthless thing that you can remember? Remember buying?

54:35

Nothing. I can't think of a single thing that in my life that I have personally bought for myself that I would say like, you know what, I'm just buying this thing cuz

54:46

that's your own fault and you've never just bought something just just oh, there's a candy bar right there. I'm gonna buy it just because it's oh, well

54:54

like food and drink. Yeah, I mean, I'll do that but I'm just not like walking past asked an aisle in Rei a sporting goods place and being like, you know what I really need is an ice axe.

55:07

Maybe you should.

55:10

Maybe I do need an ice axe actually, now that I think about it right like I've never. I'm just too cheap. I'm too cheap.

55:16

Alright, let's give some shout outs Shall we have picked up some winners here this week? We'll start with Craig Katzenberg. Ben Bryan's little alliteration there. TAYLOR So his

55:29

way to Craig Katzenberg is not an alliteration, but Ben Bryant is no I

55:33

meant like they both are alliteration. Oh, okay. Let's see Tanner. Pitt catfish. Max Lucas. Ronan, Harris, Patrick Murphy. Ty Patterson, Luke ver away. And Charlie Wuttke. Thank you all. Appreciate every one of you. All right. Let's see a couple of questions for a couple of bangers for you. You like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

56:09

Yeah. crust doesn't like peanut butter and jelly crust on come on. No crust. I'm an adult. I'm an adult. Once you pass the age of 12 Eat your sandwiches with the damn crust on.

56:22

I love that. I couldn't even say it. And you already cut me off to say it. So thank

56:26

you. Do you cut your crusts off still as an adult?

56:31

You know, I actually never did it until I had children who now eat them from time to time and it's better with the crust off.

56:39

You're going to put in that extra effort

56:41

for my children, Nick. I do anything.

56:45

You're doing it for the children. Are you doing it for the sandwiches that you eat?

56:48

Well, yeah, I'm doing it for both. But it started off with me doing it for them. And then and then I was like, Oh, I'll try it. And then I did and it's fantastic. There's just

56:57

no way that that little amount of crust that's on a bread is really making a difference to an adult. Like you're an adult, you can eat a sandwich with the crust on.

57:07

I do think it I do think it adds a little bit of like, why am I why am I having to go this extra mile when I could just cut it off and just have a nice flush piece.

57:19

But it's gone so quickly. There's no reason to put in that extra work. I've never had a sandwich in my life that I would think like why a man if only this crust wasn't on this would have been incredible. Listen, I'm

57:31

I'm not I'm not gonna judge one way or the other you eat you eat sandwiches the way you want to. I I'm not saying I eat every sandwich with the crust off of peanut butter and jelly or kind of crust off sandwiches.

57:42

Can we go over again? How you say Sandwich?

57:46

Sandwich? What is it sandwich?

57:51

Is a sandwich Are you going golfing? Are you getting something to eat?

57:54

How do you say it?

57:56

Sandwich? Sand, which not sandwich sandwich sandwich to sandwich. Um All right. All right. What was it? Was that your question?

58:07

That was one of my staff requests. Yeah, but you didn't let me finish like you just cut me off and went into this rant, which is fine because I got upset I got upset. What's your favorite kind of ice cubed crushed or are nothing cubed or crushed?

58:23

Depends on the size of the drink. If we're going between if we're going 12 ounces or no if we're going to go 24 ounces or less. I'm going to go cubed if it's 24 ounces or more I want crushed like if I'm getting a big gulp I don't want a big gold with cube dies I want a big gold with crushed ice. So it's a size thing for me. I'm actually going to say 16 ounces or less cubed 16 ounces or more crushed

58:50

see I don't unless I'm drinking alcohol I just want to crushed I don't want to deal with cubed dice.

58:57

I don't know if I've ever had alcohol and crushed ice

59:02

yeah I have like a marked like a margarita type drink like one of those Caribbean fruity drinks I have

59:08

but that's that I feel like that's almost like frozen that's not like true crushed ice like you get it like the gas station when you get a 64 ounce or it's like that mix that's like is this frozen is is not

59:21

ever wonder why America has obesity issues. Because we think a 64 ounce Big Gulp is okay to start our day.

59:29

It is amazing the amount of non water liquids that I drink while not drinking any water. I think I can go a whole week without drinking actual water.

59:39

What do you what do you drink that did that Diet Dr. Pepper

59:44

soda. Like those little we call them fancy waters which is basically just water but it's like flavor. It's like pasta or anything.

59:51

It's not soda. It's pop.

59:53

It's soda. You know what I found out this weekend I realized I actually was a pop person and switched over to soda why? I don't know just happen. I say so to know. Well,

1:00:05

I will forever be pop.

1:00:07

You think that and then one day you change.

1:00:09

I even lived in the South for four years and I didn't change my

1:00:13

didn't the south didn't change me. I will both you and I lived in Florida, Florida didn't change me. Arizona didn't change me. I got to Washington and suddenly I'm a soda guy.

1:00:23

I was a pop man for years. Soda and orcas. That's your life. Now. Orchids are

1:00:28

awesome. You see an orchids fuckin garden experience. Okay. All right.

1:00:34

Let's see, what are we going to talk about today? All right, well, here are the choices that did not get picked. The JAMA rant video. I don't know if you're familiar with him. But he's a pretty famous basketball player. Back in March, he was on Instagram. Got caught waving a gun in the video. got suspended. Well, yesterday, there was another grant video posted on Instagram showing him waving a gun around again,

1:01:04

man without getting into that whole thing. But that's a guy that did like how do you not learn that lesson? Right? Or how do you not making that amount of money pay somebody like here's 100 grand John, make sure I don't do this. Okay, that's your only fucking job. Make sure I don't go on Instagram live with a gun in my hand. That's your whole job.

1:01:23

It's just Yeah, it's stupid. Right? I mean, it's it's, and he's so popular and such a good basketball player that it probably won't ruin his career. All right, let's see. So I randomly just picked an animal. I went to animal random generator. And I just the first one that came up I put on here if people wanted us to talk about it, I didn't get any votes, which is fine. But the IU dad, apparently it's a North African goat.

1:01:49

I've never heard of it, which is probably why I didn't get any votes mean, if you put another one on there probably would have been like, right, like you got to pick one somebody's heard of

1:01:56

we might be putting more animals on there. Because animals are fun to talk about. Let's see Watergate. I don't know if you have had a chance to watch White House plumbers? No. But it's pretty good. But

1:02:10

I'm not interested in that kind of stuff.

1:02:13

I mean, it's what's funny is a lot of what happened back then if it was to happen now would be nothing Nixon might have won again.

1:02:23

I don't understand historical, like close to truth fiction stories. Like I don't understand those kinds of things that are like movies based on real events. Well, if I was really that interested in it, why don't I want to watch the actual thing? What happened? As opposed to like, well, what kind of happened?

1:02:42

I think it's still based upon the actual events, I think they do a pretty good job of getting it. It's just definitely a fictionalized version of those events.

1:02:52

Okay, what actually one

1:02:55

sausage riots in France. And essentially, has nothing to do with the headline, there are no riots. But if anyone's been following the political scheme, or what's going on around the world, you know that people in France have been protesting rioting against the government and whatnot, for many reasons. But one of the things is for labor and, you know, unions, blah, blah, blah. And for whatever reason, sausages have the kind of become a weapon for these unions. Because they cook them, they eat them, they stay out there for days, and that's all that these protesters live on. While they're protesting is sausages.

1:03:40

They're not like throwing the sausages or something like that.

1:03:42

No, no, they're just it's literally become like, oh, the sausage is providing sustenance, which is not it's not a bad food. If you think about it. A sausage is good.

1:03:54

Sausage is very underrated. I've had some good sausages. I had some pork sausage. It's pretty good. Love to have some sausage in my mouth.

1:04:03

But I'm just gonna stop there. I'm

1:04:08

just wondering where you would go with that whole thing? Um, are you sent me? Are you ready for a tough? Hi,

1:04:12

I am I I actually felt really embarrassed that well go ahead and introduce her top five and then I'll

1:04:21

top five regional restaurants.

1:04:23

Yeah, so I've probably eaten at a good 35 of these. And once again, I don't think that's very, I'm not proud of that.

1:04:32

Sure. Number five.

1:04:35

created right here in the great state of Michigan.

1:04:40

You're such a homer for everything. Just because it was. That's the thing that I don't understand about Detroit and Michigan as a whole and I apologize to our listeners in Detroit, because I know that we have a good sizable audience in Detroit. It's like, just because it sucks. You guys have to overly go admit to it. You're like the person who bought a bad vehicle, but then talks it up constantly. Just because you don't want to admit that it was a bad purchase. It's like, No, it's great. It's awesome. I love it. Toyota Tercel best car you can buy. It's your Toyota Tercel it's great. It's great. Get a Toyota Tercel I love it. It's like, you made a bad choice and you're overcompensating? That's what I feel like whenever you pick Michigan stuff.

1:05:26

I think every I wouldn't even say Michigan is technically a Midwestern state, but I would say northeast in the Midwest in the east coast. It's all about everything's the best here we have the best pizza we have the best burgers. Is that overcompensating?

1:05:43

Because you know in reality, it's not that great.

1:05:47

Well, I mean, I'm Listen, I'm not going to Alabama get a great burger. I can tell you that.

1:05:52

Alabama has fantastic barbecue. Yeah,

1:05:55

barbecue, not burgers. Anyways, my number five is Big Boy, they

1:05:59

can't cook me. They can't cook me I stepped all over it right because they can't cook anyway. What's your stuff all over it? I just stepped over. I was too upset.

1:06:06

Alright, sorry. My number five is big boy.

1:06:10

And for people who are not familiar

1:06:13

Yeah, so I mean, I don't know what whatever state it's in. But it's in a few of them now but regardless, it's it's kind of like a glorified Coney Island's. That burger, you know that dogs, burgers, you know, regular dining food, but nothing fancy. Get the Slim Jim, if you go there.

1:06:34

My number five is Brahms. Which is basically an ice cream store that happens to have like burgers and that kind of stuff. But the ice cream is good. It's the one of the few places one of the few places where you get a malt instead of a shake. And you can tell the difference between a malt and a shake.

1:06:54

I couldn't but I believe you did

1:06:57

see on Brahms. The only place I've ever been like, Oh, get the malt not to shake the malts better.

1:07:02

Alright, my number four Apolo logo.

1:07:07

Hello. I've had that but I can't remember what it is.

1:07:10

I mean, it's obviously chicken. It's a chicken restaurant, but they have the best plantains I have ever had.

1:07:17

I have had el pollo. Loco. plantains. They're incredible. It's like, it's not many it's like Caribbean food.

1:07:25

It is. Yeah, it's it's by me that it's like a like jerk chicken, spicy chicken stuff like that. It's It's so good.

1:07:34

Yeah, I think it's Caribbean food and apologize to anybody if it's not like technical Caribbean food. I don't know the difference. My number four is the classiest, the classiest in my opinion, regional restaurant and that's Boston Market.

1:07:50

Is that regional?

1:07:52

Yeah, that's regional. At least it is now that most of them are closing down.

1:07:57

I mean, I've actually never had Boston Market. I know that there were some of them here in Michigan. But I've never had it.

1:08:05

It's the closest that you can get to like a meal. Like a home cooked meal. That's the closest you can get his Boston Market.

1:08:14

And it used to be not that that expensive if I'm not mistaken. Now it's probably really expensive.

1:08:19

I remember it was like 799 for like their club sandwich. Just like a real club sandwich. You can sub you can get Boston Market instead of Thanksgiving dinner.

1:08:30

I think I've actually known people who have done that. You might have done that. For all I know

1:08:34

I've done that. Yeah, I've done that. It's pretty good. Not that expensive either. I think it was like 40 bucks.

1:08:40

Alright, I hate putting this on the list. But I feel like I have to and my number three is going to be Chick fil A

1:08:48

that's not a regional restaurant, man.

1:08:50

I mean it but it's but I mean neither is Boston Market if we're gonna be technical, but Chick fil A started off in one area. Yes, it's expanded a little bit now. But I still think when you think of Chick fil A you think of the South or Ohio.

1:09:05

I think a lot of people are gonna have a disagreement with you that that's a regional restaurant. Chick fil A Boston Market is in 24 different states. Okay, I'm looking at Chick fil A right now. How many do you think it's going to be? If what's our cutoff going to be if it's in 30? I think if it's in 40 or more states it's not a regional restaurant.

1:09:26

I mean, I would say 30 or more and it's it's not a regional

1:09:30

47 That's not a regional restaurant only states it is not in what are the states is not in what three states don't have Chick fil A Do you think you can guess?

1:09:41

Wow, I didn't. I had no idea.

1:09:44

Two of them you should be able to get when you think about it. One is a little bit of a surprise.

1:09:49

Alaska. Yep. Uh, why? Yeah.

1:09:54

This is gonna be a tricky one. You probably let me know if you want to hit

1:09:59

me. Yes, I'll take a hit. You forget it's a state

New Hampshire, close Vermont. Vermont. Okay, I mean, I can interchange it. I didn't realize that Chick fil A was like it doesn't feel like it's a non regional restaurant still, but I guess it is isn't.

1:10:24

Yeah, leave Michigan man. Get out in the world.

1:10:29

Well, I you know, I mean, I can put if you want, I can change my number three. It's too late. What's your number three? It

1:10:36

would but what would have been your number three if you are allowed to change it, but it is too late for the official right?

1:10:40

I probably would have put Waffle House in there.

1:10:44

That's my number three. Waffle House. Waffle House is not just a food experience. It is a cultural experience. If you've never been to a waffle house, in the early morning hours, you are missing out on life. You are missing out on entertainment.

1:10:58

I've only been once or twice and I don't remember it. So

1:11:03

it's incredible. Waffle House has a different late night vibe than either IHOP or Denny's.

1:11:11

Yet, much trashy.

1:11:15

Waffle House can go either way, though. You can have a really good time at a waffle house or you're gonna have a really bad time at a waffle house at two in the morning.

1:11:26

Yeah, I will I Yeah, it's terrible. But it's terrible in the best kind of way, I suppose.

1:11:31

Do you know how much a walk manager a Waffle House makes at least what a manager at Waffle House made in 2010? When I talked to a manager at a waffle house? What do you think they make?

1:11:42

per hour or salary?

1:11:44

Salary? $2,010 to 32,000 57,000. Yeah, that changes your opinion of Waffle House Waffle House, at least then was taking care of its employees. No, it doesn't at all. It's 55 $57,000 it's how much they were paying. That's a good job. It doesn't though. I'm in like, I should be made at a waffle house. Ah, okay. Sure. Number two.

1:12:10

National Coney Island's

1:12:13

that's a homer pick, isn't it?

1:12:15

Yeah, I mean, well, I national is is a type of Coney Island that are I believe only around where I live. But yeah, they have the best honey sandwich you can ever imagine. It's fantastic. What's a honey sandwich? So it's like a pita with chicken like a chicken? Like a couple of chicken fingers. Chicken Tenders with cheese, and tomato, and ranch. So good.

1:12:43

So the restaurant chain that specializes in hot dogs best food isn't a hot dog.

1:12:49

Um, I mean, maybe 80% of the people that you asked would say that. But I've explored that menu, if you know what I mean.

1:12:58

Um, I number two is in and out. I think that's probably going to be a lot of people's number ones in and out that my number one is different.

1:13:05

That is my number one. In and out. Yeah.

1:13:09

My number one is something that people may argue with. But if you know, you know, Kwik Trip.

1:13:17

See I

1:13:19

kind of a gas station. But if you know, you know,

1:13:23

see, so I struggled with that with because I was gonna put Wawa on my list. And then I was like, wow, was great, but I don't know if it's better than the five I have on the list.

1:13:37

Kwik Trip I would, how far would you drive out of your way for your number one?

1:13:44

I mean, I wouldn't To be honest, because I have fantastic places near me, like Culvers and things. But, um, but I mean, if it was 45 Minutes or Less away, I probably you know, I probably go once a month, maybe once every couple of weeks. I don't know.

1:14:00

Okay, yeah, Kwik Trip, Kwik Trip is worth Well, the problem is it's like yeah, I wouldn't really drive out of my way. But I do get, I have to go visit family members once a year, or a couple of times a year. And I always think to myself, like, well, at least I'm gonna go to the Kwik Trip. Gonna have a R I always think to myself, like I'm gonna get to go to the Kwik Trip. Like they don't happen here where I live.

1:14:23

Here's the thing is we did like kind of like national regional restaurants if we were to do hyperlocal a completely different ballgame, but then again, give it nobody would know.

1:14:37

Okay, what's in your, what's your honorable mention?

1:14:40

So wha wha have to have to put what Zach Spees what a burger. Jack in the Box. Um, in that's kind of it I also I also wrote down Del Taco, but I don't think that's I don't think that's regional one. and more. So.

1:15:02

I don't think of Jack in the Box is being regional to me. That's a national restaurant. I've always seen Jack in the boxes.

1:15:09

Oh yeah, I I could be wrong. I don't think there's any in Michigan or in the Midwest.

1:15:17

I thought that Sonic was a regional restaurant, but apparently it is not. No, I thought Sonic was a regional restaurant I had Del Taco in there del taco is pretty good. Church's chicken. I also thought Popeyes was a regional restaurant, but apparently it isn't. I don't think Church's

1:15:31

chicken is either.

1:15:34

Let's go for the definitive list of regional restaurants. There's probably tons of them. Okay, I'll go through but this original restaurants I'll name some that I've definitely heard of. And you tell me if it's a yes or no let me find ones that actually like some of these are never ALL BOND pan. I've never heard of that. Never heard of it. Yeah, some of the okay let me go through the list. Give me a second.

1:16:01

Your second begins Burgerville never heard of it.

1:16:07

Carl's Jr. Yes or No? No. Carl's Jr. Captain D's which is like a competitor of Long John Silver's. Yes. Yeah, we had a big deal with cotton with Long John Silver's. Remember they used to like send his messages. Um Oh, Dick's drive in now we have that here in Washington. That's pretty solid. That's one of those restaurants where you come up and there's a lingo towards when you order it. Like you go up there if you want to cheese if you want a cheeseburger fries and shake. You don't say cheeseburger fries and shake. You say I'd like a cheese fries and a chocolate so there's a lingo to ordering they're stupid. It's very efficient when you get down to it to cheese fries and chocolate. It's cool you're in the club man you're part of the club just enjoy it friendlies

1:16:59

I've had it a couple of times not a big fan not very friendly.

1:17:04

Jersey Mike's is apparently a regional restaurant hmm I wouldn't have thought oh the habit burger I've seen those

1:17:14

seen I've never had never tried it though.

1:17:18

Skyline chili?

1:17:19

Yeah, it's in Cincinnati. Had that shit my pants the next day?

1:17:24

Yeah, that's one of those like I'll just trust people's word for it whether or not it's good there's a ton of mighty taco heard of that one? Yep. You may not know this one. This one is region these are two that are regional to like where I grew up, which is new way and spangles new way burgers were like but they were just big. They crushed and basically like they ground them up. Pretty good.

1:17:49

Okay, yeah, never. There's a new way bar here in Metro Detroit but not burgers.

1:17:54

I can't believe there's a regional restaurant named the Pink Taco. That's, that's offensive. Yeah, I think get away with that. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review doesn't have to be some big thing. Just a couple of quick words really helps us out. And let us know what you think are some of the best regional restaurants. I think I've tried a lot of them, at least the major ones, but there's definitely some that slipped through the cracks. And I think regional means it has to be in 10 states, but no more than 30 That's going to be my personal qualifications. Let us know what you think are some of the best ones though. Always interested like man, that's one of the coolest things is going to a new place and trying new food. So if you've got some suggestions, let us hear


Deep Sea Explorer Alan Jamieson

Explorer Alan Jamieson has gone on nearly 70 expeditions to the deepest parts of the ocean, what he’s found there is incredible. We talk deep sea exploration, life at the bottom of the ocean and how we’re changing the deep ocean. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Bobs of All Time.

Alan Jamieson: 01:45

Pointless: 52:03

Top 5: 01:05:19

Contact the Show

The Deep-Sea Podcast — Armatus Oceanic

Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre

Alan Jamieson Twitter

UWA Research Twitter

Interview with Deep Sea Explorer Alan Jamieson

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode ocean exploration, and the best Bob's

Alan Jamieson 0:21

thing that got me in my first semester divers, once you leave the surface, suddenly it's quiet. It's like really quiet, and you're just gliding downwards. And then eventually, four hours later, you start to see the bottom, the seafloor coming up towards you. You have submarine canyons, which are enormous canyons, if some of these features if they were on land, would be a wonder of the world, we are having an effect on the deep sea, everything we mess with on the surface, has a knock down effect what's underneath it,

Nick VinZant 0:49

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest has gone on nearly 70 expeditions to the bottom of the ocean, including some of the deepest places on earth. And what he has found there is fascinating. This is marine biologist and ocean explorer, Alan Jamison, just for reference, when we talk about meters, triple that and you have feet, kilometers, take that in half and you have miles. Zero degrees Celsius is 32 degrees Fahrenheit 25 Celsius is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Is the deep sea different, or is it just deeper? Like is it a fundamentally different place than the top of the ocean? For lack of a better phrase?

Alan Jamieson 1:55

I think there's that's a very good question. And it's one of these things where we're battling with this, like, for example, when does the sea become deep? This and this is a genuine issue. So the general consensus is the deep sea is 200 meters or more, the term doesn't mean very much. And it's actually a term which is a little bit damaging, because most of planet Earth is deep sea, the largest living space on planet Earth is in the water between 200 meters and the deepest point on Earth. And by calling a deep sea, we're almost saying this is different. This is not your ocean, this is this is something else. This is the other worldliness. And so we have wished, psychologically splitting the ocean into two parts is the bit that we'd like the bit that has whales and turtles and dolphins. And we look out over the looking at the sunset over the from the beach, there's that bit that we like to go on boats and stuff. And then there's a deep sea, which is the bit that we don't visit the bit that we don't like the bit that's dark and scary. And all that is is an imaginary line that someone has drawn on a chart saying shallow sea deep sea.

Nick VinZant 3:01

But is there something like would you say that as you're in? Because you've gone down there many times? Do you notice like, oh, now I'm in the deep sea? Like is there a change that you kind of feel?

Alan Jamieson 3:13

Yeah, there are there are multiple things that do change, for example, the temperature drops off pretty quick. So you can be 35 degrees Celsius on the surface. And by the time you get to 500 meters, you might be down to five degrees. By the time you get beyond 1000 meters, you know, less than two degrees. So there's a noticeable drop in temperature. And there's a noticeable drop in water quality as well. So in the surface, there's lots of things like plankton, and when you look out upon the submersible, you'll see it's quite cloudy, there's a lot of stuff going on. And when you get down deep enough, it's actually pretty clear. Once you put the lights on, of course, you know is very, very clean water. So and there are lots of things that you don't get in the deep sea that you do get in the shallow end like plants. So seaweeds, and one of the reasons why 200 meters was suggested as a limit is because light penetration from the sun doesn't go that much further than that. So photosynthesis cannot occur. So you suddenly you don't see any more seaweed or kelp or or seagrass or anything like that. So there are some changes, but generally speaking, looking at the deep sea floor at 6000 meters, isn't that different from scuba diving at 20 meters at night?

Nick VinZant 4:21

helped me kind of understand this, I guess, right? Like I know it's deep. I know the oceans down there. Right. And but I also don't really understand I can't really imagine it. There's two

Alan Jamieson 4:32

components to this. There's the vertical component and the horizontal. The horizontal one is one that we struggle with, for example, and when I say most apply if there's deep seated it absolutely is if you go on Google Earth and turn it to the Pacific Ocean, so Hawaii is in the middle. You will maybe see a little bit of New Zealand's maybe a little bit of California, maybe some Japan but generally speaking, half the planet is the Pacific Ocean. The average depth of that is 4000 meters underwater, right so that's Massive right? So there you go half the planet, just on that one side is deep sea. Now, when you start looking at the numbers, the Pacific Ocean diameter is something like 15,000 kilometers across. And we struggle with that. We can't really you can't see it, you can't, unless you're an astronaut, I guess you, you can't see that. So you can't really fully comprehend just how this the vastness of it. And then the other thing is the vertical one. And this is the one that I find really interesting when you tell people the deepest point on Earth is just short of 11 kilometers, so about seven miles deep. And that's the Mariana Trench, there's a few other places that deep as well. And then when you say that to people, and they say, Have you been to 10,000 meters underwater? And you're like, yeah, and then a few times, and they freak out. And you bet 10 kilometers is not far. Most people probably drive more than 10 kilometers every day. And you know, it's only half the length of Manhattan. Right? So on the horizontal 10 kilometers, not much, you tilt that 90 degrees, and see your 10 Kilometer underwater, suddenly, the mains just starts to race. And I think that's a sort of archetypal fear of, of deep water, we don't like the thought of being underwater, we hate the idea of being underwater when it's dark. Because there's two things that freak human beings out because we're air breathing, visually oriented animals is being underwater, because you're going to run and being in the dark, because you're no longer in control of your environment. And then the deep sea kind of represents both of those. And we use phrases like deepest, darkest fears. And then so you're trying to get people to engage with the largest living space on planet Earth, which happens to be the deepest, darkest, but so, so you're kind of this uphill struggle of trying to get trying to get people engaged without making it sound like a horror film. And everyone says, you know, the first thing people normally say, when you say you've been in a submarine and a deep sea, the sea or was it scary? But no, it's, it's not scary. It's actually very tranquil, very peaceful. But I'm pretty sure astronauts don't get the same question to see oh, well, you we You scared the whole time. Because of the cold and vastness of space, that's just, you know, a few millimeters away from you on the other side of the hole.

Nick VinZant 7:12

When we were talking like the idea of going down to the bottom, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about is like, what's that like? To me, that would be terrifying. But I would never think of that. In terms of a space shuttle, I would think of that as like, oh my gosh, exhilarating.

Alan Jamieson 7:27

You do not get in a submarine and go 10 kilometers underwater, if it's dangerous, because it's a very unforgiving place to go. If you're not 100% confident in the technology and the engineering behind what you're doing. Why would you you'd be you'd be a nutcase, if you did that, if there was any, any chance of it failing. So, and I guess, I mean, submersible diving is probably not for everybody, it takes a certain disposition to do it. But you are locked in a small titanium bowl, just two people, and a bolt is probably no bigger than a bit, I think it's 1.2 meters diameter, and you're sitting in it for 12 hours. And, you know, it's, it is the thing that got me in my first semester divers, once you leave the surface, when you're on the surface, you're bobbing around all over the places, it's not particularly comfortable. But once you clear the surface, and you start descending, suddenly, it's quiet. It's like really quiet, and you're just gliding downwards. And it's it is genuinely very peaceful. And it's quite tranquil. And then when you eventually have four hours later, you start to see the bottom, the seafloor coming up towards you. And it's just like, wow, and then you are the touches, oh, we quite often are the first human beings ever to see this particular place. And you're looking at it and you're taking stock of it. And, and quite often it doesn't sink into afterwards, because once you on the bomb, you have a job to do. And you're you're telling a pilot where to go, you're trying to photograph various things, you're trying to remember what the dive mission actually is, and not just start chasing stuff, whatever you know, so you're on it. And your adrenaline is obviously pretty pretty up there. And you're trying to do under the end, we dumped our weight and it starts to float back up. And you have this weird four hours back to the surface where you've all the excitement is done. You've you've done it, you've seen what there is to see. And then you feel really tired. And quite often I've nodded off asleep a couple of times on the way back up. And quite often we just sit and watch a movie on someone's phone. And then it's for me, it feels like there's a big excitement when we get to the surface because it's rough and you're rolling around and the ships trying to pick you up and it's people jumping on sob and everything else to the last 10 minutes is pretty mental. It's not particularly pleasant, but it's all you know, in the event you claim at the summary and everyone's like, so great. And it's about 30 minutes later, when you've got the suit off, you've got all your gear off and everything else and you sit in you have a cup of coffee, and you say, wow, you know, and you've got time to actually absorb what you've just done. What you've just seen, what means you know, the and you've just come back with a handful of new stories, and loads of new data and stuff like that. And for me, I mean others People might be different. But for me, it takes a little bit of time. And that night you go to bed and you're sort of lying you beg God, because I went to nine and a half, 1000 meters this morning. Nine and a half 1000 meters under the ship. And the ship is not big. It takes a little while thinking is peculiar. So hard to it's hard to describe.

Nick VinZant 10:21

I would imagine. It's kind of like, did that really just happen? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I'm kind of a numbers person, on a scale of one to 10. One being like, we don't even know what this wet liquid is. 10 being like, we've got this completely figured out. Where do you think on that scale? We would be when it comes to the deep sea?

Alan Jamieson 10:42

Oh, that's a difficult one. Because, yeah. Oh, there's lots to discuss on that question. I would say somewhere between five and seven.

Nick VinZant 10:51

What part of it would be like the stuff that we kind of know what part of it would be the stuff that we don't really know.

Alan Jamieson 10:56

So there's multiple components to this question that one is we are forever hearing phrases like we know more about the moon than a deep sea. And you know, every TV documentary that talks about the deep sea talks about how much we don't know, that's us telling us what we want to hear. It's not true. But you know, people have been working in deep sea for a long time over 100 years. And sure, we haven't mapped every species on the planet, but it's very rarely go somewhere and you genuinely see something totally and utterly unexpected. Right? So I think that's, that's an entertainment Sherpa that's crept into science that we keep telling ourselves we know nothing about the deep sea. We do. Right? That's that's the thing. One of the issues with how much do we know there's there's there's another one that goes around saying we've only mapped 20% of the seafloor, we've only explored 1% Whatever it is, again, that's not strictly true either. That is the mapping of the of the seafloor is all a matter of resolution. There are no more Mariana trenches out there to be found, right, there are no big features left in the first complete map of the ocean was printed in 1977. So, you know, it's, if you want to get right into rocks, and boulders, they ensure no one's mapped it to that resolution. But realistically, people are going out on a regular basis and finding new hydrothermal vents exactly where they thought that we're going to be, we go to big trenches, and we find things that exactly what we think we're going to be this big, new deepest fish story came out a couple of weeks ago, we predicted that entire population of fish will be there, and there will be the deepest ones in the world. And no one had ever seen them before. And they're an entirely new species. And we did it. So that doesn't marry up with the idea, we know nothing. But the third component to that is things are changing really fast. And so we are having an effect on the deep sea, everything we mess with on the surface, hasn't a knockdown effect to what's underneath it. Because most of the deep sea derives its energy from stuff that comes down from the surface dead squid, jellyfish, dead fish, dead whales, plankton, all that organic material sinks. And that's what feeds the deep sea. We're obviously having a lot of influence on what's happening on the surface. And so we've had many occasions where we found something and someone has said, Is this right? Is this who it's supposed to be? And we said, well, actually, we're too late. We don't know what a lot of these animals are supposed to be like. Because we're only now getting a chance to study them while we're going through a period of dramatic change. And so what these are a good example, that was a few years ago, we published a study on microplastics. And we found some of the animals at the bottom of each trench, pretty much all of them had at least one piece of plastic and a gun. At the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in earth, every single one of them had at least one piece of plastic as gun. And that's horrendous. And someone's asked me on the radio to say, Well, what does this mean for the animal? It says, Well, we know this type of stuff comes with a certain degree of contaminants we know and shallower species, similar species that we can study that it reduces the reproductive success. And he said, Well, is it affecting the reproductive success of these animals at the bottom of my trench? And the answer to that is, we don't know. Because they're already contaminated. We've only just found them. So we will never know where it's supposed to be, because that window is closed. And that's the problem. When we talk about how much we know about the deep seas, we can get a pretty good snapshot of where things are now. But we've missed a window, because we'd have been great to get some baseline data from 100 years ago. But there aren't many out there. And so that's that's the problem is how things how quickly things are changing.

Nick VinZant 14:34

What would you say? Like I know, this is a big broad question, right? But what would you like how does what goes on in the deep sea affect everything else around us?

Alan Jamieson 14:44

Oh, massive massively. So physically, the deep trenches. The deepest parts of the world are where two tectonic plates collide. So everyone's probably more familiar with hydrothermal vents and volcanoes and Siemens. That's the opposite. So the tectonic plates are interacting in several ways where they are spinning apart, you get a rich, just a positive feature, suddenly a second big long Ridge at the top of that rages where you have volcanoes that eventually some of them are so big, they become islands like the Azores, or Iceland or whatever. And this is where you see hydrothermal vents, this is where all new seafloor has been created. Now, the Earth isn't getting bigger, so you for all that new seafloor that's coming out, we're going to lose it somewhere else. So you go the opposite end, which is mostly the Western Pacific, because two to two tectonic plates, when they meet each other, are not spreading apart, they're being compressed together, and the heavier one will get pushed down and lift the other one up. And this is where you create these trenches. So things like Mariana Trench or Japan trench or wherever. And where are the influence human life the most is it's the very deepest parts on the earth, which create earthquakes and tsunamis. So the Boxing Day tsunami, you know, 15 years ago, whatever it was, that was the Java Trench that slept, and it's the tectonic plates are pushing against each other and the jam, and eventually one of them gifts, and they want to give it launches this enormous big pressure wave, it becomes a tsunami. Japan is one of the few places in the world that sits on what's called a triple junction. So you have three tectonic plates all fighting each other for dominance. And Tokyo was right on the corner of that. So with a bit of hindsight, the worst place in the world to build a legacy is exactly where Tokyo is. And it gets rolled over by earthquakes all the time, say maturely stuff like that, that's the deep sea doing that. In other ways. There's more more information coming out. Now, that showed some of the original climate models weren't really coming true, because no one had factored in all of the warming that's going on and surface has been being absorbed by the water below it, which in hindsight, makes perfect sense. And sort of deep sea is starting to warm and it's pulling that tip that heat down from the surface. So there's that. And there's also an idea that a lot of people probably don't appreciate is that every animal on the ocean does something. When we call it ecological function. Every animal performs a service to the planet. And most of that is through consuming and redistributing carbon. Now, as I said before, most of planet Earth is deep sea. The vast majority of every single animal in the water column, every single animal on the seafloor is irrigating is gardening. All these little creepy crawlies are going around the seafloor are turning the sediment over the gardening, they're oxygenating the seafloor, if they weren't there, all that stuff from the surface and all that crap that we put into the sea will sink and then become stagnant and become some sort of big mass rotting mess. But you need those animals to consume it and to do all these biology mechanical processes to keep the water healthy to keep the seafloor healthy. And you know, after deep sea animals went on strike, and just decided, You know what this is, this is no life. This is no life for our sea cucumber, we're giving up for a couple of years, the seafloor would become toxic, pretty sure and of this rotting mass of organic matter. And that sounds bad. But then we go back to this statistic of 70% of planet Earth is deep sea. And suddenly the ocean is this big, horrible cesspit sounds like a problem, I wouldn't recommend it.

Nick VinZant 18:14

So like when you go down there, right like in my mind, I am imagining basically a really deep flat beach.

Alan Jamieson 18:22

There are multiple types of features we see on the bottom. So the biggest one is what we call the abyssal plains, and your call planes for reasonability like desert plants, and most of the planet Earth is abyssal plain. So most of the Pacific Ocean is big, flat slabs of tectonic plates, that genuinely do look a bit like a desert. There they will be punctuated by sea mounts, which are mountains of about 1000 meters elevation, which are just been conical. You know, Hawaii is probably the most famous cmon, it's so big it's breached the surface and is no Hawaii. But then you get other features such as the trenches look at explains where the tectonic plates are. So they're very, very deep, but not very big. So there are big huge cracks big fishes on the seafloor, which to give you an idea of scale, the minor trenches, roughly the same volume as the Himalaya. So they're not just little cracks in the seafloor. They're huge. And it's you know, it's a mile deeper than Everest is high. And you get other things like fractures on so when I explained about the the mid ocean ridges, the Earth isn't particularly flexible. On the surface. The tectonic plates are not that flexible, per se. So those big ridges are not continuous, they break perpendicular to the axis of the ridge. So you get more of these big cracks forming there and they form their own little habitats. And yeah, and then and then on the continental shelf when you when you walk off, you know eastern seaboard of of America, for example, you'll if you could just walk off as far as you can without droning. You'd walk along the Continental Shelf to a depth of 100 meters 200 meters and then suddenly drops off and you'd walk down to the abyssal plains. But on those continental shelf, sometimes the fracture and break or erode down in your hand, you have submarine canyons, but you're enormous canyons in some of these features, if they were on land would be a wonder of the world. Because the problem is they're underwater, so you can't see it. So you don't, humans don't get that sense of all. You know, people love Mount Everest to look at and go, Wow, look at that, that's massive. No one can do that with the Mariana Trench. So some of these features would be impressive. One of my favorite features on that line is, there's a place we're going to next year called the Tonga trench, and it's just a bit too strange. It's the second deepest place in the world. It runs south of Tonga. And the deepest point is called Horizon deep. And if you look at it on Google Earth, you'll see this big trench, and somewhere towards the bottom, you'll see some lines running parallel to the trench. And it looks like ripples, it looks and what it actually is, is the tectonic plates being pushed down and it is buckling. On the on the big picture, it doesn't look much, you just look, hang on, well, a couple of couple of ridges or whatever Scarlets down there. But when you get if you put yourself in that place, and actually look at the size of these things, they're run for about 500 miles there, or at least, be somewhere between one and two miles high, and a series of ripples, and they're at 910 1000 meters deep. So they were on lands, you be like, What the hell are these things? Right, but because they're buried under 10,000 meters of water, and they're in a little bit of the Pacific, where no one ever goes on holiday, because it's underwater, right? It doesn't really it doesn't, doesn't go into the public consciousness. And so that's what I find fascinating is there's so much more going on underwater than there is on land.

Nick VinZant 21:42

I kind of feel a little dumb asking this question, but has that as this stuff always been covered? You know, because I think of like Pangea, where the continents were together. But all of this has kind of always been covered.

Alan Jamieson 21:54

A lot of it has Yeah, the Western Pacific certainly is spent most of its time underwater, but the you know, the other sort of lesser known fact is, wherever there's a desert, that's an old seafloor. So the Sahara Desert, the Gobi Desert, you know, Utah, Nevada, these places, they were all oceans. And that's what creates sand. Sand is basically what you find at the bottom of the ocean. So a lot of them have been underwater. But then what happens is, once it breaches, and moves up on land, quite often, it gets eroded very quickly. And then we had the ASIJ. And that carved away a lot of what these features would have been.

Nick VinZant 22:26

How did you get into this? By mistake? That's usually the best way though, isn't it?

Alan Jamieson 22:33

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that So long story short, I went to university begrudgingly, because I didn't see at any point on a degree in industrial design. So product design type of thing very much, because the only thing I think I was good at I was playing drums and technical drawing. And I couldn't get a degree in playing drums. So I went for technical drawing one. And I still do all the technical drawing, I still do on accounts here, on top of everything else, but from my final project at university. I was in Aberdeen, Scotland at the time, and it's the oil and gas capital of Europe. And it's everything's subsea engineering and stuff. And I designed this underwater device. And that got me in touch with a professor at another university who was doing subsea gear for biology. And about a year after I graduated, he ever place a job when I went for the job. And after became his mechanical engineer for a while. I ended up working for over 13 years till he retired and then took his job and and it's somewhere along that roads, this stuff I was building, and designing was considered to be worthy of a master's degree because the boss found out how little I was being paid. And so I had no desire to do a master's degree. And eventually, that became a PhD, which I thought was hilarious, because I don't really want a PhD, if none of my experience at that point a PhD students wasn't good. So I was like, I don't want to be like them. So yeah, basically just did it for a pay rise, essentially. And then, at some point in the PhD journey, I asked myself, Why Why does everybody design gear and deploy gear to 6000 meters? That's only halfway. I mean, sure, 98% of the planet will get you there. But why? Why does no one push that last bit? So I did some theoretical designs for started looking at the biology of it. And over the over a space of about 510 years just got more and more into the biology. So now technically, I'm a Professor of Marine Biology. I don't actually have any formal qualifications in biology whatsoever. So

Nick VinZant 24:28

I'm really just a mechanic. Right?

Alan Jamieson 24:32

On the holes and pools guy, right, right.

Nick VinZant 24:35

I was just assembling Ikea furniture one day and next thing I know I'm at the bottom of the ocean.

Alan Jamieson 24:40

Yeah. Come back to that whole thing that people have a certain disposition that when I went for that job interview, trying to work out what was it those as well, you build his gear? We put on the war on that. Yeah. There you go. I was like, I'll be going on ships. And we'll put this stuff in a deep sea. I'm like I'm sold. I don't eat at that point. I think you know what that is I don't really know what these guys are talking about. But that That sounds awesome.

Nick VinZant 25:00

When we talk about kind of the life that is down there is this you get down there and you're kind of always seeing something, or is it very sporadic,

Alan Jamieson 25:11

the bigger stuff is quite sporadic. But if you know what you're looking for, you will see this life everywhere. And, and some of these environments are so slow moving, that the sediment on the bottom takes about 1000 years for every centimeter of mud that's laid down. So it's slow, the current speeds are slow. So you see a mix of animals and a mix of where animals have been. So you see the tracks and their burrows and all these little pits and things. And you can actually infer quite a lot about what's there just based on the traces they've left behind. But generally speaking, I feel it's much more interesting and diverse and abundant than I think a lot of people would pitch on their heads, there's not many places we've been where we've thought that was a boring dive. Like the worst worst place we ever went was probably Eastern Mediterranean where it was basically, plastic litter outweighed life by about 10 to one. That was That sucks. But Eastern, it's pretty bad anyway. But generally speaking, there's, if you can't see anything at the viewport of the sub, you will do within a matter of minutes. That's the kind of frequency on which we see stuff. I would think

Nick VinZant 26:22

that if there's something down there, they would be very curious about a sub coming down there.

Alan Jamieson 26:27

The some of the fish after I don't think I've ever told this story before, so this, this is a new one, but some of the fish are skittish, as some fish should come across. And as soon as as soon as you're anywhere near you can, you can kind of see a sediment cloud because of obviously just went well. 10 million years of evolution, I've never seen a big thing with thrusters and lights come to come in at me. So it just runs. There's another species of fish called bustles eats which we study a lot. It's a big brown thing that hangs around somewhere between five and a half, six and a half, 1000 years. And it's not the brightest tool. And it's not the sharpest tool in the box, right? It's this big old fish that just stares at the cameras a lot. And we came across one a couple of years ago, and it was almost like it didn't know what to do. And you can see it almost had a personality it was kind of hanging there and the lights gone? Well, it because these things are almost blind, right? They can't really see anything and it kind of is kind of like tilting his head going, something's not right. Should I run away when I don't have enough energy to do that? Maybe I should just turn around. See this bureau thing? It's just like, there's no SOP for this. I don't, you know, it's just like it almost didn't have an insert. It had no instinct of what to do. And it just kind of looked a bit and just looked really uncomfortable. And it felt almost like maybe we should just leave it alone, though. And just just back off and just let it get back to its Tuesday afternoon. Because we've obviously obviously I've just started with it. That's very funny.

Nick VinZant 27:52

That's kind of the way I would feel if aliens suddenly showed up. I'd be like, I don't know what I'm, yeah, like I should run. But I'm too curious to see what this is. Yeah,

Alan Jamieson 28:02

no one prepared me for this, right. This is the thing. It's like, am I supposed to run? Am I supposed to attack it?

Nick VinZant 28:09

Yeah, this is another one of those questions that I don't know if this will make sense, right? But like when we talk about things that are living at the bottom like that, are they living things like I think of like whales and horses and like stuff with personalities and that are moving and doing stuff? Or is it more like alive like algae like, yeah, it's alive, but

Alan Jamieson 28:31

none of as. So there's a couple of points to this. So whenever you watch, or read about deep sea and depress, they'll show you things like angler fish with the biomass and lower and the big teeth, beady eyes, and they're all black and scary. Now they are genuinely very small. Some of them are relatively large, but generally speaking, they're very, very small. And generally speaking, they're in the top 1000 meters, but they're like the poster kids for deep sea. So when people think deep sea, they think that that's not really deep sea, that is dark sea. That's the animals that live in the top 1000 meters where there's a very small fraction of sunlight still getting down this to what they call it Twilight Zone. So all those adaptations are to do with hunting at night in a low light environment with very little food. When you get down to deep sea proper. When I say proper, I would say 1000 meters or more. The fish and the other animals tend to look either the same, or at least a bit woebegone that I have that kind of look a bit boring, so they don't get on TV very much because they're not ugly enough to be hideous. And they're not beautiful enough to be beautiful. They're kind of in between. They're kind of like bit sad looking and a bit. Some of them actually look a bit bored. But what's interesting about familiar groups of animals is just sick for the last four years. For example, we know there are fish at just over 8000 meters. They don't look like deep sea fish. They're not even deep sea fish. They're shallower fish. They're fine shallower family that has evolved. So quickly their basic overtaken all the deep sea fish by 1000 meters. So the deepest question the world's a little pink thing and it looks like bit like a sock puppet. It looks kind of weird goofy looking thing. We found a dumbo octopuses 7000 meters that just looks like a beautiful little Dumbledore is big ears just going around and doing Dumbo stuff. And it was 2000 meters deeper than any other cephalopod. A year after that we found a squid just being a squid at six and a half 1000 meters, we found jellyfish at 10,000 meters, pin comb jellies, 10,000 meters, we find these big, beautiful bright red prawns that are almost a foot long, we see those down to 8000 meters. So a lot of this stuff, if you were to show someone the video and say, Where did this come from, there'll be nothing in there that you would you wouldn't be able to instantly recognize that as being deep see, it will be quite familiar. And one of my favorite animals is our type of anemone. It's called a galaxy anthem, which is kind of horrendous word, but the little white roses, like flowers for their anemone, and you find them at the deepest point on Earth. And they're just sitting there attached to a rock just look like loops that are just swinging in the wind. But just sort of slowly rocking back and forward in the current and there's nothing weird about it at all. It's just genuinely a beautiful animal. And it's one of the most hardcore animals on the planet.

Nick VinZant 31:25

Are you ready for some harder slash listeners submitted question?

Alan Jamieson 31:29

Yes, go for it.

Nick VinZant 31:30

What do you think is harder to comprehend? Deep Sea or space?

Alan Jamieson 31:35

I think deep sea. I think it's the one that's the most misunderstood. People seem to be quite happy with space. But people still seem to be conflicted when it comes to deep sea.

Nick VinZant 31:46

Which one was your favorite expedition? I think you've been if I'm correct, like 65.

Alan Jamieson 31:53

Yeah, coming up to 70. Now, yeah, favorite expedition. Or I'd like to think there was one in the Indian Ocean we did, which was my first submersible dive, which I wasn't expecting. And that was a glorious dive. It was one of those real mental ones because my first ever submersible dive, we went to seven and a half those Amir's so I wasn't, I wasn't been broken in gently. And it was the pilot at the time was really, really funny. And we had such a laugh was great. And that was the same one will be friendly octopus, and it was one of those ones. That was a very short trip. But every day, every every bit of tech we had just kept on giving. It was one of those amazing, but it could stay there for a month.

Nick VinZant 32:29

Do you get nervous? Do you get anxious about it, or it's like, all right, going into the bottom of the ocean. And it's Wednesday.

Alan Jamieson 32:37

Surprisingly not. I mean, we have had some incidences in the sub we've had the hatch, looking at one point when were 1000s of meters underwater. And we've had an incident last September, where we were nearly at the sea floor at length those meters and there was a big or mighty bang on the side of the SAP and we couldn't place where it was. And so we had to abort, we just we've got to make that decision in a space of like, 60 seconds ago, something just popped on the outside of the sub, we're still going down and saw pressures on the increasing. So we need to make the call and you have this. And what's weird is in those situations, I think I trust the submarine so much. And the pilots trust it as well, that it's rather than nobody panics, nobody freaks out. In fact, if anything is opposite, you suddenly because you're inside the submarine you can't see out of it, your eyesight is useless. And suddenly it's like your brain just reactivates everything to do with your hearing. And you're just sitting there listening is anything is anything cracking is anything doing, you know, and then you're very quietly speaking to each other and saying, Okay, what was that? What could it be? Is it should we be worried about this? Do we need to abort? And you just do it? And you know, it's maybe maybe something like I said before about that? It's maybe it's not till afterwards, where you're sitting with a cup of coffee thinking, Oh, what did I just do? Sometimes there's been a case where it's the same thing is happening there. And you're thinking, wow, we just upgraded over 9000 meters, and we're still not quite sure what it was that made that bang and then attend to you get the opposite. You're like, oh, maybe we should have freaked out. But I think it must be the same as being like an airline pilot. If you're the type of person who freaks out when things go wrong, then you're probably in the wrong job.

Nick VinZant 34:13

Does it does what does it sound like? Like, can you imagine you've got external microphones or something on the satellite. What is that?

Alan Jamieson 34:20

So in the sub you, you can hear the thrusters moving a little bit, it's makes a sort of Heartless, relatively high pitch or waning noise, and you hear sort of like whizzing back and forward a little bit, but generally it's spookily quiet. And so there's been times where, you know, it's a long day for us. So when you get into submarine shut, the hatch is 12 hours before you can get out. And so you take your lunch, and there's been times where it'll be four hours down and four hours, the bottom four hours back up halfway. During the four hours on the bottom, we just park up, you just set it on the seafloor. You stretch your legs a lot, you can't really stretch your legs but you can move your legs and back and forward a little bit. and take a few selfies and whatever I you know, take a picture, I think and just eat a sandwich and just sit there and eat some Doritos sitting on the bottom of the ocean, just checking out this and that. And then 15 minutes later I get back to it again. And it's in when you sweat when you go. And point is when you get down and you sit on the bottom, you switch the thrusters off. It's just the more silent you can experience this is beautiful.

Nick VinZant 35:22

Follow up that excellent answer with this question. Of course, from our audience. How do you go to the bathroom?

Alan Jamieson 35:27

Yes, that question. There's two is two ways to overcome this. There are there are on a day you dive in a submarine, you normally got maybe four hours before the dive, basically, you drink a couple of cups of water or coffee, whatever. And then that's it, you just stay off it. When you get thirsty. The trick is to just put half a glass of water in your mouth, swirl it around a bit and spit it out. That seems to satisfy your thirst without taking on water. So that's a little trick that I do. I also have been blessed with an iron bladder. So it's never bothered me. And to the point where one of the guys have vied with quite a lot, one of the sub pilots, he does not have an iron bladder. So he uses what's called a range extender, which is a plastic bottle. But just to wind them up. When we did a dive before I was trying to I was boasting about my iron bladder to the point where before we got in the submarine, I downed a whole pint of apple juice in front of them just to show just the way numb ups and doesn't bother me.

Nick VinZant 36:29

As a person who does not have an iron bladder, I understand that you've been to the bottom of the ocean and gone to places that no one has been before, but holding it for 12 hours might be the most impressive. Do you think that we'll ever be able to really make a home there or to really have people kind of coming and going so to speak?

Alan Jamieson 36:48

Probably not. I don't see any reason why you would want to live underwater. So there are there has been underwater habitats. And I know a guy who spent a lot of time on one. And it's not a deep sea one. It's one that used to be off Hawaii, I think. And the idea was the divers would live in this underwater habitat. And you can go diving every day for like two or three weeks. And he was saying that the air inside is so moist that you end up growing fungus all over your body. Because you're basically damp for weeks on end. And your human body isn't really meant for that. So there's that. And there's just a huge expense of trying to clean that air or trying to get fresh air trying to get food up and down and that kind of stuff. So I think for the foreseeable future is not particularly practical. Where it is becoming more accessible is the number of cruise liners now that have submersibles on it. And so you do your Antarctic cruise or in the Mediterranean or of the Arctic, whatever, maybe there are opportunities now you can just jump in us up on a pilot will take you down to 200 meters, 500 meters, and you can go see stuff and come back again. It's becoming more and more common. In fact, there are more tourist submarines not in the world, and there are science. And so there are ways in which you can access the deep sea that without necessarily living in it.

Nick VinZant 37:56

Is there anything down there that you think that would change that and the thing that jumps into my mind is like, Okay, we find oil, or we find something that we can manage and that now this is now the next great frontier of exploration in economic activity,

Alan Jamieson 38:11

there is sort of deep sea mining is becoming a very contentious subject at the moment. And you know, they are they have developed these enormous harvester machines which are controlled from the surface. And I think in cases like that, it's probably no some indiscriminate destruction of the seafloor doesn't necessarily require a pilot. It just requires a remote system. But

Nick VinZant 38:30

I feel like that's one of the things though, and with me knowing nothing about it, like we should not mess with that. Let's just leave that whole thing.

Alan Jamieson 38:37

I think one of the one of the biggest issues at the moment at DMC is to is we never learned our lesson. This is the thing, right? So just at the point where, you know, we did a study a while back about manmade contaminants in the deep sea, which are astronomically high. These are particles that were made in the 50s and then banned in the 80s. And they were banned because they don't ever degrade. They just pass from one animal to another. And then you see, what do we learn from that? Oh, well, we started creating more and more plastic, and then saw all the plastics in the sea. And everyone's screaming about oh microplastics microplastics nanoplastics. And then you find out that the silver nanoparticles are now in socks and deodorants and all this kind of stuff and microbeads and facial scrubs, it's like what are microbeads they're not cosmetic microbeads you're actually making micro plastics that are designed to be flushed down the shower or down the sink. Where does that plug hole end up? And no one thinks about that right? You use it's just you're literally pouring little bits of plastic into the sea. And it's like How is this even legal? And then you have all this all this business of oil and gas industry moving into deeper water and when oil and gas came online and around the 70s offshore biology or science played a bit of a game of catch up because they started going for it was a cool Gold Rush, right? And everybody needs oil and whatever and then suddenly realize that maybe some of this, it, maybe this isn't the best for the environment. And they said, Okay, well, if there's ever going to be another big industry going in to see, maybe we should do the science first. And to then understand why it's happening. And then deep sea mining comes along. And it's, it's this constant struggle, there's a race on between those who want to destroy 1000s of square kilometers of sea floor that has taken 10 million years to form and will not recover for another 10 million years, if it ever does. And those who are saying, I don't think we should do this. And but the people who are saying, I don't think we should do this or not being promised a billion dollar check. And then we're probably just going to make the same mistake all over again. And that's the saddest thing about human races. We just don't learn.

Nick VinZant 40:51

I was, I was a history major in college, and one of my history professors said, if there was one constant in human history, it's that we never learned the lesson that we never learned our lesson. Yeah, I know, we really don't.

Alan Jamieson 41:03

We're doing this all over again. Yes, we are.

Nick VinZant 41:07

We're gonna do that. Right. Yeah. What would you personally say like for you? What was your favorite place down there.

Alan Jamieson 41:12

They're all unique and weird in their own little ways. But one of the more recent ones I did was just off Japan, it was a place called the boss or triple junction. And it's the exact junction where those three tectonic plates I was telling you about meat. And the seafloor plunges down nine and a half, 1000 meters. And that was the one where there was a big bang on the outside, and we're buoyed, but a week later, we tried again, and figured that it will be fine. And we got down there. And it's a unique place in that you have these animals called crinoids, which are sea lilies, they looked like Ferran so like plants. So you quite often see crinoids in the Paleo record, you'll see this sort of circular families get planted embedded in this in Iraq. And so there's not many shallower versions of these, but the deep ones are stocks that don't like plants, but they're they're nine and a half, those are mutants, they're all bright yellow. And normally on a dive to these types of depths, you would be lucky if you saw maybe one or two on a rock somewhere. At the bottom of bows or triple junction, there were 1000s and 1000s. And 1000s is called the Crinoid metal. And that was just like, This is so surreal. It was like driving around in someone's backyard, because there were these big steps in the rocks, because it's such a gnarly place geologically anyway. And there's just these big yellow flowers growing and everything. And it was it was like a metal. And it was just like that was really quite surreal. And on the opposite end of that one of the most bizarre places, which I've still got a great affection for was a place called the wallabies, Zenith fracture zone. And so 500 miles off West, Australia, and me and this guy who uses the range extender, came down. And we found in deep sea mining is all about manganese nodules. It's about these black balls on the seafloor that only form and deep water and so on. And we had an inkling that there would be some there. But when we came down on the sea floor, were like, Oh my Lord, there were billions of these things. Like the entire seafloor was black. It was like someone had laid out 10 billion cannonballs on the seafloor, beautiful, perfectly spherical black balls. And at the time, we were, quite often listen to music on the way down at the time, we were listening to corn. And we had a dead bodies everywhere was playing on the stereo at the time. And it was like, This is so creepy. It's weird. It's like, you know, corn is your soundtrack to landing and what appeared to be this blackened alien planet wasn't maybe the best choice of soundtrack, but that was

Nick VinZant 43:34

that's aggressive music to be listening to going down there. Yeah, you got you gotta keep your mind going. Yeah, um, do you think that there is something there? We haven't found and I'm think what this person means in that sense is like, is there some big thing? I'll use the example of like, is it Marianna are Maria? Anna? I marry Ariana? Like, do you think there's still a place like that that we don't know about?

Alan Jamieson 43:59

No. So when I was when I was talking about we've mapped over the ocean, it just depends to what resolution, most of the ocean has been mapped using satellite derived altimetry. So there's satellites that will look for bumps on the sea surface. And you can infer from data that's been mapped more accurately what those bumps mean. And so there are no more trenches to be found that we normally all are. When you get down to the scale of smaller sea mounts, maybe there are a whole bunch more that aren't being picked up on that. But generally speaking, the general lay of the land is solid. So there are no more finches to be fine, unfortunately.

Nick VinZant 44:36

Okay, I'm pretty sure you have you know, you get asked this question all the time. But let me phrase it this way. If there was like another Atlantis or human civilization or some intelligent life living down there, would you be surprised like Is it big enough that this something like this could happen? Like if you suddenly saw like, name or walking around on down there, would you be surprised about

Alan Jamieson 45:04

if you were going to hide in plain sight? That's where you would do it right? And if you were if you were, if you were to evaluate the human race and look at the places that don't normally go on, so we would be a good place to hide on this planet, you would see that there's very, very few people going deeper than about 4000 meters. So yeah, I mean, if a purely hypothetical alien invasion, then if I were an alien, I would hide in a trench because chances are, no one's gonna even clock in there. Because most militaries don't even have capability of going in depth we do. In fact, that don't, that's that's one of the issues. So one of the things we discovered a few years back was, when we're working in the Mariana Trench, we found lots and lots of fiber optic cables, to the point where it's almost unbelievable. Now the deepest place in the earth is just covered in these like abandoned coils of fiber optic. I'm thinking one, why would anyone do that someone's obviously cut these off. And then you're thinking, Well, what is on Guam? Because Guam is the nearest Island and Mariana Guam is essentially essentially the top bit of the rest of the marina. So what what's there well, in Guam is basically a massive US Navy Air Force Base. Now, if you want to listen to submarines coming in and out of Guam, and you want to deploy some hydrophones or listening devices, talk about hiding in plain sight, if you stick them down at the bottom of the Mariana, you're within easily within earshot of a naval base for our Navy, that doesn't have the capacity to know you were there. And then suddenly, you start to see all this abandoned technology. And we don't see that in any other trench, we only see it in the one next to the airbase. So you're like, Huh, I wonder what's been going on now. So yeah,

Nick VinZant 46:43

very suspicious. Right? Um, oh, you want to end on? I don't want to end on a bad note. But like, are we ruining it? Yes. Can we fix it?

Alan Jamieson 46:55

I think we can fix it. And I think on a positive note, we have to think about stop thinking about the deep sea as being the deep sea, stop thinking about it as being this other dimension. That doesn't matter to us, I think. So to turn that question around, we are affecting it. And people need to acknowledge that and realize that it's, you know, this big, these big garbage patches in the Mid Pacific, everyone's aware of that. And I don't think anyone wants that, right. I don't think anyone the right man is gonna go, Yeah, I'm all for the big Pacific Garbage Patch. But you've got to be aware that it's sinking. It's, it's, you know, plastic breaks down, it's just going to weather and eventually sank. Where's it going. And there's this weird thing, because we keep telling ourselves, the deep seas deepest out of sight out of mind, the sinking of that material isn't being transported to another dimension, it's still on planet Earth, and a deep sea is still very much planet out. And then so is trying to break that barrier, trying to blur the lines between the top bit of the ocean that we love, and we write poems about. And the rest of it, which is 95% of it is just to remember, the ocean is just one big body of water from the top to the bottom. And there is no imaginary line there that says, the top half is the bit you should care about the deep bit is a bit that you don't care about. And if we're affecting the top, we're affecting all of it. And it's not this gradient of how much we should care, you should care about all of it. And what we're trying to do with releasing the videos will be doing the talks that we do and the types of science we do is show people that, like even this podcast, we're trying to show people, the deep sea is really cool. It's really interesting. It's fascinating. There's this stuff there that you don't appreciate as normal. It's familiar. It's not that bizarre. And, you know, we're desperately trying to get documentary makers and journalists to stop this ridiculous monsters of the deep truth, because that's keeping people from caring. Because nobody cares about the monster and horror film, but they'll still they still want to see it, but they don't care about it. And that's what we're trying to undo is trying to get that meat with THC, positive, beautiful part of the plant.

Nick VinZant 49:01

I get caught up listening to people, I was listening to everything you were saying. I'm like, Yeah, we got to do that. Get on. Get on this man. Is there anything else you think that we missed? What's kind of coming up next for you? Where can people learn more?

Alan Jamieson 49:16

Learn more. We but there's a TED talk out, which is seems to get a lot of traction at the moment. We have various website if you just Google their Minderoo UWA Dipsy Research Center, we'll find that stuff there. And the next step for us is we're going to take it up another level, because that's how we That's how we're all surrounding and doing a few dives and a few books around various deep bits. We've decided the shipping is submersible. We work in the last four years it's now been it's not under new ownership. Sort of very wealthy person has bought it and he's basically letting us loose. And so we want to do the biggest horizontal project ever so on so the first of June, we're going to leave For 240 Day legs back to back and take the ship from San Diego to Hawaii and then down to Tahiti and then back again twice, to look at these big huge expanses over the Pacific, because a lot of people walk around Hawaii, Walker and California, they walk around New Zealand, but nobody's joining the dots between these big things that we're seeing. So that one is a huge because on one, an income, New Year, we're gonna go down to Tonga trench, and the idea is to get video and data from every 150 meters from the surface to the second deepest place on the planet. And to try and demonstrate that you don't have to be the deep sea guy, you don't have to be the shallower guy, just do all of it. You know, make make tickets, 90 days to do it. But let's do all of it. Let's do it right from the top to the bottom, on the sea floor and in the water call. And then a month after that, go up to the Philippine trench and do all again. And then by next Christmas, we'll be in Antarctica, and we'll do it again. But we'll do a sub zero temperatures. So, so three and a half is going to be mental. I think it's going to if we make it out alive, it was going to be amazing.

Nick VinZant 51:04

Does he ever does it ever freeze? Is this the zero freeze? No,

Alan Jamieson 51:11

don't So Sam is strange, which is Antarctica the it's the only place in the world which is subzero in the trenches. So it could because it's saltwater or the freezing point is lower. So you can get to just less than zero degrees, which is pretty hardcore thinking there's this beautiful little fish living there in sub zero temperatures, and a pressure of 800 atmospheres. And they're just swimming around being little fish.

Nick VinZant 51:35

I want to thank Alan so much for joining us. If you want to connect with him. We have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included his information in the episode description. If you are listening to this on May 10. The YouTube version of this interview will be live on May 11, at around 430 Pacific time. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. How do you feel about the ocean?

John Shull 52:12

Two emotions, coming to mind one terrified, and secondly, just damn impressed of it. My favorite thing to do is cruising. And I literally stand there and overlook the ocean. It's that incredible to me.

Nick VinZant 52:31

I have to say I don't really like it. I'm impressed by it. I'm scared of it. But I don't really like the ocean. I like the beach. I like going into the water. But once you get out there and like the Open, open ocean, I've only been on a cruise ship once. It's pretty terrifying.

John Shull 52:49

I'm more scared of of what you can see than what you can't see. But I would imagine what you can't see is more terrifying than actually what you can see. Which is even more terrifying when you really think about it.

Nick VinZant 53:01

Are you What are you more afraid of space? Are the ocean?

John Shull 53:06

mean the probably the ocean?

Nick VinZant 53:09

Yeah, there's something that seems to me more scary about it. I feel like it would be a worst death. I would rather die in space than in the ocean because I feel like in space at least is going to be a little bit quicker.

John Shull 53:21

Yeah, you know, I've heard the stories about people that are lost at sea or spend two, three weeks, you know, just sometimes drifting and on a boat that's disabled or a partner, you know, or one of those blowup rafts. I can't even imagine could you imagine being on a blow up raft? Say it's 15 feet long. And you're just in the ocean? Just going with the current that would be that would that would be that would be one of the worst ways i think i To die for me it would just something like that.

Nick VinZant 53:50

I would. That's what I think separates space from the ocean like in space, you're just as dead. But there's no real hope like, you know, like, nobody's coming for you. It's not like they're launching a backup shuttle, or somebody that might just happen to be flying by but in the ocean. There's a little bit of hope. Like well, maybe maybe. I feel like that's what makes it more scary.

John Shull 54:13

Until Yeah, there is a little bit of hope until you realize it's a plane that's 30,000 feet in the air and you can see them but they don't see or care about you. I just you know one of the this necessarily it was in the ocean but it was more like rain related was that we were on I was on a cruise ship one time and you can literally see the thunderstorm coming over the water. That was pretty intense. That was a moment I'll never forget.

Nick VinZant 54:41

I don't understand your love of cruise ships. i To me that's the worst vacation in the world. Just on this boat. I mean just it's basically like the whole vacation is just driving somewhere and coming back. No, it's basically a transportation vacation. You're just traveling but

John Shull 55:00

it's it's kind of what I said, opening up this this question you had was it just kind of being out in, excuse me in the middle of the ocean just I love the fact that you can literally turn off your phone and no one, you know, no one can know you get a hold of you, you're off the radar, or at least you think you're off the radar for a few days.

Nick VinZant 55:21

And understand when people say that, like who's who's contacting you what's going on all the time that you need to be off grid that much. I've never understood anyone who says that, like I just got to be off grid, like, then you need to just set better priorities in your daily life,

John Shull 55:37

you may be correct in saying that, that might be right. It's like

Nick VinZant 55:41

the only way that I can have any kind of boundaries and set priorities around my life is if I'm forced to be cut off from it. That's kind of what you're saying to me.

John Shull 55:51

I mean, I mean, you're right. I mean, you should set better boundaries. However, it you know, it's good to just get away and not have the responsibilities that you usually have. And on a cruise ship, it's easy to do. Because once you leave port, you're like what you said earlier, you're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe somebody will find you. Maybe they won't. Okay, all right. I just wanna I just want to I also just want to add that if you've never been on a cruise ship, do it. You owe it to yourself to at least do it once.

Nick VinZant 56:23

I would also like to add that if you have an opportunity to go on a cruise ship pass.

John Shull 56:28

So we'll start off with Charlie Faulkner. Nate half, Robert Finley, Jesse bolt. I like that. I like that name. For some reason Jesse bolt. It's a strong name to me.

Nick VinZant 56:42

JB and can be abbreviated as

John Shull 56:45

JB Curtis for Dylan Gregson. Nathan Roy chi Walker.

Nick VinZant 56:55

Clad Are you sure it's clad?

John Shull 56:59

Think actually, it might be Claude.

Nick VinZant 57:02

How do you spell it?

John Shull 57:03

I think I missed a you but I think it's C L A U D? I'm pretty sure it's Claude Burke not clad a Burke.

Nick VinZant 57:10

I wouldn't think that that'd be like naming somebody like pine well are like you don't name people words.

John Shull 57:18

I'm gonna end on the name of the week or shout out or the week which goes to Puerto Healy. But a great name Porter. I like that name.

Nick VinZant 57:28

Yeah, that's okay. That's one of those limited, limited names, right? Like, as long as it's in a limited number of people. That's a good name. Can't have too many people named Porter.

John Shull 57:39

So this is actually this is this is ironic that this would come up because on my bangers for you. Which by the way, Nick, and I don't really share, we don't share ideas before the show. Because why would we? Why would we be prepared? One of my questions was to ask you, if you could own one of these things, which one would you own? And it was a private jet or a like a cruise ship slash mini yacht? And but now I'm not I know what you're going to say because you've already expressed your displeasure with boat craft. So

Nick VinZant 58:11

yeah, I would go with a private jet. faster, more efficient, more convenient, because like otherwise, if you got a big private boat, like it's not like you can go anywhere with that. Or it takes you forever. So private jets and easy ones. Yeah. And I think it might I don't think the cost would be that much less.

John Shull 58:31

I'm gonna go a boat, I think it'd be great to have a boat and just sail and drive wherever you want it. Plain sounds great plan sounds like it'd be the obvious choice until you start thinking about you know, being in the Air lots cramped up.

Nick VinZant 58:46

You can't go wherever you want. Sure, you

John Shull 58:49

can you can still go around the world in a boat, it's gonna take longer and you're gonna have to, you know, once you get to a port, you don't have to take a car or something. But it's,

Nick VinZant 58:58

you're gonna have to take a plane so you still have to take the plane to get to some places right? You can take your boat to Spain, but how are you going to get to Sweden

John Shull 59:04

drive?

Nick VinZant 59:06

Or just have your private jet? Just you know, the private jets the better one right, like stop trying to justify it because you can. It's ridiculous. I just think the private jet is the better

John Shull 59:16

one. The important part of this is that I had a question involving a cruise ship. Before we even you even mentioned the question of a of a cruise. All right. What would you rather be as you grow? They're known for your endurance are known for your smallness?

Nick VinZant 59:36

Do you mean by basically endurance or strength?

John Shull 59:38

Yes. Life

Nick VinZant 59:40

is a marathon man. It's not a sprint. Endurance is always better.

John Shull 59:44

So you're going for the long longevity then you don't want to be don't be a rip hitter right out the gate. You want to be you know, the marathon?

Nick VinZant 59:51

Yeah. I want to try to have a good 20 to 30 year stretch rather than a good year stretch. See Right. That's that's the that's the mindset people who peak in high school.

John Shull 1:00:05

And you didn't peak in high school, look at your peak. And right now with that great hair,

Nick VinZant 1:00:09

I still hope I haven't paid paint. I'd like to peak. I would like to peak at 47.

John Shull 1:00:17

Well, you're only two years away, right?

Nick VinZant 1:00:19

Like this a little bit longer than that. Right?

John Shull 1:00:22

I have a buddy the other day. I didn't know how old he was. And he was mentioning his birthday coming up. And I said, Oh, well, how old are you? And he told me, he's gonna be 56. And I said, What? I've gone through life this whole time thinking you were 44th ups. And you're going to be, you know, mid 50s. Oof.

Nick VinZant 1:00:43

Hey, you're still really old. That's the difficulty though. If you look younger than you are, then people expect you to be a certain age. And then maybe they think that you're lame. Like, what if? like, Man, that's a really lame 35 year old? Oh, I'm 45. Oh, you always feel a little out of place. I think it's better to look younger. But then you also feel a little out of place, I think. Because you don't look like the age that you are same for people who looked like they were 30 in high school.

John Shull 1:01:16

I that Oh, that. That sentence just makes me want to throw things against the wall because of growing up in the era that we did. The LeBron James debate was every time you turn around, it was always he's not in high school. He's really 27 Or he's really 25. It's like, No, he isn't. He's just, you know, just built differently.

Nick VinZant 1:01:39

That is the thing. Usually when you see prodigy athletes, like they look 10 years older than they really are like, that's a grown man and 17.

John Shull 1:01:49

Right. All right, let's see. So, gonna take this off a little different path this week. And I want to ask you bring up something real fast. So guarding Guardians of the Galaxy three comes out this week? Well, actually, I think it came out like Friday, but either way, it's already Yeah. What's your thoughts on it? Is it going to be the movie of the year? Could you care less? Is it going to be you know, it's number three, obviously. So is it going to is it going to be just an just another moneymaker and just be a completely pointless movie to the storyline.

Nick VinZant 1:02:27

I am sick of basically all media and TV shows and movies. I feel like we haven't seen anything that is truly different. In the last five years, all of the big movies have been superhero movies, they've all been the same concept. All of the new shows that are coming out on Netflix or whatever. They're all these true crime things or young adult theater things. There really isn't anything new or different. That has come out in entertainment. I feel like in the last couple of years, the most recent thing that I saw would be like, Oh, that's a little bit different. Like that's something that I would actually like to watch and be interested in is the Sandman stuff that was on Netflix. That's the most recent thing that I've like, hasn't been basically either superhero movie or true crime.

John Shull 1:03:11

I mean, you know, I think you're that's a pretty bold statement. I don't agree with it.

Nick VinZant 1:03:18

Name the last couple of movies that you have seen that have? What's the last movie that you saw that you would be like that was different than a movie that I've seen before?

John Shull 1:03:26

While I wasn't necessarily thinking movies, but TV shows if you were copying that and I mean, you could say The Last of Us is different.

Nick VinZant 1:03:35

Zombie Walking Dead parity.

John Shull 1:03:38

Okay. succession, as you're gonna say business

Nick VinZant 1:03:42

basically, basically, business Soprano's.

John Shull 1:03:45

Ted lasso

Nick VinZant 1:03:47

that okay, I haven't actually seen it. But I've heard that maybe that's a different tone than other shows that it's a

John Shull 1:03:53

sports show, but it's not, you know, I mean, when's the last port show that's been successful other than Ted lasso. And I'm not talking about like the drive to survive or any of those like Docu series shows. I mean, like a TV show.

Nick VinZant 1:04:07

I don't think that there's really any I don't think that there's really very many non kind of news and or commentary related sports shows that have ever been successful. Ted last was probably the most successful one and I can't even think of something else that was centered around sports. It's even close.

John Shull 1:04:22

I mean, Coach back in the 90s. But I

Nick VinZant 1:04:25

Oh, yeah. But was he really coaching? Did he ever was here there Was there ever anything about him actually out on like the soccer field, or whatever he was supposedly coaching can't recall. I

John Shull 1:04:35

don't I don't think they actually ever showed any, like real scenes of athleticism.

Nick VinZant 1:04:42

Maybe Friday Night Lights,

John Shull 1:04:43

Friday lights? Yeah, that's a good one. I liked that show. But also, you know, it's hard for me to differentiate that show from like a because it's clearly made for a certain kind of demographic. And as I guess

Nick VinZant 1:04:56

it was more of a drama than it was an actual kind

John Shull 1:04:59

of like Yeah, but it was more of like for teenagers like if I watched it now I feel like I would care less about most things in that show.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:07

Yeah, I would agree with that.

John Shull 1:05:09

That's it. That's all I got were Oh, you don't have anything else that's it man. We ran through my console.

Nick VinZant 1:05:18

Okay, all right. Are you ready for our top five?

John Shull 1:05:20

Let's get it Bob.

Nick VinZant 1:05:22

So our top five are our top five his top five Bob's and Roberts do not count they have to go by bomb and only by Bob so any kind of like Robert De Niro's anything like that, that does not count they have to go by Bob. What's your number five.

John Shull 1:05:39

So as always, as I always do, I'm going to preface this with saying I did not realize how many Bob's there were like and I when I say that I mean people who go by the name Bob or went by the name Bob. And you're like, oh, that's Bob so and so. Anyways,

Nick VinZant 1:05:55

there's there's a lot but I would say that there are some at the top that are truly kind of influential in society. There's a lot of mid level Bob's

John Shull 1:06:05

I think you're not going to like my list because I think you're going to say a lot of my Bob's are outdated. But I feel that if you're saying a top five list, these Bob's have to be on it. So my number five is going to be Bob Hope.

Nick VinZant 1:06:20

Oh, that's pretty. That's going back. There are ways it is. But he was. He's somebody that if we were older, we might have actually put him much higher on the list. I think he was very influential at a certain time and probably one of the most famous people probably maybe one of the most famous Bob's but he's just not our time.

John Shull 1:06:40

Right. Well, that's that's what I said. I kind of tried to think all encompassing as I do on these lists, because my listeners barrier to yours. As given the video game top five characters list last week, in saying that

Nick VinZant 1:06:53

you had Donkey Kong tied with Mario, what's your number? It's just ridiculous. Bob Barker.

John Shull 1:06:59

Okay, so I have him on the list. He's a little higher up for me, but

Nick VinZant 1:07:05

I don't think he should be higher than five.

John Shull 1:07:08

But in terms of well, I'll get I'll get back to him in a minute or two. How about that? Okay, okay. Who's never for Bob Newhart?

Nick VinZant 1:07:20

What was the show that he was on?

John Shull 1:07:22

Oh, God, you would put me on the spot for this at all in

Nick VinZant 1:07:26

the family? No, it

John Shull 1:07:28

was not on the family. Um, the new heart, Bob, new heart. Yeah, I think it was the OH is called Bob Newhart Show. I thought you were trying to play a joke on me because I was gonna say I'm pretty sure it's a new heart show. And then you're gonna come out and say, it wasn't. But

Nick VinZant 1:07:45

I thought he was famous for something else though. I thought he was famous for another TV show and then got The Bob Newhart Show.

John Shull 1:07:53

Yeah, I don't know. I don't. I just know of him, literally from that show, and then the things he's done.

Nick VinZant 1:07:59

This makes no sense. This makes no sense. So the show was called The Bob Newhart Show. But in the show, he played someone else. He played ROBERT HARTLEY. So in the show named after him, he played someone else. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

John Shull 1:08:22

I want to say that I could give you a reason, but I can't I just, he is just that known that I had to put them on the list. So he's number four.

Nick VinZant 1:08:32

But why would they name the show after him? And then in the show, he plays a character who is not him?

John Shull 1:08:39

Maybe you should message? I don't know, whoever the producers were the show.

Nick VinZant 1:08:44

That's uh, how could you even explain that choice to somebody?

John Shull 1:08:49

I have no idea.

Nick VinZant 1:08:51

Bob Vila is my number four. Bob Vila was a staple of my childhood, both in terms of watching that show with my parents. And then making fun of anyone who was working on their home is like, Hey, Bob Vila. How's that going?

John Shull 1:09:07

Yeah, just No, just absolutely not. I can't No.

Nick VinZant 1:09:12

You can't put Bob Vila on there. Everybody knows who Bob Vila is.

John Shull 1:09:17

I think he's less known. I think he was known for a certain generation, which you could say about my first two. However, I feel like my first who have transcended history so far as where in 30 years people will not I feel the generation of today has no idea like people are googling right now who Bob Vila is when you said that

Nick VinZant 1:09:37

you would use a little Bob Vila maybe you would have gotten your basement done in less than four and a half years.

John Shull 1:09:41

Do you realize that you are the only person on this podcast that has brought up my basement every week since you gave me shit like a month ago? Person that talking about my basement?

Nick VinZant 1:09:51

Because you talked about it so much that now I have to find out about how you're going to talk about your basement this time. Listen, how long did it take you to do your basement? Right Bob Vila Uh, maybe if you would have watched those episodes, you could have got it done a little bit faster and a little bit cheaper and with less stress because Bob Vila is a solid number four.

John Shull 1:10:09

Well done, or you can we move on now.

Nick VinZant 1:10:12

I'm pretty proud of that extra eight. Okay? All right. That's

John Shull 1:10:16

Bob Barker's, my number two or three. My number three is Bob Barker. Sorry.

Nick VinZant 1:10:21

I think that's too high for Bob Barker. I think he's a sentimental picot best honestly. And I in hindsight, should maybe and put them on my number five,

John Shull 1:10:29

he is he is he was on, you know, the price is right for what, 50 years, 40 years. He he was how do I put this? Probably one of the top five talk show whatever you want to save all time, like he is known and he will be known, just the way that Alex Trebek was known and will still be known in 50 years. If people are watching Jeopardy, they will still know of Alex Trebek I feel it's the same way with the prices right people don't care about Drew Carey. They just look at him and see Bob huger Barker. Barker,

Nick VinZant 1:11:04

that's another name a guy who's more famous for his name, but I can't put Bob Euchre on the list. But he's a great name. Bob. You grouse. Um, what are we at my number three? Yes. Bob Saget.

John Shull 1:11:23

I mean, it's hard. I mean, you're gonna have a real issue with my number two. So I can't really say anything about your number three.

Nick VinZant 1:11:31

I think you're gonna have a real issue with my number two, two. I think we're getting into the top where you can kind of move some people around there. Right? Like there's some heavy hitters coming up for the bobs. But my number three is Bob Saget. And I know that he was America's dad at one point. But I would not say that he was influential like he didn't to me change the face of comedy or anything like that. He was more just a famous person who was who was funny, but I wouldn't say that he's on the level of the other. Top tier. Bob's

John Shull 1:12:00

like I remember Bob Saget as the really raunchy, terrible comedian more So nowadays, and I remember him from you know, America's dad. And I can't even remember who the like I can picture who the other two guys were, but I can't remember their names. The other two dads were

Nick VinZant 1:12:19

I can remember for some reason the guy who was bulky Bartok a moose? I don't know if she was that show that like came after that. I was like Trading Places or something like that. There are two foreign guys. Now keep our tacos,

John Shull 1:12:33

though. TJ was a TGIF. on ABC on Friday nights. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 1:12:39

I remember that picture of that house, though more than I remember anything from the actual show. He turned out to be the most famous person from that show, though. I think even though he wasn't necessarily the star. What's your number two.

John Shull 1:12:53

My number two is Bob Seger. Michigan zone by the way, Bob Seger. Here

Nick VinZant 1:13:01

we go. That's why the problem is is that when you compare Bob Seger to the other two musical Bob's that may or may not be on this list, he is the last of those. Bob's there's two other Bob's in music that are famous, more famous and more influential than he is.

John Shull 1:13:16

Uh huh. Well, I Okay, I'm kidding. You're,

Nick VinZant 1:13:19

you're forgetting you're forgetting one of them. Oh, boy.

John Shull 1:13:21

All right. Well, is he your number two?

Nick VinZant 1:13:24

No, my number two is Bob Ross. I love Bob Ross. Everybody loves Bob Ross.

John Shull 1:13:31

Once again, I feel like he's like your Bob Vila pick. He's. He's okay. But he won't be remembered outside of his

Nick VinZant 1:13:39

time. You won't be remembered Bob Ross won't be remembered. Bob Ross won't be remembered. Why? Because they after like 20 years after he did it. They just re released all of his episodes on Netflix. Everybody likes Rob Ross.

John Shull 1:13:52

He's he's become he's become a meme. And a joke is what he's become now.

Nick VinZant 1:13:58

He's not become a no, he has become a symbol of peace, hope and prosperity in life. He has become a symbol of hope for people and relaxation. You're like, Oh, Bob Ross. Man, I could watch some Bob Ross. Just watch the guy pain. Just watch somebody having a good time with their life and encouraging other people around him. He's not just one of the most famous Bob's he's a great role model and an inspiration to generations of people in the past and moving forward. Don't disrespect Bob Ross. Bobby, that's too that's too that I've gotten you with and you just feel like I mean, I

John Shull 1:14:36

don't agree with it, but I'm not gonna cut you off.

Nick VinZant 1:14:38

Is your shirt inside out?

John Shull 1:14:40

It was not no.

Are you sure? Yes. Okay, all right, check.

That sentence alone is gonna get 50 more people to watch. Whatever you post with me in it this week. All right, my number one,

Nick VinZant 1:14:55

your shirt is inside out. It is not why does it have such a straight collar like at the look at the okay you know the thing where the shoulders meet there's no tag and you get the line on your shirt you got way too pronounced of a shirt for that to be inside not me inside out look at it.

John Shull 1:15:11

I agree with you. I actually when I when I when I joined in I was like, Oh, my shirt it looks inside out but it is not inside out.

Nick VinZant 1:15:19

Have you checked it though?

John Shull 1:15:20

I just showed you the the color of the shirt. There's no tag back there.

Nick VinZant 1:15:27

But the tags not on the other side either. So how do you know it's not inside out?

John Shull 1:15:32

Anyways, my number one. Bob the Builder. Just kidding. It is not my number one. Bob Marley.

Nick VinZant 1:15:42

Yeah. Yeah, that's my number one, two. But I think that he is number one really? Bob

John Shull 1:15:49

Marley Moore. Who was the other Bobby referring to musician,

Nick VinZant 1:15:53

Bob Dylan. Oh, yeah, really? Probably. Really, if we did this list, like accurately and not based off a personal opinion, it would probably be like, do you could make an argument that one and two are interchangeable, but it would definitely be Bob Dylan Bob Marley at the top.

John Shull 1:16:13

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I'm not taking anything away. Bob Dylan's definitely top 10 I don't know if he's, if he's top three. But yeah, that was one that I did not think of him for whatever reason. But that's a good one.

Nick VinZant 1:16:29

Yeah, I think that Bob Seger was like the more popular musical version of Bob Dylan. Like, Bob Dylan might have some really good lyrics in the message. But Bob Seger was like, you just kind of liked his music a little bit better. Like the Bob Dylan songs. Like I just that's that's the kind of song artists that I just couldn't imagine like just driving down the road listening to all of that, like you're gonna listen to like 10 of those songs in a row. Like I'm not that depressed

John Shull 1:16:59

no thought you'd be in Texas by the time you finish those 10 songs

Nick VinZant 1:17:03

just like well it's there's things that he uses words that I don't know what that means, right? Like the summer gasoline rainbow. Well, what does that mean? To whatever you want it to mean man is whatever you want it to mean. Okay, who's in your honorable mentions? There's a lot of like mid tier Bob's Yeah, I kept

John Shull 1:17:23

it relatively short for my honorable mentions. But

Alan Jamieson 1:17:29

Bob Dole.

Nick VinZant 1:17:31

Yeah, I remember Bob Dole. He was a I was from Kansas, where Bob Dole I also remember Bob Dole, like falling off the podium. It was a great video, Bob Dole falling off the podium. So

John Shull 1:17:42

I do have Bob Euchre on there, by the way. I mean, he's a household name. In the sports world. He's everybody knows him. I don't know if he's, I don't know his top five or 10. But he's definitely honorable mention for me.

Nick VinZant 1:17:54

He's in like the top 25 I think he's up there.

John Shull 1:17:57

Yeah, for sure. Bobby Knight, Bob Knight remember him the basketball coach.

Nick VinZant 1:18:04

Is he a bob or a Bobby though? I know him as a Bobby.

John Shull 1:18:08

Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it as Bob but yeah, he's known i You might be right on that one. Okay, another sports guy. Bob Gibson. Baseball, baseball. Yep. Fantastic. And then Bob Hoskins was the other one I had actor extraordinaire Bob Hoskins and no no no no, no

Nick VinZant 1:18:31

that is Bob Ross. You

John Shull 1:18:32

are terrible.

Nick VinZant 1:18:34

You know who I would make an argument that might be the most up and coming Bob and would maybe should have been on the list but he's definitely the most popular Bob right now is Bob Odenkirk guy from Better Call Saul.

John Shull 1:18:48

No, he's no he's not even a top 20 of Bob's of all time right now. Right

Nick VinZant 1:18:52

now he's he's got the fastest increase right now, though. He's the only one who's picking up speed. Everybody else is kind of trying to hold on or declining. The only one picking up speed is Bob Odenkirk. No other famous Bob's on the horizon. Um, who else is in my top honors? The other honorable mentions that I got a Bob Costas.

John Shull 1:19:10

Oh yeah. Good ones.

Nick VinZant 1:19:12

I'm still confused as to how Bob Newhart had a show called The Bob Newhart Show but then in the show didn't play Bob Newhart played somebody else.

John Shull 1:19:21

I mean, look it up then.

Nick VinZant 1:19:25

That doesn't make any sense. Okay. Let's see any other famous Bob's? Ah, nobody really?

John Shull 1:19:32

Yeah, we we narrowed it down. I

Nick VinZant 1:19:34

think there is a bob Denver.

John Shull 1:19:38

Yeah, no, not John Denver.

Nick VinZant 1:19:42

Yeah, that's but that's not John Denver.

John Shull 1:19:45

Oh, Bob Evans.

Nick VinZant 1:19:47

Don't know who he is.

John Shull 1:19:49

The restaurants Bob Evans.

Nick VinZant 1:19:53

What About Bob? Bob Backlund

John Shull 1:19:56

don't shoot. I'm

Nick VinZant 1:19:57

missing a wrestling match. I thought you were a Big Time Wrestling. should

John Shull 1:20:00

have a Bob Backlund I think Bob was deserves to be on the list.

Nick VinZant 1:20:05

No, it doesn't.

John Shull 1:20:05

That's just because you've never been there. Yeah, because I

Nick VinZant 1:20:09

have tastebuds. Oh, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a rating or review doesn't have to be some big thing. Just a couple of quick words. It really helps us out. I've lost track a little bit. But I think next episode is going to be our 200 and 50th. The idea is to do something special, but we'll see if that happens or not. Let us know though what you think are some of the best Bob's I do think the top two is really going to have to be Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, maybe even Bob Hope if you're from an older generation, but after that the kind of mid tier Bob's are really an interchangeable I mean, I could see Bob Saget going anywhere from three to like 10 but let us know what you think are some of the best Bob's


Speedrunner EazySpeezy

Speedrunning video games isn’t just about beating the game as fast as you can. It’s about community. And with nearly 2.5 million followers on YouTube alone, Speedrunner EazySpeezy is one of the most popular video game Speedrunners. We talk Speedrunning video games, making a living online and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Then, we unveil a new Candle of the Month and Countdown the Top 5 Video Game Characters.

EazySpeezy: 01:33

Pointless: 35:05

Top 5: 58:00

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Interview with Video Game Speedrunner EazySpeezy

Space Artist Laci Brock

As an artist, Dr. Laci Brock mixes art with science. Using her PhD in Planetary Astrophysics to create realistic paintings showcasing what galaxies, planets and other celestial bodies really look like. We talk space art, exoplanets and finding her inspiration. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Space Movies.

Dr. Laci Brock: 02:05

Pointless: 34:10

Top 5: 57:33

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Interview with Space Artist Dr. Laci Brock of Stellar Arts

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode space art, and space movies,

Laci Brock 0:21

I think the sense that you get when you look up at the night sky, you can look at it. And you could think, Whoa. And so I think space art can invoke these deep, complex feelings about human nature and where we fit in, I didn't even show my art to people, really, no one really knew I could paint, it was just sort of my little secret, I had sort of trouble with my identity, I didn't really think I could call myself a real artist. This piece combines two images from JW S T. One of them is a composite, and it has near infrared and mid infrared wavelengths. And the other one is just mid infrared wavelengths. And I weave those together in this checkerboard pattern to kind of show what the Pillars of Creation looks like.

Nick VinZant 1:07

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest blends science and art to create realistic images of what the universe really looks like. She has a PhD in planetary astrophysics. And what I think is really interesting about this is that her artwork has a scientific explanation as to this is what this galaxy or planet or other thing in the cosmos might look like. And this is why we think it looks like this. This is space artist, Dr. Lacey Brock. So what came first for you the science or the art.

Laci Brock 2:08

I think they both came at the same time. Honestly, I've been obsessed the science since I was little, maybe four years old. And I can't remember a time when I didn't have a paintbrush in my hand. They've always been next to each other. And I've done them simultaneously my whole life.

Nick VinZant 2:26

When did this kind of become the goal for you?

Laci Brock 2:28

I have the cliche story. I love to looking outside at the sky and see the clouds and looking at the stars. And I grew up in Indiana on a farm and I just decided that I wanted to study weather space and volcanoes does all of it. I didn't know that you had to pick a specific focus. I thought you could just be a scientist and you did everything. And painting was always just sort of this fun hobby for me not I never planned to sell my art to people. I didn't even show my art to people really, I no one really knew I could paint it was just sort of my little secret.

Nick VinZant 3:10

Then when did it transition into full time?

Laci Brock 3:13

Probably in 2017. I was a graduate student at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory here in Tucson at the University of Arizona. The department I was in actually had this annual space art show called The Art of planetary sciences. And I thought what a whole show was space art. And I had always loved painting landscapes and space and sometimes animals. So I painted something and I submitted it to the show. And I also helped volunteer and help run it because it was run by grad students in our department. And I submitted one piece, it was something I did in spray paint. And the night of the opening of the show, I was standing on the main floor and I could see my piece in the background. I was so nervous, like nobody knew like I was Lacey. And that was my art. Except, you know, my friends in the department. Strangers were walking around looking at the art. And I saw somebody just stand up my piece for a long time. I mean, maybe it was only three minutes, but to me that somebody I didn't know was staring at my art for the first time and I got really excited and anxious. And I just kind of awkward. So I walked over there and I just was like, I painted that. Like, I'm best me it was like no, I did I do that. But I just thought I wanted I wanted to know like, did they like it or was it? Tell me about it. Right. Like I blacked out after that. I don't know what he said. I think he was like, colors are nice. It's not he liked it. But I don't remember exactly what he said. But yeah, definitely I did that.

Nick VinZant 4:56

I know what you mean, right? Like you want to say something like profound and cool. Watch that it just comes out like me did.

Laci Brock 5:04

I'm lazy, thumbs up. But it was a completely different feeling from, oh, I painted this for fun and you know, gave it to a family member or gave it to a friend, or just hung it up in my room,

Nick VinZant 5:18

I would imagine that that would be inspiring in the sense that somebody that you didn't know, like the work that you are creating.

Laci Brock 5:24

Yeah, I think a lot of artists probably feel this way. But we are our own worst critics. And we paint something and see it almost differently than somebody else may do the art. And so I thought my painting was cool. But I didn't think it deserved to be in this art show with other real artists, I had sort of trouble with my identity, I didn't really think I could call myself a real artist.

Nick VinZant 5:52

Did that hold you back at all?

Laci Brock 5:54

I think maybe if I overcame that challenge earlier in my life, I would maybe have shared my art sooner. But it kind of goes back to when I was younger, I got all of this advice. From my high school guidance counselor, especially, you can't be a scientist and an artist, people would actively give me that advice. And it made me think that scientists weren't artists.

Nick VinZant 6:17

Why would somebody give you that advice? Like what was the kind of I mean, obviously, we're not like looking this guy up and going after him necessarily. We're getting this guy, all right, unleash them up. But like why? Why would there be that kind of a feeling amongst people that you can't combine science and art is that I don't know,

Laci Brock 6:36

it was. I remember sitting in the guidance counselor's office. And I mean, I, my I was raised by a single dad, and no one in my family has a college degree, I was a first generation student. So I went in there saying, I would like to be a scientist and an artist, I would like to do something with both. And he kind of old so he took the newspaper. And he tossed it at me. And he said, look in the classifieds. Do you see a wanted ad for an artist? And I think it was this old mentality starving artists are isn't a real career. And so I think, would people when I said, these are the things that I really liked. People were like, well, you can't survive being an artist. Why would you do that? Like go for science, and no one ever like these people? I remember when I tell the story, people are like, Well, why would you listen to a high school guidance counselor, they don't know what they're talking about? Well, I'm raised by single dad and I live on a farm in rural Indiana. Who am I going to listen to? My dad doesn't know, my grandma doesn't know, like, who helps me? How do I learn? And so I had this idea in my head for so long that I couldn't do both.

Nick VinZant 7:46

So when we talk about like space art, right, like, okay, it's art about space, right? But how would you kind of categorize it? What fits into the category of space art,

Laci Brock 7:57

when I think of space, or I think of nebulae, galaxies, planets. I think that space art can be real or imagined. Me personally, I really like to paint objects, real objects that were taken by images that were taken by telescopes. But I think space art can also be your own nebula that you create, because the universe is very large. And there's a lot that we still don't know and understand. And for many, many things, we don't have pictures of them. We don't have, you know, pictures of exoplanets light years away, as we do have Jupiter in our own solar system. And so I think that space art can fall in this category of objects. But that could be something that you create on your own. And I think space art is really important now, especially as we're discovering all these exoplanets, what might this exoplanet look like? How can we compare that to Earth, and I think art really can come in to make communicating science more relatable and easy to understand.

Nick VinZant 9:07

So when you paint something, or when you create a piece of space art, is it based off of the science like okay, this is what we think that this thing might actually look like? Or is it more up to your interpretation?

Laci Brock 9:20

I think you can do both. I've definitely the objects that I studied during my PhD brown dwarfs, I've definitely painted those before, and what they might look like were based in science, but there was a little artistic croute you know, creativity there as well, because I really like painting with bright bold colors. I think the biggest thing for me was space art is that I have struggled trying to come up with my own style. And I think it finally clicked last year, where I painted this big painting of Jupiter's Great Red Spot from a voyager image and I ended up really connecting this piece with science because I thought, I can't just paint Jupiter's Great Red Spot, I paint Jupiter all the time, I should do something different. So I took real research and data from the Hubble and Gemini telescopes. And I painted two large rectangles on the piece. And one of the rectangles was what the Great Red Spot would look like in ultraviolet wavelengths. And the other was what it would look like in infrared wavelengths. And, and this piece took me seven months, it was like it was right. Like when my postdoc was finishing, and I was thinking, What am I, you know, what am I going to do, I really need a break, maybe I'll just do art. And I looked at it and clicked. And I was like, This is my style multispectral art, where I can take and there's one piece behind me. And I was like, I can take data and images from telescopes in different wavelengths and weave them together. And it tells you a story about the science just if you look at it, why are there so many stars in that one part, but not over? Not over here? So that's when I really thought like, Okay, this is my style. And this is how I can connect science and art. And this is who I am.

Nick VinZant 11:14

Does the space art? In your opinion? Does it seem to have the same kind of effect on people that other art does? Or is it something that like, Oh, that's cool to look at?

Laci Brock 11:26

Okay, I'm probably biased. But I think that space are, it's hard for me to compare to other you know, how people feel when they look at other art. But I think the sense that you get when you look up at the night sky, and you realize that we live on a rock floating in space that these feelings are deeply akin even just they're indescribable. I think I even tweeted this a few days ago, I just went outside to let my dog out and just looked up and was like, Whoa, and I think that's what space are, you can look at it. And you could think, Whoa, those are all galaxies, you know, and you kind of come to terms with? Well, I'm just a tiny human. And so I think space art can invoke these deep, complex feelings about human nature and where we fit in, is there life out there? And I think those feelings are maybe different than somebody might get looking at an abstract piece or a portrait. But for me, definitely, I think space art is just so profound. But again, I think I'm biased. And also when I look at abstract art, I don't know. I don't know what to think. I don't know what I'm looking at. I get confused. So maybe I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Nick VinZant 12:42

I think the thing that would hold me personally back is like, that can't be real. Like that's not real. Is that a challenge? Or I guess what do you kind of think about, like, in my mind, like, all right, there's this nebula, but it's not like real to me, in the way that the tree outside is real.

Laci Brock 13:03

Yeah, that's a really good point. I'll tell you a story because I just talked about how space are, you know, can evoke these deep feelings of who we are? What's out there is there other life. And I that's what I think. And so I was taking, I took an art class for fun. During my PhD, I was in the art department. And for one of my first paintings, I did the Milky Way, like this night sky scape. And we were in critique in the class, and another student said that my art was trying to hurt. And I thought, how could you look at the Milky Way and think that it was trite, because I'm also a scientist, and I think, looked at all like, how many exoplanets are out there, and I have all these thoughts about it. But this student was telling me that it was trite because it was, I guess, kind of popular on social media, a lot of people like painting galaxies or night skyscapes because it was popular. So she had a completely different perspective of a Milky Way painting than I did. And so I think that goes back to what you mentioned that maybe it's so hard to grasp, and unrelatable that it's just not important to some people, and it's overdone. I don't know that. That was a weird day. I thought, Well, how could you think that looking at the Milky Way? I guess

Nick VinZant 14:31

I could see that both ways, too, in the same sense, right? Like there's a famous painting of the soup can like, in one level, it could speak to this profound nature of our existence. Or it's a fun soup can Yeah, it's kind

Laci Brock 14:44

of like it's just an all white painting. For a lot of money, stuff like Yes, and I don't think that is any less art. I just in the same way that maybe somebody doesn't care about the Milky Way or they can't relate to that I don't relate to a painting that's just all white I really like color. So I don't understand. But I think that's part of the fun of art is that it is subjective. And people can get different things out of different types of paintings.

Nick VinZant 15:11

But do you like do you feel an obligation that with your science background that even though this can be up to interpretation that like, No, I kind of got to make this like, what it really would be like, or what I really think it would be to have a factual so to speak basis to it.

Laci Brock 15:28

I try to paint things accurately. But I'm not a stickler for it. And so I think it depends on the audience and the purpose for the art. If the graphic is specifically been designed to be the cover of a research journal, or in an article, I think trying to make it look as realistic or portrayed as accurately as, as you can is important because you make give somebody misconceptions. This, this piece behind me, the reference images are from the James Webb Space Telescope, and I have tried to place all the stars as accurately as possible. And I've been counting them. Guess how many stars I'm at so far, I would painted 7521. So far, I'm literally counting them like I'm a crazy person. I thought, this will be fun. Because I want to know, like, how many how many stars are just in this square painting? I wonder? So

Nick VinZant 16:39

I guess when you go and you're going to start a new painting, right? So what is generally speaking your process like what inspires you? How do you decide what you want to do?

Laci Brock 16:49

I think the most important, important part of my process is creating the reference. And lately, I've been really inspired by the images from JW s t. And this piece combines two images from JW S T. One of them is a composite, and it has near infrared and mid infrared wavelengths. And the other one is just mid infrared wavelengths. And I weave those together in this checkerboard pattern to kind of show what the Pillars of Creation looks like in different wavelengths. And the JW S T images that keep coming out and I can't paint fast enough. So I keep planning my next painting. But with this multispectral art that I've created, I'm you know, taking images from Hubble, and from JW, S T and or other telescopes, and I'm trying to weave them together in interesting ways. And so what I'll do is I'll create a reference. And then after I've created that, I sort of deconstructed in my mind, and I know exactly how to paint it. As soon as I have the reference, I know what I'm going to do. And I just sort of break it down in my mind. It's different layers, like slices. And I usually draw the image on the canvas and, you know, do a sort of under painting to give the canvas some color. And then I start with a bunch of layers, and I build up layers and details. And I love using lots of colors, bold colors, and a lot of details is sort of my favorite thing to do. I can paint in six different mediums, I think. But oils is my favorite oils is these pieces behind me or in oils. And those take a long time. Probably because I like adding little tiny details. You probably can't even see them from far away. But I think if somebody would walk up to them, they could see all the subtle color changes and details in my pieces. And that's what makes me the happiest just fun colors and details.

Nick VinZant 18:56

How long will it usually take you like if you went from very start to finish

Laci Brock 19:00

depends on the size. And I've I've never really painted full time. Last July was when my postdoc ended. And I tried to keep track of how many you know how long a piece takes but but not rigidly because that gets that stresses me out. And I don't want to think about it by large Jupiter painting. It's in the other room that took me seven months. How popular

Nick VinZant 19:25

would you say that it is compared to other forms. It's

Laci Brock 19:29

much more popular than I realized. I I think when we had the art shows in our departments, we had three or 400 pieces sent from all over the world to a space art show. And that that's been going on for maybe 10 years. It's probably hard for me to place it among other art one because I don't like is this contemporary or modern? I don't really know. I don't really know the art lingo either. But I was surprised that space art was more Popular then I realized I thought it was just gonna be me. I thought I was like, I'm the one who's paid space. I was like, Wait a second. So many other people pay space as well.

Nick VinZant 20:09

But there's Well then how many of them also have PhDs though? You might be the only Pi was

Laci Brock 20:15

but I have some friends that I've met through social media that some people have their PhDs and our businesses.

Nick VinZant 20:22

Are you ready for some harder slash?

Laci Brock 20:25

Oh, I'm so bad at question.

Nick VinZant 20:29

What would you consider to be the best planet?

Laci Brock 20:33

I'm very passionate about Jupiter. Jupiter is my favorite planet. All my followers on Twitter know that I'm obsessed with Jupiter. I have a tattoo of Jupiter.

Nick VinZant 20:42

But is it just because it has different colors?

Laci Brock 20:44

I think it's I studied brown dwarfs. And those are sort of the in between giant gaseous planets and low mass stars, they have properties of both. And they have clouds. But early in their lifetimes. They confuse deuterium. They're these weird hybrid objects. And Jupiter is sort of the closest thing we have in our solar system to a brown dwarf. But also, I've been obsessed with Jupiter since I was really really young. It was my favorite planet. I I just think yes, it does look cool. But it's just I was obsessed with weather and storms. I actually started as an atmospheric science major, but I switched to physics because I wanted to study clouds or storms on other worlds, which is what I ended up doing. And Jupiter just has the Great Red Spot a giant storm and other storms. It's so it's like, you know, the combination of weather and storms in space. That's Jupiter just takes the cake.

Nick VinZant 21:46

The other one is kind of, I guess, because you studied exoplanets? What's the best looking exoplanet?

Laci Brock 21:52

I don't I have no

Nick VinZant 21:54

idea. Well, good. We know what they look like.

Laci Brock 21:57

We don't really know what they look like. That's something that JW S T will help us study because we may find a planet that you know, oh, it's in the habitable zone, but could be maybe it's orbiting a red dwarf. So I don't know, its atmosphere has probably been vaporized long ago. And they're, you know, and it's tidally locked. So we don't really know what they look like. That's where the artists renditions come in and help because we can take the data that we have, like, oh, it looks like it has lots of hydrogen in its atmosphere. Or, you know, maybe it's a very primitive atmosphere, and then we can kind of, you know, paint something to represent what it might look like. I, I can't, I can't think of my favorite exoplanet. I know that the TRAPPIST one planets are really interesting, simply because there are so many of them orbiting such a small star. So maybe those are I pick those, those are the best exoplanets?

Nick VinZant 22:51

Is there anything that you would consider to be like, Oh, that's I would like to do this. I'll use the word celestial body. I don't know if that's the right word or not. But like, I think in space that would like I do that, but that's too hard.

Laci Brock 23:04

I thought painting a nebula would be really difficult because it's gas and dust and it's translucent and places. And when I started this piece, I thought it looked like shit. Like my, my squares, the checkerboard. It was just like really blue and really orange. And it did not look good when I started it. And I thought, Oh, I'm not going to be able to paint a nebula this way. I should have started the piece in a different way. But I think it's turning out okay. And I realized my method and approach worked. Oh, wait a second. I remembered I have a painting of Saturn's rings. That's hard. That's why I have a painted Saturn because I don't like painting. Measuring and making things symmetrical. It's it's really hard. I want the what the ruins what the lines look crisp and nice ellipse. But it's a pain. I gave up on it all day. I'll figure it out someday.

Nick VinZant 24:05

Is there like one piece of what would you say is probably the most popular piece of space art.

Laci Brock 24:10

People really like to imagine their own little like, I think I think back to that girl who called My Milky Way trait. I think what got really popular on social media a long time ago, maybe like way before I was like sharing art. People like to paint watercolor just blues and purples and flick white stars on it like and say oh galaxy, I think I think that's really popular or it used to be, which is sort of why that I keep calling her girl. Woman said Oh, that's right. I think that's what got really popular. Just sort of watercolor galaxies.

Nick VinZant 24:51

Does the earth count is space art.

Laci Brock 24:54

I think so. And I also I'm not really big on this is space or this is not space art because I don't even know what I don't even know what contemporary artists, I couldn't look at a piece and tell you what kind of art it is. I think if you painted like a picture of a pineapple, it's not space art. Because it's a pineapple, but Earth counts for sure.

Nick VinZant 25:17

Best sci fi, art depiction.

Laci Brock 25:21

Interstellar, the black hole. I was really good. I'd say probably to answer that. Probably interstellar with a black hole. Kip Thorne is an actual astrophysicist. And you work with them with that film. And so I think even a paper came out of depicting the black hole for the movie. Don't quote me on that. But there Yeah, that there was a lot of work involved in trying to make the black hole look accurate.

Nick VinZant 25:49

Um, all right. So this is one of the pictures of yours that jumped out at me because we talked about brown dwarfs. So looking at this, how did you paint this? Why did you choose those colors kind of walk me through it?

Laci Brock 26:05

So we we don't know exactly. If brown dwarf has banding on it. Jupiter has bands of color at different colors. It's rotating fast. We don't really know exactly what a brown dwarf looks like. But we know that they have clouds. And we know that they have different layers of clouds. So we've learned that through spectra of these objects part of what I did during my PhD. So to paint this, I took the I sort of took an image of Jupiter in my mind. And some research suggested maybe brown forests have banding. So I sort of did banding and, you know, sort of made little storms and Eddie's and brown dwarfs are bright in the infrared. So we think that they may look like reddish brownish, or they're not brown, but like a red orange, or like a magenta, depending on the temperature. And then maybe the coolest brown dwarfs or maybe like a like adult purple. So I sort of took the possibility that they had banding because they do have in their atmospheres clouds. That idea from Jupiter. And then you know, the thought about what colors they may look like in the infrared.

Nick VinZant 27:30

How about this one? This is a Hubble's cosmic reef.

Laci Brock 27:34

Oh, yeah, that for what

Nick VinZant 27:37

kind of looks like to me like the gassy stuff. I don't know what word like what would that represent? Like, what am I I guess what am I looking at?

Laci Brock 27:47

star forming regions, stars being formed? Oh, I have a description. star forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Oh, okay. So yeah, there's a satellite like small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way The Large Magellanic Clouds and stars are forming in these regions. Usually, when you see a nebula image, like there are stars forming somewhere in there, like the pillars behind me. But the scale on this is like this is really, this is really large, like light years across. I don't remember how many.

Nick VinZant 28:23

I bought this one. This looks more like an artist's kind of interpretation, right? Oh,

Laci Brock 28:27

yeah. So that's the moon Europa, and there was some interesting work that came out that it might glow in the dark. So I tried to, I tried to paint that there was a reference image that it was an artist's conception, like, you know, maybe what the glow might look like. So I tried to combine Europa with the glow using actual images of Europa, actual images of Europa plus the artist's conception, I tried to just blend that together.

Nick VinZant 29:04

So the blueish green part would be what the kind of brownish, clear ish part would be what

Laci Brock 29:11

the bluish part I try to remember the study, I think it was on the night side of Europa, because Jupiter's magnetic field is just really, really immense, its immense, very large. And the interaction with the surface of Europa is sort of where the glow might come from. And then the the non blue part like the browns and reds, those are like the cracks in the surface of Europa because there's a large subsurface ocean. And what we actually a mission recently launched the juice mission to study the icy moons of the Jupiter system. And we don't really know how thick the ice shell is on Europa, but we know there's this globe Well subsurface ocean. And the the cracks you get in the surface are sort of from the crust moving on that ice shell. And the colors are from some type of hydrated salts. Europe has a really interesting moon, especially just because of the ocean underneath. There's a lot of interest in astrobiology for this moon. And the glow is just this really cool interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. I think

Nick VinZant 30:32

I have a one more, and this will be our right this one. This is Jupiter's red spot, right. So kind of,

Laci Brock 30:42

that's a piece I was talking about earlier. Yeah, it's Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the big storm that's larger than our planet that's been churning for hundreds of years. And the original image was taken in visible light from the Voyager spacecraft, Voyager two, I think. Now the rectangles are what Jupiter's Great Red Spot would look like a different wavelengths of light. So the purple is ultraviolet. And the red is infrared. And I try to simulate that I use images and data from the Hubble and Gemini telescopes. And then I sort of super imposed and created those in this Voyager image,

Nick VinZant 31:29

and the wavy stuff kind of rounded, that would be what.

Laci Brock 31:34

So it's all the clouds moving around the spot a spot you can think of it like a, like a big hurricane, like a giant storm larger than Earth. And so it's just the atmosphere is just churning this storm. And then around is just, you know, the other like little white circle below it is just another little storm. And it's sort of the clouds are spinning around and you know, feeding the storm. And so in the different wavelengths, you could see that the infrared at kind of the brighter areas or the hotter areas. And then all ultraviolet, you can see that the there isn't any blue, or red, there isn't any red, it's all purple, because different wavelengths of light are being absorbed. So what you're seeing is this complex storm, and there's interesting chemistry that happens. There's an interesting chemistry with the sun's light that's hitting it, there's interesting reactions that cause haze and kind of make this red orange color around the spot. And then the infrared areas just show you, you know, where the heat is being generated where there's more heat. It looks cool. Yeah, thank you. It's my favorite one. Um,

Nick VinZant 32:58

so that's pretty much all the questions that we got what's kind of coming up next for you? Where can people find you? Where can people find the art that kind of stuff?

Laci Brock 33:07

I bought all the social medias, all the places, and it's at stellar arts, but it's spelled with an E S T. E ll e AR arts. And it's not because I can't spell it's because like I said earlier, I like birds. And so the Steller's Jay is one of my favorite birds. So it was like a way space art and birds all in one. Everything combined dollar arts, whatever, Twitter tick tock YouTube Instagram.

Nick VinZant 33:36

I want to thank Dr. Brock so much for joining us if you want to connect with her. We have linked to her on our social media accounts. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included her information in the episode description, if you're interested in finding out more about her art and what it looks like. The YouTube version of this interview will be up on Thursday, April 27. And we have included a lot of her pictures in that video. Okay, now, let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of this show. How far in this space? Would you go? Leave the planet? Solar System galaxy? Like if you could, how far out into space? Would you really go?

John Shull 34:25

If so, if I didn't have a family, I would go and never have to come back. I mean, I would go until you know, on a mission to where I knew I was gonna die. With a family obviously that changes unless I can take them. But say I can't then I would just go I would like to go to the moon then. Because what does that take two or three weeks to get to or two weeks or something?

Nick VinZant 34:48

I think it's three days on the moon and back. But right I think you can get to like Mars in a month. I wouldn't. I wouldn't even go to the moon. I think I would get just enough about of where I could see like the whole earth and then that's, that's as far out into space, as I'm really willing to go.

John Shull 35:06

For some reason I've always had a fascination with the sun. And I know it's not possible, but can you imagine getting getting close to that? I mean, not not obviously, where it's going to burn you alive, but close enough to where it's like, Fuck, this is hot.

Nick VinZant 35:23

Yeah, dude. I mean, we can do that on Earth, just go to Arizona. You can go, you can go to Arizona, and it can feel like that. That thing's 93 million miles away. And it's hot. It's too hot in Arizona. And as a former Arizona resident, I can say that, like that's cool. Arizona is close enough to the sun. For me. That's as close as I need to

John Shull 35:44

get there's two things that you just that you just said that I'm interested one. How did you know how many million miles it was just off the top of your head?

Nick VinZant 35:51

I don't really know how you don't? I don't everybody knows the sun is 93 million miles away. Do you? Did you not know that?

John Shull 36:00

I mean, I knew it was millions of miles. I couldn't I probably couldn't I would not have come within 50 miles of being correct, I'm sure.

Nick VinZant 36:11

Well, I mean, when you're talking about millions of miles, 50 miles, that's really nailing it down pretty close.

John Shull 36:18

Like if you were to say, Hey, John, you know, give me a guess of how many million miles away the sun is? I probably wouldn't have come within 25 You know, million miles or whatever have been correct.

Nick VinZant 36:30

What would your guests have been before? I said, 93.

John Shull 36:33

I'm gonna probably would have been, I mean, 25.

Nick VinZant 36:36

Yeah, but in my mind, there's also no difference between 25,000,090 3 million miles that's still like, each one of those is like, that's pretty far.

John Shull 36:45

I've always wondered how how, you know, however, they actually, like measured accurately.

Nick VinZant 36:53

Math. Okay, is the best answer for that. I mean, I think the actual answer is they can like look at gravity and things like that. I don't really know. I just know that smarter people like, but I don't know that. But people who are like, well, I don't understand how that works. Well, I don't understand how TV works either. Doesn't mean it doesn't work.

John Shull 37:11

I mean, I think understanding TV is a lot easier to understand than to say, hey, you know, the Milky Way galaxy is 655 million miles away when we've never heard it work. Well, it's not a way we're in it. I know. I was I was using that as an example. You know,

Nick VinZant 37:29

I don't think you really know too much about space.

John Shull 37:33

Or dinosaurs.

Nick VinZant 37:35

Or dinosaurs. You know, what, how far how many miles away is the moon? Because I think I actually know let's let's both of us take a guess on how far away the moon is. I think I might know, what's your guess? I feel how many miles?

John Shull 37:48

How many miles? Oh, boy. I don't know if it's a if it's millions of miles. I'll say it's, I don't know. Let's see if it takes two days to get there. You said, You know what I'm gonna. I'm gonna save 300 out of 500,000 miles away.

Nick VinZant 38:08

My guess was 186,000 miles. It's 239,000 miles away.

John Shull 38:14

Well, you when the price is right.

Nick VinZant 38:16

Just That's crazy to me, right. Like that thing is it's like right there. But it also doesn't exist in reality to me. Like, that's not. If that was just a painting up there. I would feel the exact same way about

John Shull 38:29

sound like that's not real. Speaking of some days, I feel like I'm in The Truman Show where things happen on cue because I'm just in a gigantic, you know, acting scene and I'm the main actor. Some days I feel like

Nick VinZant 38:42

that. Yeah, you You are the star of your own universe, man.

John Shull 38:46

Oh, that's very nice. I'm gonna I'm a bright star and a bright universe. Thank you very much. Very, very good.

Nick VinZant 38:52

Okay, let's move on.

John Shull 38:53

You got a haircut, by the way? No, no. All right. Fair enough. Is that is that offensive to say that to somebody because I say that to people all the time. And some people respond well, and others I can tell like it kind of bothers them. If I'm, you know, wrong.

Nick VinZant 39:11

If you ask if they got a haircut. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think asking if somebody's got a hair cut. Like if that is becoming offensive to Pete. Like, if that's one of the things that we now can't ask people about. We've gone too far. If you get a haircut or do something new, do you kind of try to fight for acknowledgement? Right? Like let's say you get a new shirt. Will you walk in and be like, arms out? showing it off a little bit?

John Shull 39:41

No, but I will say this about my wardrobe is that when I do wear something new people like oh, that's a nice shirt. I haven't seen that before. Because I have the same clothes on rotation. You know, once a week. You can. I'm pretty much down to a science.

Nick VinZant 39:58

I don't quite have them. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday schedule, but I'm definitely wearing the same five outfits throughout the week.

John Shull 40:08

You know, I'm still old school I still wear, you know, blue jeans and, you know, polo shirts and everything else into the workplace.

Nick VinZant 40:16

Do you and your wife dress alike? Have you started? Debbie, you've been together long enough that you're starting to dress like

John Shull 40:22

Nah, not really. I mean, she'll wear you know, she'll wear like at night some of my shirts but you know, they're big on her. Obviously. That's what happens when you're 5x All right, shout outs here. Let's start off here with a. Makayla Lindstrom, Aiden Henning, Adrian Garcia, Georgie Rivera, Jonas Webb. I don't know why, but I'm coming around on Jonas's lately, I'm not sure why but I was kind of against that name, you know, five or six years ago but I'm kind of coming around Jonas. There's no right name now by me.

Nick VinZant 40:57

Okay, was it the Jonas Brothers that did that for you?

John Shull 41:00

Maybe you know, and then I think I knew knew of a couple of Jonas's and I you know, and they kind of rubbed me the wrong way. And but you know, listen, four or five years ago, by here we are I'm alright. Getting alright with Jonas's.

Nick VinZant 41:14

Okay, sometimes it takes a little bit of time a little bit, little bit, takes a little bit of

John Shull 41:17

different other good name here. Bo Morgan. Bo's good name, right?

Nick VinZant 41:23

Is that now wait a minute that a man or a woman,

John Shull 41:26

I believe. I believe it's man. It's spelled B E. Au which to me is the acceptable way of being a bow I do not like be OHS be au I'm okay with

Nick VinZant 41:42

First of all, don't Matt badmouth Bo Jackson, probably the greatest athlete who ever lived. Probably the greatest athlete of all time.

John Shull 41:51

I mean, that's that's tough. I mean, he's definitely he's definitely up there. But I don't know if I I would never I would not go on record saying he's the greatest possibly ever.

Nick VinZant 41:59

I would say that maybe not in terms of athletic, but he's okay. I mean, in the sense of like, athletic performance, like if we tested all of the athletes ever, I think Bo Jackson, and LeBron James would probably be at the top of that, where they're just a good every single, athletic, measurable.

John Shull 42:17

LeBrons definitely up there. Bo's definitely. I mean, don't forget Deion Sanders.

Nick VinZant 42:22

Not strong, though.

John Shull 42:24

I mean, he was strong enough. He was a cornerback in the NFL for a decade.

Nick VinZant 42:28

Wasn't a great tackler if I remember correctly, but he doesn't have the strength. He had the speed. He had the quickness he had the agility didn't have the strength like Bo Jackson and LeBron James does. We could talk about this forever. Anyway.

John Shull 42:40

We forgot Michael Jordan. No, not LeBron James caliber. All right. You're like going because LeBron James is considerably bigger body size, I would assume than Michael Jordan. Yes. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I'll see Sean Ronny. Luca Vukovich. Emmanuel, Connie. We're gonna end with an easy one hill with our here with Bill Ward. Man, it was nice and simple. Just get it out of the way. Oh,

Nick VinZant 43:09

I 100% Chance Bill Ward is from the southern part of the United States as Bill Ward right there.

John Shull 43:14

If Bill if you are send us an email, we'll we'll send you a complimentary eraser.

Nick VinZant 43:21

I'm okay with the name bow but only if you live in Louisiana.

John Shull 43:26

I was not a big I only accept

Nick VinZant 43:27

bows in Louisiana.

John Shull 43:28

I'm not a big fan of two letter names. Bo, Jo.

Nick VinZant 43:37

mo, mo, actually know a guy named Paul.

John Shull 43:41

You know, I mean, it's just you know, it's I don't know why I'm just not a

Nick VinZant 43:45

fan. It's not his real. I don't think that Bo Jackson's real name is Bo.

John Shull 43:49

Let's see what the Google says. Okay, well,

Nick VinZant 43:51

I'll look it up PDSA.

John Shull 43:53

Well, It's question time. For you.

Nick VinZant 43:57

His real name is Vincent. Edward Jackson. Bo is a nickname. I think that like some women that I've known that have been nicknamed Bo, I think that they're usually pretty cool. But Bau is only Louisiana specific, maybe? Maybe some parts of Alabama. Maybe.

John Shull 44:17

So I've known one bow in my life as a as a woman or as a and her nickname was or her name was Beatrice. She went by bow, and she's the only woman I've ever known to smoke, drink into all within the same night.

Nick VinZant 44:35

Bo is definitely going to be a tomboy. And she's probably mentioned at least 135.

John Shull 44:41

Yeah, and that is no joke. She she hung with the fellas that night, and that became she became a legend that's for sure.

Nick VinZant 44:48

There are not many women who did. I've known a few women who did and I was that was all women that I was like, I'm not that He's like, Look, you just Yeah, okay, anyway. Yeah,

John Shull 45:05

well, that's more power to you, if you do it just know, any listeners out there that are female. If you do all three of those things, you have a special place in our hearts. All right, let's see. Were you a front class siter? Are you a back class that are

Nick VinZant 45:22

always the back of the class, always the back of the class and then slowly got moved to the front of the class before moving being moved back to the back of the class. But I was also my last name is Van Zandt. So I was also alphabetically always at the end, I was definitely a back of the class, did you deliberately back right back right,

John Shull 45:37

according to a study recently released, that people that sit at the front of the class, or 93%, more times, often to be successful, now have higher grades than those students who sit in the back rows of the class,

Nick VinZant 45:54

because they're paying attention. I mean, that's one of those things that's not really hard to figure out, I understand why we would have a study for that. But pretty much anybody could have told you that right from the very beginning. Generally, the people not paying attention to something are not the ones who do well on it.

John Shull 46:08

But every time I've gone into a classroom, that front row is always empty. So I didn't you know, no one in my grade sat in the front, it was always a second row and beyond. No one wanted to be in the, my wife loves sitting in the front row and infuriates me.

Nick VinZant 46:26

Does she make you sit next to you? And have you ever sat someplace else? Like, I'm not sitting,

John Shull 46:30

of course, you know, pre K orientation. We show up 10 minutes late, and we have to go, you know, we have to take the two seats that are in the front, walk by everyone, as we're 10 minutes late, and then sit in the front of the class. It's like, Oh, man.

Nick VinZant 46:45

Oh, man. Everybody was staring you down like, well, that kids not gonna get in?

John Shull 46:49

Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, she didn't. So thank you very much. Well, even if you're

Nick VinZant 46:53

not, you're still the front row is relative. Like, even if nobody sits in the exact front row and you move towards the back. There's always a front row, no matter how far back it starts.

John Shull 47:03

Yeah, sure. But there's still there's still a front row, right, there's still a designated front row.

Nick VinZant 47:10

I would never certainly even if I didn't, even if I was interested in the class, or the thing that was going on. And didn't know anybody else in there, I'd be hard. I might go, the closest I would go was high middle. Maybe like second to fourth row. That's it. As far as I'm going now,

John Shull 47:28

during I remember, during driver's training in high school, I sat in the front row, because if I didn't, I would have fallen asleep. And that is the only time I've ever sat in the front row.

Nick VinZant 47:39

Good. That explains a lot.

John Shull 47:41

I'm a good driver, except I have a parking lot. And is it

Nick VinZant 47:46

terrible, terrible driver or not getting into this. You're a terrible driver.

John Shull 47:50

I wanted I want to know something about Seattle, because somebody that I know recently visited there. And they posted a picture of themselves. And this was their caption. And they said I'm next to the in famous gum wall. Is there a gum wall that's famous in Seattle? Yeah,

Nick VinZant 48:09

it's a wall full of gum. It's disgusting. And I don't know, it's one of those things that I can see the appeal. Like it is kind of a landmark. It is something that's popped up and it's definitely unique. But to me, it's gross. And the few times that I've accidentally found myself in there, I had to like, I gotta get out of here as fast as possible for throw up. But it's discussed. I

John Shull 48:30

know, there's hyperlocal. But I'm curious. Like, is it? Is it like in a market isn't a restaurant like? Like, what's the appeal? Like? How did it come to be a popular like tourist destination?

Nick VinZant 48:40

I don't know. I didn't stop and read the plaques when I was there. But it's next to Pike Place Market, which is this famous market in Seattle that is next to the basically the waterfront area. So it's Seattle used to be largely kind of It's a city that's kind of built on top of a city in certain places. So there's kind of an underground Seattle and the gum wall goes from like the underground ish Seattle. Up to the main levels of Seattle. People who are in Seattle are like that's completely wrong explanation. But that's the best way that I could describe it. It's a unique place. disgusting to me, but unique place.

John Shull 49:18

Interesting. All right. Second question. Would you rather be a Disney character?

Nick VinZant 49:25

What was the first question

John Shull 49:27

about

Nick VinZant 49:30

the gumball?

John Shull 49:31

No. What was the first question?

Nick VinZant 49:34

I don't think you actually asked it.

John Shull 49:37

Um, dang, I don't remember I didn't write it down. I didn't I only wrote one question down today. And it's this one.

Nick VinZant 49:47

Okay, good work. Good work.

John Shull 49:50

Yeah, no, I don't know why.

Nick VinZant 49:53

One job for this old

John Shull 49:55

Why is it escaping us? I don't understand. I don't remember why. It's

Nick VinZant 49:57

it's not escaping us. It's escaping me.

John Shull 50:00

It was the front class that are back class that are question. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And then my question is, or my second question, rather, which I'm forgetting as we go on and on about this good thing, I wrote this one down. Would you rather be a Disney character? Or be casted in like a, like a superhero movie? And be known forever as one of those type of characters?

Nick VinZant 50:27

Superhero one, that seems to me like, yeah, because you don't necessarily know exactly what Disney character you're gonna get. Right? Even though I can't really think of any Disney characters, I wouldn't necessarily want to be except for maybe like quasi moto I wouldn't want to be cast as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I'm pretty much okay with just about any superhero. Because even if it's kind of ironic, like I can think some of the Deadpool characters that were in there, like you're still a superhero, and you're always going to be a superhero, and you probably make lots of money off that because they use your likeness.

John Shull 51:01

I mean, you're, you're famous, I will first off I think you're famous forever, no matter what you do, either, or, but definitely superheroes who probably got a little more fame than you do.

Nick VinZant 51:13

Yeah. I don't think there's a lot of like conventions. If you get cast as a superhero, you can probably make a living off of the convention circuit autograph circuit for the rest of your life.

John Shull 51:23

But I mean, how many how many times you go to Comic Con, and there's John Shoal writer of the 1967 Superman's comics, and people like just flocked to that person.

Nick VinZant 51:36

From my days as a former reporter, Lou Ferrigno is still going to like every single one of those and he's got a pretty good line willing to pay 20 bucks for an autograph.

John Shull 51:47

At least 20 bucks. I'm sure it's double no East

Nick VinZant 51:49

20 baht like it's probably a lot more net for some of them. Like no

John Shull 51:53

joke. That was it, man. Let's see. Let's see what people wanted.

Nick VinZant 52:00

Did you actually do it? Are you making it up right now? What? exactly

Unknown Speaker 52:07

did I actually do? What?

Nick VinZant 52:08

Did you actually put out a poll? Yeah,

John Shull 52:10

I did. Yep. Okay, go on right now. I'm going right now to it on.

Nick VinZant 52:14

I apologize.

John Shull 52:14

I apologize. But because, you know, it's because I'm not prepared it and have it pulled right up immediately. But here we go. So let's see the options this week. Um, let me the New Super Mario Brothers movie, doing good things that did not win, either. By the way, electric toothbrushes for whatever reason, a new study came out basically saying that electric toothbrushes are 18 times more likely and better for your teeth than the original brushing, you know, just standard brushing without an electric toothbrush.

Nick VinZant 52:50

I was a person that resisted the electric toothbrush for a long time. Right now, if there was a situation in my home that we had to flee the house with everything in fleet. If we had to fleet if we had 10 seconds to flee the house. I would grab the pictures, they would grab our saved pictures and my electric toothbrush. It'll change your life if you've resisted the electric toothbrush. It's one of those things that you will change over the electric toothbrush and wonder what the fuck was I doing before this?

John Shull 53:23

I actually I went back to the to manual brushing to be honest. That's ridiculous. I know. It's dumb. I get it. I have a reason though. I've kind of sensitive teeth. Most of my teeth aren't real by the way. No, they are real. But well then why are they sensitive? They're sensitive because literally every tooth I've had has been worked on. I have like no I have like knobs in the back. Like I don't know why don't have crowns but they're like just little nubby pieces of tooth and the rattling from the that electric toothbrush just you ever been sitting in the dentist's chair? Getting ready for that? Like have a simple we'll say a cavity drilled and yeah, you kind of get a little get a little sweaty, get a little whatever. And then they start drilling. And it's just it's just the worst feeling in the world.

Nick VinZant 54:08

I fell asleep in the dentist chair while they were drilling into my teeth. Yeah, well,

John Shull 54:13

that's because you're not human. It's because I'm sorry, you're low IQ.

Nick VinZant 54:18

That's because just like look, I'm gonna zone out

John Shull 54:21

that's I've never known anyone to fall asleep during a dental procedure except for you. So congratulation. Yeah, I mean

Nick VinZant 54:31

I was I don't know if I was 100% asleep but I was definitely like in a trance like state

John Shull 54:36

where you were Way We Were you under like anesthesia or whatever gas

Nick VinZant 54:43

well and in that area, but not the rest. Not overall. No, that area was numb. But yeah, I was not under anesthesia.

John Shull 54:52

So I don't I don't you have to be not like nothing. Just going nobody

Nick VinZant 54:55

could fall asleep like that. Nobody could fall asleep at that amount of pain. God that would hurt. If there's

John Shull 55:00

somebody out there that has I don't care if you approve or not just send us an email because I, I want to know because you are, you are above and that's a beast. Anyway, so what one this week? It's kind of the most it's funny, but it's not funny. And that is the Fantasmic dragon setting on fire at Disneyland caught fire and it was quite the spectacle for folks in the park. The best video that came out of it was people going over excuse me the falls like the Grand the magic Canyon falls and as they're going down there's just a blaze their side

Nick VinZant 55:39

it's just I'm not going to theme parks man.

John Shull 55:41

I you know what? i My wife has been bothering me to go to Disney World and not land world because we're close to Florida. I have no desire to take my my young daughters to Disney. None.

Nick VinZant 55:56

If there is a hell that exists. My idea of Hell is Disney World in the summer.

John Shull 56:03

I mean, listen, and we both know uh, you know more than I do because you were out there reporting sometimes on it. It Yeah, I nope. Don't I want nothing to do with it.

Nick VinZant 56:12

Nothing to do with and that's your thing. That's your thing. But for me. Oh, I don't even like to drive by him.

John Shull 56:18

I don't I want nothing to do with theme parks. Give me a zoo. Give me a zoo on a on a on a spring day. I'll take that a million times over Disney World.

Nick VinZant 56:29

By seven. Well, we could do top five places. We have no interest in going disney world number one disney world would be up there for me. I'm going to Lego Land now. I can enjoy some Lego Land. I could also go to one of those more theme parks and theme parks or less less theme park theme parks like what it's just straight rides. I'm not impressed. I've never cared about like, Oh, look at this great decoration leading into the ride. I just want to get on the fucking ride. I bet we do that ever. We spend less money decorating the ride and more money getting me on the ride.

John Shull 57:03

I mean, the Midwest has the best theme park in the country Cedar Point.

Nick VinZant 57:09

I think you're gonna see joy Land Run front in Wichita, which is an abandoned theme park that people used to sneak into. No. Have you ever seen the abandoned theme parks online? It's pretty interesting. It's kind of crazy looking.

John Shull 57:19

I'm I'm sure Joy land. gave lots of little Nick VinZant. A lot of leisure why there were children.

Nick VinZant 57:27

I think people used to sneak in there and drink but okay, are you ready for our top five?

John Shull 57:33

I am. This is a tough one. It's a tough top five this week.

Nick VinZant 57:36

There's a lot of ones that I think that could be up there close to the top. I think that there is a dominant number one. But there's a lot of things that could push into it. So our top five is top five space movies to number five.

John Shull 57:51

So I'm going to ask this question right off the bat because this is going to determine where we go on this top five. Okay, okay. Okay. Did you go personal preference, or critically acclaimed movies as your for your top five?

Nick VinZant 58:05

I went with neither one of those matters. I went with the best movies.

John Shull 58:10

Okay, well, this one. This is how I'm going to start off my list. Number five, I have Starship Troopers. What?

Nick VinZant 58:23

That movie is like a joke movie. I didn't think that anybody actually liked that movie.

John Shull 58:30

I mean, the only lesson I get I get on the list of tops, space movies ever. It's not. It's not even a talker. But

Nick VinZant 58:38

it's not even on the top 100 I don't think but I think if there was a list of 100 space movies, it would be 99. That might be the worst space. But for me,

John Shull 58:47

you know, it was what it Come on. 9697 It's a cult hit. It's a fun movie. I mean, it's just I know, it's a personal favorite of mine, which everyone who's listening this that knows me is going to say wow, of course he put that on his top five. But my list will go up from here, I promise. Well, it can't go down. It can definitely cannot go down. That's a good that's I mean, it's it's not a good movie. But listen, Neil Patrick Harris, isn't it so get off my back about it.

Nick VinZant 59:21

I don't think that Neil Patrick Harris really? Like that's not. That's not the trump card that he wants was like, okay, that's one of those actors like well, he's in it. Yeah, and yeah, what's your point? Casper

John Shull 59:34

Van De and let's go. Might number five is

Nick VinZant 59:37

predator. Predator is

John Shull 59:39

a great, great choice. I am. Yeah, I don't I don't have him on. I don't have it on the list. But that's a great. That's a great movie.

Nick VinZant 59:50

I think that you can make an argument that Arnold Schwarzenegger had an action run that is better than anybody else. Of all time. Maybe Will Smith If I could compete with him, but Schwarzenegger had Terminator predator, Commando Total Recall? Yeah, I

John Shull 1:00:09

don't I don't know in terms of action stars. I mean, I I know we laugh a lot about about the rock, but I think the rock is up there in terms of action stars.

Nick VinZant 1:00:19

But those aren't movies that hold together. They don't like Arnold Schwarzenegger movies are the rock stars in like, movie. All right, they're making this movie this year kind of movies like The Rock Star in forgettable movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not star in forgettable movies. All of the rocks movies are forgettable. I mean, that's tough. That's tough. I can't even think of any movies that he's been in right now.

John Shull 1:00:48

I mean, I

Nick VinZant 1:00:49

literally cannot think of any movies at this second that he has been in besides Fast and Furious. mean he's Jumanji but not like Schwarzenegger where you can just run the list of movies that he was in?

John Shull 1:01:01

I think you're i You might be right. Arnold may have may have had the best run as an action movie star for for legacy roles. I think you're correct.

Nick VinZant 1:01:12

Yeah. Okay. What's you number four?

John Shull 1:01:14

Man this is so tough because I there's so many. I'm gonna go with alien at my number four.

Nick VinZant 1:01:22

Okay, I've heard that too. Good movie. It's too scary for me to watch.

John Shull 1:01:24

That's that's fair. I on my honorable mention. I have Prometheus as well. I have to give that a shout out because that's also a great movie. But aliens. Or alien rather, is my number four.

Nick VinZant 1:01:37

Space Jam. Space Jam is a good movie.

John Shull 1:01:43

It's fine. I didn't even have it on my list. I guess because I I don't know why I didn't consider that a space movie. But it's it's it is

Nick VinZant 1:01:50

a space movie literally has space in it. Yeah, the title.

John Shull 1:01:53

Yeah, it's fine. It's definitely a space movie. So

Nick VinZant 1:01:58

yeah, it just has aliens in it. Okay, number three. Ah,

John Shull 1:02:01

man. This is gonna give me a lot of grief. But I'm going to do it. Independence Day. Do I know I know. But listen, it's I've Tuesday. Good. I have two reasons. I don't know if it's a good movie. I don't it's probably a shit movie. But it's it's a cult classic in everyone whether you want to admit it or not, has seen it? And if you say you haven't, I don't believe you.

Nick VinZant 1:02:29

Yeah, but they did they remake it once or twice. How many sequels? Did it have?

John Shull 1:02:35

I don't even I honestly have no idea. There's only one independent state to me.

Nick VinZant 1:02:40

Right? Like even if they made another one. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. My number three, I have a hard time because I've got three movies that I would all kind of the same. No, I take that back. I'm gonna make my number three a tie between Guardians of the Galaxy and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both of those kind of like funny, action oriented space movies.

John Shull 1:03:05

So So Guardians is all my honorable mention. I don't have Hitchhikers Guide. Guardians easily could have been my number five, but I don't want the personal choice. But the Galaxy I don't know or hit Yeah. Hitchhiker's Guide. Not not national. Sure, but Guardians is a great choice. Great choice. Oh, okay. So number two 2001 A Space Odyssey. Which, you know, it's still considered possibly one of the greatest cinematic moments of all time. You have to have it on your top five of space, anything.

Nick VinZant 1:03:46

I don't even have it on my honorable mention Jesus. It's one of those movies that I feel like people talk about it. Like they like it. Like, oh, I've seen that. I'm sophisticated. I get it. I'm sophisticated. But I don't think people actually liked that movie. Like, I watched it. I was like, Okay. Where are some explosions, man.

John Shull 1:04:09

I mean, Hal 9000 is amazing. You never expect that until what half? Halfway three quarters through the movie when it's just goes into. I'm gonna break everything in this. You know, I'm gonna break this whole entire world. And it happens that would happen.

Nick VinZant 1:04:24

Oh, maybe I never watched the whole movie. Well, you should. It's definitely worth it. Then somebody get ejected into space.

John Shull 1:04:32

Is that gravity? I think now you're confusing it with gravity.

Nick VinZant 1:04:36

Maybe I'm confusing it with gravity. Was that your number two? That was? Yeah. My number two I thought long and hard about making it number one. I would have made it number one, if not for one other movie that is in this particular franchise, but my number two is Spaceballs.

John Shull 1:04:55

That's fair. I I have Spaceballs on my on my honorable mentions. Number one is unanimous, right? Yeah.

Nick VinZant 1:05:03

Wally. What's your number one? You don't like Wally. You can't walk away to Wally. Now if I would have said Men in Black, I would be okay with you walking away. But while he is a pretty good movie, and I would have liked to put it on its list, but I don't think that while he has the cultural resonance that's needed to make the top five, what's your number one? So same as mine, so

John Shull 1:05:31

you're not putting this as number one makes me wonder. I mean, this is a space movie, but I think you're gonna be critical of it. Molly was my number one a Star Wars.

Nick VinZant 1:05:41

Yeah, it has to be Star Wars. Yeah. But I would make an argument that if not for Empire Strikes Back. I would have put Spaceballs at number one.

John Shull 1:05:55

You didn't have Star Wars on the list? I don't think

Nick VinZant 1:05:57

I have Star Wars. My number one. Oh, you

John Shull 1:05:59

do have Oh, you were messing with me. With Wally. I literally walked away like I just left.

Nick VinZant 1:06:07

Walked Welcome to the show. I just walked. Thanks for participating in our 200 and 50th. Episode. I was like, this fucking guy does sarcasm is your sarcasm detector not detecting sarcasm. No.

John Shull 1:06:18

Because you you were you just looked at me with that look like? Yeah, I did that. Yeah, fine. Star Wars is fine. Okay. All right. I'm calm down. Now. Go into your you know, go go into your spiel about it, please.

Nick VinZant 1:06:30

It has to be Star Wars, I think but it's Star Wars is a franchise. The only movies that I would say are great Star Wars movies. Not entertaining. Not interesting to Star Wars fans, but are great Star Wars movies are the original. The Empire Strikes Back. Revenge of the Sith is a good movie. That's got a lot of stuff going on. And other people seem to have like Rogue One, but I was like, Okay, it's all right.

John Shull 1:06:58

Yeah, I agree with your list. I mean, any anything from that? What the eight 910 and all that. I don't really I mean, they're good movies, but they're not. They're not the even the first three or what are what four or five? Six? I guess if you want to be technical? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the first three are kind of garbage one and two. But Samuel Jackson has a pretty prominent part in part two, so that's fine. Revenge of the Sith is what it is four or five, six are good. Seven, eight. Like I'm not even sure I can name you the titles of like, 789 1011 87. I'm not sure.

Nick VinZant 1:07:35

The only thing about seven, which I think is like the Force Awakens is that was the first time that I went to a movie theater and was like, Oh, I'm excited to see this movie. People were excited to see that. And then they realized halfway through with it. Oh, wait, this is just the first movie. Updated. This is like a remake. It's not even a new movie. Anyway, we can go off on the Star Wars stuff. But I do think Star Wars number one. And it's not even close.

John Shull 1:08:03

I mean, which is funny because I debated it. I've never been a Trekkie. But I debated like just putting Star Trek on the list somewhere. Because I feel like Star Trek, though not not obviously as critically acclaimed as Star Wars. But still everybody knows what Star Trek is.

Nick VinZant 1:08:23

Yeah, but I think the only Star Trek movie that's big as Wrath of Khan. Which is the second one, I think, to Wrath of Khan.

John Shull 1:08:33

Let's see. I have a lot on my honorable mention. I don't know how long yours is.

Nick VinZant 1:08:38

It's probably about the same as yours. Let's go. Let's hear it.

John Shull 1:08:40

So I do have Wally. I have the Martian. The Right Stuff. First Man, event horizon, which is I think a very underrated like dark or a movie, but it's it's really good with Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne.

Nick VinZant 1:08:58

Yeah, they've seen parts of that. Yeah, like that looks like Oh, that's too scary for me. But I think that that movie picked up like a cult status. Yeah, it

John Shull 1:09:05

would be too scary. underrated movie. Apollo 11. Another horror movie Apollo 13. The Tom Hanks movie. Galaxy Quest.

Nick VinZant 1:09:14

Wait Apollo 11 is a horror movie.

John Shull 1:09:17

It is. Yeah. Yep. Really wasn't four or five years ago. I think

Nick VinZant 1:09:22

there wasn't an Apollo Wasn't there a real Apollo alone

John Shull 1:09:25

there? I believe there was but this is like the alternative take as to if you know things when, you know, to the wayside. I'm okay. Outland starring Sean Connery and gravity which it's kind of a mixed bag. There are no there's nobody in the middle on gravity. Either you loved it or you hated it. And I thought Clooney and Sandra Bullock did a good job in that movie.

Nick VinZant 1:09:53

The only other movies that I have on my list that you didn't have, which I thought about putting this in the top five was do The new Dune is very good.

John Shull 1:10:03

I haven't done it but I know nothing of the university there to really comment on it.

Nick VinZant 1:10:09

How many times have you burped in the last minute?

John Shull 1:10:14

I mean, that's what happens when you're gassy, I guess.

Nick VinZant 1:10:19

Are you drinking? Are you drinking beer?

John Shull 1:10:21

I actually, actually I've had two ciders while talking to you.

Nick VinZant 1:10:26

So it's either a beer

John Shull 1:10:29

that's an alcoholic beverage is not a beer, but it's you know, it's it's still an alcoholic beverage.

Nick VinZant 1:10:34

We're recording this at 9am on a Tuesday. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe. Leave us a rating or review doesn't have to be some big thing. Anything just really helps us out and let us know what you think are some of the best space movies. I think it's very hard to beat Star Wars as a franchise. But there are other space movies that I think could make an individual run number one, Starship Troopers is an embarrassment though. But it's also kind of weird good in a way. So I get where John is coming from number one. Starship Troopers is an embarrassment though. But it's also kind of weird good in a way. So I get where John is coming from



Beauty Pageant Coach Bill Alverson

With five Miss Americas and four Miss USA titles, Bill Alverson is the most in demand Beauty Pageant Coach in America. We talk beauty pageant secrets, mean girls, dealing with parents and the future of beauty pageants. Then, it’s Walkmans vs. VHS tapes as we countdown the Top 5 Obsolete Things.

Bill Alverson: 01:40

Pointless: 35:02

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Interview with Beauty Pageant Coach Bill Alverson

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, and inside look at beauty pageants and obsolescence. I think that's a word.

Bill Alverson 0:24

This is gonna sound really arrogant. They nobody liked me. For what? They nobody liked me. Because this mother is forcing this child to be someone, when I work with someone that is that I'm cutting that umbilical cord. I mean, I have had girls, pull out an evening gown chopped up, these things happen. They're evil people. Right?

Nick VinZant 0:50

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really does help us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is the most in demand beauty pageant coach in the world. He's coached five Miss America's for Miss USA is. What I really think is interesting about this, though, is he gives us an inside look at what beauty pageants are really like, why they are so popular, and how they are changing. This is beauty pageant coach, Bill aalverson. When we talk about a pageant Coach, what exactly are you doing?

Bill Alverson 1:43

There's the pageant coach that the I guess the world knows. And then there's me, the typical pageant coach is someone who's going to prepare you for the pageant, the process, how to answer a question, but they're really going to more tell you what you should be answering how you should present yourselves. What I like to do is figure out who in the hell you are. So that if there is a problem, say you're not very well, you're not very knowledgeable in current events. And this pageant is going to have some current events, questions we got to develop that we got to educate your brain so that you can then intelligently speak, to sell yourself, what I like to call my, my preparation is we're making you a teaser on you so that the judges when they look and watch and see, they want to watch your show. They want to be on your show. They want to be with you. So it is how to engage and present yourself in life and sell yourself or your ideas and concepts.

Nick VinZant 2:44

Do most people who are in pageants, do they need a little bit of work? Or do they need a lot of work?

Bill Alverson 2:51

I would say most people in pageants need substantive work. And what I mean by that is some people substantive work is starting from I've never read a book, I don't know anything, I'm just pretty. And then there are other people that are introverts, but when they're on stage, they come alive because the lights kind of keep them distance. So they they have to work on how to communicate verbally, then there's some people that are such chatty Cathy's, they don't shut the hell up. We need to learn how to rein them in and not I don't really care about what what you think, you know, the narcissistic ones, which the narcissism seems to be growing. So it really does vary. Sometimes I get a girl say she's already won a state pageant, she's going to Miss USA and Miss America, whatever. She just needs to be like shooting those free throws like a great athlete that just needs a little bit of extra training and work to keep them on focus and track.

Nick VinZant 3:47

For people who maybe aren't kind of accustomed to the pageant world. How would you explain it to somebody that really just what the world is involved the competition, the

Bill Alverson 3:59

what I typically what I like to say one of my catchphrases is life's a pageant, and people kind of questioned me on that. And I'm like, Alright, let's think about it. You're going to your local bar, you're going to get a drink, you're hanging out with a buddy's beautiful lady walks in. I'm single. And so you kind of go up and you want to talk to her right? Well, how do you know what to say? How do you know to present yourself? That's a little bit about you being a pageant contestant. It is how you're engaging how you look how you may you know, are you saying Come hither? Are you saying back the hell up? Are you squaring your shoulders? Are you having friendly body language? Patrick girls, they're way ahead of the curve on that, because they've been marketing themselves, talking about themselves explaining their interests, and yet maintaining engagement and conversation through an interview. So that's kind of how the pageant all kind of comes together in a big circle.

Nick VinZant 4:55

How big is it in certain areas would you say

Bill Alverson 4:59

when you Get like to Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, you have so many different things going, you literally can like, hey, they're shooting a new movie right around the corner, big famous people, and you're in a restaurant and people are being regular, right? But then when you slow down the numbers to where it's more small, then it's kind of like the event or something that's going on. Everyone knows when the Oscars are going on in Hollywood. That to me is how a pageant is working in different communities. If it's one of these fruit vegetable kind of pageants, or a Seafood Festival, where these pageants are part of a general overall celebration, it's kind of a big deal. You know, they're kind of like keeping up with who's in it and who's doing what sounds like the old Miss firecracker. 500. movie, but but in other places, people don't even know what's going on. Here's where crowning Miss Manhattan tonight, you walk out the door and go eat and people don't even know what you were doing. Were you at a bookstore. So it varies on the, I guess the population base. And from that, how its involved in the community. And then we're seeing people state pageants are typically a big deal thing because the the contestants come in their families come in that people are involved in the community. They're doing preliminaries, the theater is advertising it. And so it's just kind of an activity. Not unlike a sporting event, actually.

Nick VinZant 6:23

Like when you when somebody comes in, and you're going to start with a new client, like how do you kind of What's your general process, you're going to do this, you're going to do that you're going to look at this, you're gonna look at that.

Bill Alverson 6:33

The first thing I have to really work on is Do they even know who they are and what they want to do. Then we break down things like when they say and stuff and I love to help people generalities that like I just fall asleep and go or whatever you What did you tell me? You haven't told me a damn thing? But I'm nice and kind. No, you're not. You're telling me you are you haven't? You haven't told me any facts that show these qualities about you? You know, I want to go to med school, I want to be a doctor and be a thoracic surgeon. That's great. So you're an honor society in high school. Now I make sees that I just looked at them go, you ain't going to med school girl. It sounded great and fancy. But it doesn't make sense. So that's really what I start working on is working on them being real authentic with me. And the funny thing is, most girls that work with me their test scores and grades go up.

Nick VinZant 7:25

Is there an area where he would you would say like, when you come any work with most passionate people? Is there an area where they seem to struggle the most? Like, oh, I know I'm gonna have to work on this.

Bill Alverson 7:35

Current Events. Nobody seems to know what the hell's going on. They believe a news blip. They're, these girls are just as guilty as their parents. And that's why the whole country's effed up. As far as I'm concerned, we operate off headlines. And we don't read down to really see what we're looking for. Or we're closed our mind to an other opinion or other side. And so I have that's a challenge of mine. It's kind of fun to see it when the light bulb goes off, if you will. Here's ago I worked with a girl and all of a sudden she just said it looked to me like oh my god, it all makes sense. Now No, I'm saying this to create this to do this. She killed it. I mean, you know, she, it all started making sense how to communicate. And that's probably current events. They're lacking a lot, reading for their own enjoyment. And so you have to adapt to what's going on. But what are we doing to keep it similar to the information of the world you're in? That's the biggest push. That's what people lacking the most.

Nick VinZant 8:35

So when we talk about like pageant coaches like yourself, how many people do this? This is

Bill Alverson 8:40

gonna sound really arrogant. They nobody liked me. For one day, nobody liked me. I'm an attorney. I'm a divorce man with three kids, two grandkids married to a man. Dang, I mean, nobody fit that there's plenty of a gay man, that's a pageant coach that wish he could walk in heels. There are prop there was another guy. And he also had a family. He's deceased. His name was Don Baker. And there's a couple of women but then then it becomes kind of regional, that people work with their little favorite people, and they're all over the country. I mean, it's like we're a hidden society that we're not collectively with. But so yeah, we're kind of little it kind of everywhere. If there is a pageant there is a pageant coach nearby that has girls in that match.

Nick VinZant 9:26

That kind of perspective, let's say, state level pageant. How many girls are going to enter that? Like how competitive is this?

Bill Alverson 9:37

It can be very competitive. For example, there's the Miss Georgia America Pageant coming up there. We have 95 Girls, I think in it. Probably 50 Miss contestants 40 teenage girls, that's kind of a big deal pageant, and all of those girls have won a local title. So they've come up from a lot of pageant land coming there. Recently there was Miss Allen I'm in USA, I went to that pageant as well, they probably had 90 to 100 Girls Senate, Miss California, Miss New York, which people like to think liberal zones? Are they really into the pageant? Yeah, because those that have like 200 contestants, and the Miss pageant alone. So it gets pretty competitive. Now, then you can go to some states, they've got 12 girls at the state pageant. But six of those girls are incredibly solid. The other ones are just kind of saying what the hell's happening, and maybe they'll fall into it. And sometimes that happens,

Nick VinZant 10:31

how lucrative would you say, is either pageant coaching or the pageant world,

Bill Alverson 10:38

that pageant world can be very lucrative. And the reason that can be if you're, if you're a state director, and a pageant where people have to pay an entry fee, they have to have a hotel room, it's a business thing, just like any kind of sports event you put it on, truly is. And so the Miss America organization, just until recently was always nonprofit, all about volunteers, we're raising money. And I used to laugh, the former head of it got paid a salary of $500,000, yet the states, nobody else was employed, except he got a half a million dollars, and his staff got paid. But everybody else worked off sponsorships and scholarships, because it's a number one scholarship program for women. You know, this is a part time job for me, I make a little bit, I don't make a lot of money, I cover my expenses. It's something that I feel like I'm being productive. I don't waste my time, if you will. It's kind of a hobby that I have. Maybe it's my frustrated. education background. I'm third generation should be an educator. And also, it's kind of a weird, I sounds odd that I like helping people. But it's kind of fun to see people grow and do something with themselves. Now people associated like people that have pageant and Prom shops, they can make good money. If they run their business. Well, there's about a handful in this country that are exceptional. And then there are people that do hair and makeup, and they think they make a good game. So it's kind of Nexus and connected with those type of businesses.

Nick VinZant 12:12

How popular would you say pageants are? Are they going up in popularity?

Bill Alverson 12:17

We took a dip and COVID didn't help at all because they just kind of went. But they're coming back. And it's because they're feeder pageants that are out there. Like there's a pageant called ideal miss. It's in the summer. And if you win it, you still can do your USA, which is a brilliant thing that that director does. Because she realizes that it used to be if you won this one pageant, you can't do anything else. Now that's limited to if you're a miss, say Miss Kentucky, USA, you can't do another pageant. So you're going to Miss USA. That's that would make sense, right? But if you're Miss Kentucky fair ground, why would they restrict you from doing something else later on? That had a bigger connection for you. So they're, I think they're getting wise about the interconnections about the different pageants. And we're seeing that people that are getting the benefit from it. And it's a great activity. I even laugh with some people going, how much did you spend on your son's, you know, travel baseball team, bat and glove and he ain't gonna play in college, but he's going to be good and grow and do things, right?

Nick VinZant 13:31

That makes sense when you look at it that like that, right? Like if you're going to do something, at least to something that you seem to be improving yourself in.

Bill Alverson 13:38

That's the cause. And that's the key. That's the key. It is the improvement if you're a singer, and you want to get on American Idol, they just had Miss America, a former Miss America contestant, one of my clients, Betty Cantrell almost made the cut that got to be on there. If you're a singer, if you're a performer, you're honing in your talent. You're doing the ones that do community service, particularly these girls start nonprofits. They get legislation that they get somebody to sponsor a bill and they get bills pass. You know, there was a she wasn't a client of mine, but it was a miss New York that helped get the same sex marriage bill passed in New York before the Supreme Court said okay, you know, that's pretty damn impressive if you're 24 years old trying to get a job so

Nick VinZant 14:24

it to me like looking at it from completely the outside. There seems to have been and give me some leeway with the wording here. There seems to have been kind of a a backlash against the idea of pageants.

Bill Alverson 14:38

Oh, let's get clear. There's there's a backlash to anything feminine. When my wife was pregnant, no, my wife had her master's and then later got just shorter for PhD got a EDS thing in education. And she was a double mathematics major. She worked for NASA on the space shuttle when she was in college. She was brilliant. When she was Pregnant women would say, are you going back to work? How much time you take it off from work? And then other women would say, Well, certainly you're going to stay home raise that baby, aren't you? And it was like a taffy pool. And this was a 1986 and seven, and I just looked at her and said, You're kind are your own worst enemies? We don't talk to men that way. Why don't we do whatever the fuck we want to do. But we can't because this group of ladies who wants to stay at home thinks that all women should stay at home. While the child is little. This group of ladies says you're so smart, successful, you must go back to work. Oh, you must breastfeed. Oh, you can't breastfeed and do this at work all this crazy stuff of the 80s. Right? I'm coaching engineers right now. There's one competing right now at Miss Mrs. United States of America. And she's an engineer and we talked about it. She's like 40 years old and amazing lady. And she got legislation and stuff passed in West Virginia. And I was talking to her because she's beautiful. And I said, so. Did you did you do it? Did you do gender yourself when you first started working at the engineering firm, and she was like 100%, I kind of tried to blend in. I didn't want to do all this bah, bah, bah, bah, blah. And I said, So when did you start getting promotion she could. So when I started wearing heels again, when I started owning my femininity. And then when she won this pageant, all the guys at work think it's the greatest thing in the world and Miss West Virginia, and they'll go everywhere in there. Look, this is Mrs. West Virginia, this is Mrs. West Virginia. And it became kind of a thing. And she said, and that's what I want to do go into STEM be smart women. But if you want to put on lipstick and mascara, that's fine. And that's what I think the battle is. And I also think some of it comes from just flat out laziness. Because women still have this inherent weird competitiveness. If you and I are going somewhere and you look fat in your speedo, I don't care. And so I'm seeing a resurgence of that. And, you know, people say oh, that's not true. Really. Because last time I checked, cosmetics was a billion gazillion dollar industry, as well as fashion.

Nick VinZant 17:10

Has the backlash against that affected the pageant world or did it kind of just keep on truckin right through it.

Bill Alverson 17:16

It totally affected the pageant world. That's why Miss America got rid of swimsuit. Right. And I agree it is sexist. Sure. There are sexual objects. Some of the things I used to do Miss America hugely offensive walk out and barefoot stand. Let's put our legs together and stand like this to see the gaps. I mean, that column all that's ridiculous. Now they're doing it, they're coming back with athletic way. Well, you do need to be physically in shape. We're we're an obese fat country 1/3 of this country's obese, quit hiding behind the the the falseness that it doesn't matter. We can't deny that people aren't evaluated. It is a factor. The problem is, is where we put our merit and worth to it. And that, to me, is where things are kind of coming back and a little bit more realistic aspect. I mean, Lululemon would not be a huge, huge company, and people didn't really care about how their bodies looked.

Nick VinZant 18:09

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Certainly. Who do you have to coach more? The contestant or the parent?

Bill Alverson 18:18

100%, the parent, the parent always, but it's a different type of coaching. You know, I may do more work with the contestant. Okay, Tom was, but the in depth is that I have a parent who thinks that Betty Sue is this way. And this is how Betty says he's going to be a better Susan out that way. You know, I had a mother who came in literally told me this, because I answer questions. And I mean, I'll look at the mom and go, does she have a voice? Because if she's mute, I need to know that now. She can tag me saying that, you know, the New York Times Magazine article, they made fun of the mom who answered all their questions for the girl that happens all the time. And it's the ideals of what they think TSL can and I'm like, No, honey, your daughter's a mean girl. You know, I've coached them how to learn to be kind by calling them out. You're being a mean girl. But this mom came up and said her daughter was brilliant like 3435 AC T gonna go to Vanderbilt because you know, Mama went to Vanderbilt. And she's got a major in physics. She's gonna be a physicist and my book but that's cool. Nothing the girl told me matched that at all. She didn't read a books about it. She didn't watch movies about it. She didn't care anything about it. She didn't even care about you know, she wasn't even going to be an engineer. She went anywhere near that. But mom had said that that was what she was going to be. And finally I pushed the girl and said, well give me something that we can put on your paperwork to work to show that they understand this is what you want to do in life. Boom she got a problem I remember when I want to do it starts crying well after that thing was over mom if they were in the car, and they ever saw those people again it was like taillights and by Because this mother is forcing this child to be someone, when I work with someone, that is the I'm cutting that umbilical cord, nothing is worse to me to see someone who wants to be something else, and we have to tell the parent, we want to major Do or do whatever, and we work it out. And we do talk about it. But that's probably the hardest coaching part is for a mom, not as much the dad because it goes back to this whole maternal thing. I know my child, and I know what's best for my child. You do and a lot of ways when it helps it comes to health and safety. But you're not living in that child's world. So how can we get you there?

Nick VinZant 20:42

Is there an age group that you would say is either the hardest or the easiest to coach, the

Bill Alverson 20:46

easiest to coach is going to be a college educated individual 100%, because they've at least had to think in class. You know, the hardest a troop is could be that you know that early middle school age group hormones are going everywhere, attention spans, gone, you know, you don't know really where they are in their life. They haven't formed their own feelings, or they haven't formed their own thought processes. And they're really taking guidance from others that are in their life. That's the that's, that's the most fun at times, but it's also the hardest.

Nick VinZant 21:24

Is there? Is there an age group that you would say that this is the most competitive?

Bill Alverson 21:30

You know, the most competitive typically, I think is still teenagers, because, you know, they cry, they don't make cheerleader in high school, you know, the everything in life is important to them. You know, this promposal bullshit that they do now, everything's a production. Everything in their life is supposed to be something. And so when you're doing that, then when they don't when they're devastated.

Nick VinZant 21:55

How, like when you look at who wins and who loses, and who loses, can you tell? I mean, is it usually pretty clear like, Oh, she's gonna win. She's gonna win easy, or is it usually down to the wire?

Bill Alverson 22:10

It's both. Literally, sometimes I've sat there going. And then other times, I've sat there watching going, well, this is done. It's a battle for first round robin. You know, I worked with a girl she was Miss Alabama. afterwards. Afterwards, I met the judges. And I was like, Hey, I've been working with her. Can you give me some help from Miss America. And, like, every night because they had three nights of preliminaries, and she goes, every night, we looked and we all looked at her and went, there's Miss Alabama, after she walked out the interview. And there's Miss Alabama. And all she did was tell us on stage, she was Miss Alabama. And that was fun. Because I had worked with this girl, this was her sixth year. And we really had worked everything all the way through. And she finally bought into the entire process. And every I was dotted, every T was crossed. And she delivered that she later got second runner up at Miss America. So she was really a solid person. But they saw it. And then sometimes you later find out that three judges went one way two judges went one way or two judges went one way two judges went one way and the fifth judgments another way. So the girl in second place is the one that rose up in one. And so you kind of like what happened here. And smaller pageants sometimes yeah, there's always the it wasn't rigged. And sometimes you kind of think, yeah, maybe it was or you find out later, the emcee knew a couple of the girls or might have worked with them, and then throws the friendliness on the stage with the ones that they know. Whenever I find that out happens at a pageant and another director has done it. I have no problem saying never go back to them. Don't go back to that pageant because it's not a it's not a fair fight,

Nick VinZant 23:51

if you will. Is there ever cheating? Are contestants sabotaging each other in pageants? Well,

Bill Alverson 23:59

of course there are. I mean, I have had girls pull out an evening gown chopped up. You've had girls walk off the stage or even at a high school pageant, and the girl just happens to step on the train of the girl in front of her and uh, you hear another girl freaks out, right? I've had one time in a little pageant, teenage girls that had to do like something in the opening number. And they had to say something funny, or whatever, you know, say they were doing something the 50s A Great Balls of Fire and hear about that. Well, right for this girl went on. Another girl still did her intro that she practiced all week. Somebody else said it. And so the girl was like, Well, hell, I gotta say something else. So she kind of came up with something. But she wasn't quite on our game and then the other girl just goes. I have loved her so much. This week nurse hit me and I just said Jerison said of mine. And now honey, you did that intentionally.

Nick VinZant 24:58

Hmm. As devious,

Bill Alverson 25:01

it's devious, it's Machiavellian. You know, the prince Machiavelli from the it's, it's an everything. You know, these things happen. They're evil people, right. And so I actually coach some girls when they know somebody's coming at them how to handle it how to balance yourself. Because if you let them put a noose around your neck, you've let them put a noose around your neck. So I don't think people are sleeping around in the pageant world. I've never been aware of that. But I've had other people try to exert influence if they could.

Nick VinZant 25:35

Who would you say is the greatest pageant contestant of all time?

Bill Alverson 25:40

Yeah, I've got a couple one, Mallory Hagan. She changed the face of Miss America in interviews more than any person I've ever dealt with. When Mallory was so authentic and herself she shut a judge down in the middle of her Miss America interview when he was saying something she didn't agree with. She was real. She even said something about I don't want him up in my grill. I mean, she spoke she spoke vernacular. She was her authentic real style. And a completely connective. Yes, well coached and planned away, but she never lost the essence of her. I don't think she I don't think she said one statement that she didn't believe that but she was so well prepared. She was ready for that. And then people would watch that interview and started modifying from it so she's definitely one Chesley Crist, who was our winning attorney when she won Miss North Carolina won Miss USA she's the one that sadly committed. She was an amazing woman that continued with a purpose when she was Miss USA. She had no problem walking into BLM Black Lives Matter as Miss USA where people say don't be political, and she was like I'm a black Miss USA. This matters to me, I'm walking. She also then went to Miss America to sport her friend who won Miss America who was Miss New York at the time. Competitive pageants. I've never seen a current Miss USA go to a Miss America Pageant. So what an individual showing us that you can be women to stand on your own two feet. Those are two big ones there's there was a miss Alabama that refused to wear a swimsuit on appearances and that cause Miss USA so she made a definite impact on people. You know, when people have of racial and or religious the first Jewish Miss America makes a big deal. When I coached Nina devilry who was the first woman from India Indian descent, Hindu she made a big difference because she opens the doors. So those type people make great impacts by their existence and who and what they are. Vanessa Williams changed the face of pageantry pro and con when they took it away from her they recognized her and brought her back. I mean, seriously, please, you know some people just can't be denied their star power.

Nick VinZant 27:59

What do you consider to be okay, so we obviously have you know, Miss America, Miss USA. Those are kind of the ones that I think that everybody has heard of. What would you say is like one of the oh, this is a big sleeper pageant?

Bill Alverson 28:12

Yeah, you know, a pageant that is growing. That has gotten a lot of attention is something called the volunteer America. It's Miss America volunteer. And it's the offshoot when Miss America said ditch the swimsuits. Alison Krauss, Allison swept like her last name. She was a former Miss Tennessee and the Tennessee director and Miss America system. She was like, You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna start this own thing. And she ran it one year and we're gonna see in its expanded across the country. And it is one of the first ones that said swimsuit, evening gown, interview talent, they're all important, but they're all going to be treated equally. And you know, so it's been kind of a fun one to watch grow. Because it gives somebody else with a talent where to work into it. I know Miss is only three years old. It's probably the fastest growing one out there. Miss apprentice America runs in the summer. And it's basically just completely sold as come here. Do this pageant get prepared before you go back into your USA pageant. So those are kind of sleeper pageants that I think have some real substance to it. This Mrs. United States of America which I didn't really know anything about. But working with this state winner has really shown me that this woman is so positively affected by what she's doing. I now like Mrs. Paget's I have the current Mrs. United States she's an amazing choose on my on my reality show. She's an amazing person that has seen it and both of those winners don't have children but they're Mrs. And they're married and their lives are going on. And beforehand. You could never win if you didn't have kids and the missus pageants. So we're giving another dimension of what a woman can Do which I think is kind of amazing.

Nick VinZant 30:02

Which state would you say that pageant competitions are biggest in?

Bill Alverson 30:07

The first one that comes to mind is Oklahoma. It's still massive. There are more contestants in California more contestants and in New York, but across the board historically to me, when I would work, I used to have it lately, but I used to work a lot in Miss Oklahoma, I used to go to a store there. So I knew a lot of the contestants and their top their top 10. And Miss Oklahoma, America was a solid as Miss America, hands down. Alabama used to be amazing. It's kind of dead wood right now. Kind of old and boring. Then there's Miss Georgia, who is always it's always been fun that people have fun at the show. And it's got a I mean, this year at Miss Georgia, I just know with the girls there with a talent, it we're gonna feel like we're at American Idol, at least with the top 10 numbers. So that's kind of fun. Kentucky has always been a great state. You know, and other states have moments, right? Where they have somebody that's phenomenal from Wisconsin, which you don't even think would be pageant has had Miss Americas, and boom, they're like they're doing something they're, you know, in Minnesota the same way. But those areas really emphasize the arts. And so when you if the places that emphasize theater and the arts, you know, Christian Chyna with couldn't even win Miss Oklahoma. Come on. You know, she was a runner up. But how does that girl not win everything she's in?

Nick VinZant 31:33

I did. I did forget this question. How did you how did you get into this?

Bill Alverson 31:37

You know, that my whole pageant, even with my TV stuff are things I didn't seek. So it's so weird. I coach people to prepare to go and get and make it happen. But that's not how it happened with me. I mean, I did that with education, and obviously won't be a lot of your bah bah, blah. But I was singing to my local choir and my local choir director came up and said, there's this girl. Her parents are old and elderly. She didn't know anything. But she's so sweet. Nice. Would you please talk to her? And I didn't I liked her. Now her hair was a mess. Her interview outfit looked like it was, you know, a blind person put it together. It was horrible. So we changed everything. And the cool thing is, and I'll always say that there's thankfully right now forgot the country western singer that stole this idea. For her talent. She sang my favorite things. And that's when they could do props. We made her a bag lady. So as we put rain at the beginning of the song, so she started singing Raindrops on Roses and edited and she stood up and took off her like old bag lady coat and spun around and it was like a former life. Here I am. This is what I was. And then came back and fell asleep on the bench again. Something Morgan was a country of singer so she sang it at state didn't win. But people from CMT. Were there. Next thing I know, I'm watching a music video and it's our music video, the song and the whole thing acted out beautifully. I was like, wow, it's pretty good idea. But what hit van was she had purpose. And she did talk about mental illness. And this was back in the 90s. Nobody saw her coming. And she bade the mate of cotton's dollar, who was gorgeous. Who got first runner up, and everybody town thought this girl had at one. So what happened was, I took the girl that nobody knew that was kind of nice. The wallflower in school, she wins. Then, what do you think every mom in towns do in the next week next year. Ding ding dang. And so that starts growing. And then this girl goes and wins her little pageant and keeps growing and gets college scholarships, etc. So that's what happened. And then like I mentioned, what kicked it off into high gear is when Keith called me at last impressions and said, Hey, come up and do this. He had the idea. He had the concept. People have tried to copy it. It was phenomenal. There's a talent coach, a walking coach, interview coach, a gown thing, they're doing all this stuff together. You know, of Super Talent guy flies in from Missouri walking coach from New York comes in. I mean, he brought in all these big names. But he did an interview person there really there was only one guy that that guy that I talked about earlier. So I kind of did it. Well then the designer had a connection with her daughter shop in Oklahoma said come out to Oklahoma then I started getting Miss Alabama's Miss Oklahoma, somebody else calls they went Miss Hawaii. These girls are winning Miss America or top five and we're doing something and I'm just kind of reacting. Then I start thinking I need to kind of get this done. This is kind of a thing. And then we kind of honed in and here we are today.

Nick VinZant 34:44

I want to thank Bill so much for joining us if you want to connect with him. We have linked to him on our social media accounts were Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included his information in the app So description. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. What do you think is the funnest season of the year? This summer? I think it's actually I think it's summer when you're younger, but I think it's actually fall as an adult.

John Shull 35:18

I mean, I think the summer is for every age group. Why wouldn't it be? It's warm, it's nice. The falls, okay. But the fall is like, and obviously, this is all dependent where you live, but the fall is fine. Until it goes from being kind of how it was here in Michigan last week, 80 degrees Saturday and Sunday, and today, it was snowing.

Nick VinZant 35:38

Because the summers not I don't think it's as fun as an adult because you don't really have that enjoyment of it. You don't get summers off, you got to keep working. And it's kind of a reminder of how much fun life used to be before you became an adult and it brings you down. Fall has Halloween, you've got Thanksgiving, Christmas to me, although technically in winter is basically fall. I think fall is ultimately where it is for adults. Summer is where it is for kids.

John Shull 36:07

The fall is fine, but I think the holidays is kind of what makes it not a very good season to me. Too much stress. Too much stress.

Nick VinZant 36:17

What do you think is the least fun? Season?

John Shull 36:21

You know, it's changed as I've gotten older, I probably uh, probably when I was younger, I probably would have said like spring or something. Just because, you know, it's always rainy or the you know, you once again, you never know what you're gonna get one otherwise. But I think as I get older, it's definitely the winter by far the

Nick VinZant 36:36

winter. I would disagree with you there again. I think that winter used to be my least favorite season because there I was in Kansas and like, well, what are you going to do in Kansas in the winter, besides just be cold and be miserable. But now, now I would think that actually fall a spring is the least fun season. Because all the cool stuff, all the cool stuff about winter is going and all the cool stuff about summer isn't there yet. So I think spring is the least fun and fall is the most fun.

John Shull 37:10

Yeah, the fall is I would put fall bottom two, if I had to rank them probably go in it's like complete opposite. Right. So I would go summer, winter, spring fall.

Nick VinZant 37:23

You're gonna say fall is the least fun? Yeah, for sure. Wow.

John Shull 37:28

Well, I mean, that's just wrong. And my birthday is in in the fall so

Speaker 4 37:32

well, okay. Maybe that's why maybe there's

John Shull 37:37

a deeper meaning that I'm not ready to explore yet.

Nick VinZant 37:40

Maybe you just have a lot of angst about the fall.

John Shull 37:44

Maybe I mean, holidays, birthdays, you know, it's maybe, maybe you should open up peel back a layer, but I'm not going to

Nick VinZant 37:54

how far out? Will you start stressing about something? You've got something that you have to do? How far in advance? Will you start stressing out about it?

John Shull 38:03

I don't really look ahead too much. So I don't really, you know, I don't really get stressed out about so there's always I believe there's always a way to not be stressed. So I'm not usually stressed out about anything in advance.

Nick VinZant 38:19

Hmm. I actually feel the same way. And I had this realization the other day that by the time you're like 3540 That's the first time I would say that you know how to navigate life. Like you know how to handle life's ups and downs in a way that I definitely did it in my 20s and early 30s. I would be much more anxious about things. Now don't give shit.

John Shull 38:45

Yeah, I mean, I think you realize as you get older that usually everything works out. I mean, obviously it doesn't, but a lot of times it does, in most times, you've done it to yourself in the first place, and then going on a positive life ain't that bad. It's not that terrible.

Nick VinZant 39:05

My grandpa used to say it's either not that bad or you're dead. And then it's not that bad.

John Shull 39:13

grandpappy Van Zandt,

Nick VinZant 39:15

cram pappy Van Zandt, or I said it I also like to pass off some of my sayings is things that grandpappy Van Zandt said, because I won't listen to people I know. But I will listen to people that I don't know.

John Shull 39:28

I also have a, you know, things My grandfather used to say and then I'll, you know, I'll just make up random shit and people will be though they'll start to think about it. It kind of makes sense. Give us a good one. Oh, man. Well, you know, it's like my grandfather used to say, Nick, those oranges could taste the best they've tasted in a decade. But it doesn't mean that the waves are going to roll over any faster.

Nick VinZant 39:52

It's good advice. It's good advice. Just make up nonsense.

John Shull 39:57

That just nonsense. Just nonsense. Let's

Nick VinZant 40:00

look at I mean, most of life is just pretending like you know how to do something.

John Shull 40:05

Oh man, I mean, how many people in quote unquote positions of power, I mean, got there because they're professional bullshitters. And they seem like they know what they're doing.

Nick VinZant 40:15

I'm gonna go ahead and say that only that only at the most 20% of people know what they're doing. Only 20% in any job that you are doing. Now, there may be people who can get the job done. But in terms of actually like knowing how to do something, why, when to do something, and why to do it at that time. I would say only 20%.

John Shull 40:45

Man 20 That I mean, that's, as I get older, and I and I'm involved in more professions or people that are in those professions. I might even say 10%.

Nick VinZant 40:56

I can go to 10% Only if you also eliminated people who just don't care. That's because I think that I've been a competent worker in the past, but would fall into that 80% of people who don't know what they're doing simply because I didn't care at all.

John Shull 41:14

I can honestly say though, I've never had a job where I didn't care. Maybe I wasn't good at it. But I've never not cared at a job I've ever done.

Nick VinZant 41:22

I think that that's shifted, though. I think that people however little they cared about work a year ago, they don't care at all about work at all. Now

John Shull 41:34

is the time for some shout outs for me to butcher some names. Butcher. All right, let's start here with a simple one. Matt Sanderson. Christine Nichols. David Knox. I don't know why. But I like NOx like as a first lame name, last name. It's a good solid name, I think

Nick VinZant 41:54

NOx. Yeah, that's a good one. How do they spell it kn O X? Yeah. I don't know if I've ever met a NOx and O C. Ks, or inox? No x s. It's really ridiculous that we have so many words that sound exactly the same, but are spelled differently. It's like we came up with, it's like we came up with a language with no thought whatsoever about how this should actually work.

John Shull 42:20

I mean, obviously. Let's see a little alliteration here. Jamie Joseph. Liam grant. Another good name grant. Jonas Webb, Corey roughed in Aiden Quirke. Jacob Diaz, and Rollins more. All right, I've got a couple of banners for you. What do you dislike doing more? And it's kind of funny, you mentioned that you asked the season question earlier, because Nick, and I don't like take notes and compare before the show, by the way. So this is just clearly just meant to be this episode. But what do you dislike more doing, like yard work in the summer? Or doing it in the winter, like shoveling snow etc?

Nick VinZant 43:10

Well, I would say during in the summer, simply because that means that like, now you're in it. Like you got to do this every week, or every two weeks. In the winter, it's like occasional, especially where I live in Seattle, like you're gonna have to shovel the snow once or twice a winter. But once spring comes, I'm gonna have to mow the grass every damn week. I mean, so it's a frequency. It's not the time of year.

John Shull 43:36

So this is kind of a two part question. First part is do you get excited to get the mail?

Nick VinZant 43:44

Sometimes I do like to know what's in there. The problem is, is that anything in there now is just junk and or bills. Very rarely do you get something interesting in the mail. But I used to be like, Oh, I'll get the mail that was sent to like, do a big deal.

John Shull 43:58

And this, this applies to mail or getting a package delivered. But have you ever expected something to come and it didn't come that day? And you were upset about it? No. Okay,

Nick VinZant 44:12

did you have something recently? Was it was it?

John Shull 44:15

No, no, not recently. But like, I'm like, like, I'm excited about getting the mail. I enjoy it. For some reason. The problem is, and maybe this is a problem around the country, or around the world. If you're an international listener, like we don't get mail every day hear like we might get it on a Monday and then we'll get it on a Thursday or something like it's very it's very random if we get it literally back to back days.

Nick VinZant 44:40

So wait a minute, the mail isn't it's just not coming or you're just not particularly getting any

John Shull 44:47

one time I might be because we just didn't get any that day. But, you know, there's been times where I mean, no one's seen a mail truck in the neighborhood for two three days.

Nick VinZant 44:56

Yeah, but I think that's probably just because like you just don't notice it. There's so many things that I think that happen that you just don't regularly notice. I'm not out there looking for the mail every single day. But I do my dog. How far do you How far do you have to go to to get your mail?

John Shull 45:15

I mean, it's, I don't have to walk at all. I open up my front door, reach my arm out, and my mailbox is attached to my house. Oh,

Nick VinZant 45:23

yeah, it's got to be a little bit more of an event. I don't want my mailbox attached to the house I want. I want to have to like slightly travel outside, I want to go between. I want to go between 25 and 75 feet to get my mail. I don't want to walk across the street or down the block to go to the mailbox. But I want to have to have a little bit of an excursion. I want to take his 20 steps, at least 20 steps. I want to go and get the mail not reach outside.

John Shull 45:55

I mean, it's fine when you're you know, and you're reaching out when it's negative five degrees outside.

Nick VinZant 46:00

God toughen out. You can you can handle a little bit of cold for 10 seconds right. About toughing it out. Our ancestors didn't do what they did. So that you could be sitting here. Okay, go out delayed for two decades. You take a meal. It's fine. Listen, I waited across oceans. What are you wondering what is

John Shull 46:21

next? That Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Edison didn't shower naked once a month? For me to complain about a draft? Is that what you're gonna say next?

Nick VinZant 46:30

Yeah, well, you got a pretty easy life, man. Just enjoy the thing. I wasn't complaining. Your sounds like you're complaining. It sounds like you want narratives. You want your life to be so easy. I want somebody else to mow my lawn. I want somebody else to get my mail. So you gotta know. You gotta toughen up, man.

John Shull 46:52

Let's just move on to something else. All right, here's the here's what we have choices to talk about today. Let's see the parmesan Express Martini.

Nick VinZant 47:02

I thought that was a two part question. What was the other part about the mail? And then there was something else?

John Shull 47:08

No, that was it. Do you enjoy getting the mail? And then, you know, I you know, I already forgot. I like I already? Oh, yeah.

Nick VinZant 47:14

You getting? Do you probably check when a package. I never check. Like it's gonna get there. When it gets there. I plan ahead. And I plan ahead.

John Shull 47:23

Now I'll give us I'll give I'll give Amazon shout outs because they are they have it now to where you can like literally see them? Like how many stops away? It is. You know what, like, the exact time they're gonna deliver? I mean, they got it.

Nick VinZant 47:37

What are you ordering that you need to know exactly when it's going to be at your house?

John Shull 47:42

I mean, anything, flashlight, packages, birthday gifts, all that good stuff.

Nick VinZant 47:47

And just to clarify, you said flashlight,

Unknown Speaker 47:49

not flashlight. Yeah, no flashlight.

Nick VinZant 47:53

That is something that I can't believe exists. For people who do not know what a flashlight is. It is a simulation of an adult film stars, personal genitalia, from what I understand. Like, I can't believe that that exists. I'm if you've got one. Now I'm not knocking it. But that's just one of those things that like, I can't believe that that's a real thing. Like, I can't believe that that has been created.

John Shull 48:20

It's so in depth now that you can get create, like, you can create your own flashlights to be your spouse. I don't know why you would want that.

Nick VinZant 48:28

Why would you want that? Like, yeah, that's the last thing I would want. Like,

John Shull 48:32

also, I wonder how many like, how many they sell to married men? You know what I mean? Like, of their spouses, I feel like that that's not a very high number.

Nick VinZant 48:41

So what would you feel like? Would you Okay, let's say you've got this person's would you then only use it when looking at that person that I could kind of understand. But if you're losing using that when looking at just anybody then I kind of don't quite get it. We need somebody who has one to just anonymously come on the show.

John Shull 49:02

Orbs just send us a

Nick VinZant 49:03

actually, fact don't send us a picture. No, no.

John Shull 49:08

I want someone to send you like a two paragraph write up of what it means to them and then I want you to read it on air.

Nick VinZant 49:14

Okay, I would except that if somebody writes us a message about why they have that. I'm not it's just that seems like a big step. That's a step that I'm not going to take I can ever see myself buying one of those.

John Shull 49:30

I'm yeah, I'm I don't think I'll be in the market for one anytime soon.

Nick VinZant 49:34

I know somebody who has two of them might even have three which, but I think one was like a buy one get one free. Jesus Christ. So it kind of makes sense why you would have three I mean, if you're gonna buy a second one, you're gonna get a third one for free and I gotta turn it down.

John Shull 49:55

Can you give us the demographics on this person? Are they 2020s or 30s? Are they Single,

Nick VinZant 50:01

they are single, which is shock. I Yeah. Yeah. All right, we'll move on. I don't think you buy one of those if being single is a short term situation. It's probably been a while and it's probably gonna be a while. Just move on. All right. That's your thing. That's your thing, man. That's one of the things we talked about a lot on this show. However you get down how you get down. Yeah, that doesn't mean that people aren't going to have questions, not judgment. Just questions.

John Shull 50:37

Let's I'm not laughing at you. If that's how you go then great, man. Do you or if you're a lady, do you but man,

Nick VinZant 50:45

don't you have to clean it? That's to me would be the thing that I wouldn't want to deal with? Is the cleaning of it afterwards. Sure. There's you gotta get that out of there. Get in there.

John Shull 50:57

Do you think a dishwasher safe?

These are all questions that I was like, Oh, just do you have to put it on the top rack? Because if you put it on the bottom rack Well, the plastic burn.

Nick VinZant 51:13

Let's see how the rubber are. Let's see if someone is glued Google this our flashlights?

Speaker 4 51:19

Of course they have of course tissue washer

Nick VinZant 51:23

safe. No, but just how to clean your flashlight. Don't use a dishwasher. Any soap? Oh, don't use soap. It's not dishwasher safe. So people have really, really researched this. I mean, there's like, oh my gosh, there's there's like cleaning tips, which I get it. They're not dishwasher safe. Okay.

John Shull 51:47

Good God. All right. All right, four options here. The farmers shot Express Martini. Apparently that's a viral thing where people are making Parmesan flavored martinis. The Chinese us police station, apparently it's come out that a group of Chinese radicalist had an undercover police station in New York City. Where, you know, who knows what they were doing. But one could imagine. The other option that did not win was the Pacific Garbage Patch. It's called I don't know how familiar you are with that. But it's literally like, I don't even know how big my

Nick VinZant 52:30

punch. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah. And it's, it's getting

John Shull 52:33

close to, you know, possibly having a trajectory towards the California coast, which would be an absolute disaster for Echo ecosystems and all that stuff. But anyways, what one naturally, it was probably the most pointless thing of the four choices. And that is apparently McDonald's came out and have said that their burgers are going to be getting upgrades, they're going to be made differently. With a little bit more ingredients that are good for you. Apparently the cheese that they're going to start, they're switching the maker of cheese, the cheese is going to melt a little better. Instead of being just like a wax, wax paper, and there's going to be softer buns. Burgers.

Nick VinZant 53:20

Yeah, I don't believe that at all. But okay, sure. Great. So, so instead of spending half a cent on ingredients, they're now going to spend three quarters of a cent right, like, let's not take this back here and think we're getting luxury items. Right? They're gonna go from spending $1 to $1 a one.

John Shull 53:40

Yeah, but I mean, you know, it's, I was doing some research on I mean, there's several conspiracies out there that you know, this is them trying to appeal to the wokeness and blah, blah, blah. And it's, I keep reading these things and and not to take away anything from those folks. I feel that way, but it's McDonald's. They could say listen, there's actual shit in this burger. And people are gonna buy it.

Nick VinZant 54:03

It really doesn't matter right? They could also say there's actual shit in this burger and we need to kind of like update our stuff. And somebody would be like, What a minute. What do you mean it's good enough for me when I was your age these kids today they don't even want to eat shit in their burgers anymore. No matter what is going on somebody will find an issue with it.

John Shull 54:26

Absolutely. That's so anyways McDonald's still it's still probably top five fast food burger I think overall. That yeah, choose from but probably top five.

Nick VinZant 54:39

I would personally because I don't have a sense of smell have a very difficult time. If you gave me like a blind taste test of the different burgers. Like from Burger King, Wendy's McDonald's, I would have a hard time telling them apart.

John Shull 54:55

I could probably I could probably figure it out, I think but that's not a good sign either. So

Nick VinZant 55:00

Yeah, yeah. Are we are you ready for a tough five? Are we gonna tough five?

John Shull 55:05

We're Yeah, man, we're half an hour and let's go.

Nick VinZant 55:09

Alright, so our top five is top five obsolete things. Things that we used to rely on or use frequently that now are just suddenly don't need those anymore at all. What's your number five.

John Shull 55:25

So a lot of mine are technology based, I realized, but my number five is AOL Instant Messenger.

Unknown Speaker 55:32

Oh, what's

Nick VinZant 55:33

weird though, is that we've kind of blocked brought that back in like Slack and teams. We've just brought it back in more advanced way.

Unknown Speaker 55:42

Yeah, well, oh.

Nick VinZant 55:46

What did you just throw up?

John Shull 55:47

I have no idea what just happened. It's like once one vocal cord went the other day and go. No, so am

Nick VinZant 55:55

IA will realize that we breathe, talk and eat all through the same hole and somehow managed to get that right most of the time. It's amazing that we don't show that people don't choke to death every day. I mean, that like, it doesn't happen to all people all the time. Like you can breathe, eat and talk at the same time. And somehow your body figures that out.

John Shull 56:20

Yeah, sure. That's incredible. Man, it's weird where we go on this pointless.

Nick VinZant 56:25

You don't think that's amazing? You're breathing, eating and talking out of the same hole. And somehow you don't die every time you do that.

John Shull 56:35

I mean, I've always found it kind of wild that a certain Orpheus on our body, we dispel acts from but can also be used as a pleasure hole. Like how can it be a shithole but also be used as pleasure?

Nick VinZant 56:51

Because basically, man, all of life happens in the same general area. The recreation and the defecation all happens. Okay.

John Shull 57:03

Like I'm with you on that. 100%

Nick VinZant 57:05

What was your number five?

John Shull 57:06

AOL Instant Messenger.

Nick VinZant 57:09

Oh, yeah, lunchbox,

John Shull 57:11

boy. Oh, five. Look me up.

Nick VinZant 57:13

You still have it? Because you log on. So you got the password?

John Shull 57:16

No, I don't I don't think they have. Do they even have like a reiteration? No. AOL is like, dead now. Right? It's not even really, it's like a shell of what it was.

Nick VinZant 57:25

So I'm just enough older, I'm old, just enough older than you that like I pass that by that technology wasn't there at the time that I would have used it. So I never really used it. My number five might be a little controversial. My number five is watches and clocks. I think they're completely obsolete in the sense that nobody is using a watch to tell what time it is.

John Shull 57:53

See, I think yeah, I think you're a little wrong there. I think,

Nick VinZant 57:56

how many watches do you have?

John Shull 58:00

I don't know. Probably about a dozen two dozen.

Nick VinZant 58:02

And you check the time with your watch.

John Shull 58:06

I mean, obviously, it's more of a style statement. Right? Like you wear it. You know, yes. You don't wear it to check time. But also it's not I wouldn't consider it. I wouldn't consider watches or clocks obsolete.

Nick VinZant 58:19

I consider watches to be obsolete, because you're not using it for what its intended purpose is. If you're looking at the time, you're is like what time is it and you got a watch on? You're not looking at your watch. You're looking at your phone.

John Shull 58:34

I mean, I see I see what you're saying. And it makes sense. But also I wouldn't send her those obsolete. I just wouldn't.

Nick VinZant 58:41

Okay, number four.

John Shull 58:43

brick and mortar stores.

Nick VinZant 58:45

Oh, very close to it.

John Shull 58:50

Yeah. You know, my thought was like Blockbuster toys or Yeah, like, but I would go on a limb and say that within the next five minutes, I'll say within the next 10 years, malls will be gone. And within the next five years, you will not see a competitive brick and mortar store outside of maybe three of them. Costco, WalMart. And this is nationally by the way, not like the local stuff. But yeah, Costco, WalMart, and those Amazon stores that are starting to pop up.

Nick VinZant 59:23

It's basically only going to be giant stores. It's either going to be giant or very kind of specific to that area, like a store, like a fleshlight store. Right? So then you can go in there and would you ever buy a used one?

John Shull 59:37

Less? What's your number four?

Nick VinZant 59:39

What is there was a used one. Which you wonder if there's a huge market? Mark? Absolutely.

John Shull 59:45

I bet you there is. I bet I guarantee you there is don't don't search it.

Nick VinZant 59:51

I'm going to search and do my internet history for years. There's a Reddit post post that just says I would be interested in purchasing a used flashlight. I love anything used and broke in. I even buy used underwear. As an interesting person, man, there's always somebody like that don't care what the market is. There's always somebody. My number four is cassette tapes. CDs, I think are still around, you can definitely still get vinyl records, but cassette tapes have just dropped. I don't know if you could find a new if find a new one if you wanted to. I don't think they exist anymore.

John Shull 1:00:29

I mean, you can Yeah, they don't exist anymore. Nobody makes cassettes, because cassettes are technology that hasn't been around in a decade and a half at least.

Nick VinZant 1:00:39

I would almost say CDs are very close to it. Maybe in the next five years. I think CDs are gone.

John Shull 1:00:49

Yeah, I mean, didn't. Didn't albums. Just pass CDs. Like for the first time in history? I mean, CDs are there on the way out? For sure.

Nick VinZant 1:00:58

Yeah. What's your number three?

John Shull 1:01:02

So once again, not yet obsolete? In some places, but newspapers.

Nick VinZant 1:01:08

Yeah, certainly, like a physical newspaper is almost I would say that's gonna be obsolete within the next 10 years.

John Shull 1:01:15

Yeah. And most like, we're lucky where I live in Detroit to have two major ones. But and I would think in most, you know, smaller cities, they might might not even get one. And having a newspaper to me is like reading have like a physical book. Like it's just good. It's just, it's a lot better than reading it off your phone.

Nick VinZant 1:01:35

I don't know if I've ever actually read a newspaper. It's read least been 20 years to like, pick up an actual newspaper and read it. Yeah, it's good. That's probably been 20 years. Added. Do

John Shull 1:01:50

you feel good about yourself? Does

Nick VinZant 1:01:53

you use technology? My number three is landlines. Nobody needs a landline. That's just ridiculous to have a landline.

John Shull 1:02:02

I still have a landline.

Nick VinZant 1:02:03

I know you do. Right? No here. With you? Can we? Can you give out your landline phone number so we can call you?

John Shull 1:02:12

I honestly don't know it off the top of my head. I have no idea what it is.

Nick VinZant 1:02:17

Why do you have it? Then?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:19

I tell I've told you

John Shull 1:02:21

several times on this podcast. It's my wife who has it. And for some reason, the only person who will answer when called from it is is her mother, my mother in law.

Nick VinZant 1:02:34

So it's basically like a bat phone for your mother in law.

John Shull 1:02:37

Yes, if we're gonna give it a name after five years of this podcast, it's gonna be called the Batphone. For my mother in law,

Nick VinZant 1:02:44

that's her mother in law that phone, the mother in law phone while they're loved my phone, for one reason? Well, then she should pay for it.

John Shull 1:02:54

I mean, she's on. Well, now she doesn't. Yeah, she should pay for it.

Nick VinZant 1:02:59

Right. I think that you need to step up a little bit and start demanding some accountability from your family.

John Shull 1:03:06

So my number two Yeah. Like how I just completely went over that. Yeah. pagers?

Nick VinZant 1:03:14

Oh, pager was a big deal, man. That was a big deal. Dude.

John Shull 1:03:21

It was it was the greatest feeling to get a page from from like a woman like from a girl you were trying to get with. And you just read it. You know? Like, it was always there. You could always go back to it. I mean, I know we have cell phones now. But man fill in the vibration on your hit your hip. And looking at it. There was nothing better back in the day than carrying a pager plus, if you had a pager. Like like you were alright. Like you were cool.

Nick VinZant 1:03:46

Yeah, I would say that pager was pager was probably cooler than a cell phone. Like the first people who got cell phones like alright, they were kind of cool, but you had to be pretty cool to have a pager and that was a big deal.

John Shull 1:04:02

Yeah 100%

Nick VinZant 1:04:04

My number two is maps like having an actual physical map and I remember when you used to have one of those in the back and you had to have one of those in the back in the car.

John Shull 1:04:13

Yeah, so I'm that that was actually the only one I really had on my honorable mention was like the random McNally maps. You know, the big books and your your aunt's would give them to you as Christmas gifts and you'd be like Why the fuck do I need a map of Illinois

Nick VinZant 1:04:33

I remember actually having to like use one. Like oh, I got to look at the map. Go driving through it like that used to be a big deal. You had to plan out where you were going and like print off things from Mapquest if you were going to a new city about directions how to get here how to get there,

John Shull 1:04:50

remember was like call a trip tickets or something through Mapquest they were they print off turn by turn,

Nick VinZant 1:04:56

turn by turn, you had to turn by you had to print it off. Gotta now you I don't think the thing that I don't honestly remember how we even used to do was get airline tickets. Like, I don't even remember how we did that.

John Shull 1:05:12

Well, you have to wear the internet. You had to go to the front of the counter, get the physical ticket, and that was it. I mean, yeah, literally now you just walk in, right? You just walk into the terminal.

Nick VinZant 1:05:21

Oh, dude, like finding the flight that you wanted to take? Oh, right.

John Shull 1:05:26

Alright, well. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't

Nick VinZant 1:05:32

remember how to do it.

John Shull 1:05:33

No idea.

Nick VinZant 1:05:35

I think you had to call somebody you didn't like call the different airlines or something like that?

John Shull 1:05:40

Which that remind, I should have put this on my top five. But I'll put on my honorable mention, is like, like yellow pages, you know, like the info pages?

Nick VinZant 1:05:50

That's my number one actually is phonebook.

John Shull 1:05:54

Oh, that's a good one. Because that is

Nick VinZant 1:05:57

something that you absolutely had to have and and now is completely unnecessary.

John Shull 1:06:03

Yeah, it's I mean, but now you have to like, it's all online. And I always wonder for those and communities who may not have internet or whatnot, like, what do they do? Because I don't think yellow page makes a physical book anymore.

Nick VinZant 1:06:15

I don't think they do either. And that used to be like, if you wanted, you could find anybody's phone number. Like if you wanted to call call Steve Johnson. You could look up Steve Johnson and call him. Yeah. What do you have in your honorable mention then? Did you Oh, wait, what was your number one? Oh,

John Shull 1:06:32

you didn't even like I didn't even get to my number one yet. Which is kind of lame in hindsight, but it's a Walkman.

Nick VinZant 1:06:42

Oh, yeah.

John Shull 1:06:44

To once again lately obsolete. If you're rocking the pager in the Walkman. You were you were on top of of whatever school you were in.

Nick VinZant 1:06:55

Oh, yeah. You had it. This you could never have a CD Walkman though. It wasn't the same. The Walkman had to be tape. Man wasn't the same thing.

John Shull 1:07:07

remand i Yeah. Do you remember? Do you did you have a favorite cassette? Did you have like a favorite cassette?

Nick VinZant 1:07:14

Yeah, Snoop Dogg's first album, which I had to like, I remember buying it. And I showed it to my mom, but I put my thumb right over the explicit lyrics lyrics Steve lyric sticker. And she didn't like look at it enough to realize what it was to give a shit. But then we played it in the car on the ride home because my dad's like, let's listen to your new tape.

John Shull 1:07:40

Oh my god. That's the that's the best man. I had it for about 30 seconds. I also had like GPS systems like maps that I'm going to add to it. Fax machines, but I mean, I don't really miss fax machines. I just, it was a technology that is completely obsolete now because of computers.

Nick VinZant 1:08:01

Used to be a big deal to have a car phone man. Yeah,

John Shull 1:08:05

but I mean, I feel like there's a different level between having a pager and a Walkman. And then having a car phone. If you had a car phone. You had money.

Nick VinZant 1:08:15

Wait, so you had a pager? Did you set that whole thing up to try to make it seem like you were a cool kid in high school with a pager?

John Shull 1:08:23

I mean, yeah, of course. I mean, I had a pager in high school I had, and like, cell phones didn't really become a thing until I was like a junior senior. So the first couple years, you know, you're rocking out a pager and just beeping all over the place.

Nick VinZant 1:08:38

Why did you have a pager as a freshman? What were you doing that you needed to be paged as a freshman.

John Shull 1:08:43

I mean, I had a burner pager too, but we won't go into that.

Nick VinZant 1:08:46

Are you selling stuff?

John Shull 1:08:49

Just flashlights.

Nick VinZant 1:08:52

Oh, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a rating or review. Doesn't have to be anything big. Just a couple of quick words really helps us out. And let us know what you think are some of the things that have just become absolutely obsolete over the last couple of years. It's so crazy to me how things that were one such a central part of our lives, just kind of fade out of existence.

Lightning Researcher Professor Joseph Dwyer

We’ve all seen it but do you really know what lightning is? Professor Joseph Dwyer says lightning is an electrical mystery. A mystery he’s trying to unravel. We talk lightning, gamma rays, blue jets and the safest place in a storm. Then, we unveil a “scary” Top 5.

Contact the Show

Lightning Safety Information

Professor Joseph Dwyer: 01:39

Pointless: 37:31

Top 5: 56:02

Interview with Lighting Researcher Professor Joseph Dwyer

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode lightning, and our biggest fears,

Joseph Dwyer 0:21

lightning is a electrical discharge that forms a hot channel to call a leader, it's about as wide as your finger. There are giant electrical discharges above the thunderstorm. So sometimes lightning can, instead of going down to the ground can shoot up to space, those are called gigantic jets. And actually, Lightning doesn't really see the ground until it starts getting pretty close. And so a lot of people pick the worst thing they could do.

Nick VinZant 0:49

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it, it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest studies lightning, what it is, what causes it, and why it is so much more than what it seems. This is lightning researcher, Professor Joseph Dwyer. I want to mention real quick, we do get pretty technical at times. But he does a great job explaining it. So just stick with it. Because it is absolutely fascinating. What lightning is and what it can do. So I I know what lightning is, but at the same time, I don't know what lightning is. So I guess what is it really?

Joseph Dwyer 1:48

Well, that's a little bit hard to define. I mean, it's one of those things that you know, we know it when we see it. You know, the way a scientist would define lightning? Is it is it is a large scale electrical discharge measured in kilometers or if you prefer miles.

Nick VinZant 2:05

But what's like what's happening up there? Like I sort of

Joseph Dwyer 2:08

stepping back big picture, most lightning starts inside thunderstorms. We don't know exactly how that happens. It's actually one of the biggest mysteries in the atmospheric science is how does lightning get started inside a thunderstorm you have millions of lightning flashes a day around the planet. And yet, we really don't know how it gets going inside a thunderstorm. So somehow a thunderstorm charges up, we're not exactly clear exactly how that happens. We have some basic ideas, then somehow, electric fields charges get really big and opposite charges attract. And the thunderstorm wants to get those opposite charges back together again, and it does it by making lightning. And it's not exactly clear how the spark gets going. But somehow it manages it.

Nick VinZant 2:56

Why don't I guess well, how can we haven't figured that part out yet?

Joseph Dwyer 3:01

What's the heart hard thing to do? So I know, thunderstorms are just right over our heads. Sometimes it's just like, it's right up there. Why can't we figure this out? But it's you can't really see what's going on? Because there's a cloud in the way. And okay, you know, let's go put something up was flying airplane in there? Well, first of all, it's a dangerous thing to do. You just don't go fly an airplane inside a thunderstorm. You may not end up with an airplane afterwards. But okay, maybe we can launch rockets or send balloons and people do that. But the problem is whatever starting lightning is probably maybe little pieces of ice maybe that big or you know, little things inside are starting lightning. And if you send this big conductor, you know, many feet across like you know a balloon payload or rocket, it's going to initiate lightning all on its own before lightning would get going by itself. And so you're disturbing the system every time you try to measure it.

Nick VinZant 3:56

That makes sense to me, right? Like the simple act of studying it then immediately kind of creates a circumstances where you can't study it

Joseph Dwyer 4:04

anymore. Exactly.

Nick VinZant 4:06

So if we're on a scale of one to 10, right, like I'm kind of a numbers person. If one, we don't even know what this bolt in the sky thing is right? We think it's Zeus throwing sunder thunderbolts, and 10 is we got this figured out. Where on a scale scale of knowledge, do you think we would be on that one to 10 scale with lightning?

Joseph Dwyer 4:29

That's a good question. I've never quite thought about it that way. I mean, we've made a lot of progress. And you know, since the time of Benjamin Franklin, you know, it's been, what, 270 years or so since his kite experiment, and everyone kind of assumes that he had it all figured out. So I think he fast most people would say, oh, Benjamin Franklin, you know, we're 10 there. We got it all covered up. But what actually he showed was that lightning is an electrical phenomenon that wasn't obvious at the time people knew about, you know, little sparks in the labs and and electricity at the time, but it wasn't obvious that that thing that they're seeing up, there was the same thing that they were studying down here. And he really made that connection. So we figured out, you know, thanks to Benjamin Franklin, that lightning is electrical, in nature, which is a big deal. But those more things we can say about light, and you know, that involves electricity. So, you know, in the following centuries, people have made step by step progress, figuring out, you know, how it propagates, you know, we're really good at saying what it does. And, you know, there's entire books written about what it does, but we're not so good about saying how it does it. So the what it does par, you know, we're probably up around, you know, a nine or so the how it does it are, which is really what scientists want to answer, we're probably down around a three or four.

Nick VinZant 5:53

So if I kind of understand this, right, essentially, there's a build up around in the atmosphere around, usually, it seems like a storm, and there's too much of one electrical charge to the storm says, let's use the lightning to get rid of this part. What was that?

Joseph Dwyer 6:12

Yeah, so I mean, there's charge separation that goes on inside a thunderstorm. So okay, so thunderstorms, you got a lot of precipitation, you know, water, hail, things like that. And you have updrafts and updrafts will blow up the light cloud particles, and they go up to the top and the heavy stuff, hail and rain fall down, and they bump into each other. And it's like walking across the carpet. And you can pick up charge and the charge the updraft blows the lighter stuff up, which usually charges positive, that heavier stuff falls under its own weight. And that usually charges negative, so you separate the charge. So by a mechanical means, and you start building up more and more charge, and the electric field in between the voltages rise, and it gets big enough, where then it sparks kind of like you know, you build up a charge walking across the carpet, you touch a doorknob, you get a spark, and somehow, but we don't Okay, so that's a big picture. But the problem with that is we know how big the electric fields, how intense the charges need to be to make a spark. And they're never close to that. And so people have been searching for these big electric fields for decades and never have found them.

Nick VinZant 7:30

I get what you're saying, but I can't quite grasp it with my mind, if that makes any sense.

Joseph Dwyer 7:37

So we know that you need very intense charges, very concentrated charges to break down air. So air normally doesn't conduct electricity very well. You know, airs, you know, we are fairly well insulated by air, if you're standing next to a wall outlet or something, you're not going to get a spark suddenly flying towards you are electricity shooting out of a wall because Ayres, you know doesn't conduct electricity. Normally, to get air to conduct electricity, the air has to break down and make a spark. It's one way it does it, it makes a hot channel. And electricity can flow along that hot channel, they are so hot, it starts conducting. And so how do you get that spark going? Well, you need fairly large electric fields, the charges have to be so concentrated, that air just can't take it anymore. And it goes. So what can't withstand the voltages that are being applied. I'm using voltages in electric electric fields interchangeably, it's actually the electric field that it gets large. And so to make a spark, you need big electric fields, highly concentrated charges, and we just cannot find them. And so somehow we're still getting a spark some way inside the thunderstorm, and we don't know exactly how that's happening.

Nick VinZant 9:06

So we don't know exactly like what's producing enough of it to get it started.

Joseph Dwyer 9:11

Correct. We Yeah, they we know there are big charges up there. But they don't seem to be quite big enough or concentrated enough.

Nick VinZant 9:19

Is all Lightning Lightning. Is it all the same? Are there different kinds different?

Joseph Dwyer 9:24

Is all lightning the same? Okay, well, there's a couple of ways to look at it. So most lightning never leaves the thunderstorm. So most lightning starts inside the thunderstorm and never leaves maybe two thirds of it. Three quarters of it. Never leave the storm that's called intra cloud lightning. And so you'll see thunderstorms lightning up and there's a lot of action. And then every once in a while it'll send one down to the ground and that's cloud to ground. That's what most people are concerned about when when comes down and can potentially hurt people. And are those two types of lightning the stuff up there and the stuff that comes is down the same Yep, basically, it just went someplace different. Consider heat lightning. So a lot of people think that heat lightning is something different, it looks different, you see the sort of the skylight up and there doesn't seem to be a thunderstorm, it seems to be something different. And it's actually just lightning from a normal thunderstorm, that's far enough away that you can't hear the Thunder Thunder can only go so far. And so there's a lot of different ways we see lightning that we give it different names, but it's actually just the same thing. Now, having said that, there are some types of lightning that do seem to be truly different. There are giant electrical discharges above the thunderstorm. So sometimes lightning can, instead of going down to the ground can shoot up to space, those are called gigantic jets. And when you start going up towards space, the air gets, you know, the density of air gets so low, that it starts behaving differently. And it turns into these giant blue fans that shoot up to space. And so it starts behaving differently. Other types of electrical discharges are when you have lightning near the ground, you can get these giant red jellyfish above the thunderstorm with the edge of space, those are called sprites, and those are behaving differently. And there's other types of electrical discharges inside thunderstorms, too. There's types that make lots of gamma rays. You know, the thing that made the Incredible Hulk you know, the, these are energetic photons. So if higher G versions of X rays, and thunderstorms can make those two, and there's some type of electrical discharge inside thunderstorms that can make gamma rays, and that seems to be different as well. How come

Nick VinZant 11:42

I've never seen like the stuff going up like that sounds like that would be amazing to see,

Joseph Dwyer 11:47

it's not as common is normal lightning. And it's very brief. And so you have to have good dark adapted eyes, the sprites can be seen with the human eye, they last about a 1,000th of a second, if you have good dark adapted eyes. And usually, sometimes you can catch it with a corner of your eye. And but by the time you look, it's gone. And so people for for a long time have sort of been seeing these but not knowing what they saw just this brief flash of light above a thunderstorm.

Nick VinZant 12:18

So what determines where the lightning goes,

Joseph Dwyer 12:21

I mean lightning, pretty much could go where it wants to it can carry its own charge and modify the electric fields. And so it's really hard to predict exactly where it's going to go. But generally, it's wanting to follow where the charges are. So why he wants to neutralize the charges. And why he can come in both polarities, you can have negative lightning, which wants to find positive charge, you can have positive lightning that's wanting to find negative charge. So it's sort of following the electric field, trying to find the charge. And when lightning goes down, there's often some positive charge at the bottom of the thunderstorm. And when negative lightning goes in, it kind of stops it all up. And if it's still hungry, it will go on down to the ground.

Nick VinZant 13:03

So if it hits somebody is it because they were charged in the opposite of the lightning, or just they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,

Joseph Dwyer 13:13

more wrong place at the wrong time. Now, it's a little bit complicated us it's called the lightning attachment problem, which is another thing we don't fully understand. But as lightnings coming down, it's going to hit something on the ground. And actually Lightning doesn't really see the ground until it starts getting pretty close. So normally there's a layer of charge right above the ground, that kind of blankets and makes the ground look featureless from the whitens point of view. So it has to get pretty close within, you know, 100 yards or so before it starts seeing structures like houses and trees and people on the ground. So you know, once it's sort of zoomy did its overhead is going to hit something in your area. And then it decides what to do. And one thing that determines it is that as it approaches, the charges are so big in the lightning that you start getting all these little sparks off of things on the ground off the tree branches off of TV antennas off of people's heads, and whichever spark raises up and catches the lightning, whichever one wins is the one that gets struck. And so yes, you will have some opposite charges on you that develop and that will cause a spark. So yeah, it's complicated, but usually lightnings gonna strike somewhere in the area anyway, you just end up being unlucky.

Nick VinZant 14:34

So the lightning even like when this lightning strike starts, it doesn't even know where it's going. It just kind of like going this way down.

Joseph Dwyer 14:42

It's going down to the ground it senses the ground. The ground, for example, most lightens negatively charged and the ground will look positive to it and it's wanting to get the opposite charges or tracking is wanting to get to the positive charge near the ground.

Nick VinZant 14:57

So I always kind of think of obviously of lightning Is the bolt itself. But what's kind of happening right around that part that we see?

Joseph Dwyer 15:07

Yeah, so lightning is a electrical discharge that forms a hot channel to call a leader, it's about as wide as your finger. And which is a pretty neat trick, actually, you know, lightning can travel hundreds of miles. And yet, it's only about as wide as your finger and somehow it can conduct electricity over that distance and break down the air in front of it, make it a conductor. So as it's propagating, it is breaking down the air is turning the air into a conductor allowing electricity to flow into the channel, it's feeding the channel and heating it up. And so it's making the channel propagate forward, heating up the channel breaking down the air sending more current. And this part is is coming down to the ground is not super bright, it will sometimes as it comes down, it will travel in a stepwise manner, it'll go some distance pause, almost like it runs out of steam than leap forward, pause, leap forward, sometimes it branches is it comes down to the ground, it's these hot channels are forming coming down. And then when it touches the ground, you it's kind of like a short circuit. So you have this millions of volts up here in the thunderstorm, you suddenly touch the ground. I mean, if you ever accidentally put jumper cables one way across a battery, you know, it can be impressive. But imagine putting jumper cables across 100 million volt battery. And so you suddenly have a short circuit between the cloud and the ground, and you get a massive rush of current up the channel that heats the channel to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, about five times the surface temperature of the sun. And that's what makes it so bright, it suddenly gets really hot from all the current flowing. And so it's very bright, and then the air expands on the shockwave. And that makes the thunder we hear.

Nick VinZant 16:55

They know you mentioned kind of gamma rays and X rays. Is that Is that coming off of the lightning or coming off of the storm?

Joseph Dwyer 17:02

Okay, well both actually. So thunderstorms, as I mentioned before can make gamma rays. And that seems to be happening in sort of a large scale electric fields inside the thunderstorm. So yes, thunderstorms make gamma rays. But it turns out, lightning also makes x rays. And that comes off of the so the tip of the lightning as it moves. And these are X rays kind of like a chest X ray. They're about the same energy. like to think that you're watched like a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs Bunny struck by lightning, you can sub momentarily see a skeleton right? That's actually you know, scientists with a laugh that haha, those cartoonists don't know what they're talking about actually how to write all along. Alright, he does make X rays. And I suppose if you could see X rays like Superman, it would look just like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Nick VinZant 17:54

How much when we talk about gamma rays, right? Like, are we talking about a lot? Like, do I need to worry about turning into the whole care?

Joseph Dwyer 18:02

No, I actually and this is this is important. Because sometimes people hear about X rays and gamma rays and radiation, they get really frightened. And a lot of people have close encounters with lightning. Nobody should be frightened about the X rays or the gamma rays coming out of lightning, it is scientifically interesting. And scientists get all excited about it, because we can measure it very easily. But in terms of a radiation dose, it is not significant. You know, if you had you're struck by lightning, you're dead a far larger dose if they took you to the hospital when x rayed your head. So you know, it's not something people need to worry about. You're not going to get sick from radiation from lightning or anything like that.

Nick VinZant 18:44

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Go? Some of the questions that are kind of dumb, or brilliant, like they might be dumb, but brilliant in their own kind of way, whatever.

Joseph Dwyer 18:57

There's really no dumb questions here. Great. Okay, just pause. I'll tell you a quick story. When I first got into this field when I was 20 something years ago, I was doing space physics. I didn't do nothing about lightning. But I was living in Florida. And it seemed like something to study. And so I found a local whitening expert who had been working in the field. And I've asked a question like, well, how does this work? Like the questions you're asking? And his answer will be well, nobody knows. And I asked another question in here today. Well, actually, nobody knows. And after a while of doing this, I realized this is a great feel, because all the big questions have not been answered. And so there's really no dumb questions here. Because usually the answer is something like nobody knows.

Nick VinZant 19:41

That's where I've been surprised about during this is that like, Oh, I thought we would have figured some of this stuff out by now. Like I just assumed like, oh, yeah, we know exactly how that thing works. But it seems like we kind of don't

Joseph Dwyer 19:54

big pictures. We have a good idea and like I said we know what it does really well. We can describe what It does. But just the how it does this tricky, it's just really a hard problem. And you know, even drawing a picture or diagram of what is a lightning channel look like in detail, it's, it's even hard to do that, you know, because it's, you know, you're seeing the bright stuff. That's easy. But that's just the hot channel, that's just a hot channel with current going through it, we can't really see the damn stuff or all the interesting stuff going on. So it's just it's a lot of difficulty in doing good measurements, like we need to

Nick VinZant 20:29

do is there is there is there lightning that we can't see that hits the ground?

Joseph Dwyer 20:35

The well, he can't see. Well, normal lightning, you're always going to see but okay, you need to if you're going to do a sense of measurement, you know, you need to know where you're going to point your camera, right. And to get up close to lightning and study it, you know, you want to be close, insensitive and things like that. So you need to know where to point things, but you never know exactly where lightnings going to strike. So that's a difficulty, it's difficult to get close. And then it's difficult. If you do get lucky, and you get close, it's hard to repeat the experiment. Now there are places like the Empire State Building where lightning strikes all the time, but that's awkward lightning that's initiated from the top itself. And that's not quite the same as studying the downward stuff. So there's a lot of problems and trying to figure it out and learn about it.

Nick VinZant 21:23

Yeah, it just sounds incredibly difficult to study, right? Like, we got our camera set up. Crap, it's behind.

Joseph Dwyer 21:31

Like you was especially hard with the X ray. So up until about 20 years ago, we did not know that lightning animate made X rays that wasn't known. And why didn't people figure that out? Well, you have to get sensitive X ray detectors near the lightning. And that's just really hard to do. And, you know, within 100 yards or so. And you have to wait a long time to be within 100 yards of a lightning strike with sensitive instruments, then if you get lucky and managed to do it, then it's hard to repeat the experiment. So like over the previous, you know, 50 years or so occasionally some would say if like, I think lightning makes exercise, I think I saw something. And okay, let's let's try to verify this and you wait another 20 years till somebody tries to get something close. And it's just really hard to verify and confirm any results.

Nick VinZant 22:21

Want to follow up on one thing that kind of jumped out at me that you said, when we were talking about like lightning coming from the cloud, so to speak to the ground that sometimes it seems to like pause. Is that why sometimes when I see it, it looks kind of like it goes in stages, like it goes to here that it jumps, then it goes to there. Yeah, yeah, that's

Joseph Dwyer 22:40

exactly why need pattern is because lightning steps. So lightning propagates in a stepwise manner. This is called the stepped leader, because it's steps, you know, maybe about 1020 yards or so each step, and sometimes it can branch so it will have this zigzaggy branch appearance. Why does it do that? Actually, we don't know. How does it do that? We don't know?

Nick VinZant 23:04

Um, start with one of the easier ones. Does lightning strike twice? Sure.

Joseph Dwyer 23:11

There's lightning strike price all the time. So the I mentioned the Empire State Building, Empire State Building struck many times a year. And here's the tall, pointy thing. And when there's thunderstorms in the area, you often get lightning, there's no reason that lightning can't strike something twice, especially if something's tall and pointy, and you have a lot of lightning in the area, you could have lightning strikes something multiple times. But just if you take just a patch of ground, you might have to wait a while just simply the odds of that happening in that spot, again, is going to be small.

Nick VinZant 23:44

Will it ever like for I had read something one time or heard something one time that if somebody gets hit by lightning, they're like, charged in a way and they will attract lightning strikes again? Is that a myth? Or is there any truth to that?

Joseph Dwyer 24:02

I mean, any charge that someone would pick up by being struck by lightning will be very fleeting, it will be gone on instantaneously. Now certainly a lot of current will flow through somebody when they're struck by lightning typical currents with a lightning strike or 30,000 amps and it can be much larger than that and so that it could potentially leave a little residual charge which would then quickly dissipate. So no, some no one is going to attract lightning after being struck now probably where something like that comes from is if you have somebody that likes to go hiking during thunderstorms on ridges, they might get struck more than once just simply because they put themselves in the wrong place.

Nick VinZant 24:43

Most frequent and least frequent locations. Most lightning happens

Joseph Dwyer 24:47

overland not the oceans and if you look at maps or lightning is it is you know it fought you can see the outline of the continents. There's lots of lightning in United States in Central Florida, that's the lightning capital of Central Florida. The Central Africa has lots and lots of lightning and the there's a lake in South America that actually I think has the highest concentration in the world. But that's just because of the local weather patterns.

Nick VinZant 25:20

Are we getting more or less lightning now than we have in the past?

Joseph Dwyer 25:26

Okay, that is a good question. So we know that climate is changing. And so does this mean, we're going to get more lightning or less lightning? It's hard to answer that because while there's a couple of reasons, one, we don't understand how lightning works, how it gets started. So theoretically, it's hard to predict what will happen. It's also you want to look for long term trends. But you really need to look over a really long period of time. And we just have not add the instrumentation, consistently measuring things for a long enough period of time to really make sure that we can see trends. Probably First, I would say for certain there will be shifting weather patterns, which will mean the patterns of lightning will probably be shifting somewhat.

Nick VinZant 26:12

How do you feel about force lightning? Like, from Emperor Palpatine? Star Wars?

Joseph Dwyer 26:19

Yeah, I think that definitely needs more research. I'll work on I'll put that on my list is something I'll work on after I figured out normal lightning?

Nick VinZant 26:27

How powerful is your average lightning strike? Is there any way we could harness this?

Joseph Dwyer 26:33

Oh, I wish that were true. My research funding would be a lot better if somehow lightning could be an energy source. But unfortunately, no. So lightning certainly is very powerful. There are 10s, if not hundreds of 1000s of amps flowing through a lightning channel, the voltages are measured in hundreds of millions of faults, and you combine those that's a lot of power. And of course, we're seeing that with how bright lightning is. But lightning is also brief. So the entire bright part of the lightning will last maybe say a few 100 microseconds a few 100 millionths of a second. And so lots of power, but over a short time. And so you combine those things, two things together, there's not a lot of energy there. So if you suppose you wanted to try to make a lightning farm and maybe capture all the lightning, you can get, maybe do it in someplace where there's a lot of lightning like Florida, and maybe try to get lots of towers and everything. And if somehow you can collect all the lightning and get all the energy out of all the lightning and some lightning reasonable lightning farm, the best you can do is power, one 100 watt light ball.

Nick VinZant 27:46

What would happen though, if we didn't have it? Like, what if the storms didn't produce lightning?

Joseph Dwyer 27:51

You know, lightning does affect atmospheric chemistry, and can have some beneficial effects there? You know, you turned off the lightning, I'm sure there would be a lot of consequences, some of them that would be not so pleasant, is it possible to turn off lightning, that would mean we didn't have thunderstorms. And that means we would have a very different atmosphere than we have right now.

Nick VinZant 28:15

But it wouldn't like the out the lightning isn't like an outlet that keeps the storm from just spiraling out of control or anything like that.

Joseph Dwyer 28:25

I mean, in a sense, it does. I mean, the thunderstorms charging up, and it's the safety valve sort of on the thunderstorm, there is a lot of energy inside a thunderstorm. And, you know, it's so it's a way of sort of, you know, relieving the pressure of some, in some sense, you know, electrically and so if you just had a thunderstorm that can charge up without lightning well, okay, there are other types of electrical just discharges that will start kicking in little discharges, that would sort of reduce the thunderstorm electric field over time. So I would say if you sort of could somehow turn off the big impressive lightning, the probably little stuff would start kicking in

Nick VinZant 29:10

honest way you've ever heard of someone getting hit by lightning?

Joseph Dwyer 29:14

Well, okay, I'm not trying to answer exactly the question. So let me let me answer a sort of a related question. So a lot of people are hurt by lightning by taking shelter under trees. And that seems like there's a you know, you're outside there's a thunderstorm it seems like that would be a safe place, you know, okay, then you know what the tree gets struck out of the rain under the tree, but actually being near a tree is one of the most dangerous places you can be during a thunderstorm and so a lot of people pick the worst thing they could do, and stand under a tree and they go stand there. And the reason is, is lightning likes to strike tall pointy things. And so that tree has a reasonable chance of getting struck. And lightning strikes are messy, there are currents flowing everywhere, there's going to be sparks flying off the branches of the tree, there's gonna be currents flowing through the ground. And so you're sort of tying your fate the feet of that tree. And so if you're standing next to the tree, okay, the tree might get struck, but then concerned off what's called a side flash and get you off the branches, the currents that come down, the tree will flow across the ground will go up one leg down the other. That's called a step voltage. And that can shock you that way. So a lot of people are hurt by taking shelter next to the trees, it's not a good idea.

Nick VinZant 30:41

The one that I can think of I was used to be a reporter working in Central Florida. And lightning happened in a football game, but it hit a fence on the other side, ran through the fence and shocked somebody on the other side of the field,

Joseph Dwyer 30:56

you really don't want to be standing next to long conductors, you know, or when you're at, you know, the safest place to be during a thunderstorm inside a house. But you don't want to connect yourself electrically to the outside by talking on a phone with a wire, I don't know if there's exist anymore a thermocouple wire going, Oh, yeah. Or, you know, all the things I used to say don't do like, don't go up and turn the knob on the tv And don't talk on the phone with the wire, we don't really do those things anymore. Just don't anything that has a wire that connects you to the outside or even plumbing that connect you to the outside. Stay away from that during a thunderstorm.

Nick VinZant 31:35

What read what are you researching now? And how do you think that that will affect the world? It's a pretty dramatic way to put it right. But like, I guess what are you studying now? And what do you think the effects and ramifications of that will ultimately be?

Joseph Dwyer 31:50

Yeah, I mean, there's a couple things I'm working on. I'm working with colleagues in the Netherlands using data from radio data from radio instrument called Low far this can measure this lots of antennas around Northern Europe, and can kind of triangulate where the radio waves are coming from and map out the lightning in detail. And it's very sensitive. So we can sort of see the first instances of when lightning gets started. And so that the big question is, how does lightning get started? Well, we're going to measure all the little discharges very carefully with this instrument. And that's telling us something about what's happening right at the beginning, which is a big question. So I'm working on that. Another thing I'm working on is I'm trying to understand how thunderstorms make gamma rays. They're these monster bursts of gamma rays that come out of thunderstorms. They're called terrestrial gamma ray flashes, they can blind spacecraft and lower Earth orbit. And we don't know how they work. They're really cool. They're really exciting. They're telling us something about what's going on inside the thunderstorm. And I'm trying to figure out how those work.

Nick VinZant 32:55

Do all thunderstorms create lightning? In one way or another? Whether we see it or we don't?

Joseph Dwyer 33:02

Well, sort of by definition, if it's a thunderstorm, it is making lightning so not all clouds make lightning. So yeah, I mean, there's some types of clouds that make lightning and others that don't, that you do have to have the right conditions, you have to have be able to have, you know, a lot of energy in the atmosphere and great updraft you seem to need to have is that for. So the cloud needs to be tall enough, where you start forming is that seems to be an important ingredient.

Nick VinZant 33:33

Is does it ever go from the ground up? Or is that a myth?

Joseph Dwyer 33:39

No, well, okay, most lightning will start inside the thunderstorm and then propagate, you know, either in the thunderstorm or come down to the ground. Now when it strikes the ground, there will be a current way that sort of races back up. So the first contacts to the ground, and then the current gets really large when it contacts and the current wave will go up. But that's still lightning coming down, it just sort of reacts when it hits the ground, and there is a wave that propagates up covery coils back up. But there are other types of lightning that can be initiated from towers, Empire State Building and other tall towers. That is basically upward of lightning that starts at the tower now that can either be initiated by something inside the thunderstorm or sometimes does go off by itself.

Nick VinZant 34:31

That's pretty much all the questions we got. Is there anything you think that we missed? Or?

Joseph Dwyer 34:34

I mean, it's always good to go over, you know, sort of, how do you stay safe during a thunderstorm? That's sort of the Public Service Announcement part of it. So lightning does hurt and kill a lot of people and you really don't want to be part of a lightning flash. You know, it'd be a really bad day. But good news is we really don't need to be afraid of lightning. We just need to, you know, have a healthy respect for you know, how much it can hurt. So if there is a thunderstorm in the area, it's really quite simple. You just go inside inside a house a building, and it has to be a substantial structure. I'm not talking about a baseball dugout or something like that it needs to be, you know, a house or inside an office building or something like that. That's generally the safest place to be. And to stay inside until all the lightning thunders gone. Wait about 30 minutes afterwards, every once in a while a thunderstorm will say the big one. So the grand finale at the end, you don't want to be part of that grand finale. So wait 30 minutes till the show's over. You know, and then it's would be safe to go back outside. But once inside, you know, don't connect electrically to the outside world. And then that's generally say, it's not safe standing outside under a tree. Cars are relatively safe as long as it has a metal frame. But if the best advice is if you hear thunder, go inside

Nick VinZant 36:00

is the thing about like I always learned like One Mississippi, that would tell you how far away it is. Is that true?

Joseph Dwyer 36:07

That Yes. So the way a lightning flash works is the lightning will strike, say the ground, it's very hot, very bright. And we'll also make thunder at the same time. Now light travels very quickly. So we see the light almost instantaneously. But it takes a while for the sound to travel along. Sounds fast, but not that fast. So it can take many seconds for the sound to reach us. And if you count from the time you see the flash to the time you hear the thunder, you can figure out how far away it was. Now, that's part of what we call the 3030 rule you if you counted if you can count to 30 and, and not hear the thunder, then you know that's by some measures probably far enough away the second part of the 3030 rules wait for 30 minutes. But the first part of that 3030 rule is really dumb actually, because if you can hear thunder at all, it's close enough to her to you. So you're just giving it an extra 30 seconds to get you by standing outside of sight counting. And so if you just hear it at all, just go inside, you don't need to count.

Nick VinZant 37:12

I want to thank Professor Dwyer so much for joining us if you want to connect with him. We have linked to him on our social media accounts. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included his information in the episode description. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. What's the unluckiest thing that's ever happened to you?

John Shull 37:40

meeting you? Nice unluckiest thing. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, I haven't been very unlucky. I have a lot of things that have gone wrong. But they're like small moments. Nothing major.

Nick VinZant 37:55

But you don't feel like overall, you're an unlucky person. Which one? Would you say you're closer to being unlucky or lucky?

John Shull 38:02

Definitely lucky. I mean, I met my wife. I mean, people who know me know, maybe you feel the same boat. I probably shouldn't be married at this point, at least not to a good person.

Nick VinZant 38:14

No, I would agree with that.

John Shull 38:17

I have two great kids. I mean, you know, it could be a lot worse. So I would definitely lean lucky.

Nick VinZant 38:23

Yeah. I don't think that I've ever been like Lucky, where things kind of go well for me. But I don't think that I'm unlucky either.

John Shull 38:35

I mean, I'm unlucky in the sense of like, I don't win bets. I don't even come close to winning bets. I don't come close to winning anything. Really. I don't remember the last time I won something.

Nick VinZant 38:50

I can't think of anything that I've ever won. I've never won. Like, the only time that I would say that I really won something is one time in Vegas. I want $110 playing a card game that I didn't even know what was going on. I don't actually know anybody who's really won anything. There

John Shull 39:07

was a friend of mine, his mother won the Michigan Lottery when we were teenagers. Like 350,000 or something.

Nick VinZant 39:17

If I won less than a million dollars in the lottery, I would kind of feel unlucky. Because like, oh, I won the lottery. How much did you win? 50 grand like, Oh,

John Shull 39:29

I've always wondered, I've always felt that way actually, as well. You know, when, you know, obviously being in the news, we get releases of things and information of people who have won. Hey, this person won 96 grand. Like

Nick VinZant 39:45

that's really okay great. If I feel like you're I don't even consider it winning the lottery at this point. If it's not over 50 million even a million dollars and I call he won a million like can but he wasn't Unlike a billion something a little while ago, I'm not that impressed unless it's over 50.

John Shull 40:05

Here's a question for you. Do you believe in that statement? It's better to be lucky than good.

Nick VinZant 40:12

Yeah, 100%. That's absolutely true. I think that if you find that if you look at most people who are unsuccessful positions, it's a combination of basically luck. Right? Either they were born with the genetic abilities to be in that position, either through athletic or through intelligence, or they were born into the circumstances of having connections like that. I think most of life comes down to luck. I think your life is basically decided for you before you're even born.

John Shull 40:40

I mean, that's a mic drop moment. I can't say it any better than that. Yeah. I, I don't know if that's luck. I mean, being born into privilege and power and all that thing. I don't know if that's luck. But at the same point, I don't know what else it would be. So I'll go Yeah,

Nick VinZant 40:54

I mean, it's, I think it's complete luck. I think basically, if you look at your entire situation in life, it's pretty much just the luck of the draw. Like you either born into good circumstances in one way or another. You weren't. And if you weren't, it's very difficult to get through it.

John Shull 41:13

Yeah, absolutely.

Nick VinZant 41:14

Okay. All right.

John Shull 41:16

But yet, it feels like there's a lot more unlucky moments for people than there are

Nick VinZant 41:20

lucky out there. Because you only remember the negative man.

John Shull 41:24

But you're positive. Look at that hair cut.

Nick VinZant 41:27

Look at that hair cut. Paid $18 for that. Yeah,

John Shull 41:31

it looks good, man. Your age still having hair like that. That's,

Nick VinZant 41:34

that's all look, as long as that's at my age. All I care about is if it's there. I don't even I don't even look at the hair cut. I could care less. If the hair is there. I don't care what it looks like. I don't. Not at all.

John Shull 41:50

If the hair is there, that should be a new slogan.

Nick VinZant 41:53

I'm not bad mouthing it, because then it's gonna leave. How's your hair look great. I don't care what it looks like if it's there. That's all I care about.

John Shull 42:03

At what age do you start to get worried that your hairs are gonna start to thin out and fall out?

Nick VinZant 42:08

As soon as you start to see it? Go man, that age varies for a lot of different people. I have some friends who are probably worried at 14.

John Shull 42:17

I mean, listen, you know, I'm laughing. I don't mean to laugh. Because I know it's a very stressful thing for men and women. But yeah, that's not a situation I'll ever have to worry about. I'm probably going to die with a full head of hair. Alright, speaking of critics, let's give some shout outs. Let's see. We'll start with Jim Dowd. Joe shields. Emanuel Soto Christian Boxley Robell QBD Trent Kip, Liam Dobson, Avery Stenson, Luis Ortega, and Winston root of sin. And I ended on Winston because I don't know why. But it's good to see it Winston every now and again.

Nick VinZant 43:02

Winston Trent and Liam are some of the names that are good names, as long as you don't hear them very often. They need to be like one out of 50 or one out of 100. And then those are good names. But if you had a lot of trends that can go bad pretty quick. You can only be a few trends, or Liam's unless you're in like England or something you got more Liam's

John Shull 43:27

Good day, mate. All right. Let's see

Nick VinZant 43:30

Australian.

John Shull 43:31

Yeah, same thing.

Nick VinZant 43:32

You do British try. Just try British.

John Shull 43:35

I don't think I can.

Nick VinZant 43:37

I don't even know what it sounds like to be honest with you. It's, you know, Governor, Governor. Hello, Guvnah it's close enough. Let's move on.

John Shull 43:46

Yeah, anyways, I got a couple of bangers for

Nick VinZant 43:50

you. Okay, okay. Okay.

John Shull 43:53

You have to pick one of these. And this is all you can use for the rest of your life. regular glue, a glue stick, or white out?

Nick VinZant 44:04

Well, glue stick just because it's the most easiest to use. I don't think I've used glue in 20 years.

John Shull 44:12

I mean, apparently I've used it recently because it's the reason why I thought of the question while I was using glue on my children's homework. Why are you doing your children's homework? It was a parent activity. And we were making an Easter egg thing together. And I got I got to thinking I also haven't used glue in a long time. But I feel like glue is underrated.

Nick VinZant 44:35

Yeah, I mean, is there an alternative to glue? Tape I guess. But I'm not going to put I would much rather use tape and glue. I trust tape more than I trust glue.

John Shull 44:49

You Yeah. I mean, unless we're going like like gorilla glue you know or like the cement glue. Like then then you know that that whatever you're doing isn't going anywhere but Elmers glue and an irregular glue stick garbage.

Nick VinZant 45:06

Yeah, I would I don't even if it's Gorilla Glue, I'm not really trusting it that much. I trust tape far more than I trust glue. Always have really? Do you ever you ever sniff glue?

John Shull 45:19

was more of a whip it whip it kind of guy with the aerosol than a than as a glue sniffer. Believe it or not.

Nick VinZant 45:27

I've never done any of that stuff. Oh, I mean, I've known people who have tried it. But I've never done anything that like where I'm inhaling things. I knew a kid who inhaled gas that didn't. I mean, you could imagine how well that turned out for him. Like gasoline. I think he's sniff gasoline.

John Shull 45:46

What? What are you more leery of eating 4am Taco Bell? Or expiring next day meat from the deli counter?

Nick VinZant 45:57

Actually, I'm fine with both of those, honestly. Yeah, I

John Shull 46:01

don't know. Because either way, I feel like how talk about You're shitting your brains out the entire weekend or the next two days. And if you get the meat, it's a 5050 chance of it actually being okay, for you to cook it.

Nick VinZant 46:15

I'm actually I'm gonna go ahead and say, um, I would be more leery of the 4am Taco Bell than I would be the meat, right. Like, if you're getting that from a grocery store, they've got some pretty decent regulations that I think that they'd have to have. The difficulty with the Taco Bell is that you don't exactly know what has transpired. In the making of it. I don't feel that way about the grocery store. I'm not worried about the quality of either one being a little bit past its prime, it's fine. I'm worried about what went into putting it together. Which Taco Bell would be my bigger concern.

John Shull 46:49

Have you ever showed up to a fast food establishment at closing time, whether that's 2am or 4am. And you know, something's going on with your food.

Nick VinZant 47:01

Yeah, and you don't do that. As the person who started out my first job was in a restaurant, you don't show up. You don't show up within an hour of closing time. Fast food, maybe 30 minutes. You don't do that to people. If you if you show up five minutes before closing time at a restaurant, you get what you deserve. I don't feel bad for you.

John Shull 47:22

I don't I don't necessarily disagree. I also am going to go out on a limb here and say I am thankful I've never worked in the restaurant industry. Because I'm not sure I would eat out or eat fast food ever again. If it is indeed. Like that Gotti at some places?

Nick VinZant 47:39

I don't think so. I think that you can I think that most people like you do pretty well. Considering I think most places are pretty fine. Because you don't want to get in trouble, man.

John Shull 47:50

Yeah. Don't want to don't want to get in trouble and stir the pot. Alright, let's see. Okay, so our choices this week to talk about American Horror Story season 12. Starring one of the Kardashian ladies, that was really the only reason why because they never know which one is

Nick VinZant 48:10

it? Which one is Kim, I

John Shull 48:12

believe

Nick VinZant 48:14

it's interesting that they've never really been able to turn anything that they did into anything else. I mean, I know that they've been successful in business. But I think if you reach that level of fame, you would be successful in business, regardless of what you did. Like you're just attaching your name to things at that point. But they've never been able to transition into like, singing or well acting, or turn that into anything else. Besides being famous for being famous?

John Shull 48:46

Yeah, nothing. It's actually kind of amazing. Let's see other choice the Masters is for all you golf fans out there pretty exciting. This weekend's I guess the biggest story wasn't even who one was more or less that Tiger Woods is probably done playing ultra competitive golf. If for those of you who didn't watch or know of him, he literally couldn't walk after two rounds. I'm not and I'm not saying that golf is easy, like, whatever. But he was I think he did a lot more damage in that car accident two years ago than any of us will ever know him. He could. He looked like an 85 year old man. It was terrible to watch.

Nick VinZant 49:24

Yeah, it's also impressive to me that 20 plus years later, let's just call it 20. For the sake of argument, 20 years after he kind of started to decline. He's still the biggest name in golf.

John Shull 49:37

It is kind of Yeah, it is ironic, right? That his name just transcends the only one you care about. Yeah, I mean, it's also kind of a testament to him, no matter how shitty of a Personal life He has or had, that he you know, goes out there and still tries when he doesn't have to at all. Not even not even a little bit. Let's see. No Our choice here work from home wars. Apparently, there's all kinds of data recently from different studies that were done from all kinds of different publications and groups and things, basically saying that, you know, like, 50%, like, these were a couple of the headlines. And I remember, like 50% of office buildings are unoccupied now due to people working from home. And one. One study basically said that people who work from home are like 96%, more successful and productive than being in the office. So there's a movement now post COVID, you know, for work working from home again.

Nick VinZant 50:37

Yeah, I mean, it seems like a much better idea. I'm somebody that works from home, it's definitely more productive. I think that there are some, like the CEOs of companies want people to come back in. But I don't think that those CEOs of companies have realized that the entire work balance has shifted, because not only have we started working from home more and proven that this can be actually be done, we're in the middle of a population shift, where these older CEOs that used to have kind of it used to be a big thing, it was a huge, like privilege for you to get a job. They need us a lot more than we need them. And I think that they're going to come to the realization that like, look, there's not as many people who are of working age as there used to be, and you don't have this power that you once did. And I think that it's a fantastic thing for the average person, the average worker to be taking back control. And I think all of us should band together and say, We're not going to put up with this shit.

John Shull 51:34

Yeah, Twisted Sister said, we're not going to take it.

Nick VinZant 51:38

People are sick of it. I think that there's a huge movement that people are sick of shit. And I have always hated the idea that somebody had a job interview. Why do you want to work here? Well, I don't want to work here. I want to work here, because you're paying me. So this idea that we really want people who work here, like this is just a job. And I think it's completely fair to go on a completely massive rant, that companies have been screwing people over for a long time. And this idea that you're gonna give us less of a product for more money. Well, now we're going to treat you like you've been treating us and I'm only going to do the amount of work that you're paying me for. And they don't like it very much, but fuck them.

John Shull 52:20

Wow. Yeah, usually it's me on the ramp. But well, in saying that the winner of the poll, the topic this week, was, is puffer fishes.

Nick VinZant 52:31

What do you love? All right, all right. All right. You don't have to tell me twice. What is it about poker fishes.

John Shull 52:40

Corporate America rant to puffer fishes. Which this isn't a good story, essentially. But basically, a couple in Malaysia bought a couple of fish that they were sold, obviously, that they did not know where puffer fish is at the time, and they ate these puffer fishes and all died.

Nick VinZant 53:01

That's like super toxic.

John Shull 53:04

Yeah. And I, I two questions for this one. I don't recall a time in my life, where I like bought something, not knowing what it was, or thinking that I didn't even know what it was. Like, if I buy a salmon and it doesn't look like salmon. I'm not gonna eat it.

Nick VinZant 53:28

Yeah, I'm not really you gotta watch it with that man, like food poisoning is no joke. Any kind of stuff like that, like I'm a fairly outdoorsy person. And there's some trails in Washington where I live where they're like, you can pick the blueberries, like I'm not doing that.

John Shull 53:45

I mean, if I buy like a package of meat, and if it even looks a little dank or a little wrong, or, you know, a little brown is on the hamburger meat or something. I'm not doing it. I'm now nope, I'm not doing it.

Nick VinZant 54:02

Unless I was hiking a trail and there was somebody there with botany degree credentials standing next to the blueberry bush saying this is okay to eat. And they had their degree with them. I wouldn't do that man. Like, I don't think that would suck. What a way to go. Like that's one of those things that could just happen to you. And you wouldn't even know it. That's being unlucky. Like how'd they die? Well, they bought first of all you probably like what were you doing? Like let's get the cheap fish at this market. We've never been to seems legit. Like maybe you should have thought that one through a little bit. But that

John Shull 54:38

so unfortunately, the couple I mean, it was pretty terrible what happened to them? I don't want to make light of that but and doing some further research about puffer fish eating. Apparently chefs in in the Asian world, specifically Japan. They have to undergo a three year extensive training course, to be able to serve the fish like conserve the fish.

Nick VinZant 55:02

Yeah, it's like real. I think it's called fugu.

John Shull 55:05

It is called Fulgur. Look at you over there.

Nick VinZant 55:07

I have this book that I read the first book that I read in 10 years that was talking about like, Look, you gotta be really careful eaten a puffer fish. It's apparently a terrible death to like us. 68 from the inside. Yeah. Yeah, like it's. Yeah, that's getting unlucky.

John Shull 55:23

Yeah, that is. That is. And

Nick VinZant 55:27

that'd be the worst to like, that would be the worst thing if an afterlife does exist. And you go up there and like, How'd you die? bought cheap fish in a market trying to save five bucks, and it turned out to be poisonous. Like,

John Shull 55:45

that would be Yeah, that would be like the same thing as like me getting bit by like a scorpion and dying. Like, right little six inch animal that kills me. 280 pa man.

Nick VinZant 55:56

Cool. All right. Well, I mean, that seems like a reasonable fear. But let's go to our top five, which is top five, unreasonable fears, like things that you know are not going to happen or not dangerous. But you're just incredibly paranoid of them. What's your number five?

John Shull 56:16

You know what I figured I'd start off this top five with something I've talked about on this podcast since the moment of its inception, essentially. And that is my irrational fear of parking lots.

Nick VinZant 56:29

Why did parking lot scare you so much?

John Shull 56:32

I don't know if it's the confrontation because like I don't I don't think it's the actual What am I looking for? It's not the actual act of parking. I think it's having to find a spot and then you know, if someone else is coming in their way do they do you let them go to you go do you stand your ground? Do you know do you fight over it? Just a lot of angst there.

Nick VinZant 56:54

Now are you like this though? If somebody else is in the car with you?

John Shull 56:59

No, because in all Park, five minute walk away from the storefront. I don't care if that's the case.

Nick VinZant 57:08

I don't think I think it should be one of the written. I think it should be a rule of the road that you don't judge people's parking. If you are not driving, then you can park. You can't say if you are not driving. You shouldn't say anything about where somebody's parking. Don't point to the closer spot. Don't say go up there. You should leave them alone. It is their choice where to park just like it's the driver gets to choose the radio station. driver gets to choose where to park? Sure. And I'm with you. I'll park at the back of the lot. This is this is not worth my time. I'm not spending 20 minutes trying to get three spots closer.

John Shull 57:43

Absolutely. Yeah. I don't even care if it's you know, 20 below. I'll park I'll walk I don't really care. I just don't want to deal with having all the all the nervousness that goes into a parking in a parking lot.

Nick VinZant 57:58

My number five is quicksand of all always been scared of quicksand.

John Shull 58:04

I mean, I get it, but I mean, how many times are you ever going to run into quicksand? Have you ever even been in quicksand?

Nick VinZant 58:11

Never even I've never seen quicksand. I don't think I would even recognize it if it walked past it. But I'm terrified of quicksand. terrified of it.

John Shull 58:21

Oh, okay. I mean, I get it. I just, that's irrational, right? Because you're probably never going to have to face it. So like, I kind of get it.

Nick VinZant 58:30

I don't even think it's actually dangerous. I think that you basically only sink to your waist and then you just kind of have to walk out. I don't think that it's actually but I just remember seeing the show. I think it was like Hound of the Baskervilles with Sherlock Holmes, and he died in quicksand. And ever since then, I've been like, watch out for quicksand.

John Shull 58:49

You've just been like it's over. It's out over the over and you're

Nick VinZant 58:52

just immediately dead. If you don't even look at quicksand. Sure. Number four.

John Shull 58:59

Severe weather. And it's irrational in let me explain it's irrational because I live in an area where yes, we get snow we get when we get ice, we get thunderstorms, but I'm talking about I'm talking about like a like a hurricane or a tornado specifically. Basically, we I mean, where I live the chances of that, well, they might be going up now. But the the average chances of that are basically like point 00 or 2%. But yet, if there's a thunderstorm if there's a huge snowstorm, I start to get a little fearful like here we go a severe weather incoming, when there's no fear at all, really to be had.

Nick VinZant 59:38

I grew up in Kansas, and if there's severe weather, everybody goes outside to look at it.

John Shull 59:43

Of course there's I mean, we've had a couple of those storm chaser folks on here and they're, I mean, they're wild. They're insane. Just to hear them talk about I go towards the tornado and the hurricane and I love Kansas. No, no,

Nick VinZant 59:58

my number four is that garbage disposal All, I'm always worried anytime you got to put your hand in the garbage disposal, like I'm checking the power, I'm making sure nobody's around me. Okay, making sure there's not like lightning outside. I'm always worried about my hand just getting chopped up in the garbage disposal.

John Shull 1:00:17

So kind of along the same lines in the kitchen, my number three is like leaving the gas on like leaving the stove on. Or like a grill you know, outside with the propane tank, like that's my number three. So I just say leaving the gas on for my number three.

Nick VinZant 1:00:32

Okay, okay. Yeah, that's this leaving the stove on is something that you're always worried about, but very rarely do I would say you do it one for every 1000 times that you've worried about that you've done it. I'm My name is three's jellyfish. I've always really been afraid of jellyfish. I just don't ever want to encounter a jellyfish really even look at a jellyfish.

John Shull 1:01:01

As as you should be. I've I've swam into school of jellyfish and got stung the hell out of on a cruise. So yeah, that is not fun.

Nick VinZant 1:01:12

Wait, how many? Okay, you really swam into? Like, how many jellyfish are we talking about?

John Shull 1:01:16

I had three welts on my chest.

Nick VinZant 1:01:19

Now three. Don't come at me Don't say swim and do it. Okay, unless it's if it's not 10 or more don't like let's like, Okay, you got stung a couple of times,

John Shull 1:01:29

right? Yeah, that hurt. Like hell. Those three stings.

Nick VinZant 1:01:33

One more than a couple. Right? A swarm? downplay it there. Johnny drama. And somebody peed? And did I bet did I've actually been stung to it fucking hurt? Somebody pee on it? Did you pee on it?

John Shull 1:01:47

No, we went to the first aid station. They put some kind of vinegar solution on me or something?

Nick VinZant 1:01:54

I can't ever remember if you're actually not supposed to pee on it. Or if you are, I think it actually makes it worse. But I can't remember. It's one of those things where like, with the bear, are you supposed to charge the bear? Or back dead for the bears? Like one that you stay still and one that you go after? How much would that suck? Right? Like if you just pick the wrong ones? Like Wait a minute. Okay, so the bear you run out and the mountain lion you act big, but then you pick the wrong one. And more us. I know you got that backwards? You're crap.

John Shull 1:02:28

Yep, you're dead.

Nick VinZant 1:02:31

What's What number are we on?

John Shull 1:02:33

So we're on our number two. And this might be lame. But it's I mean, it's a fear of mine, by far, and that is leaving my dog outside and forgetting about them. And in saying that, say it's cold outside, I let them out in the morning. Oh, I get, I get the kids ready, I get myself ready. I put everyone in the car. And sometimes I've gone back home. Like after all of that just to make sure I let him inside. Just it's just a fear of mine, that he'll be outside that will have forgotten about him. And you know, his paws will freeze off or something or like, it'll be too hot in the summer. And he'll dehydrate like, you know, it's just it's it's literally one of the biggest fears I have.

Nick VinZant 1:03:21

How far away from the house have you gotten and turned around,

John Shull 1:03:24

I dropped. I mean, I was probably I was probably an hour into my trip. And I was like I it was you know, it was one of those days in the summer, where it was getting like maybe 50 in the morning and was gonna get up to 8590 and he I don't have a lot of shade in my yard. So he doesn't have a lot of places to go. And it just so happens for whatever reason I went back home and he was still outside I'd forgotten him you know, and he would have been outside all day, you know, which nothing probably would have happened but he would have you know, he would have had no water and he's a big dog is a lot of furs. So, you know, that's, I probably check. I'm kind of OCD so I have like four or five things I do before I leave the house every morning that I make sure I check ones the gas ones the shower, make sure I let my dog like I sound like a crazy person. But hopefully somebody out there can.

Nick VinZant 1:04:13

I agree. I mean, like if turning around an hour out. That would be like whoa, man. That's like getting that's pretty obsessive. But then the fact that you left the dog outside as well. It's pretty lucky. I'm like that about locking my front door. I think I've usually it's only usually when I walk out somewhere or if I'm getting in the car, I'll probably go back to make sure the front door is locked like two or three times.

John Shull 1:04:37

I like it's maybe it's maybe it's more OCD than fears but but I mean I it's a terrible feeling. It's one of the most terrible feelings I think I've had. So what's your number two

Nick VinZant 1:04:50

social interactions with people. I dread social interactions, more than I probably should. Like they always ended up being like kind of harmless. Like when you gotta go, you gotta meet new people, or you gotta go to like a work party with your significant other, like, I dread that a lot more than I should I dread social interact, it's one of those things that the amount of dread that I have for it versus the amount of damage it could potentially like, what's going to happen? You're going to talk to Steve, and you're just gonna die right afterwards like, no.

John Shull 1:05:30

Yeah, I mean, I don't think I share that. But I completely agree. I think a lot of that's probably the most, I don't know, connecting one on the list for ACC, because I think a lot of people have that that fear. The Dread

Nick VinZant 1:05:43

to outcome ratio is not worth it at all. Like no matter how much you dread any social interaction, it's not like something really bad is going to happen from it.

John Shull 1:05:54

Yeah, half the time. It's it's just a wet fart or a puff of white smoke, right? nothing actually happens.

Nick VinZant 1:06:01

I don't know about the wet fart part. And you may have lost me on that one. But what's your number one?

John Shull 1:06:08

Once I think it's lame, but it's me and it's it's cockroaches?

Nick VinZant 1:06:12

Oh, I would think that that's probably a lot of people's number one is bugs. They're just terrified. But they can't do anything to you. But they scare you.

John Shull 1:06:21

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna sound really uneducated, more, more so than usual here. But cockroaches to me signify dirtiness and just grossness and nastiness and boof. Like having lived in Florida a few years and there's cockroaches that fly down there. Like flies. Nope.

Nick VinZant 1:06:42

Yeah. They're terrible. I don't even like the word cockroach.

John Shull 1:06:46

Now. It's no roach.

Nick VinZant 1:06:48

Oh, that's one of the worst words in the English language. I would I had I thought about putting bugs is number one. But my number one is for me. I mean, it's hugely irrational. But I think about it at least once a day and I'm terrified of the possibility getting sucked into a wood chipper.

John Shull 1:07:07

Yeah, that's definitely that's like your quicksand thing? Like, how many times have you even been around with shippers?

Nick VinZant 1:07:13

I've been around with shippers three times in my life. But so for people who maybe don't listen regularly, I used to be a news reporter. And I've covered three stories of a person getting sucked into a wood chipper and dying from it. And that sounds like the worst. I don't want to go anywhere near a wood chipper. I'm terrified of wood chippers.

John Shull 1:07:33

I mean, I It's probably quicker than you think once you get to that one of the vital organs or one.

Nick VinZant 1:07:38

But that moment of sheer terror when you're like, oh, fuck, yeah. Any kind of heavy machinery death?

John Shull 1:07:46

Oh, yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

Nick VinZant 1:07:50

What's your number one? Or well, I mean, what's your honor, but I mentioned

John Shull 1:07:54

so kind of staying along the bugs like I've ants, like I have a I hate ants. I mean, we had answered my house a couple of summers ago, like one of the kids left out something on the floor. And it I mean, I wouldn't go into that room. Like it just bothered the hell out of me.

Nick VinZant 1:08:13

Okay, okay. I mean, I'm not too worried about him. I can step on him.

John Shull 1:08:18

Yeah, you think until there's 1000 of them and they just keep coming. I have water like flooding. Like I know that. That's not necessarily irrational. But like every time it rains, I think to myself, like is my basement gonna flood today? Because it used to flood every time it's sprinkled.

Nick VinZant 1:08:37

Yeah, okay, that one makes a little bit of sense. Not really worried about flooding.

John Shull 1:08:43

Like eating fruit and vegetables from like, grocery stores. Like are they covering bugs? Are there bugs inside of them? Like I could you know, you see these different Facebook in and social media videos about bugs, you know, on the surface and things that you can't see like it's freaks me out.

Nick VinZant 1:09:03

Always worried about biting into something like a popcorn kernel and it just cracks your teeth. Like I'm always worried about that. I'm careful when I eat certain things that like Oh, that'd be careful.

John Shull 1:09:14

Yeah, you know um, for me it's like you go to bite into an apple and there's just like it's like a rotten core and there's just shit in there.

Nick VinZant 1:09:22

I don't want to think I don't think about that. I'm just saying it's an

John Shull 1:09:25

irrational fear and then ladders

Nick VinZant 1:09:30

Oh, I think that's worth it though. Especially as you get older you start to get a little bit more scared of ladders.

John Shull 1:09:35

Anytime I have to get on like a ladder i just i My knees shake. My heart starts racing.

Nick VinZant 1:09:44

Yeah, I can I get it. That kind of along those lines. One of mine is jumping. Like I've reached an age where I feel like if I jump off of this thing, my knees might just shatter into pieces like my whole bot legs could just crumble and break Mike, I'm gonna tear if I jump off this one step, the ACL, MCL, meniscus, femur, all of it's just gonna crack.

John Shull 1:10:09

It's all just going. It's all gone.

Nick VinZant 1:10:11

All gone. My other one is caves. I don't ever want to be in a cave.

John Shull 1:10:18

Yeah, I don't ever want to be in a cave either.

Nick VinZant 1:10:23

Oh, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless if you get a chance. Let us know what are some of your biggest irrational fears, things that you really shouldn't be afraid of like wood chippers, but you just are. And as always, if you have the time, leave us a rating or review. It really helps us out doesn't have to be some big thing. Just a couple of quick words. We really appreciate it.


Tailor Roshan Melwani

Roshan Melwani is probably the most famous Bespoke Tailor in the the world. His clothes have been worn by everyone from athletes and actors to Presidents. We talk creating custom clothing, style and why tailored clothes are skyrocketing in popularity. Then, we countdown a special clothes related Top 5.

Roshan Melwani: 01:26

Pointless: 30:36

Top 5: 56:01

Contact the Show

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Interview with Tailor Roshan Melwhani

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, high end tailoring, and the best

Roshan Melwani 0:20

clothes, dollar for dollar pound for pound, I'm the best on the planet bespoke clothing is, it is so sought after right now, because it's cut absolutely perfectly for you. It's your second skin. It's your Spider Man costume. It is a big process. It is a big investment of time, and effort, and sometimes heartache. But we manage that Howdy,

Nick VinZant 0:45

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest might be the most famous tailor in the world. And what I think is so interesting is how these clothes are made, the style, and why custom clothing has suddenly become incredibly popular. This is bespoke tailor Rocha on Manwani, when we talk about creating clothing, is it hard to create a suit? Or is it hard to do it? Well?

Roshan Melwani 1:32

So what is hard is crossing the road, you could get run over by a car. Okay? Nothing else in life is hard. If you look at anything as hard, you might as well just, you know, go into your room and lock yourself up.

Nick VinZant 1:46

But is it? Is it difficult to make it by hand or to do it in a custom way?

Roshan Melwani 1:52

So you know, I mean, it's my team, it's more difficult for them to communicate in English than it is to make a suit. Okay, so no, they're experts. They have decades and decades and decades worth of experience. So I have a whole bunch of guys, a whole bunch of guys. So we're talking about dozens who worked with my family for over 50 years, they have been a tailor longer than both you and I have been alive.

Nick VinZant 2:20

Is that common in the industry where you find people that have just done this forever?

Roshan Melwani 2:26

It is extremely common when you talk about just the industry itself. But you have to remember that the industry is very small. So there's not millions of that. Okay, this scores of them. There's not even hundreds of them any anymore. Okay, it turned into scores this decade

Nick VinZant 2:43

is that just because people aren't paying for this anymore? Or because kind of mass produced, for lack of a better phrase, clothing is just more bodily fitting than it used to be?

Roshan Melwani 2:55

Completely neither. Nobody wants to grow up to be a tailor. Okay, that's all it is. And even if they look at all the people that follow me on Instagram, and Tiktok, all these young kids, they're dying to be me. Just dying. Okay, the adulation I get is just, wow, it's so flattering. It's so humbling. But they're not willing to get to that stage. I've been on the job. 24 years straight. Okay. But moreover, I grew up in this business. I've been coming to my shop since I was under 10. All right, like I said, the guys who have worked for me, there's so many of them who have done it for over 50 years, then 40 years, then 30 years, then 20 years. Not everyone is willing to work up to that stage. That's it.

Nick VinZant 3:41

But how long does it take to get really good at it? decades? Why, why is that? Why does it take so long?

Roshan Melwani 3:47

Because it's a hard job. It's done by hand. And people don't grow up anymore to do things by hand. So then they get to an age where they 1615 1718 is like, wow, this is sexy. We want to do this, but they don't have labor and, and handwork. In their physicality, or their mindset. You give them a needle in a thread. They don't know what the hell to do with it. And then it's hard. It's hard. Now, it doesn't matter if you're an 18 year old growing up in medieval times, and you're asked to become a tailor. Because since birth, all you've been doing is stuff with your hands. But if you're 18 years old now, and you want to become a bespoke tailor, and suddenly you have to do stuff with your hands. But since birth, all you've done is play with your iPad. It's very difficult. So it's not hard for me to do what I do, but it's very hard for people to break into this industry. And it's got nothing to do with off the rack clothing fitting better. Far from it. It's garbage. Off the rack clothing costing less no chance. My price competitive advantage is second to none. Based on what I have to offer dollar for dollar pound for pound. I'm the best on the planet. And it's nothing to do with Enzo All right bespoke or that there's no demand for bespoke clothing, bespoke clothing is it is so sought after right now than it has ever been at any stage.

Nick VinZant 5:13

What's What do you think then is fueling that demand? Why is it suddenly all? Why is it suddenly so high?

Roshan Melwani 5:19

You understand how hot guys look in the school clothes? I think it will do look good on you put a suit on you walk through the door. Everyone was like, oh my god, I love a man suit. I love a man in a suit has has been the line one of the lines for half a century or more. Me Mad Men. Mad Men gets on TV. Everybody loves madmen. Everybody loves the suits, suits, suits comes on TV. I can't watch trash like that. Everybody loves suits. Everybody wants to wear a suit to see a guy in a suit. Barney Stinson suit up the smoke this group of eight holes who don't want to wear suits, we can be the suit wears. Got 16 or 17 or 18 or tiny wear suit. Oh my god, you really love getting dressed up. And they love me. Right? Because I bring so much fun to this. And it's not boring.

Nick VinZant 6:08

For Okay, so I kind of get the idea of why a custom made or a tailored or a bespoke suit or bespoke clothing would look better. But what is it about it kind of specifically like okay, why does it look better on somebody than off the rack clothing? What about it?

Roshan Melwani 6:25

First of all, it looks better on anybody than off the rack clothing because it's cut absolutely perfectly for you. It's your second skin. It's your Spider Man costume. Nothing is cut homogenously. Okay, both shoulders are cut different both arm lengths are cut different both arm holes are cut different. Both pecs are cut different. Both love handles are cut different. Both quads, both hammies both buttocks, both cards are cut different. It's cut perfect for you. How hot is Aquaman? Superman, Batman Spider Man look in their costume. That's what a bespoke suit suit. Is it your costume? You I mean, you look so good. You look like the Gladiator. And I perfected that. I've taken that to another extreme. I started off doing skin fit because I love skin fit Spider Man stuff. But not every guy could rock a skin fit. Okay, not every guy was comfortable rocking a skin fit. So it was a short face and everyone wanted the Roshanda one skin fit suit. So we then developed the for defect were everywhere. Just followed the contours of your body and nearly stuck to you. So you were just basically gift wrapped in my full defect. And, and guys are loving it.

Nick VinZant 7:36

But does that work if somebody maybe doesn't have, let's say, the best the best body in the world,

Roshan Melwani 7:42

this is about everyone's body. This is not about the best body. No chance off the rack is potentially about the best one. My suits are about a client's mind about the client's vision. I am the suit whisperer. I don't talk to the suit. I talk to the client, I get inside the client's head, like bring their vision to life. They may not all want slim fit. They may want a full of fit, a classic fit, a throwback fit, whatever fit. But they will be different. And nobody does it like me. And it is just pristine what we create. And you don't have to take my word for it. There's 9000 videos of guys on my Instagram. All right, just beaming goes as well, excuse me, beaming and the suits that I've made it and they fits in perfectly. They get to pick the fabric designed to suit we have a buffet of style attributes for them to pick from. You get to pick the interior, the buttons, the works, and the bonuses. It fits in perfectly better than anything they can buy off the rack. And cheaper than anything they can borrow throughout. I mean, I'm in a renaissance right now of my own creation.

Nick VinZant 8:49

I love that line, man.

I'm so finally for the process, right? Like obviously, this is a big process, but kind of walk me through okay, I'm gonna get a suit made. What happens like what do you do? How does it get made? How does this all kind of come together?

Roshan Melwani 9:07

It is a big process. It is a big investment of time and effort. And sometimes heartache will be manage that heartache. Now there's two ways to do it. One you either meet me in Hong Kong, or two we never meet. And I work with people who either come and meet me in Hong Kong or who I've never met. Let's start with the Hong Kong party. You come into my store into my Italian. I mentioned. All right. We pick the fabrics. We pick the styles, the buttons, we pick the we create the essence of the suit, the foundation of it, what is the suit for are you 21 going to interview for KPMG? Or is this for your 25th wedding anniversary and you're having a bowl celebration of the Ritz Carlton, whatever it may be may be graduation, maybe maybe your Bar Mitzvah. It can be anything. You could need a divorce suit. All right, whatever you want. We talk about how you want it to make you feel, how you want to feel inside of it, and then you go away. And then if you come in the morning, I could see you as early in the afternoon, or I'd probably see the following afternoon. What I've done in between is that explain to each and every member of my team, what exactly we're going to create. And they go and do that. And part of their bid is to draw a paper cutting of the clients body based on the measurements that we've just took. All right, but complete paper cutting, and then put cloth on that cutting and carve out that cloth. So literally cut and carve out the body parts, and then sew together a based fitting where it's the shell of the suit. Without the inner canvasser you come in, and then you try on that shell, we pin stitch chalk around you talk to you about you know, the length of fit, etcetera, etcetera, make you walk, make you squat, make you set, you then go away. And then we finish the suit with the inner canvassing, in lining, then the buttonholes and the buttons, you come back the next day and try it on, it's perfect, I'm not perfect, give us a few hours, we'll make it perfect. So that's one facet of the second facet is I never meet you, you send me your measurements through the measurement chart on my website. And then I make you something amazing. We hop on a video call. And I talk, I figure out who you are, what you're thinking I would do, where you're with, whether you're in the store or not, I either send you links to fabrics for you to peruse, okay, or you choose something off mindset, or we do a live call, and you go through the fabrics just like you would be in the store, I'll be showing you fabrics. All right, I have tons and tons of fabric books. Okay, tons and tons and tons of fabric books that you can look at, of all different shapes and sizes, you can send me a photo of us of a style that you like, and we can take the best from it. I can sketch something for you, I can do anything you want for you. Very, very, very simple. I could spend hours talking about what I could do for you. I asked you a couple of questions, I say, we'll get off the phone, you go and find the best fitting suit in your wardrobe. You tell me the size and the brand of it, put it on, get your apartment to shoot a video of you. Let me see how you look in a suit. And what makes you feel good and what you don't like, okay, then send me a couple of photos. I don't need your face. I want you standing shirtless. If you're a woman with a T shirt, I mean, with a tank top. I want to see your neck down to your hips from the front, both sides in the back so I can see your shoulder structure, then I build you the suit. And I wouldn't be in business. If it wasn't nearly perfect all the time. It's not an investment. Because it's cheap. 650 bucks us is nothing. What will you pay in California, in New York, in Florida, in Italy, in London, in Japan, in Paris, oh my goodness, you pay many times more and you still won't get the attributes that I offer. The vestment is the time if you're in Hong Kong, I need to see you a few times. The vestment is the time if you're abroad, you need to do your homework from

Nick VinZant 13:09

for someone who's doing what you're what you're doing your caliber of work. You said I think 650 For a suit American. If this was in New York or Paris, what would what would your kind of services like in New York or Paris cost? So

Roshan Melwani 13:25

specifically what I do 10 times more at least

Nick VinZant 13:27

6500 Whoa.

Roshan Melwani 13:31

Who? Without a doubt, I'm not sure I'm not making this stuff up.

Nick VinZant 13:34

How long would it take? You know, how long does it generally take to make a suit?

Roshan Melwani 13:39

Look, I can make a suit in a day. If you're Cristiano Ronaldo, okay. Because you'll pay the OT. And I'm gonna put you to the front. Because it's a once in a lifetime thing to work with Cristiano Ronaldo, or Tom Brady. Do you understand what I'm saying? You forgot to do that. Okay, I want me to seven suits for Russell Crowe and seven shirts and 25. Okay, but I can't do that for everybody. No. Can anyone pay to take my whole team for one day? Okay. I need at least a few days, ideally. But at least a few weeks, which is better. All right. If I'm rushing, you may get the great skill work, but you won't get my creativity. Jonas, I would say because I'm managing so many projects all the time imagining so many individuals, right. Think about the amount of clients that I have. But, you know, I would say if you're in Hong Kong, we can knock it out in a few days. So probably.

Nick VinZant 14:36

I thought it would be longer than that. I really thought you were going to tell me like a month or two.

Roshan Melwani 14:40

It can it depends on the client. Right? It depends on the client's physicality. All right, it depends on the clients. I don't know fuzziness is not a nice word. Right.

Nick VinZant 14:51

I know what you mean like they're right. Particular?

Roshan Melwani 14:54

Yes. So it all depends on all depends on a workload that day, whether it's a holiday weekend. I mean, is it during Chinese New Year? Is it Christmas weekend? Is it Easter weekend? Is it some big Chinese festival? Is it Indian New Year? It's very relative. Okay, but it's safe to say that if you're in Hong Kong for a week, and you see us on your first day, you'll be leaving with an immaculate suit, the best food you ever had by the end of the week, okay? And if you have a big event coming up, say to graduation, your wedding, you want to give and we're not going to meet right? Then you need to give me a couple of months because we don't allow for the time that you know, it does get you and car tweaks that you want. I gotta pick it up and I gotta send it back to you. Now, most of the delay doesn't come from me. Most of the delay comes if you're in Hong Kong. Can you meet me tomorrow? No, I have a tour. New I have a meeting. Okay. Most of the delay doesn't come from me. Can you get me those photos that I need? Y'all get a few broke? I'm waiting on the photos. I'm waiting on the video. Yeah, I'll get my girlfriend to shoot it this weekend. Do you enjoy everything mostly delayed doesn't come from us.

Nick VinZant 15:52

Now when you make it like are people mainly using sewing machines, are they doing this by hand

Roshan Melwani 15:59

all by hand. The only thing done by machine is the buttonholes. The only thing done by machine is a buttonholes. We can make them by hand. It takes way too much time. Okay, think about how many buttonholes on jacket how many jackets we make. Okay, yeah, so anything done by machines, but it also we can make it by hand the client requests, but they gotta pay the OT for that. Virtually everything comes in one class, the rush on the money couture class. Okay, I don't really wear handmade buttonholes. But if you really want handmade bundles, and you're willing to pay a little bit extra and willing to wait a little bit longer than we'll do it for you. But there's so many attributes that we offer that this a Melanie's buttonholer handmade but no, it's for like a boring suit for a guy who has tons of cash and wears the most boring suits. And the only thing he can show off is his handmade buttonhole. I'm not knocking it I'm putting into perspective for you. Are you

Nick VinZant 16:48

ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Roshan Melwani 16:51

Listen, you can take me apart. So best colors of suits. So if you don't want to suit you want to buy a black suit, you can wear it to everything, then you the next one you do is a blue and the next one you do is a gray, dark gray. Okay, then you add a slightly lighter blue than you had slightly lighter gray, then you add a blue pattern. So check, then you had a great pattern. So check, then you had a great stripe, then you add an extra blue stripe and a gray stripe. Then you do a page suit. Okay, and then you've got your foundation. So then you are a dark green. And then after that doesn't matter what you do.

Nick VinZant 17:24

What would you what are the kind of the most popular colors right now?

Roshan Melwani 17:26

Right now green, dark green, dark green is so hot. Every other guy wants a dark gray suit. And I predicted this troll back at all my live streams. Two years ago, I said the start of 2022. I said green is the hottest color. Now everybody's buying green.

Nick VinZant 17:41

What do you think's going to be after that? Then? We're going to go big on page. What do you think makes like what would How would you define like style?

Roshan Melwani 17:51

Confidence? And that's basically it.

Nick VinZant 17:56

Yeah, that's you only need one word answer right there. Don't you just confidence. But for somebody who's maybe not confident? How do they become?

Roshan Melwani 18:05

Then you come to me, okay? Because I fill you with courage. I teach you how to be brave, or at least pretend to that is my forte. I teach my clients everything. And bravery is one of them. I tell the woman, very few women that are that are very close to my life that I can actually open up to. So the one thing I can teach my kids is bravery, is courage is confidence. I can teach that to my clients and I do every single day. That's why they love working.

Nick VinZant 18:32

hardest piece of clothing of the suit to make

Roshan Melwani 18:36

the shoulders right, everybody shoulders are so different. The shoulders are the foundation of a suit. It starts up here and it hangs from it. So it's all about the shoulders. It's all about the shoulders. Everybody shoulders a messed up. They're not straight. They're bumpy. One hangs low, one hands higher. One hands forward, one hangs back. One is wider. One is narrow. The shoulders, you have to nail the shoulders, Emil the shoulders, everything falls from it. You can kneel everything else. So the shoulders are shitting nothing will fall right?

Nick VinZant 19:07

Hardest part of the body to kind of hide.

Roshan Melwani 19:10

You cannot hide anything. That is That is nonsense. So every woman that comes in here, and that's worried about their weight. Okay. So I want this a bit fuller. I've said this to every woman in my life and every woman. I've said Darling, you cannot hide anything. Okay, nothing can be hidden. So the best thing is to show it off. I tell women, you can't hide anything. But if you let me show it all. Everyone who's looking at you will think you're sexy. And that's what I do.

Nick VinZant 19:40

What did you say would be the best fabric like what's your favorite fabric to work with?

Roshan Melwani 19:45

lightweight wool.

Nick VinZant 19:47

Is that what what are most suits made out of like if I was to buy something off most high end suits was high end suits are made from lightweight, lightweight wool. That's probably the most common thing. What Why? Why that? What's the why it's

Roshan Melwani 19:58

so fine. It's woven. So Well, it doesn't wrinkle. It's like skin. So it's easy to create it into a second skin.

Nick VinZant 20:05

Where do people generally get it wrong? Like when they buy a suit? What is it? What are they? Is it the pattern? The color the fit? Like? If it's the fit, like where do they messed it up in the fit?

Roshan Melwani 20:17

The two things, okay? What is it? They don't know how they're supposed to dress. They have all these weird rules, okay, that people follow to it's not paying for high end attributes. Okay. plastic buttons, unfunctional pockets, shitty padding and say the shoulders. Yeah, I'm saying like, like, you've got to understand something, if you're not going to come to me. You don't have to spend big bucks. But then at least go to Hugo Boss. Go to Suitsupply. Go to Ted Baker. Go to Paul Smith. All right. These are major brands, mass production, a lot of thought and design, great quality control, great value. In their brand. They hold great value in their own brand. About the same price point as me a little bit higher. But author

Nick VinZant 21:10

style that you wish would go away style that you wish would come back.

Roshan Melwani 21:14

Slim Fit is here to stay. baggy clothing is just for lazy people. You heard me say, all right. We as a as humanity in general, should vote against baggy clothing. What is

Nick VinZant 21:27

their style, though? The current kind of trend with clothing that you like, Oh, I wish that would go away?

Roshan Melwani 21:32

It's a very narrow question that has no answer whatsoever. The world is so gigantic. You have men, women, elderly people, children. You have continents, countries, culture, religion, there is so much fashion out there. There is no such thing as a trend. Okay, there's so much fashion out there. There's no such thing as a trend. All right. I don't have any pet peeve. But anything right now, at all. I think the world is so currently educated is it is immense. It is immense how smart people are. And we can thank our phones. And we can thank influencers like myself, for educating people free of charge. I have no pet peeves about fashion at all. I think everyone's working hard to dress. Well. What I'm telling you is that if you want others to value you, then you need to value yourself.

Nick VinZant 22:31

How can I tell a good tailor from a really good tailor?

Roshan Melwani 22:35

It's all about trust. Okay? Your tailor no matter what will make you happy. If he's not making you happy, he's not your table. I may be better than your current tailor. So what if you're not comfortable working? Then what's the point? Every tailor is at different point in the curve. Some are much more patient. Some are like dictators and prima donnas. Some unfortunately just Yes, right? Yes, yes. Yes, yes. Okay. It's all about trust. It's all about feeling. If you like the guy the most, then he's your guy. What,

Nick VinZant 23:15

what generally kind of separates somebody's work, though, would you say it's the style that they do it with? Or is it the actual kind of technical ability so to speak,

Roshan Melwani 23:24

I would focus less on a technical ability, because you've got guys in Italy, New York, Paris, who are just so good, who are so good. And they charge those astronomical prices that I cannot afford, and you cannot afford? All right. So we've got to rule them out of the equation. Because they're not for the masses. I am. Okay, I am. And, and you know, my stuff, just it just hugs and fits so perfectly. It's just the see a symphony of beauty. And if you see a symphony, if you see a suit, you walk into tailor shop. First of all, the guy should have 30 or 40 suits waiting for 30 or 40 clients. If he doesn't, you're in the wrong place. Okay. sacral gravity suits if they if they they feel like the ocean, okay, then he's your God. You're saying? If they look like they from gos banks or Uniqlo or h&m or Zara, then get out of it. Right? It's all visual. It's very, it's very easy to tell if the suit feels like plastic. If it feels like yucky, right? You get out of it. It feels like butter that you want to sleep. Right? He's your guy. Yeah. I mean, it's all human. Right? You use your senses touch and sight. Right? And then you'll know the answer will be that it's multi fold. There's no one thing, right? I can tell you some don'ts. A tailor shouldn't advertise. He doesn't need to. Okay. He doesn't need to put a big billboard up somewhere or something in a magazine. Right. He should be sought after. A deletion depend on stop Photography. All right, get some marketing companies to come in and do some beautiful photo shoots down the road garments should speak to them for themselves. Quick and Dirty photos are the best thing. If he doesn't believe in his quick and dirty photos and video, right, and he needs some guy to come in some team to come in and dress up his plays, then obviously, he's not confident when he hurts. He shouldn't have someone that he shouldn't have someone on the street, trying to bring you into his store. You shouldn't have some guy busking or whatever it's called busking. It's touting, right? These these many full powers. There's many full parts.

Nick VinZant 25:37

Can we do this real quick? Just for kind of examples sake, yeah. This is off the rack, or express. Looking at it if I'll step back, like where would this not really fit me?

Roshan Melwani 25:50

Okay, it doesn't fit you. But I'm not being a dick. Now stay there. Okay, just say that. The shoulders are very decent. Very, very, very, very decent. Okay. I'm happy with the shoulders. Both the way they fall down to the ends. And the way the collar sticks to your neck, very nice. The brush pocket looks like shit. It looks like come from manufactured press the brush the other side. Doesn't even look like it's real. Is it? No, they don't go. Sound like that. Right. So straightaway, that's, if I can see it off a screen from 1000 miles away. Right? You'll already right? And then from below it starts to hang like shit. Look at the waist. It just crinkles like like like a piece of shit. Right? So he's got the top right. Okay, which is the hardest part. Okay, so the understand the challenge, and they met the challenge. And then this is how they cut corners. And this is the problem with off the rat. Because it's so much cutting corners because as you come down, it just doesn't fit. You look at me.

Nick VinZant 26:59

Oh, yours fits way better. My This is

Roshan Melwani 27:01

immaculate. Okay, yeah, everything about it is a skin. You can see the 45th it just stuck to me. It is stuck to me everywhere. You can see the high armhole. You can see the roping on the shoulders, right? It's just clean, clean, clean. It flows it skin mine. Right. You can see the bucket of brass pocket and stuff, right? Like it is very for dead moves with my body. Okay, so I'll tell you the truth all the time. It's a great style to suit what you're wearing. If you're 21 years old. Okay, and you're gonna go interview for Deloitte. Yeah, that's a no, no.

Nick VinZant 27:36

That's what I noticed, like between your suit and kind of this is that as you move, the suit seems to move with you, as his poli sci was with me your space like a rock? Right? It doesn't it's because it doesn't go in those certain areas. Right? Exactly.

Roshan Melwani 27:51

So cut for you. It's cut for homogenous size. Minus he cut for me.

Nick VinZant 27:56

So have you been surprised? Like what? I guess, the social media success that you have, as that was that surprising to you that so many people were interested in this? Or did you kind of like think that no, if I could, if I could just expose this business, so to speak, that people would be interested in it.

Roshan Melwani 28:13

So I've always been successful, and I've inherited success. Okay. But what I've been quick to do is connect with different genres of people, different cultures and different generations. Social media is just an evolution of humanity. Okay. All right. It is not the key to my success in any way. It is just a free window to the world. Social media has just, it's just evolution. Right. And and it's scary for people, because they're not honest. Okay, then photographers and media teams to paint a picture of it. And I don't, I don't believe in that. To me, that's dishonest. So I've had success long before social media. Right. I've worked with every type of a list celebrity. There is. I've worked with three American presidents personally, you know, huge lists. For me to have done that. I work with President Clinton half a dozen times President Bush Senior twice. President Bush once okay. I work with said Desmond Tutu. I look ridiculous. People grow. I worked with Russell Crowe. I work with Terry Bradshaw. He was Brady before there was Tom Brady, do you understand it's a four time Super Bowl winning? Yeah, there's like 10 times Super Bowl MVP. Before there was Brady there was Terry Bradshaw and I've worked with him. Okay. So I've had I inherited success. And I built on that. And I haven't used social media hasn't given me more success. No. Social media has given me the free tools, which serves as a window for the rest of the world to see what I do day in day out. It's my own free reality TV.

Nick VinZant 29:53

I want to thank rose shone so much for joining us if you want to connect with him. We have a link to him on our social for media sites, or Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tik, Tok, Instagram and YouTube, and we have also included his information in the episode description. If you want to learn more about how custom clothing is created, our YouTube interview with ro Shan will be live on April 6, and he is incredibly open and honest and active on his social media platforms. So if you want to learn more about this, his accounts are a great resource. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw, and get to the pointless part of the show. Have you ever felt like a stylish person?

John Shull 30:44

No, not ever? Easy, easiest question you've ever asked me on this podcast?

Nick VinZant 30:50

Have you ever tried to be stylish though? Like, do you feel like you could improve your style?

John Shull 30:57

I could definitely improve my style. And yes, I tried to be stylish multiple times throughout my life so far.

Nick VinZant 31:05

What's like how long if you're picking out clothes? How long is it going to take you before you make a decision? You're going to shop around? Are you just like, I need a shirt? There's a shirt. Got it?

John Shull 31:15

Um, what are they? There's a name for the shopper like me. I can't think of an hour. Basically, I'm the kind of shopper that I only go with what I what I have already. Like I don't really go outside of the boundaries very often.

Nick VinZant 31:29

So you basically have like, 30 blue shirts. Yeah,

John Shull 31:33

I will say I tried to be stylish and to different points of my life one when I was a teenager. And back in the late 90s, mid 90s There was a brand of jeans called Jenko jeans. Maybe they're still around to this day. I don't really know.

Nick VinZant 31:48

I think they actually made a comeback, but go on. But anyways, I

John Shull 31:51

was I was already a big kid. And then I wore these jeans that made me look even bigger. So that wasn't very smart. I don't know who approve that.

Nick VinZant 32:00

Would you be stylish though? Do you envy people who are stylish? Do you look at that? And like, Oh, I wish I was stopped?

John Shull 32:06

No, I don't I have no desire to be stylish. For one, I don't even know where to start. You could literally stick I somebody that stylish in front of me. And I'm probably not going to have any idea why they're stylish or why they're considered to be wearing something of style.

Nick VinZant 32:26

I would like to be stylish. I look at people who are stylish, and I'd be like, Oh, I would like to be like that. But I don't have a desire to put in any effort.

John Shull 32:36

Like most things in your life.

Nick VinZant 32:38

Yeah, that's the difficulty. Like I've always envied people who are stylish and like, I'd like to be stylish. But then it looks like a lot of work. And putting on gym shorts is not a lot of

John Shull 32:52

hair is probably the only thing where I'm like, Hmm, if I could be like, how have something a fashion it would be to have like good hair.

Nick VinZant 33:00

I've never I can't think of a single thing that I've ever had that I was like InStyle though.

John Shull 33:05

No, never accept though, like early 2000 and 10s. I did go through a skinny jeans phase.

Nick VinZant 33:16

Let's forget about that. Actually, let's just move let's just move right past that because let's just be honest, you're not the kind of man who should be wearing skinny jeans.

John Shull 33:27

Oh god. No, I mean, no. Though. This does bring me up to another another point or another question that I've always wondered people's opinions on. And that is do sizes really even matter? In terms of you know, for instance, I'm I'm an extra large shirt, some some places other places I'm a double XL, I can fit into a large and some brands. Like I feel like it's all garbage advertising

Nick VinZant 33:55

would the mean this size thing I think it's just like handy to kind of give you a basic reference for what kind of size shirt you should be buying.

John Shull 34:02

Let's try I think you've had this then. Since maybe you don't you know you don't get it with clothes with shoes, right? Like some shoes have more support for arches than other shoes like Nikes I have wide feet. So like sometimes it's hard for me to fit comfortably into a regular pair of Nikes

Nick VinZant 34:20

I think the problem here honestly quite frankly, is you I think that you expect for the world to be designed around you and for everything to fit you conveniently but that's not how it works like different manufacturers make shoes differently and some are not fit you and some will fit you everybody can't cater to John shelf.

John Shull 34:38

See? So you always turn it out round Oh see that's it's not even the thing. What I think there's people out there listening to this that are like Oh, I get where John's coming from maybe they're in the same boat. Maybe they felt the same way.

Nick VinZant 34:51

I mean, I've just never really put that much thought into it right like okay, I'm in this size in a Nike. Oh, but I'm not that size in an Adidas Well, I just change into the sighs and move on with my day. Right? Like if I put on the large and it doesn't fit? Well I go to the medium. He's writing letters to the CEO about it,

John Shull 35:09

I think I think a lot of it is is, you know maybe how you grew up always being kind of a skinny person I think it affects, you know, well no, no, I don't want to say that because obviously skinny people have body issues to body image issues too. But I think it affects you know, people my size more or less more often than other other people.

Nick VinZant 35:30

Oh, like you would be more self conscious, right? Like, wait a minute, I thought I was a large now you're telling me I'm an extra large?

John Shull 35:37

Yeah, I mean, like say you'll say I went on a diet, which will never happen. And I lose 10 pounds. And I go to the store McMahon I'm gonna fit back into largest and not one large fits. So I have to get extra large. And I feel like I've done nothing for the last three weeks.

Nick VinZant 35:52

Well, I mean, look, it's only three weeks, right? You gotta be in it for the long haul. I think you just gotta mean you can't take life's ebbs and flows so hard, right. You just gotta stay the course. It's a marathon man, not a sprint. Don't worry about it. If you fall down, you can just get back back up.

John Shull 36:06

You must have watched rocky again. In the past five days.

Nick VinZant 36:11

That's my general life philosophy. Doesn't matter if you fall John matters if you get back up.

John Shull 36:15

Well, I'm getting back up. All right. That's all that matters, man.

Nick VinZant 36:19

It's what I tell my kids every time they fall doesn't matter if you fall just get back up. That's all that matters. Okay, all right. You ready for some you ready to move on? Yes

John Shull 36:26

to give some some shout outs. All right, let's see here. We'll start off with Louise Mendez. Kam McLeod, Simon will can McMahon which also makes me shout out to my boys Shane McMahon came back at WrestleMania after like five years out of the ring and literally was in the ring for six seconds and Taurus quadricep so sucks to be him.

Nick VinZant 36:54

Didn't his dad do that? Didn't he tear both of his quadriceps getting into the ring? Yeah, like

John Shull 37:00

January of oh six or oh seven. Yeah. And then his dad sat there and still directed everybody

Nick VinZant 37:08

that's man I bet that hurt. Yeah, that's one of those injuries like tearing a muscle off the bone like that's like wow, I bet that's pretty bad. Can we revisit Simon will for a second I feel like well who will do it Simon will I feel like that joke gets made with the name Simon more than any other name that they could have right if it was like Max will Well Max will but Simon Simon sets up that joke more than any other name. I feel like I mean Simon Says right it's the Simon Says part of it was Peter. Nobody would be bothering him. Peter will. Who is going to do it Simon will how many times you think he heard that?

John Shull 37:48

Whenever I think of Peter I keep thinking like hey, go to big Peter to come here. What's that? Have you have you talked a little Peter lately? No. Oh, well, I think you have more than what you realize. Anyways, Sanjay said Garner

Nick VinZant 38:05

what what is this? What I don't get it. What are you talking about? It's just a movie quote. Is this a reference to no genitalia

John Shull 38:12

you were just to understand what you're doing was talking about names you know, and I just said Peter is one of those names I can can easily get tossed around a lot. And I said have you ever heard a little Peter and you said no. And I said but you probably know him a lot more than you think you do. Okay, all right. Nick so confused. You're gonna listen this back and realize what I what I said. Let's see. Sanjay cigar will for enough. Let's see here. Jane Lawrence. Andrea Clint worth one Camille do and I'm going to end here on are with drippy Donnie.

Nick VinZant 38:51

I like the word drip when it's like as a compliment. like, Ooh, look at the drip. But drippy is one of the like, oh, I don't like that word. Drip, drip. Drip a. Yeah, I am terrified of sinks dripping. Because it's like a problem you can't fix or do anything about like that thought like, oh, no, there is nothing I think in life for a homeowner that worries you more than plumbing problems. Like oh, fuck plumbing.

John Shull 39:25

Um, yeah, I would I would actually agree with you on that. It really? I mean, have you ever had like a pipe burst in your house or a flooded basement? No. Yeah. Well, well,

Nick VinZant 39:36

my parents house when I was younger, but like that doesn't really like you know, like, it's your big parents problem. Not really yours.

John Shull 39:43

Yeah, well, I've gone through that as an adult at least a half dozen times with different things and it is it's terrifying. I actually completely understand what you're saying. Even if there's a drip like, you know, or the ice machine in my refrigerator going. I just I kind of live look like is that really the ice machine? Or is like my fucking refrigerator leaking out onto the floor?

Nick VinZant 40:05

Oh man, I've got two young boys and whenever I hear like toilets, not flushing, like, oh god, how much it's gonna cost me what am I? Because you know that you're going to be dirty. It's going to be a mess. And it's gonna cost you a bunch of money. So plumbing was up like somebody's like, there's a hole in your roof. Like I'll fix it tomorrow. Put a tarp up there. Plumbing, like get on it right now. Okay, now that we've alienated anyone who's not over the age of 35 about talking about our plumbing, see, God dang it. We talked about the weather and your stupid basement all the time.

John Shull 40:42

We didn't even talk about my basement this time.

Nick VinZant 40:45

Well, we just did.

John Shull 40:47

I mean, we can if you want. I've spent a

Nick VinZant 40:49

lot. I want to talk about your basement. I don't want to talk about your basement. All right, it's,

John Shull 40:53

it's a fantastic basement. Doesn't look like it. Yeah, well, neither does your face. Alright, anyways, if you had to do one of these activities, which one? Are you picking first? Video games, board games? Or card games?

Nick VinZant 41:14

Video games? Why would I want to do the other two? I do enjoy a good board board game, and a good card game. But definitely video games first. I would go video games I enjoy. I would go video games, card games, board games. A lot of times board games. There's just too much you got to set it up. You got to learn the rules. You got to put it away. It's like, oh my gosh, I got to do all this stuff. It's too much work. Board games are too much work. And they generally take too long.

John Shull 41:42

Isn't that the fun though of a good board game? It's going to be hours.

Nick VinZant 41:47

It's going to be hours. That, to me is one of the worst things to hear in the English language. How long is this going to take? Well, it's gonna be hours.

John Shull 41:54

Oh, listen. Oh, shout out to Major League Baseball. Hmm. Then you must be a fan now. I don't think anybody is I? I'm gonna go out right now and go on a limb and say that in 10. Year, no. Five years baseball will be back in the top three of American sports and popularity.

Nick VinZant 42:14

No. All I know is that Randy Johnson wants to hit a bird with a baseball and that was probably the greatest sporting achievement of all time. If you haven't seen that. Haven't seen Randy Johnson hit a bird with a baseball. It's incredible.

John Shull 42:27

I mean, it's one of those one and I mean, one in a billion

Nick VinZant 42:30

No, never happen again.

John Shull 42:33

I mean, that might actually be like one near one in a billion odds. I mean, he hit a flying bird while he was pitching. As the bird was flying through.

Nick VinZant 42:45

I'm gonna look this up. What are the go on your next one? I'm gonna look it up.

John Shull 42:48

All right. Well, it's a pretty simple question.

Nick VinZant 42:52

One in 13 million.

John Shull 42:55

Well, I mean, how do they break down the odds for that is what I want to know. But I won't ask any more questions, I guess.

Nick VinZant 43:01

I don't know. Dude, that's way too much at math.

John Shull 43:03

Yeah, like, I mean, who spends the time on that question, to try to find a realistic probability. You know

Nick VinZant 43:11

what a lot of it is actually for some reason I don't know why I know this. But I do know this is a lot of times it's like college students, PhD dissertations are a project they figure stuff like out that out. Like I think it was like a construction engineer figured out how much steel it would take the build the Deathstar. Like they do it for projects and things like that. It's not like some scientist is actually getting paid to do this. It's usually like a school project or something like that.

John Shull 43:39

Okay, all right. All right. Say you are going over a cliff in your car. And you could only could only save one of these things. What would you do with what what would you save your animal? Your best friend? Or your parents?

Nick VinZant 44:02

Well, how old are my parents? It kind of depends how old my parents are. I mean, I mean, if my parents are like, 80 I'm not. Because then you got to choose one of your parents. Like which one are you going to get? You get Mom? Yeah, you gotta get Mom dad's on his own. He should be able to be on his own. Dad's Dad's got to fight for himself. Yeah, sorry. You gotta get Mom. Not the animal. I mean, I do love my dog. But it is where it's an animal.

John Shull 44:26

Are you going to pick your best friend?

Nick VinZant 44:29

Yeah. Especially if you have kids.

John Shull 44:32

That's very well thank you. I'm touched by that. Thank you

Nick VinZant 44:37

no problem. Oh, grab you had to start I'd have to start I'd have to start working out a little more but more

John Shull 44:42

Oh yeah, you wouldn't you better have superhero powers. You ain't gonna be Oh grab me.

Nick VinZant 44:46

See and do that for anything else. You got to get healthier just in case somebody needs to save your life.

John Shull 44:51

See? See you just went personal there. So that was personal.

Nick VinZant 44:55

It was personal because you need to do something about this because what if you're ever in a situation ration in which you need to be carried out of a burning building and they're not going to be able to get you out they better

John Shull 45:05

they better bring the forklift

Nick VinZant 45:09

but yeah, I would save I would save the best friend I would save your I would save your life John all its

John Shull 45:14

I'd save my dogs over you

Nick VinZant 45:17

I'm just getting here two dogs now have two dogs

John Shull 45:20

I do not not yet anyways, I think the wife is trying but I'm holding a more than fat so far.

Nick VinZant 45:25

You gotta hold fast on that one man. You can't you can't let that slide. Because once you go to US cannot you're gonna go three eventually. You gotta you gotta put a stop to that.

John Shull 45:34

Alright, let's see here. Let's see what people will chose overwhelmingly actually this this week so the options on our social media poll which is up on Twitter every Monday noon ish afternoon ish. Let's Eastern or Pacific eastern Pacific Time. Eastern. I will it would be after noon. Eastern slightly before noon Pacific. Let's see the deepest fish ever caught. No, you know, that's that's been on record. But that didn't get any votes.

Nick VinZant 46:06

How deep was it? How deep was it?

John Shull 46:08

It was you let me bring it up real fast because I don't want to I don't want to go off my mouth.

Nick VinZant 46:13

Okay, well, you just go on. I'll look at I'll look.

John Shull 46:15

Let's see. The other option was just get to candle the month. But obviously, that didn't that didn't win either. This time. What didn't didn't win? No, actually, with 86% of the vote is people want to hear your opinion. In my opinion on the New Super Mario Brothers movie that's coming out this week.

Nick VinZant 46:38

Well, I haven't seen it. Yeah, but

John Shull 46:40

I mean, you can talk like what Chris Pratt is Mario. I don't have no idea who the guys are plays Luigi Jack blacks in it. Seth Rogen. Keegan Michael Key all star cast.

Nick VinZant 46:54

That's one of those movies that unless they really find a very creative way to somehow do that. That's one of those movies that I feel like I wish they would have just left alone like I didn't No one was like man I let's make a movie with supermario nobody really wanted to see that movie.

John Shull 47:14

I mean, let's it's gonna do well right because of of of the characters in the name. Is it gonna be a good movie? Probably not.

Nick VinZant 47:24

I think that's one of those movies that bombs honestly. I think that's a movie that like people are like, Oh, I'm not actually gonna go see that though. Right like that's one of those movies that you see the trailer and that's enough for you. Alright, that's enough. Well, I need

John Shull 47:42

according to I was reading an article actually doing some research before this episode. So the 1993 Super Mario Mario movie was a complete failure complete flop. I guess Nintendo real you know? I don't want to say reluctantly did not want to do another movie. But they're doing it anyway. So if you if this if it flops again, which I don't think it will, because it's different you know, you don't got I don't even remember who was in the in the first one. anymore. I'd have to

Nick VinZant 48:14

John Leguizamo. I know that John Leguizamo was

John Shull 48:17

in Dennis Hopper was in there, Bob Hoskins. So anyways,

Nick VinZant 48:22

if this doesn't have much of a desire to see that

John Shull 48:26

if this doesn't do well with all the characters that are in it, and I believe this one is more like, you know what, what am I looking for? It's more of like, animation than the a live movie. Then you're never going to make a successful Mario Mario movie.

Nick VinZant 48:44

Yeah, but do you care about Mario is a character like I care about what's Mario story? What's Mario's motivation? Like do you care about Mario Are you just enjoy playing Mario? Like Mario has never had a story? Or a background or anything like that. It's not even any like other video games, like you could say like God of War with Kratos, or The Last of Us, which is probably the most successful video game adaption ever. But it's like, what's Mario's story? Well, he's a tweet. Like, who cares? Like, I don't think anybody's interested in Mario's story as a character.

John Shull 49:22

I think you're, that's Luigi. Well, I was reading also, if this does well enough, the old Nintendo was thinking about possibly doing a Luigis Mansion movie. So

Nick VinZant 49:36

I'd be more interested in that, right. Like, there's just doesn't seem to be much of a setup like okay. I want to know what Mario's motivation is.

John Shull 49:45

And also,

Nick VinZant 49:47

I get the coins.

John Shull 49:48

I do have to call you out for one. You know, you said that Last of Us is probably the most successful video game franchise to go into TV or movies. I don't think that's right at all. By the way. Thank you. Okay,

Nick VinZant 50:00

okay, what are you gonna say Mortal Kombat?

John Shull 50:02

No, I mean, just off the just thinking about the timing. Tomb Raider, I think has been more successful pokeymon has been more successful.

Nick VinZant 50:12

I'll give you Pokeyman from a money standpoint, but I think from like a critically acclaimed and like a show that people wanted to see, I think the last of us is it 27,000 feet that's how deep the fish was. Think about that, man. Think about that. Like, I don't think that people really at least I'm only this rant because I started reading a book about the deep ocean, which is fucking crazy. You're reading a book like there's congratulation. I read two books. I read two books this year. Two of them already. Well, first to first the first two books I've read in like 10 years, but there's like it's 27,000 feet below us. Like 27,000 feet down there. And we got no idea what's down there because it's Aquaman

John Shull 50:52

Yes, I'm ready. All right, it's

Nick VinZant 50:54

time the outlaw candle connoisseur Rides Again candle of the month I don't know why the whip I don't know why the whip is in there but some reason it seems like

John Shull 51:09

alright let's see so we're gonna we're gonna go to a classic company here because I I found an April candle that kind of took me off by surprise I wasn't expecting it to be this good year have anything like that in your life where you're like alright, I'm going to try it it's probably not going to be that good then you have it and it's like whoa this is fantastic. This is worth it like this is this is something that I'm going to be talking about and here I am sushi sushi is fantastic love love me for some Fuji sushi Fuji Oh boy. Ah anyway so this is by Yankee Candle I don't know if it'll be on sale if people go check it out but obviously this being an April and where I live specifically in the Midwest it's raining a lot it's very wet it's very muddy don't let your dogs outside because you're gonna be pissed off when you let them in. All in all candle the Month for April is April showers by Yankee Candle

Nick VinZant 52:13

Hmm Can you describe it for us please

not the description on the candle I want to hear what you how do you describe it? Sell me on it because right now April showers. I'm going to be honest with you. I feel like that's a weak picture. I got it. So Okay, have you tried bread? Yeah, I've heard of it. Right. So while we while me so I

John Shull 52:33

actually last week when I went to I had a different candle. And my Yankee Candle shipment came in at the end of the month at the end of March. And you know, I was like alright, let me just try this. So I pull it out. And I let it and at first I'm like okay, this smell smells like April showers. But then it finishes with a crisp vanilla like like a almost like a cup cakey kind of smell. It just it just keeps going around and around and it's very refreshing like lemon lime. It's just it's, it's just good. It's like when you're stuck inside on a rainy day and you're doing laundry and the detergent has that really good smell and you just keep smelling you're like I don't ever want to go outside well picture like this but like you're watching the rainfall and you're like outside in it but you're not in it. So that's it's awesome. Right now as far as I as far as I know and listen we don't make any money off this but I think it's half off right now at Yankee camp

Nick VinZant 53:36

how many weeks how many weeks?

John Shull 53:38

I mean well so for this one I got it came as a two wick I don't know if it is indeed a three wick because it's only comes in a jar it's not like a round canister very common for if you know candles as I know you do. So you know very common Yankee Candle presentation for the two week.

Nick VinZant 53:58

Now, do you have automated shipments? Like are you subscribed to any candle things where they're automatically sending you something? Or do you have to go in and make purchases like

John Shull 54:09

Yeah, so I listen I if people know of services that you know, like what are some of the random services? Like like mystery box or something? If they have like a mystery box for candles, let me know I would love that. But no i i like i like it because auto if you know if it was if it's automated, I feel like I wouldn't go browse the websites right? I wouldn't spend the time looking.

Nick VinZant 54:37

How many hours a week or month would you say you spend shopping for candles?

John Shull 54:43

I mean, I don't know probably eight to 16 You know, a day day and a half two days looking at candles.

Nick VinZant 54:51

So if you did that with fashion, you would probably be a really stylish person. Oh,

John Shull 54:57

absolutely wouldn't even be a question you know Maybe eight to 16 is too much. Oh, I will for sure, say eight, like for sure, say eight hours a week. Just because, you know, I enjoy it. I have a few things I enjoy. That's one of them. And, you know, there's so many candle companies out there.

Nick VinZant 55:15

Okay. Okay, so if you're bored on the internet the first website you always go to one, right? You've always got the go to website. That's probably the first place you're gonna go. How many websites in before you get to a candle website?

John Shull 55:32

It's I mean, it's probably my top 10

Nick VinZant 55:35

Makes sense? Um, are you ready for our top five?

John Shull 55:38

Like Bruce Springsteen said, was born ready?

Nick VinZant 55:45

Did he say that? I'm not it was born to run.

John Shull 55:47

I thought it was born in the USA.

Nick VinZant 55:50

He can only be born in so many places, right? Like he can't be Born to Run Born ready and Born in the USA. He can only have one of those somebody else has to pick up one of those. Okay, so our top five is top five clothing items. So like, shorts, t shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, hats, that kind of stuff. What's your number five.

John Shull 56:14

So number five, it's in. It's all encompassing, but it's hats. Just hats in general.

Nick VinZant 56:20

Okay, I feel like that's a pretty good space. That's a pretty good place to put hats. I don't think that they should be up really any higher. They don't serve enough of a purpose. But I think I've never been a hat person.

John Shull 56:31

So obviously a ball caps right? And you have fedoras and things. The winter hat obviously is worth it. It is I mean it's a piece of clothing that you need. All the other hats like you said are kind of worthless, but are awesome and and are fashionable.

Nick VinZant 56:50

Number five is gloves. I love a good pair of gloves. I think it's important to have a good pair of gloves because they keep you warm. You don't have to really like touch stuff. Okay, gloves are fantastic. I love gloves. Okay,

John Shull 57:06

my number four, I'm gonna go with just the simple t shirt.

Nick VinZant 57:11

You have t shirt and for I do I think that should be a lot higher. I assume that we would be discussing that around number one range. So okay. Okay, my number four is no show socks. No Show socks revolutionized the soccer game. Okay, so my they should have started they should have started with no show socks and then gone up.

John Shull 57:37

My number three is socks, once again, all encompassing, but if I had to choose any yes, they would be. I know them as ankle socks, but you call them no show socks. So

Nick VinZant 57:48

I believe there's actually a difference. ankle socks are not the same thing as no show socks, ankle socks go to your ankles. So you can see them a little bit whereas no show was no show. You can't see them. They're like foot condoms. Foot condoms. My number three is a hoodie. Okay, I love a good hoodie. All. hoodies are fantastic, man. So it's basically like a souped up sweatshirt. Why would you ever get a sweatshirt when you can have a hoodie?

John Shull 58:18

Yeah, I mean hoodies are definitely sweatshirts or turtlenecks. They're all they're all far second in thirds to to a good hoodie.

Nick VinZant 58:28

If you put turtleneck on your list, I'm going to cancel this show.

John Shull 58:32

Okay, my number two is turtleneck.

Nick VinZant 58:33

You gotta turn on. No one should have turtleneck turtleneck would be one of the worst things ever. And no one looks good in turtlenecks. At least not men. No men look good in turtlenecks. Women. They can look fantastic in a turtleneck. Men never have been like, you know what? I would never buy a turtleneck. But then I saw Steve over there. And I thought to myself, maybe I would look good in a turtleneck.

John Shull 59:01

Yeah, you're right. You're right.

Nick VinZant 59:05

What's your number two? Are we? What's your Yeah, are you and your number two?

John Shull 59:08

Yes, so my number two I have gloves as my number two because now maybe if I lived in a warmer area, they wouldn't even be on the list. But because I live obviously in Michigan, where it's only warm, maybe four months out of the year. Gloves are so important. And if you have a good pair of gloves, it can make all the difference.

Nick VinZant 59:31

I don't think I've ever agreed with you more about something about the importance of gloves in life. Yeah, I don't think that you can put them ahead of T shirt. But I completely agree about I love them glued to it stick

John Shull 59:43

me outside and when zero degrees and I know I'm going to be regretting saying this because it's gonna sound stupid, but I would almost rather have like if I could guarantee my hands being warm and a great pair of gloves more than wearing a shirt. I would pick the gloves over a shirt

Nick VinZant 1:00:00

I would put gloves over a shirt as well. I think I've gone run you're gonna have a jab gone. Yeah, but I mean I've gone running in maybe let's call it 20 degree weather. And just gloves and a T shirt. Gloves set the tone for warmth. That's what they do. They set the tone for comfort they do I feel comfortable in gloves. Maybe we should be gloves up to number one.

John Shull 1:00:24

Hand condoms.

Nick VinZant 1:00:26

And condoms. My number two is T shirt.

John Shull 1:00:30

Okay, we may have the same number one.

Nick VinZant 1:00:35

What is it going to be? It's going to be what do you say yours?

John Shull 1:00:37

I have shorts as my number one.

Nick VinZant 1:00:40

What kind of shorts specifically as I have a specific kind of shorts.

John Shull 1:00:44

Oh, I mean, I just I don't know. I didn't really put specific I mean, like lounging shorts, basketball shorts, gym shorts, gym shorts.

Nick VinZant 1:00:54

gym shorts are the greatest thing. I think clothing. I think glim gym shorts are the greatest clothing apparel we've ever invented. All Purpose. All Purpose.

John Shull 1:01:04

Yeah. I mean, you know. I, you made me question myself for a hot second there on T shirt. But now looking back and I'm thinking on it. shorts are they're just fantastic. And you can wear them any season. They're 100% unisex, like, you don't need to buy a women's a women's cut or a man like and they're just, they're just great. Like I'm wearing shorts right now.

Nick VinZant 1:01:30

And for men like you don't really have to necessarily wear a t shirt, which is why I put gym shorts ahead of a T shirt. Like you don't have to have the t shirt but you do have to have the gym shorts. Most definitely. Right. I like how we didn't put underwear on the list that's left off. No, you don't need to worry about that. I actually

John Shull 1:01:48

what I was thinking of this list, underwear I if I never wore underwear again, I'm not sure that it would bother me.

Nick VinZant 1:01:59

Yeah, I don't think that really anybody wants to be wearing underwear. It's just that you have to based on society, right? That's why they call it like going commando. Because you're rebelling against what society tells you to do, which is wear underwear. You're free. What's in your honorable mention by the

John Shull 1:02:17

way our top fives could not have explained our fashion anymore. We didn't have one like fashionable item on that list.

Nick VinZant 1:02:24

Not one right like suit. Not even suits. Right. Like we didn't have that on there. Nothing fashionable dress shirt. Yeah, jeans ties basically just we do have gloves though, which I think that brings up our rep a little bit.

John Shull 1:02:40

And I don't know um, I had a few things dress on my honorable mention I jeans. A good pair of jeans always feel good. Blue jeans. I do have a polo dress shirts, sweatshirts. Hoodies, not sweat jacket, hoodies. And then yeah, that's it. That's all I have.

Nick VinZant 1:03:04

I have some different ones. I have a rain jacket. rain jackets. Fantastic. I live in Seattle. You get a good rain jacket. You can go out there like you've got like you're indestructible like the weather can't do anything to you. Like rain when my worried about this for swimsuit. The only thing is, is that like, swimsuit gifts can't be on the list because I could just wear my gym shorts.

John Shull 1:03:26

Yeah, and there's not once again like where I live. It's just it's just not you know, it can't be on the on the top five can't be in the top five.

Nick VinZant 1:03:34

Have you ever gone swimming in pants?

John Shull 1:03:39

Not on purpose.

Nick VinZant 1:03:41

Have you ever tried it? Yeah, I'm just wearing pants into the pool. Yeah,

John Shull 1:03:45

not on purpose. I have gone in the water in pants.

Nick VinZant 1:03:51

I couldn't imagine swimming in sweatpants.

John Shull 1:03:53

Oh, I know. My heart just dropped. Mine are jeans. So.

Nick VinZant 1:03:58

Oh, yeah. But even like athletic pants like Adidas pants like I'm going swimming in pants. I guess. Yeah. Like the swimming pants. Okay, all right. Would you like to do? Um, puffy jacket? I'm a fan of the puffy jacket.

John Shull 1:04:14

Okay, I once again that's I mean, I don't mind a good puffy jacket, but not anywhere near top five list.

Nick VinZant 1:04:20

Okay, I could agree with that. The other thing that I really thought I really thought about putting this as number four is a beanie, but it has to be cold. I don't appreciate people who wear a beanie with T shirts on.

John Shull 1:04:36

I mean, once I mean once again, it's kind of wine number five hats. You know, you can put a beanie in there. beanies are good.

Nick VinZant 1:04:43

Okay, I'm okay though with beanie t shirt and gloves. You just can't be wearing a beanie when it's like 70 degrees outside like that's not appropriate to me. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much. for joining us, if you get a chance, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really does help out the show doesn't have to be some big thing. Just a couple of quick words really helps us out and let us know what you think are some of the best clothing choices. John and I, like we talked about don't have a lot of style. But if you've got style, I could definitely see a completely different top five, and episodes come out every Wednesday. And then now we're putting up full episodes on YouTube on the Thursday after it

Body Image Researcher Dr. Jaclyn Siegel

When you look at yourself what do you see? The truth or a distorted version of reality subtly influenced by everything around you. Dr. Jacyln Siegel studies the way we view ourselves and how it affects us. We talk body image, muscle dysmorphia, eating disorders, social media filters and her latest research. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Green Things.

Editors Note: Starting around 11:30 there is a discussion on Body Dysmorphia. To clarify and expand on the topic, Body Dysmorphia involves fixating on a specific defect that either does not exist or is minor in nature.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel: 01:33

Pointless: 39:57

Top 5 Green Things: 01:01:40

Contact the Show

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel Twitter

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel Website

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel Lab

Interview with Dr. Jaclyn Siegel

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, body image, and the best green things,

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 0:22

lots of people have a distorted perception of their body. So they might see their body as being larger or smaller or more muscular or less muscular than it actually is. Eating disorders are very, very, very serious conditions. I don't know if people recognize the seriousness of them. I'm troubled by how advancements might affect some of these filters as well. If you can totally change the way you appear online, how are you going to feel about what you actually look like in person,

Nick VinZant 0:49

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it, it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest studies the way that we view ourselves, specifically our body image, the way that media and the things around us can impact how we think about ourselves, and what happens and what we can do when things get out of our control. This is body image researcher, Dr. Jacqueline Siegel. Do people generally see themselves the way the world sees them? Or is our body image thrown off?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 1:41

That's a bit of a complicated question. I don't know if I can say with any certainty about at the population level, but we can say that lots of people have a distorted perception of their body. So they might see their body as being larger or smaller or more muscular or less muscular than it actually is. And we know that when people feel as though their body doesn't meet what they would like for their body to look like or feel like we're be like, we know that that's where some of the complexities and some of the issues around body image can come in. So even if people's bodies do meet what they want their bodies to look like, or what they want their bodies to feel like or be able to do, if they perceive their body isn't like that, if they perceive that their body is discrepant, from the ideal, we know that some people can then unfortunately find themselves in a situation where they're experiencing body dissatisfaction. It varies from person to person. And the types of bodies that people ideal idealize the types of bodies that people want to have or want their bodies to look like, is oftentimes a function of gender and other social norms around bodies. So gender culture, age is also part of it. But as far as, at the population level, do more people have distorted perceptions of their bodies than not, I don't have that precise data. But we know that it is a problem for a lot of people,

Nick VinZant 3:08

I guess, where does it get distorted? Do we do it? Or does society kind of influence us to do it, influence us to do it?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 3:18

So there are various theoretical perspectives that could potentially inform an answer to that I'm a social psychologist, my PhD is in social psychology. So a lot of my research focuses on the social factors that contribute to body image dissatisfaction. And so something that we study a lot is body ideals. So we have ideals in society for what people's bodies are supposed to look like. And we know that those I mean, the most obvious ones are gender based, the most obvious difference between these ideals typically for women, the ideal perpetuated through the media, through social media through editing apps, through the messages that were communicated. The I'm sorry, the messages that are communicated to us from peers parents, partners, they center around this idea of a curvaceous Lea thin ideal. So for people with female bodies. Your waist is supposed to be thin, your breasts are supposed to be large. Your booty supposed to be large, not supposed to have any cellulite. We currently refer to this as the curvaceous Lipan ideal. The thin ideal was really in fashion for women's bodies for a long time, but we see movement towards more accentuated sexualized features more recently. for men and for folks with male bodies we see a mesomorphic or Lee and ideal being perpetuated for men, where it's less about fitness and curves, but more about musculature and being lean and muscular. We know that these ideals also vary, at least in their effect on people by sexual orientation. We know that sexual minority men so gay and bisexual men have this ideal perpetuated potentially differently. And then heterosexual men were for a lot of sexual minority men, leanness. So being thin and muscular is really important for sexual minority men, whereas for heterosexual men, we might just see that musculature but the leanness or the thinness is a bit less important. So body ideals can contribute to the way that we feel about our body. Because the body ideals we have in society generally, are unrealistic and unattainable for most people. If we look to the media, we look to movies, we look to photoshopped pictures on social media, we know that we're either seeing a distorted picture based on photoshopping, or we're seeing people who get paid all day long to be hot, they work out they have personal trainers, they have oftentimes great genetics that put them in a place where their bodies are more likely to look like what is idealized in society. So if we're making upward social comparisons to them, we're potentially going to feel worse about our bodies. And there are all sorts of other reasons as well. We live in a society that really stigmatizes people in fat bodies. We know that we live in a society that really stigmatizes people based on skin tone, and skin blemishes and things of that nature. And so, we have these ideals in society for body image. And if you feel as though you're failing to meet them, or you're receiving information from other people that you're failing to meet them, you might feel worse about your body.

Nick VinZant 6:19

How does it kind of transition from somebody who maybe feels a little bit insecure, so to speak, right? Like, I'll use myself as an example. I'm, I'm chubby, right? Like I'm a little bit chubbier than I probably should be, from a medical perspective, right? Like the doctor has said, you could lose like 10 pounds? How did we distinguish from somebody that maybe is a little bit insecure, maybe needs a little bit of dose of reality to somebody's like, oh, it's venturing into the territory of a problem.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 6:48

Yeah, so something that is a helpful guide, especially when it comes to the behaviors in which you're engaging with your body is whether or not you feel like you have control over it. So if you are engaged in a diet or something, because you think that you want to, like get more nutrients in your body, you want to increase the number of fruits and vegetables you're having compared to some of the other food groups, if you're in control of that, and let's say you go to a birthday party, and there's a cake and you say, well, it's a birthday party, of course, I'm gonna have a piece of cake, this is a normal reaction to have. That might be okay. But if you're in a situation where you go to a birthday party, you've been trying to increase your fruit and vegetable intake or whatever you would have with a party and you say, Well, I can't eat that, because I'm so focused on my health, because I'm so focused on changing the shape of my body, then, you know, you might be venturing into that dangerous territory, because then you might not be in control the thoughts about your body and the thoughts about the way that you look might be in control. And so thinking about, could I stop this, can I turn this off? That's a way to at least as it relates to eating that might be a way to gauge if you're falling into problematic territory. As far as the thoughts surrounding body image, you might ask yourself something like, am I experiencing? And this is sort of clinical language? But am I experiencing distress and impairment related to my body image? So am I experiencing distress about it? Do I feel horrible? Do I think about my body image for more than an hour a day? Are these thoughts about my body intrusive? Do they get in the way of me doing other things that I want to do in my life? When I'm at work? Am I thinking about what my body looks like? Even if no one is around me? That might be problematic? And then the other side of that is impairment? Am I avoiding going out on dates? Because I'm concerned that someone is going to judge my body? Am I avoiding sex? Because I think that my partner might judge my body? That's that impairment piece? And so are you experiencing distress and impairment? If so, you might be falling into these problematic body thoughts?

Nick VinZant 8:53

Is it generally an internal thing in the sense that the person has kind of, I'll use this word, I don't mean this word created these thoughts? Or is it an external thing? Where like, No, I only feel this way, because somebody has said something to me. Like, my mom said something to me when I was little, or my partner or whatever? Is it more internal or kind of external?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 9:15

I think that if we didn't have like media, and people telling us what our bodies are supposed to look like, we probably wouldn't have ideal bodies. So I think that the I don't know if there is an internal response to this. I think a lot of this is external. I think that we receive information from peers, parents, partners, and the media about what bodies are supposed to look like. And whether it's being said to us directly, or we're hearing it around us or seeing it shown to us. I think that we're getting it from external sources a lot of the time, and that's a really social psych perspective on it. I think evolutionary psychologists might say something like, well, the ideal body We see in society reflects a body that is genetically fit. That's oftentimes a, an evolutionary perspective on body image. But as a social psychologist, I tend to stick to the immediate social influences,

Nick VinZant 10:11

is there a way to treat it?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 10:13

So we have treatments that have some degree of effectiveness for these conditions. Treating body image concerns that are not at the clinical level is obviously easier than treating a clinically significant eating disorder or diagnosis of body dysmorphic disorder. If someone shows up into the clinical therapy room, and they say, you know, I feel kind of bummed about my body, I wish I looked a little different, then we could do standard therapy, we could do cognitive behavioral therapy to help people change their thoughts and behaviors around their body. And the person comes in with an eating disorder. Depending on the specific eating disorder that they are presenting with, we might have to engage in nutritional rehabilitation, really altering the behaviors associated with with the condition and so we have various levels of care for eating disorders. For something like body dysmorphic disorder, there are, of course, also therapies, clinical psychologists are constantly studying these topics and trying to find effective treatments for them. But things like exposure therapies can be nerve racking, but potentially helpful. But cognitive behavioral therapy is really what we regard as the gold standard for a lot of these conditions right now.

Nick VinZant 11:29

So I'm not I'm not entirely clear on the difference between body dysmorphia and body image like what's what's, what's the difference?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 11:39

Sure. So are you familiar with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,

Nick VinZant 11:44

only that I have heard those words before? Okay,

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 11:47

so the DSM or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is sort of the handbook for psychological and psychiatric conditions. If you have a diagnosis, typically those diagnoses are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. And these are clinically significant conditions. So the eating disorders with the feeding and eating disorders are one category of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. And these include things like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, other specified feeding or eating disorder, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder conditions that are significant. And then within the obsessive compulsive and related disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, and muscle dysmorphia as a subcategory or their own specific conditions, you might have negative body image which exists on a spectrum that doesn't necessarily meet the criteria for one of these clinically significant conditions. So you might be experiencing negative body image that is different than body dysmorphic disorder. And your negative body image might be something like, I feel like I'm too short, and that might be a negative thought that you have about your body. Body Dysmorphic Disorder or body dysmorphia is sort of fixation on a particular body part.

Nick VinZant 13:02

Is this a new thing? And I'm talking about it in the kind of broad circumstances, right? Like all of the things that we have talked about, is this newer, or was this something that like, no people had this in the 1500s, or in 500 BCE, or I

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 13:18

believe that the first two documented cases of eating disorders were in the 1500s. And one was a man and one was a woman. So a lot of people think that men don't get eating disorders. But even the first documented cases of eating disorders were among men and women. We know that men comprise roughly 25 to 33% of eating disorder cases as well. But these have been around for a while dissatisfaction about body and engagement behavior to try to change or alter the size or shape of the body. They've been kicking around for a while. There certainly have been advancements I question mark, I hesitate to use the word advancements, but there have been changes to society that made it so that negative body image is potentially more likely, I mean, just to the emergence of the media. You know, we look, there was a really fascinating study conducted or at least I believe it was published in roughly 2001. Believe Becker, Carolyn Becker is the author of though I'd have to double check that. But she looked at young girl's body image in Fiji prior to the emergence of like Western body ideals through the media. And then she looked at them after And what she found was there was a significant difference, significant, significant worsening in body image among young girls in Fiji after the introduction of Western media, so we know that media and seeing these idealized bodies all around us, and advertisements on our TV on social media all around us all the time can contribute to feeling negatively about your body. So they've only been around for a while. I think it's possible that we're seeing increased levels of body image dissatisfaction right now.

Nick VinZant 14:57

Is it still increasing because it seems like in the last couple of years, whatever, I, you know, it's been, okay, this is my body and now models that used to fit this one exact characteristic. Now there's all kinds of different body types, is that working? Or has that like had no effects? I see it both ways in the sense that we've made steps to accommodate or to accept all bodies for lack of better phrases. But at the same time, like we're still pretty judgmental about everything.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 15:27

The short answer is I'm not sure. The long answer is that it is true that in social media and in I mean, even in the runways and on TV, we're seeing a, we're seeing a wider diversity of bodies being represented. We do also know that those bodies when they don't meet this, then lean, muscular, whatever ideal are oftentimes subjected to relentless criticism in the media, on social media, if you ever read the comments section, for a woman who is plus sized to post a photo of herself, oftentimes, folks are met with stigma and shame, again, because of this immense fat phobia that we have in society that has not changed. While we are still seeing a little bit of flexibility, you know, you might see a woman who's a size zero, as well, as a woman who's like a size eight, maybe you'll see women in that range, we're not really seeing a lot of acceptance beyond sort of standard or straight sizes, especially for women. And I would actually argue that it's potentially even getting worse for men, as this lean and muscular ideal continues to be perpetuated. And I would, you know, I I'm particularly sensitive to men's struggles, I direct an eating disorder prevention program for men. And I, I think that men don't have, as much of men don't have as many opportunities to talk about body image, men oftentimes, don't see the behaviors in which they are engaged to change the shape of their body as being problematic or troubling, and other men and women oftentimes encourage those behaviors and men, so many men are sort of struggling in silence, because they dislike their bodies, but there's no real avenue for discussing, or no real outlet for discussing their body image related concerns. So while these men might be having these thoughts, these negative thoughts about their bodies, or feeling like their body is too small or not sufficiently muscular they might be having these thoughts, many hours of the day, who is telling them that, hey, you're experiencing distress and impairment, it might be time to get help. Not many people, and not many men are going to seek out help on their own. If they don't see it as a problem. We already know that men are less likely to seek help, particularly for mental health conditions compared to women. So I really feel for men as it relates to body image.

Nick VinZant 17:50

are they struggling? Again, give me some leeway kind of with the terms and things like that? are they struggling at the same level? Because when I have always thought about is like, Okay, well, this is something that happens to women, and some men get it as well. But are men? Is it? Is it the same type of level? Or is it just kind of No, really, men actually get this a lot too.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 18:12

It depends on the person I, I again, I don't have population level statistics. But when men experience eating disorders, or muscle dysmorphia, it can be as intense and severe as women's experiences of of eating disorders as well.

Nick VinZant 18:29

Is there certain does it mainly affect certain age groups, either in men or women? Or is it kind of across the lifetime?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 18:36

A lot of research on eating disorders is limited by stereotypes that we have about the conditions. So we refer to this stereotype as the swag stereotype. And when we think about people with eating disorders, we think about skinny white affluent girls swag. And that means that a lot of the research attention has been focused on young white women who are relatively affluent experiences of eating disorders. Eating disorders do affect people across the age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status spectrum, anyone who's potentially susceptible to them, we have more research on young women's experiences, but that doesn't necessarily mean that other people are not experienced, experiencing them as well. We just don't see as much research on them.

Nick VinZant 19:23

How does this I know we've kind of talked about it, but how does this generally like affect people in their, in their lives?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 19:31

Badly? So a lot of I laugh for fun. No,

Nick VinZant 19:36

I know what you mean. I know what you mean. Well,

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 19:39

just an additional caveat is that I'm in recovery from anorexia. I was in treatment for anorexia when I was 21. I spent 10 weeks in the treatment center. I know what it's like to have an eating disorder. And now I do this research. So recovery is possible. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but a lot of my research now focuses on how having an eating disorder affects everyday experiences. So everyday social experiences. So I've published research on how eating disorders affect people's experiences of being at work, and how it affects how the workplace also affects people's experiences of eating disorders and how this has the potential to affect people's experiences in their jobs, their productivity, as well as how people maintain their eating disorder recovery in their workplaces. I've looked at this unlimited demand. And then also, a lot of my research right now is focused on romantic relationships for folks with eating disorders. And what we see is that if an eating disorder is active, meaning that treatment either is not being pursued, or this treatment experience is not effective, people oftentimes really struggle in their workplaces, in their relationships, because I mean, for a variety of different reasons, some of which are health related, oftentimes, people with eating disorders, face health consequences, but also, eating disorders sock, they're very cognitively taxing. And if you are having these thoughts about your body, about your eating, potentially up to like 85% of the day, it's going to be really difficult to focus on your work. And if you are in a relationship, and you have an eating disorder, there are lots of experiences in romantic relationships, that will then be very challenging for you. So in my research, some of the various stressors that we have identified as going out to eat, how many times is your first date with someone, let's get dinner, let's get drinks. For folks for whom food eating and your body is the most distressing thing that's gonna be very difficult for you focus on that experience. The same is true of sex. If you feel extremely uncomfortable about what your body looks like, even under clothes, how are you possibly going to feel comfortable and open to sexual experiences, we'd see a lot of sexual dysfunction and sexually dysfunctional attitudes among folks with eating disorders. Others include things like going on vacation. You know, if you're going to the beach with your partner, and you feel dissatisfied about your body, you might feel as though you have to hide your body for some reason. And there are various various others. We know that the ways that couples work through these stressors can make it so that people can feel more comfortable in their bodies make it so that people feel comfortable and safe to show their body and share their experiences with their partner. But it's complicated. It's a very, it's a very difficult process and trusting someone so much and enough that you feel comfortable disclosing to them that you have an eating disorder and sharing your treatment with them. So that takes a lot of trust, because eating disorders are also really stigmatized. And people might be afraid that their partners won't accept them if they learned that they are recovering from an eating disorder. So eating disorders really have a significant impact on lots of areas of life, because of the detrimental social, interpersonal and health consequences of them.

Nick VinZant 22:58

It sounds terrible. Like no matter what you're doing, that's the only thing that you can think about. Right? Like you can't enjoy any aspect of life because all you're thinking about is like, what what do I look like? Kind of this kind of? Yes. Do it is to society, care in the sense that like, right, or is it one of those things where like, you tell somebody that like, Hey, I'm struggling with this? Do people seem reactive to it? Are they kind of like, oh, yeah, okay. All right.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 23:30

Um, I think that's a complicated question. I think that eating disorders are oftentimes trivialized people think that eating disorders are controllable that you could just stop at any point. This is one of the primary stigmas attributed to people with eating disorders is that they're just doing it for attention, or they're vain, or they they should be able to control it. But one of the primary elements, having an eating disorder is feeling like it's out of control, or out of your control. I think that in particular men's body image concerns are trivialized. I think that especially people who are not thin, when they experience dissatisfaction about their body, sometimes people regard that as being like, good or appropriate. We, again, do I know we've talked about this, but the amount of fat shame we have in society is really appalling. And so we, as psychologists, we don't want anyone to feel shame, dissatisfaction, or discomfort in their bodies. Everyone deserves to feel good in their bodies. But when people who are not thin say that they feel dissatisfied with their bodies, oftentimes people will say we'll just lose weight. That's not the answer to body dissatisfaction. The answer to body dissatisfaction is learning to feel comfortable in your skin regardless of the weight that you're in. And so, um There's mixed societal reactions. Some people recognize the seriousness of eating disorders. But I would say most people don't. Anorexia nervosa is one of the core eating disorders, and it has the second highest mortality rate of any psychiatric condition, second only to opioid use disorder. And there are two reasons why anorexia is has the potential to be deadly. The first of which is the health complications that come from malnutrition, if you are restricting what you eat, if you are denying the severity of being at a low weight, you're probably not thinking too much about like, Hey, am I nourishing my body enough to live. So we see health complications, and specifically cardiac complications for folks with anorexia, but we also see elevated suicidality. And so eating disorders are very, very, very serious conditions. I don't know if people recognize the seriousness of them. I will say that I think that our health care system also really fails people with eating disorders. It's very difficult and expensive to go to eating disorder treatment. And even our most effective treatments that we have for eating disorders are generally only effective for roughly 50% of the population. And so I think that it's possible that people care, but we don't yet. We haven't yet figured out exactly how to help everyone. And so it is complicated. I think there are layers to it. Yeah, I will say, though, Biden just signed a bill, I believe, to support eating disorders, research and treatment. So there seems to be structural support for treating eating disorders.

Nick VinZant 26:46

Are you ready for some listener submitted questions? Sure. Do you ever see this really changing?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 26:56

Oh, that is direct. I have hope. I will say, I have hope for things getting better. I have hoped for our treatments being more effective. I have hope for mental health resources becoming easier to access. I have hope that people who are who might not otherwise seek out treatment might see the benefits of getting help. I'm hopeful for these things. Right now? I don't see much. Well, first thing I'll say is that there are activists doing unbelievable work. There are fat activists, there are specifically black women doing unbelievable work to try to promote. Like radical, radical body acceptance, Sonia, Rene Taylor comes to mind immediately there are people doing great work to create a society that is accepting of people of all bodies, and their work should not be minimized the work that they're doing is unbelievable. That said, within the broader society, there are a lot of trends happening right now that are troubling. I mean, two things that come to mind immediately are tick tock filters, you know, image editing in, yeah, image editing, on social media, that is becoming more and more prevalent. And then I don't know if folks are familiar this, but this ozempic craze where people are going out and getting diabetes medication and injecting it in themselves in the hopes that it will help them lose weight. This is an epic, I mean, I don't use epidemic epidemic has a very specific, very specific meaning. But this is happening more and more where people are either getting prescribed ozempic People are or other medications like it, but people are going to their doctors and trying to get this quote unquote, Miracle weight loss drug that's actually diabetes medication. And the cultural conversations around it are very, very troubling. And when you said earlier, we're seeing more bodies represented are things getting better. The ozempic craze comes to mind immediately. Because I think that CES this is a reflection of attitudes that people have had for a while that the thin, courageously thin, lean, whatever ideal continues to be perpetuated. And if people think that it's attainable, they will go to great lengths to do it. So there are things happening in society right now that dampen my enthusiasm and dampen my hope. But that said, the work that is being done the very hard hard, unbelievable, brilliant work being done. does give me hope when I speak with activists and things but it's not great out there right now.

Nick VinZant 30:04

It does definitely seem like we say one thing and then we we do another right, like all bodies are accepted. You should change, right? Like it seems that imbalance that's that was another one of our question is what do you think about filters?

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 30:19

I think that we have research to suggest that viewing idealized viewing photos of idealized bodies has a negative impact on people's body image. If you are making upward social comparisons, and I've used that language before, but it's a social psych term, meaning you are looking at something or you're comparing yourself to someone who you perceive to be better than you, you will feel worse about yourself. So if you're looking at someone, and I don't mean to say this in objectifying terms, but just for simplicity's sake, you're looking at someone and you think their body is like a tent, you think it meets the ideal, and you see yourself as like a sixth, well, then you're gonna feel shitty, because you're making that upward social comparison with them. And you're gonna say, Why am I not a 10? You know, so, if you're looking at other people's idealized bodies, you'll feel bad about yourself. If you're looking at your own idealized body. Not only are there potentially negative consequences for how you see yourself, but then other people, if you post those photos are seeing an idealized version of you, which then could potentially also make them feel bad. So I'm not a big supporter of the filters. Truthfully, I do worry about what they are doing for individual body image as well as sort of societal body image. But yeah, I guess I'll stop there.

Nick VinZant 31:38

I know nothing about this. But I've seen some of the most recent tick tock filters and I immediately thought, Oh, that's a bad idea for all of us. Like, oh, that's yeah, ad for any book for self confidence like that. i That's not what I look like, then you feel like you have to look like that all the time. I hope that goes away.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 32:00

I will be very interested to see how social media continues to advance and I think AI I mean, I I hesitate to you to use the term AI because people who actually know what AI is will probably be like, but that woman doesn't know anything about

Nick VinZant 32:14

Yeah, will give you will give you anyway. Yeah.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 32:18

I'm troubled by how advancements might affect some of these filters as well. If you can totally change the way you appear online. How are you going to feel about what you actually look like in person? I don't know. You can

Nick VinZant 32:31

say it or fought. Like, this is gonna give bad this is gonna give bad? I Yeah. Yeah, hopefully. Well, we got to fit Yeah, I think everybody knows that. We can leave that one there. Um, there's not like usually we get some lighter hearted ones, but it's not like it's okay. How would you how has? How is pornography affected people's bodies image people's body? I've used an extra possessive in there somewhere I'm not sure.

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 33:03

So, um, so I teach psychology of human sexual behavior at San Diego State and I teach about body image and sexuality. So the there is a long and short answer as as usual. So if you look across the body of research the corpus of research looking at pornography and body image, you'll see mixed results. A recent systematic review was just published within the last few years that showed that exposure to pornography is associated with poor body image and across studies and so while there's variability in these findings, we know that the more consistent thread is that pornography is associated with negative body image. There's also research to suggest that women who believe that their partner's watch more porn are more likely to demonstrate eating disorder symptoms. And there are lots of reasons why people might feel bad about their bodies when they watch porn when they watch more porn in particular. While there is a wide variety of different types of porn mainstream pornography largely features very specific idealized bodies. I don't really have to describe what they are but curvaceous Lee thin, ideal and muscular, you know, lean ideal, but also we see people oftentimes also report what was the one thing of dissatisfaction with sexual functioning after watching porn as well? And this oftentimes has to do with this weird spectacle of pornography, we see penises that are much larger than people's penises actually, are people report genital image dissatisfaction after watching pornography, we see also just like spectacles, things happening in porn that don't actually happen in people's sexual experiences. So there's lots of debate around porn for a lot of different reasons politically, socially, as far as body image as far as relationships are concerned. The research seems to lend itself to the belief that porn is a good tool for masturbation porn has the potential to teach people poor scripts about what sex is supposed to look like, and has the potential to give people a false impression of what naked bodies and sexy bodies are supposed to look like. So porn is not necessarily a universal bad, but it doesn't seem to do wonders for body image.

Nick VinZant 35:17

Do men know what they're supposed to look like? Now? The Super body, you see on the cover of Men's Fitness, and then you see the dad bod. And it's like, well, which 1am I supposed to be? Because

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 35:31

I think that it's a question that a lot of people think. But I encourage listeners to reframe this question. Who are you having a body for? Are you having your body for other people to look at? Is your body something for other people to gaze at? Or do you have a body to be lived in and enjoy it and to experience pleasure and to experience, you know, the joys of doing fun exercise and fun activities and hugging the people you love. Your body is not an ornament for other people to view your body is supposed to be lived in, it's a tool for doing other things you want to do. So I encourage everyone to get away from language of what my body should look like and think more about what do I want my body to have the capacity to do. So for me, I want my body to have the capacity to hug my unbelievably amazing partner, I love him so much. And I love that my body has the functionality to do that. I love that my body allows me to hike, and my body loves me to climb mountains, that's something that I love. But if I fixate on what I think my body is supposed to look like to other people, then I'll probably always feel dissatisfied. But if I start functioning, if I start focusing on my body's functionality rather than its appearance, then I can start feeling better about my body. So I encourage the the asker to reflect on for whom you have a body. And if it's not you, that might be worth doing a little soul searching a little digging inside yourself to try to find out why you think your body should look a certain way for other people, instead of why your body should be lived in by you.

Nick VinZant 37:13

That makes a lot of sense. Like I don't like the way that I look right now. But I more for me. Right? Like I could I could do a little bit better. Like I could fix that for myself not for necessarily for anybody else. Um, is there anything you think that we missed or any like, oh, we should talk about this,

Dr. Jaclyn Siegel 37:32

I will just say that there are ways to improve body image there. You don't have to live dissatisfied with your body. If you are feeling dissatisfied with your body talking to a therapist can be really helpful. But some other strategies that we know from the literature can be helpful, include things like spending more time in nature, if you are doing things with your body, instead of thinking about your body looks like then you have the potential to increase and elevate your body image. Similarly, focusing on functionality over Appearance empirically, we know that people who have higher body functionality appreciation are less likely to have body image dissatisfaction. I'm trying to think of some others Oh, being more self compassionate with yourself. This is some of my research, I probably should have remembered. But if you take a more self compassionate self perspective, you recognize that everyone goes through hardships, you practice self kindness that can potentially help you with some of these negative feelings you might experience about your body. Really just trying to think of some others that come off the top of my head, oh, and then think about the media that you are engaging with. If you go on your Instagram, and every time you grow off of it, you feel awful about your body image, maybe think about the images that you're exposing yourself to maybe think about the content in which you are engaging and how you're engaging with it. You don't have to follow influencers that make you feel like shit about your body. You can follow whoever you want. And so sometimes a social media cleanse can be great for improving body image. But I think what I really want to stress is that regardless of your gender, regardless of your race, regardless of your sexual orientation, if you are experiencing body image dissatisfaction that results or disrupt that results in distress or impairment in your life, getting help is a great idea. There are lots of people who specialize in this, there are lots of options available. A lot of therapists offer sliding scales. There's also lots of great resources online. But you don't have to live your whole life hating your body. And as someone who has recovered from an eating disorder, I promise you life is much better when you don't spend 85% of your day, wishing that your body looked a different way.

Nick VinZant 39:38

I want to thank Dr. Siegel so much for joining us if you want to connect with her. We have linked to her on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included her information as well as some helpful links in the episode description. Okay, now let's bring in Joe On show and get to the pointless part of the show. Do you feel like people see you how you actually are?

John Shull 40:07

Now? Now? I do. Yeah, maybe anytime before 10 years ago, I would have said no, but not now people people can see me I were a pretty, where my emotions and my personality kind of out there now I did. I never used to do that as a younger person.

Nick VinZant 40:23

I've always generally been a little surprised at what people thought of me. It wasn't always what I expected. My question has always been, which one of those is actually the truth, the way that you see yourself or the way that other people see you like, which is really a more accurate representation of who you are as a person.

John Shull 40:47

This actually kind of plays into what I want to know about how you had the manliest weekend ever,

Nick VinZant 40:52

easily, easily. the manliest weekend that I have ever had in my life was on Saturday, I woke up, hungover. I then went to the gym, and I did bench. I then came home, played sports with my kids. My wife and I had an intimate rendezvous. I watch sports. I bet on sports. I then went outside and chop down a tree with an axe. Split law split bricks, fucking bricks, like I split split stone for the patio. Then I fixed the disposal. Then I got drunk on Saturday night. The only way that my weekend could have been manlier is if I would have liked fixed part have done something with the car. Oh, and I was by a fire. I was by a fire. Which I started. It's a Propane Fire but I still technically started the fire. I don't know how I could have had a more mainly day.

John Shull 41:57

I mean, that's that's a full day. That's a that's a lot a lot to pack. No, no wonder your testosterone was flowing. Flowing.

Nick VinZant 42:04

What What would you consider to have my weekend? What part of that would you say was the manliest part of it?

John Shull 42:09

Probably, you know, the brick thing seems pretty impressive to me.

Nick VinZant 42:14

It's actually have you ever had to split Stone? No. It's actually a lot easier than you would think. Do you you actually don't hit it very hard. It's just a series of light taps. Little tap a tap a little taps. I would say the probably the manliest thing was the chopping down of the tree with an axe.

John Shull 42:32

Because why would having an intimate relation with your wife rank up there? Hmm. You were crying, weren't you?

Nick VinZant 42:40

Well, I mean, I like to be held afterwards and there wasn't as much time for that as I would like. So that was probably the least Manley's part of my day.

John Shull 42:50

Well, I have nothing. I mean, my weekend was not like that. So um, sounds fantastic. All right, let's give us some shout outs now, shall we? And surprisingly enough, it just must have been the episode but all of my shout outs are to men. They're all male shout outs this episode. I don't think I've ever had a shout outs in our illustrious career where it's been all one sex before.

Nick VinZant 43:14

Our listeners, it's actually pretty close to half and half men and women so I feel like this is pure laziness or bias on your part.

John Shull 43:23

Well, I'm gonna say neither. And I'm just gonna go into it because that was semi rude. All right, Joseph Lopez, appreciate you. Miles Edwards Zack tower. Cory Ballenger in Korea spelled K O R I. But the profile picture I you know, it's gonna stay with with a being a being a boy here at Alejandro.

Nick VinZant 43:49

Do you think that what was the first person's name?

John Shull 43:54

Joseph Lopez.

Nick VinZant 43:56

Do you think people call him JLo?

John Shull 43:59

Whatever it go. I have no idea. You think so?

Nick VinZant 44:06

Oh, 100% I'm 100% sure he fucking hates it.

John Shull 44:09

Yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna Yeah, I haven't. Yeah, yep. Alejandro Marquez, Jeremiah Clark, Ryan DeCaro. Ryan Jackson, Angelo, Gabriel. And Drew Miller. You all get the shout outs this week.

Nick VinZant 44:28

I have some poll results. So we put up a poll on our YouTube channel about how many people know someone who is not related but has the same last names? No way. Okay. How many people know two people or more with the same last name that are not related. 90% of people do. 90% of people said they knew someone like to Thomas's or to Smith's I thought it'd be much lower than that.

John Shull 44:57

No, I don't. It does. Not surprised me as I mean, I think I went through three or four names and you can you couldn't even come up with one. So

Nick VinZant 45:06

the only one I could eventually come up with was knowing to Thomas's. Then I realized that I made the other one up. I didn't actually know Logan. Logan Thomas was a player for the Arizona Cardinals who, slightly shamefully I actually think that my son's name is Logan Thomas Van Zandt, but it's not, it's not his middle name. And I get his own middle name wrong because of Logan Thomas, the football player. I couldn't even tell you right now his middle name is

John Shull 45:32

your own son.

Nick VinZant 45:34

I get confused as to which one it is. Either Joseph or Marcus. I get confused. I have to go ask my wife.

John Shull 45:41

Wow. Okay. I mean, listen, I'm not gonna judge but I'm kind of judging you right now.

Nick VinZant 45:46

Do you? Okay, how many of your cousin's middle names? Do you know? Do you know your any of your cousin's middle names?

John Shull 45:54

No, no, I can't off the top of my head.

Nick VinZant 45:58

I'm gonna go ahead and say that, you know, 1% of people's middles names.

John Shull 46:07

1%. I mean, no, I think you know, maybe, I wouldn't say it's more than 15. But I think you're in that. I think you're in that ballpark?

Nick VinZant 46:16

Of the all the people you know, you think you know, 15% of their middle names.

John Shull 46:21

Can we can we keep it to like close friends and family? I mean, out of all the people I know. I mean, you know, a lot of people.

Nick VinZant 46:27

Okay, let's just do even people you talk to on a yearly basis? I still think it's 1%.

John Shull 46:35

I'll go 6% I think

Nick VinZant 46:39

I think it's pretty low. I could go with the most 5% I know my wife's middle name. One of my sons. My dad's and yours, only because it's Euclid. Which is I'm not

John Shull 46:54

sure I know. You I what am I good friends name Nick. His middle name. John, your middle name is not John,

Nick VinZant 47:04

is not. You want to start a new segment called guess my middle name. Let's start a brunette start and weekly segment where you try to guess my middle name. We're going to start this on 320 on March 29 2023. And we'll see how long it takes John to guess my middle name. Why I think it might take I think it might take two years. No. Why? Why? Because it's not a common middle name. It's not a name that I would make an argument. It's not a name that most people even heard of. It's not an uncommon name, but a not a name that people have heard.

John Shull 47:42

Well, then that throws my first guess out the window. But you know what, I'll get this letter out of the way. Okay. I was going to say, Christopher.

Nick VinZant 47:52

No, that is that is the right letter though to start. Wait.

John Shull 47:57

I know it. cashmere. Nope. No.

Nick VinZant 48:01

That was it. That was your one guess that's actually that's your only? Yes. Well, I think it might take you two years to get it.

John Shull 48:09

I have the right letter that I got it out of the way. So I've obviously heard it at some point.

Nick VinZant 48:14

There's a lot to see names though. Okay. All right. We can? Is it? Is it illegal to take bets? How long will it take you to guess my middle name?

John Shull 48:25

Go to social media and put some money down? And when I'll guess it? Okay. All right, let's see. What is more useless to you? Or has become more useless to you, eBay? or Amazon?

Nick VinZant 48:42

I've never used eBay my entire life. Never use it once.

John Shull 48:48

Now see, that's an interest. I would be interesting to see the results in that poll question. Like how many people have never been used yet or haven't used eBay? Because I feel like at least once again, in my inner circle. Everyone's used to eBay. It just like a commonplace thing.

Nick VinZant 49:03

But you're collecting and selling weird shit. Action Figure collections and baseball cards and

John Shull 49:11

yeah, but I mean, I mean, I have also looked my mother has bought so soap off eBay before like, you know,

Nick VinZant 49:21

she bought soap off and that's something I'm not buying off of eBay is soap.

John Shull 49:26

Yeah, I don't know if it was some soap that they used to sell in stores. And then it got discontinued in stores or something or discontinued in its entirety. So she would buy it on eBay in like packs of 50.

Nick VinZant 49:40

What kind of so visit it's a good so

John Shull 49:43

I I remember the name of it. I don't remember what it's what I don't remember. It's called K or K like C A M A Y.

Nick VinZant 49:53

Can Is there a reason you can share why she liked that particular soap?

John Shull 49:58

I don't know. It's just one of those things. I remember from my In childhood we always had to have you know, the soap in the in the shower. I don't know why she liked it, but she liked it.

Nick VinZant 50:07

Is it bar soap? Or like it's more than like you squirt it out of the bottle? So?

John Shull 50:12

Yeah, it's definitely bar soap and it was like a tan pinkish if I remember right.

Nick VinZant 50:18

So are you a bar soap man or a bottle soap man?

John Shull 50:23

Um, I guess bottle? I mean, I haven't had a bar in years.

Nick VinZant 50:28

Hmm. Do you use a washcloth? I find it very weird. When people use wash cloths, I don't understand wash cloths at all.

John Shull 50:36

It's so funny. You asked me that. I think I use a loofa.

Nick VinZant 50:40

I understand the LUFA Least of all. Because the washcloth you're just wiping the other day's dirt around on you unless you're using a new washcloth every time but at least you can wash the washcloth if you're using a loofa you've had like dirt built up on that sucker for months or more that you're just wiping around on you again.

John Shull 51:03

No, I mean, you wash the LUFA. After you're done, you know, you rinse it off. It's not like you're just putting it back. I just really,

Nick VinZant 51:11

you're not really washing it right? Like you're doing the equivalent of like, I'm gonna wash my hands and you stick them underwater for five seconds and call it good. You're not really washing the thing. You're just scrubbing yourself with your own dirt.

John Shull 51:24

I love my loofa All right, it's you can scrub it, you can get nice and deep in there and and make sure you feel refreshed and your skin feels good.

Nick VinZant 51:33

Okay, is it the LUFA that you're just holding? Or is it a loofa attached to like a stick of a stick? LUFA and get you back?

John Shull 51:43

I'm ashamed to admit this. I've two kinds of loofahs.

Nick VinZant 51:48

You have two kinds of louvers in the shower,

John Shull 51:51

I do. I have this, I have the stick kind and then I have like the little you know, the one that you hold in your hand and you can, you know get in certain areas that are easier to get than the one that's attached to this.

Nick VinZant 52:03

Okay, but you which one did you start with? And then thought to yourself, which one did you start with? And then think to yourself, you know what? I need a different loofa I need more coverage? Which one did you start with? And which one was this secondary purchase?

John Shull 52:22

The smaller one first. And then when I realized I wanted to get to some areas on my back that I couldn't reach with my hands. I bought the stick one.

Nick VinZant 52:32

Okay, that, to me seems like it would be the more logical progression. You wouldn't start with the stick one and then go to the other one. Okay, so

John Shull 52:43

I just hope that everyone out there appreciates a loofa

Nick VinZant 52:48

I used to I used to be a loofah man, but I drifted away from it. And I don't really know when it happened just one day I stopped using loofahs. But I would say that there's probably spots on my back that haven't really been cleaned in years.

John Shull 53:02

It's kinda like house. how some people love the days, right? Like, I feel like a loofa as you either love it. You hate it or you just don't know about it. If you don't know about it, you need to you need to go get a loofa

Nick VinZant 53:18

yeah, I've gotten through LUFA phases. I'm not currently in a LUFA phase.

John Shull 53:23

Let's see, the next thing I had here isn't really so much of a question as well as a question but it's not like either or here but so I bought a I went cheap on my my shaver, my razor blade, and I went cheap and I'm fucking regretting it now. So I guess my question to you is do you go cheap on on shit, you know, shaving yourself.

Nick VinZant 53:50

I don't mind going cheap on razor blades only because that's going to grow back. Right? Like if I'm pulling off some layers of skin. I know I got a good shave. So I'm okay with cheap razor blades. You draw a little blood that's how it's supposed to be done. There's two things that I've long said that if you're not bleeding after you do it, you're not really doing it right. One is weed whacking two is shaving. You've got to draw blood at least once a week or you're not doing it right.

John Shull 54:20

I just thought to myself the other day that I'm going to start wearing jeans when I when I do yard work this summer because I don't want to nick the shit out of my ankles and legs the sheer with a weed whack. We record a string

Nick VinZant 54:34

that's not worthy of being laughed at at all. It hurts. Go out there and shorts like a man. Right? You're over here by in jeans to cover to cover up your little legs. I'm out there with an axe, chopping down trees and satisfying my wife. What are you doing? I gotta put on jeans before I go outside.

John Shull 54:57

I mean, I gotta you You shaved me I got done. There are, there's very few that are listening at this moment that are going yeah. My last weekend I did something more manlier than that, because they didn't

Nick VinZant 55:09

write you can't write like this is the only time I can ever make a manly argument for myself is after this weekend all the other weekend to be like, What did you do? Well,

John Shull 55:18

so, so I'm pretty excited. So our social media poll this week, I kind of set it up on purpose, knowing that people want to pick what the winner was, which we'll get to in a second. Let's see. So the choices were the happiest country, or excuse me in the world was announced, again, Finland, one for like, the 14th year in a row. I don't know what makes Finland the happiest place on earth, but apparently keeps getting voted that.

Nick VinZant 55:46

But I just have a hard time believing that because it's so cold. Like, it gets pretty cold and Finland.

John Shull 55:53

And like who is like taking these polls, like?

Nick VinZant 55:59

I don't think it's going to I think it's what I think it's a research study where they're looking at certain metrics and saying, Okay, you have this much health care, you have this much wages, you have that stuff, and we've just decided that you're the happiest country on Earth, which is why I don't really necessarily feel that way. Right? I mean, maybe you should be the happiest or you could be potentially the happiest, but I don't know, I think you'd have to be in a warmer place. Personally. It seems like well, why you should actually win.

John Shull 56:28

Hawaii would be fun to go to state and live shot. Okay, Cage. Let's see, the scientists made the first 3d printed food recently is a 3d printed cheesecake that I'm sure tasted like, paper and absolute garbage.

Nick VinZant 56:47

Doesn't still need food to make foods. Like are we saving food by making? I don't really understand that.

John Shull 56:55

Yeah, I don't know. Right? Because I don't I don't think anyone's going to eat it. But hey, what do I know? Um, and then I wouldn't 5050 on on the third choice that I had in there a teen that biked 20,000 miles after telling his parents he'd be right back the next thing, they knew he was 20,000 miles away. Or the Final Four, because they

Nick VinZant 57:20

think they're checking up on their child very well. The next thing they knew he was 20,000 miles away. It's not like I actually called him at eight and then talk to him again at seven. It's actually

John Shull 57:29

kind of an incredible story really. And then the final four which you know, is it's it's if you're a basketball fan, it's been an insane tournament. If you had money on any of the big dogs you're pissed off in or not watching it. But hey, I'm putting my money behind Florida Atlantic. Let's have a number nine seed win. Why not?

Nick VinZant 57:49

Cool. Who else is in the tournament?

John Shull 57:53

See, so it's them San Diego State Miami of Florida. And UConn.

Nick VinZant 58:01

I basically stopped watching all big events. I didn't watch the Superbowl I didn't really watch March Madness. I don't watch the Oscars, the Grammys, the Tonys, any kind of big event that's happening on television. I just don't watch it. The last thing was the last season of Game the end of Game of Thrones. It was the last like big event that was happening at the same time that I was like, Okay, I'll watch that too. Same time.

John Shull 58:25

You should watch The Last of Us. You'd love that show.

Nick VinZant 58:27

Too scary. I can't handle it. Too scary, man.

John Shull 58:31

Well, I forgot you are your seven. But hey, you know what? One no candle the candle of the month?

Nick VinZant 58:40

Well, it's not candle of the month this episode comes out on the 29th. And we already did a candle for Monday, March. So next week?

John Shull 58:49

I totally know. Well, I totally got so excited. Oh, fuck. Okay, well, I guess I'd have to wait till next episode. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 58:58

I saw that too. I actually saw the poll that you put up and thought to myself, he doesn't realize that candle of the month is next week. And your sole focus on this show is now just candle of the month. That's the only so

John Shull 59:11

excited about. I'm like, I mean, I'm doing research on candles. I'm getting having. I mean, I'm probably having now. I don't know, a dozen candles a month delivered to my house.

Nick VinZant 59:24

How many were you getting before though? This is for your addiction? Isn't it? Is this fueling your addiction?

John Shull 59:31

I mean, what did I say? I probably have said I mean it was probably no more than four or five. I mean, and you know,

Nick VinZant 59:40

use some money increase your candle consumption three times. You went from four candles at

John Shull 59:46

well, at least because because there will be some months where I'm sure it wasn't more than like, you know, one or two then some months I probably skipped it. But now I feel like like I have to you know, I'm invested in Canada. Have a month.

Nick VinZant 1:00:00

I feel like you've put more effort into candle in the month than anything else. Second to possibly your children. Maybe even more than your children.

John Shull 1:00:11

I can feel the aura I can feel the energy from our listeners and our viewers. They love candle the month.

Nick VinZant 1:00:17

I think that you're feeding an addiction to buying candles and okay, I mean, I support the research, right? I support the research and we just got to make sure this doesn't become a problem when you're buying $150 with the candles every month, right?

John Shull 1:00:33

I thought fucking March was over Tuesday. So that's that's where my mind is.

Nick VinZant 1:00:38

March feels like it's one of those months. That's over in the middle of it. Like once we pass St. Patrick's Day March should just be over. Yeah. We should go from March 17 to April 1.

John Shull 1:00:53

I can't believe it's already April though, pretty much like holy hell, man.

Nick VinZant 1:00:57

Yeah, do days or days or long years are short. Okay. Are you ready for it's about five then?

John Shull 1:01:03

Yeah, I guess so. It seems I don't know how many days are in a month?

Nick VinZant 1:01:07

Well, it depends. It's anywhere between 28 and 31 Depending on the month. There's a trick like with your knuckles that you can figure out where like the knuckle I can never remember though if it's the knuckle or in between the knuckles that is 31. But you go like January's and knuckle. It's got 31 and February is in the middle doesn't have 31 Then the next knuckle is 31. April. Then may has 31. June has doesn't have it. Yeah. You start with the knuckle and you go January, February, March, April, May and every time you hit a knuckle it's the 31st. So our top five is top five green things. Sure. Number five.

John Shull 1:01:46

So this is a tie. It's two logos. So the Heineken logo and the Starbucks logo.

Nick VinZant 1:01:55

Okay, both are very recognizable from being where I am in the country. I would say John Deere logo can also make a run for a very recognizable green thing. More than Heineken. In the Midwest, where I'm from, I would say it's probably Starbucks and John Deere.

John Shull 1:02:16

Which you would never think go together but everything's beer is together. Do you think Heineken and John Deere would go together but ya know, Heineken, obviously. I mean, it's huge around the world and Starbucks as well. So yeah, that's why they're, they share the top five spot for me.

Nick VinZant 1:02:35

My number five is the Hulk.

John Shull 1:02:38

Okay, okay, I I surprisingly enough, I have a couple of like characters on my honorable mention, but I have none on in my top five.

Nick VinZant 1:02:48

I thought about putting Yoda at number five over the Hulk. But I don't feel like Yoda although he's a very impactful character has not had as much development. Like there's not a lot of stories about Yoda. And that's why I think that he's not as impactful as the Hulk. So I put the Hulk over Yoda.

John Shull 1:03:06

Who Yoda see I forgot about Yoda that I may regret not putting him out of my list somewhere.

Nick VinZant 1:03:12

I could actually, I could actually put grow goo ahead of Yoda. In terms of like, oh, well, they've actually got something going on. Like, you know, Yoda is cool, but you don't know anything about Yoda. Like where's Yoda from? Do you know where Yoda is from? No, how old was Yoda? You know anything about him? Other than that? He's Yoda.

John Shull 1:03:36

I was gonna try to do an impersonation of Yoda. But we've know how my impersonations are and I'm just not going to do it.

Nick VinZant 1:03:42

I can't do a Yoda impersonation. I don't ever want to to be honest with you. I do find it funny when people do it, but I can't do it. What's your number for

John Shull 1:03:49

Christmas trees?

Nick VinZant 1:03:53

You better have a pretty okay, it's gonna really depend once you have up above that. I feel like that's a pretty high. A pretty low for Christmas tree to be honest with you.

John Shull 1:04:04

Well, I mean, you know, number one should be easy. It won't be because it's you and me doing this. But yeah, yeah, I have the three above it or I think are pretty good ones. So,

Nick VinZant 1:04:16

my number four is chameleons. Not because I like chameleons, but only the idea of like changing color and stuff. That's pretty cool. I'll give it to chameleons for that

John Shull 1:04:26

hmm. Okay. I I mean, I think that's pretty weak to be on your top five. But you know, because I in terms of the animal kingdom, I'm not even sure that their top three green animal, I thought Wait,

Nick VinZant 1:04:46

okay, who you're gonna love them. I thought about putting crocodiles ahead of chameleons. But chameleons can change color which is something that not a lot of things can do. So I think that they get to get a little more credit, which makes me wonder what color they act Shirley are if they can change color.

John Shull 1:05:01

I mean frogs are green some of them right? Frogs alligators, crocodiles, iguanas. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 1:05:09

can can any of those change color

John Shull 1:05:14

I'm sure there's a species of frog that can change colors. I'm not I'm not taken away, you know. Grasshoppers are green. Fuck walk grasshoppers, walking sticks are green. I think they come on.

Nick VinZant 1:05:25

You're being ridiculous. You're being ridiculous with that. What's your number three then?

John Shull 1:05:31

Green camouflage, like, like military fatigues, like the green camouflage in the military.

Nick VinZant 1:05:39

Definitely very recognizable. My number three is completely different. It's a watermelon. Don't you? besmirch watermelon in my presence?

John Shull 1:05:54

I'm not. I mean, my number two is broccoli. So

Nick VinZant 1:06:01

that's your number two.

John Shull 1:06:03

Yeah, cuz I had to put some kind of vegetable on there. And I was thinking, you know, green vegetables. And I was trying to think of like, what's, what's noticeable? Like, what what, what what does everybody know of and it's broccoli one way or the other?

Nick VinZant 1:06:17

Okay, my number two is green lights.

John Shull 1:06:22

What are green? Oh, like stoplights? Greenland. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 1:06:25

like driving like green lights while driving. I could make an argument. That's number one. Everybody likes a green light. That's probably one of the most liked things in our society in any society is a green light. It's a little slice of hope.

John Shull 1:06:47

Yeah, actually, I mean, if you're having a rough morning and you're getting tailgate and the shit out of and all you want to do is get going. That green light can be like, Home Free, baby.

Nick VinZant 1:06:58

I feel like you're gonna say something ridiculous for your number one.

John Shull 1:07:02

Now, my number one's my number one is pretty universal. And it's just grass.

Nick VinZant 1:07:07

My number one is trees. Trees are better than grass in my opinion.

John Shull 1:07:15

Yeah, I mean, tomato tomahto. To me, I mean, trees are more important to the ecosystem and to the world. Right, but grass when you think of green, something green. You don't go man, that tree is really green today. So as the grass

Nick VinZant 1:07:32

I guess I just don't really like grass. To be honest with you. I've never really enjoyed grass. Like if you lay on grass, you're gonna get itchy. You can't really go out there barefoot, you're just stepping in dog piss. So I think that grass has really fallen off over the last 20 to 30 years. allergies and dogs have brought grass down.

John Shull 1:07:53

I think allergies are brought trees down. Trees are more influential when it comes to spreading allergens, allergens, allergens,

Nick VinZant 1:08:02

but nobody's around their bad mouth and trees. Nobody's ever been like us sick all these trees.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:09

Fuck them tree is

Nick VinZant 1:08:11

fuck the trees, right? Like there's others. Nobody's out there. You you try to cut a tree down in some parts of the country, you're gonna have to file out some paperwork. Nobody's worried about your grass. is there's an app, there's a strong anti grass movement going on right now.

John Shull 1:08:26

I don't know why that's so funny. But it's quite funny. Actually. I have some I have a lot on my honorable mentions. So I'm just gonna I'm just gonna pick five randomly and I'll just say those. Okay. Let's see a peacock.

Nick VinZant 1:08:42

The peacock green.

John Shull 1:08:45

Yeah, that's feathers are green, aren't they?

Nick VinZant 1:08:49

I would consider a peacock and may have some green feathers. But I wouldn't consider it green. What color would you think of what color do you consider a penguin to be black or white? Black? Yeah. I think of a penguin as being black. I think of a What the hell was it a peacock. I think of him as being blue. I don't think

John Shull 1:09:11

well, tomato, tomato. Let's see. Like I said frogs. Clover, like a four leaf clover. Let's see what I'm just randomly literally going up the list here.

Nick VinZant 1:09:23

Run off your list quickly. Just give it this give us the whole thing. All right. Give you a yes or no? Right after each one.

John Shull 1:09:30

Alright, so an athletic field like a soccer field football field. Okay, yeah. US money.

Nick VinZant 1:09:37

Yeah, although I don't really associate money with any color anymore. Like, money to me is just something that like I don't even know if it's real. Right? Like, I don't know, it says this in your bank account. So there must be something in there

John Shull 1:09:52

or nothing if you're me. I did

Nick VinZant 1:09:55

that's kind of crazy that our entire society is based on something we're not even sure if it it actually exists. Like, we've just all kind of agreed that this is there, but we don't know if it's actually there or not. Like those are just some numbers that someone put in there. If you could hack in and change the numbers, no one could ever tell you that you don't have that in your bank account.

John Shull 1:10:15

Well, if a hacker was listening to this and wants to change my numbers for the positive, I please I will not argue against that. Let's see. John Deere tractor. A green thumb to thought was kind of

Nick VinZant 1:10:31

a real thing, by the way. Yeah. Well, I

John Shull 1:10:33

don't know. So I, you don't seem like somebody who can? You're not a botanist. Let's see cactus cat.

Nick VinZant 1:10:42

Which one of us cut down a tree? Did you cut down a tree? Because I cut down a tree?

John Shull 1:10:47

Technically, that would wouldn't make your botanist and make you the opposite of a botanist.

Nick VinZant 1:10:54

arborist Believe it or not, arborist? You know, we had a professional tree climber on this podcast. Do you remember that? That was

John Shull 1:11:01

I remember the headline. I couldn't tell you when or what episode.

Nick VinZant 1:11:05

He's the best tree climber in the world, though. I know that.

John Shull 1:11:10

By the way, the tag guy was pretty, pretty awesome. There's no way that I would last five seconds and I've watched that on TV before. That's kind of I mean, it's incredible. What those guys can do and women.

Nick VinZant 1:11:22

I don't think I could walk through that course. Like my knees literally hurt just thinking about what else what else you got? Give me two more.

John Shull 1:11:30

Alright, yeah, I told you. I mean, I wrote down a lot. Um, let me see. Okay, lima beans.

Nick VinZant 1:11:37

What?

John Shull 1:11:38

Why were beans and spinach.

Nick VinZant 1:11:40

Nobody likes those do nobody likes either of those. Um, I have a bunch of like fictional things that I could put on there. Kermit Green Lantern Green Goblin. You Yoda grow goo? I thought about grass. But again, I don't like grass. Green eyes, but I've never been a huge like, I don't I don't know if I know anybody with green eyes. But eyes would be on there. That's all I got.

John Shull 1:12:07

I'll add one more Shrek The Grinch to more Shrek The Grinch and leprechauns.

Nick VinZant 1:12:15

Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out doesn't have to be some big thing. Just a couple of words. And we really enjoy hearing what you think about the show. It's always entertaining. So let us know what you think are some of the best green things. I should have had grass on there. But I'm just I'm I'm just anti grass.

World Chase Tag Champion Rob Schihl

Whether he’s chasing or being chased, Rob Schihl plays tag better than almost anyone else. He’s a 4x World Champion and one of the stars of World Chase Tag - a rising international sports that blends athleticism with excitement. We talk World Chase Tag, Parkour training and why Tag is soaring in popularity. Then, it’s Duck, Duck, Goose vs. Marco Polo as we countdown the Top 5 Childhood Games.

Rob Schihl: 01:47

Pointless: 32:54

Top 5: 52:05

Contact the Show

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Interview with World Chase Tag Champion Rob Schihl

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, tag, and childhood,

Rob Schihl 0:19

it's basically like moving chess where there's like a lot of like little intricacies that kind of get overlooked until you start playing the game. And you're like, Oh, you almost get this like aha moment when you start to realize that it's not just like, you go out there and you just chase, it's really, it's a lot harder than it looks. Because until you've been on the quad, and you get stuck behind equipment, you sometimes don't understand how hard it is to tag someone when they're like, five inches away from you. Fear isn't exactly something that crosses your mind when you're playing J side, I think a lot of that comes down to like, before the game or like even when you're practicing, like this crazy flow state that you get into when you're playing the game.

Nick VinZant 1:02

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is one of if not the best in the world at playing tag, not just any tag, though, world Chase tag, a relatively new sport that is just skyrocketing in popularity, because of its unique mix of athleticism, and excitement. This is World Chase tag champion. Rob, she'll start with the basics. What is Chase tag,

Rob Schihl 1:51

Chase tag. So essentially, Chase tag is two teams, the game itself is played, essentially just like regular tag. So when you come down to the court, it gets a little bit different. Instead of just being kind of like a random, go anywhere you want, you're confined to a 40 by 40 arena. The arena has a lot of obstacles and things like metal and wood. And then the other kind of twist is you're running away from professional parkour athletes track and field athletes, there's a football players, you're playing a one v one tag, we have a six person team. So once one of the 40 rounds ends, you will swap out with one of your next teammates. And if you succeed in that 20 seconds of evading or getting away, you you stay on the court. So it turns into this kind of this cardio game, and has a lot of little little intricacies and layers to it that can kind of add to why you'd put someone up against another person. So you'd like pairing methods and things like that. But essentially, it comes down to it's just a game of tag can't leave the arena.

Nick VinZant 3:00

I was watching some of it. And I mean, this is kind of a gross approximation, but it essentially looks like tag on playground equipment.

Rob Schihl 3:07

Yeah, I mean, it's like, playground equipment with no nothing soft. And so even the ground is usually laid on top of like, just like poured concrete. And so no part of it is soft.

Nick VinZant 3:21

It seems like you get injured, do people get injured, it looks like people are gonna get injured.

Rob Schihl 3:26

Yeah, people get injured. Here and there. A lot of people that train it. So for me in the parkour space, a lot of us train falls and had to essentially take those impacts, but there's still the attendant tendency to like you'll get a head bump on like a metal rail when they're trying to like duct really quickly underneath something. So you'll get like little bumps and like head bashes like that. But honestly, a lot of a lot of that comes down to just the individual and how they practice. So for our teams, we've done a lot of Chemi, which is just like the art of falling. So we we have a tendency to try to like take a fall or take a dive, and then turn it into a little bit more of a like we call it quadrupedal movement, where you're on your hands and feet. You have rolls, or things like that. So yep, you have some ways to combat if like a slip or fall happens. But yeah, most of the athletes are pretty good at taking falls and bashes. And you see, you see a few of them come up into competitions.

Nick VinZant 4:24

So where is this? I'll ask this directly, right. Like, where is this in terms of sports development? Is this an organized sport where people have strategies and training sessions and that kind of thing? Or is this like this is it's a bunch of people on the weekends kind of doing this stuff?

Rob Schihl 4:41

It's a it's transformed quite a bit into that competitive scene where there's like a lot of like little intricacies that kind of get overlooked until you start playing the game. You're like, oh, you almost get this like aha moment when you start to realize that it's not just like, you go out there and you just chase that was kind of like one of the The things that really captured me was a was, I was interested in JSOC. But wasn't I played it that I had that aha moment and was like, Oh, wow, there's like, it's basically like moving chess, like you have like physical. It's like physical chess to a certain extent where you understand like that person's body type, you can, if you have information on the team, you can kind of tell that like, oh, I can tell that this person doesn't like this part of the court, like they're a taller person, they're gonna have a harder time crawling underneath these obstacles, or they're maybe not the fastest athlete, but they're like really good at scrambling on the floor. So then you can almost like hit the opposite side of spectrum where they, they really like that tight area, those tight spaces, and they're going to avoid the like runways that are on the court. So

Nick VinZant 5:46

ultimately, you're trying to corner somebody with like a scouting report of the person like, okay, they're tall, they probably don't want to, I want to force them into a small space or whatever, right? Is that how kind of how it works.

Rob Schihl 5:58

A lot of the like, where you try to corner someone might be a little bit more on the person that's doing the cornering, like they might have their preference on how they approach that side of the court. If you know someone is weak on a certain side of the court, you might want to try to herd them over there. But most often it's like, catered towards the chaser and like how they, they personally like to try to tag so like, there's certain parts of the court that I'm like, I if I can get them here and I'm positioned in this spot, I almost certainly can get a tag. And so it kind of comes down to like, Okay, well, how do I get myself into that position and make sure that the opponent is also in the position that I want them to be,

Nick VinZant 6:37

is one accepted as being harder than the other like is being chased harder than being the chaser or vice versa.

Rob Schihl 6:44

So when we're training in my backyard, we have the whole, the actual clawback there. There's a lot of times where I will only practice chasing, and then there's times where I'll only practice abating. And a lot of times you the reason I'll choose to be most often a chaser is I get to control the pace of the round. When you're evading a lot of times you you can try to control the pace of the round, but you just end up always having this like lizard brain moment where just like your eyes turn red, you're like, Oh God, I gotta get out, and you just start sprinting through. So chasing is like for me, I definitely prefer chasing evading is something I also really enjoy. But like chasing, I really like because I can kind of pick the pace of the round,

Nick VinZant 7:26

what you prefer is 20 seconds. I think you mentioned 20 seconds. Is that a long time? Or? Yeah, man that goes quick. Oh, it feels

Rob Schihl 7:33

like forever. You can like, we'll call them interactions. So do you imagine like one opponent coming close to another opponent? In that 20 seconds, you can sometimes see like up to like five interactions where you'll see the meat on one side of the quad. And then they'll run to the other side of the quadrant is this constant, not constant, but just like a ton of interactions that will get happen. They'll start happening. It's like back in our backyard, we would yell. I don't know why we would yell Wallaby as like our finishing time or like, well, we will all be good off the court. Like if you've been running for 30 seconds. But yeah, a lot of times like, you'll be running for that 20 seconds and you're waiting, you're like, Oh, it's a little bit longer than I expected. And yeah, 20 seconds lasts a really long, it doesn't seem

Nick VinZant 8:17

like that long. But then I think if I'm dead sprinting, like that's a long time.

Rob Schihl 8:23

It catches up fast.

Nick VinZant 8:25

Only thing I can compare it to is I used to run the 200 meter and track and like, Man, I'm still running like this is hard.

Rob Schihl 8:31

Yeah, and especially if it's like your second round too. Like it just starts to add up. You start to like, have a hard time picking up your legs. And in order for you to be a evader, you have to have gotten the tags, that usually means you have already spent at least like 10 to 20 seconds on the quad already sprinting. So whenever you see someone getting an evasion, that's usually a pretty big deal, because that person usually is a little bit fried.

Nick VinZant 8:58

Yeah, I would imagine like if you escape once, you're probably not escaping the second time because you're just so physically tired.

Rob Schihl 9:04

Yeah, that depends on how the person runs you too. So there's a certain like, one of our strategies is if you don't feel like you can get the tag or you can't, like you just don't feel like that that's gonna be reasonable. Your goal is just to like run them as hard as you can and just like try to keep that person moving, keep that person sprinting. So then the next round was like a higher opportunity of essentially tagging that person

Nick VinZant 9:27

that makes sense, right where I'm into the ground so the next guy can get them. Does the strategy usually work out though?

Rob Schihl 9:34

About 10 seconds into the match? All chaos will generally break out unless you've been training a lot. So our team is pretty well known for just like our strategies and how we approach the quad throughout the whole time we generally will keep the same strategy throughout the whole match. As a lot of other teams I'll see that sometimes they will start out with like amazing starts really good reactions and then Once like the play starting, they're starting to run, it's almost like a chicken with their head cut off. And it just kind of comes to like being able to keep your cool after the first couple interactions. And keeping your eyes on your opponent. I think that might also be a big pieces. After people trained a couple of interactions, they go to another part of the quad. And they're now like, focusing more on just like their breath and their energy and they forget to kind of look, which will cause them to get caught out of position.

Nick VinZant 10:26

So I'm a big numbers person. So like out of every round, how often does somebody get caught? How often does somebody evade?

Rob Schihl 10:38

Think it's 24% is what they want for the tag ratio. So ideally, 24% of the runs, there'll be a tag, and they want to, they want to keep that number about around there. Because if it gets too high, then you lose the, I guess, like the crowd joy or like the like, like, Oh, that was the play like to like rewind on. So if there's tags happening, or evasions happening, like almost every round, then it almost loses. Its like, pizzazz. And that. So the 24 percents about a good number for keeping it like, where you're on the edge of your seat, you're not seeing tags happen every round. And then when you do see it, it's like this, like big moment, and you're like, Oh, my God, that just happened. You just like dove over the space, and we see a body noodling over.

Nick VinZant 11:28

So then how do they control, they just make the equipment different.

Rob Schihl 11:31

That's kind of how the quad is developed. So they they started the quad off with not as much equipment as that's on it. Now, they're kind of rule of thumb is that they'll, they'll only add, they won't remove unless, like they really, it really came down to them having to remove something. But every every year, they'll pretty much like add another bar, or they'll add another cross section that will kind of cater back to that that play percentage. So if there is like a comp that has like higher, higher evasion ratings, then they're going to try to add some bars and to try to treat that the ideal percentage, which they actually did for the actually for our team specifically, they like added in some bars, and they call them to like fu Apex bars, because we would run around behind the court and this one position, and they didn't like that. Now, how

Nick VinZant 12:23

did you how did you get into it?

Rob Schihl 12:25

So I've been in parkour for quite some time. I've been trained Parkour since about 2009 been doing national competitions for speed, parkour and skill parkour. There's a few different divisions in there. So you got like style, you got speed, and you got skill, which is essentially like bits and parts of like a obstacle course like, so you have like a specific jump that you have to accomplish. And then like a speed course will be like a whole series of different types of challenges all back to back, kind of like you'd see. And just kind of like a race, but it's just basically a time trials. And then there's another one that style, which is like a little bit more free based where you can add in flips, twists, you're not trying to get to a specific spot. Some comps will have you go to certain checkpoints, but mostly it's like on your execution of flips in speed, or execution of those flips. And then for me to get into the chase tag, we ended up those during COVID. Not a lot was happening. And then the the brothers Damien Christian who run real Chase, I got in London, they were they had a really hard time getting able to do a competition because all the borders were closed down. So it was more realistic for them to come to the US to where all the states could at least you could fly between the states, but you can fly from like Germany to France, and it was a lot more difficult for them to run it out there. So 2020 They brought to us, they kind of sent out like a request to all the different parkour athletes and gym owners and stuff like that. See, okay, we're bringing real Chase tag to the US. Can you guys put together a team? And so two months before the comp, we all kind of came together with our masks on okay. Is this gonna be something we want to do? We all agreed that was the fun, it'd be something different. We didn't have this opportunity in the past and so we we just kind of jumped on it and started training for it and then went to Georgia and had a great time.

Nick VinZant 14:27

So how popular would you say it is now?

Rob Schihl 14:30

It's quite popular. It's on YouTube. As far as a few million hits on each each of the videos. The most recent competitions have been picking up like so. originally picked up by like NBC for the first competition. The second competition was picked up by ESPN. And then the next following comps were kind of sponsored by that or push put together by the ESPN group. And then this last this last comp was just I wasn't competing, but I was just there to kind of spectate and help out and I was at the Arnold event where Arnold Schwarzenegger runs like this like huge event or just like more sports than the Olympics. So we had this like really good position in this area where like a lot of people were able to walk through come check it out. All sorts and Edgar came on like to watch the matches. And he was like chanting and like going back. Yeah, like being his hands on the table is really, really fun to watch. But yeah, it's been a it's been picking up a lot over the

Nick VinZant 15:23

years, which is there anybody making it a full time living? Any athlete, I should say, making it a full time living? Not yet. But still, I mean, once I feel like once you hit the kind of TV level, and it's not three o'clock in the morning on the roadshow, so to speak, like, okay, that's picking up in popularity. Now, for for most people who participate in it, do they fit a certain characteristic? Like, are they mostly parkour athletes, they come from all kinds of backgrounds,

Rob Schihl 15:54

mostly like anyone who's like really fast. So like track and field athletes, I've been seeing a lot of check an athlete track and field athletes kind of pick it up really easily. But it's mostly parkour athletes, because of the element of falling. Does a lot of like diving through bars and like being able to kind of like fumble through that. Parkour athletes have the most background in that that style of movement, where you're jumping, and also trying to like, look at someone else. So Parkour is definitely the biggest poll for all the athletes

Nick VinZant 16:29

what essentially make somebody good at it, right? Like, is it better to be fast? Is it better to be strong agile, like what kind of physical characteristics does somebody need?

Rob Schihl 16:38

Ideally, you'd have a balance. But speed is like a huge element. So if you have speed, you can sometimes lean into that and kind of forego a lot of strategy. But if you're going against one that has a lot of strategy, then they can use your speed against you. But I would say that speed is like probably the biggest skill that you're not skilled at talent that you'd want to have. So speed, and then probably like crawling, being able to crawl, like be able to do that effectively. So a lot of the parkour QM movements. And then speed can translate to you jumping on top of things, but then you'd want to be able to have accuracy, because you're stepping on like a two inch bar. And so you want to be able to like, if you are fast, you should be able to at least be accurate with the steps. So that's just kind of a little bit of something that's like very different from track and field. Just take some time to kind of apply that speed. Until like very narrow objects.

Nick VinZant 17:37

Cool. Um, are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Rob Schihl 17:41

Yeah. Throw them at me.

Nick VinZant 17:42

Is there cheating?

Rob Schihl 17:44

No, no cheating. There's a lot of a lot of really good camaraderie between the athletes. Like if you notice, if you ever watched the rounds, you'll see there'll be a really angry during the run, and then the second attack happens. They're like hugging and they're like, commending each other on whatever happened during that match. But yeah, that's kind of like one of the cooler parts about sport is like, most of us are parkour athletes that have known each other for multiple years. And then even if you don't know that person, there's just like, this sense of like, we're here. We're doing this together, we're, we're pushing the sport, it's really nice.

Nick VinZant 18:18

Does the clothing count? Like if you get some of these clothes, but not necessarily their body?

Rob Schihl 18:25

So there was a lot of each comp will kind of change a little bit on that. But the like, there's, there's it's like, if you wear a hat and it falls off, technically, if they tag the hat, then that counts as a tag. That counts is if you're running. Yep. So if you have any kind of clothing that falls off, that counts,

Nick VinZant 18:44

Yeah, cuz that would be the only thing that I could see some disagreement and be somebody being like, Hey, I got you know, you did it. Like I didn't feel it. Like is does that? Does that ever happen? If you like get the clothes or something where like, I got you. I didn't feel it.

Rob Schihl 18:59

Yeah. So if it comes up on camera, so they'll call it get DTR, which just allows you to stop the match. And then they'll like pull up the camera footage. And then if like, if you are catching our clothing, and it's like a obvious tag, then they'll they'll give that tag out. But if it's like sketchy, you can't really see what's going on one person saying they felt it the other person saying they're not they'll always go to the tag has been made obvious. So if it's not obvious enough, then that's kind of a direction to lean. But there's been a lot of times were like, like, this last tournament I saw one of the guys like just like straight grab the shirt and hold on to it. This like to ensure that he showed that he made contact,

Nick VinZant 19:40

put all humbleness aside here. Who's the best? Oh, us. You guys are the champions Right? Or were the champions correct me here, fill in the tell me the resume.

Rob Schihl 19:51

We're the current world champions. So we've gone through four different cops as the Atlanta Georgia one than or as well. When in Ohio, that was one in Texas. And then there was the one in London. London was the world's for last year. And so we went out there for the London competition. And it was, was not easy. But we did come back with the with the gold. We had two teams go out there. And so we had one team come back with third and then the other team, our team came back with first.

Nick VinZant 20:23

So what makes you guys better? Like, could you say like, well, we beat this team. Because of this,

Rob Schihl 20:28

I'd say a large component is for years, we've been training, speed parkour. So we've run lots of competitions, where we focus on speed. And then that translated into Chase ag pretty fast. And then I think the major thing that really started differentiate us was we started to pile a lot of our speed training into very specific motions on the quad. And so our tactics is something that I would say, is the biggest helper, the biggest thing that kind of helped us kind of claim those goals and wins.

Nick VinZant 20:58

Do you feel like you can stay on top or once the other teams kind of figured out what you guys have been doing? Are they going to bridge the gap?

Rob Schihl 21:06

We'll see. We'll see what happens at this next competition. But I believe that we'll still be able to kind of pull through and kind of keep that push of our, our strategies. We haven't seen a lot of other teams fully get into that space, where they're focusing on those different strategies within the quad. So I think that this next year, we're still be good. But it's not, it's not easy. Everyone is now starting to get more and more quads out. So like, up in Europe, I think it was like five quads. And so we're now competing against people that also have the quads, and it's going to be a, I think it'd be a really fun competition, because now it's going to be people that are all training different tactics, it's gonna be fun to see just that element of chest. We're like, Oh, I've seen your training footage. I know that you like to do this. And so trying to like take, I guess, like the information game into the next rounds will be fun.

Nick VinZant 22:01

Okay, again, putting humbleness aside, though, who would you say if it's, you say it's you, who's the best. Like if you put it down to one person,

Rob Schihl 22:10

who the best person would be one of the guys on our team. His name is Jason. He's like, this monster. He can like sprint on top of the bars. And he can like crawl, we call it Q I mean, he can QM faster than almost like anyone have ever seen. It's like almost bizarre to watch him. Just like sprint, touch the ground and be like back up into sprinting position. Hands down, I'd say Jason's like one of the best athletes. And then the next person up would be I'd probably go with Seth or Jared ledee. So Seth Wang is one of the guys on our team. And then Jared LADEE is the guy that we picked up recently and brought onto the team. And between all those guys, like we just have like one of the fastest also one of the most committed teams to getting a tag. So a lot of a lot of teams have a hard time committing to like a dive. And like Jared LADEE, like there's like pictures of him going for a dive. And he's like diving through bars that are like, he's like five feet up in the air. And he's like a straight pistol, like little straight sticks shooting straight out of this thing. And it's like, absolutely wild to watch this guy, like get back to his feet from like any of these dives.

Nick VinZant 23:18

Is it a sport, though, where you can be good through reckless abandon, like, if you're just willing to sacrifice your body, you will be good at this.

Rob Schihl 23:30

You won't be good at it for long. So if you if you aren't doing that does it like your old injuries will stack up very fast. And so there's like a couple players out in the UK that have been known for just like sending these ridiculous dives. And they like basically crumble like an accordion when they hit the border. And like, that's something that like we we try to avoid. We don't want to be injured during the comps. So if you're aware of people who are sending it and like are like really reckless, you just have to be aware of that. And then you can still bait that stuff. So like if you know that they're more of a diving athlete, it's pretty easy to combat. So recklessness can be beneficial. But if your team is aware of you being a little bit more reckless than it probably won't help you that much.

Nick VinZant 24:17

But okay, let's say I'm a numbers person, like I mentioned earlier. One is like, I'm not doing anything, but walk in here. And 10 is like, oh my gosh, man, you gotta get this under control. Like where do you need to be in the scheme of like, being kind of pushing it a little bit where you've got to do something that maybe scares you a little bit versus reeling it back in, like on a scale of one to 10 Where would you say that people should be to be successful.

Rob Schihl 24:48

Um, you should be able to move in that range or in that scale. So kind of like the speed gradient of like, you don't want to chase too fast because that person will get up and builds, we'll see you and cut back. Same thing with like your commitment. If you're like too committed on things, then it will kind of pull you back. So I'd say that like, you'd probably want to be running at about a six, then as like the interactions start to like pick up, you'd want to move it up to about like a seven. And then when it comes to like, you know that that tag is coming in, and you feel it's clear, like, you should push it up to that night and feel pretty comfortable going for it. Fear isn't exactly something that crosses your mind, when you're playing J side, I think a lot of that comes down to like, before the game or like, even when you're practicing. But like when you're playing, it's like crazy how your lizard brain takes over, you stop thinking about everything, and you're just like this crazy flow state that you get into when you're playing the game. So on that scale, I'd say you'd want to ride it around like a six and then ramp it up to about a nine and be able to be able to almost like turn that brain off and like trust your training, and be able to react for false.

Nick VinZant 26:02

Is it harder, though than it? Is it harder easier than it looks?

Rob Schihl 26:05

It's really, it's a lot harder than it looks. Because until you been on the quad. And you get stuck behind equipment, you sometimes don't understand how hard it is to tag someone when they're like, five inches away from you. There's sometimes like, you'll be like watching it and you're like, Oh, why don't they just like tagged in there. And it's like, funny how when you're standing up in order to like, say you're on top of equipment, and there's someone right next you on the floor, you have to like squat down to tag them. And you can't squat faster than gravity. And so there's a lot of times where like, you're really close, but it's like almost impossible to tag them still. So there's a lot of times where when you're watching, it's hard to understand those little pieces, or just the element of like, if you're trying to reach through something your body is gonna be touching like very hard steel. So I think that is like one of the biggest shocks when people like get onto the quad. They're like, Oh, this isn't soft foam noodles. Like this is like hard steel that like you're playing around. So I think that's the hardest part is like the size trying to like actually understand the size of the quad when you're watching it and then actually recognize like how hard it is to commit to a tag when you're in the midst of those runs. Oh,

Nick VinZant 27:18

for the team, when you're talking about a team competition, is it better to have a good chaser or a good evader.

Rob Schihl 27:27

So that was one of our main focuses going into the last cops was we want a team of really good chasers, we don't really we didn't care too much about evading that kind of came secondary. And so we we kind of leaned into our previous Chase, or speed parkour training for that side, but put most of our focus into like really good tagging, we figured if we had really a team of solid tigers, that there's almost no one that could like beat that. So we focused on the initial before the later. And then that evading kind of some of our people on our team are just like really good at evading. And that's one of those pieces that just kind of, we didn't practice as much, we just focus a lot on the chasing element that makes sense,

Nick VinZant 28:10

even to somebody who knows nothing about it like myself, right? Like, if it's harder to chase somebody, you'd rather have that. And then the evading seems like that would just come along with it.

Rob Schihl 28:21

And then way the way the scores work as well, like you can't, you can't evade unless you tag. And so that was kind of the stacking of that. And so we're we're just focused a lot more on really good tagging techniques, and just weird calm traps, where you have like, basically, and you can't get out of it, where you had them trapped in the corner. And you've got a way of kind of bouncing back and forth and you're constantly getting closer, but they're not getting an opportunity to get out. So we call those traps where you've got someone stuck in the corner and they can't get out. And so if you got a really good trap and you know how to trap then you can probably identify when someone's doing traps to you. So that was

Nick VinZant 29:06

it really does sound like athletic chess, like you got you're trying to catch you're trying to catch a king and you got to position the other stuff to catch the king. Um, yep. What country maybe not the best because you guys are the champions. But what country would you say like this is the most popular in this country.

Rob Schihl 29:26

This team blacklist from France. They're absolutely like bonkers on the quad. They've been they've been coached by one of the founders of parkour Sebastian folk on and so they have a really good team dynamic. And then one of the other teams is fat team fat from so it'd be kind of a little bit all over but they're they're from London. And they've gotten just like these like young gun kids that are just absolutely crazy athletes and so they don't train Too much of Chase tag, but they train a lot of parkour. And that correlates really, really well into it. And so that was one of our biggest competitors at the last competition was just this team called Team fat, where they're just like crazy fast athletes that have very good perception to the sides, like they can be doing a challenge, but also be like, fixated and looking at you while they're doing like this, like massive jump and precision. So yeah, I would say that the blacklist guys and team fat are some of the biggest competitors,

Nick VinZant 30:30

what animal would be best at this sport?

Rob Schihl 30:36

This animal that's a tough want to say a monkey, but monkeys are not fast.

Nick VinZant 30:42

Oh, that's right.

Rob Schihl 30:45

I don't think I'm gonna get you to get probably like a cat at some sort. Some maybe like a Jaguar or like a, like a leopard, something that can like, because like those things can climb trees to take falls. So I would imagine those things coming around the quad and being able to crawl underneath and like have that speed. Probably pretty scary. I have a small dog and we would chase her around on the quad. And she would run around underneath all the bars and stuff. And we have like a small cat that would also play with her. So we had to buy a dog and cat playing around on the quad. And watching the cat move is I think that the cats would have a little bit more advantage.

Nick VinZant 31:23

That's what I was originally thinking would be like one of those little lemur monkeys. But then once you started talking, I thought maybe mountain lion like a mountain lion. That would be scary as hell yeah.

Rob Schihl 31:35

Like a bobcat. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 31:37

Oh, there's the next evolution of it. There's the next evolution of world Chase tag, unleashing a bobcat into the quad. Everybody run with it live. Um, that's pretty much all the questions I got, man, what's kind of coming up next for you.

Rob Schihl 31:56

That's coming up next is we're trying to get our quad that's in my backyard right now and try to get that indoors. So that's kind of one of the main things that we're trying to get get done over this next year. So we can prepare for the next worlds, which will be in October. So we'll be going to London. We'll be starting to gear up for that here soon. But yeah, we're mostly trying to get get some property and get get that thing underneath the roof.

Nick VinZant 32:19

I want to thank Rob so much for joining us. If you want to connect with him. We have linked to him on our social media accounts. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, YouTube and Instagram. And we've also included his information in the episode description. The YouTube video of this interview is going to be up on Thursday, March 23. And if you want to see what this sport is really like, seeing it, it's impressive, it is really impressive. Okay, now let's go ahead and bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. Where do you feel like you peaked? elementary, middle or high school like which one of those was probably suited you best?

John Shull 33:10

I guess I'll just say high school. I feel like I probably peaked in high school though. I would say as a as a as a man, I probably peaked around 27.

Nick VinZant 33:21

That seems like kind of early for a man to peak. I think that you really want to peak probably in your 40s would be the goal. 40s or 50s, I think is when you want to peak as a person. And then you can ride that peak down into your sunset years,

John Shull 33:39

elementary school doesn't count. So that gets thrown out the window. Maybe you peak in junior, junior high if you have to pick one of those three options. But I don't think so I think high school because you're getting you know, you're you're in that that stage where you're probably dating somebody or having fun. Whether you're into sports or into the chess club, you know, but you're just you're just creating your own identity. I think that's very important.

Nick VinZant 34:08

I think middle school were my best years. I would say that's where like I was the most at home was in middle school, right? Like you got some responsibility. But you don't really have a lot of responsibility. You can kind of still be a kid. It's not those goofy years where you're just freshman and sophomore in high school. I'm gonna say seventh grade was probably my best place like if I had to go back to school years. I would go back to seventh grade

John Shull 34:37

God no, but if I did go back for I go back to my junior year I think of high school. That was yeah, my so good year to Yeah, I think most people will tell you maybe their freshman or sophomore year they peak. I think your junior year is when you're, you know, because then after you're like oh hell yeah. I have one year of school left, and then who knows what's gonna happen?

Nick VinZant 35:05

I would say if it was high school, I probably peaked my June but in between my junior and senior year that summer, I would look back on the summer between junior and senior year is probably the best year. Like, oh, that's a good year for you. I have another question for you. This is a listener submitted question from Christian. And it's one of those things that I think that you react immediately in a certain way to it. And then you think about it, and it becomes a much better question. If you were to draw a picture of fire, what color would you make the fire? Would you make it red? Or would you make it orange?

John Shull 35:38

I made my I mean, I kind of if you hadn't prefaced it with what you said about reacting one way, I would have just said read

Nick VinZant 35:46

that. So immediately what I picture fire as if I was going to draw a picture of fire, it would be red, although in my mind, I do think of it as orange. But I wouldn't color it orange, I would color it red, even though I think of it as orange.

John Shull 36:02

This all stems to the Sun comment on the top five last week, which there was a lot of people who had a lot of opinions, and apparently a lot of our listeners that I'm going to offend right now. I'm sorry for that. Our scientists and our sonologist The sun is yellow, get over it.

Nick VinZant 36:21

The sun is not yellow, the sun is white, you could literally google it right now. And the first answer that comes up when you Google, what color is the sun is white. I am always fascinated by the number of people who comment on things, not related to our posts, because we don't usually post on that kind of stuff. But the number of people who comment on things, when a simple two second Google search would have showed that they were completely wrong. Right.

John Shull 36:49

But I'm prepared to go down on the ship. I understand. Like I get it, that the sun is actually not yellow, but in my mind, it's yellow.

Nick VinZant 36:58

Do you get in arguments with people online?

John Shull 37:02

No, it actually, I don't think I ever have. I've always stayed away from it. Maybe it's because of being in the media myself and knowing that it doesn't matter. If someone is taking the time to criticize or ridicule or just troll you then it doesn't matter. They want you to respond.

Nick VinZant 37:23

I'm a fan have a good trolling. If it's kind of an obvious trolling and can be funny to people. I'm just fascinated people who just like comment, like wrong.

John Shull 37:33

On occasion, when I do respond to things and I do it on my phone, though I'll misspell something, and it'll just be completely wrong and I won't catch it. And then somebody will be like, Oh, you don't know the difference between they there they are. Like it's, well you got me even though it's spell checks fault.

Nick VinZant 37:52

I do hate it when that happens to me, but I do like to point it out to other people. It's like an automatic wind card. If somebody spells that they're wrong, it's just like you automatically whatever their argument could possibly be. You could be arguing with the head of NASA about space, but if they use the wrong they're like you have won that argument.

John Shull 38:13

It really is a drop the mic GAME OVER moment if you

Nick VinZant 38:16

game over grammar is game over.

John Shull 38:20

All right, let's give speaking of grammar. Let's give some shout outs Shelly. We'll start off with the easy and easy one here. Noah Hale. Appreciate it was

Nick VinZant 38:31

almost named Noah. My mama was named me no.

John Shull 38:34

Oh, well, that's great. I guess. Clark

Nick VinZant 38:37

now you know. Now you know that. Oh, boy. In his setting in

John Shull 38:47

and everyone out there is like what? Why are you listening to this? Marcus, or Lucien? Blaze? Marcus

Nick VinZant 38:55

is my son's middle name. Marcus is my youngest son's middle name. Alright, well, I almost got through two names. Let's see if I can tie in all the shout outs to somehow being about me.

John Shull 39:06

You're not going to get this next one. You won't be able to you ready? Let's

Nick VinZant 39:09

hear it. Let's hear Hi era

John Shull 39:11

Charlotte.

Nick VinZant 39:15

I once drove through Charlotte, Illinois, or Charlotte, North Carolina. Vintage Charlotte great city. Keep them coming.

John Shull 39:23

I love how we just just rip these names. Is her actual people that listen and follow

Nick VinZant 39:29

me. Thank you appreciate them very much. We do we really appreciate anybody. I listen. I always you'll respond to people.

John Shull 39:36

Lydia Sutton.

Nick VinZant 39:40

Lydia, Lydia Sutton, India. I don't personally know anyone named Lydia or Sutton.

John Shull 39:51

I know a son. I knew I know two sons and I know Alinea. So I'll carry us on that one.

Nick VinZant 39:58

I don't actually know to be People who are not related that have the same last name. Like I don't know, two different Smith's or two different people with the same last name that are not related.

John Shull 40:13

Oh, man, I I mean, just thinking off the top of my head. I know several Andersons that aren't related. I know a couple of surprisingly enough Bruce's with the last name of Bruce, that are not related. Johnson's another one.

Nick VinZant 40:35

I don't know anybody. I can't think of a single two people I know that have a same last name. But aren't related. I can't think of a single person. Not even like a Smith or a Roberts or other really common last names. Okay. All right. Well, let's try. Let's try so many people.

John Shull 40:57

Let's try this one. Grant some bird.

Nick VinZant 41:00

I do know two people I know to Thomas's. I know a Logan Thomas and a Reuben Thomas who are not related. Sorry, I ran over that shout out. Okay. It was really excited. Grant

John Shull 41:10

Sandberg, Aubrey Dallas, Isaac crankies. And just for you, we're going to end on another Noah. Noah karalis.

Nick VinZant 41:23

Okay, so grant, is my brother in law's last name? What was the other ones? Trying to make these all about me?

John Shull 41:32

Let's say we had a Isaac.

Nick VinZant 41:35

Isaac was a good friend of mine who passed away from cancer recently.

John Shull 41:39

Well, I'm, I'm sorry to hear that. And then we ended we ended on a another Noah.

Nick VinZant 41:48

Again, I was almost named Noah. But my mom thought it was too bad. Because people would say Do you know of VinZant?

John Shull 41:56

She was like, no. Oh.

Nick VinZant 42:01

Nicely done. Nicely done.

John Shull 42:03

I appreciate that. I actually just made that up. Um, you know what I was told this past weekend. That was good. And it was good, that I should try out for like an open mic night that I would be funny. This person thinks.

Nick VinZant 42:18

Hmm. Would you have the courage to do that, though?

John Shull 42:24

You know, I think I would, however, I think I would not be funny at all. Because I, in my opinion. Like, I think I'm a pretty witty smart guy around my friends around co workers. But getting up in front of an I'll be liberal here. You know, 50 people? I don't know. I think it's very hard. It's a lot harder than I think comedians get the credit for.

Nick VinZant 42:50

Would you be more comfortable with people you knew in the audience or go to like a different city and do it?

John Shull 42:59

I think if you know, I fall into the trap. I'm kind of making this a long answer. So I'm sorry. But I I fall into the trap of if my friends are near you tell stories just about you and your friends. And other people may not find those funny. I think I'd rather try just to know, a group of random people first.

Nick VinZant 43:19

Yeah, you should go try it just go out into the boonies of Michigan.

John Shull 43:23

Alright, well, let's let's see how you handle these. These bangers that I have for you here. When you become an old man and old crusty Van Zandt? Which one of these would you rather have fugly teeth? Hairy ears, or super bushy eyebrows?

Nick VinZant 43:44

Hairy ears because I can easily just trim that stuff up and I generally see my ears every day. So I would go with hairy ears. What would you do?

John Shull 43:53

I think I just did the bushy eyebrows. I mean I kind of have them now to a certain degree. I mean, I be no different seem.

Nick VinZant 43:59

It seems easier though to trim up ears than it would be to trim up eyebrows a little bit riskier. I mean, you make a mistake with those eyebrows man you could be looking pretty strange. It's fairly easy to trim your ears up and he just came on this trimmer is just rude.

John Shull 44:13

Have you ever I mean have you ever seen Yeah, well, it's not that easy. I mean the hair grows in the ear grows obviously in the outer part of the ear. It's it sucks it's not

Nick VinZant 44:25

Do you have to trim your ears?

John Shull 44:28

No, but my grandfather does and his hair his ear hair gets even worse because he has hearing aids so like then the hair has nowhere to go so it'll just become like a gigantic ball behind his ear. Yeah, I

Nick VinZant 44:44

don't want to think of have you trimmed his ears for him?

John Shull 44:47

I have not no I have I have not

Nick VinZant 44:49

listened let's let's move on. Alright, good. Well, yeah, let's move Yeah,

John Shull 44:53

all you young people. That's what you have to look forward to. That's great as, as that is All right, so kind of going along with our top five, which we'll get to, obviously in a few minutes. would say you're on the playground, would you? Would you rather have been the maybe you were one of these, the first kid picked? Or the last kid picked for a game?

Nick VinZant 45:19

Well, I think you'd rather be the first kid picked because the last kid picked is usually you know, not just a reflection of their athletic ability. But you're probably not like even getting like a courtesy pick. Which I think that I, I was genuinely picked, like maybe second or between second and fifth. But I think some of that was like a courtesy pick.

John Shull 45:41

What why a courtesy pick,

Nick VinZant 45:43

was like friends with the team captain. Right? Like, oh, we'll get him at least he's nice. He's might not be as good as that other kid. But like, as well, like that kid, right? Like, so why would you want why would you not want to be picked? First? Why would you want to be picked last?

John Shull 45:58

I mean, I sometimes be sometimes when you don't look the part and your pick last and you just dominate everybody. It's the it's the greatest feeling. If you want to talk about peaking as a child, that's a peaking moment right there.

Nick VinZant 46:14

Where you picked last a lot.

John Shull 46:17

Only for the athletic sports.

Nick VinZant 46:21

Does it haunt does it still haunts you to this day?

John Shull 46:25

No, no, the only thing that actually it doesn't haunt me. Now. One thing that bothers me as I always like to play basketball, but if you know me, you know that I don't have a basketball body at all. I'm like a pair. I've gained weight over the years, like whatever. So I would always get pic little no matter even if I was in shape, or was a good football player or whatever. At the time. I would always get big laughs because I'm not very tall. And I'm not you know, I just don't look like a basketball player. Man. If I got on the court, I was throwing elbows. And I was taking shots trouble. Yeah. So if I made a shot, you know, the thing is, is I you know, I played the part of the clown because obviously, that's probably what I was the most of those those people play basketball.

Nick VinZant 47:12

I would say something. But I mean, I feel like that was a genuine moment of reflection, and you know, some childhood trauma that was coming up.

John Shull 47:19

All right, let's see what the masses picked for us today. Oh, boy, it's a tie. All right, well, let's, let's get these two out of the way. So on our Twitter page, every

Nick VinZant 47:30

day, you take whatever the people picked and say, let's get it out of the way. I think we could have a little bit more respect to him as

John Shull 47:37

well. There's four choices and you can vote usually go up on Mondays when we record this. And let's see. The one thing I really wanted to talk about didn't win, which was the seaweed blob. That's heading for Florida. Apparently, it's like a five mile wide layer of seaweed that just coming for the coast of Florida. Let's see. One of the things that did when were you a good burger fan growing up.

Nick VinZant 48:04

I only remember the line. Welcome to good burger, home of the good burger. But I have never seen that movie nor had any desire to ever see that movie. No point in my mind. Did I ever think I'm going to watch a good burger. But I may have missed something that wasn't of my generation. I think I was like aging out of that phase.

John Shull 48:24

Well, now you can. You can. You can watch the first and the sequel. Good. Burger two is going to be on Paramount plus, probably in the next. I don't know. Two, three years, however long it takes. I will say this looking up. Who is it? Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Kenan Thompson definitely got the better end of that career. I think

Nick VinZant 48:46

there's always whenever there's a group, there's always one that gets the better end of the career. You can see that from like, I think it was called Kenan and Kel. The two of them. You can see it in Flight of the Conchords. Even like Key and Peele. One one person always does a little bit better. Key and Peele are probably the two that like, Oh, they're the most they're the closest where both of them have been pretty successful. Like Simon and Garfunkel, man. Paul Simon went way ahead. Garfunkel dropped off the map. There's always one that does a lot better very rarely did they have comparable careers after they split up

John Shull 49:24

like Casey and Jojo. What happened either of those guys who, who? Casey and Jojo. Got it? All right, well, what one

Nick VinZant 49:39

are Casey and Jojo. But what was Casey and Jojo?

John Shull 49:43

Late 90s. They had a song called all my life. It was played everywhere for about a year and a half.

Nick VinZant 49:50

Okay, it's just not where I was living. Yeah.

John Shull 49:54

That's not surprised me by the cars where you live. All right. So The other topic that one so Miami Beach spring break. Apparently Miami Beach wants to cancel spring break because of all the hooligans that have happened down there and just and we're just starting spring break it goes from like now until obviously the middle of April. They've had two fatal shootings looting a variety crowds. So beyond that, because you know, people who listen to us know we don't get too serious. What's what's the best place you've ever spring spring break at?

Nick VinZant 50:37

Spring? I've never done it. Spring broke. I don't know, spring broke out, I think. I think he would say spring broke out. I have never gone on a spring break trip. I never went on one. Anything that was kind of the thing that everybody did was always things that I didn't do.

John Shull 50:54

And that surprises nobody that you would say that.

Nick VinZant 50:58

Once, once everybody's talking about something and doing something that I just kind of lose interest in it. It's like the movie Avatar, or Titanic once suddenly becomes really or Ted Laszlo, Laszlo, whatever his name is, once something becomes really popular, I just, I lose all interest in it.

John Shull 51:16

Last oh, by the way, and that's a fantastic show. Not I'm not gonna say it's one of the greatest I've ever seen, like others have or will, but it's worth a watch. And it's not it's half an hour episodes. It's good not watching

Nick VinZant 51:29

it. Not interested. Now.

John Shull 51:32

I know you won't. But it's, you know, whatever. Can we move on to our top five? No,

Nick VinZant 51:38

I don't feel bad for any of those kinds of places that advertise things like you don't get to pick and choose what you get. If you want to be a tourist destination, you can't say hey, everybody come for this a wherever you don't come. No, it's either all or nothing.

John Shull 51:55

Right? Yeah.

Nick VinZant 51:58

Okay, all right. Are you ready for our top five?

John Shull 52:00

I wasn't gonna contribute your old man rant anymore there.

Nick VinZant 52:05

Okay, so our top five is top five childhood games. What's your number five,

John Shull 52:10

man and there's so many by the way analyze. So I know I'm gonna miss some but I'm gonna start off my number five with Capture the Flag. Hmm.

Nick VinZant 52:21

The only thing I would have against Capture the Flag, it was usually too hard of a game to organize. Like, it took a little bit more involvement than I was generally willing to put into play Capture the Flag because you needed to have like the right geographic location. You needed to have a number of people you needed to have something that was like a flag. I enjoyed that game when playing it but it was not a frequently played game.

John Shull 52:46

What's your number five

Nick VinZant 52:48

Sharks and Minnows okay, I love Sharks and Minnows, Sharks and Minnows was a great time. Everybody likes Sharks and Minnows.

John Shull 53:00

I have to tell you I'm not that versed in Sharks and Minnows Do you want to explain a little bit of what it is?

Nick VinZant 53:07

Sharks and Minnows could be one of those games that other people call it something else? Sharks and Minnows was the pool game where you had to like get from one side to the other.

John Shull 53:16

Oh, right. Okay. i Yeah, I got you.

Nick VinZant 53:19

What did you call it?

John Shull 53:21

I don't I don't recall calling it anything. It was just hey, you try to get to this side or I'm gonna tackle your ass in the water. Maybe elbow you in the face, Ryan.

Nick VinZant 53:30

I do have a friend of a friend of mine, Jason Valentine. We once played Sharks and Minnows and we played for way too long. And he was standing outside for two hours with his back turned to the sun and he burned quite badly. Never came over for decent Valentine. And his head was shaped like a block. So blockhead

John Shull 53:51

Jason, the blockheads, Ballantine.

Nick VinZant 53:54

Yep. All right, number four.

John Shull 53:56

So this this might be this is a personal favorite of mine, but musical chairs, but not like little kid musical chairs. I remember playing musical chairs, maybe in the sixth seventh grade, where you are going at it with other kids trying to get you know, on the chairs, I mean, you're tackling, you're hitting, you're punching. So, you know, I'm gonna say like, middle school, musical chairs.

Nick VinZant 54:24

I was more of a fan of Duck Duck Goose than musical chairs. So if I had that's why I didn't put musical chairs on my list because I had a choice between musical chairs and duck duck, goose. I was gonna go with Duck Duck Goose, because you always had that one kid that you could just really whack on the head.

John Shull 54:41

Right? Yeah, you're looking

Nick VinZant 54:42

at who's wham O I was you. Yeah.

John Shull 54:46

Or Hey, show, do the rope climb. And the P teacher knew I wasn't going to be able to get off the ground and he still did it anyways. So

Nick VinZant 54:54

yeah. You seem like you were tormented as John

John Shull 54:58

fucking shipper. That guy It was Anyways,

Nick VinZant 55:01

my number four is freeze tag. In my opinion, the best of the tag related games is freeze tag.

John Shull 55:07

So I actually I don't have tag on my list. Not on my top five.

Nick VinZant 55:12

I could see that I wouldn't put, I wouldn't put tag above. Third. Honestly, I feel lame, but it's a little simple.

John Shull 55:21

Well, and I feel like it's one of those games where it's fun for about five minutes and then you know, the fast kid is gonna win every time.

Nick VinZant 55:33

Yeah, that was the difficulty there was always a certain kid that was going to win. Yeah, there wasn't a lot of like, it's not mixing it up there. She number three then.

John Shull 55:41

So we're gonna go into the pool for this one. Marco Polo.

Nick VinZant 55:47

Hmm. I have Marco Polo higher on the list. I think Marco Polo is a little bit better of a game than where you have it in number three. All right, number three is hide and seek. Okay, game, great game, but can wear on you pretty quickly.

John Shull 56:05

So that was a that was another game that I was like, is it top five? It's yeah, but like kind of what you said, it wears on you. And before you know what it's like. You go hide, I'm never gonna find you. I'm just gonna go you know, eat something.

Nick VinZant 56:21

The only thing the only the only thing that I wonder about Hide and Seek because then if we weren't parents, if we would have put hide and seek a little bit higher, because I've played hide and seek with both of my two children, which generally consisted of me just standing obviously behind a small tree and waiting 20 minutes for them to find me. So my enthusiasm for Hide and Seek has been tampered down more than potentially other people who are not parents. So that'd be a question to the audience.

John Shull 56:50

It's funny. Remember to parachute?

Nick VinZant 56:56

What fancy school did you go to where you had parachute? I didn't go to a kid.

John Shull 57:02

I went to a public school. Just like

Nick VinZant 57:05

right with parachutes.

John Shull 57:08

Okay, first off, if you don't know what the what the game is, it's literally just a gigantic game. It's just a giant sheet that you flip in the air and you try to either get under it or get out of it before it comes down. It's it's just fun. I don't know how to explain it.

Nick VinZant 57:23

I wish I lived in a place that had sheets and a parachute in my school. I actually I do think I remember playing that. Yeah, I do remember actually being kind of fun.

John Shull 57:33

Yeah, it's very fun.

Nick VinZant 57:38

Marco Polo is my number two. Oh, okay. Hmm. I think Marco Polo is the best waterbased came?

John Shull 57:45

I would. Yeah, I would absolutely agree with you on that. Plus, it was just so much fun to be right next to the person and say, you know, polo, are here, Polo. And then you just turn around and just, you know,

Nick VinZant 57:57

what was your go to strategy for Marco Polo?

John Shull 58:01

How well, I was a bigger kid. And water didn't treat me very well. So I would usually just

Nick VinZant 58:09

I just the whole episode is rough for you.

John Shull 58:12

I don't know how else to say this other than you know, you have your eyes closed. Obviously. You say Marco they say Polo. And as soon as I would hear bull, I would just jump in that direction and hopefully land on somebody.

Nick VinZant 58:25

What's your number one then?

John Shull 58:27

Horse?

Nick VinZant 58:30

The basketball game?

John Shull 58:32

Yeah, horse or lightning? Either one i i prefer lightning. But I think horse is more. It's more universally played.

Nick VinZant 58:39

What's lightning? You're just you know, you're

John Shull 58:43

at the free throw line or wherever, wherever little kids shoot baskets. And then, you know, you have one person shoot and then the other person shoots behind them. And if they make it in before that before the kid in front, the kid in front out and then you know, it kind of just keeps going.

Nick VinZant 58:58

Oh, we played lightning. We call that 20 We call that knockout?

John Shull 59:01

Oh yeah, lightning. It's not really horse. But you know, I'm gonna say lightning as my number one. I remember that being such a fun game to play.

Nick VinZant 59:11

That is a fun game. I especially liked it when you didn't shoot the ball. You just like the person would shoot the ball and you just throw your ball into their ball. And like knock it way out of there such or like use your ball to hit their ball out of the that's strategies what that's called My number one is dodgeball.

John Shull 59:28

Okay, so, I mean, I left off kickball, I left off dodgeball, just because I didn't know if you were going to be a dick and be like, Oh, but those were kind of adult games and dribbler.

Nick VinZant 59:43

Well, I mean, I think I feel like horses a little bit of more of an adult game than dodgeball is.

John Shull 59:49

I mean, maybe but that's why I changed it to lightning.

Nick VinZant 59:53

Okay, what do you have in your honorable mention? I have a bunch.

John Shull 59:56

Yeah, so a lot of them we've already I mean freeze tag I have Uh, like bags or I don't think it's called cornhole when you're a kid but we call the bags growing up. Duck, duck goose, red light green light,

Nick VinZant 1:00:10

red light green light. And so that's, that's one that I could put up there pretty high red light green line was pretty solid,

John Shull 1:00:15

hopscotch. Crack the can hide and seek, steal the bacon. But I think we didn't call it steal bacon. I think we called like, grab the dollar or something.

Nick VinZant 1:00:30

What steal the bacon.

John Shull 1:00:32

So essentially, it's kind of you know how the best way I can describe it to make it makes sense easily is you know how when you're playing dodgeball, you have both teams lining this, they line up on one side, and then there's the balls in the middle, well steal the bacon or get the dollar is there's an item in the middle. And, you know, instead of everybody running, you designate like two people, you know, one person from each team to go. And then, you know, after each team's gone, whoever has the most dollars or the most objects wins. Which is obviously why I didn't win a whole lot. But again,

Nick VinZant 1:01:12

my honorable mention ones you didn't mention. Red Rover, which basically just ended up two people running into each other.

John Shull 1:01:21

I don't know if I've ever played Red Rover,

Nick VinZant 1:01:23

Red Rover, Red Rover, send somebody right over and you got to try to run through a bunch of people holding hands. I don't know if you can still do that. In today's school. It's actually like kind of a violent game that like even kids who liked violent games are like, I don't know if I want to play that. That gets pretty intense. Because you're basically trying to run people over um, we call it a

Unknown Speaker 1:01:43

crack the whip. Oh, what's that?

Nick VinZant 1:01:47

That's where you like run around in a circle all holding hands and then whoever can no longer hold on gets tossed into the oblivion and then you just keep going. Like it creates a lot of like, I don't know G force tension or whatever the right phrase would be the only other one that I was surprised we didn't have on there. With Simon Says. Which Yeah, he is. I don't like that game. I've never enjoyed Simon Says.

John Shull 1:02:17

Yeah, I mean, I don't recall playing it as a kid. I mean, I went to a very nice private elementary school. All I did was play parachute the entire time.

Nick VinZant 1:02:26

Ah, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, like, subscribe, leave us a rating or review doesn't have to be a big thing. Just a couple of quick words. It really helps us out. We have started putting more and more episodes up on YouTube. So if you want to watch the show and not just listen to it, we have that available and let us know what you think are some of the best childhood games. I was certainly surprised by horse. I mean, it's fun. But I don't think it's like those other games. Surprise that Simon Says wasn't on either of our list. Not because it's a good game, but because it's just it's iconic. But let us know what you think are some of the best childhood games

Arctic Wilderness Guide Natalie Gilles

From the Artic to the Antarctic, Natalie Gillis spends her time at the ends of the Earth. Photographing Narwhals, kayaking through treacherous Sea Ice, and guiding explorers and scientists through some of the most beautifully remote places. We talk listening to Humpback Whales, surviving 60 below and knowing the difference between friendly and unfriendly Polar Bears. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Yellow Things.

Natalie Gilles: 01:36

Pointless: 26:49

Top 5 Yellow Things: 48:59

Contact the Show

Natalie Gillis Website

Natalie Gillis Instagram

This is Where Atlantis Sank - Natalie Gillis Poetry

Interview with Artic Wilderness Guide and Pilot Natalie Gillis

Nick VinZant 0:10

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, Arctic exploration, and yellow things

Natalie Gillis 0:20

I've done in about 12 seasons in the Arctic now and five down in Antarctica, just chasing the daylight back and forth. There's a higher concentration of wildlife than almost anywhere else on the planet. There's penguins, there's whales, there's so much color in the ice. It's actually like, just explosion of marine life that's happening in a really concentrated area. Sea ice is kind of particularly just because it can get blown around so much by the winds is currents. There's a unique set of skills that is involved with safely maneuvering through ca.

Nick VinZant 0:52

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is an Arctic, an aunt Arctic guide, explore, pilot and photographer. We're going to talk about what it's really like at the extremes of our planet, the wildlife you find there, and how these areas are quickly changing. This is Arctic wilderness guide, Natalie Gillis, what's it like working up there?

Natalie Gillis 1:38

So I work in Antarctica and the Arctic kind of bipolar. I'll chase the 24 hours of daylight. So in the Austral summers will be down in Antarctica, and in the northern hemisphere summers, I'll be in the Arctic. I've done about 12 seasons in the Arctic now and five down in Antarctica, just chasing the daylight back and forth. And what's it like up there? I don't know. It's really beautiful, remote places very sparsely populated, just serene, quiet, like to think that it's like as far away on planet Earth as you can get from like, a busy shopping mall or traffic.

Nick VinZant 2:12

I always get confused as to which one's north and which one south? I mean, I know the North Pole is North and the South Pole is south. The Arctic is above us. And the

Natalie Gillis 2:21

Arctic is, is north. So North Pole is the Arctic and so full Antarctica.

Nick VinZant 2:26

So when you work up there, though, is there just it's just you in a tent, or like, what is the surroundings like?

Natalie Gillis 2:34

It depends, I guess what I'm doing up there. So I've done a variety of different things. I worked as an expedition guide. And while I've been guiding that self supported, so living in a tent cooking on a stove, depending on the trip, it could either be hiking, so with the hiking trips, you're dropped off by a charter aircraft, just with a backpack, and kind of everything that you'd need for like two weeks in your backpack, and you just go hiking around and you sleep in a tent, you just go wander around places that look interesting, it's just exploring, and then some trips idea would be canoeing, some would be sea kayaking. Others that aren't self supported would be snowmobile trips out to say the flow edge to check out narwhal or polar bears. And then when I'm working up there, as an aviator, we usually have a base that we stay at. So you go flying all day, and then come back to kind of like a dormitory style research base or tree house, every trip is different.

Nick VinZant 3:25

When I think about it, I'm just imagining kind of a barren, basically like a frozen desert is that essentially what it's like very much depends

Natalie Gillis 3:35

where you are. So I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the Arctic, and the Antarctic being very desolate, barren, kind of void of color wasteland like areas, but in some places they are in some places are very much not that. So if you go down to the Antarctic Peninsula, there's a higher concentration of wildlife than almost anywhere else on the planet. There's penguins, there's whales, there's so much color in the ice. It's it's actually like, just explosion of marine life that's happening in a really concentrated area. So there's a lot going on down there. And if you go up to the Arctic, there's beautiful colors and the rocks and the tundra is alive with wildflowers if you go at the right time of the year, and animals are beautiful, as well. So it depends very much where you're talking about because there's quite a big umbrella when you talk about the Arctic and the Antarctic, but there's so much underneath that umbrella. What drew you to it, I first fell in love with kayaking when I was kind of a teenager, I grew up in the city very much in a family of city people. And I just loved the idea of going north and I always had these stacks of National Geographic magazines, and I love the idea of exploring kind of what laid beyond the city. So I got really into sea kayaking, and if you're really into sea kayaking, going to the Arctic is kind of like going home. It's the place to go if you're really serious about sea kayaking. So I started off in the Arctic and then got some experience and then started leading trips down in Antarctica as well.

Nick VinZant 4:58

The thing that would obviously jump out me Right, it's like, okay, but does the cold steel steer people away? Or is that kind of a draw? For you?

Natalie Gillis 5:07

Yeah, the cold, the cold is definitely a big part of it. Um, I don't know, it's something, I think that you get used to a little bit over time, it makes certain things a little bit easier. For example, like food preservation, it's a lot easier to be keeping food fresh. If it's cold outside, things don't spoil as easily. So you can take fresher food with you and overall have a better experience if you're eating well. So that's a consideration, it's a lot easier to dress for the cold than it is to say, just for the cheap and have to like cool yourself down, it's always easier to layer up. So you have a little bit more control over your own personal climate, I'd say in the in the court, down on the Antarctic Peninsula, where I just was, it was really cold. So it was probably about negative 40 or so when we were up on the Antarctic Plateau, which was really cold, and then you throw the wind chill in there and it gets, you know, even colder. So it's a it's a consideration for sure. But it's something that you just kind of start to live with. And it becomes less and less scary, the more and more you're exposed to it.

Nick VinZant 6:07

Do you ever get used to the point where like, you don't worry about it,

Natalie Gillis 6:11

I think you always worry about it, it's always a consideration. When I'm working as a pilot, you have to think a little bit more about the airplane. So for example, you want the battery to start. So you always have to kind of be thinking about keeping the battery warm so that you know you can start your airplane to get to where you need to go.

Nick VinZant 6:28

Photographer, guide. Pilot, where do you Where are you landing?

Natalie Gillis 6:33

Where are we landing,

Nick VinZant 6:35

you just landing on ice?

Natalie Gillis 6:36

Yeah, um, so it also depends like Arctic and Antarctic can be very different. So in the Arctic, you can think of that as sort of a land that's surrounded by a lot of water. And most of our landings that we're doing up there on big tundra tires, so really, really big tires, low inflation, so you can kind of bounce down onto the tundra. So a lot of what we call off strip work. So landing in places where there isn't kind of conventional runway. And then any mix of stuff down in Antarctica, we're just landing on skis. So we've got these flat skis, and they pretty much let you land anywhere, it's relatively flat. So it's kind of nice, I

Nick VinZant 7:18

want to get into the photography aspect of it. So did you kind of set out initially to do the photography, or was that kind of a side effect of it like you felt you kind of develop that over time,

Natalie Gillis 7:30

the photography is definitely an afterthought. I'm very much drawn to the experiences of being out there. And photography is a way for me to help share and communicate the things that I find really beautiful and important about the places that I'm lucky enough to go to very much just a hobby thing, like when I'm working as a guide, first and foremost on guiding. And you know, the safety and the experience that my clients are having is first and foremost. And then if I can find some time in there to play with my camera, it's a bonus. But I also find that kind of enhances the experience a little bit like you can communicate to other people like hey, this is what I'm seeing, like, check out this composition. Hey, have you seen like, this whale that I saw using my telephoto? Like, let's go check it out kind of thing. So I think it it helps enhance the experience, but it's definitely not one where I'm going into places and doing these scenes, it just happens to be a way that I've developed to share Sure.

Nick VinZant 8:22

The thing that jumped out at me looking at your Instagram was the animal pictures, right like that. Just fascinating to me, what kind of animals are you generally encountering?

Natalie Gillis 8:31

When I'm down in Antarctica, things I love photographing most of the humpback whales. They're so cool. So usually I'm in my kayak, and that's got a telephoto lens. So sigma 150 to 600. And it kind of just leaves like right in between my legs while I'm paddling along. And then if I'm lucky enough to see some whales, it's just a matter of taking it up and, and trying to get some of the some of the whale shots, which are really fun. They're probably my favorite animal photograph. They're just so intelligent and sentient. Sometimes they come up to your like right up to your kayak and you've got a telephoto lens on and it's like, well this is useless because now the whale is too close for me for my lens. But uh, they're really cool to photograph because they're, they're an engaging whale. They're kind of goofy. They don't, they're not really scared of you like the builder more curious than anything. So they're kind of fun. I like shooting penguins while I'm down there as well as tons of them. Whenever the Arctic musk oxen are a really big one, they're just like such unique kind of prehistoric looking animals that isn't really an animal that you would see anywhere else really on the planet. I love photographing them. They've got this big wispy fear that comes off of them. It's just it's so beautiful, and the wind plays with it. And then obviously the polar bears are are pretty big ticket one they're fun to photograph, but they're also a little bit more challenging to photograph as well. So a little bit harder, but I don't know I like it all.

Nick VinZant 9:49

Are they how do they react to people I would imagine are they used to us are they not used?

Natalie Gillis 9:53

Very much depends where you are, what time of year. What else is going on around you? So my favorite On a photograph bears would be on the sea ice and springtime. So you get bears that they've come out of hibernation a long time ago, they're really, really well fed, there's a lot of seals and seal pops on the ice. So these bears are having like, a buffet of their favorite foods around at all times. So they're not really that concerned with humans being around, they're still curious and investigative, but they're not actively hunting you, which makes it kind of a nice time to be out there and engaging with the animals because you know, you're not as concerned you're, there's still always an element of risk. But it's a time of year where it is a very opportune time to be to be photographing them.

Nick VinZant 10:38

While the polar bears hunt, you,

Natalie Gillis 10:39

ah, there's always a chance, if you spend enough time around them, you get to learn their behavior. So you can tell the difference between a bear that's skittish and doesn't want to have anything to do with you versus a bear that's so protective of their cubs, if they have any around or you get like a big male bear that just as concerned with kind of being big and being in his territory. And then you get some of the curious juvenile bears that don't really know what humans are. And they're, they're more so just interested. I think animals are a lot like people, they have a lot of personality. And it's maybe not so accurate to like throw big generalizations out. Like all polar bears are like this. They're they're just kind of like people, sometimes you get people on good days, sometimes you get bad days, sometimes you get, like, really chilled out polar bears. And sometimes you get really angry ones. It's yeah, it just depends so much.

Nick VinZant 11:27

Now you generally like Are you purposely going out and saying like, Okay, today, I'm gonna go get a picture of this bear, I'm gonna go get a picture of this animal? Or do you kind of have to just take opportunities as they come?

Natalie Gillis 11:39

I'd say absolutely. I'm just taking opportunities as they come. I think I've learned pretty quickly that when you're in these places, it's not up to you. It's up to the weather, it's up to the conditions, it's up to the sea ice. And you're just there to experience it. Sometimes you don't get a single polar bear in two weeks. And sometimes you get like three or four a day. And it's just a matter of appreciating what you've got on that particular day with that set of surplus set of conditions that you have in front of you. And you know, sometimes you really want to go like check out a polar bear that's a couple of miles in that direction. But the sea ice is too thin. So you just can't. And yeah, very much the weather, the weather is King up there dictates what you're doing, and where you're going. So

Nick VinZant 12:19

are you ever ever in either of those places in winter? Or what seasons do you generally are you going to go?

Natalie Gillis 12:24

It does happen that I'm up there in the winter, I spent last winter working out of a small in a community called resolute Bay, which is on a Cornwallis island in Nunavut. So I was working as a pilot up there. I was there when the sun set below the horizon for the last time for the winter. So yeah, just dips below the horizon. And then there's 24 hours of darkness until it returns in the springtime. It's beautiful up there, you get some Northern Lights occasionally while you're flying. If there's a full moon out, it creates this like really beautiful silver light that just like blankets, the entire tundra, and it's covered in snow. It's super beautiful, but it is cold. It's different.

Nick VinZant 13:05

Do you have to when it's like that, you know, because of the temperatures and the conditions? Do you have to use any kind of specialized equipment? Or are you like, nope, got this Best Buy? This is gonna work.

Natalie Gillis 13:14

Right. So from a photography aspect, there isn't really anything that unique about my kit, that would be any different from anyone in, say the continental US would be using. So I use a pelican case, which is like a hardshell case to keep my photography equipment in. And that's just a product of being able to throw it around and bang, and I'm pretty hard on my gear. So having that case, I can kind of not think about keeping my lenses protected as much because they're in their case, and I can just throw the case around, it's fine. In terms of the cold and my equipment, I just keep a lot of batteries. And I always have some tucked into pockets that are really close to my body. And once one dies, another one goes in and they just get swapped out. And I'll usually have like six or eight of them on my body at any one time. So if one of them comes out on me, and there's like an amazing polar bear in front of me, it's just a matter of having to pull another one out and put it in. But other than that there's nothing else that's really specialized about my equipment. It's really actually kind of nice being out there because it's so dry, so there isn't a lot of moisture that can get into the lenses.

Nick VinZant 14:16

So when when you say guiding somebody, right, like okay, but are you guiding them? Because to a certain area because they don't know, I guess why are you guiding them in the sense that like, man, you really got to know what you're doing up here or no, this is how you get to this place.

Natalie Gillis 14:35

They're generally pretty specialized areas. So the average recreationalists wouldn't perhaps need a specialized set of skills in order to successfully achieve their goals. So if they want to kayak in the sea ice, sea ice is kind of particularly just because it can get blown around so much by the winds is currents. There's a unique set of skills that is involved with safely maneuvering through CI. So that's one a pretty easy example of why someone would hire a guide for that kind of trip, you get a lot of people signing up for sort of commercial tours, because financially, it makes a little bit more sense to split the overhead costs with a small group of people. So say you have someone that really wants to explore this national park. It's call it a $20,000 charter to take an aircraft up there. So they can split that with six people, and they get a guide, it makes a little bit more sense. And there's also the camaraderie as well. These trips tend to be small, like minded groups of people. So you get to know and have some companions for your adventure, which is always really good. Safety is a really big aspect of it. I'm a certified wilderness first responder, so kind of like medical in the field stuff, have those same skills that are really good to have in these places that are really, really remote that you might not be able to get a helicopter to if you needed to for a medical evacuation, for example. So lots of reasons.

Nick VinZant 15:59

Where are you generally going

Natalie Gillis 16:01

all over? It? Yeah, it's a it's a pretty big map. In the Arctic, I was doing a lot of expeditions on Ellesmere Island, which if you think of Canada has kind of like pointed like this on the map. It's it's the last island last big island before the North Pole. And then you've got Baffin Island and the eastern Arctic, was another really big focus of mine. Down in the Antarctic, I've spent quite a few seasons kayaking on the Antarctic Peninsula, which is that big piece of land that juts out towards South America. And then most recently was down there as taking people back and forth to the South Pole. A lot of climbers in and out of Mount Vincent, which is the highest mountain in Antarctica. So people that would want to climb that. Yeah, defense all over the place.

Nick VinZant 16:47

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Let's go. What would you say is your scariest experience? Oh, boy,

Natalie Gillis 16:54

I'd say being out on the sea ice in the springtime in the Canadian Arctic, overall, is probably the scariest experience. The sea ice is getting less and less predictable. Even in the short time that I've been guiding up in the Arctic, it's it's less and less predictable. And if it's less and less predictable, it's a little It's scarier and scarier, because, in my mind, things are scary if you don't understand them. And it's getting harder and harder to really understand what's going on with the sea ice because the conditions are changing so rapidly. So I'd say being out on the sea ice is probably one of the scariest you know, you've got like a set depth of ice that you're living on, you're sleeping on you're traveling on. Sometimes it gets thinner in certain areas, sometimes it gets thicker in certain areas, you don't really know it's not really a way of knowing exactly how deep the ice is underneath you without being able to actually product. So being out on the sea ice and traveling over it. It's probably one of the scariest things that I've been doing recently.

Nick VinZant 17:59

Okay, I'm going to reveal my ignorance. So I guess when you say sea ice, like I'm imagining, like just ice floating in the water, but this is more like frozen parts of the ocean that you're kind of basically living on?

Natalie Gillis 18:11

Yeah, exactly that so you get a areas of land. And in between those areas of land, the ocean, it's so cold in the in the winter that the ocean freezes over completely. And the goal of these trips is to go to where the frozen ocean ends, because it ends really, really abruptly. So you get frozen ocean to a point called the flow edge, which is where the ice ends and the open water begins. And that's a really interesting area because that's where you get the biggest concentration of wildlife. So you get narwhals. cruising along the flow edge, you get polar bears kind of walking along the edge seals everywhere. Lots of bird life. It's it's called the line of life. And it's where, like the coolest stuff is happening in the Arctic. So when I refer to being out on the ice, I'm kind of referring to going out over the sea is where all the cool animals are hanging out.

Nick VinZant 18:59

We just ended this question. Hardest animal to get a photograph of

Natalie Gillis 19:04

narwhal. That's, that's kind of an easy one. So when you're out on the sea ice, you're walking around on the ice. And whales are really, really sensitive to sound, they can hear what's going on on the surface above them. So unless you're like really, really quiet, they can hear your footsteps. And a lot of these times the narwhal don't like being around humans, so they try to avoid them. So trying to get a photograph of narwhal is very, very challenging. One thing that I've done is, if you stick around a PATA narwhal for a long time, you can kind of check out and start to understand their feeding habits. You notice that they'll go under the ice, they'll feed and then because they're holding their breath while they're under the ice, they'll have to come up for a breath of air. So if you think like a narwhal, you're under the ice you're feeding. You really, really want to have a breath, you're probably going to come up at the edge of the ice at a place where it's like the most convenient, like the first breath that you can take. So you try and find a spot on the CIS that kind of cuts out like a V. And the narwhal will typically come up at the, you know, angle of that V, which is the first place that they can have a breath. So I've done it before where you can get a group of people. And if you're really really still for like, half an hour, you can lay on your belly on the side of the sea ice kind of with your elbows like hanging over the edge and it's happened a couple times that I've had narwhal come straight up and almost blow like straight into your face because they just surface right there. It's really cool experience because you know, you're you're sitting there silent for like 2030 minutes hoping maybe you might get a narwhal. Maybe you won't. And then just like out of absolutely nowhere. They just, like brighten your face. It's really cool.

Nick VinZant 20:45

And then are they gone in an instant? Or do they like linger for a second?

Natalie Gillis 20:50

Gone? Gone? They might take like a breath or two and then they're really hard to photograph.

Nick VinZant 21:00

Have you ever like left the lens cap on? mean like, Oh crap.

Natalie Gillis 21:07

Have I left the lens cap on? I don't really use lens caps. Not really for a reason. I just lose them so often that I just don't have them. But I've done every stupid thing that you can think of. I've gone out without batteries. I've got it with memory cards. I've deleted whole memory cards, like full of incredible wonderful photographs just like oh, I that's gone now.

Nick VinZant 21:33

Which one? Do you like more? North Pole or South Pole?

Natalie Gillis 21:38

Which do I like better? It's they're so different for many, many different reasons. I'd say for wildlife. I like Antarctica and for landscape. I like the Arctic.

Nick VinZant 21:48

And just to confirm Antarctica is south and north. Are the Arctic is north. I really thought they were the same thing I honestly did. Right. It's amazing how you can go to college and you still don't know anything about the world.

Natalie Gillis 22:02

You're really not alone in that at all. Actually, what I find really funny is so polar bears there. They only live in the Arctic. There's no polar bears down in Antarctica. But it's amazing how many people you'll have on like a two week kayak trip in Antarctica. And at the end of the trip, we'll be like, yeah, everything was great, great food, great guiding wonderful, but like we didn't see any polar bears. That's like one of their key complaints and then be like, oh, yeah, it's

Nick VinZant 22:31

your head. Somebody like booked the trip specifically to see polar bears, and then realize like, Oh, crap, pick the wrong?

Natalie Gillis 22:39

I don't think I don't think specifically. But you definitely get some people who haven't done a great deal of research, which I mean, they just leave them an opportunity to go to the north and be able to compare the two and hopefully see a polar bear up there.

Nick VinZant 22:55

So on a more serious note, right, like you've been going up there, I think you said either 12 years or 12 seasons. Have you seen it change with the climate? Like have you seen the effects of climate change on those areas?

Natalie Gillis 23:09

Yeah, big time, is one hike that I used to love. It was like my first big hike that I ever did in the in the Arctic, is through this beautiful valley on Baffin Island called Ivy Tech. When I first went there, there were glaciers that would come down off of the penny ice cap, and they touch the valley floor. And just flying over them recently there, they're just not there anymore. They've almost completely disappeared from the Valley, which was like, one of the most beautiful parts of of that part of the world. So it's, it's, it's sad seeing them gone. But I think more so if you talk to the people who live up there year round, because like I said, I go up there seasonally, I might be able to see some changes over the seasons. But really the people you want to talk to are the people that live there that have spent their entire lives up there. And they're seeing a lot of changes and how things are happening with wildlife, with the seasons, overall climate and they're really the people that we should be listening to. And there's a lot of changes happening up there.

Nick VinZant 24:08

Is it oversaturated at all? Do you think like, wait a minute, there's too many people coming up here now.

Natalie Gillis 24:15

You know, I've always really thought that people care about beautiful places, and they care about the places that they've formed an attachment to So are there too many people going up there? I don't think so. Because I think that the people that are going up there are having an experience. So they're going to remember through the rest of their lives and they're gonna go home and they're gonna tell their friends all over the globe, Hey, I just had this really cool experience like seeing this iceberg like seeing these penguins, seeing these polar bears and their natural habitats. It's beautiful. I've talked to the local people and they're saying, you know, let like things are changing really, really rapidly up here. And and they're sharing those messages with people that who wouldn't be able to see or experience those places otherwise. So I don't think it's oversaturated up there because I think that the people that are going up there are having experiences that are meaningful So the more people are having more meaningful experiences and care about these really beautiful places, the more people will be caring about them and and maybe more willing to make changes. So I don't think so.

Nick VinZant 25:11

Um, that's really all the questions that we got what's kind of coming up next for you? How can people get some of your artwork if they want a guided trip? What should they do?

Natalie Gillis 25:22

So I'm heading back up to the Arctic to do some real ski work. So a lot of flying, potentially, like some field caching, just general aviation work up in the Arctic. I'm also hoping to do a little bit more photography while I'm up there, maybe Susan mascara, see some polar bears. I've also got a little project I'm working on right now. Or I've taken my photographs, and I've translated them into stickers that I have for sale. And I also have a book of poems that I wrote, actually during COVID. So while I was stuck at home, and people weren't traveling to the North Pole, and so cool are in the polar regions. I did a master's degree in poetry, and I came up with my book. It's called, this is where Atlanta sank. And it's a book of poetry and photography. So it's for sale on my website.

Nick VinZant 26:07

I want to thank Natalie so much for joining us if you want to connect with her, we have linked to her on our social media accounts were Profoundly Pointless on Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. And we have also included her information in the episode description, the pictures that she has taken, really showcase the beauty of this landscape. And I did not know that that is what the Arctic and the Antarctic look like, until I saw some of these pictures. They really are amazing, and give you an incredible window into this world. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw, and get to the pointless part of this show. Do you know where Antarctica is?

John Shull 26:56

It's in the southern hemisphere. Ah,

Nick VinZant 27:00

I really always thought Antarctica was the one that was in the northern hemisphere.

John Shull 27:04

I mean, it's really not that difficult. The North Pole is the Arctic, and the South Pole is Antarctica.

Nick VinZant 27:12

Yeah, but I've always found that like, if you get something wrong in your head, there's no correcting it. I'm still 100% confused if the shower curtain goes inside the tub or outside the tub, and no amount of explaining or being yelled at by people has ever really solidified that answer in my head. I still don't I don't know. I still don't know.

John Shull 27:35

That's pretty absurd. It obviously goes inside the tub. Well, you have a liner that goes inside. And then the actual curtain is on the outside.

Nick VinZant 27:43

That's what confuses me. Which one is supposed to go inside because one is supposed to go inside and the other is supposed to go outside. And I can never remember if the liner goes inside the tub and the curtain goes outside. If they both go inside, if they both go outside.

John Shull 27:58

You're really thinking about this. It's not that hard.

Nick VinZant 28:01

But don't you have something that like for some reason? You can just never remember how this is supposed to work?

John Shull 28:07

No, not off the top of my head. I mean, for me, I'm not sure if it's actions that I that I do. But it's words that get me like, for instance, we have a chain of grocery stores in the Midwest called Meijer. But I say my ers, I add an s on to it. And it makes no sense. But I'll never change because to me, it will always be my ers not Meyer.

Nick VinZant 28:30

I'm a little upset already, to be honest with you.

John Shull 28:34

Why is that? Why is that this episode? Why are you upset now?

Nick VinZant 28:38

seems to be coming out around a certain date.

John Shull 28:44

Oh, right, right. I actually know what the date is. What is it? I just don't know what number it is for you.

Nick VinZant 28:57

I'm trying to forget personally. Here's my question about it, though. Besides the fact that you didn't wish me happy birthday. Do you feel younger in odd number do you feel younger? Do you feel younger or older? In odd numbered years or even numbered years? Because I'm gonna be in an odd number year. And I feel younger than when my birthday when my age is in, even numbered year. I always feel older and even numbered years.

John Shull 29:27

I don't know even I don't know how to answer that. I feel older. Looking back on and realizing that I'm going to have been on this earth for 36 years.

Nick VinZant 29:36

You haven't said to me 36 feels older than 3737 is like Oh, I'm young in my late 30s 36 is late in your mid 30s

John Shull 29:50

So you're what you're you're born in 184 right 82 8280 So I'll

Nick VinZant 29:56

be 40 I'll be 41 which feels yeah younger, which feels younger to me than 40. I feel younger, like I'm ready for 41 like, Man, I'm in my early 40s Last year was like, Oh, I'm turning 40 I feel younger now than I did last year.

John Shull 30:15

I mean, give give us something, give me something. What is a birthday wish that you hope to? to have happen to you this upcoming birthday year?

Nick VinZant 30:26

I have reached the age in for people who may turn 40. Soon. I have reached the age where pretty much you're just you start to wonder like, Man, am I going to die tomorrow?

John Shull 30:37

You heard you are not used.

Nick VinZant 30:39

When you hit mid life, you start to wonder like, Man, I hope I make it to there, you start to worry, you start to think about your death. So there's no longer it is no longer a certainty. You no longer feel like it is a certainty that you will be around.

John Shull 30:56

Here's something kind of crazy. They will this podcast has seen you literally go from one decade to the next. This podcast is that old as well.

Nick VinZant 31:06

From roughly 2018. So five years, the half of a decade. Yeah, I mean, both of us really?

John Shull 31:14

Yeah. But I mean, it's seen you go from your 30s young, vibrant hippie man. to Now you're wondering if you're gonna wake up the next morning.

Nick VinZant 31:23

It's weird. It's amazing how quickly life can change in just a short period of time. I think that your life fundamentally changes every three years. Every three years you are in a new phase of life. And you would say that you are completely different than you were three years before that.

John Shull 31:42

Most important question. What kind of birthday cake you're gonna have?

Nick VinZant 31:48

I get a thing called Chocolate Lush. It's not a cake. Oh, explain fuckin amazing. Chocolate. Lush is basically like, a match. I don't know how to explain it. It's basically like a chocolate pie. But served in a dish. I don't know. Just you gotta I can't. I am not. I realized this weekend, that I am not good at describing things. Like if my wife who I've been happily married to since 2014 was gone. Or was like missing. I wouldn't know. I can't describe people's faces. I cannot describe the way things look like if somebody even asked me like, What does John look like? It's got hair. He's two eyes. My nose. I can't describe people. I was trying to describe somebody there was telling my wife about it. It's like, what did they look like? I they have like a person. Can you just like, can you describe people?

John Shull 32:51

I think no, no, but I think the problem is with that most people will look generic. There are very few people that actually like you can pinpoint them like Hey, Suzy, you know, Suzy has blue hair? A nose ring and tattoos all over her body. Right? For you. It'd be it'd be Oh, hey, Nick is average size. Nice hair blue eyes.

Nick VinZant 33:19

Oh, he said nice here. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, I can't describe people. Like if I was in front of a sketch artist, it would just look like we anybody else. I don't know.

John Shull 33:32

Moving on. I was told the other day that I have a nice singing voice. So take that for what it is.

Nick VinZant 33:40

Right? So go try out for American Idol. songbird. Is that still around? Yeah, it's

John Shull 33:46

it's I was actually I was flipping through channels. The other it was like Saturday night I too am in a replay of it was on I think it was a replay. And the guest like the panel is Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. Now that's the three judges they had on the panel and I was like,

Nick VinZant 34:08

Lionel Richie. Wow, man, they're scraping those shows have run their course. Any of those kinds of American Idol dancing is that's even still around like cool. You're running out of people.

John Shull 34:24

The fats gonna die. Who's the fats?

Nick VinZant 34:27

I don't know. What are you talking about?

John Shull 34:31

Didn't you just say the fats?

Nick VinZant 34:34

No. Dancing with the Stars.

John Shull 34:39

Wait, you Hunter you you didn't just say the fats.

Nick VinZant 34:43

No, I think you're hearing things.

John Shull 34:46

Oh, are you fucking with me, right? No,

Nick VinZant 34:49

no, what are you talking about?

John Shull 34:53

I swear to God, you were like talking and then you said oh in the in the fats. And then you kept talking I don't know, man, whatever.

Nick VinZant 35:01

I don't know what you're talking about, man.

John Shull 35:04

Maybe you just just added that out. I don't know. It sounds like a crazy person

Nick VinZant 35:07

maybe ease maybe ease up on the chemicals when you're redoing that basement man. I feel like like they're starting to get to you a little bit.

John Shull 35:16

Yeah. Right. I saw that right. There was a person behind you.

Nick VinZant 35:20

Right? Right. That's my son. He likes to come in here. He's, he's a cat recently.

John Shull 35:25

All right, good. Well,

Nick VinZant 35:26

he's not a cat. He's a pokimane. Various, what kind of pokimane as far as that's all. All right. Once, once a boy discovers farts, they'll never be the same.

John Shull 35:38

Oh man. No joke. Alright, let's give some shout outs. Let's see Milton MacDonald. Drew Kerber. Blake Nixdorf. Kyle got hard the second it's, it's probably actually it's probably actually Gothard. But it's probably got heard but it's got

Nick VinZant 36:01

God. How much? How much do you think they hate that? Yeah. God hard.

John Shull 36:08

Yeah. Yep. T Riona. Taylor. Aaron Wilhoit. Preston Bryant. Mad moans. John wretzky. And Pete O'Connell. And O'Connell has the apostrophe between the on the see obviously, I wanted to get your opinion on that. What do you think of names that have like, you know, John O'Malley, Pete O'Connell.

Nick VinZant 36:37

I think they're probably of Irish descent and that that's their name. Do you want me to save them all? round him up.

John Shull 36:49

No, round him up. No, that's, you know,

Nick VinZant 36:51

I can throw him in jail.

John Shull 36:53

Just whatever. They're all pieces of shit. Thank you. There you go.

Nick VinZant 37:01

Sorry. Welcome. Last one of them.

John Shull 37:03

Sorry. We're not talking about up. Not at all. Actually. Couple of bangers for you. What kind of sock guy are you? ankle socks? long socks. You like toe socks? Do you wear socks? Kind of sock diarrhea.

Nick VinZant 37:24

I always wear socks. I don't understand people who don't wear socks. I won't even walk around in my own house. without shoes on or something covering my feet. I really don't like it. But I wear no show socks. And they gotta be no show. They have to you cannot see them. I don't want the stuff that you can see it a little bit. Yeah, it's gotta be no show. So I have to wear socks. But I like to pretend like I'm not.

John Shull 37:52

So those are ankle socks. Right?

Nick VinZant 37:56

No, I believe that there's actually a difference between no show socks and ankle socks. ankle socks would cover the ankle or be at the ankle. a no show sock would not be able to be seen. Hence the different names, I believe. Do you

John Shull 38:09

ever find yourself having to readjust your no show sock because it slips off your foot? Because that's quite I do

Nick VinZant 38:17

not. I do not. Oh, well, because that's one thing that I will turn out pretty quickly. Like I'm gonna wear a t shirt until it is literally falling apart and has some good holes in it. But once that sock loses the elasticity elasticity, it's out of there. Um, one socks for a year tops, year tops and is gone.

John Shull 38:38

What would you say is more important? A good pair of socks? Or a good pair of underwear?

Nick VinZant 38:43

I don't wear underwear. So good socks. My wife actually got mad at me. She's like, You got to start wearing underwear. I took it as a compliment. That my little man is showing that people are seeing it. Oh boy. It's impressive.

John Shull 38:58

Probably Well, you know, at 41 You probably see no decline yet, but it's coming soon. I'm sure.

Nick VinZant 39:05

It's pretty hard to decline from a negative so

John Shull 39:09

that is absolutely true. And we all feel sorry for you. But not not not that sorry. All right. I I'm still thinking about how I should wish you a happy birthday. So I apologize.

Nick VinZant 39:26

You're usually pretty good about it only because it falls on it's 316 and John loves what's his name? Stone Cold Steve Austin. Oh yeah. Austin 316. That's the only reason you remember is because of Stone Cold Steve Austin.

John Shull 39:39

Well, I'm gonna switch it up. Now. I had another BS question. But I this question. I want to know what your favorite birthday gift you've ever received has been

Nick VinZant 39:49

this snowglobe of my two year old son it's fucking Yeah, it's pretty good. I mean, it literally makes a weird how Like the most important things in your life are sometimes the little tiny, small things. It's just a snow globe with a picture of my then two year old in it, and I love it. It's my most prized possession. There was a fire in my house, I wouldn't get my computer or my phone. I would just get this snow globe. Makes me happy.

John Shull 40:17

Wow, I feel like you're being honest there. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 40:20

Yeah, I like it. And it's a good time. Other than that, I would say that probably the time I got I have never gotten good gifts for any of my birthdays or Christmases. I'm not someone who is easy to buy things for.

John Shull 40:37

You are probably a shithead when it comes to gift giving. I think

Nick VinZant 40:41

I'm a decent gift giver. But I'm not a good gift getter. I'm not an easy person to buy things for mostly because I really don't want anything. I want nothing. If somebody got me, like a junk removal, a gift certificate to a junk removal company to come in and get shit out of here. I would appreciate that.

John Shull 41:03

No one buying that.

Nick VinZant 41:05

But he's getting that I want to know stuff. That's my birthday idea of a good birthday. Would you get you nothing? Save money, and we don't have to throw anything away.

John Shull 41:15

Perfect. Got him a lush cake. Yeah, that's all I want. Give me a snow globe. Snow Globe. Maybe I'll buy you a snow globe with a picture of me in it.

Nick VinZant 41:27

That'd be fine. I'll take a snow glow. Anybody wants to send me snowglobes or themselves. I'll take a man I'm gonna have me a snowglobe collection. Oh my all the people I like all my enemies. And when I put people I like on one side and enemies on the other.

John Shull 41:40

That's actually quite genius. Can we talk about something for a second?

Nick VinZant 41:45

Sure. This is a podcast.

John Shull 41:47

So you Yeah, I said I sent myself over. Um, you posted on our Twitter page. I did not post this you did two days ago. So you know, we record this on on Mondays usually.

Nick VinZant 42:05

So it was this is Friday or Saturday? Because if it's a post that comes Okay, I'm gonna have our audience who we love all of our social media followers. But if you're seeing a post on Friday or Saturday night, from either myself or the Profoundly Pointless social media account, I'm Hi.

John Shull 42:22

Yeah, well, that's what I'm getting at. First off, this isn't for me. This is definitely from you. But I kind of have an issue with this. So here it is. An orgasm for a man is the same feeling as getting into a hot tub is for a woman.

Nick VinZant 42:40

Yeah, I would agree with that. Because an orgasm for a man is kind of like, ah, ah, I felt good. I needed that. My wife and I had this conversation. And she was like, oh, yeah, that's how I feel when I get into a hot tub. Like, ah, or a massage. For a woman. It's like, you gotta get it out. For our female audience. Like men when they go, it's like a relief. It's like, ah, ah, I think women enjoy it for a man. It's like that had to be done. And I liked it. I felt good.

John Shull 43:21

Okay, okay. You really took that one and ran with it. I didn't think you were gonna

Nick VinZant 43:27

get you don't agree that an orgasm for a man is like a massage or getting into a hot tub for a woman.

John Shull 43:35

I mean, I don't know what it's like that needed to be done. I can tell you as a man I don't I don't think getting into a hot tub is the same as you know.

Nick VinZant 43:44

I don't like hot tubs. I've always hated hot tubs. It's too fucking hot.

John Shull 43:50

Well, that is the point of our Dubs. All right. Well, we'll move on from that. Let's see a couple of things here to talk about. Let's see. The banks failing was one of them. Welcome during the recession, just starting out. But that didn't when March Madness kicks off. But no one really wanted to hear us talk about that thing. God I thought this one was getting a win but it didn't cocaine Wildcat apparently and I'm just gonna go through this briefly. Apparently a Wildcat was found wandering the streets in Cincinnati. High on some kind of drug.

Nick VinZant 44:30

What kind of wild cat are we talking about, though? Like a wild cat like a domestic cat that was just out in the wild. And actual wild cat. Like there's an animal that's called a wild cat. No, this looks like a bobcat. What kind of animal is it?

John Shull 44:46

This was just a wild space cats. A wild cat.

Nick VinZant 44:53

So it was just a domestic cat. That was wild.

John Shull 44:56

Yes. Okay, I I wonder though,

Nick VinZant 45:01

well, so it doesn't happen more often how much cocaine Did it have?

John Shull 45:06

Didn't really didn't really say just said that the drug test on the animal show that it had cocaine in its system. And apparently, I know that's, that's one of the things I was wondering spending

Nick VinZant 45:19

that money to do like, Okay, I understand, look, I have animals I care about animals. Do we need to be drug testing cats? Like is that? Was that a key component of the animals care?

John Shull 45:32

Well, to be fair, I guess I guess maybe

Nick VinZant 45:35

I just need to know what's wrong with it. I guess he guess he would get attacked. Okay, that makes sense.

John Shull 45:39

Well, they were apparently police guy, you know, in fire departments got calls that it was a leopard. I guess the actual name for this animal is called a serval s e r v. So

Nick VinZant 45:50

that's a wild cat. That's not a wild cat. It's like a wild animal. But it looks a wild cat. But it looks like

John Shull 45:59

a wild cat to me. But they're apparently they're from Sub Saharan Africa.

Nick VinZant 46:06

Right? That's a servile? That's a type of cat.

John Shull 46:08

You don't know what a circle is? Yeah, I

Nick VinZant 46:11

do. I've been to the zoo before.

John Shull 46:12

You don't know where Antarctic is.

Nick VinZant 46:16

And they have there's no servals in Antarctica. Now. Is there?

John Shull 46:19

No, because there's no cocaine editor in Antarctica.

Nick VinZant 46:22

Yeah, it's a wild cat. That's actually like a wild cat. Not a wild cat. Like there's a thing that's like a wild dog. It's not a wild dog. with it. Oh, my God, we've got to stop. We got to move on.

John Shull 46:37

I mean, this I agree.

Nick VinZant 46:38

We're never solving this. We're never solving this issue. All right. Well,

John Shull 46:41

what one were the Oscars? And I was hoping this one wouldn't win. Because I really don't care that much about the Oscars.

Nick VinZant 46:51

Didn't even know they were on. Yeah, I

John Shull 46:53

don't. You know, I was gonna I had all these questions. I was thinking about asking you. But I think I'm just gonna end by saying I'm happy for Brendan Fraser. He's a

Nick VinZant 47:05

Oh, good for him. Yeah, that's one person that you'd like, like you'd like to see a good redemption story. Especially somebody who's a nice guy that seems like they had a hard time.

John Shull 47:14

And like, I the kid that was with Indiana Jones with Harrison Ford. Remember the little little Asian boy that I think was in Raiders of the Lost Ark? He like one best director.

Nick VinZant 47:32

Holy shit. He stuck with it that long. Good for him.

John Shull 47:35

Good for him. Jimmy Lee Curtis, one Best Supporting Actress so good for her. Yeah, I mean, my argument with the Oscars is half of the best pictures aren't even out. You know, they're not even in theaters or been released yet. So how are normal people supposed to make those those determinations? Like how are we supposed to watch them and play? You know, Monday morning quarterback? You can't

Nick VinZant 48:00

know. I mean, it's for celebrating for the best in film, I believe. So it's the things that people who work in movies think are good, not necessarily the things that people think are good. Well, I still think Caddyshack is one of the big greatest movies of all time, but that doesn't have an Oscar. It should

John Shull 48:18

now and I probably never will, but that's fine. That's one of

Nick VinZant 48:21

the movies that to me. If I look back on it, like movies that I think should have gotten Oscars, Caddyshack, airplane.

John Shull 48:30

Yeah, those are basically Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Nick VinZant 48:33

Planes, Trains and Automobiles should have gotten an Oscar. You got mail should have an Oscar.

John Shull 48:39

Tom Hanks is not that good of an actor. Let it go.

Nick VinZant 48:42

Okay, well, he is he's America's treasurer. Basically. He's probably one of the greatest actors of all time. Other than that guy who the milkshake guy. You drink my milkshake. Whoever that guy is. I don't know what his name is Daniel

John Shull 48:54

Day Lewis. Daniel Day Lewis.

Nick VinZant 48:56

Okay, so our top five is top five yellow things. What's your number five.

John Shull 49:03

So let's see. I'm gonna start off here with my number five as a school bus. Hmm,

Nick VinZant 49:10

very recognizable, but I don't necessarily associated with a lot of good memories.

John Shull 49:18

I mean, it represents children and in innocence and fun and field trips and school and not being an adult and not having to pay taxes and all that other good stuff.

Nick VinZant 49:30

Yeah, I guess it does kind of represent a funner time in life. I just remember being like long rides to shit I didn't want to go to like, let's go to the Children's Museum like Fuck, man. I'm 16 I don't want to go to a kid's Museum. Well, it was 16 Going kids museum. Okay, my number five is bananas.

John Shull 49:53

Okay, that's a that's a that's a good one. We'll see if I have them on my list.

Nick VinZant 50:00

Okay, okay, we're sure number four

John Shull 50:04

cheese, specifically like American cheese.

Nick VinZant 50:09

Hmm, I think that's a little bit low for cheese. I think that she should be a little bit higher but I certainly agree with cheese being on the list of yellow things, specifically American cheese. I think that most cheese is actually white. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of cheese that I associate cheese in my mind is being yellow. Even though most cheeses white,

John Shull 50:30

for all of our international listeners come over to America and get you some yellow Kraft cheese slices. You're never really got

Nick VinZant 50:39

it. Right. And if you're listening internet listening internationally or really hear the cheaper you go on cheese, it can be better. Cheese is one of those things that gets better as it gets cheaper to a certain degree.

John Shull 50:54

Definitely taste more like wax, that's for sure.

Nick VinZant 50:57

Um, my number four, I'm gonna get a little sentimental. My number four is leaves in the fall. When some leaves turn yellow man, they look like Damn. That's pretty. Like that's cool.

John Shull 51:08

Yeah, that's I mean, that's a good one. I mean, the I don't know how that sentimental but yeah, that's that's a good one.

Nick VinZant 51:16

Makes them you know, just makes you take a brief little pause in life. Think about where you are. Just nicer is just enjoy nature. No, okay. You sneeze very loudly after that. That's good part of nature is allergies. Don't you have a bunch of allergies?

John Shull 51:34

I do. Actually. I just started my my allergy regiment last Wednesday, so working capital.

Nick VinZant 51:44

Wait a minute, you have a regiment? What's like a business prescribed by a doctor like a serious thing? Or have you developed like your own regimen?

John Shull 51:52

Yeah, well, I mean, I just start taking allergy pills now. You know, it's what middle of March? Pretty much so. I mean, it's gonna be spring at some point in the next two months. So

Nick VinZant 52:04

why don't you use the no spray? My dad who is a retired family physician says the no spray is actually much better for you. I do I

John Shull 52:11

use flow nice. Absolutely. Oh, all right. You can't go wrong with Flonase can knock around flies.

Nick VinZant 52:18

You can't Okay. What's your number? Three,

John Shull 52:22

three, man. So this is man this is where it gets tough. My number three I'm going to put the Simpsons as my number three because they are yellow.

Nick VinZant 52:37

Hmm, I would make fun of that if I didn't have Pikachu is my number three.

John Shull 52:43

Which Pikachu is probably the more recognizable yellow character. I don't think people look at the Simpsons and go oh yeah, they're yellow. But they are.

Nick VinZant 52:55

Okay, so definitely when Okay, at what point how many years ago? Do you think that Pikachu eclipsed the Simpsons in terms of fame?

John Shull 53:06

Oh, I mean. I mean, probably when if probably within a year or two after it came out. I mean, Pick it. Pick the Pikachu brand is Pokemon is around the world. Yeah, it's not. I'm not saying the Simpsons aren't worldwide, but I think the pokimane are by far more popular than the Simpsons are.

Nick VinZant 53:28

For our audience that's maybe in their 20s I wonder if they know who the Simpsons are. They were that was a really big deal. That show was really good when John and I were growing up. But I don't know if people in their 20s would even like if it means anything to them. If they know who like The Simpsons are.

John Shull 53:48

It's kind of like South Park to in our generation. Like it's still on now. But I just feel like it isn't. You know, it isn't what it was. And once again, maybe I don't watch it anymore. Maybe it is super popular, but

Nick VinZant 54:03

but I know people who still watch South Park I feel like South Park has fans that have stuck around and kind of grown with the show. And then it has it's like its own cultural niche. Whereas I feel like The Simpsons really dropped out of that. I love the Simpsons. I love classic Simpsons. I don't think I've seen a new episode in 10 years. Or even thought about watching it. Okay, what's your number two?

John Shull 54:31

The McDonald's arch on the McDonald's sign.

Nick VinZant 54:35

Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. I don't know if it's top five worthy. It's definitely like a yellow thing that you notice though. I mean, how many people

John Shull 54:47

when you're a kid, you know, or just an adult. See the McDonald's and you just get happy? You know you're getting good food into me for a low price. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 55:01

I would say that that kind of applies to what my number two is. Although I would say that my number two is, you know, a better is BS.

John Shull 55:12

But I mean, here's the thing. Here's the thing about insects that I'll argue is do people really like bees?

Nick VinZant 55:19

Yeah, they do. Everybody likes bees, man. Everybody knows. First of all, you like bees. It's one of the few movies, one of the few insects that movies have been made about and not in like a scary way. Everybody likes bees. And you know that like, man, don't kill the bees. We need those people are protective of bees, not taking

John Shull 55:39

anything away from their importance within the ecosystem. But I'm also saying they're just I don't I don't think people actually like insects. They'll tell you they do like you are saying right now. But I don't think you actually do like bees.

Nick VinZant 55:56

No, I'd like to see the bees though. Like it's like, oh, it's a bee. It's like seeing nature. You don't want it next to you. Like you get a little bit worried when the bee comes around. But you do like to see them you're like, oh, good thing. There's still bees around. Okay, I need bees. Ma'am. You need the bees. Okay. What's your number one?

John Shull 56:18

We probably have the same number one I would imagine. But okay, my number one is the sun.

Nick VinZant 56:24

Well, the sun is white.

John Shull 56:28

Got it? Well,

Nick VinZant 56:29

this the sun's not yellow. It's white.

John Shull 56:32

Well, in in popular culture, it's yellow goddamnit.

Nick VinZant 56:37

Well, that will be wrong. It's why the sun is actually because I looked this up because I was going to put this on too. And I was like, wait a minute, what color is this sun and I was like, well, the sun is actually white. It's technically all colors, which is then defined as white. Yellow. The sun is white. My number one is cheese.

John Shull 56:55

I would have put it higher on my list except kind of what you said. yellow cheese is a very small percentage of cheese, though. Delicious. Yeah, it's a small percentage.

Nick VinZant 57:07

I do forgot. I really think that went in my mind because I only consider American and cheddar to be the main cheeses or Don't come at me with your Provolone bullshit. Swiss. Get out of here.

John Shull 57:20

Those aren't even good, like different kinds of cheeses, but

Nick VinZant 57:24

that's okay, Cheez Whiz. Let's

John Shull 57:26

hear what you've got. Give me some Gouda. Give me some I mean if you want to go simple, but fancy go.

Nick VinZant 57:33

Let's use your let's hear your fans. What fancy cheese do you have in your refrigerator right now.

John Shull 57:41

See, Chef

Nick VinZant 57:43

Boyardee?

John Shull 57:44

I have some brie. Have some gorgonzola.

Nick VinZant 57:48

God, you're such a snob. You really are such a snob when it comes to food. And

John Shull 57:55

I mean, the hall. I like both. Why Why would I there's a place in time for $4 menu and you know, Highlife. But, you know at the other end, why wouldn't I want to have a nice, you know, blueberry parmesan crusted Gorgonzola in a nice chicken salad. You know what I mean?

Nick VinZant 58:19

Because this is America. Um, I do, I can kind of understand the sun a little bit because even though it may technically be white, most people would associate the sun with being yellow. And it looks yellow when you try not to look at it, but do see it does look yellow.

John Shull 58:36

I live in a part of the world where we get sun like for five months. So I fucking love it makes you feel good. It gives you just natural energy. I'm not I used to get really angry when the sun would wake me up right like you're laying in bed the sun comes through the window wakes you up, you know, then you're up. You can't go back to sleep. I love it. Now when you know I wake up and there's sunrise on my my face.

Nick VinZant 59:04

Some people may be like at home or wherever listening to this and wonder what we're talking about. But I live in Seattle. And when the sun comes out, man you do feel better. Yeah, like it's like Ah, son, like just being in it. You do feel better as a person. What's in your honorable mentioned? Do you have any honorable mentions for your yellow?

John Shull 59:23

Yeah, so I have bananas. Mustard,

Nick VinZant 59:27

because it reminds me like mustard is pretty good. Mustard,

John Shull 59:30

hot dog things like that. Hot dogs. Basically food from here on out. Butter, scrambled eggs.

Unknown Speaker 59:40

Corn. Yeah.

John Shull 59:43

I only put him on the list because I think he deserves a spot on the honorable mention. But Big Bird.

Nick VinZant 59:48

Yeah, I could see Big Bird. You know? And then I Okay,

John Shull 59:53

I have rubber duckies yellow rubber duckies on the list for some reason. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 59:58

I had smiley face on there. Okay, that's a good smiley faces. I could see that. Um, the only other things I had besides that which you mentioned sunflowers Fire, fire can be yellow.

John Shull 1:00:13

See, I thought fire was blue. But if you say it's yellow, that's fine.

Nick VinZant 1:00:17

Fire can be in many colors. Fire can be red, orange, blue, and even white in some cases. I don't know if the white part's true. I think it's kind of got I got carried away a little bit there but it can be like Blue. Orange, red and yellow that's pretty much it. I have gold but I don't actually have any gold like I've never been like, oh gold. I don't think Do you have any gold yellow? I

John Shull 1:00:43

don't think gold is yellow.

Nick VinZant 1:00:44

Well, it's gold. But I guess it's like a subset of yellow.

John Shull 1:00:49

No, I don't have any I don't like gold. I mean, I would like gold if I had gold. But I don't I don't have any gold. I don't have any gold either. If you want to send us some gold, send it to me not to nick.

Nick VinZant 1:01:02

I have silver from a aunt, like great, great aunt that has silver. And my mother used to always ask me like where's the silver and I never had the heart to tell her I have no idea. Somewhere on and that's where

John Shull 1:01:20

it is. Pond is long gone.

Nick VinZant 1:01:27

Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a rating or a review. Doesn't have to be some big paragraph can just be something quick. Like the show. John does have a fantastic swinging voice. Anything really helps us out and let us know what you think are some of the best yellow things. The sun is a little bit debatable to me. Because while it's not actually yellow, it is yellow. Like I get that it's white. But if I think and all of us think that it's yellow, doesn't that kind of make it yellow?


Bible Scholar and Translator Dr. Daniel McClellan

What does the Bible really say? Are the words we hear and read today the same as they were 2,000 years ago or have the been twisted by time and temptation. Bible Scholar Dr. Daniel McClellan specializes in translating ancient Biblical text. We talk what the Bible really says, how translations have changed over time and Bible conspiracy theories. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Movie Runners.

Dr. Daniel McClellan: 02:06

Pointless: 51:36

Top 5 Movie Runners: 01:09:33

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Interview with Bible Scholar Dr. Daniel McCellan

Nick VinZant 0:00

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, the Bible and movie running,

Dr. Daniel McClellan 0:09

we read it in ways that make it meaningful to us. And that frequently means departing from how the author's originally wanted it to be read far too frequently, negotiations with the text take place so that someone can use the Bible as a weapon or a wedge, or as a wall of separation, or to structure power in favor of their own identities. There are a lot of conspiracy theorists who suggest that the Nephilim are still around that giants still walk the earth and they're hiding out in caves in Afghanistan,

Nick VinZant 0:44

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest studies the Bible, translating ancient texts, to find out what the Bible really says, what it doesn't, and what that means for today. Religion isn't something that we usually talk about on this show. So I want to just say that the goal of this episode isn't to invalidate or validate anything that anybody believes about religion. It's just to take a look at a historically significant book, and find out how it came together, what it originally said, and how that meaning has changed over time. I think it's important when we're talking about something that may have deep personal significance to people to disclose any biases that I might have. I was raised Roman Catholic, but I'm no longer religious. And I don't honestly even really know what I believe. This is Bible scholar and Bible translator, Dr. Dan McClellan. Does the Bible say what we generally think it says, or have translations been lost throughout time,

Dr. Daniel McClellan 2:14

people's readings of the Bible have changed throughout time. And if we work hard, we can do our best to try to reconstruct the interpretive lenses that they would have brought to the text ancient light to try to say, we think this is most likely what this text originally meant. But because most people approach the Bible devotionally as an authoritative spiritual document, they want it to be relevant, they want it to be meaningful. And if everybody read the Bible, according to what it meant 2000 or 2500 years ago, it wouldn't be incredibly meaningful, because the world has changed so much. And so we read it in ways that make it meaningful to us. And that frequently means departing from how the author's originally wanted it to be read and to function and how the original audiences wanted it to be read and function. And so yes, it's, it's changed throughout time, that's an inevitability. And we do our best to try to figure out what it originally meant. But that usually doesn't serve the interests of people who are approaching it devotionally just because frequently, it complicates their understanding of the Bible's nature and function and makes it less meaningful, makes it less useful to them. And so a lot of people prefer whatever makes it more meaningful and more useful to them. Would we be

Nick VinZant 3:41

better served then I guess that if we just kind of forgot about the words and focused on the message.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 3:49

I think there's a there's a degree to which we do that already, unconsciously. People aren't usually are not knowingly saying we're gonna twist this around. We're gonna say what we want it to say. But I think we do that. But yeah, I think there would be value in at least consciously being aware that we're negotiating with the text. And I think if people if people believe that the text is inspired, if people believe that this is God's voice speaking through the text in one way or another, then hopefully they can recognize that its meaning is going to change. That's an inevitability. And that's not a bad thing. And so I would advocate for consciously negotiating with the text with a desire to try to approximate what one believes God's Will might be. And hopefully that means more unity with other people. That means advancing the interests of marginalized suppressed minoritized groups, far too frequently, negotiations with the text take place so that someone can use the Bible as a weapon or a wedge, or as a wall of separation or To structure power in favor of their own identities.

Nick VinZant 5:05

Is that has that always been the case, though? Or is that more of a recent thing?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 5:09

I think it has always been the case, we can look in the Bible, and we can see places where authors are saying what they're saying, in order to structure power in favor of their own ethnic identities, or ideological identities, or, you know, we have priestly texts that are trying to structure power in favor of priests over and against the common people. Then we have other texts where the prophets are saying, No, the kings and the priests are wrong, and we're going to restructure power in our favor and over against the kings in the pre so you have these two perspectives in the Bible, for instance, one that Israel shouldn't have a king, that God is Israel's King, and then you have the other perspective is that no, the king is good. The King is God's agent on Earth. And so yeah, it's going on even originally, in the very text themselves.

Nick VinZant 5:59

Okay, I'm a big numbers person, it's just kind of how like my brain works. If you were to say, all right, 100%. Is this is what was meant at the time, whatever the time is. We're 10% off from what that is now. 20%? Like, how close would you say that we are to? This was what, at the time, again, whatever the time is, what was originally conceived,

Dr. Daniel McClellan 6:30

I'd say on a good day, maybe we just get past halfway, just get past 50%. But I think it differs depending on what kind of texts we're looking at. Because there are a lot of historical narratives where the text is not incredibly difficult to understand, we can read these these historical narratives and say, Okay, so in so did X to so and so and then went from x place to y place. And that's not incredibly difficult to understand. But in terms of what the significance of this is why the authors were writing it the way they were, right, why the figures were doing what they were doing, I would say we're lucky, if half the time we understand precisely what they were getting at. And I mean, just the general audience, I think scholars get a little closer. But we can't approach being 100% positive about 100% of the text not even remotely

Nick VinZant 7:25

for the stuff that we kind of get wrong in that aspect. Is it big differences in the sense that like, Okay, well, they said one, and we interpreted as 10, or they said six, and we thought it was 6.5? Like, are we making big mistakes, or just kind of like s six, one half a dozen, the other kind of mistakes?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 7:48

I think there are examples of both. And I think it, there is more of an incentive to be further off and to be okay with being further off, the more useful a text is for a given purpose that that we want it to serve. And so a lot of the hot button issues, I think, people are frequently far more off on by orders of magnitude, for instance, things that have to do with the LGBTQ plus community, things that have to do with abortion, things that have to do with slavery, things that have to do with the subjugation of women, these are these are things where people want certain ideologies to be present. And so they're more willing to, to be far away. Subconsciously, they're not knowingly being far away. But that's where I think the utility of the text pushes us further away from what was originally intended. And so I think the more prominent a text is, in debates going on today, the more likely we are pretty far off from from when it probably originally meant,

Nick VinZant 8:55

can we tell going back if it was supposed to be something that was followed to the letter or if it was always kind of more of you get the idea? Kind of a book?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 9:07

Yeah, I think for the Hebrew Bible, it was largely a, you get the idea. And a lot of these texts were written to be circulated within closed circles, like within the authoritative groups, and they probably weren't widely known, like the Torah was probably not widely known and widely followed until around the second or the first century BCE, which is, so the whole Hebrew Bible has been written by this period. And texts were still not functioning the way they function today at that time period. The kind of locus of authority was not in the text, but in the idea, and the text was just one iteration of it. It was just one version of it that has been materialized. And it's kind of the opposite. today. We place the authority in the physical text itself. And the idea that's behind it does not carry the same weight because that is malleable that has manipulable, that is changeable, whereas the text is the text and it's not changing. So there has been a shift in where we placed the authority between around the New Testament and today. And I think the the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment kind of played a significant role in the way we look at the authority of text today and thinking about the letter of the text rather than the spirit. But yeah, I would say for most of the Bible, it was really the spirit more than the letter.

Nick VinZant 10:34

Do you think that that shift that all has contributed to or caused kind of a shift away from religion that we have seen over the last decades or so that we're now taking a literal, literal interpretation of something that in times can be clearly wrong?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 10:57

I think that has contributed to some things that have accelerated that. When we come out of the Enlightenment, we've got these, these competing forces, this idea of a revealed religion, versus this idea of, of rational religion. And the revealed religion, in many ways adopted a lot of the hermeneutics, a lot of the epistemological framework. So how we know what we know, in order to try to prove to rational religion that revealed religion was rational and made sense. And so when we get into the 19th century, and we have debates about slavery, we have debates about evolution, and these kinds of things. This is where the idea of inerrancy is kind of ginned up within this debate, it's kind of a line drawn in the sand, as a way to distinguish the people who are really on our side versus the people who are not. But the problem is that is a very sharp, brittle line. And so I think a lot of people who are used to that kind of black and white conceptualization of biblical religion, because it's so brittle, it breaks so easily. And so as people come to understand the Bible better, as we are democratizing information about what the Bible says and what it originally meant using the Internet and other social media, that is snapping for a lot more people.

Nick VinZant 12:26

Like, when we look back at it, though, what would you say is kind of the big issue in translating, like this is what makes this difficult.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 12:35

For the longest time we think of translation as just kind of taking this set inherent meaning and then just spitting out a one to one correspondence to it in another language. And that's just not how language works. And so, I think that's in translation, now we're becoming aware that, you know, we have positionality, we are looking at these texts from perspective, even when we're translating them. And that influences how we translate them. And so we can really do our best to try to approximate what the original authors intended. But there's a degree to which we're always it's always just going to be a rough approximation. And one of the things that I usually say, when people talk about, oh, what translation is the closest to the original, what translation is the best is that's going to have a lot to do with how close you are to the source culture, and the source history and the source of language, as well as what you want to do with it. Because people will engage Bible translations for different reasons. And if you just want to understand what's being said, we can translate it one way to try to facilitate that. But we're gonna have to make a decision about how informed you are, or how informed we think you are about the text. So a metaphor, I may have to translate into something that's more native to the target audiences own society. So for instance, there's this famous story about Lamb of God being translated for some Inuit communities, where they don't know what a lamb is, and they don't know they so they have no concept that would not be a translation to render Lamb of God because they have no idea what that is. So they render seal of God because people are used to having and raising seals and eating seals for meat and using their skin and things like that. So that's a rough approximation. It doesn't match exactly how that metaphor is used in the New Testament. But it's a lot better than giving them a more literal translation that they have absolutely no concept of. And so, you know, a lot of that depends on on what they're approaching the text for. Is that a missionary tool? Is it an administrative tool? Is it supposed to help pastors? Is it supposed to help parents teach their children is it supposed to help children understand the text so we can have high quality translation? shins aimed at all of those functions, and they can all be very different. But yeah, it depends on who's reading it and why.

Nick VinZant 15:08

I know this is kind of a basic question. But as we've been talking about it, I've realized that like, I don't really know what the Bible is, in the sense that like, wait a minute, was written, like, when did we get the Bible? Was it a bunch of different books like what languages originally like? I don't know, where it came from, in that sense of like, alright, this is wasn't when it was put together, this is the language what was in, and this is who wrote it?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 15:36

Yeah, it's, it's phenomenally complex. And we don't have something we can call the Bible until around the fourth century CE II. So like after Nicaea, is when we first bring things together into a single text. And so everything before that is separate documents, that they could be grouped together, and they could circulate as a group. But that grouping could be different from time to time and from place to place. And so for the Hebrew Bible that's being written between around 1000, maybe a little earlier than 1000 BCE, all the way down to about 165 BCE, is probably the earliest to the latest layers of the text in there. And some of it is very early poetry being written by community leaders, some of it is legal texts that are being written by cultic and state authorities. Some of it is prophetic material being written by prophets. A lot of it is narrative historical narrative that's being written again by cultic. And state authorities in order to try to produce kind of a foundation myth about where we came from, that helps them kind of curate their own nation of what notion of what the state is. And so that comes together in a complex way, people are adding to it people are putting text together, people are editing the text, some of those texts are dropping off, some of those new texts are being added later. And around by around the end of the first century. See, so around the time the New Testament is being composed. The Hebrew Bible, as we understand it, today, was more or less settled, we see the last debates taking place, within rabbinic literature around the first century CE talking about mainly Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs as the only possible texts where they're like, we're not sure about these yet. But by 100 CE, that's pretty much settled. The New Testament is the earliest texts we have are the writings of Paul, and not all of the Pauline epistles were written by Paul, some of them were written decades after his death, but the earliest texts are First Thessalonians, Romans, things like that. And we have the Gospels being written after that we have other texts being written after that we probably have texts with a New Testament being composed into maybe getting close to 150 C. So in the second century, we still have some texts being composed. And then there are other texts that are being composed by other writers in the second century, particularly Gnostic authors that are kind of presenting an alternative perspective on on the Christian gospel. And we start to see debates about which of these texts are authoritative, which are not in the second century and then to the third century. And around the fourth century is when we see that debate kind of settling down and deciding on what's going to be in and around the end of the fourth century that we finally have the first kind of authoritative declaration of what's going to be in the Bible that more or less matches what we have today. But there are some interesting exceptions. For instance, the Ethiopian Orthodox towaco church has a canon that is significantly expanded, there are a lot more texts in that Canon than there are in most of the Christian canons. And that's because a version of the the Christian scriptures was brought down to what we now call Ethiopia at the time, that kingdom of ox zoom. And it was a Greek translation of the Septuagint. That included things like first Enoch, a very influential, famous text that most folks don't include in their Bible anymore. But yeah, it's it's complex, a lot of different people writing for a lot of different reasons. And it came together in a separate and complex manner. The Hebrew Bible came together in one way the Christian scriptures came together and another and then when we first can speak about a single Bible that's hundreds of years after the death of Jesus in the late fourth century CE. Do we know

Nick VinZant 19:51

why certain things were included and why certain things were left out?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 19:56

The so the idea that there were specific questions and specific criteria that determined what were in or out are actually kind of post hoc rationalizations. The driving factor was which texts were in the most widespread use within Christian congregations around Christendom. And a lot of that had to do with these debates about well, is this does this is this consistent with this? Is this likely authentic? Or is this not authentic? So I mentioned first Enoch, that was something that early Christian authors were like, Hey, this is really influential. However, it seems very unlikely that this text survived from before the flood. And it contradicts itself internally. And then it also contradicts some of the stuff we've got going on in the Gospels and elsewhere. And so that kind of fell out of favor because it couldn't really hang in, in those debates, and communities just stopped using it. And so what happens in the third and the fourth centuries is you have Christian leaders going around, and basically polling all the congregations to try to figure out what texts are considered authoritative, and are allowed to be read in our meetings and are considered divinely inspired. And then when that kind of started firming up, that's when you had people saying, Okay, well, let's identify what is shared between all these texts, oh, they're all have apostolic origins, or at least are based on apostolic authority, or, Oh, they all affirm this doctrine or something like that most of that was a leader rationalization. And it was really what was most in most widespread use. That was the driving factor in the canonization, at least of the New Testament.

Nick VinZant 21:38

I guess the way that I always think about it right in my imagination fills in all of the gaps is, I just imagined, like, there's 10 guys in a room at the Council of Nicaea. And they're like, alright, copy this part, put it over here, like copy and paste, like that's a this way, let's let's leave that part out. Right. Like that's, that. But that doesn't sound like that's really how it happened, necessarily.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 22:03

That's a that's a popular idea about how it happened. And one of the reasons is, because that serves a lot of structuring of power today, if we can frame what went on with the canonization of the Bible as basically an executive meeting that we might imagine taking place within some corporation today, then that allows us to kind of it to some degree vilify what was going on and say, we can, you know, their decisions were obviously corrupt, but that it's not really an accurate depiction of what went on. It was mainly Christian communities using these texts, and people going around and saying, Okay, well, it seems like these are the texts that most everybody's using. And then the council's basically said, approved. And so apart from the leadership, condemning certain authors and certain texts as heretical, and that was mainly the Gnostic literature. But there were other other texts as well. Apart from from that kind of explicit condemnation of those tax, everything else was was just what was most popular.

Nick VinZant 23:12

I keep thinking about like the NBA All Star game, like who the fans like, well, this is who they are. All right, well, let's put those ones in.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 23:21

And, and there's always debate at the margins as well, somebody's like, well, they shouldn't have made it in when we left this guy out. And it was very similar. The book of Revelation, for instance, was just kind of there. And everybody was like, Yeah, we love all these guys. And then there's revelation. And then it wasn't until around the time of the Reformation that the Roman Catholic Church finally said, Okay, we're formally making revelation canonical.

Nick VinZant 23:47

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yeah, absolutely. What is Jesus's actual name?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 23:54

So here's another instance where we are the best we can do as a rough approximation. So the name in the Hebrew Bible, from which Jesus's name originates is Yahushua, which is Joshua. Now when we get into the Greco Roman period and into the Common Era, the period in which the New Testament is written, that name has kind of changed a little bit. And now it is this Aramaic name. That's was likely pronounced by a lot of people. Yeshua, or Yeshua. Now the interesting thing is there are dialectical differences between how these names are pronounced. For instance, my name is Daniel, that's how I pronounce it. But when I speak Spanish, it's not Daniel, is Danielle. And that's a that's a different way to pronounce my name and that has to do with language. But there are there are dialectical differences in how words were pronounced. anciently in the Shibboleth episode from the book of Judges is one example of that but people in Galilee pronounce ounces things differently and there is pretty good scholarship that indicates that they would not have pronounced the little a on the end. So whereas many people think it's Yeshua, Yeshua, they probably pronounced yay shoe. And so I think the best argument, the best closest approximation we can get right now is that somebody who grew up with Jesus, someone who lived in Nazareth probably would have referred to him as your shoe, or your shoe, or Yeshua, or something like that.

Nick VinZant 25:31

Was that a common name?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 25:34

It was a very common name. And we, it changes because as we go into different languages, we have to transliterate we use different ways of spelling things, so that people who are native in our language and not the language, the name is coming from know how to pronounce it. And so when it goes into Greek, it goes in as yay, Seuss. And that may represent the way it was pronounced in Galilee. But we also have that S on the end and then gets into Latin. It's EA Seuss. And then it was probably pronounced around the time that King James Version was translated probably something like yay, Seuss. And then the I pronunciation gave way to this J letter. And now we pronounced Jesus. And it is a transliteration of a transliteration of a transliteration of a transliteration. But it's still the same name, just like my name is the same whether someone can pronounce it the way I pronounce it, or was it whether they pronounce it as on yo, or some other way, because English is not their native language. Are there

Nick VinZant 26:41

any indications in any other kind of historical literature that mention him? Or is that too early for that time? You know, like, I can think of the example that I always think of is like, okay, back in the 1500s, or whatever, there was a huge volcanic eruption in India or wherever, somebody somewhere else may have also mentioned, like, hey, we saw these ash clouds in the sky. So is there any corroboration, I guess of, I'll use dramatic language, how big of a deal he was in any other kind of texts.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 27:19

There's nothing that's directly contemporaneous with his life. The closest we get to and outside at attestation of Jesus is probably Josephus, who is a Jewish writer wrote writing for a Roman audience at the very end of the first century CE, and he has two references to Jesus. And one of them has been significantly altered by later Christian writers where it's like praising Jesus as the Messiah, and as very clearly a corrupted text. But most scholars agree that it is probably expanding on an original reference to Jesus, who people called the Messiah. It doesn't really tell us much, except to say that he had a following, and the following is still around. So most of the corroborating data is going to come from 60 to 100 years after Jesus's life and really all at a test to is how quickly Christianity spread around the Roman Empire. How early Christians seem to have worshiped so we have this letter from a guy named plenty, who's writing home to Roman leadership saying, Hey, we found these Christians, I don't really know what to do with them, do I kill them? Do I just beat him a little bit and let him go? What's what kind of crime is Christianity? And we have the response, saying, you know, just smack him around a little bit, tell him that they're not allowed to, you know, they've got to worship the state gods and stuff like that, and then let them go. And if they do it again, then then you know, you've got to put them to death. But they plenty describes Christians gathering in the morning and singing hymns to Jesus as if to a god. So we can get a bit of a witness to how early Christianity was spreading and how it was functioning. But in terms of Jesus Himself, there's not really anything that's close to contemporary with his life.

Nick VinZant 29:17

Is that odd, though?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 29:20

Not really, this time and this place, we don't really have a ton of data. We don't have a ton of texts. The destruction of Jerusalem for one, around 70 ce between 60 and 70 ce destroyed a lot of a lot of records and people ran off and were in hiding for a long time. But we just don't have much to cover that period in that place. Anyway. There's a Jewish author named Philo and then Josephus are really our main sources of history for Judea in the first century. Philo is roughly contemporaneous with Jesus and Paul, and then Josephus is coming In decades after, but if we did not have those two authors, we would know next to nothing about the history of this period. So no, it's not incredibly unusual. People try to paint it as if, if this guy was real, we would know about it, we would have records we would have, you know, the Roman records of of crucifixion and stuff like that. And that's just not true.

Nick VinZant 30:21

Did he have any brothers or sisters? Was he married?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 30:24

regarding marriage, the text? Oddly, we would expect it to say something if he weren't married. And we also expect it to say something if he were married, based on the nature of the text, and it doesn't really say anything either way. And so yeah, we don't know for sure. I would say I personally, probably 55% to 45% think he probably would have been married. But at the same time, there are some parts of the gospels that seemed to prioritize celibacy. And and so maybe Jesus was like Paul, maybe Jesus was a celibate who swore off women and sexuality entirely? We don't know. And, yes, the indications are that Jesus had brothers and sisters, the texts indicate that and then Josephus refers to Jesus as the brother of this one, James, who was referred to in the New Testament. And so I think the preponderance of evidence indicates that Jesus did have brothers and sisters, you want to

Nick VinZant 31:29

do a fun one? Yeah. What's your favorite Bible conspiracy theory?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 31:37

My, I think the one that that baffles me the most, the one that I that just, I'm just amazed by it, is the idea that the Nephilim are giants that are that were discovered in Kandahar, in Afghanistan by US soldiers, and that are being hidden by the CIA. I think that's one that continues to amaze and astound me. That's a fun one. But yeah, there are. There are a lot of there are a lot of fun ones,

Nick VinZant 32:11

who are then the Nestle.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 32:14

So in, in Genesis six, we have this discussion of the Binay Elohim, the children of God who come down and marry the daughters of humanity and have children with them. And this is kind of set up as one of the reasons for the flood, why God is destroying humanity. But it says in that text, and there were Nephilim in the land in that day, and after, and Nephilim, that word only occurs one of the time in the book of Numbers, where the spies that Moses sent into the land, come back and say that their Nephilim and, and it is translated in the Septuagint. The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is giants. And so the Nephilim become giants. And then the Book of Enoch, it talks about the Nephilim is the offspring of the fallen angels and human women. And they're these grotesque giants who are basically the origin of evil in Greco Roman period Judaism, and so there's, there are a lot of conspiracy theorists who suggest that the Nephilim are still around that giants still walk the earth, and they're hiding out in caves in Afghanistan. And the US government is, is hiding knowledge of these giants. And we even had a couple of months ago, somebody in Canada took video driving down a road and they saw snow capped mountain top. And they saw what they thought was a giant at the top. And then they came back the next day. And they said they couldn't see it. And they said it was walking and it was really just a an antenna tower.

Nick VinZant 33:45

What does the Bible actually say about homosexuality?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 33:51

So homosexuality as a sexual orientation, is not addressed anywhere in the Bible, they had no concept of sexual orientation, as we understand it today. So the notion that someone would have this interior impulse in one of a few different directions across the spectrum, they had no understanding of that, that idea is something that developed in the 19th century. Now, they did know about same sex intercourse, but they accounted for it in different ways. So if if a man habitually wanted to have intercourse with other men, it was explained in different ways depending on whether they intended to be the active partner. Sometimes we refer euphemistically to the active partner as a way to refer to the insertive partner, the one doing the penetrating. And if someone habitually sought out the passive role, then that was explained in a different way as more of a pathological problem. So they had different ways to account for it, but in every place where it seems to be mentioned in the Bible, and that I'm mounts to about five places. Leviticus 1822, Leviticus 20, verse 13. And then we have Romans one verses 26 and 27. We have first Corinthians six. And we have a passage in First Timothy. It is condemned, but they're condemning specific acts. And they are limited acts, nobody is saying anytime anything like this happens, this is all bad. It's saying these guys over here, and these guys over here, and they're doing it for different reasons. In Leviticus, the idea is that these acts will pollute the land that this, like metaphysically generates contamination that will pollute the land, and so that must be accounted for. And when we look at the broader ancient southwest Asian worldview back then we can explain why they thought the way they did. And it largely had to do with social hierarchies of domination and penetration. Sex was primarily an act that a man did to a woman who was not considered an active autonomous partner in this mutual act, but was just considered the object of the man's sexual activity. And one of the one of the things that I point out as a way to illustrate that, particularly in Leviticus is that in Leviticus 18, and 20, you have a bunch of rules about appropriate and inappropriate sex. And every last rule is about who a man is allowed to have sex with. There's only one once in Leviticus 18, once in Leviticus 20, where it prohibits a woman from engaging in sexual activity with a specific partner. And that's with an animal, because an animal is the only not even person is the only entity on that hierarchy of domination, that the woman would be higher than. And so for everything, it's referring to what men are allowed to do, and the only time it refers to what women are allowed to do or not allowed to do. The partner has an animal. So this is about power. This is about domination. And it is associating the act of penetration with the power and the act of being penetrated with being subordinate, which was why men, for instance, at that time, were not supposed to be on the bottom. That was considered emasculating that was taking a passive or a submissive role. And so even if a man was having intercourse with his own wife, and everything else was totally copacetic, if he was on the bottom, that was a no, no. And we have ancient Mesopotamian Tet texts that say, you know, he'll be robbed of his masculine vitality for a month. And then we have a Talmudic text that says that, for a man to be on the bottom, we'll give him diarrhea. And so this, their sexual ethic was based on these concepts of domination and power asymmetries and things like that. So this is why same sex intercourse was considered problematic. And then we get into Paul. And Paul didn't like sex. Really, at all. Paul was a celibate he wanted everybody to be celebrated, recognizing that not everybody could hack it. And so he said, Look, you can get married if you need to, as long as you are only having enough sex to make you not want to have sex, and it was supposed to be passionless, he said that a man must possess his vessel. And that means possess his wife in honor and holiness, not with the desire of passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. In other words, this was something that you did only so that you would not have a desire to do it more. So So Paul's sexual ethic was pretty bizarre to begin with. And it's not a surprise that he did not approve of same sex intercourse. But when we talk about negotiating with the text, which is something that everybody must do, I don't think that there's a great argument that we should hold on to that prohibition, while abandoning all the other aspects of the sexual ethics. Pretty much everybody who appeals to Romans one or two, First Corinthians six or those other texts to try to vilify or demonize same sex intercourse, is already rejecting other aspects of Paul's sexuality just because they don't care about it. But they care about this one. And so I think the only reason that people still use the Bible as a weapon against the LGBTQ plus community, is because they find some kind of value in doing so. As not because they're required by the Bible to because they're already rejecting other aspects of the Bible. So

Nick VinZant 39:52

was there was there a reason that they would have been against sex? Right, like maybe they fought it caused earthquakes or whatever, right? Was there some kind of reason that would have made sense at the time that they had these attitudes? Or was it just like, man, that's just there was just this guy he even like?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 40:16

I think the the idea is borrowed from a broader Greco Roman, philosophical ideas about sexual desire, and any kind of powerful sense of desire being something that could be corrosive. If it gets out of control, it can cause problems, because everybody recognized that, that there were ways that sex could be a problem. And so sexual desire was something that the philosopher suggested you had to keep under wraps. And depending on the philosophy, like Pythagoreans, thought it was, you know, everybody should be celibate. To some degree, the stoics felt the same way, but not as strictly and then platypus were a little different. But the idea was basically that sexual desire is something that we have to overcome, in order to overcome, you know, the vicissitudes of the flesh, the corruption of our corporeal world, so that we could transcend it spiritually and return to be with God. And so one of the things that developed from this idea was the ideal of celibacy. And that is a what's called a credibility enhancing display. It's a piece of costly signaling, it's a way to say, I care so much about our group's ideals, that I am going to incur this social cost, and in this case, abstaining from sex in order to put on display in order to signal to others how faithful I am to the group. And I think that's the world that Paul is in now, some people have mentioned that Paul may have been asexual himself, he may have not been he may have not been gender conforming, or something like that. And that's certainly perfectly plausible as well, but we won't really know for sure. But certainly celibacy had currency within certain groups as something that showed you are more committed to the group, the ideals and the philosophy.

Nick VinZant 42:17

Is there a Bible verse or a passage or a book or whatever that even among academics like what would you say is the most controversial aspect of the Bible? Aside from the controversial political hot button, stuff like that, that academics would be talking about?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 42:37

So there are a handful, and it depends on what field you're talking about, because there are a lot of different disciplines associated with the study of the Bible. So one that I think is interesting that I've talked about quite a few times on on my own channel is the idea of child sacrifice. In ancient Israel and the idea of Moloch as some kind of pagan deity to which people sacrifice their children. The debate is not as heated now as it was 1020 years ago, I think it's starting to settle down. But the position used to be that child sacrifice was only something that apostate Israelites did. But there's this passage, Exodus 2228, in the Hebrews, verse 29, in the English, but it seems to be God themselves, commanding Israel sacrifice their firstborn children. And a lot of people don't didn't like that interpretation. And now I would, I would say that the, the tide has kind of turned and most scholars now acknowledged or would acknowledge that yeah, this was probably a very early command of child sacrifice that was later renegotiated even anciently. And associated with that is this idea that people were offering children to Molek, some kind of pagan deity. And the tide has turned there as well toward understanding this word Molek, not to refer to a deity but just as a it's a noun that just refers to a specific type of sacrifice. And so rather than offering children to Molek, it is they're offering their children as a Moloch sacrifice. And one of the reasons that that's uncomfortable for a lot of folks is because the implication there is that the sacrifice is being offered to the God of Israel. So that's something that has been a big debate among Hebrew Bible, scholars of ancient Israelite religion that I think is starting to settle down now. And I think we're getting to the point where it's a consensus, although there will be people out there who would disagree with me. And then in the in the Christian scriptures, Paul was always a big deal. There was this idea about there's a new approach to Paul, where rather than seeing Paul as this Christian who is breaking from his earlier tradition, people wanted to understand, Paul within Judaism, how is Paul's Judaism informing Paul's? Presentation of Jesus and Jesus as gospel. But that was kind of appropriated for kind of a Protestant approach to understanding Paul and even had some anti semitic problems with it as well. So the new approach to Paul has been itself kind of controversial among scholars of the New Testament. But there are other ideas as well. One, there's one thing I'm working on a book right now on early Christology on how Jesus was understood to relate to the God of Israel, whether Jesus was understood to be God, during the composition of the New Testament, or if that was a later understanding that develop there are a lot of more conservative Christian authors who argue that Jesus was understood to be in some sense, God from the very beginning, and then there I am on the side of other scholars who would argue that the idea is something that developed in the second, third and fourth centuries. So Bart Ehrman wrote a book on this, for instance, called how Jesus became God. And then a handful of evangelical scholars got together and wrote a response called how God became Jesus. So that's, that's another debate that is kind of more in my wheelhouse that I'm actually participating in right now. And, and I've got a bunch of videos on that on my channel as well. And every time I post a video on that, I get a bunch of people upset with me. Yeah, I'm used to that.

Nick VinZant 46:24

Yeah, I would imagine this is gonna be a controversial field, people, people tend to take religion quite seriously. Yeah, what TV show or movie drives you nuts.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 46:39

I joke about the prince of Egypt. Because my, that was a movie that my, my wife really enjoys. And I enjoy the music and the prince of Egypt. But it was kind of a running joke for a long time that every time we watched the prince of Egypt, I was like, Ah, no, they got the, the wrong the wrong side of the river, and you know, all that kind of silly stuff. I think there's people are starting to do a better job of understanding the ancient world. The Davinci Code was awful. And that has, that has caused a lot of misunderstandings about a lot of things. So that's one that drives me nuts. But like moon night, did you watch moon night did? Yeah. So one of the funniest things about being in a academic community made up of a bunch of people who, you know, their Egyptologists and other things like that, in my social circles was the next day seeing them on Twitter saying, Here's what the hieroglyphs or the demotic text, or that inscription that they showed on moon night, last night, actually says, and there, and it's clear that they're actually starting to incorporate consultants who know what they're talking about as they design these things. So it's been fun to see. A lot of the, these creators of movies and television shows get better and better informed about the ancient world.

Nick VinZant 48:03

Oscar Isaac, Oh, fantastic job in that.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 48:06

Yeah, he's an incredible actor, I would say there is one Netflix special that just came out. And for the life of me, I can't remember what it's called. But I do remember hearing about it. And I know it's from someone who is not a reputable scholar, but it got a lot of attention.

Nick VinZant 48:21

I think I know which one you're talking about. Just save this one for last, this is the biggest question. What are the what are the chances we got this all wrong?

Dr. Daniel McClellan 48:33

Um, hi, I think there if we, if time travel became a reality, and we were able to go back into this into the world of the composition of the Hebrew Bible of the world, and the composition of the New Testament, and we were able to learn the language and communicate, I think we would be shocked at how different everything is from what we expect it to be. And I think if we brought people from the past to today, they would be shocked at what everything became. And and I think there was probably a lot more disagreement anciently that regarding you know how this is all supposed to work? I think many of the authors of the New Testament vehemently disagreed with each other. Fact, we talked about the Epistle of James, I think the Epistle of James is telling Paul, he's wrong, and is directly saying no, Paul, you're wrong. It is not faith, faith without works. It is, you know, it is by works that, that our faith is made whole. So I think there's a lot of disagreement, and I think it is would be very different from how it is today and how even scholars have reconstructed it. I wish that that would be a possibility at some point but but but yeah, that's always going to be a dream.

Nick VinZant 49:54

That's pretty much all the questions we got what's kind of coming up next for you. How can people find out more connect with you? that kind of stuff.

Dr. Daniel McClellan 50:01

Yeah, so I go by McLellan on all my social media channels. So that's a phonetic spelling of my last name that I used when I was living in South America. Because Spanish speakers aren't fond of last names that begin with four consonants in a row. So I spell it Ma k L, E, L, A N. So on YouTube, on Twitter, on Instagram on on tick tock. I'm going to be recording the first episode of a new podcast that I'm starting today. So I am hoping to see that launch the first week of March, it'll be called the data over dogma podcast. And we are hoping to have at least three or four episodes come out in March and and we'll be rolling, we'll be off to the races. So I'm very excited about that.

Nick VinZant 50:48

Cool, man. Congratulations. Yeah. I want to thank Dr. McClellan so much for joining us, if you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick, tock, Instagram, and YouTube. And we have also included his information. In the episode description, he does a great job on some of his content, about breaking down biblical passages. And also, it can be really entertaining when he takes a look at some of the conspiracy theories that are out there. So if you want to hear more from him, like he mentioned, he's just launched a new podcast, and any of his social media channels are worth checking out if you're interested. Okay, now, let's bring in John Shaw, and get to the point was part of the show. Could you hold up what you consider to be your first finger? Yes, there. Okay. So for the record, you have held up your index finger Correct? Where you said my first finger, right? Yeah, but that's your index finger. Right? It should be because the thumb technically isn't counted as a finger. So and then how many fingers? Would you say that you have?

John Shull 52:03

So that's where it gets a little tricky. Because I'm pretty sure I would say five fingers. But you asked me to hold up my first finger. Right? I still think it's my first finger. But I definitely think I have five fingers. If that makes sense.

Nick VinZant 52:19

That's what I mean, right? Like you're holding up your index finger as your first finger, but it's not your first fifth, and you wouldn't have to only if you consider that to be your first finger, then you only have eight fingers. You don't have 10 fingers.

John Shull 52:33

So what if I held up my pinky first,

Nick VinZant 52:37

that throws the whole thing off, I just had to count on the fact that you wouldn't, no one considers the pinky to be their first finger. You would hold up either the thumb if you consider the thumb to be a finger or your index finger.

John Shull 52:52

What if you held up your middle finger as then you're really throwing the game off,

Nick VinZant 52:56

then you're just kind of then you're kind of like, Alright, then my response would be like, okay, but hold up what you really think is your first finger. I'm actually proud of you that you didn't hold up your middle finger. I generally don't. That's one of my pet peeves is people who flip off the camera in pictures.

John Shull 53:14

I mean, listen, I was an annoying picture taker for a long time, I would not take a picture without opening my mouth or you know, or sticking on my tongue. It just, it just ruins it. i Yeah, so I agree with you. I'm not a big fan of people who now like as I get older, but not a big fan of people who purposefully ruin photos.

Nick VinZant 53:32

Mm hmm. Yeah. But I am also a photo ruin, or I don't usually like to have my picture taken.

John Shull 53:39

You are an enigma. I'm not sure we have any photos together outside of wedding photos.

Nick VinZant 53:44

How many pictures of yourself? Do you have? I would I would make a strong argument that unless it revolves around somebody's job in a certain way. I wouldn't make an argument that most men have maybe five pictures of themselves. Not not with other people. Just a picture of them.

John Shull 54:08

I think it's less than that. I don't have any photos just of me like that are printed out. You're ready to go. I've zero I mean, why? Why? What I?

Nick VinZant 54:18

Yeah, I don't have any. I have a headshot photo that everybody gets right. Like when you start a new job. But other than that, I don't have a single picture of just myself.

John Shull 54:30

actually thinking of it. I'm pretty sure that I have more photos of other men than I do of myself.

Nick VinZant 54:39

Oh, yeah. I have way more pictures of other men than I do in myself.

John Shull 54:43

How if you take my baseball card collection alone, I have 1000s of photos of other men and I have zero have me. Do you have

Nick VinZant 54:49

1000s of baseball cards? You're going to trade that in one day for $6

John Shull 54:54

i I wish I could. What's the what's the phrase I'm going For I wish I could

Nick VinZant 55:01

get all that money back.

John Shull 55:03

Yeah, yeah, it is it is kind of a scam. I'm not gonna lie to you. Yeah, that's

Nick VinZant 55:07

a pretty big waste of money. Um, can we go back to the fingers thing. So you consider you believe that you have 10 fingers, even though you consider your first even though you don't count the thumb to be your finger.

John Shull 55:19

Yeah, but that doesn't make any sense when you say it like that because and I make no sense in saying that. So really, it's all me but I look at the thumb as a finger. But I know there's going to be educated people out there who are listening to this who are going to say you only have eight fingers and two thumbs,

Nick VinZant 55:37

the thumb is the first finger on your hand. That's what I'm gonna go ahead and write that on my tombstone I want I'm going to make a shirt that says the thumb is the first finger on your hand. If anybody would actually buy a shirt that says the thumb is the first finger on your hand, we'd make them. But I don't feel that way about toes. I think all my tests are the same. I don't look at the big toe as being any special.

John Shull 56:03

I have for a man, I've been told I have very nice feet. But I think it's because literally all of my toe like obviously I have a big toe and a little toe. But the three metal toes are literally the same. They look the same. They're the same length.

Nick VinZant 56:19

Who told you that you had nice feet?

John Shull 56:24

I mean, I've been told in multiple times by different women, some who were with me and some who were not that I have nice, nice toes and feet, then I think about like, does the rest of me look that bad that they have to look at my feet.

Nick VinZant 56:40

Hmm, yeah, they're going they're really sizing you up. So either they're completely sizing you up, like, Oh, I better check all of him out. Or they're like looking for the one ray of sunshine or otherwise dark day.

John Shull 56:54

Yeah, I think that they're trying to part the seas and try to get to the dock to go all the way to the foot. They're starting at the top and if they get that far down, that's the only compliment. That's Oof.

Nick VinZant 57:10

Have you ever been told by a man that you have nice feet?

John Shull 57:14

No, if ever I get an honest compliment from a man, it's usually about my hair. Or my eyebrows or something? Usually something to do with like, how much hair I have on my head.

Nick VinZant 57:27

Hmm. I have been complimented by other men about my calves and my eyes. Like oh, you do have nice eyes.

John Shull 57:38

You do you do have those European like Icelandic guys, that's for sure. Like a blue Gatorade bottle just echoing in the soft tail of an ocean just fly by

Nick VinZant 57:49

I appreciate the fact that you refer to Gatorade. I didn't I thought that you wouldn't do that, that you would refer to it by its actual name and not by the color, which is the accepted way to really refer to any kind of flavored drink.

John Shull 58:02

Well you refer to as though I think my name I think the name of these drinks are idiotic, but yes, I will call it blue Gatorade because that's what it is if it's Gatorade, so if you call it Gatorade is Gatorade is lemon lime, right lemon lime flavor, because that's the original data.

Nick VinZant 58:19

I know it's yellow flavors. Right, exactly. Looking at the color like a normal person. Yeah, I'm

John Shull 58:28

with you, man. Give me blue Cool raspberry all day.

Nick VinZant 58:32

See, but even there. Um, just give me the blue one.

John Shull 58:35

Give me the red one white glacier.

Nick VinZant 58:37

I do have actually I would say that the white cherry. I know it's called whites here because my wife likes and she's like, Oh get white cherry and I'm like what? What the hell is that? Is that the red one or the white one? She's like No, what's the white ones for now? I know that that's called White cherry.

John Shull 58:50

Yeah, why would the red one be called White cherry? Well,

Nick VinZant 58:53

it's got a cherry in it.

John Shull 58:55

You have a why would it be the red ones fruit punch

Nick VinZant 58:58

you ever seen a white peach? It's still peach colored?

John Shull 59:01

You think I've seen a white peach?

Nick VinZant 59:05

No think done look No. Like a man who spends a lot of time in the produce section of the grocery store.

John Shull 59:11

Unless vegetables and some fruit but even meet

Nick VinZant 59:15

me. I've actually started eating vegetables. It's not that bad.

John Shull 59:19

I went to a bocce this past weekend. I forgot how much I appreciate and love hibachi it's fantastic.

Nick VinZant 59:26

I don't actually know what it is. Is how Bochy, just the thing with the guys with all the knives and he's throwing stuff at you.

John Shull 59:34

It's not throwing it at you. It's basically they have a hot top and they cook you know they cook your food in front of you and they put on a little show. You know, we took our my daughters who had never been and they loved it and it was it was just a really good time.

Nick VinZant 59:48

Wait a minute, how expensive is hamachi cool.

John Shull 59:51

I don't want to I don't want to get into but I can tell you is over three digits.

Nick VinZant 59:57

I'm not taking my children anywhere where Are they can't eat for less than $6

John Shull 1:00:04

There's nowhere I can let you go fast food where they can eat for under $6 Yeah, that's

Nick VinZant 1:00:09

the only place I'm taking my children to go eat. I'm not taking them to fine dining over there moneybags.

John Shull 1:00:15

I mean, listen, you gotta you gotta you know, you play. You work hard and you play hard with your four year old and two year old at hibachi.

Nick VinZant 1:00:23

Right? I would imagine that. That sounds that sounds awful. Okay, my

John Shull 1:00:26

goddamn life is gone.

Nick VinZant 1:00:29

It's a sad ending for a man with such great toes.

John Shull 1:00:33

I do have pretty fantastic toes. All right, let's give some shout outs here. All right, Teresa white, Jennifer Finley, Brad Simpson. Ahmed bouquet, Thomas Frazier. Dylan Weaver. Chance brand. Chances are interesting name. I like that one.

Nick VinZant 1:00:55

It's good. It's rare, but it has to be rare. Can't have a lot of them can only have two chances.

John Shull 1:01:01

Michael Atkinson, Ben Bolton, and Jacob Walters. Y'all get the shout outs for the Okay. All right. What would you rather travel around in a yacht? A fancy bus. Or a fancy airplane?

Nick VinZant 1:01:25

Well, fancy airplane. Because I could go the most places. I understand the appeal of being on a fancy boat. Like that would be pretty nice. But ultimately, it takes kind of a while to get around. I'd rather much rather just travel around in a fancy airplane. Mostly simply because of the efficiency of the means of transportation.

John Shull 1:01:44

What would be worst, worse off to you falling out of an airplane? Drowning on a cruise ship? Or falling off a cruise ship rather than drowning? I should say. Or being in a, you know, in a bus accident. Just being a passenger in a gigantic bus accident.

Nick VinZant 1:02:01

Well, I mean, am I gonna die? Because in the first two circumstances, it sounds like I'm pretty much gonna die.

John Shull 1:02:06

Oh, yeah, you're dead? There's no way getting out of this one. Whoa,

Nick VinZant 1:02:11

where am I at on the bus? Am I gonna linger for a little bit? Or is it instant dead? Yeah.

John Shull 1:02:15

Yeah, you're gonna linger in all of them. Like you're gonna know what's happening.

Nick VinZant 1:02:22

There's no possibility of me being saved.

John Shull 1:02:25

No, not not in this scenario, because I don't want that to happen.

Nick VinZant 1:02:29

Huh? That's kind of tough man. Is my family with me? My mom, whoa, I

John Shull 1:02:36

don't want to be morbid. No, you're alone. So I'd say I'll be next to you. It's me and you going out together?

Nick VinZant 1:02:43

Oh, well, then falling out of an airplane.

John Shull 1:02:46

Why it was so easy to make that decision of I don't

Nick VinZant 1:02:49

know, it seems like if you're gonna die, and you know, you're going to die at least like, Hey, see some sights? On the way down? At least get a good view. Right? You could at least would? Here's the question. If you were falling to death out of an airplane, if you fell out of an airplane, would you look at the ground or look at the sky?

John Shull 1:03:08

Well, I don't think you're gonna really know, right? Because now making light of people who have perished in plane crashes, I'm pretty sure that you pass out before you get close enough to the ground before impact. So you're gonna pass out? At some point, I would think now if you're unfortunate and stay awake, I'd probably rather be looking at the ground. Because I mean, I wouldn't want to see my death. Like, I just would want it to come. You know what I mean? If that makes any sense.

Nick VinZant 1:03:37

So if you were looking at the ground, though, you would see it coming. I would want to be looking up at the sky and just being like, oh, and then boom, you wouldn't even know it. Me. And you could just be thinking about like, oh,

John Shull 1:03:51

no, I would you know, knowing it's gonna happen. I would just close my eyes and just wait, wait for the impact. I mean, there's nothing else to do. Like there's no, that has to be the worst one of the worst feelings you can ever possibly Oh, obviously you're gonna die. That's gonna be one of the worst feelings imaginable. It's just knowing there's no way out. Like is gonna happen.

Nick VinZant 1:04:10

I am Ryan. Ironically, I was reading a book. No, you weren't? No, I was I actually was reading a book. I don't remember the name of the body or something a guide for occupants. And the author was talking about there's actually been a surprising number of people who have fallen out of airplanes and lived. Like, like, okay, like more than say that? Well, I mean, he didn't provide statistics about it. But it has happened several times throughout the past. I would honestly make an argument that if you fell off of falling out of an airplane that if you were to compare falling out of an airplane and falling off of a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. I bet you have better odds of surviving falling out of the airplane.

John Shull 1:04:57

I mean, woof wha I mean, I see of 0% Either way, but I guess, yeah, we give them a nudge to falling out of an airplane because you fall overboard and a cruise ship. I mean, yeah, I think less, they get you within 10 minutes. The ships gone. Your, your undercurrent plus, most of those chips are 10. You know, 12 stories up. If you follow that high into the water, you're probably going to break your back or your neck or whatever, or Oh, yeah, I

Nick VinZant 1:05:29

think you're done. I think you're done before you hit the water.

John Shull 1:05:32

So the choice is this week to talk about. Apparently you're going to be able to buy Narcan over the counter. That sounds like a great idea. Tom Sizemore Narcan, Naloxone, it's what they give the police and fire and EMTs give drug overdoses to bring them back.

Nick VinZant 1:05:53

Yeah, it's I mean, drug overdoses are a huge problem. I think the United States crossed like 110,000 in the last couple of months in the last year to be prompt probably sounds like a good idea to be giving people Narcan to be honest with you.

John Shull 1:06:05

Yeah, I mean, it's it's pretty powerful. But let's you know, whatever. I'm sure it'll be regulated. Tom Sizemore dying.

Nick VinZant 1:06:12

Who knows to Tom Sizemore? Jesus Have

John Shull 1:06:16

you ever seen Saving Private Ryan?

Nick VinZant 1:06:19

Yeah.

John Shull 1:06:21

So he was like Tom Hanks is like best friend or best you know, army buddy. Yeah, just terrible. Also a Detroit native. So

Nick VinZant 1:06:30

there we go. Is everybody from Detroit is more important than anybody else.

John Shull 1:06:35

last choice that did not win was creed three. Which, you know, apparently it's been getting good reviews and check it out. I guess I haven't seen it. I still haven't seen cocaine bear which I want to see. So.

Nick VinZant 1:06:48

Cocaine bear sounds amazing. I haven't seen any of the Rocky movies past rocky four. Right? If you see the height of civilization, you don't need to see the decline.

John Shull 1:06:57

I mean, listen, I think it's great what they did with the franchise. I mean, if they wanted to keep it going, this was the suitable way. And that brings it full circle because I tried doing the rocky Sun thing didn't work out at all. So why not give Apollo Creed the son of chance? And Michael B. Jordan, just amazing in general. So

Nick VinZant 1:07:16

the other dude in there who I think is also Kang is massive, like, Whoa, man. He's been lifted, and probably do some other stuff. But yeah, okay, so what actually one?

John Shull 1:07:29

So apparently, you can now live on a cruise ship for 30 grand a year.

Nick VinZant 1:07:39

Food included?

John Shull 1:07:41

Yeah, everything. Essentially, it's, it's a three year voyage. It's 101 130,000 miles that you travel cumulatively, for $30,000 per person. per year, you do not have to obviously, what's the word I'm looking for? Dedicate or say you're going to go for all three years. But if you want to go for one year, it's 30,000. And you visit 135 countries, 375 ports. And you go all around the world naturally. And yeah, everything's, everything's included just a regular cruise ship ticket, except it's for an entire year and you visit. Literally more than half of the world's countries

Nick VinZant 1:08:32

actually sounds fairly cheap for that. I would think that would be more expensive. I mean, $30,000 a year for food and lodging.

John Shull 1:08:42

Yeah, so it's the M V. Gemini. It's the Life at Sea cruises is the I guess the company that is responsible for the ship. Lesson I would do it. If I had 30 grand to spend. I would do it. I love cruising.

Nick VinZant 1:08:58

I had a bad experience. I didn't enjoy it. There's two kinds of cruising, there's cruising to go see places like you're taking a cruise to Alaska. You're taking a cruise around Europe. And then there's like getting on a Carnival Cruise and going to like the Bahamas and just basically, essentially it's the part. There's like, traveling, cruising. And then there's like, Hey, this is a party on a boat cruising. And I was not too big of a fan of the party on the boat cruising.

John Shull 1:09:23

Okay. I mean, I loved it all. I've been on multiple multiple cruises at least six and I love every second of it.

Nick VinZant 1:09:31

Wow. Are you ready?

John Shull 1:09:33

Are you ready for a tough? Yeah, I'm, I'm actually kind of I did some research on this. And not surprisingly, it wasn't difficult. So let's let's get to it.

Nick VinZant 1:09:42

So because we had kind of a fairly serious guest. We decided to come up with something a little bit ridiculous for our top five. So it's top five running actors.

John Shull 1:09:53

Alright, so I think I'm low balling this performance, but um, I want to put my number five as Robert We're Patrick as T two from the Terminator two.

Nick VinZant 1:10:03

Are you serious?

John Shull 1:10:05

I know, right? I know I. But I'm telling you, and maybe you have these but it's, it's a loaded top five in terms of runners. I mean, there was lots of actors that have had lots of good roles running and I didn't want to put him at five. But I'm confident in my other four.

Nick VinZant 1:10:25

Okay, I think that's a ridiculous place to place him. I have a much higher on the list. My number five is Johnny Depp. Really only for Jack Sparrow? Not a good runner. Obviously not a good runner, but it is a memorable run. The most the most memorable movie run since Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura pet detective as an unorthodox running says style.

John Shull 1:10:53

I will say I will agree with you that he that is known. He's actually all my honorable mention. But I I think there are other scenes and other runners that maybe don't get the acclaim that he got, but they are much. They're just much better scenes and runners. I think so. It's insane that unless you have something else to say,

Nick VinZant 1:11:16

Who do you think though is the better goofy runner? Johnny Depp or Jim Carrey?

John Shull 1:11:23

I mean, I don't really recall. Jim Carrey being like a wacky runner. You know, I but I recall Johnny Depp. So I'm gonna say Johnny Depp.

Nick VinZant 1:11:33

I think that really the Johnny Depp is the more recent one. But if you think back to the ACE venture or running, you can like oh, he was the original. He may have been the better weird runner. Anyway, what's your what's your number for?

John Shull 1:11:48

Harrison Ford from Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Nick VinZant 1:11:52

Oh, yeah. Okay.

John Shull 1:11:55

I mean, how can you forget that scene and he looks, he just looks. I mean, he was awesome as Indiana Jones. I mean, if you haven't seen those movies, specifically Raiders of the Lost Ark, which you should because they are amazing. They're fantastic. Okay,

Nick VinZant 1:12:09

I did not have Harrison Ford on any of those lists, but I can now that you think of it, I can make picture him running quite well. Um, my number four is all from one movie franchise. I think there's a lot of good candidates for it. But ultimately, my number four is Carl Weathers.

John Shull 1:12:26

Okay. Think of obviously I know, I know the one.

Nick VinZant 1:12:30

Right, but he he was an effortless runner. He had to try to like you could clearly tell that he was a much better rock runner than Rocky. The other one I could put from that franchise is Dolph Lundgren. Remember in Rocky four where he's running around the track, he's like, Oh, he's running. He looked like they both looked like Stallone looked like a guy trying to run. Carl Weathers and Dolph Lundgren look like athletes.

John Shull 1:12:59

Okay, well, I'll get to the Rocky series. I have it a little higher up on my list. So okay,

Nick VinZant 1:13:05

if you're going to put rocky up there, I'm going to have to shoot it down because Carl Weathers was clearly the better runner.

John Shull 1:13:11

All right. All right. Well, you're gonna hit you're not going to like this number three then for me, okay. Okay. Okay. My number three is Tom Hanks from Forrest Gump.

Nick VinZant 1:13:20

Okay. It's a good it's a very memorable scene. I didn't have it on my list, but I thought about it really hard.

John Shull 1:13:30

I, I think whether or not he looks like a good runner. He plays it well. And it's I mean, that's a large part of the movie and he doesn't he doesn't really well, I think he you know, I think Tom Hanks has said that he hates running. But he lost all the weight. He got into running and he looked he looked natural. I

Nick VinZant 1:13:49

think. Now which running scene though? Do you remember the most? Do you remember the one with him as a kid? The one with him as a football player? With the one with him running in the war? The one with him running across country?

John Shull 1:14:04

Yeah, so it's the one that I like if you were to ask me like you just did to pick out one scene. It would for sure be the word. He's running cross country. And it's raining and the person gives them the t shirt is muddy. And he I eat maybe a car splashes mud on him. I don't remember the finer details. His face off. And it's the smiley face Have a nice day slogan.

Nick VinZant 1:14:28

The one that stands out to me the most is where he finishes running. And he's like, I'm gonna go home now. But only because I lived in Arizona and people would always take pictures of that spot. So you always see it come across like your feet of people taking pictures in that spot. My number three is Tom Cruise.

John Shull 1:14:48

I didn't put him on my list. And I know I should have I didn't for the for the fact that he I don't think he looks like a cool runner. I I think kind of what you had said earlier about somebody like, looking like they don't run well. He just, he doesn't look like he runs. I mean, I would say this and this is also my honorable mention, but what's his face? From the Bourne Ultimatum? Matthew? meant Damon Damon, Matt Damon? Like, yeah, they are great action actors. And those scenes are fantastic, but they just don't look natural to me.

Nick VinZant 1:15:28

No, no one runs like that. Like, no one actually runs like that. There is a level of intensity or trying too hard that no one who's a good runner actually looks like that. Like, have you ever watched like an Olympic sprinter? Like, they don't look like they're really trying to run that hard. Good runners don't look like they're trying

John Shull 1:15:47

fucking insane. Usain Bolt that, you know, turns around during the 100 meter dash at the guy coming in second in the Olympic final. I mean, what are you doing?

Nick VinZant 1:15:56

Right? You got it? You got it. Okay. Are you Is it your number two are my number two.

John Shull 1:16:02

So I believe it's my number two. And I think I know this isn't going to make any sense. But I'm gonna stand by it. My number two is going to be Brad Pitt from Troy. Specifically, the fighting scene with him and Eric bhana, where they're running around each other, and doing all these cool jumps and runs. And I mean, come on, doesn't get any cooler than Brad Pitt. And he looked so natural doing doing it.

Nick VinZant 1:16:30

I don't remember it at all. And I've seen that movie, which to me automatically should signify that it shouldn't be on the list.

John Shull 1:16:37

Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't necessarily say it's a running scene. It's more of an athletic scene. But he he's definitely running in it. And that'd be that's how he kills Eric Bonner at the end as he like, doesn't let it run thing and Toro, okay.

Nick VinZant 1:16:50

Spirit unusual, unusual choice. My number two is Chris Evans.

John Shull 1:16:55

Oh, I should have known. He's

Nick VinZant 1:16:57

a good runner. He makes it. That to me is like the gist of the running. Right? Were like, Oh, you're going pretty fast. You look like you're running pretty hard, but it doesn't look like you're running like okay. All right. Yeah, that's good running. I think Chris Evans has great running form.

John Shull 1:17:13

I mean, unless you didn't say the guy that plays in the New Jurassic Park's can't remember his name, the guy who was married to Anna Faris.

Nick VinZant 1:17:20

That's Chris Pratt. I

John Shull 1:17:21

think, yeah, thank God, you didn't say him.

Nick VinZant 1:17:23

Now. He's see now he's an example of what I think that Tom Cruise is, in which they're trying to convince you that they're athletic and a good runner. But not Tom Cruise runs, like a person who has been taught. Tom Cruise runs like a person acting like they can run. He doesn't run like someone who can actually run. It's why I can't be up high on the list. And he's only there because he's known for it. I don't think he's actually a good runner.

John Shull 1:17:50

I would I would be I mean, he's so little too. I would I don't really think he's much of an athlete, though. He's played predominantly masculine roles, his whole career.

Nick VinZant 1:17:58

They had a casting director that we had on very early on in this show, who said the irony about big time moving stars is that to be a big time male movie stars, you basically basically have to be a small man with a big head. That looks the best on TV is people who are like 545 with big heads.

John Shull 1:18:20

Well, you would No wonder you're doing so well.

Nick VinZant 1:18:23

I gotta get the head bigger, man. Gotta get some head big operations I've got I'm actually too big, too. So that's my problem. Who's your number one gonna be are you gonna say it's Rocky? Who's your number one gonna be? Rocky? Which movie

John Shull 1:18:41

The first the original montage the best running scene for him solo you know when he's running through the streets and a sweats and he runs up the steps and you know, starts punching at the air you know, blah, blah blah. But I will say that the the montage and rocky for with him and off. Lundgren is just as amazing as well. But I'm not giving any love to Dolph Lundgren. So goes all the semester, Simone.

Nick VinZant 1:19:09

My difficulty was putting Sylvester Stallone in that particular movie high is that when he walks out of the house, he jumps over the railing, which no person would actually do. You wouldn't jump over the railing. And that just sets the tone for the whole thing being like it's not that's not accurate. You're not jumping over the railing. You're gonna walk down the steps. You're gonna warm up a little bit. You got to watch your knees. You got to take care of your body so you're not taking care of his body.

John Shull 1:19:40

I I mean, I stand by I think it's a you have to at least admit, I mean, you have it on your list, that it's one of the top five iconic running roles in cinema history.

Nick VinZant 1:19:53

I don't think that he's the best runner in that series. I think Carl Weathers is a better runner than he is. And I think the dove Lundgren is a better writer than he is.

John Shull 1:20:02

I would have no problem giving the props to either of those guys, if they were the main characters, but obviously they weren't. They were great supportive characters. But they were not main characters.

Nick VinZant 1:20:13

My number one is Robert Patrick. I think the guy from Germany will be flip flop for minor. Yeah, I think the guy from t to the T 1000. Or whatever his number is. I think that he is hands down the best runner in movies. Because he looked like someone he looked like somebody who number one could run number two, he was gonna catch you

John Shull 1:20:37

mean, yeah, that was. That was pretty you know, the best part about Robert Patrick. Yeah. He grew up in Metro Detroit.

Nick VinZant 1:20:47

Course. Okay, who's in your honorable mention?

John Shull 1:20:52

Let's see. So like I said, Any anytime Cruise movie? Matthew Broderick from Ferris Bueller? The run that he did in that movie with

Nick VinZant 1:21:01

Oh, that's a good run.

John Shull 1:21:03

Yeah, look, I mean, look natural. Good. Brendan Fraser in the mummies. Yeah, pretty natural. He looked pretty cool. Looks like good. And then I have Daniel Craig from his James Bond movies that he did. He looked, you know, they always started the first scene very big. He was always running or something. Always looked awesome.

Nick VinZant 1:21:25

little stiff. But I think that that was also part of the character, right? Like he looked like somebody who could run. I would also say that he suffers from the same thing as Matthew Broderick does, where they're kind of, there's not just straight running. Like they're doing other stuff and things like that. So it really doesn't really allow you to focus on the running, as would like a Robert Patrick chasing down. Sarah Connor.

John Shull 1:21:47

I mean, I agree. I mean, Robert Patrick was amazing in that role. And then last but not least, he may not look the coolest, but he is the coolest. And that was John Travolta in Greece, where he's running track trying to impress Sandy.

Nick VinZant 1:22:02

Okay, and never seen that movie. No have any desire to see that movie? Um, I had Daniel Craig. I had Laura Dern running in Jurassic Park.

John Shull 1:22:13

Oh, man, I mean. That's fine, I guess. But I'd rather have Jeff Goldblum, I think,

Nick VinZant 1:22:21

yeah, Jeff Goldblum has a better scene. But I think that she is the better runner. Scarlett Johansson can run very well.

John Shull 1:22:30

Or even Sam O'Neill I think probably has the best running in that whole movie. I don't kids.

Nick VinZant 1:22:38

Oh, yeah, that's a pretty good, but he's too distracted. You can't really see the form. He's got other things that he has to be doing.

John Shull 1:22:45

We're checking elbows and knees. They gotta be lateral. You know, they gotta be 90 degrees. I get it. You has

Nick VinZant 1:22:50

good form, but I wouldn't consider them to be a great runner as Will Smith. He's got some good iconic running scenes. And you can see if you look at like one of the trailers or things for one of the scenes from bad boys. I think it's bad boys or maybe bad boys too. But he is juxtaposed running with Martin Lawrence. And then you can clearly see that Will Smith is like, oh, Martin Lawrence can't run and Will Smith. Clearly running well.

John Shull 1:23:18

Yeah, I mean, let's be honest, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, they weren't put together as an acting duo. Because of their athletic similarities, I don't think

Nick VinZant 1:23:28

no, but it really showcases how much better of a runner Will Smith is. I have one that I can't remember the guys name. I keep wanting to say Leonard Nimoy but that's not his name. He played Spock in one of the recent Star Trek series like Oh, Zachary Quinto. He could run like oh, he's got some he's got some skills at running.

John Shull 1:23:56

I mean, we should have just put the guy that plays the flash and the guy from the boys that plays you know the fast character that can run like the speed of light. I forget his name now,

Nick VinZant 1:24:08

but yeah, but I feel like if there's power is actually running, it shouldn't count. It is Zachary Quinto good running. It's good runner.

John Shull 1:24:15

Also, I feel that need to give a shout out because we talked about Rocky, Michael B. Jordan and creed is also a very talented runner as well does not make my list because he's not an original. But still good runner. Good form. Good technique.

Nick VinZant 1:24:30

I like it. Who do you who can you imagine is the worst runner that you can think of? Like, oh my god, I can't run.

John Shull 1:24:37

I mean, Sylvester still or not. That's Steven Seagal is probably terrible. Oh yeah. Dwayne Johnson is probably terrible.

Nick VinZant 1:24:48

Which is ironic because he's, but he's too muscular now. Right? Pull off a good running even though he is one of the probably the more athletic Hollywood actors. He couldn't pull off a good run. Lean knee Mark Wahlberg. Oh yeah, that's like that fake athleticism. Right? Dude once said he could do 40 Pull Ups. No, you can't. You can No, Liam Neeson is a terrible runner. I like this. What's what's her name? I like this person as a musician. And as an actress, incredibly talented. Janelle Monae, there was a scene of her running and like the new knives out is like, Oh, she's a runner. Yeah,

John Shull 1:25:30

no. Okay, what about earlier? I mean, I mean, it's been Tara You know, Jim Carrey, but? Nah, not not even not close. Not good.

Nick VinZant 1:25:41

Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review we really appreciate it really helps us out. Doesn't have to be anything big. Just like, Hey, I like to show Jon's toes really aren't that good. Anything at all really helps out with the algorithm. And you know that all of us are now subservient to the algorithm. Also, let us know what you think are some of the best running performances. I don't know how John could have Robert Patrick is number five. And Rocky is number one. I mean that come on now. But I think that there are some good running performances, maybe some that we've never even thought of. So if you've got some let us know.


Hollywood Animal Agent Joel Norton

From Dogs and Cats to Rabbits and Rats, Animal Trainer Joel Norton trains animals to appear in major movies and TV Shows. We talk animal casting calls, the unique training animals need to work in Hollywood and working with exotic animals. Then, we unveil a new Candle of the Month and countdown the Top 5 Animals in Movies.

Joel Norton: 01:45

Pointless: 38:59

Top 5 Animals in Movies: 01:10:55

Contact the Show

Hollywood Paws

Hollywood Paws Instagram

Interview with Hollywood Animal Agent/Trainer Joel Norton

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode animals and acting,

Joel Norton 0:19

sometimes they're very specific, you know, we want a Dalmatian, it has to be a Dalmatian. And sometimes they're extremely vague. We just want a dog, a lot of the behaviors that we train a dog to do to work on set, they don't really have any purpose in the real world. Very, very, very unique training that is required for an animal to work on that 20 years ago, this was a completely different industry. Before there was computers. Every animal was was a practical animal on set, there were tigers, there were elephants, there were bears.

Nick VinZant 0:50

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest does something that I think is just endlessly fascinating. His job is to train animals to act, not just dogs and cats, but exotic animals like snakes, rats, rabbits. What I think is really interesting, though, isn't just the unique training that animals have to have in order to work in Hollywood, but the business behind it, and why producers pick certain animals. This is Hollywood animal agent, Joel Norton, how big of an industry is this? Are there a couple of people doing it? Or is this a lot bigger than I would think?

Joel Norton 1:51

I would say there's probably 20 Animal rental companies that exist in America.

Nick VinZant 1:59

How does it kind of work? The studio comes to you, hey, we've got this. What do you got?

Joel Norton 2:04

Yeah, exactly. The studio comes to us with a project, a lot of times they'll have a script or a board or a breakdown. And they'll say, hey, look, there's a dog in the scene. Here's the Scriptures what the dog needs to do. And here's kind of what we're looking for. Sometimes they're very specific, you know, we want a Dalmatian, it has to be Dalmatian, it's for fire by house, whatever. Sometimes they're extremely vague. We just want a dog. And they don't give any other notes. Other than that, here's the dogs that we have that fit the look that you want, whether it be that Dalmatian or a family dog, or whatever the look is, and then we send that off to them. And then they make their decision based on that email. If they liked the dogs, and they liked the numbers. Then they booked that dog and we take the dog on set and work it and if they don't like any of the dogs, and then they move on and look at the bird other company is it

Nick VinZant 2:55

is kind of like a casting process like an actor. I mean, are they actually like,

Joel Norton 3:00

not? Over pictures, it's all it's all pictures and email. It's not the days of like, we all show up in one area, and they all look at it. But that that doesn't exist really anymore. Rarely will they still do a showing for a big project where they really want to get a feel for it. But that is exceedingly rare. I haven't done one personally in over a decade. Everything's just done on the web. You know, if they want to see more details, they'll say, Hey, can we get a quick video of of phyto? So we can kind of see how it works? Or can we see a project it's already done a finished product? And I'll send them a YouTube clip. And that's it. Why did

Nick VinZant 3:37

it kind of get like that? Was it just because like there's so many animals involved now that like we just gotta we gotta own this out?

Joel Norton 3:44

No, no, it's just convenience. It costs money and time and energy to load up dogs from from all the different companies and wherever they're located and drive to a central location and do that. And we would charge for that it costs money for us to drive and the load of animals there the and so as soon as email became a common thing that was gonna start fading itself out, almost immediately. Act even actors, I think do a lot of self tapes now where they record themselves sensitive, they don't go to a room when there's a little camera there. So everything has changed with technology

Nick VinZant 4:18

is now like for most of the projects, are we talking about like, Hey, we're shooting a commercial for blah, blah, blah, or are we talking about like, it's a new movie like Air Bud or something like

Joel Norton 4:29

yeah, it's all done the same? Really, you know, if it is a big big thing with air but and they really care about you know, actor chemistry or something like that. Those are the times that yeah, we might we'll still narrow though we'll still originally send you know, the pictures and the videos and all those other things and then they'll make their maybe final two. And then from there, they will Okay, well, we'll actually see these dogs in person and get a feel for which one we like best or whatever, and someone will make that decision but honestly Even for big projects, big TV shows big movies, it's all done over the web over the internet.

Nick VinZant 5:05

What are they generally kind of looking for?

Joel Norton 5:08

That's a good question. I don't know, oftentimes, I don't know exactly what they're looking for, I don't even think they know a lot of times what they're looking for, they just know they want a dog in the scene. And they have an idea of a look, you know, if it's, if it's a family scene, and it's a, you know, vacuum commercial or whatever, then they'll obviously want a dog would longer for or if it's a dog that's just blended with a family, they're going to pick up what most people would think of as a family looking dog. So, you know, when you see a German Shepherd, you don't think of a family dog, you think of a police dog, when you see you know, whatever, you know, that that is kind of what their main objective is, is to fill whatever look that they want. But as far as, you know, all the dogs come trained, all that kind of stuff. So it really just whenever that particular director of producer, art department, whatever they want, is what they, you know, I've had dogs hired because the director had that breed when he was a kid. And he just wanted to see it again, in person on set. And that was the sole reason that that breed was, I guess

Nick VinZant 6:09

I thought it would be more complicated than that. I thought that there would be somebody like, oh, no, no, this golden retrievers coat isn't quite what we really wanted. Can you get us right?

Joel Norton 6:18

Now that I mean, that do those that do those times exist? Sure, you know, there's always, but again, 99% of the time it is it is not that complicated. Honestly, over 95% of the time, a single picture is all that they they go off of a single picture. I mean, I'm attaching 25 pictures to an email. But from there, they will nail it down to the dog that they want based on a picture.

Nick VinZant 6:46

How does it kind of the business side of it unnecessarily work? I know you guys are a rental company, do you own? Who owns the dog?

Joel Norton 6:55

So are they great questions case? Yeah, so our company is is unique, our company Hollywood paws is is sort of one of a kind in that the vast majority of our working dogs, the dogs that we take on set, they are owned by people, their private party dogs, the other studio rental companies, they all own their own animal. So they have large ranches, and kennels and places, you know, in the high desert and stuff. And all those animals are housed and owned by them. And they will take the animals out on set and work them. But our company does things a little bit differently, we we keep the dogs with the pet owners. Sometimes we call the green agency for that for that reason. But you know, it just means that the dogs stay with an owner and then we pick them up from the owner, we take the dog on set, and then the owner gets the money rather than the money staying within the company. What we are sort of responsible for is making sure that that pet owner keeps up the very, very, very unique training that is required for an animal to work on. That's

Nick VinZant 7:55

how Okay, so a company that operates in a different way when they own it, like they'll own five, five animals are we how many?

Joel Norton 8:04

A lot, a lot more than a lot more than five, you know, the you because you have to have variety, you have to have the goal for sort of every rental company has to have like one of every look. And so I would say an average of that is like maybe 15 to 20 Minimum dogs. You know, we never know what job calls are going to come in tomorrow. We never know what looks are going to be requested. So a company wants to have a couple of small dogs, a couple of medium sized dogs, a couple of big dogs, they want to have a bunch of family dogs, they want to have some more aggressive looking dogs if they get you know, dogs but the garter junkyard you got to have a Rottweiler you know, you want to have a variety, otherwise you're not going to book anything.

Nick VinZant 8:43

You talked a little bit about like the training aspect of it. What kind of training would an animal that's going to work in Hollywood need?

Joel Norton 8:50

That's probably the most unique thing that people don't understand is studio work has a set of very unique challenges. So the easiest thing to compare it to is agility. Most people are familiar with agility. They've seen the dogs do the weave poles and the Kia totters and all those obstacles. A lot of the behaviors that we train a dog to do to work on set, they don't really have any purpose in the real world. So not many people know how to train them and don't train them because it's it's sort of pointless the same way that teaching your dog we fold if you're not going to compete and agility nobody teaches their dog how to do we fold because what's the point? We train, there's like 30 behaviors I would say that are required for us to be able to call a dog a studio dog there's, you know, all these different types of marks. There's like four different marks General Mark, come, Mark, go mark. There's these things called aim sticks, you know, back up and feed up some more common things that people are familiar with, on your side and head up and head down. And then things that most people would never even have heard of like a work away or a go to and a go with or an aim stick. And those are all behaviors. that aren't necessarily that hard or complicated to teach, although some of them can be. But they are just very unique. And they're their sole purpose is to overcome the challenges that we face on set, we face a lot of challenges on that, as far as having to work from really far away. You know, obviously, we as the trainer, we can't be in the shot, the dog is we're in the middle of a scene. And most people don't train their dogs like that most people don't put their dog in a position, move 20 feet away, and then start to train. But that's what we do, because we can't be in the shot. And so dog has to get used to not creeping forward and staying in one spot. If the production is running sound, let's say you know, and the actors talking, I can't be in the thing going, speak sets, say Good day, while the actor is talking, you know, I have to make the dog do everything silently. Otherwise, my dialog is going to step all over the actress dialog. So we teach our dogs do everything just on hand signals. A lot of times the dog can't see us on set. So the line of sight isn't very clear. So we teach dogs to, to do what's called a Workaway, where they look at something else. They look at the actor, they look at a property look at a green screen, but they are still listening to us, even though the dog can't see it. But there's all of these behaviors that we teach that are they're all geared to overcome, again, the challenges that we face on set, because there there's a lot of them on set as long days repetitive actions, they'll do the same thing. 20 times and the dog has to do it the exact same way on take one as on tick 20. Otherwise, it's not going to match.

Nick VinZant 11:41

That is interesting, right? Because I think like I have a dog, and I've taught him how to sit and how to rollover, but if I'm not within like a foot of her, she's not doing it.

Joel Norton 11:50

Right. Yeah, exactly. Because you haven't practiced and you haven't trained that, and you haven't made that a priority. And that's, that's most dogs. And so that's where like I was saying earlier, our challenge comes in is because we work with pet dogs, we work with dogs that are owned by people like yourself. But the challenge is, is what we do. And what the the owners that choose to do this do is they have to keep up on that training, they have to put in the work. A studio dog is is is really hired for its training ability. It can be the best looking dog, and it can match the dog they have in the script and all this other stuff. But if it can't do what's required on set, it's not going to work.

Nick VinZant 12:28

Have you seen instances where like, man, we hired this dog? And it's just, oh, we got to work in

Joel Norton 12:35

every rarely? Yes. And it's one of those things where I have been hired. They originally like, I hear about it when I'm hired to do reshoots, because, you know, some producer was like, Well, I've got a dog or you know, someone I've got a dog will save money. I don't want to pay 1000s of dollars to have a professional dog hear my dog can sit. And then. So they try it with their own dog or whatever the case, and the dog just can't do it. You know? It the dog literally just completely bombed and doesn't do it. And then they have to turn around. And I mean, it costs them. I can't even imagine how much it cost to do it. But then they learned their lesson the hard way. And then never again, will they ever not hire a professional one.

Nick VinZant 13:15

How much money are we generally talking about? And obviously, I know depends on the project. But like in terms of okay, the animal is going to get paid this much for like a commercial, major movie, small movie.

Joel Norton 13:28

Sure. So right there. That's another real common misconception is the price is the same. Whether it's a commercial or a feature film or students. None of the prices doesn't don't don't change. Right, so they're all the same. So nobody, no one makes any more back a lot of times. If there's a buyout or something like that, like we agreed, we agreed to hire your dog for the whole season. The price goes down, not up. But the dancer your question. Jog rental is about 500 bucks today. They're rented on a 24 hour period. Trainers, we have you know union rates and things like that that we go out on. And then we have transportation fees. Any job that is unique or special or something like that, we oftentimes will charge prep fees. So it can range from 1500 bucks a day. For a real basic simple shoe. What if there's multiple trainers on set, you know, the dog has to be released from a room and enter another room and then look up in the corner that takes two trainers one to release the dog one to pull the eye contact to make it look like they're looking up in the corner at an actor or whatever it is. And now your price goes up because now you have two trainers. So all these little factors will will affect the price. But I would say like a baseline minimum doesn't get really cheaper than is around 1500 bucks for the day.

Nick VinZant 14:47

It didn't doesn't depend on like if this is the next James Cameron or if this is a commercial for Bob's used cars.

Joel Norton 14:55

Nope, it does not but well one because we have we're a union animal trainers are in Union so Our rate doesn't really go up or down very much because that so that set transportation is based on mileage and gas prices. So that's that. And dog rental is sort of set by the industry.

Nick VinZant 15:11

That makes sense, right? And ultimately, you make your money by days booked? Not necessarily.

Joel Norton 15:16

Exactly, exactly. And the other thing is that, you know, there's a lot of dogs out there. I mean, there's kind of a famous story, but a lot of people know the dog that was in Modern Family. It was a different dog. They switched dogs halfway through the series, you can Google it, have fun with that. But yeah, it's a different dog. Because dogs are replaceable. You didn't notice. And it's a completely different dog. So if I was to, again, have this dog and say, Oh, my golden retriever has a prettier coat, it's gonna cost you 5000 a day, they'll just find another golden retriever.

Nick VinZant 15:48

How much will like Okay, so like, let's say a dog that's making, like it's working regularly. That dog would be in how many things a year

Joel Norton 15:58

that they're for, that totally varies, it totally depends on the dog. We have dogs that work one day a year, and we have dogs that work once a month minimum. And that's why you want to have a variety. We don't have one superhero dog that you know, because no watch TV, you don't see a golden retriever. In three out of five commercials, you just see dogs, you know, there's a huge variety of the dogs. So none of them are are, quote unquote, superstars or, you know, crazy, you know, insane. You know, this is our moneymaker. Because you that's not how productions work. In fact, if a dog becomes too famous, they're not going to choose it. They won't want a dog that you recognize from another commercial, because you'll be thinking about that other commercial.

Nick VinZant 16:43

Oh, that's true, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's true. So how did you find yourself in this?

Joel Norton 16:51

So I, that's a good question. I went to I studied animal science and regular four year college. And then I went to a school called Edom, which stands for exotic animal training and management. That's a two year school that kids go to adults go to, that teaches you how to work with animals in the animal industry. So it's everything from zoo keeping, to SeaWorld, I mean, any and literally almost anything in the animal field that school prepares you for, because it gives you have two years of hands on experience, which is what people really want. a four year degree was great, but I had zero experience, and nobody wanted to hire me. So and I was, again, out of my class of about 50 Kids, a handful of us went on to do studio work, because some people really like training, training, and it can be fun. But it can be challenging. And some people absolutely do not like to be trainers. And if you love animals, but don't want to train, a lot of times, you'll go to a zoo or to a rescue or to a rehab or do outreach, where you don't really have to train very much you're just caring for and working with the animal. But I really enjoyed training. When I was doing it, I just found I love the challenge, I got a great feeling after knowing that this scene, an animal, and I trained rats and birds and all kinds of different animals and in training the dogs Believe it or not when I was in school, but there was something very satisfying about taking an animal that couldn't do anything, right. It was just an animal. And after I put in time and energy, all of a sudden, I had an animal that was able to do things because of me. And that was a great feeling. I really enjoyed that.

Nick VinZant 18:28

Are there? Is it a pretty competitive industry in the sense that like, man, you're one of if you're applying for a new trainer job there, you're one of how many people going for this? Or is like, well, we can't find people?

Joel Norton 18:40

Yeah, I think you know, I don't know exactly what the industry is like right now. I don't I know it is, it's fairly competitive. Because this is an industry that that can be pretty financially rewarding. A lot of animal stuff tend to be pretty low pay. So you keeping animal care, they tend to not pay very much because so many people want to do the job. However, I think the industry as a whole can only support so much. There's only so many productions that have animals in them. And so that really limits the amount of trainers that can be hired by companies in a work at any given time. Especially, you know, 20 years ago, this was a completely different industry. Before there was computers. Every animal was was a practical animal on set. There were tigers, there were elephants, there were bears. There were things and now, aside from dogs, almost all exotics are computer generated in some way because you just have so it's a lot cheaper and you have a tremendous more amount of flexibility in what you can do. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 19:50

that I mean, that makes especially with some exotic animals, like quite frankly, I don't want a tiger. Right, like, let's ugi that.

Joel Norton 19:58

Right? I mean and that's the way it's gone. And CGI has gotten so good now that I can I can tell, I can tell as a trainer most of the time just by the action because oh no, there is no way that a real animal would have done that. Or that they would allow a real animal to do that thing. So what they'll do a lot now too, instead of firing an exotic for the entire production, they'll hire the exotic and do like some some in studio green screen work. And so motion capture work. And then they'll translate that and, you know, turn it into a whole film.

Nick VinZant 20:33

Do you guys work a lot with exotic exotic animals or our dogs cats?

Joel Norton 20:38

know our company, our company, Hollywood paws, we only do domestic animals. Just domestic, so no exotics. Our bread and butter is just dogs, we don't do cat. We do small animals and some other stuff as those jobs come up. Rabbits and birds and some stuff like that. But our bread and butter by far is dogs. They're the most used and watch, watch TV, watch movies, watch commercials, you'll see. You know, you'll see 10 Dogs before you see one snake or one mouse or one rat, they're just, you know, they're the most used domestic animals. So it's where you want to work. That's the animal you should have.

Nick VinZant 21:15

Yeah, I would think that dogs are probably the easiest to use.

Joel Norton 21:19

They are because they're the they're the ones that like to work. Right. All the other exotic animals don't work because their food motivated, though work because of their training everything else. Dogs want to please. You know, cats? Not not so much. You know? Yeah,

Nick VinZant 21:34

I guess how do the animals generally handle it? Right? Can you tell? Looking at it like this dog is all about it? And this dog is just Yeah, it's not half.

Joel Norton 21:43

So absolutely. So. So there are some definite prerequisites that that we tell people who are considering getting into this. The the main ones that we go to our competence and food drive, those those are the two absolute most important. Competence is pretty obvious and straightforward. Working on set, you're working with strangers and loud noises and new people in new environments. And if you've ever gone up to a dog, and you've gone to pet it, and it kind of pulls away, you know, does that shy thing? Nope, not a good not a good candidate at all. Because we never want to put a dog in a position where they're unhappy, where they're, they're scared where they're nervous, and that nothing you ever want to do. So confidence is number one. Second one is food drive. Everything that a dog does on set is voluntary. So if you picture a scene, you picture a dog, you picture freight the dog from Frasier, Eddie, that dog is in the middle of a scene, sitting in a chair. You know, being asked to do things by a trainer, there's nobody there to make that dog do anything. You know, that dog is supposed to bark at a certain line and then lay down and then go pick up a toy and get back in the chair. Whatever the action is. No one's there making that dog do that that dog is doing that on its own because it wants to and and dogs like to work but they they need something to make sure they're motivated and that

Nick VinZant 23:08

food. I feel like that's us too, though, when you get right down to it.

Joel Norton 23:12

Oh, yeah, exactly. Substitute food for a paycheck which equals food. Yeah, same. Same thing you're not going to dig a ditch for for $1 an hour in the hot sun. And a dog is not going to work on set for 12 hours for a tennis ball.

Nick VinZant 23:27

Has the industry changed in a way like what kind of protections are in place for the animals to make sure that people aren't

Joel Norton 23:35

the there are several productions, I like to think of first and foremost is us the trainers. It is not in our best interest or anyone's best interest to push a dog on set to a point where they no longer want to work because that doesn't benefit anybody. Right? Once a dog is scared or pushed to the point where it doesn't want to work anymore, nobody benefits from that we now have a dog that's not going to want to work on set. So that burns us for all future jobs for that dog. And our production it day is over with the dogs. Oh, we still have more scenes, well, it's too bad the dog doesn't want won't do it anymore. And like I said earlier, it's voluntary. So we can't make the dog do it. As far as other safeguards, there are companies like American Humane and math, which stands for moving animals protected. And their sole purpose is again to just be there on set. And to help us as trainers mediate any, any issues we may have or any any things that we may have may have not noticed or things that they can just help us with things like you know, making sure the asphalt isn't too hot and helping us you know, say okay, you know, we can only do this scene one more time because the you know, the sun is just getting too hot or, or whatever, there's not enough shade in this thing. And so they're there to help us. Make sure that no animals are harmed and everything else but again, it starts with the trainer. It starts with us And again, it's a no one's best interest to make a dog be scared or be hurt or beat, you know, it doesn't help anybody. I've never understood why people like think that working on set is, is some sort of an abusive industry because it's literally the opposite. It's one of the few industries that is all voluntary. You know, there's no leashes there's, you know, the dog does what it wants what it wants, and if it doesn't want it, it doesn't do it. It's as simple as that.

Nick VinZant 25:28

Has that always been the case? Or do you feel like that's kind of changed over the last whatever amount of time?

Joel Norton 25:34

As far as like exotic animals and some of those other ones? I think that there were probably some unfortunate things that were done earlier on. And I'm sure if people google it, they'll find things. But with domestic dogs, it's not really the case. And and with exotics again, it's just not that way anymore.

Nick VinZant 25:55

Boy, if you get that PR hit, somebody finds out that oh, yeah, she that'll crash and fast.

Joel Norton 26:01

Absolutely. And it happened with whatever movie that was a dog purpose, or a dog's life, whatever that was. And there was, there was some video that that was edited to look like the dog was, was really struggling to swim. And that was enough to absolutely dismantle that whole, you know, killed everything about that production. So again, it's in no one's best interest to even do things that are perceived.

Nick VinZant 26:28

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Absolutely. most in demand dog,

Joel Norton 26:34

family dogs. That that's the general set, golden lab, terrier mixes sort of that the generic dog that you can't really tell what it is. Those are by far the most in demand, by far, least least is a variety least right off the bat. solid black dog. If you've ever tried to dig up a cell phone video or picture of a solid black dog, what happens? Same thing happens with black shirt. You can't see anything. It all blends together. There's no definition there's no you can't see it. So solid black dogs and darker dogs are almost never picked. You can't ever say Never say never because there is a black dog in a movie but I mean, overall, very rarely pick. The other one is sort of the the white fluffy dogs. I'm sure you've seen lots of little white fluffy dogs in your life. For some reason they're almost never picked for studio work. I don't know why.

Nick VinZant 27:31

I would think that they would be picked it seems like the kind of like I feel like there's always I think of Jennifer Coolidge seems like you

Joel Norton 27:40

Yeah, I mean but watch TV and movies and we we have they have not they just typically are not picked you think maybe they would be but they are not I mean so same thing was like there are a purse dog we called purse dog or whatever productions out there where you know we we did like the African the advertising for illegally brought up Legally Blonde on Broadway and so we we brought Chihuahuas and things like that because that was a dog but that sort of an exception. You know those those dogs are not really highly sought after this because they they they portray a look that just for whatever reason I get I don't know why I'm not the one who picks the dogs or or decides what goes in what they just don't work very much.

Nick VinZant 28:25

Yeah, that's one of those things that even thinking about is like, Well, why wouldn't that dog work?

Joel Norton 28:29

Yeah, yeah, your guess is good might be John freeze A's and multis, mixes and all those things. We see them all the time people contact all the time, but they just don't work.

Nick VinZant 28:41

Most unique commands you've ever had to teach in a dog or an animal.

Joel Norton 28:47

That is a good grant a great question to come to mind. Our company was contacted by a reality show about it was called Guinness World Records unleashed. There was a TV show about people breaking Guinness World Records. And spoiler alert reality shows are often not real. Sorry, if I'm breaking hearts out there. It's it's more scripted than you would ever believe it is. And so we were hired as a as a studio company to train animals to break records. One of them was removing socks and shoes and so one of our trainers, Brianna Messerschmitt, she has two Guinness World Records and she was a trainer on the job for most Sox removed by a dog and 62nd and most shoes removed by dog and 60 seconds. And she was on the Katie Couric show and promoted it and everything else and it was but the thing we she was hired to do it and paid as a as a studio trainer to do it. So that's fairly unique.

Nick VinZant 29:47

How many? How many socks and shoes was it? Like I would be impressed to To be honest, right?

Joel Norton 29:52

Yeah, it was. It was a lot and it was we she ran out of people. I want to say it was like they were it was like 30 Teen People so, so 13 times two sets of socks and shoes, and she had at least 15 seconds left. But since there weren't any more people on there, she broke the record with that amount. They they set it up. So she broke the record, not that she set a new record. So once she broke the record with those 13 people on the Katie Couric show back when she used to have a talk show, that was that was it?

Nick VinZant 30:23

I can't believe reality TV.

Joel Norton 30:25

It just sorry, Bachelor nation.

Nick VinZant 30:31

Actor that seems to get along best with animals.

Joel Norton 30:35

Oh, most most of them almost because who doesn't love dogs? You know what I mean? Like when you show up on set, and you have an animal, you're you're the I'm oftentimes the, you know, the best person that people like to see on set purely because I have the dog that's there. So the only time that I've ever had an issue was we put, like I said earlier, we provide other animals and we have provided snakes and things like that. And that's where people start to, not like when we show up. And so I did an episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine with Julie was Dreyfus that show, Wanda Sykes was on that show. And she wanted abs. If I was in the studio, she did not want to be in the studio. And I tried not to take it personally. But it was because she was just absolutely terrified of snakes.

Nick VinZant 31:23

Yeah, everybody does, like dogs. Yeah. Especially when they're nice, right? Yeah. And

Joel Norton 31:28

we don't right. And we don't bring not nice dogs, anyone did dogs are supposed to look mean, or they're not really mean, you know, it's all it's all training, you know, like the barking and growling and snarling, or, you know, being afraid or whatever. That's not none of that's real. It's all it's all we it's all things we do to make it look real thing. They added sound, we use little devices and things like that. You know, some of the friendliest dogs, you know, can look really scary on set if you get them to bark just right.

Nick VinZant 31:56

Most famous TV dog, our most famous, I guess, who would you say is kind of like that was the most famous dog?

Joel Norton 32:03

Oh, it may have been because I already mentioned it, but the dog from Modern Family, despite there being two dogs, and then Eddie from Frasier, I think are the most two well known TV dogs. Because they, they did so many seasons, you know, season after season, and the dog was just sort of always in the background and reminded you was there. You know, and there's been other dogs and TV shows, but I think purely for the runtime of those series. Those dogs really stood out.

Nick VinZant 32:36

The one that jumps out to me, right, it's like a robot, right? Because they made a ton of them. Will that be the same animal the whole time?

Joel Norton 32:43

No. So for for movies like Air Bud will oftentimes will get doubles for things like that, like that. The classic case is like Marley and Me, you know, during the movie Marlene me with, you know, Owen Wilson, I think yeah, they were famously 22. yellow lab in that in that movie. So that's, that's a lot, you know. And it's because there was so many different actions that those dogs are doing the dog was mellow. The dog was old, the dog was young, the dog was destructive that I was pulling on leash, the dog was asleep. And it can be so difficult to get a dog that is just crazy energy to pretend to be asleep all the time, that they just got a bunch of they got a bunch of backup, they got a bunch of doubles. And yellow labs are easy because all yellow labs kind of look like if it was a button in that thing. That would have been impossible because you can't find that many that can double each other and you can be able to tell

Nick VinZant 33:41

and then how would they do that then they would just like anytime they really showed the face they would just like this is the face dog.

Joel Norton 33:48

It's more show more. So the action. This is the this is this is the hyper dog. This is the crazy high energy ball drive dog and this is the very low energy mellow fleets. You know the all the scenes where the dog is not doing things they use that dog and all the scenes where the dog is dragging Owen Wilson down the street and ripping up the sofa. That's the hyperdocs

Nick VinZant 34:14

Who would you say like could you say like, who's like the best acting? Dog like oh, man, that dog did the best job of like, yeah, cutting

Joel Norton 34:24

the dogs are all the dogs are doing is what the trainers have taught them to do. Right? So that's that's what the dogs are doing. They're not there's no. So in other words, we get a lot of times where the script will say the dog is sad or the dog is this dog is scared. We don't ever make a dog be scared on set. We don't actually make a dog scared on set. We do things like teach your dog to lower their head and back up. And on camera. All of a sudden that looks like a scared dog. That's Oh, that dog enter the room lowered its head made a whimper inside out and back out slowly. To me, that looks like a scared dog. You know, but that's not, that's not really what happened, there wasn't any fear involved at all, there was very, very specific training, that dog was probably loving every second of that. And a lot of times, we have to work to get the dog's tail to stop wagging. Because it's like, it's supposed to be scared, but the dog is so happy to be to work and to be on set and to be around people that has tails wagging. And so we have to work and make sure that tails like not wagging actively in the seat. So again, there's, there isn't any, you know, acting emotion that the dog is, is displaying, it's all, it's all training. And, and there, there are more, you know, examples of great trained dogs and I that I could even list you know, the the dogs that are in that, that that TV show the old man, here's a couple Rottweilers on that show, he's got those, those dogs are fantastic, you know, very well trained, they looked aggressive, they look scary. But at the same time, they also looked amazingly sweet there, Jeff Bridges, personal dogs that are loving and cuddling and doing all these things. So I think that's amazing acting, you know, those dogs are actively believably looking like they're ripping people to shreds. And then the next thing they're actively cuddling with, with actors.

Nick VinZant 36:15

This one might be out of the realm necessarily, but maybe you know the answer. Is there ever been an animal that was cast? And I think they probably mean an exotic animal who's like, we want this. But yeah, we just couldn't do it. The thing that would come to my mind, like, we want to make this movie with a koala bear, but just couldn't do it

Joel Norton 36:34

yourself. I don't know anyone who has a working panda. Nobody owns one, you know, companies can't get one. So if that was something that somebody wanted to do in a, in a writers room, hey, we want to show and we're gonna build it around this panda as a main character. I mean, it might be able to be done at someone who's willing to commit to it, but it's not something that a company has that we can then train and you know, it's just not really feasible. So, there may be a situation like that that's existed. But I don't know, because I probably stopped dead in its tracks. You know, somebody went, Oh, no, that's prohibitively expensive, just make it a make it a chinchilla, rather than a koala, and we'll go from there, and we never heard about it.

Nick VinZant 37:13

That's pretty much all the questions I got, man, is there anything else you think that we missed? Or, you know, how can people learn more about you about the company?

Joel Norton 37:21

Sure, I mean, I can do blurb about ourselves. So our company is Hollywood paws, you can go on our website, if people have a dog that they think would be a good fit, you know, it fits the criteria that I talked about, it's confidence, who driven it's got a look, that you know, as a family dog, or a terrier, make it look like something that, that you have seen on TV or you know, fit to look like you, you know, people can reach out, and we will be happy to give them honest feedback as far as their dogs potential and, and it's, you know, it's not required that anyone take our training or anything else, all that we require to be able to represent a dog and take them on set is that they just have to be studio trained. Where they get the training really doesn't matter to us, we have programs that we can help them because it is so unique, and most people don't know how to do it. But all they have to do is be trained, and we will happily take them on set and work them and the the owner will get the money that we charged for for the studio annual rental. So it's a great way to make money. And it's a really fun, fun way to to bond with your dog and do some unique training. And so, you know, to all the people who love agility and love doing all these extracurriculars. If you're looking for something that was fun to do, studio trading can be fun, regardless of whether your dog works or not. Because it's it's very unique stuff that's done in a unique way. That is unlike any other type of training that's out there.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony

Brandee Anthony is best known as the Vero Beach Mermaid. But for her, being a Professional Mermaid isn't just a dream, it's a career. One that involves specialized dive training, expensive equipment and occasionally, thick skin. We talk becoming a Professional Mermaid, Mermaid diving courses, tails that can cost tens of thousands and why mermaids are soaring in popularity. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Mythical Creatures.

Brandee Anthony: 01:04

Pointless: 32:25

Top 5: 54:59

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Vero Beach Mermaid

Mermaid FreeDive

Interview with Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode mermaids and myths,

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 0:19

I definitely did not grow up thinking I was going to be a professional mermaid, the silicone tail, which is like the top of the tiers of tails. Those range anywhere from two to $20,000. And to me, I tell people, it's like unlocking a superpower. Everyone will say,

Nick VinZant 0:39

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really helps out the show. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. I want to get right to our first guest. This is professional mermaid brandy Anthony. Professional mermaid sounds pretty self explanatory. But But what is this, like in reality, in actuality,

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 1:11

I do a lot of different things. It can be anything from performing entertaining, conservation charity, I also have a dive school where I teach other people how to be a mermaid and how to freedive I photograph people in mermaid tails. I'm a content creator. So there's a lot that can go into what being a professional mermaid means.

Nick VinZant 1:34

Like, it's for me, I wouldn't have guessed this would be like a career. Did you kind of make this a career? Or was this

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 1:43

I definitely did not grow up thinking I was going to be a professional mermaid. I fell into it. Almost seven years ago now. I was live streaming on an app called Periscope. I was doing that full time. And I'm like, how else can I kind of do something interesting and new with live streaming? And no one really goes live underwater. So I thought this would be so epic. Let me do a whole live stream underwater. But how can I make it interesting, and I don't really remember where I got it in my mind that I a mermaid would be an interesting like thing to do. But I decided I was gonna buy a mermaid tail and get the GoPro and rig it all up and do this beautiful mermaid performance underwater. And I had never swam in a tail before the live stream. And everything went really well. And I was just completely hooked as soon as I put that thing on. And then next thing I knew I started a little Facebook page, I created the name Vero Beach mermaid. And I started going viral pretty quickly realized that a lot of people loved seeing the mermaid stuff. And next thing I knew I had a full fledged mermaid company.

Nick VinZant 3:00

Were you surprised that people were so interested in it?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 3:06

I wouldn't say I was surprised. I know that we as humans have always been obsessed with the idea of Atlantis and you know, people being able to be half fish, half human. And you know all of the folklore that comes behind mermaids and the mythology of a mermaid has been around for such a long time. So we've always been fascinated with it. So I knew that with my own love for mermaids and mermaid art mermaid folklore that it's not surprising people would enjoy it. I just didn't think it would yield so much of a career success than just entertainment to people.

Nick VinZant 3:47

What is it about mermaids that kind of draws you to them?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 3:52

I think it's different for everyone. For me, it's it's the water aspect. It's that someone with human qualities to them can live in the underwater world, which for a lot of us who love to dive and love to swim. That's just kind of that dream state. So when you think about if you could be turned into anything, what would it be? It would be for me someone who could be underwater, which is the mermaid. So I've always loved just the lore of living underwater. I think that's my biggest draw to the mermaid stuff.

Nick VinZant 4:26

I'm not a huge water person. But I could see where people would enjoy it. I just get too scared. So like of the professional mermaid businesses, right? Like I know that you have courses do photography or scuba diving all kinds of different things. Which aspect of it would you say is the biggest

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 4:44

right now? For me, it's the I own a company called mermaid freedive. So we do all inclusive retreats, and there are basically four days of Patty mermaid and Patty freedive. training to get your certifications. And then we infuse meditation, breath work yoga, acro yoga, all of these other modalities into the four day experience freediving is, is for everyone, but is not easy. So, you know, combining that mermaid thing with a true sport like freediving has become kind of a my greatest success in the mermaid Business Is everyone seeing these online videos and seeing the beautiful tails and wanting a little piece of that for themselves?

Nick VinZant 5:32

I want to ask you about the tails in a second because if people's ever seen him, like holy crap, that's a lot of work that looks like it goes into that. But so for the courses like are you teaching them? And it just happens to be mermaid? Are you like specifically No, like this is?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 5:47

So Patti, the dive organization has a program specifically designed to teach mermaid eating skills, which are you know, diving down to certain depths, learning how to hold your breath, learning how to do tricks and somersaults and how to blow bubble rings and do performance things. All while having good form and really honing in on safety. Because breath holding and diving in general, like there are some risks, especially when you put a mermaid tail on. So learning how to safely rescue a blackout or rescue and LMC or, you know, different scenarios that could happen out in the water, and just becoming a steward of the water and a safe one.

Nick VinZant 6:31

So is it mostly women? Who are professional mermaids are in the mermaid classes? Or is I guess what some? What's a mermaid Merman?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 6:40

Is there a merman man and merfolk you know, how you identify? I would say the industry is predominantly female. But in the pro space, there's a ton of different people, um, that are not all just females. But when it comes to my particular courses, I think I mostly attract women. I do have some men attend the retreats or the different courses. The freediving side attracts more of our male audience, and the mermaid side naturally attracts more of the female. We also do couples retreats so that people can come out and both learn the skills whether mermaid or freediving. My partner is a free dive instructor and he teaches a lot of the guys had a free dive. But we have a decent combination of people.

Nick VinZant 7:36

So how popular would you say this is right? And I know that's kind of halt hard to quantify but are you scrounging for customers are turning in the way to be dramatic.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 7:45

It is definitely becoming more mainstream. I'd seven years ago when I when I would say I'm a professional mermaid, everyone would look at me weird. And now when I say it, everyone knows somebody that has a tail or is a mermaid of some sorts. And Patty, which we certified through does a lot of certifications in mermaid now the program is fairly new, but in 2022 I did I think it was like 155 Mermaid certifications. So I'm not scrounging for clients. I always have room to have more people come out to this stuff. But it's it's an application process, usually for the retreats just to make sure that you're a good fit for that type of experience versus our courses. But yeah, I don't have to scrap for them. There's actually a lot of people out there that want to come to this experience. I call it the ultimate adult sleepover.

Nick VinZant 8:48

I always think of those things of like Rockstar camp, right? We're like people who wanted to be musicians, we go to rock star camp. It seems kind of like Princess camp in the water. Is that an unfair characterization or kind of fair.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 9:03

So I think it would depend on the mermaid that you talk to, I'm very much into the sport side of mermaid thing. So the breath holding the depth, the skills, the performance that you can create. Not the pretty aspect. So much. So I would definitely say it's not for princesses. It's for days of a lot of dive training in some semi chilly water. And we don't wear the tails for most of our training, we wear wetsuits and masks and we have on a full monofin and a weight belt and like the whole the whole freedive get up. We only put the tails on for like the fun day. But it's a lot of actual hard work

Nick VinZant 9:46

for people. The way that let's say the being dramatic here, right the outside world so to speak. Is it viewed as weird by people?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 9:57

Yeah, not as much now because it's become popular, and because you can go to a store and see a mermaid tail for sale. whereas years ago, you you, couldn't you no one knew of that. But I definitely still have my share of people who think like, Oh, she's delusional, maybe she wasn't loved enough as a child was one of the comments once. But for the most part, it's actually received really positively, especially when they see what kind of business I pull as a career move from this, and how many people it's helped them, you know, heal something or become a safe person in the water, or a lot of people were fearful of being underwater when they came to these retreats. And now they love the water, and they want to protect the water. And so I definitely get the that's the weird fish girl face. But it's not as common as you think it is.

Nick VinZant 11:00

But have you built it up more than other people?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 11:03

I'm up there. But there are, I wouldn't say quite a few I'd probably say make, there's maybe a couple of handfuls of other people who are at this level of pro mermaid. And then you have a lot of people who are more hobbyists, they might do a little bit of performing, it's a side job or something for fun. Versus the few of us were like this is an entire career. But the community itself is huge. The mermaid community and how many people are enthusiastic about all of the mermaid stuff is is pretty large,

Nick VinZant 11:36

I was really impressed by the tails. Like to me they look like they're heavy, or they have some weight to them. And they look expensive.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 11:45

Yes to all of that depends on the tail. So we have a few levels of tails. The base level is a fabric tail, it's just made of like kind of like swimsuit material. And then you have a mono fin that you can put inside of it. Those range anywhere from three to $800 with the mono fin, and they're pretty light, they're, you know, probably under 10 pounds, then the silicone tail, which is like the top of the tiers of tails. Those range anywhere from two to $20,000. And they can weigh anywhere from 25 to 50 pounds $20,000.

Nick VinZant 12:25

Like why is

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 12:28

that pretty rare to come across one that's that expensive, but they do exist because they are so intricately created the normal standard price, I would say you're looking at like three to 6000 which is still, but you have to figure it, it takes an artist years of skill to get to the point of sculpting a mermaid tail, and then pouring silicone and pulling the mold and putting the whole tail together and then hand painting the tail. And it's all custom to each client, what they like their measurements. It's a very intricate process that takes weeks for one of them to be created. And then you have the materials on top of that the dragon silicone is pretty expensive, too. So it's an it's really a working piece of art. It's a usable, wearable piece of art.

Nick VinZant 13:23

When you look at the tails, like what are most people looking for? Are they using it to swim? Or is it more of like a photo I want to wear this at the beach kind of thing.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 13:35

I would say most people are interested in swimming in them. That's the allure, they see our videos diving in them, which is why they come to do the mermaid free dive training is so that they can learn to swim in them. And that our courses start from age six to there is no age limit. And a lot of people I think get the tails so they can swim. There's probably a few that don't want to swim, just like to you know, feel like a mermaid and take some cool photos. But I would say majority would like to swim in them.

Nick VinZant 14:08

So I'm sure you've heard this one before. Right? Like people conceptualize anything. Is there some aspect of that involved in this?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 14:19

Not for me, I mean, I don't involve that aspect into my work at all. And I really don't get any feedback online that is in that nature. I know that it exists, but it's not something that's ever been something that I've created in my work and it's not something that I've had to experience. We get the occasional the term is Mirvac segregates occasional mer vert, but other than that, no, I that hasn't been you know something that's been a part of what I do in the mermaid stuff, but it, it is society and society will literally sexualize anything, unfortunately. But I am lucky that that's never been something that I've had to deal with

Nick VinZant 15:11

is that though some is that it's not unreceived Darkside right, because whatever people are into, like do your thing I don't care. Um, but is that a known side of the industry amongst professional mermaids and like some people will Oh, and some people won't?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 15:30

I would say no, I would say, I don't know anybody that works in that space with mermaid stuff. I wouldn't be naive to think it exists. But among all of the professionals that I've been surrounded around, or I've worked with, that's not even something that like is a topic of discussion or something that's ever like brought up in a conversation. It's not something like we, I think that the most odd requests I ever got, was to be in my tail, like for a sushi party, and they wanted to put sushi all over me and I was like, it, thank you, but it is a hard no for me. Whereas there are, you know, other entertainers who, you know, might do that, but they're probably not pro mermaids. They're probably like a model or a performer putting a tail on to do something like that. Versus a professional mermaid. No, that wouldn't be a common thing

Nick VinZant 16:32

that makes sense, right? Like that. Probably side of things does exist, but maybe they target a different demographic, if that's what they're interested in. Um, are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions, because we have a bunch of them? Sure. Okay. Let's get that. Let's get this one out of the way. First, how long into a conversation with somebody before they bring up Ariel?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 16:57

That would be within. There's actually one thing Trump's Ariel, it's the wiki watching mermaids. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. But if there's a spring here in Florida called wiki watchI springs, and they've had a mermaid show, for I don't know when it started, but it goes way back, I think, like 50 years or so. And they're these amazing performers that you know, perform in the spring water and there's like a glass wall and you can sit and watch the performance. And that's the first thing everybody asks is Oh, you must be wiki watch your which you washy. They say it a different way every time. That's always first. So Ariel usually comes up second. And that's within a couple minutes of the conversation is you must want to be Ariel, you must be obsessed with the Little Mermaid. And then of course, I've had red hair for a long time. Not currently, but I do get pretty red. And I think people think I'm trying to cause play her but I'm not surprisingly enough. But it is definitely you know, I get pointed out a lot. That that that's Ariel walking around with her human legs. So I would say pretty. Pretty early on in a conversation

Nick VinZant 18:13

does it make your icon a twitch? Or is it just like, he just gotta you just gotta accept it right? Like, I'm, like Tom Hanks getting yelled, Run Forrest run, like you just, there's nothing you can do about it. And that's just gonna happen. Yeah,

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 18:27

it doesn't bother me. I, I have blue eyes and red hair. So like, I'm asking for it. I feel like anyways. But no, it doesn't bother me at all.

Nick VinZant 18:39

Is this becoming more or less popular recently? And when do you think that change kind of seemed to happen? Was there something that just kicked it off? Or did it happen organically?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 18:51

That's a good question. I would say it rose in popularity in the last five years. I'm not sure why I know that. That's when I discovered it. And prior to that I had no idea there was pro mermaids and that tail makers existed. And I feel like most the people I know who work in this industry are also within the last seven years. So I don't know if it's just when tail makers started, like really, you know, started putting themselves out there. I know only a few people who've been doing this like more than 10 years. So I would definitely say it's just started in popularity. The live action Little Mermaid comes out soon. And that will definitely bring up the interest and then Black Panther and Avatar. The two second editions. Also both hugely helped the freedive industry, which is what Mermaid King is, so we've had a lot more interest in learning to freedive because both of those movies were so heavily based underwater, and all of the actors underwent freediving training to Do those movies. I think it was Sigourney Weaver. Got a six minute breath hold while training for Avatar two, which is insane. And I don't know when you know it might lose popularity I just know that mermaids have never lost popularity in our in our history of folklore and mythology. It's always been a fascination you see mermaids everywhere. And I don't see that, you know, kind of going away. And then I don't see kids ever not loving mermaids, so I think it's going to always stay. And then you know, when we see movies like a new Little Mermaid, it will just increase that interest during that time.

Nick VinZant 20:41

What's the appeal of like? Why free divers opposed to scuba diving like why? What's the

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 20:47

that's a great question. As probably one of my favorite questions why free dive right? Like why hold your breath if you can be on air. Scuba diving is amazing. It has its place but it has so much gear. It is heavy, it's intrusive, it's just you know, it's you really have to put in time to go do a scuba dive. Whereas free diving, you can be 100%, gearless, you don't have to wear anything if you don't want to. And it's just learning how to connect your mind and body in a way where you can feel calm when you maybe feel like you shouldn't. And to me, I tell people, it's like unlocking a superpower. Everyone will say, Oh, I can't hold my breath more than 30 seconds. And most of those people when we work with them, we can get them to a two minute breath hold on their first or second try. And to see them like light up like wow, I can hold my breath for multiple minutes is such a superpower and then learning how to equalize on a single breath. So going deep without air is just such an incredible feeling. It's hard to describe. But when you're pulling down a line and you're just with yourself, and there's nothing else you can't hear anything, you really can't think about other things. It is an incredibly meditative experience. So not only is it just a fun challenge, but it's something that I think learning how to properly breathe and how to properly hold your breath can be applied to everything in your daily life, how to calm yourself down in any stressor starts with something like holding your breath. And the other thing is you can pop up and down in freediving. Whereas scuba, you have a lot more you know, things you need to adhere to time on the top, you know time to to do your stop. There's different risks with scuba diving and free diving is just a bit more natural and free but obviously you can't stay down as long so I think they both have their place if you enjoy being in the water.

Nick VinZant 22:56

Like this question that follows up to it. Does all this then make snorkeling? Lame?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 23:02

So scuba divers are kind of funny, right? They a lot of them don't get free diving because they're they scuba dive. They're like why wouldn't you want to breathe? So whenever we're on the scuba boats as free divers that they always say, oh, look out the extreme snorkelers are coming.

Nick VinZant 23:22

That's pretty good. And

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 23:23

that is what it is. It is extreme snorkeling.

Nick VinZant 23:26

I don't know if that makes it more. I don't know what I don't know if I give me and if they were like a be testing that in marketing. I don't know like extreme snorkeling. I don't know if I might be a little more interested in extreme snorkeling than free diving. Free diving sounds

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 23:43

like who would use the term Free diving but you know, that's that's what it is. You are snorkeling half the time and you're diving half the time.

Nick VinZant 23:52

Yeah. Best best mermaid in media fiction, that kind of stuff. Worst mermaid in media fiction.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 24:02

I am not that good with mermaids in the media. Everyone always has this misconception that like I probably have seen every mermaid movie and like no every mermaid character because I am a pro mermaid. I only just saw splash for the first time a couple of years ago because I was so tired of people giving me the you haven't seen splash face. So I would say I loved Daryl Hannah as a mermaid she is probably one of the few mermaids who had a real silicone mermaid tail made. So the process that she went through to have this tail made the extensive time she had to sit in this silicone tail is pretty impressive. So I would probably rate her number one just because she actually had to work really hard. Whereas a lot of mermaid stuff is CGI. And it's you know, I can't really appreciate appreciate a CGI me are made versus someone who put the whole get up on.

Nick VinZant 25:03

What if, though, okay, but what if this was reversed and it was fish, upper body, human lower body.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 25:13

So I had a moment on social media and I didn't catch it. But I did this, like I held on to the rope underwater, and I was a free divers, so I was in human form. And I like went to do a back stretch, and it's being filmed and a fish swam by. And if you pause, the moment that fish swims by in the video, it completely replaces my head, instead of a bunch of people have screenshotted it and sent it to me, and it's a fish's head with my freedive. And I was I was kind of here for it. I kind of like it.

Nick VinZant 25:46

Yeah. One way seems pretty practical. The other way seems like a huge pain in the ass. Right? Like,

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 25:53

it seems impractical the other way, but I, I would still support it.

Nick VinZant 25:59

Um, how can people get involved in conservation, I know you do a lot for ocean conservation, water conservation in general.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 26:07

Yeah, I always tell everybody that the best way to get involved is to educate yourself first and foremost, to be aware of the issues that are out there to start raising more discussions about the issues that we have, obviously, water is our entire life force. And if we don't have good warm water, we're not going to survive. So when you know, people maybe don't take an interest in water and protecting it, it's interesting, because you know, we can't survive without it. And almost all waterways have something they're fighting against. Like, for instance, the Florida Springs is dealing with our aquifers are drying out, due to pumping too much water out of them. And they're also getting a lot of pollution from runoff from farms, fertilizers, sewage, things like that our oceans are facing, you know, the warming of the seas, the coral is dying at a rapid rate, there's a lot of different things, the Great Lakes, you know, the lakes have their own issues. So there's a lot out there and it can feel overwhelming. So I always just say, think of a body of water that is close to your heart, a stream, a lake, a river, the ocean, and then learn about the things that it's up against. And then from there, you can start to learn how you might be able to make an impact, whether that's using less water at home, ditching the plastic water bottles, you know, ditching organizations that are harmful to the waterways, things like that, because it's quite a rabbit hole of overwhelm. But there's a lot of ways we can kind of just actively get involved and start making more changes so that we have coral reefs for generations to come. And we have, you know, enough drinking water for the generations to come as well.

Nick VinZant 28:02

Do people seem to be more serious about it? lately? I mean, I think I know in the past, right, like, there was save everything, you know, and I think that people were kind of like, okay, all right. But do people seem like they're taking it more seriously now? Or is it still kind of like, okay, save the water.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 28:21

I think it's becoming more serious, like, like, for instance, the sunscreen, it's very easy to buy a product that's not harmful to fish and coral versus a product that is, and because everybody is like, Okay, if it's that simple of this one is going to kill the ocean. And this one isn't. Let me make the switch to the point where the brands are now having to make the switch as well, and take those harmful things out of the product. So as a consumer, if we just don't support something that is so blatantly harmful, when there is an alternative, it's going to make that entire company have to rearrange, we as the consumers are in control. Unfortunately, I think we just let the brands control us a lot of times. But if we really pick and choose what we consume, we can change the narrative. So something as simple as changing up your sunscreen when you're gonna get in a natural body of water. You know, it's a small thing I know, people will listen to be like, That's the least of our worries. But if that's the way you think of things, we're never gonna get anywhere. And if we bombard people with like, everything's terrible, that's not going to help people either. So just small adjustments and we call it being imperfectly sustainable, finding ways in our imperfect lives to help reduce and you know, use use less.

Nick VinZant 29:51

Is there like a hotbed of professional mermaids or mermaid activity for people? I imagine it's gotta be on the coast, but it's it's like it's Florida, bigger than Texas or Hawaii. Is there kind of like, Oh, you gotta go here.

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 30:02

So China is the biggest. That is where a lot of mermaid eating originated. So like in the patty program, Patty, Asia is the ones that actually created the mermaid program. And then Patty Americas is now you know, bringing that on in the English language, but it actually was written over there. So China has has beat the world record for the most mermaids in a body of water. I know that the Marines over here are hoping to beat that record eventually, but it's massive there. It's a huge thing. I would say in America, Florida is definitely going to be your biggest because of the warm weather year round. And then California also is hugely popular with mermaids. The Florida springs definitely bring a lot of a lord summer meeting to our state, because it's crystal clear water that is perfect for a mermaid and everybody wants to come visit. And that's where everyone who wants to be a pro is kind of moving to is here in Florida.

Nick VinZant 31:10

That's pretty much all the questions that I have what's kind of coming up next for you? How can people learn more?

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 31:17

So you can visit my website mermaid freedive.com. I also have Vero Beach mermaid Dotco depending on you know whether you want to be a mermaid, higher a mermaid, whatever it might be, that lures you into the mermaid world, we pretty much have something you know, for everyone. Not everyone, but almost everyone

Nick VinZant 31:39

yatta yatta. Not missing one

Professional Mermaid Brandee Anthony 31:43

key niche there, but it's a lot of fun. And if you just like to see what I'm talking about, just you know, going on social media and looking up Vero Beach mermaid or mermaid freedive. I have tons of diving videos just talking about and seeing everything that I've talked about in this in this chat. Yeah, either come get certified or just watch from afar.

Nick VinZant 32:08

I want to thank Brandi so much for joining us if you want to connect with her, we have linked to her on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, Tiktok, and Instagram, and we've also included her information in the episode description. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw, and get to the pointless part of his show. Do you believe in things like mermaids, Yeti, those kinds of stuff?

John Shull 32:36

I do not. And I have a valid reason as to why I don't. We've been around and there's been media for what at least 150 years pictures video. I mean, has there ever been a Loch Ness Monster actually caught on tape? Or actually been a Sasquatch proven? No,

Nick VinZant 32:58

I would believe it more in the past. And I would now especially just because everybody basically has a phone with him or a camera with him at all times. And we have like trail cameras that are set up. So I don't the only there's only one or two that I would be like, Okay, maybe someday that we would actually find one. Like anything in the ocean. I could see one day that like, oh, that might actually be true. I will say

John Shull 33:25

this is that I kind of know obviously neither of us grew up in the 40s 50s 60s. But I think there is a sense of creativity that goes along with these things that has gone now.

Nick VinZant 33:37

You feel like something's been lost. I do the miss the old days.

John Shull 33:43

I mean, I don't miss the old days, but I miss the ability to what I say I miss it, I miss the thought of being able to, to start something like that, and then have it go on through through decades. I think some of our creativity and imagination is is gone because of things like that.

Nick VinZant 34:05

I don't know if we've lost any of it or not. But I do think that we need to have some of that in the world. Like I think that there has to be a certain amount of magic. What do you do though? Have you ever dealt with somebody who like really believes in something that you think is absolutely crazy? Like, what's your approach for handling that? Like if you're talking to somebody and they're like, You know what? Aliens visited me yesterday?

John Shull 34:30

I know somebody in my life that when 100% thinks they're visited by ghosts every week,

Nick VinZant 34:36

every week. Is it in their house? Wait, do they believe that they have a haunted house? Or do they just think that they're like being visited by ghosts while walking around? Like during their daily lives?

John Shull 34:49

I mean, all of it, all of it in between. I'm not gonna even waste any time on that other than to say that this person, even when there's a draft in the room With and you can clearly see where the draft is coming from, will say, you know, there's a spirit in the house.

Nick VinZant 35:06

I tried to not acknowledge it in any way. Because I feel like any sort of acknowledgment whether I agree with that person's beliefs, or if I kind of disagree and be like, No, it's just gonna make the situation worse. Like, I just, if somebody's talking about stuff like that with me, I just want that situation to end as quickly as possible.

John Shull 35:27

The best way I've actually had this discussion before, but other people think of it along the lines of politics, right? Everyone takes aside, and they fight that side to the bitter end without hearing each other or wanting to think of facts. As I started this conversation off, if there was, I mean, throw anything out there. If there was a Bigfoot, it would have been proven by now. It just would have been.

Nick VinZant 35:56

Yeah, I think so. And I think the problem is, like we've talked about with conspiracy theories, it's always the aspect of logistics, because it can't just be one big foot, right? Like big foots got to be getting busy with other big foots. And there's got to be a lot of big foot. So there can't just be one there has to be. I'm not an animal expert, there probably has to be hundreds, if not 1000s, in order to maintain that population of Bigfoot. So there shouldn't be tons of them just up there. That's the difficulty I see it. That's that right? The only reason why I couldn't believe it in the water, where we can't really see him. We don't know what's going on down there.

John Shull 36:33

But if there's a squid the size of a school, a school building, I mean, you're you're gonna see it at some point.

Nick VinZant 36:41

It has to be it's interesting to me that right? Like if you think about other kinds of animals, there's always like other kinds of animals that are kind of like those animals. Like whales have sharks, like there's big sharks. People are the only things without like other people. There's not like a subset of us another intelligent creature.

John Shull 37:01

Okay, here's a question for you out of out of these, these these three things, a primal creature. And we'll say like that, that can be a caveman. Humans now. Or a robot? Which one would you pick? If you if you had a choice to be?

Nick VinZant 37:17

Am I a robot? Or am I a cyborg? No, fuck, because if I'm a robot, I don't really exist. But am I like a cyborg? Like, I've just got my brain. But I've got robotic parts.

John Shull 37:28

Yeah, you're like Robocop?

Nick VinZant 37:31

Well, that would be the best. I would actually if somebody I would sign up for that immediately. If we had that down, and somebody's like, look, we can replace some of your body parts. With cybernetics, I would absolutely do that. I would go both legs in a heartbeat. Mostly because I've gotten to the age where my knees are starting to hurt, like for no reason. So I would replace both my legs and it's not like I would miss my, you know, no, I miss feeling the breeze on my thigh. Right. So I would do both legs in a heartbeat. I probably do one arm real quick, too.

John Shull 38:05

I'm probably in the minority of this. But I think I would love to go back to like the primal stages.

Nick VinZant 38:12

I then die at 20 That's the

John Shull 38:14

thing, right? You know, maybe if I could be guaranteed to live to 50 or 60, or something I don't know to have a full life. But we both know I've fallen over a cliff at like age seven. So

Nick VinZant 38:25

yeah, that's the problem. You would go back, teleported back or teleported back into that time, and you'd have no idea what to do. I bet that was hard as shit, honestly.

John Shull 38:35

I mean, but But once again, that's human evolution. And I'm not saying that's bad or good or and I don't want to get in that debate. But I'm just saying, if they if those people hadn't flipped over cliffs, then we'd still be doing it. And sometimes we still do it as as where we're at now as humans. It's kind of like you can apply that to the mythical creature arguments. You know, a Loch Ness Monster may have started, you know, with the cavemen. And it has gone until now, but it's not it's not anywhere near what it was. Because it's been. It's been proven several times that it's just a log, right. Like it's not an actual monster floating in, you know, in Scotland, or Ireland, wherever the hell it is.

Nick VinZant 39:19

I can't remember it's the locks it's up there somewhere might be Wales for all we know. I'm always fascinated by how we figured out certain things would kill you. Like how did we accidentally find that out? Like, I don't think this will kill you. But just as an example, like mixing Mentos and Coca Cola, right, we've all seen those videos like how did we figure out that certain things would like oh, that's gonna kill you. Like somebody had to die that way. And like, whoa, and probably multiple people had to die like that before we figured out that we shouldn't do that.

John Shull 39:51

I mean, well, like don't go outside

Nick VinZant 39:53

during a lightning storm. Like how many people had to get killed by lightning before we as a civilization figured out like hey, Gotta get low. I don't

John Shull 40:01

want to make the argument that we are dumber now than when we were cavemen just based upon the either that or humans have run out of trial and error things to do. So we're trying Mentos and Coke imploding our stomachs.

Nick VinZant 40:18

Well, we've evolved to the state of boredom. That's the difficulty. We our lives are now so easy that we become bored with them. And now we have to make things more difficult. But I don't think that you would really want to go back to those times, I think it'd be really hard. I think you can make an argument that you know what, maybe we aren't designed as people to be working in computers and sitting around all day, that we have lost a certain amount of ourselves, but I still don't think that you would want to go back to living like that, and how difficult it really was like, wait a minute, we don't have air conditioning. I gotta go find food.

John Shull 40:54

That that would be the toughest part, I think and I, if we were to poll 100 people, I bet you like sleeping outside or under very little shelter. And food would be the number one, number one and two concerns.

Nick VinZant 41:07

I think that if we polled people, there would be a certain percentage of people that would say like, yeah, I would actually absolutely want to go back to living like that. But then I bet if we polled people like a year after living like that, they'd be like, hell no, I don't want to do that again. Like even the most outdoorsy person that's like I lived in the woods for six months, would probably be like, You know what? I really don't want to go back to that. Okay, are you ready for a shout out yet?

John Shull 41:36

I am I listened. We were we were having a great conversation about Bigfoot and King Kong and cavemen. It's awesome. I forgot about King Kong. I wonder if people looked at us who they would think was more primal just by looking at you and I?

Nick VinZant 41:52

Probably you.

John Shull 41:53

Yeah. Yeah, you look much more refined and polished, which is a good thing.

Nick VinZant 41:57

Yeah. Yeah, I'm much more like kind of city boy. Well, not even city boy. I mean, you look like a city boy, which oddly enough is that I probably have. Just because of where I grew up much more wilderness skills.

John Shull 42:10

Yeah, I mean, you grew up in Kansas money and we're gonna go eat marshmallows out of a taste. I had a that's not how they talked about Kansas. And I apologize to all the Kansas Kansas kids.

Nick VinZant 42:22

People are very offended.

John Shull 42:23

Well, Michigan's governor doesn't even know what she calls her own people. So let's that's fantastic. It's Michigander for God's sakes. Gretchen. All right. Let's give some shout outs here.

Nick VinZant 42:34

What do you call him? A Michigander? Yeah,

John Shull 42:37

Michiganders?

Nick VinZant 42:39

Well, that's just dumb, though. I mean, what a terrible way of referring to it.

John Shull 42:43

I mean, well, how else are you supposed to? I mean, people who live

Nick VinZant 42:47

in Michigan, right? Like that's one of those things where like, the, whatever that word is supposed to be right? Whatever the name of that is that you refer to people. Right? Like, they should just skip that for Michigan. Like, oh, well, it would be Michiganders. Now let's just call them people who live in Michigan. That's better. Like Kansas, Kansas. Washingtonians. That's another bad one. Some states should just leave that aspect out of it. That's just all on people who live here.

John Shull 43:18

I should be a top five at some point. State nicknames are like you know how they identify residents as like Texans. As much as

Nick VinZant 43:26

Texans is fine. Yeah, Californians. New Yorkers is okay. Iowans Illinoisans, like that one Nope. leaving that alone. Illinois, what would you even say?

John Shull 43:42

South Dakota Waianae South Dakotans North Dakotans, I have no idea

Nick VinZant 43:46

that's not too bad. Wyoming, Wyoming years.

John Shull 43:50

Hawaiian wines is pretty simple. That's fine. That's fine. It's got to be short.

Nick VinZant 43:54

It's got to be Kansas, Hawaiians, Texans Californians. If you got to think about like no way we can't say it that way. Then you guys got to go with people who live here. Vermonters New Hampshire writes, New Hampshire is awful New Hampshire fronts

John Shull 44:13

Oregonians? Is that Is that what they say out there?

Nick VinZant 44:15

That's pushing it that's about as far as you can go and still be acceptable. Oregonians always wonder why

John Shull 44:21

Oregon's even a state but it's fine.

Nick VinZant 44:25

I mean, the Oregon Trail because of the video game Oregon Trail. That's why and wow, people who are not of John and I's generation. Probably the greatest thing you missed out on is Oregon Trail playing Oregon Trail and school getting dysentery and dying.

John Shull 44:42

It was fun. I think there's a lot though from our generation that the now generations miss out on like 15 tacos at Taco Bell.

Nick VinZant 44:50

Man I remember getting like six verse. Oh, man, I remember getting like 12 tacos for $6. Yeah, who?

John Shull 44:58

I remember going to McDonald's Two for three fillet of fishes. Let's go.

Nick VinZant 45:03

Oh man, five for five at Arby's. Oh my god. That's still to me is probably the best food deal of all time five for five at Arby's.

John Shull 45:13

Yeah, they didn't they didn't do that for too long you realize that because they realized they were getting boned on cost probably.

Nick VinZant 45:20

Right that was that was borderline we might be we might be losing money here but that was the best food food deal was five for five at Arby's.

John Shull 45:29

Somebody brought this up the other day that there is no such thing as fast food anymore. It's all luxury, fast food because everything is expensive, that even the dollar menus are like $1.50 now or $1.75.

Nick VinZant 45:44

I don't know man, if you honestly get I learned this if you go and you get kids stuff, which is generally fine. Like I can feed myself and my two kids for eight bucks. You can go to Wendy's we get three burgers, a fry, and two Frosties and you're good to go. That's $8 you can still live pretty cheaply, if you want to like food is still fairly cheap. You just got to kind of be willing to not really get what you want. Like okay, well that will work.

John Shull 46:11

I went to Wendy's a week ago, I spent $64 on myself.

Nick VinZant 46:16

That's an I don't know what you're doing. How do you even do?

John Shull 46:19

I'm kidding. That's that's a lie. I don't know how you do that as a as one person spending, like if you're actually eating for real. I don't know how you get $64 of anything fast food wise. All right. All right. All right. Let's give some shout outs here to the people that matter. We'll start with Tony downs. James sokos Marco Cruz show vich Nick Galluzzo Liam Gannon, Nika schnitzel, Sam Malone, Paul bass, Grant Gustafson and Richard Cal Cydia. I like that name Paul bass. Like that's I don't know why that is when I was looking up, you know, people who have interacted with us the last week or so. I just saw Paul bass. I'm like, That's a strong name.

Nick VinZant 47:07

Paul band. Yeah. That is a strong name Paul bass. Like. Yeah, yes. Like if he was in a fishing show, or was a NASCAR driver, or something along those lines? That's a name that's didn't like Paul bass. Paul by Dale Earnhardt, right. Like those are

John Shull 47:31

good names. He's probably not even like from the Midwest at all. He's probably like New York call bias.

Nick VinZant 47:38

Right. That's a name that catches people's attention, though. Paul bass.

John Shull 47:42

Yeah, Paul Paul bass bus in that ass,

Nick VinZant 47:45

bust his ass Paul bass.

John Shull 47:47

So got a couple of heard or what is less of an athletic feat to you, or sport will go sport, golf, bowling, or cheerleading?

Nick VinZant 48:04

Cheerleading is a very athletic sport. I think that you have to have a certain degree of coordination, power and strength. That doesn't look easy at all. So I think cheerleading is absolutely an athletic sport. Probably second would be golf. I think it does take a certain degree of like coordination to be able to do that. And body control. Bowling is kind of like, all right. Bowling is not that difficult. To me bowling and golf are probably not that different in terms of athletic ability. But what puts golf ahead is that the the situation changes much more than it does in bowling. So you have to have I think more physical ability to adapt to those changes. Do you think

John Shull 48:50

go I agree with you the cheerleading, well throw cheerleading outside, I just wanted to see if I could bait you into saying something nonsensical about cheerleading. So congratulations, man, as

Nick VinZant 49:00

people get hurt, that's tough to get let that stuff is hard and those people get hurt.

John Shull 49:04

Do you think golf and bowling should be classified as professional sports?

Nick VinZant 49:10

I think people I don't know how, what is the technical definition of a sport?

John Shull 49:15

Sport because listed as a dictionary.com is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Nick VinZant 49:32

Then there would be sports, right? I don't necessarily understand how NASCAR though or racing then would qualify as a sport. Because to me, even though that might be something that's physically difficult. Well, chess is physically difficult to write like, you've got to be paying attention. You've got to be focused, you've got to have all this mental stuff that's going on. So if NASCAR is a sport then chess would be a sport as well.

John Shull 49:59

I think both are Technically, this is sports I don't the problem is you can't have one subset of the of the of our almost a genre of the activity. Not listen sport and the other like Formula One is a sport. NASCAR maybe not so much. Chess

Nick VinZant 50:18

Zack, same thing to me.

John Shull 50:22

Chess might be a sport checkers probably not backgammon. Probably not shuffleboard. That's probably a sport.

Nick VinZant 50:29

I don't think that anything in which something else is doing a majority of the work that is involved, like Naskh like car racing, or riding horses, or jet skis. If something else is doing most of the work, then that shouldn't qualify as a sport. In my opinion. The car is really doing that the horse is doing most of this.

John Shull 50:52

I mean, that's that's that's fair. All right. Well, we'll we'll live to fight another day. I'm curious if anyone has any opinions out there. Second question for you. Would you rather have I don't I shouldn't have left. Uh huh. All right, let's start this one over. Second question for you. Would you rather have no eyes? No hearing or no teeth?

Nick VinZant 51:18

Well, no teeth. You can get dentures. You're not really replacing your eyes or your ears.

John Shull 51:26

Now let me let me rephrase it. Let me let me add us if you can't get any, any replacements you can't get eye replacements will still no teeth. But that means that's gonna be really tough to eat the rest of your life, then. It's gonna be

Nick VinZant 51:39

really tough not being able to see or hear. I fought with Luke enough to have a milkshake.

John Shull 51:46

I think. I think I don't think you thought this through. I think I'd rather have teeth than hearing.

Nick VinZant 51:53

No, you wouldn't.

John Shull 51:56

I like food, man. Food is good.

Nick VinZant 51:58

Right? I'm sure you like food, but you're probably not gonna like getting hit by that car.

John Shull 52:02

I mean, I'll learn braille. I'll be I'll have you know, I'll be fine. But

Nick VinZant 52:06

not everybody knows it. Right? It's not the fact that you don't know it. It's that like, well, how are you going to communicate with other people? Most people don't know sign language.

John Shull 52:15

I think having no teeth. This is a lot worse than you think it is. I'm not saying that being deaf.

Nick VinZant 52:21

I'm saying that it's not bad. But that's like a pretty easy choice. Like, yeah, I'd much rather be able to hear and see then I have to

John Shull 52:30

stick me in a room with my steak every day in a book and I'm fine.

Nick VinZant 52:37

I think that you would probably change your opinion there very quickly, because you could still eat the steak. Chop it up. You just have to have hard gums. You got to think this through man, that's easy. One got to have hard gums. As someone who lacks a sense, I do not have a sense of smell. You don't realize how much that you're missing out on how much

John Shull 53:03

that has to be the most used phrase on this podcast from you. My lack of smell my lack

Nick VinZant 53:10

lack of smell? Well, because that's what I'm saying though. You don't realize all the times that things like that come up. You take it for granted. Somebody who doesn't have it realizes all the things that they are missing out on.

John Shull 53:22

I don't realize I've shipped myself till I feel a little little pressure and then it starts to roll down my leg.

Nick VinZant 53:29

I've actually pooped on my hand and not known it because I couldn't smell it. Think about that. That's I didn't poop on my hand. But I got some like on my hand like sometimes you know you wipe and it's a little bit dangerous back there. And then you got some on your hand, but I just didn't know. I was actually playing Nintendo and I looked down I was like, oh my God got poop on my hand.

John Shull 53:50

It's very dangerous pooping. It's a it's a dangerous finish that

Nick VinZant 53:53

I finished the game is what I did. I'm ready for a beer right now.

John Shull 53:57

I am. It's a mid day in the east. Or midwest.

Nick VinZant 54:03

I can't really start drinking. Unless I'm going to a game. I can't really. I mean, let me know. I really can't start drinking it until like, even even like seven I can't wait till seven o'clock.

John Shull 54:17

This is the champagne of beer. So I mean, it's not really like you're drinking beer. It's the champagne.

Nick VinZant 54:22

But Did you are you drinking Miller High Life out of a bottle? I am sure why? Because it's probably why did they even make that in a bottle. There's no reason to make that in a bottle at all.

John Shull 54:37

Somebody left the room, my house, you know, like four or five of them. And I actually kind of enjoyed them now. I forgot.

Nick VinZant 54:43

I liked cheap beer. I'd much rather I think cheap beer. I like a good swill. I want something that lets you know that you're drinking it.

John Shull 54:52

Yeah, you always have their chicken wings shots. Now. I'm ready for a top five. Let's get into it.

Nick VinZant 54:58

Okay, so our top five is Top Five mythical creatures. I don't know if these are necessarily mythical creatures, but like, I can't think of what the actual name for them would be. I think it's actually like cryptids, like cryptozoology or something like that. But we're just going to call them top five mythical creatures. What's your number five?

John Shull 55:16

I put a fairy as my number five. Fairies.

Nick VinZant 55:21

Okay. Um, all right, with fairies that's about I couldn't go any higher than five. Because, like, all right,

John Shull 55:29

kind of like, our our part of this podcast. You've never seen the two we know the tooth fairy is not real. We know it because we're the fucking Tooth Fairy. In that being parents. Yeah, fairies are they deserve to be on a top five mythical creatures list because of how famous they are in media, but we know they don't exist.

Nick VinZant 55:52

My number five is to macabre. Mainly just because I like the way that it sounds like Tupac Cobra. I just like to say it. Chupacabra may not be that high on this list, but it's one of the best ones to say. Chub macabre mean like,

John Shull 56:10

what? What is even at Uberconference? It's just like an overgrown rats or rodent or something?

Nick VinZant 56:16

unclear, but I think it drinks goats blood kills small animals. Oh, yeah, but chupacabra. Fun to say I like it,

John Shull 56:29

too, but Kabra Alright, my number four is a is a Yeti.

Nick VinZant 56:36

I think that's a little bit high for a Yeti. Okay, all right. Do you? Do you consider the Yeti and the abominable snowman to be the same thing or different things?

John Shull 56:48

I mean, I'm gonna classify them all as the same kind of creature like Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti, the Abominable Snowman. So yeah, so there, I guess those are all my number fours, but I'll stick with Yeti like officially as my number four. And the reason why I even have it on the list is because not one of those creatures. No matter how many people think they've taken photographs of them have been proven to be true. So they're still mythical.

Nick VinZant 57:18

I broke those up. I think that there's a little bit different. I think that the Abominable Snowman is a yeti but he's like, the most famous Yeti think he gets his own slight like, oh, but no, that's not just any Yeti. That's the Abominable Snowman.

John Shull 57:35

We may differ on what you classify a mythical creature because I think my top three are pretty solid in terms of mythical beings. So

Nick VinZant 57:45

okay, my number four is Megalodon. giant shark. I think it actually existed at some point. But there's a lot of people who apparently still think that it exists.

John Shull 57:55

Yeah, so yeah, we're gonna differ on this. I think our last three. So I think Megalodon is it was an actual dinosaur. I don't think it's like, I guess it's mythical. But I, I don't really think it's, I don't think it's in this category. And I'm surprised that you've left off so many other mythical creatures and put a megalodon on there.

Nick VinZant 58:20

I think it's sweet.

John Shull 58:22

So my number three it's a Thai, werewolves and vampires.

Nick VinZant 58:26

Yeah, but those aren't like mythical creature. Those aren't cryptids.

John Shull 58:30

But that's what I. But they're, they're considered mythical creatures, because they're not real.

Nick VinZant 58:37

Yeah, but I don't put them in the same category

John Shull 58:40

they're made. And, like, I

Nick VinZant 58:42

don't think that anybody really thinks that there's, I don't think anybody really thinks that there's werewolves out there.

John Shull 58:48

I mean, I'm not gonna lie out of my entire list. That's probably the one thing I would maybe consider being real. There's a lot of hairy people out there men and women alike.

Nick VinZant 58:57

There's a lot of hairy people. But even if you saw like something strangely moving, and there was like a big controversy of it. I don't think that anybody would be like, That's a werewolf and have people believe them? They're like, it's not a werewolf. But if you said that same picture was like a Sasquatch or a Yeti. I think people might believe that but nobody would believe that it's a werewolf.

John Shull 59:18

Well, I will say this that my wanting to probably go back to how your list is so I don't think I've done fucked it up too much.

Nick VinZant 59:28

My number three is a Bigfoot.

John Shull 59:31

Okay. Yeah, that's.

Nick VinZant 59:35

And I think that Bigfoot should probably actually be higher on the list. But I live in the Pacific Northwest where people talk about Bigfoot a lot, and their shirts with Bigfoot on them. And it's annoyed me too much. Okay, number two,

John Shull 59:50

a lot. The Loch Ness Monster?

Nick VinZant 59:53

Hmm. Okay,

John Shull 59:56

so I'm okay.

Nick VinZant 59:57

I'm gonna give my two and one then my number two Who is Yeti? Just because I do think the Yeti is different enough from Bigfoot that it warrants its own thing but nine number one is the Loch Ness monster. I think that has like the most mystery around it, like, oh, that could be because it's the water and it is possible in my mind that like something might be down there that we don't know about. That's why I have Loch Ness Monster is number one.

John Shull 1:00:21

So my number one is, and I kind of left a pretty broad, but it also deals with the water. And if I had to narrow we'll say like a giant squid, but really like any large underwater mythical creature that we think may exist, like the 80 foot octopus or the 400 foot whale, only because from kind of what you said throughout our our time here. I mean, we don't know we haven't been to the deepest part of the ocean. So who knows? Maybe Maybe it is out there. But I'm gonna guess that a properly isn't.

Nick VinZant 1:00:58

I think it probably isn't either. I don't think the Loch Ness Monster probably exists. But if something will one day like something turned up, like oh, yeah, well, not entirely surprised by that. Watching your honorable mention.

John Shull 1:01:12

So I wanted like I said, I kind of created two lists. Because I had a feeling you probably wouldn't agree if I had like a dragon on on my list, but I feel like dragons. I have King Kong. Mermaids. Griffin's sphinxes are the Sphinx, I guess maybe keep it Oh, I

Nick VinZant 1:01:34

know what you're talking about. Yeah, I feel like those kinds of things fall into the category though. People know that. Like, oh, what was that thing? What was the Sphinx? No, it wasn't

John Shull 1:01:45

like, it was really hard. Like, I almost asked you in a text before this. If I could put ghosts as my number one. But you know, I don't know. I mean, because to be honest, ghosts would be easily my number one

Nick VinZant 1:02:02

ghosts would be number one, but I feel like it has to be more specific than that. Like Bigfoot.

John Shull 1:02:09

Yeah. And that's fine. I just like that kind of wraps. Mermaid rounds me up.

Nick VinZant 1:02:16

I have mermaid. And I have moth man. I remember watching the movie The Mothman prophecy. I don't remember anything about it. I don't remember what math man is supposed to be. But I remember like, oh, man, this scary. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really does help us out. New episodes go live every Wednesday morning. And then we have started putting up full episodes on YouTube on Thursdays usually around like 430 Seattle time 730 Eastern. I don't know what that is if you're listening internationally, but basically by like late Thursday, we've put those episodes up on YouTube. And I think that it really does add something being able to see different parts of this conversation. So our YouTube channel is up now we started putting up full episodes like I just mentioned, it's Profoundly Pointless on YouTube. Check it out if you get a chance and let us know what you think. I just think the Loch Ness Monster because it has that mystery makes it more interesting. Like Bigfoot All right, you know that's not real Loch Ness monster that might be


Goals and Motivation Researcher Dr. Gabriele Oettingen

Why do we fail to achieve our goals? Why do we lose motivation? Psychologist Dr. Gabriele Oettingen has spent decades researching those two questions. She says there’s an easy trick to help you stay motivated and achieve your goals. We talk creating achievable goals, staying motivated, the dangers of positive thinking and W.O.O.P. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Toms.

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen: 01:38

Pointless: 26:14

Top 5 Toms:: 47:45

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Interview with Dr. Gabriele Oettingen

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode goals, failure, and Tom's

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 0:20

a when it comes to actually implementing these possibilities to fulfilling our wishes, then these positive fantasies and daydreams are a problem, you need to let them come up with the obstacle of reality that stands in the way. And we did so many studies show that this exercise helps people, set priorities, set preferences, and achieve.

Nick VinZant 0:54

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is a psychologist who specifically studies goals and motivation, why we set goals, why we fail to achieve them, and how we can stay motivated. She's also developed a unique method to help people achieve their goals called whoop, wish, outcome, obstacle plan. This is Dr. Gabrielle Orton yen. I'll jump right into it. Why do I consistently fail at my goals? Actually,

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 1:45

there are many reasons. But one reason is that we tend to positively fantasize about the success of reaching the goal. And that lowers us into feeling already there. And then we don't do anything anymore.

Nick VinZant 2:10

So like if I want to lose weight, I think about like, man, all right, what am I going to look like when I lose 10 pounds. And then I've basically already achieved it in my mind. So my brain gives up?

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 2:20

Well, in our short sentence, that's what sometimes happens, and often happens, because in my brain, in my mind, I already achieved it. Why would

Nick VinZant 2:32

we do that, though? Why would we kind of defeat ourselves? I guess,

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 2:37

first of all, we have all learned that positive thinking is the way to be happy, no. And we saying okay, we just need to think positively and then we might actually be successful. And in a way that might be true. So positive fantasies and daydreams about the future. They're pleasant. So no wonder that our mood improves if we have these positive fantasies and daydreams about achieving our wishes. And also, his positive fantasies and daydreams are good because we can explore all the possibilities of the future. But when it comes to actually implementing these possibilities, to fulfilling our wishes, then these positive fantasies and daydreams are a problem. So we find for example, the more positively people enrolled in a weight reduction program, fantasize about the success in the program, the less pounds they shed, or take university graduates, the more positively they're fantasize about an easy transition into workplace. The fewer dollars they earn two years later, and the fewer job offers they had gotten. Take students, the more positively they think and fantasize about doing well in school, the worst grades. And even in interpersonal relationships. The more positively students fantasize about getting together with their crushy with a person to have a crush on, the less likely it is that they actually get into a romantic relationship. It's yeah, why is that? That's when we asked ourselves to when we got all this data. And what we found is that the people in the positive fantasy will have been induced these positive fantasies about the future that they actually felt already a con Pitch, tell ready, they're in their mind. The fantasies are so strong and vivid, that you already feel accomplished. And what happens then you relax. So the blood pressure goes down. And people report less energy for the wish fulfilled, and that then translates into actual less behavior, less effort and less success.

Nick VinZant 5:33

I feel like kind of exercise, maybe not it, at least in my mind, it's like the easiest one to kind of quantify, right? So let's say my dream is to lose weight, I work out four times a week, but then I start positively thinking about like, Oh, I'm gonna lose weight, then suddenly, oh, I am losing weight. In my mind. Now I'm working out three times a week. Now I'm working out two times a week. But can you still have those positive thoughts about it? And still continue to do what you were doing to get there in the first place? Right? Like, does the positive, this thinking positively in and of itself automatically kind of like crushed the dream so to speak? Or can you think positively about it, but continue to do exactly what you were doing, and then still move forward?

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 6:19

That's exactly what we asked ourselves to. We said, Why do we have these positive fantasies and daydreams may we only need to think negatively, everything's fine. But that's not solution, either. Because these positive sentences and daydreams, they are very important. Why are they're important? Because, as we showed, they are an expression of our needs. They are an expression of what we don't. So these wishes come in our mind as a sign that we don't have certainty. And that gives action the direction. So what do we do in order to show that these positive fantasies and daydreams are an expression of our needs. For example, we did a study where we invited people to come into the lab, and we asked them not to drink any liquids for hours before the experiment. And then we fed them a lot of salty pretzels, so they were really, really thirsty. One group were kept thirsty, the other group, were given a lot of really good fresh water so they could quench their thirst. And then we simply measured the positivity of their fantasies about the future. And surely, the people who were thirsty, had positive thoughts about going to the water fountain, drinking water, and drawing the water. The people in the control group, were not thirsty anymore. They didn't have these kinds of thoughts. They have thoughts, positive fantasies and daydreams about all sorts of things. And you can do the same study with psychological needs. So you deprive people of meaning, they suddenly positively fantasize about getting a more meaningful job. Or think about the pandemic. we deprive people of interpersonal relationships, they positively fantasize about getting together with family and friends. So these positive fantasies and daydreams are very important, they're an expression of our needs. And therefore, as I said before, that gets action that direction. So we cannot just sort of say, you know, relinquish them. But the problem is that they SAP our energy to actually realize this positive fantasies. Now, if they SAP our energy, then the question is, and that's where we are asked, what can you do? So that people with these positive fantasies, get enough energy to follow through to put in the effort and to actually get to wish fulfillment. And then we reasoned, what do we need to do? You need to give them a healthy dose of reality. Meaning, you need to let them come up with the obstacle of reality that stands in the way of fulfilling your wishes and enjoying the wishes outcome and In, by facing the obstacle, looking the obstacle in the eye, you will understand what you need to do in order to surmount. And that's important. You need to mentally contrast the positive desire teacher with the obstacle in myself that might stop me that might impede that I really go and fulfilling my wishes. And this mental contrasting is the way to get the energy to overcome that obstacle. And then you'll have an integrated solution that you can only find, if you really identify what is it, that it is in you in the way

Nick VinZant 11:00

is it is that an easier said, than done thing for a lot of people though.

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 11:05

So it takes mental effort. But it takes only five minutes of mental effort to actually switch from the positive fantasies to the obstacle of reality that is in my way. And that's when we kind of phrased for using it every day, as wish, identify a wish, that is dear to my heart. That is also feasible for me. But challenging outcome, imagine the outcome, imagine the outcomes you imagined the best in the future. And then instead of going ahead and indulging in the positive future, you switch gears. And you say, actually, what is it in me that hinders me of tackling that wish and experiencing that outcome? What is it in me? What stops me very often, you will suddenly discover, oh, this is what I could do to overcome whatever it is my anxiety, my resentment, my tiredness. And by imagining that obstacle and discovering the behavior that you can do in order to overcome that obstacle, you are now much better equipped to actually go for the wish and actually act. So this mental contrasting, or what we call oops, wish, outcome, obstacle. And then the plan I was talking about that exercise will actually help you to set priorities. So to go for some wishes, or to let go from others. So you will leave. And now you imagined ADA to overcome obstacles. And that's then the P. So the whole thing is a whoop, wish, outcome, obstacle plan.

Nick VinZant 13:35

I feel motivated. Where do people go in that method? Where do they generally kind of like, alright, this is where they usually fail. This is where they usually not realize that it's too big, not realize that it's not what they really want. What part of the WOOT method are usually see people kind of get bogged down in

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 14:00

what they are bogged down, is if they don't take these five minutes for themselves,

Nick VinZant 14:08

right? It's amazing when you actually stop and kind of think he realized that like, oh, maybe I'm really not doing this. Maybe I really don't want this thing that I thought that I wanted. When you kind of look at motivation and goal setting and goal achievement and people are there certain types of personalities or people or backgrounds or locations, genders, etc, etc, etc. That seemed to be better at it than others.

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen 14:36

Actually, we never found big differences and wherever you have demographic variables or you know, age doesn't make a difference. So, as long as you fill in your wish and not have other people tell you what your wish is you good?

I think what people sometimes mistakenly do. Parents tell the children what their wishes are. Or bosses, tell the employees what their wishes are. No, ask people listen. And then once people understand how they get in touch with their own wishes, they already have done the first step.

Nick VinZant 15:39

You know, it seems basic, in the sense that right, like control what you can control, be risk, be realistic and set achievable goals, but keep making them harder. But yet, it's so difficult. At the same time,

Unknown Speaker 15:53

yes, because we never really look at the obstacles. And because we have learned that look, negative thinking should go out of the window. And the interesting thing is, if you will look at war, and mental contrasting, if you only think positively. No behavior change, if you only think about the obstacles, no behavior change. If you think about the obstacles first and then about the positive future, no behavior change, it is actually the specific mental exercise with the imagery, because if you don't have the imagery, no. It is this specific exercise of understanding what is my wish, feasible, but challenging? Identifying the outcome and imagining the outcome, and then going for the interest. What is it in me? Because what are the obstacles in me? I can control my boss, I cannot. And we did so many studies show that this exercise helps people set priorities, set preferences, and achieve the wishes by overcoming the obstacles. But on the other side, also letting go from wishes, which just sort of take the energy?

Nick VinZant 17:32

What do you think of those kinds of like society seems to at least to me have shifted more into like, well, let's just think positive about everything. And that's how you get started.

Unknown Speaker 17:42

it saps the energy of actually going on that way. And actually, we find that these positive fantasies and daydreams for the moment. They're linked to lower depression for the moment. But on the long run, you getting more depressed? And why do you get more depressed, because you invested less effort, and then eventually you had less success. So it is dangerous. It is dangerous to be indulging in these positive fantasies and daydreams and just sort of getting disconnected. And then we think for other people, the positive thinking works, but for us, it doesn't. And that's not a good thing. Because then we attribute the failure to only us. And that's dangerous.

Nick VinZant 18:36

Are you ready for some harder slash listeners submitted questions? Sure. So this one just says, Why am I sometimes on the struggle bus and other times on a tear? And I think what they mean by that is like, why are there some days where man I'm just getting stuff done, left and right, knocking stuff out? And then other days, man, I can't get out of bed. You know, like I can, nothing seems to work. Why do we seem to go through phases, we're like, doing everything, doing nothing.

Unknown Speaker 19:08

Sometimes reality is less bumpy. Then, other times that lies in the nature of just randomness. Sometimes, our physiology, our context,

Unknown Speaker 19:25

our lives is influencing us into more energy. So we feel we have more energy, we get things done.

Unknown Speaker 19:42

And these things happen, very often ran. But we're certainly noticing when it's not getting good. We've noticed we tend to notice that more when things go really well. We think we often take it for granted. When things go bad. We often say, but what I would say to the people who sort of suffer from sometimes it doesn't go, well just do a walk for the day, say, what do I really want? Okay? Things didn't work out today. What do I want?

Nick VinZant 20:34

When when you look at kind of procrastination, right? Like, what's the, usually the reason why people are procrastinating about something?

Unknown Speaker 20:45

Procrastination is one of the most interesting phenomena it can be, because they actually get benefits out of it. It can be anxiety, it can be that there have some beliefs that procrastination is linked to being super good. When pressure builds up, it can be that people want to get into flow. Because once you have real high pressure, you don't think anymore. So there are many, many reasons. And what Brooke does, is it helps you to understand what you really want.

Nick VinZant 21:36

Yeah, that's what I would be worried about, right? That you come to some dangerous, not dangerous, but like, crushing self discovery, like, I've wasted my life or something like that?

Unknown Speaker 21:49

No, because it's not evaluated. It's when you understand what the obstacles in the way you accept the reality. But you will always have the possibility of acting within the reality. So it's not evaluated. And that's reason why it is not crashing.

Nick VinZant 22:15

So like when you kind of break down the statistics of how people approach things? Who does what, like what percentage of people hit the obstacle first? How does that all work?

Unknown Speaker 22:27

Right, most people just go on in damaging on the positive future. It's the most pleasant. Some people go on the obstacles only. And some people start with the obstacle and then go to the future. And all these don't do anything in terms of thing that change. Now, if we look at who is doing spontaneous mental contrast, it's only about between 10 and maybe 20 25%, depending on the study. And that's really interesting. Because that means that we need to do interventions, we need to learn it, we need to learn it as a skill if we want to benefit from setting priorities, and fulfilling our wishes. So it seems it's not the default, that we do mental contrasting the default is that people just sort of positively fantasize about the future. Now, when you give people a specific task, then mental contrasting goes a little higher, but not much. So we do it a little or more people do it when they get a very concrete task to solve an exam or math task or things like that. But still, the proportion of people who do mental contrast is

Nick VinZant 24:16

probably where we fail so much goal. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 24:20

That's true. That's exactly right. That's the reason.

Nick VinZant 24:25

That's pretty much all the questions that we have, is there anything that you think we missed or what's kind of coming up next for you?

Unknown Speaker 24:34

Practice, practice, practice. Do it every day at a certain point in time, then it will help you to really put the stress down. Because by setting these priorities, you're much less Loden you're much less kind of irritated and busy and play with it, and always think it's not evaluative. You shouldn't have to evaluate yourself. You look out in the world, what is my wish for the world. And that's fun, and enjoy whooping. Because it's not only the process, the imagery process, which is a discovery tour, but the consequences too. And you will see we're discovering new things.

Pro Remote Control Car Racer Austin “Joker” Snyder

Remote Control Car Racing has exploded in popularity and Austin “Joker” Snyder is becoming one of the sports’ most recognizable names. We talk getting started in RC, the sports’ growing popularity and 200 MPH cars. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Things You Don’t Want to Lose.

Austin “Joker” Snyder: 01:30

Pointless: 32:06

Top 5: 49:56

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Austin's Instagram

Interview with Professional RC Racer Austin “Joker” Snyder

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode racing and stuff you don't want to lose,

Austin "Joker" Snyder 0:20

be a kid again, really, we're just grown ass men and women playing with toy cars from start to finish after I bought the kit, the engine, the tires, Starbucks, the remote, the receivers, that's $2,200, they have one and people have taken it. And I've seen like GPS speeds of over 200 miles an hour.

Nick VinZant 0:44

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is one of the most recognizable faces of a sport that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. What I find so interesting is that it's something that I think a lot of us did as kids. But when you do it on a professional level, it gets intense. This is RC racer, Austin Joker Snyder. So when we look at these kinds of cars, right? Are they the kind of cars that like everybody played with as a kid? Or are these completely different kinds of cars that we're talking about?

Austin "Joker" Snyder 1:39

Oh, no, these are leaps and bounds different. For instance, this one, this one's a pain car doesn't have any electronics or motor or anything in it right now. But I mean, it's metal chassis, all carbon fiber parts, spec tires, change gearing. With the cars that we raised, if you break something, you have a whole box of spare parts, you take it, take it apart, put it back together, fix it and, and get back on track and keep race like it's nothing whereas you break your Walmart car you throw trash to go buy another one.

Nick VinZant 2:13

I think the biggest thing that would jump out to people is like cost difference, right? I'm used to kind of RC cars like okay, 30 to 50 You got sent in this lease gonna work these kinds of cars are gonna cost you what

Austin "Joker" Snyder 2:26

so much cheapest car and and it's what I push a lot of people towards when they want to get into racing, because I do a lot more off road stuff than anything else. But I also do oval and on road racing. And a lot of times people will show up. They're like, hey, you know, I this this is really cool. I want to get into this and then I put up my natural buggy and I'm like, yeah, that's, that's $2,200 Like from start to finish after I bought the kit, the engine, the tires, started box, the remote receivers, fuel servos all this stuff. It's like you're probably looking at about at least two grand, my ye buggies probably 1500. And so it pushes a lot of people away because they're like, Oh, I can't afford that. But you know, that's that's me. That's what I spent all my stuff because I do spend the extra money to get the really good remotes, the really good electronics and all that stuff. And I do have sponsorships that helped me. But a lot of this I pay out of pocket. But with the oval classes, we have one class or cheapest one is about $250 to buy the car, and you buy it and you have the exact same thing that me who's been raised for 22 years has the exact same thing as our local pro drivers. It's a spec class, you buy this car, you take it out of the box, you put it on the track and everybody's running the exact same thing.

Nick VinZant 3:56

What What would you say is kind of the appeal of it to most people kind of get into it as kids and then just stick with it or people come to it later in life.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 4:06

We've seen a little bit of both. I started I started when I was about five or six years old. I started the same time my dad started, we were actually in a local park and saw this weird, like just bunch of dirt and stuff and we didn't know what it was at the time. And then we had shown up and saw that they were racing and started asking questions. We got into it. And that was 22 years ago. So I got into as a kid and stuck with it. My dad got into it and stay doing it for for this whole time. We actually both we both run a track now in South Carolina.

Nick VinZant 4:46

What do you like about the

Austin "Joker" Snyder 4:49

competition the community? I mean, it's one of the first questions we always get is Oh, do you make any money off that you can go to races where you might win some money. But realistically, if I go to a race, I win $500, that doesn't pay off a 10th of what I have in RC stuff. It's just, it's something to get out of the house, on a weekend, go somewhere. And that would just be a good again, really, you're not, you're not focusing on your work, you're not focusing on work, you're not focusing on, you know, what you have to do Monday morning, or all the chores to have, the only thing you're focusing on is sitting here. And, you know, being a kid playing with, we say a lot when people ask us stuff about it, because there are people that take it really seriously. But most of us we've taken it as we're just grown as men and women playing with toy cars,

Nick VinZant 5:49

like everything, I think that once you get into it, there's a massive variety of everything and all kinds of classes. But what would you say are like, okay, these are the main kinds of RC racing. These are the main categories, that kind of stuff.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 6:05

I mean, every every category falls under a main category. But the easiest way is, you've got onroad, oval, drag racing, off road, and then you have crawlers. I'm probably there's probably going to be somebody that listens to listens to this, as Michael Hayden mentioned, Matt Eden mentioned by kind of racing, I'm probably forgetting one, but you probably have five major major works.

Nick VinZant 6:36

Is there one that's like that dominates of those five ones like alright, but this is the big one, right? Like I think of Olympic sports. There's a lot of Olympic sports. But in the summer, it's like it's track and field.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 6:50

Not really, it's just everyone has one that dominates for themselves. Like for me, it's off road racing. I competitively race one eight scale off road. And I, I do other racing. Like I said, I also do dirt oval. I do carpet oval, and I do carpet on rope.

Nick VinZant 7:11

How popular is this?

Austin "Joker" Snyder 7:14

It's a lot more popular than people think. Like I mean, it's a it is a worldwide hobby. We have like we have world champions, we have governing bodies that govern rules and ethics involving involving racing, just like just like f1 does, just like NASCAR, motocross, whatever, whatever you're into. The biggest thing that holds us back and why we don't have this big worldwide following is, nothing is televised. And it is but you have to know where to find it. And to know where to find it, you have to know what RC racing is,

Nick VinZant 7:57

does it work like any other kind of racing like fastest car

Austin "Joker" Snyder 8:02

at time. So we do that a lot of times in with oval racing, where we'll say, hey, it's a 35 black race. But with how we work with this with the constant equipment failures, and everything else. If you went by laps, your leader might get 35 laps, and the next guy might get 32. Because he's done that three times. So we do it with oval racing. I'm going to mount but the main way we do it is based off time. So say for qualifying, hey, you have five, your five minute clock starts when you cross the line. So like if I'm the fifth one to go. My five minute clock doesn't start until I cross the line. So we always say hey, you're racing the clock, you're not racing each other when you're in qualifying. Because just because I pass somebody on the track doesn't mean I'm ahead of them in in the positions. It's all about what pace you're setting. The best example is like if I finished add a we would call it a 10 506. So if I finished at 10 laps in five minutes and six seconds, and you finished at 10 508 which would be 10 laps and five await if five minutes, eight seconds, then I will be ahead of you but two seconds on the clock. The heads up racing doesn't come along until the main events

Nick VinZant 9:25

the winner is it the driver or is it because they have the better car.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 9:30

I've seen people take substandard equipment that have bearings locked up engine that barely runs and beat the field by two laps. I've been beat by people with substandard equipment. I mean it's it's all about the driver their knowledge of setup because I mean, I wish I had an offer car with me that I could show you. You know we have four full aluminum shocks. We can change spring rates oils pistons inside the sharks, did foils, there's anything you can change on natural racecar, you can change on an RC car a lot easier. So having the knowledge of hey, this is how my car is driving, it's doing this I don't like that I'm going to do, I'm going to make this change, it's going to fix that oversteer issue. Little things like that, having that knowledge of setup. And then also, the consistency in your driving is what's going to help you when it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're you spent $500 on a car or $1,500 on a car.

Nick VinZant 10:40

Like where would you rank yourself put all humbleness aside, right in terms of like drivers? Are you at the top? Get into the top? Middle? Just a guy having fun? Like, where would you say that you are.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 10:53

I'm a guy having fun. But it all depends on how my race days villain I mean, I've gone to the biggest race in the world and made the a main, which is the head pain. And in my electric truck class, which is the best one of the best classes that I run, and then finish seventh or eighth overall. And then I went to the same race the next year. At a I think we have like 60 Something trucks and I finished seventh grade. So and then I went back the next year, and I didn't get out of the beaming. So it all depends on you know, who else are competing with but for the most part, I'm a local mid pack Pro. And that's about that's about the best I can expect. I'm about as fast now as I've ever get beat.

Nick VinZant 11:42

How come? I guess why can't you get faster? Do you feel like you know, that's just about the level of my ability, or this is the time that I've got to put into it or it a lot of it is time

Austin "Joker" Snyder 11:53

that I've got put into it. The guys that you see be the fastest in the world. They're their kids that have been, you know, like me racisms, six years old, but had the ability, like parents had the finances and sponsorships and everything, to get them all of the best equipment and everything. And I didn't necessarily have that. So I had that when it came to life. I did not have that when it came to RC racing because RC was not the priority. It was not where we needed to where my family wanted to put off all of its money. So even though I've been racing for a long time, the guys that are at the top have had access to the best equipment and access to pro level drivers their entire career. Whereas you know, I was started racing. 22 years ago, there was a seven year break in the middle came back to it, everything was different had to relearn it. And you know, now being an adult, I work a full time job RC racing, it's my, it's my hobby, it's not my job. That's to work a full time job. It's just, I don't have all the time and effort and everything to put into it. I could get a little bit faster. But realistically, I've accepted that. Barring any other circumstances, I'm as fast as I'm ever going to be content with just going out and having fun.

Nick VinZant 13:22

I mean, you sound like you're pretty damn good at it to be honest. Like if somebody from the outside like, I mean, I've seen some I looked at your Instagram like you got you won some races, like you're selling yourself short, man.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 13:34

I've won some but I mean, like I said, that's that's where I'm at as a local mid pack Pro.

Nick VinZant 13:41

How nice. So somebody that does didn't like professional, full time for a living? Are they making a lot of money? Are they just kind of like, No, I can do this for a living.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 13:53

I've seen some bad houses there. They're making a good amount.

Nick VinZant 13:56

How is there that much money in this?

Austin "Joker" Snyder 14:01

You got to think I'm one person and I probably have 20 grand with our stuff. And that's just in my possession. How much I've spent on it is probably more because you know, we buy and sell cars constantly. But you know, between sponsorships, and this, this other stuff you've got like with one company, they sell their cars all over the world. So you could have two entrepass People buy in your $700 kit. And that's not counting them buying parts than buying tools and all the other stuff that they need. So you're looking at him making a couple billion a year on the companies and then they're passing that down to their top drivers.

Nick VinZant 14:51

Yeah, that makes sense, right? I guess the thing that I would kind of compare it to is like we interviewed a while ago, professional disc golf player A He was getting, I think it might have been 4 million a year. It was in the millions. And that's for a sport that's also not on TV. That sounds like a much cheaper sport. So there you can see were like, Oh, wow, that can add up.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 15:18

It sounds like a cheaper sport. But I've had some friends that have done it as like you spent $130 on a couple Frisbees. Like they're not Frisbees, they're flying discs and Frisbee. Went through the whole spiel of frisbees were made by the Hasbro company. This one isn't by Hasbro, so it's not a Frisbee. Okay, all right, whatever. It's like, you know, I I can't judge on stuff like that. Because how I look at Disc Golf. That's how people look at RC racing.

Nick VinZant 15:53

Do people who do it? Do they fit a kind of certain demographic, they live in this part of the country, mainly men, mainly women, mainly this age,

Austin "Joker" Snyder 16:03

primarily, you're gonna see mostly mostly men. But there's no age. I mean, we have a good friend of mine, Katie Carmody, she runs the race like girl program. And her whole focus with this race, like a girl event is to go around and find the girls and the women that are that are racing racing competitively. I mean, there's a girl in her early teens, that is way faster that like, I can't beat her a home. And then you know, Katie is is our speeds of if I'm on it, our speeds are very competitive with each other. You know, you have girls, right? Like, my daughter is four years old and loves coming with a track, she can drive a car, just don't let her race one yet, because I don't want to pay a lot of money to fix it. But, uh, you know, you've got kids as young as four or five, six years old, racing boys and girls. And then you have I mean, those guys that are still racing, they're in their 80s. Like, when when you talk about this, you think, okay, it's childish men playing with toy cars, when people think about it, and then they show it to a race. And I mean, everyone, it's, it's so we're very inclusive bunch of people. And doesn't matter what part of the country you're in. What part of the world I mean, we, we just had a World Championships in South Africa. We've had World Championships in China. We have one coming up in Brazil, America, the UK, there's no one set demographic,

Nick VinZant 17:50

when you do like a race, is it just one continuous thing? Or do you have to do pitstops and that kind of stuff.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 17:57

Um, so we have electric and we have nitro classes. And it all depends on on distance. So most people can get seven to seven and a half minutes on an on a tank of fuel in in an actual class. Some people can push I mean, I've seen people get 12 minutes on a single tank of fuel. If you had seen any of like my videos on Tiktok or anything like that. It's all a lot of my more popular videos are people hitting RC cars.

Nick VinZant 18:30

Yeah, I saw some of those, like, what did they do? And it looks like they're injecting, I guess, what are they doing?

Austin "Joker" Snyder 18:36

So our fuel tanks are 125 CCS, so you're not going to see somebody with a giant gas can come in. Like fuel bottles. It's a bottle with a metal spout. And some people use that but most of us have gone to fuel guts that companies have actually put 1000s of dollars of r&d into to figure out the best way to get it to work. And we fill it up we have a measurement on fuel. So filled fuel gun, we open the tank and all it is is a pool and the tank is exposed. So we'll pull the tank open set, put it down, pull the trigger on it, fuel drop out into the tank, and then while they're doing that, the drivers up on the driver staying keeping it running, they're keeping the revs up and then as soon as we drop the tank we've been cleared out for a second and then we throw it out. So

Nick VinZant 19:32

it looks intense, right like it's much when I first saw some of those videos I was like gods are see racing like I was expecting like a bunch of people in lawn chairs. Like no that looks like people aren't like nobody's messing around.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 19:46

Yeah, I mean we have a whole driver stand to stand above and be able to see the entire track. Our drivers day in is a Konnex with special wooden building ups. up, but there's, yeah, it's, I, I'm with you, a lot of people think, you know, they're gonna think of people in the backyard playing around. And then they come up to a race. And like I didn't think that any of this was, was what it was. I mean, most people show up to the track if we're not there, and they think it's a BMX track. They just think it's a small BMX track. Because that's all they can wrap their heads around, and then they come out and see us racing, they're like, Oh, this is what y'all do.

Nick VinZant 20:31

That's what I assumed is that it was just like a converted BMX track.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 20:36

Now that there is a purpose built track that's specifically made for RC racing. How much does it cost to build a track? We did the rough estimate, couple months ago on how many loads of dirt we have. Because it you don't just like, dig up the dirt around. Gotta get shipped in? Yeah. So we use where we are, we use South Carolina red clay, because it packs in really well like grooves up, you can lay rubber down. So constantly running around the track will lay rubber over the surface and bring traction up. So we have roughly somewhere between 60 and 80 truckloads of dirt. Dam. And you're talking anywhere between 250 to $500. A load?

Nick VinZant 21:32

I can't do that math.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 21:34

Call it 100 grand. Right? Yeah, at least.

Nick VinZant 21:37

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Go for it. What would you say is the best track in the country,

Austin "Joker" Snyder 21:48

even though I'm biased, and I would love to say, you know, my personal home track. When you're talking about best track in the country, you're probably going to have to go to California. And there's two that come to mind. It's Thunder Alley raceway at Palm Desert, I believe. And then the dirt, which is a Paris, California, there's two of the biggest races in the worlds not counting the World Championship. One is the dirt nitro challenge in California. And the other one is psycho nitrile. Blast in Tennessee, white pine, Tennessee,

Nick VinZant 22:30

fastest our RC car.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 22:32

I think the current speed record is held by the armor. Our armor makes their bashing company. So they make cars that are specifically just to you by and you take to your backyard you take to field somewhere and just go fast, hit jump stuff like that. They don't make race, you could race their cars. But that's not what their cars are made for. They have one and people have taken it. And I've seen like GPS speeds of over 200 miles an hour.

Nick VinZant 23:11

With an RC car.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 23:14

Yeah. Over 200 miles. These are guys that messed with weight gearing. bigger motors. I think one of them actually had don't they put dual electric motors in it. And yeah, there's over 200 miles an hour is somewhere around like 212

Nick VinZant 23:33

feet, like you should need some kind of like, license or training to take any Cournot fast, you know, a concrete wall like yeah,

Austin "Joker" Snyder 23:41

probably Yeah.

Nick VinZant 23:42

Yeah, that can be a little bit dangerous, right? I mean, anything going 200 miles an hour is generally like you got to be kind of careful with that. So then what part of the car would you say is the most important? Is it the obvious one of the engine? Or would you say like, No, this is really the most important part of the car,

Austin "Joker" Snyder 24:03

the servo. What steers the car, I think it has a lot more importance of what people think. Because a lot of people are like, Oh, it turns my wheels, which is what it's supposed to do. So I'm good back yet, but this one is going to turn my wheels faster, it's going to be more responsive to my remote, it's going to do what I want to do when I wanted to do it. There's no lag. There's no fade in a longer run. So I would say that the servo has more has a lot of a lot more importance than what some newer drivers think. But I mean it's between your motor, your speed control servo remote receiver, that's an important thing as well. Your battery which battery you're running, if batteries put out different amounts of power. So,

Nick VinZant 24:55

um, who's kind of the Michael Jordan LeBron James of it? Who would you says like, oh, that's the best,

Austin "Joker" Snyder 25:01

Masami Yasaka, the Japanese driver, who? I can't remember the exact era, but I think it wasn't. It was like right when they started actually having like, a world ranking system and a world championship race. He dominated for years in everything from off road racing to on road racing. I don't know if he did oval, but he did a lot of on road and off road racing. And the I think he won everything that there was to win at that time. Why was in the US? Yeah, Bill, friends, Adam. Great. Probably Adam Drake is one of the ones most people are going to know best at between Adam Drake and Ryan lots.

Nick VinZant 25:51

So the the Japanese competitor, what why were they so good?

Austin "Joker" Snyder 25:59

They just did that. That was before my time. He's, he's still alive. He's still around. But and he still goes great ages. I don't know if he races anymore. I think he just kind of shows up for support. He's a, he's one of the big developers for the car company he'll show. But I don't know what made him tick. I think. I mean, he was a smart guy. I mean, he works for the development of a an actual car company like he builds and designs. They're the improvements that they put on their cars. So I mean, he had to have been a really smart guy and have been able to work out the, the mechanical engineering aspect of these cars and figure out what makes them tick and what makes them better. So

Nick VinZant 26:49

just knew how to do it, right.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 26:52

I'm just have the knowledge. Now, do people cheat? Is there cheating? Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it's to be cheating. I mean, it's, you see it more in oval and on road than you do with off road racing, because of off road racing. So not really a lot of rules. I mean, we have a mod class, which means Hey, as long as it's a 10 scale, to drive buggy, run it, you can run whatever motor you want, whatever battery tires, it doesn't matter, you can, you can run it, whereas the stock class, it's like, okay, it's got to be a 75 turn motor. But it can be any of them. Like, the rules and offroad are so laxed that people who are caught cheating, it's not even cheating, it's just not conforming to the rules. A lot of times, their battery might be taxed at slightly above voltage, the IR rating might be a little bit off their motor, although it's not even the fastest motor that's there, it's not on the approved list. So it's not allowed to be run like, It's little things like that, I don't go to those races where I have to, like my car gets disassembled to be making sure it's under the the it's following the rules. And I don't go to those races, because that bothered me. But you see a lot more of the rules with onroad and oval racing, because it's a lot more specific, but it has to be this motor, you have to run this tire your weight, like I mean, we have a minimum weight, for on road race, your car has to meet this weight requirement. So if you're below that weight requirement, you don't get the race because you had to go back, put weights on your car reweigh. So you do see cheating, but even then it's you, you do have some people that blatantly cheat. But then a lot of times the people that quote unquote, aren't conforming to the rules are guys that are pushing the envelope trying to get their car, you know, their motor is close to that resistance levels, they're allowed to have it and then it just goes a ticket. People are trying to get their batteries as close to that, you know, 8.44 rating, and it goes 8.45. So, you know, it's very marginal, and nobody's trying to break the rules. They're trying to conform to the rules. To The Max extent,

Nick VinZant 29:21

yeah. So I get that right. Like you want to push it, there's a line and people push it right up to the line, and then sometimes they go over.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 29:29

I've seen it with over racing, where the way people do tech, you know, it's like you have to run this battery, you have to run this motor. But they only check that before the race weekend. And at the end of the a mate. So people would put they would get a legal motor attacked, but then they wouldn't run a legal motor all through qualifying because they weren't checking. So they would run an illegal motor to get in da main. And then before the a main, they would swap back to a legal motor. So that if they went when they went to tech after the main that if they won they could pass so they're running illegal cars to get into the a main and then making them legal once they were in the AMA, but I told a buddy of mine what they were doing. He's like, No, I don't believe that they're doing that. I was like, watch the lap times that they like if they're running, you know, five sixes in in qualifiers. What they might break, they might get to like six twos in the main. Yeah, like that sounds kind of blatant. I mean, in an end it happens and when it's happening everyone like it's not a secret

Nick VinZant 30:41

is this the last one we got? Is their trash talk.

Austin "Joker" Snyder 30:46

Oh, all the time. But it's most of the time it's just friendly banter between between friends.

Nick VinZant 30:55

That's pretty much all the questions I got me anything anything you think that we missed or anything like that?

Austin "Joker" Snyder 31:01

Um nothing that I can think of. If if anybody wants information on, you know, helping find their local racing racetrack either I know somebody either have the answer. I know somebody that does. And you know, they can reach out to me on on Instagram. I don't know if they can message me on Tik Tok. But it's, it's Joker Snyder racing. It's on Instagram. And on Tik Tok, I can be reached. If anybody has any questions, shoot me a message and I can do the best that I can to try to find out some information if somebody's interested in getting into.


Card Magician Jason Ladanye

Jason Ladanye is reinventing magic. Performing mindboggling card tricks that sellout venues and entertain millions online. We talk becoming a magician, the hidden secrets behind his best tricks and why he owns over 12,000 decks of cards. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Jennifers.

Jason Ladanye: 02:00

Pointless: 36:10

Top 5 Jennifers: 01:05:33

Contact the Show

Jason Ladanye Website

Jason Ladanye YouTube

Jason Ladanye Instagram

Jason Ladanye TikTok

Interview with Card Magician Jason Ladanye

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode magic, and Jennifer's,

Jason Ladanye 0:19

so something clicked in my brain. And I said that I want this power, you know, this is this is what I want. And I started learning from magic books. The point was, I was trying to fool my brother, that was my main goal, he got me, and I need to learn something I can get him back with. And that took about 15 years. Well, because there's subjects there, the subtext is I know something that you don't. And there's this, this word Wonderman. So if I put a card in your hand facedown, and then you name any card, and I say, look at it. And it is that card, there's, there's mystery, this one, like that's not possible, you're breaking the everyday rules, and that no other art form has that there are tricks that I have practiced for literally three, four years before actually doing them in front of people.

Nick VinZant 1:07

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is doing things in the world of magic that have never been done, inventing new tricks, selling out venues and entertaining millions of people worldwide. What I think is really interesting about this conversation, though, is not just how the tricks are learned, or how the tricks are performed. And he does share some secrets about how he does it. But what it takes to become a professional magician, and what the business is really like. This is card magician, Jason le Danny. So do you remember your first trick?

Jason Ladanye 2:02

Well, yes, I do remember the first trick that was shown to me. And that's why I'm here today, actually. So my older brother, who was a much older, he's 11 years older than me. So he wasn't the rivalry. He was like the hero, you know, he did that trick where there's four jacks that go into different apartment levels. This jack, this is the robber goes into the first floor, the second floor, the third floor, and then one Jack stays on the roof as the lookout. And then when the police come you knock on the on the deck, and all the jacks come off the top. And my brain just, you know, at seven years old, you're just learning how the world you know, there's rules to the world. And he put those jacks in four different spots in the deck. And there's no way that they could just end up on top like that. So something clicked in my brain. And I said that I want this power. You know, this is this is what I want. And I started learning from magic books. And I don't my first tricks weren't anything even to write home about. But the point was, I was trying to fool my brother. That was my main goal. He got me and I need to learn something I can get him back with. And that took about 15 years. I'm not even exaggerating. For 15 years, I showed him tricks. And he would always just say value. That's how I saw it. That's how you you put on that card or show me show me the rest of the deck kind of you know, that kind of thing. And I was like, in my early 20s When I showed him a trick once and he just stopped. He didn't say anything.

Nick VinZant 3:33

It finally got it

Jason Ladanye 3:34

was dead silent. And afterwards, I was like, Yes. And then the side effect of that was I ended up becoming a professional magician.

Nick VinZant 3:43

How hard is it to become a professional magician?

Jason Ladanye 3:46

Well, I think I'm built like other people, I have this desire to, to just be the best to work as hard as I possibly can read as many books hang out with the world's best other magicians that have already done. The you know, Darwin Ortiz is my mentor, considered one of the best in the world becoming a professional magician is about creating good material that people can't figure out having a character that people like and going out there and sharing and performing and putting yourself out there advertising so people know, I will come entertain, and I'm going to be damn good at it. You know, you word of mouth, do a gig, have people come back and up business cards and just build that up. I did all sorts of things to help get myself out there. This is even pre internet really, you know what I mean? This is this is doing events calling up event places and saying hey, I offer this service do you have events that I can do would come entertain it? So you call up a convention center and talk to the person that does the events and that way when someone is holding an event? And he said oh by the way, would you like some entertainment for this event? I have a great guy in town, you know, that kind of thing. So word of mouth, honestly, that's what it was. And then in 2013 I published my first book And that really helps that put me on the map for some credibility. And then in 2018, I published my second book, but I went full pro in about 2009 or so.

Nick VinZant 5:10

Is it? Okay? Let me ask these questions, get it out of the way you closer to ramen noodles or mansions?

Jason Ladanye 5:17

Well, I make a very good living. Now when I started out, you have to climb the ladder, you have to climb the ladder, when my first corporate gigs were like 500 bucks back in the day. But now I do gigs for anywhere from five to $10,000 even more sometimes. So yeah, celebrities. It's, it's just again, getting your getting your word out there. Getting your content out there. Hitting a million followers on social media certainly helps. And like I said, celebrity endorsements, things like that. That's all credibility that helps a client want to hire you.

Nick VinZant 5:53

How do you learn the tricks? That's the thing that

Jason Ladanye 5:56

books and from other people, there's other magicians out there that release books that teach this stuff. And we all have a kind of a community that we share ideas, and then it's for me anyway, I like to put my own spin. I take what that person wrote in a book and say, How can I do this? How can I change this to fit to fit me. So that's an A very important thing, when you're authentic, instead of just taking someone else's material doing it. note for note, you know,

Nick VinZant 6:23

that that seems like such a, that people are so fascinated by it, but yet they never just read the book,

Jason Ladanye 6:29

you have to put in a lot of time to it. So it's kind of like nucular physics, we're all fan. We all wonder how does the Galaxy work? But do we buy all the books on it and read everything about deep space, you know, so it's a very similar concept. It's all it's all out there. But to put the time and energy into doing that is another thing.

Nick VinZant 6:48

What makes you good at it well makes a good,

Jason Ladanye 6:51

big difference between someone that just does cheap material, easy to figure out what goes on a magic website and buy some stupid little gimmick that does it for you, or someone that puts in the time, the hours stolen sleight of hand. So everything I'm doing, it's just a regular deck of cards, and I'm moving my hands faster than you can see. And I'm fooling you in that way. But in order to do it that way, it takes years and years decades to learn how to do that. So a good analogy is do you want to go to the gym every day and eat clean for years, or you just want to buy the t shirt that has an AB six pack printed on it. People are obviously going to have more respect for the guy that put the time in to do that. And no one is going to go wow, look at that T shirt. Where'd you get that? I mean, so online people can see that when I'm doing these videos. If I say the casino wash can't be beat. It's impossible. That's why casinos use it the casino shuffling procedure, and then I proceed to do the wash, do the same shuffle and then show the deck and complete new deck order. There is no gimmick that does that. You bet you can't buy that at a store. You have to learn how to do that over decades worth of practice, you know, so that's that's the difference. And I think people recognize that. And when they watch the videos,

Nick VinZant 8:04

you know, just because we're in it right now we'll do some like tricks, stuff like that later. But when sleight of hand, is there something that you could show me real quick? That's like, Okay, this is a basic sleight of hand.

Jason Ladanye 8:15

Is this a quick demonstration of sleight of hand a deck of cards, you can see that I'm shuffling. There's no doubt that these cards are changing because they're correct. Right, right. And so that's what your eye sees, but I'm pulling your eye. That's all looks like I'm really shuffling. But you see I can find an ace. Now let me do that. Again. I'm not even looking at that font. Yeah, I'll give the cards a cut just like the way they do in Vegas, you can see that that's a real cut cards come up top to bottom as a secondary. And again, two people are gonna say, oh, it's some sort of trick deck or something. No, you can buy my books and see that this is all done with sleight of hand. So I'll give the cards I'm gonna cut let me finish. Because there's a third one. There's only one more ace in the deck. So you know that this is the most difficult one of all. It's going to be the most difficult but I'll give the cards a card because I do believe the last ace is right about there. So that's an example of sleight of hands. There's no other races in the deck. That's an example of sleight of hand it looked like I was shuffling the cards. It looked like I was cutting the cards but in reality, I was doing something behind the scenes. Another way to look at it is live special effects. Right? I'm doing special effects for you right in person. So in a movie, you see them they they intrigue you. They're amazing. We saw Harrison Ford drive a truck and it blew up right. Yeah. But what's really happening is some movie magic to make it look that way because Harrison Ford really didn't get into a truck and drive it into a gas tank and have it explode. But it certainly looks that way. So that's a decent analogy for it looks like I shuffled the deck. It looks like I gave the car to cut and it looks like I found most Four aces do you have

Nick VinZant 10:01

to have for those kinds of card tricks or sleight of hand tricks? Right? Is there something that you need a physical characteristic? Right? Like, I've got to be able to move my hands fast? Yeah. Yeah,

Jason Ladanye 10:11

yeah, it's called independence and fingers. And a piano player, same thing. Anybody can play the piano, you just have to sit down and are willing to put in the time to learning finger exercises, scales, stay with it, the patients that continue to work at it, but unless you don't practice, it's going to take a long, much longer time to learn how to do that stuff. But any student that sits down and practice it's like learning another language. We all have that ability, you just have to sit down and do it.

Nick VinZant 10:38

I know, this is a big, broad, general question. But in that sense, like, Are most of the tricks that are being done? Are they super complicated? Or are they really just like,

Jason Ladanye 10:47

it's a mix, and I'll prove it at the end of our interview? I'll show you something very cool. And yeah, it will fool you. I'm sure. Well, will you be oh my god, that's amazing. And then I'll show you what happened. And you're gonna go, that's it. So you can but it's, they're not all that way. They're not all created equal. Just because a song is very good. Doesn't mean that it's complicated. You can have very good songs that are still simple to play.

Nick VinZant 11:10

Now is that is the job entail? A lot of traveling a lot of like, what kind of what is what is it like on a not a day to day, but like on a on a basis as a job? Sure. So

Jason Ladanye 11:21

any good business plan means multiple sources of income. So I keep my social media accounts cooking card magic by Jason is the handle for any of them. YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok are my three big ones. So you have to make content to keep those things alive. And that gets you more work because people see that stuff. And in the videos, I'm saying you can hire me live. So that's a huge advertisement, these videos get millions, there's one of mine that has 36 million views or something that is an advertisement. So hire me for your event that goes up to 36 million bucks that cost me what? Zero, it's a free platform. So that's a constant source of advertising your event. I also have two books out I have DVDs, I have downloads, I have all sorts of content for specifically for magicians, so you can teacher of mine told me years ago, if you can make learn how to make money when you sleeping, you'll be fine. So he's covered that for me there. So I can not do anything for a month and I still have income waiting for me. But the fun ones, for me, I don't care about getting up in the morning and making videos here, too. That's not the living I want. I want to go out and perform for real people. So that's, that's where I focus my energy. And what will happen is a client will reach out to me and say, Hey, we're doing XYZ event in in the Bahamas was the last fun one that I did on some cruise, you can come down and do Can you will fly down can you do an hour's worth of material for our guests. For that to my manager, my manager handles all the bookings, all the flights and all that. And next thing you know, I'm flying out of the country to do an event. And then that you just repeat that process. And that old school method I told you about at the beginning of word of mouth is still best still works today. That's not like it doesn't work anymore. So those people know people that have parties, and then you get another gig out of that. So my busiest season is October through like January or so that's where most companies are having parties and things like that. So I will just be constantly flying around and doing events. During those are all private events. During the summer months, I like to do public shows. We get a venue, we go to a theater and we say, um, Jason, well, Danny, here's my social media. Let's do a show. Look at this following. I'm gonna pitch my show at your venue. Let's get him here. And we do that. And last year we did la in Chicago, we sold out shows for two months or less, but four months, three and a half months. Bout two months in Chicago about two months in LA. And we sold out 80 tickets tonight. Two shows a week it was fantastic.

Nick VinZant 14:02

For people who kind of tried to make it and don't in the industry, where do they usually get bogged down.

Jason Ladanye 14:08

They are just not doing that they are I don't want to say copying. But they're not being authentic. They're just doing what other people do. And you need to find your own thing, your own personality and just do that. So if I just had a social media account of me just cutting to four aces every day in different ways to hip hop, Lo Fi Hip Hop track, who cares? You need to get out there and show people who you are. And my whole thing is look at me. I'm the best are pretty bold statement, right? But then I then I put content out there that proves it. Me. Like I'm gonna say I'm good because I know I'm good and it triggers people and they love it. But if I were just to do that stupid thing I did with you where I cut to the ACES by shuffling the deck. Okay, yeah. So you got to wrap it up in a You know, in a good way, you got to find a way to, to deliver that in a way that people like. And that's where people go wrong in this business copycat material and not moving the bar forward. I'm doing things that no one's ever done in in card magic.

Nick VinZant 15:15

Just just kind of from my perspective, right? If you were to say when you look at either yourself or another person that's kind of on your level, in terms of original stuff that you're doing, how much of how much like, what percentage of your show is that

Jason Ladanye 15:30

I have this, the name of my second book is called game changer for a reason. Because card magic has not moved in hunt in like 100 years. It's just people doing the same stuff. And magicians as a whole 90% 95% of magicians just keep doing the same thing. It's just this this was invented 100 years ago, and I'm gonna do it now. And the opening line is, this is the oldest trick and magic oh my god, leave it alone. Leave it alone move. Let's let's change it up. So I came into this industry and said, What's the new spin? You can? What is the new way to do this? And I've proved it in two books that are both there. Actually, the first book is going to be in its third printing soon, believe it or not, the second book is going to be in a second printing already. So that's why it's called Game Changer. This has been done a million years. But now let's up it and do it this way. And so when I do a show, 90 95% of it is is my is my ideas.

Nick VinZant 16:34

What Why is cards so why are cards in the most prevalent? Are they just the easiest to genuinely do sleight of hand? It's not

Jason Ladanye 16:41

enough for me. I'm a card guy. So for me, it's all I do in magic. There's lots of fields, there's lots of fields. But there's an accessibility to cards. I can go to CVS and buy this deck. But I can't go to CVS and buy a box that cuts a woman in half, you know, and so, so get the card magic. And anyone with $4 has access to becoming a card magician on the internet. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 17:06

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?

Jason Ladanye 17:09

Wait, are we allowed to swear? You can swear? Yeah, I

Nick VinZant 17:12

just it's

Jason Ladanye 17:13

the first question is why is this guy such a dick? Because I just my character, I play a character. I'm an actor, you know. So people think that I'm really this fool of myself. And it's just like saying, going finding Daniel Craig in a Whole Foods dance in Kingston. He lives in like an hour from here, magic going into a whole foods in Kingston and running into Daniel Craig and saying, you know, you killed that person in that movie. And you are a terrible person, because he had a fan. You know, like, he's an actor, like, let it go. So when I'm up there saying, in case you ever wondering, you know, like, what's the point of me trying to be so humble when I'm so good at everything. That's a humorous line that I say that? Yeah, right. But people, some people think that I'm a person that just says I am the best in the world, and everyone else is trash. And that's all they see in my content, every single video. So there'll be some people that don't understand that and write in like, you can't say that you're the best in the world. You're not allowed to do that. And it's like they're policing the internet. So that's why I was curious to see what kind of questions that you may have.

Nick VinZant 18:23

One of them may have been around that like God, good. I love it. Alright, you did you try out different personas first, though, before you kind of went through?

Jason Ladanye 18:31

Yeah, if you look at my material, from 10 years ago, very dry, I'm still doing strong card magic, the magic was most prevalent like that, that's my main focus. But the scripting around it was a little bit weaker, it was not weaker. It's just not as comp not as boasting my own ego and things like that a little bit, but not as much. And then once I realized the audience's really enjoyed that, I started to crank that up a little bit and have more fun. So in other words, the real me started to kind of come out where I just kind of say what I want. And I also my mentor, Darwin Ortiz, when you're learning it's okay to walk through the footsteps of your mentor. So I was doing things similar to him. But I grew out of his. So that's normal. If you're going to learn how to play piano, your piano teacher gives you Beethoven, you're not copying Beethoven to beat the next Beethoven, you're just playing a simple song that is already written for you. So I would do Darwin's material, Darwin scripts and act similar to him. But I grew out of that within a couple of years because I wanted to be me. I could see why

Nick VinZant 19:37

that that persona would work right though, because people would either accept it like yeah, that's the best man or it would piss him off. And either

Jason Ladanye 19:44

way is good. Yeah, online people get pissed off and have the right to do that at my shows. People love it. They're paying to come see me so that there's no at a live show. I never have anyone that's like, you know, do it with the cards face up or but you can't do this or, you know, it's like you're watching it live. If so you know it's real. And people just accept when I say, I'm the best in the world name any cards, you want to cut it out of the deck instantly and someone from the crowd says the Queen of Hearts and I cut it out instantly. What are you going to what are you gonna say? Well, you're right, I just proved what you wanted me to do. So you can sit down now, or someone in the middle of a trick will say, Let me shuffle. Now that's not an a heckler. That's someone asking a question. So I say, Sure. And they shuffle and then I do the trick anyway. What are you gonna say? So that's that Pete, the audience loves that. And it all boils down to this, I know, I'm good. I'm allowed to say that. And audiences love that when I do that stuff, and then prove it. They just they just love that. Here's a guy that's devoted his life to it. He's good. And no one's gonna get in his way. And there's something about that, that people really enjoy. What

Nick VinZant 20:54

do you think it is about magic that people really dislike have that visceral reaction?

Jason Ladanye 21:00

Well, because there's subtext there. The subtext is I know something that you don't. And there's this, this word wonderment. How did you do that? How is that even possible? So if I put a card in your hand facedown, and then you name any card? And I say, look at it, and it is that card, there's this mystery, this one like, that's not possible, you're breaking the everyday rules, and that are no other art form has that we can look at a painting and say, Wow, that's amazing. We can go listen to an amazing band. That's amazing. But it doesn't have the same feeling of wonderment when you when you're just completely lost. And how is that possible? That's a unique experience that magic offers.

Nick VinZant 21:40

What would you say? Like, is it more popular than it was?

Jason Ladanye 21:44

Every 10 years we do a valley in a peak, it goes away. No one cares about it. And then David Copperfield brought it back. And then it disappeared. Just went away. Nobody cared anymore. And then David Blaine brought it back. Remember the ABC specials? Yeah, yeah. And then it disappeared again. And then America's Got Talent. People started magician started winning, and they want over and over and over again. So it's just back. It's just, it's just like anything else? Remember the big poker boom in 2008? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It was on. We were watching ESPN six, our shows of poker, you know, had this big boat. Now. It's just dissolved with no one cares anymore. But it will it so those things just kind of come and go. Where would you say in

Nick VinZant 22:23

terms of the magic hierarchy, right. And I don't even know what that means. But where is kind of sleight of hand card magic? You know, like I think of, is it below cutting people in half in the box above.

Jason Ladanye 22:36

These are just different genres did very different genres. You can say sports, whereas golf, whereas football, you know, it's hard to it's apples and oranges. So in magic, there's stage illusion. Right? That's the David Copperfield. That's the Siegfried and Roy that's making lines appear unlimited halfway. I don't do any of that stuff. That's not my thing at all. There is parlor magic, where you're standing on stage. And there's 100 people and you prefer 50 people or whatever. And you perform things with silks and doves and birdcage. That's not my thing, either. And then with their there's close up magic, and that means that you're sitting right there, like my perfect shows 20 people, you know, we're all just I have a table and there's 20 people sitting around me. And that's close up magic. And you can still do coins and cups and balls and things. But then a subset of that is card magic close up card magic. So that's exclusively just cards. So there's all these different genres of magic, and I just happen to be one of those. And it's difficult to rate, which ones on top, because they're all They're all different. You know what I mean?

Nick VinZant 23:42

Yeah, that makes sense. It's not kind of the situation of like, hey, I want to be the richest musician or the richest magician in the world. And your mentor would say, Jason, well, you got to do this.

Jason Ladanye 23:53

Yeah. What's funny is other magicians will preach. This is why I ended up doing what I'm doing. Other magicians will preach it. You can't make it as a card magician. In order to make money. You need to do all sorts of variety of things. I heard that one for decades, decades. But magicians love to put other magicians down, it's very big, any niche will have that. So I felt it was very rewarding to to shut them up and do what I do. In just cards and having a following this big, hitting 1 million followers doing just card tricks. I mean, that's unheard of. So but if you're good, you're good.

Nick VinZant 24:31

How many decks of cards do you have?

Jason Ladanye 24:33

I have about 12,000 decks that behind these only about 320-500-3000 decks. There is a particular brand of cards that is casino quality. They're perfectly made. They're the same ones that you would find in a casino. So there's no the quality control is great. There's no bad edges or miss cut cards and cards that don't lie. The finish isn't messed up and on and there's One particular maker of those cards, and they were made once and never to be made again. And I went and bought them all up, because I want to make sure that I continue to use that brand. And I'm comfortable with bicycle rider backs, they're, they're these, they're just really well made. And then some other companies are just poorly, they're just, they don't have the same quality control, which means you can get a defective deck or things like that. So that's why I honed in on one brand and just bought them all up.

Nick VinZant 25:31

Well, but will you run into situations where like, oh, man, if it's an old deck, or if it's not a well made deck, can it throw

Jason Ladanye 25:38

because I practice with those as well. So on that shelf is a variety of everything you're talking about? Behind me. The very top is like collected decks under that is semi used new but kind of used underneath that is moderately, like pretty worn in and then underneath that is completely destroyed decks of cards. And I practice with all of those so that I'm never in a situation where somebody hands me an old deck and I say, Oh, I can't perform it, then I've got experience practicing with older decks.

Nick VinZant 26:06

But if you only did one type of deck, like I only work with brand new if somebody gave you an old one would that could that throw a magician? Oh, no,

Jason Ladanye 26:13

no, well, most probably, but no, not because I just said I practice with all decks. I do my whole show with an old deck just to make sure that I can do it.

Nick VinZant 26:21

I'm assuming this has happened. So I'll ask this question in this way. But last time somebody figured it out.

Jason Ladanye 26:26

I can tell you it was June of 2009 was the last time somebody caught me red handed. I was performing for two women at an event. And I turned to this woman and I did something amazing. I made a card appear in your hands, you know. And I turned to this woman and started to do the second half of the trick. And in the middle of that this woman over here said something I won't repeat. Because I don't I just won't repeat it. It's not that it can be bleeped. She just said something sexual in nature. And it caught me off guard because she went over over the line quite a bit and I just turned back to her in disbelief. I said what? And the woman on my left reached up and said, What is this?

So palling is a thing you want guards. Palming is a magic secret, you see can secretly hide cards in your hand. And if you think about the design, I'm supposed to talk to this woman. And if I'm, if I'm turned this way, nobody can see the thing. There's nobody behind me is my body's nobody can see this card. But because I turned back to address, oh, I just want to get that out. Uh, yeah, no hesitation, she reached in and said, What is this? And it was great. It's I mean, I mean, what am I going to do get mad? You know, we all laughed, and it's hilarious. So that was the last time that I got really busted. Hard, like there's I have. But moving forward, people can say things. I think you did it this way. But that doesn't mean they're right. That's just a myth. That's just in their mind. So I don't have to worry about shutting people down. Like when I put a deck back into order people's always switch decks. Well, they can think that, but the rest of the audience is smart enough to know that those cards never went out of you. So it's it. It's very difficult for the audience to say, I figured that out. Because it's just a it's a theory in their minds. That's all. Yeah, if you don't acknowledge it, right, it's kind of the other thing, too, is it's reliably This is my favorite part reliably. When someone says that in the audience, the person sitting next to them or around them will always remind them of a condition that I had had done. They'll say, Oh, well, you had those cards in order, you set those cards up. And the husband says that and the wife says, But Bill, you shuffled them before you started. And then Bill got the job, whatever. He did my shelf. Yeah, like so. I when I told you about what the avenues I'm putting things in place that will ultimately prove this is impossible. That's my job. That's what I do. So when you try to reconstruct it, I've already taken care of all of that. And that's why you won't be able to figure it out.

Nick VinZant 29:21

Last time somebody thought you were really doing magic, like supernatural powers

Jason Ladanye 29:26

match. There's been a few depending on how much alcohol they've had in them. I've had a few people that just are saucer ride after the trick and put the cards down and say I'm not I don't want to watch whatever the hell you don't understand and they walk away that to me that is just great.

Nick VinZant 29:41

Man never had somebody like the devil get the devil.

Jason Ladanye 29:45

Oh my god, I have a YouTube com one of my favorite YouTube comments. Yeah, clearly you've sold your soul to be able to do the things you've done and I have pity on you and I will pray for you and all this and it's in the comments like this long. So I need they're going to pray at their church for me and all that because obviously Have I've, I've done in some sort of dark deal with the devil and because no one should be able to possess these kinds of skills. I mean, or it could be practice.

Nick VinZant 30:10

What's your personal favorite trick?

Jason Ladanye 30:13

That changes? It's kind of like, what's your favorite song? Or what's your favorite movie impossible to to answer that, because there's so many I probably know two 300 tricks total. It's about the tricks that get the best reactions. That's how I judge my tricks. I may love it for a particular reason, because it has a move in it or because it has concept or because it has rewarding sleight of hand to be able to pull something off in front of a person and get away with it feels like a heist, like you robbed the bank, you got away with it, it's very rewarding feeling. However, how I grade tricks is the reactions when people just flip out. And when I perform, I'm constantly bringing in new material and getting rid of old material or bringing back old material, like things I used to do 10 years ago, bringing them back, because I like those reactions. So I have plenty of performances on YouTube, that my Magic Castle set is on YouTube, you can watch a full uncut, it's all one take a full set 20 minutes where you're gonna watch me do tricks there. And the very last one in that Magic Castle set. So if you search YouTube search for Danny, Magic Castle, you'll find it and that last trick is just so much fun to do when it gets great reactions.

Nick VinZant 31:23

And love Danny is La DANYE. For anybody who's just listening to the audio version of it. Um, what's the easiest trick to do? What's the hardest trick?

Jason Ladanye 31:36

So the easiest trick I'll show you at the end when we get into the demo, so I'll show you something very easy. That's effective. And then, like I said, if you want to know the hardest, that YouTube clip at the magic castle at the last 10 minutes, they're easily the most difficult trick that I've got to do.

Nick VinZant 31:51

How much will you generally have to practice a trick? Like how many hours would you say that you put into it? It's

Jason Ladanye 31:57

terrifying. But there are tricks that I have practiced for literally three, four years before actually doing them in front of people that I can't mess up, my character doesn't allow for me to make mistakes, which means that it has to be it has to be perfect before it comes out in front of people. So I typically practice to for six hours a day, sometimes more. I take some days off from time to time, but it's a full time job, I sit there and go over old tricks moves. I constantly putting things online content, which means that I have to practice for that stuff as well. And then also I can watch my own content and see what do I need to improve like I could have done that better or things like that. So I'm always fine tuning that stuff. So that's for the last 35 years, it's been four to six hours a day.

Nick VinZant 32:51

Last question before we kind of get into some demonstrations. If some what would advice would you give to the next you

Jason Ladanye 33:00

mean miss things that I've kind of didn't get right, that kind of thing.

Nick VinZant 33:03

Things are like advice to somebody who wants to kind of get into the business like it, men

Jason Ladanye 33:08

rezones the don't, you don't have to share your ideas with everybody, I have a very tight circle of people that I share those secrets with that learn that I saw all the things that I'm doing on tick tock that are full of people, there's five people that know how that stuff's done. And earlier back in even 2015 2017 and that neck of the woods, I was sharing some of that material with outside people, I do a magic convention or something and share some of those ideas. And those ideas just ended up on their YouTube channels or their social media accounts without credit, that kind of stuff. So you don't have to this is a classic thing. If I invent the new car that runs on water, I don't have to go out and tell everybody and then pitch 10 years later that now everyone's driving a car that runs on water. You know, it's it's not. I think it's my ego, almost the gut that made that that made that happen. So that's what I would say once you start creating your own content, your own concepts, your own things, just keep to yourself.

Nick VinZant 34:14

But can you figure out any other magician's tricks? Like can you look at it and be like, Oh, that's how they're doing

Jason Ladanye 34:18

most of the time? Yeah, I can. There's only a handful of people that could fool me and their names are Mike Vincent, Tony coverall, Andrew Lyndhurst, Jack Carpenter, Darwin Ortiz. Those guys will cost constantly forming and I love it. That's my inner circle. Those are the guys that I share all my ideas with.

Nick VinZant 34:37

Is there somebody that you would say that that magicians is a hole right? You know, the Lebron Michael Jordan conversation they would say that's the best.

Jason Ladanye 34:45

Well, me obviously

Nick VinZant 34:49

was besides yourself, somebody that people would look at and be like, you know, there are there are

Jason Ladanye 34:53

a few names in our industry Mario Lopez and Danny D or D Ortiz. Fantastic. Fantastic. elastic performers that are constantly racking everybody's brains. And me included. Sometimes I see things that those guys do. And I'm just like, I don't know how what he's doing.

Celebrity Groomer Marissa Machado

Nick Jonas, Michael Keaton, Rami Malek, her clients are some of the biggest names in movies and music. But what does it take to to keep leading men looking good. Go behind the scenes with Celebrity Groomer Marissa Machado. We talk breaking into the industry, working with celebrities and how to look your best. Then, it’s a fierce competition between water and the sky as we countdown the Top 5 Blue Things.

Marissa Machado: 02:03

Pointless: 38:18

Top 5: 58:02

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Hollywood Groomer of the Year Vote (Closes February 10)

Celebrity Groomer Marissa Machado

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode looking like a celebrity, and the best blue things,

Marissa Machado 0:22

I just want them to look their best to where when they hit the stage, the carpet, whatever. Everyone's looking at him and just thinking, man, he looks good. I just did whatever I could to be part of it. Because I just thought one day, it'll be my big break, and it took about five years, you have to really love it because there are ups and downs. And when you're riding that wave really high, it is fantastic. But when you're in that, when you're riding that wave low, it can be really dark. And you have to remember those highs to keep yourself balanced for the lows. I think for a man to look good, you should do these things. These things are,

Nick VinZant 1:00

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest specializes in getting Hollywood's leading men to look their best. Nick Jonas Michael Keaton, Remy Malick, her clients are a who's who have movies and music. But what I think is really interesting is not just the behind the scenes working of celebrity, but the tips that she has, that everybody else can use in their life to look their best. And her her story about persevering and figuring out what it is that you want to do. And just going after it, no matter what challenges are in your way. This is celebrity men's groomer Marissa Machado. When you started out, like did you specifically want to work with celebrities or was this kind of something that just happened?

Marissa Machado 2:09

I specifically set out to work with celebrities. I I grew up in Bakersfield, California, my family's all in agriculture. But my mother was an avid Entertainment Tonight, watcher and she made clothing. So she always had an eye for fashion. And that was something we enjoyed together. i From a young age loved. I would always cut my Barbies hair, cut my daughter's hair, which transpired into school dances of doing friends hair and makeup. You know, when I was in high school, young girls, we didn't hire makeup artists, there wasn't such thing. So we just did it ourselves. So I just became the girl that people would come to and I loved. I loved watching the red carpet. And I wanted to just I want it to be the reason why they looked so good. We didn't know anything about Hollywood. It's only an hour and a half away. But it's a vastly different world. So I didn't have those connections. And it was just sort of one step at a time as to how I was going to get to Hollywood and how I was going to get my foot in the door.

Nick VinZant 3:11

How difficult was it to kind of get your foot in the door. I mean, how competitive of an industry is this?

Marissa Machado 3:16

It's extremely competitive. And the difference is I moved here in 2003 I moved to Los Angeles in 2003. And when I started I was working at a makeup counter for Steelo cosmetics. I got that job. When I finished cosmetology school. My passion was more in makeup at the time, even though I always loved hair. So I got a job at the makeup counter. And when I went to work every day I would meet you know different people that were I don't know getting married or so you know, I started doing weddings. There was no such thing as social media. You couldn't I mean, there was no direct into these agents, photographers, other makeup artists to assist to get my foot in the door that way. So it was really about meeting people at the makeup counter. And I slowly you know, I started working in Barney's in Beverly Hills and I would go in there and work at the steel counter. And I would just meet different people and from there I met a makeup artist who led me to his agent and I started assisting and and then that got your foot in the door. But if you didn't come with any celebrities, they didn't want to take you so it was a real catch. 22 it was it was difficult. I took every single job that came my way whether there was money or not I assisted stylist and fashion. I assisted hairdressers, I assisted makeup artists. I just did whatever I could to be part of it. Because I just thought one day it'll be my big break. And it took about five years.

Nick VinZant 4:51

Is that normal? I guess for getting into the industry in terms of like that's how people usually get in. This is how it usually takes or would you say that you're kind of an aberration one way or another.

Marissa Machado 5:03

I think that's how it used to happen. I know now I have people direct messaged me saying, you know, I'd love to assist you, if you ever need an extra set of hands, I would have loved that opportunity to reach out to these people and say, Hey, I'm willing to work, you know, because I was. So I think I don't know what the appropriate time to break in is. I know, people that assisted a lot longer than me before they got their big break. I know people that are still doing the type of jobs I was doing when I was assisting and they're, they're completely happy. For me, I just, I just kept thinking there was there was, it was going to happen. And there there was going to be something more I don't know, I set. Like I said, from age 14, I said, this is what I was going to do. And it's like, there was just something in my mind that I knew I was going to do it. And I also had that thing in my mind that was like, I have to prove to everybody that I really did it.

Nick VinZant 5:57

Earlier this morning, interviewed someone who's a gold and motivation researcher, she's like, the most successful people are people with slight chips on their shoulder. Gotta have a slight chip and the sense that like, I'm gonna show him, show him I'm going to show them all.

Marissa Machado 6:14

Yeah, it was like family members, high school counselors, all those people, you know, I had to prove to them because when I went to my high school, college counseling meetings, and they asked me what I wanted to do, I told them, I was gonna go to Santa Barbara to do your city college and have a college experience. But I was gonna move to Hollywood. And I was going to do you know, hair and makeup for celebrities? And I said, I'm going to travel the world. And their response would say, well, you should have a backup plan, what's your backup plan? And I just said, there is no backup plan. This is what I will do. So yeah, I definitely had something to prove, I suppose. Good for you. Some clients take you everywhere around the world with them, you're their only person, some clients hire you, just when they're in LA, and then maybe they have their person in New York or you know, Europe or whatever. So but usually, once you're established with those clients, if they're around in town, and they have things going on, you're going to be that person, there's not going to be that sort of competition. However, yes, when you're starting out, it is. It's one of those things that it is not for the faint of heart. It's, it's not an easy job. You really don't. It's like, okay, I don't know how to explain this, you really don't get a lot of praise. And even if you do want a lot of praise, you're going to kind of have to find it within yourself. Because in the men's grooming world. We're not celebrated, I suppose as much as maybe hairdressers or makeup artists that are working with females, because we're celebrating the makeup, right? We're celebrating the look, the thing about a man grooming a man is that you want to just present them as a good looking man. Right? So it's not about what they have on it's, it's just, they should just walk in and look good. And nobody's asking what they have on or why they look so good. They just do. So you really don't, you really don't get that sort of shine. So you have to you have to find it within within yourself and which maybe isn't for everybody, but it works for me. It works for me, because I'm not somebody who likes to be center stage or any of those sorts of things.

Nick VinZant 8:27

I that makes sense, right? Like, I want to be on the winning team. But I don't care if I'm the player I get. Yeah. And it almost reminds me to continue this sports analogy of kind of like the kicker. If you make the kick, you are supposed to make the kick the whole time, right. Like you're only acknowledged if you've done something wrong, essentially.

Marissa Machado 8:44

You're right. You're right. Yeah.

Nick VinZant 8:47

How so? How is working with a celebrity different than like working with another high end client?

Marissa Machado 8:52

Yes, every job varies. And every salon celebrity varies, you know, and I think that one of the most important things about my job is understanding how to be around people not just being good at what you do. But understanding how to read people, maybe what mood they're in, just sort of feeling the energy in the room and understanding when it's when it's time to speak, when it's not time to speak how much you should be saying, you know, what kind of space are they in an understanding that also, maybe they're going out to do an appearance on let's say, Jimmy Fallon. And maybe it's one of their first big, you know, late night appearances. They might be in their head about it, they're nervous about it, you know, but you can't take that on and take it personally. You have to understand the space that they're in, and respect, respect that you know, so. And some celebrities, you know, maybe you're gonna go in and you know, that we're not going to speak it's going to be it's going to be 20 to 30 minutes, where I'm going to just do what I need to do work around them and then get in and get out. Other people. I'm going to walk in the door. They're going to ask me, How am I Family is what's been going on. You know, it's, it's, it's different between between everybody, but I do have a client that I work with often who is a CEO of a company. And he just, he likes to be groomed for his zoom meetings and such. And, yeah, that's just like, I don't know, that's just having a normal conversation with anyone, it kind of, it takes the pressure off. But at the same time, I want to do equally as good a job, you know, I want to make that man feel as important as if he were on the red carpet.

Nick VinZant 10:29

I know, this is kind of a super broad question, right? But say you're getting somebody ready for a red carpet event or to go on Jimmy Kimmel, or any of those kinds of things. Like what is that? What do you do? When do you show up? What's that process like?

Marissa Machado 10:42

Those are, I'll be honest, my favorite kind of days, my favorite day. I mean, this is just as I've gotten older, my favorite days are the days where you just the job is like a couple hours. And so I get to have like my morning to myself on those kind of days. They don't, as you said, Jimmy Kimmel. So when I'm doing Jimmy Kimmel, I have the whole morning to myself, then I get all my stuff ready, which is my kit, which is basically like a 40 pound suitcase. It's a carry on sized suitcase that has everything that I know I need for that person. Plus anything that could just possibly come up that you you need, because Murphy's Law, like I always have a client asked me for that one thing that I just don't have, or I just took out of my kit for some reason. So you want to make sure you have everything. And then I arrive usually around 3pm 3:30pm 30 minutes before the client, I get there. And I get set up, which I'm, as you mentioned, in the beginning, you have an OCD brain. I do too, I like my setup to be very clean and very specific in the sense of, I'm only putting out what's necessary, I don't like to be veered off track for any reason. So everything is laid out in a specific order of use. And it varies per person, what products those will be, from face products to hair products. And then usually the client will get there, you know, the publicist greets them, they come in, they say hello to everybody, they get a little briefing, and then they sit down with me. So that's where I mentioned earlier, that's that time where I've had a few moments to sort of read their energy and where they are as to how that session between us is going to go if we're going to chit chat about whatever they're promoting, you know, but for the most part, they sit down and if anything's changed within within the way they look, I'll ask, you know, what are you using in your hair? Now maybe I haven't seen them for a couple of months, and the hairstyle is different. And I'll say, Oh, what are you using in your hair now something along those lines or anything different you want me to do. But for the most part, I just do my thing. Because as I say, at this point, I have a group of men that I work with. So that is sort of the luxury of them hiring him is hiring me is that I don't have to ask them questions or say anything I already know what to do. It's this, this very, you know, it's a dance, it's I kind of do my thing. I finish them up, I at the end of my grooming, I always hand them their chapstick as I hand them their chapstick that I take off the cape, and then they're off to the stylist and then they get dressed. And right before they go on, I like to do a last look, check them out, you know, and then they're off to the show. And after that, that's really all you can do. Some shows like The James Corden show, The Late Late Show, some shows have segments where you can actually go out in the commercial break and adjust. But some of the shows if they're just on for one segment, you know, it's like, once they're out there, they're out there. So then you just then as they're out there, I watch them on the monitor, I enjoy what they say. I always listen because I know they're gonna come back and maybe want feedback on how they did. As I pack up my stuff, then they come back we all laugh about or talk about the appearance. And then I'm back home, back to cook dinner, whatever it is,

Nick VinZant 13:57

when you're dealing with kind of celebrity clients, like how nitpicky slash whatever word you want to use, do you have to be in the sense of like, look, that left? Hey, there's a hair on my left ear that was out of place? Like are you checking every single thing that's got to be imperfect position? Or is it kind of like, Alright, you're good to go.

Marissa Machado 14:15

When they're in my chair, I'm checking every single thing. But then there's gonna, and we're talking men, right? So like, I would think that women are more particular more careful, more worried about it, like, I could finish grooming a guy and he could be like, You know what, I have a little bit of downtime. I'm just going to go do a quick workout. And I could stress about it. I think everything I just did is I'm gonna have to redo it. Or I just have to say like, this is what it is. He's a guy he wants to get those push ups in or whatever, I get it, you know, so or they're gonna go change and just pull their shirt over their head and not even think about it, you know? But once they're on set, I become their mirror because they can't see themselves. So then I have to I have to seek for them. So yes, that's okay. If the cameras just face to face with somebody and I saw hair out of place in the back of their head that nobody else is going to see, I'm not going to jump in and ruin their flow of whatever it is to fix this one hair, I'm going to look from the camera angle and see what everybody's seeing. And then worry about that. Because I don't like to, I don't like to step in for touch ups unless it's necessary, because I think it just breaks the flow of everything, and it slows down production. So I like to make sure that they're good when they're go out, I like to take a look at the camera, from what I'm seeing, make sure that everything's in place, and then only have to step in accordingly. But if I have a guy with long hair, which I do have guys with longer hair, and they're moving around, I'm gonna have to go in more often, because there's going to be hair falling in the face covering an eye creating a shadow, whatever, whatever it may be. So yeah, it's delicate.

Nick VinZant 15:55

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Sure. Do you have the juice? And I think what they mean by that is like, they're not asking you to share the juice. But do you generally have the juice?

Marissa Machado 16:06

Oh, like the juice doesn't like the gossip? Like the gossip, I

Nick VinZant 16:10

think is what they mean. Yeah,

Marissa Machado 16:12

I do hear a lot. And I think that the reason that I've been able to keep my job is because I don't repeat the juice. It's one of those things, you kind of just put it in the vault, you know it, and then you see different things on social media or on TV or in magazines said about people. And you just think they've got it all wrong, or Oh, my God, they've got it totally right. But you can't ever say anything, because you won't work. You won't work.

Nick VinZant 16:40

Yeah, that's a pretty fast way to burn your reputation, which is why I think they didn't ask any specifics more just like do you?

Marissa Machado 16:46

I do?

Nick VinZant 16:48

I would imagine so right? There's something about sitting in that chair, where you just like, you start to open up to people a little bit, or you hear things. Yeah. And

Marissa Machado 16:57

you also you overhear conversations around you. And for the most part, I like to leave the room when I know that it's conversation that I shouldn't be hearing, because I don't even want to be placed in the situation of well, Marissa hurt that or Marissa was around when that was said, it's like, if I'm not part of this, I'm just going to excuse myself, because I don't actually want to be part of it.

Nick VinZant 17:19

How much are you really doing? And they mean this in a nice way, in the sense that like, are these fundamentally good looking people in the beginning? Like are you turning sevens into nines are you turned in like threes and eights,

Marissa Machado 17:31

you can certainly take a look at my work. I work with men from you know, their 20s to their 70s. So, as far as fundable fundamentally good looking, I guess that depends on your scale, have a good looking as I find them all attractive, I think they're all good looking men. Okay, I don't really think I'm turning anyone in from like a low number to a high number. My goal always is to walk in and make that man be the best version of himself. Because everybody's scale of what good looking is going to be different. So everyone's scale of a number is going to be different. But I just want them to look their best to where when they hit the stage, the carpet, whatever. Everyone's looking at him and just thinking, man, he looks good. Whoever it is.

Nick VinZant 18:18

Would you say that there's a commonality, though, in the sense of like getting a man to look good. You should do these things.

Marissa Machado 18:25

Yes. I think for a man to look good, you should do these things. These things are checking your ears, making sure you don't have your hair growing, checking your nose, making sure you don't have wild nose hair. Your facial hair thinking about the structure of your face and how that facial hair is actually changing your face structure. Is it making your face look fuller wider? Is it Do you have a beard that's bringing your face down? All these type of things, I think make the difference in a man and my number one thing and a guy that like when I'm on the street or anywhere that I just can't help but notice is how many men let their neck lines just overgrow and never clean it up. And I just think it's one of those things in life. If you have a significant other, they could really help a guy out by doing that whoever that is even a family member, whatever, who if you have someone around you, it's like so many men just let that neckline overgrowth straight into their back and it just crushes my eyes.

Nick VinZant 19:26

Yeah, I would imagine that makes your eyes twitch. But can you Okay, can you go like walk down the street without just being like, oh, you know if you did this if you did that. Do you find yourself constantly judging people's hair?

Marissa Machado 19:39

No. Okay, I only I typically only judge people or look at them in that way if they asked me to because you know, it's one of when you when I was younger and I wanted to do makeup, right? It was fun to play makeup. But as I'm older and this is my job. When I'm not in my job, I try not to be in my job. Have any more, even though it's a fun job, and I love it, when I'm not doing it, I'm not thinking it necessarily. So I'm not always walking down the street thinking, oh blah, blah, blah. Now if somebody showed me a picture of a guy, right? Oh, this is so and so or oh, I'm dating him or whatever, then I'm going to look at that man. And think to myself, Oh, if he just did this, or if he grew his hair this way, whatever. I do think those things for sure.

Nick VinZant 20:26

Do most people have a generally right are kind of generally wrong.

Marissa Machado 20:30

I think that I mean, again, it's Where are you living? I live in Los Angeles. So I think that most people generally have it right in the sense that we are a little consumed with how we look in, in Los Angeles, we do live in this world of Hollywood and celebrity and plastic surgery and fitness and all of those things. So I think that people here genuinely, genuinely, you know, do have it right. I think I don't want to name a state. But I think if I go to somewhere in middle America, I'm going to say Not really. Also even when I go to my hometown, when I went to Bakersfield recently like my, my dad started going to my my brother's barber because his hairdresser retired. He had an old school hairdresser that I used to watch in the salon as a little girl. And you know, he's older, he retired and he used to cut my dad's hair scissor over comb this beautiful hair cut. And now my dad's go into this Barber. And though the guy's a great Barber, he's cutting my dad's hair, like he's cutting my brother's hair. And my dad doesn't need high and tight. You know, he's, he's 70 years old. So, you know, it's where are you as to how they're getting it.

Nick VinZant 21:44

As a person from Kansas, I can say I understand. You can sometimes go back in time a little bit. Um, what celebrity do you ultimately think has the best haircut?

Marissa Machado 21:57

Okay, I'm gonna say this. There's one celebrity that I think always has it right, as far as haircuts. And it's not one specific haircut. It's many. And that's Brad Pitt. I think that Brad Pitt is ever changing his hairstyles, and they're always right. We always love them along the way. You can ask any person about Brad Pitt, and they're going to name a time when they loved Brad Pitt. And it's going to be a different look from the time that the other person loved Brad Pitt. So it's like, even with all these different haircuts and hairstyles, he's always getting it right.

Nick VinZant 22:31

I completely agree. Like I'm married with two children, I would completely agree like Brad Pitt always has good hair, like it looks no matter what he does, it always looks like yeah, he never looks bad in any haircut. And you can't say that about a lot of people.

Marissa Machado 22:48

Not a lot of people the other person. So the reason I bring up bring up Brad Pitt is because whenever I have clients that will start discussing like a new look. And it's more on the music side of things that I feel like people go for new looks more my music clients. I think it's just you have more freedom to have new looks versus actors, because they're playing characters. So I always love to reference Brad Pitt, because we've had so many different looks along the way. And the other one that I reference a lot is David Beckham because David Beckham is another man who has had so many looks along the way. And though I might not think they're all right, I think that we could go through and again, people are gonna, at some point, love all of them. But I like I like men that can change up their look. And people, people all people in general are still attracted to it.

Nick VinZant 23:37

What is your favorite trend haircut? What is your least favorite trend haircut and we can go all time,

Marissa Machado 23:44

most recently, the one that I could not wait to end was the super faded sides. I was just so tired of seeing every guy with the same look just that really, really faded, like almost almost, you know, on a zero, you know, like, just at the scalp, you know, and then rising up above the ear and then the top kind of just being messy. I was I was just so tired of seeing it. I missed it the days of Nick Minh, who's Nick of men having natural necklines, and so I I'm liking seeing more of that kind of come about I think that we're having more length on men's hair and you're seeing actors like Bruce just most recently hitting the carpet so often like Austin Butler, you know who just finished this whole Elvis campaign his longer hair I just didn't we've got Timothy Chanel Chanel, I

Nick VinZant 24:39

can never say his I can never do that when he I think it's like anyway, he's got the long

Marissa Machado 24:43

curls and I I'm really enjoying that we're seeing longer hair come about one I know I mentioned another style that I want to go away but actually this just came to me the one style that I really really want to go away currently that hasn't gone away is this tick tock hairstyle that all the young boys have. And it's all shaved up on the sides. And then the top kind of swoops forward and then back. It's like it comes forward sweeps back and then it kind of flips up all around the edges. And all the tick tock, guys like the Tick Tock stars have this haircut, leading my nieces in high school, and every single boy has the same hairstyle. And I just, I can't understand it. Because when I was in school, the guys didn't have the same hairstyle. Everybody kind of had their own thing, which could have just been more like yours like crew cut style, but it wasn't like a specific look that everyone had to have at the same time.

Nick VinZant 25:41

For I remember it was called the standard boys haircut, which is like what I have and what most people that I grew up with men my age all have the standard boys haircut. Right? It wasn't a style. It was just like, right kid's hair cut. And that's how you cut it. Yes.

Marissa Machado 25:54

Yes, exactly. There's sort of a lack of individuality right now that I see in this in a younger generation and, and everyone wanting to they they find one celebrity or one person that they idolize, and then everyone tries to tries to look that exact way. It's like I just, you know, I think it's better when people go with what, what they feel, you know, that they want to do or what they think looks best on them, but not based on because somebody else did it.

Nick VinZant 26:24

What should I do about back hair.

Marissa Machado 26:27

Okay, couple options. I'm assuming this is a man. But if it's not, even if it's a woman, you could do the same thing. A quick fix is to always just shave it. I know that can become a process if you don't have somebody to help you because you can't get back there. The second option is to get it waxed, you could once a month go into your waxer. And you know, the thing about waxing is it doesn't grow, you know, eventually over time the hair will die, it gets tired of being ripped out of the skin. So it will die over time and you will get lesser hair, it's not going to go away permanently, it's going to be something you have to continue to do. The permanent option is laser. There are a couple of things with laser though. It works best on people with light skin, but dark hair, because it has to pick up on the skin. So it's like if you had light skin Bud Light hair, the laser isn't going to pick up the hair follicle. So the darker the hair, the better it is, but the skin needs to be lighter. So it's one of those things that you want to do when you're out of the sun. Maybe in the winter. You're not. Yeah, we should all be out of the sun at this point, but we're not. And so it's those type of things. It doesn't always work on people with darker skin as well. They might have to go through more sessions also. The skin can scar you know, so it's there's pros and cons to all of those. I'll be honest,

Nick VinZant 27:50

bowl cut, man bun, or what's the Mohawk? Oh no, the mullet that's what they that that's what they Oh, they literally just put bowl cut man bun or mullet.

Marissa Machado 28:04

If I'm gonna pick a favorite out of those three. I'm gonna go with the mullet. And I know that sounds ridiculous. But a mullet could either look really trashy, or it could also look really cool. Just depending on how you style them all. I have a client that I've worked with for like 10 years now his name is Travis femoral and he was on the show Vikings, which he had these crazy haircuts and braids and stuff. And one night he had a premiere and right before the premiere. He took my face trimmer because he also has this long beard. He took my face drummer and he just kind of went up the side of his head, thinking it was funny right before his prayers like, oh shit, you know, so I kind of just had to roll with it. And I ended up shaving the sides into this kind of cool mullet. And then I don't know it just it really worked on him. It looked really cool. I've also seen a revival of mullets and the last few months to be honest, like even like some reality people and different people going for this look. I saw a stylist the other day kind of growing his back out a little bit but keeping you know, so I think a mole it could be cool. I think a bowl cut just takes me back to my childhood. My brother had a bowl cut for a while. And it was very cute in the late 80s, early 90s. Bullet mold cut and man bun man bun. You got to be a real man. I don't know. That's like, I think it only works on types like Jason Momoa. If that makes sense. Yeah,

Nick VinZant 29:34

you've got to be like six five to 15 It'd

Marissa Machado 29:37

be like grizzly. You know what I mean? Like, you got to have some grit to you. Because otherwise you go too pretty. And then it's not my thing.

Nick VinZant 29:48

That's what it is. That's what annoyed me about that trend. People went pretty with it and it didn't work like you've got to be I just finished chopping down lumber and fighting off a bear and Yes, and I feel like that works. Yeah. Yeah.

Marissa Machado 30:03

My hair was like so sweaty that I just had to throw it back in this messy bod. You know, right.

Nick VinZant 30:09

Like, I had to pull that child from the river and this hair was way so I put it in a bond, they just can't be wet. Yeah. What's trendy? Like what trends do you kind of see common?

Marissa Machado 30:20

The the more natural hair lines coming back sort of more of a 90s effort? Like think like, I know this is gonna sound so boring. But like the the Richard Gere types of the 90s Right, the Dennis Quaid types of the 90s, sort of just these more gentleman's haircuts, not the super shape sides. But I just think we're going to start seeing more length all around. And yeah, I just more length all around not, I think that the barber shops were really, really busy for a while. And that was a specific look. And I think we're kind of we're going back to a scissor haircut.

Nick VinZant 31:00

So you were nominated for Hollywood Beauty Awards groomer of the year, when did you find out? What was that kind of like?

Marissa Machado 31:07

I found out, I guess, just about a month ago, I found out that I was that I was being nominated. And I'll be honest, my first reaction is to think Thank you, my, my real reaction is to think that's not really something I want to participate in. Because as I mentioned, at the very beginning of this, I don't like a lot of attention, but I like to win. So it's a lose lose, in my opinion, it's one of those things that I would hate to lose. But I don't want the attention if I win. So I think it's a real honor. It's it's very nice of my peers or, you know, people to recognize me. For my work. I think it's it's really nice. But again, I'm just so uncomfortable in talking about myself in that way. It's one thing to answer questions when you ask me questions. Yeah. Yeah, I have. It's really nice. It's an honor. It is an honor.

Nick VinZant 32:07

Congratulations. I think it's great. Yeah.

Marissa Machado 32:10

Thank you. Because I'm like getting red.

Nick VinZant 32:14

Men are men easier? Are they harder?

Marissa Machado 32:17

This is a common question. And it's not easier as far as the job goes. Because there are some difficult men, there are some really particular men. And I always say it's easier for me because I have two brothers, I was raised around a lot of men. And I don't know, I think I'm a bit of a tomboy. I think that I can relate to them in a way and understand I don't know, I understand the process with them. I'm not somebody who looks in the mirror all the time and is obsessed with how I look. So therefore I don't become obsessed with the way other people look to where I get really nitpicky on their face. And I feel that's more the way women go. So it just, it works for me, because it's like you do the job. You have a nice bond. You tell them they look handsome, and then they feel good about their day. You know, just like most men in general, not one specific man. But most men, you know,

Nick VinZant 33:09

we're a lot easier, right? Like, I can speak for me specifically, as long as my hair is still there. I'm not gonna say anything bad about it. Like,

Marissa Machado 33:17

honestly, that is the number one concern, I will tell you with men and hair is losing it and it thinning. And I always anybody that always anybody that ever makes a joke about a man's hair thinning or losing their hair. I'm always like, no, no, that's off bound. Like that's out of bounds. Because I think that is men's number one insecurity is losing their hair. And it's a sensitive topic. So I really I don't joke about it. But yeah, that is very, something that's very common.

Nick VinZant 33:47

You can always tell when a guy starts wearing hats and a lot of at like, Oh, he's noticed it's going

Marissa Machado 33:52

or they start styling the hair where it kind of goes forward a little bit on the sides, you know?

Nick VinZant 33:57

Yeah. Is there anything that meant like, you're going bald? Well, it's time to get it over with like, what should men do in those last days before?

Marissa Machado 34:07

Yeah, I think that if you've gotten to the place where you're just holding on to the few strands, then you've basically been going about your life being bald anyway. Right? So you might as well just shave it. But I think that if you're especially like in your early 20s, and you're starting to notice your hair thinning, and you have the financial means, I think that you should absolutely look into getting hair transplants because they've come an incredibly long way to where people are growing back full heads of hair, and if you do it early on before it gets really bad and noticeable. You can really change the trajectory of what your hair is going to be like in your 40s and 50s. So I think that if you're looking around your family and you're noticing maybe your your mom's dad is bald, you know, and maybe your hairline is starting to recede in that way. And and you have the financial means It's definitely something to look into. Because I've, I've had some incredible results on on people that I know that I've recommended a doctor to in LA. And you would never know ever know. So that's the route I would go. But if you're already going around, basically bald with your couple hairs on the top that you're pulling over, yeah, just shave it.

Nick VinZant 35:21

Can you say which of your clients has the best hair? Not hair cut, but like, oh, they have the nicest hair? Probably? Like that's the easiest one to work with.

Marissa Machado 35:33

Okay, interesting question. Because the best hair doesn't necessarily mean the easiest to work with. I, gosh, it's so hard to say I'm I have somehow fallen into this world of curly haired clients. It's like I started with the Jonas Brothers. And then from there, people would say, Oh, she's good with curls. So I have a lot of clients that have a lot of curly, nice hair. But I do think I think that Joe Jonas has really beautiful hair that's really easy to style. He's one of those clients that his hair is ever changing, we always kind of go back and bounce ideas off each other for the next look, or the next thing or where he wants it to go. And it's always really fun. And he's his hair. He's got the kind of hair that will do whatever I want. However, I want it to look, it's going to do that. So he I would say, yeah, he could. There's other ones, but I can go with that one easily.

Nick VinZant 36:31

That makes sense. Um, last question for me, what would advice would you give to the next you somebody coming into the business?

Marissa Machado 36:41

I joke with my niece, I tell her, she should come down and she's got my same last name come take over. But the next me? Well, I'm just gonna give the advice that Catherine gave me. And the advice is that you never know who's in the room and who's listening. So everything you say can be repeated. You never want to get yourself into a situation where you're talking too much. So it's it's knowing your place, it's knowing how to be in the room, it's reading the room understanding when to be and where, and why. You know, it's it's knowing how it's being good at your job, but also being really good at reading people. I would say that, you know, it is a struggle. Like I said before, it's not for the faint of heart, you have to really want it, it has to be your dream. This can't just be something that you think, Oh, that looks fun, I'll go do that. You have to really love it. Because there are ups and downs. And when you're riding that wave really high, it is fantastic. But when you're in that when you're riding that wave low, it can be really dark. And you have to remember those highs to keep yourself balanced for the lows.

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After-Death Researcher Dr. J. Kim Penberthy

What happens after we die? Psychiatrist Dr. J. Kim Penberthy studies near-death experiences and after-death communications. We talk afterlife experiences, the psychology of death, and the latest science on what’s next. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Michaels.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy: 01:53

Pointless: 46:54

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Interview with After-Death Researcher Dr. J. Kim Penberthy

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, the afterlife. And the best

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 0:19

Michael's, when you look at after people who report after death communications, it's universal. And it's most often seen and people who've had someone they love pass away within the year. For some of these we can look at some time sometimes information is past, the location of missing items or some information. What the research shows people fear most is the pain of dying, the process of dying,

Nick VinZant 0:53

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out if you're a new listener. Welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest studies what happens after we die? So our first guest studies one of if not the biggest question that we all face. What happens after we die? She researches near death experiences and after death communications, to find out what's real, what's not. And what all of this says about us. Because when you look at all of these different experiences, there is a commonality in it that we all share. This is after death researcher, Dr. J, Kim Penberthy. So kind of getting started off with the basics. How common would you say are after death or near death experiences for people

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 2:02

they are probably more common than people might realize. And you have to remember, we're talking about two different things, when we're talking about a near death experience. This is a very well defined concept that we have, that is specifically referring to an experience someone has when they die or nearly die, and the subsequent sort of experiences that they have and recall. And in an after death communication, this is just exactly what it sounds like this is having been contacted spontaneously by someone who has died in some way. And so when someone reports and after death communication, it is literally someone that they knew or had knowledge of who passed away. And now they perceive they are being contacted by this person.

Nick VinZant 3:03

If we were to put I'm a big numbers person, right and approximating 25% of people, 50% of people 75 Like what would you say is the reported number? And then what do you think is like okay, but I think actually this many people have this happen?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 3:22

Obviously with near death experiences. It's it's smaller, because it's constricted to people who have near death experiences who almost die. And of those people. It's it's a fairly small percentage who actually remember and can describe what happened to them when they died for after death communications. So in that area, we see when we ask people sort of go out and do random research and find out, you know, just asking them if they've had these experiences, it's it's all over the place, it can be between about 25% of the population up to 60%. So you have to remember, not everyone is going to endorse this, they might experience it, but not share with other people. And when we've done research explicitly asking people, if they've had any kind of communication like this, they will say yes, and share their story, and then disclose that they've never told anybody, certainly not a doctor or a psychologist. And you can imagine why they think that someone's going to think they're crazy or that they're making it up or hallucinating. So my hunch to answer the last part of your question is that people experienced this at higher rates than we then we probably know so I think in reality, it's it's the majority of people. That's my honest feeling. If you really ask things like people saying Well, I saw this Cardinal, and Mom always said, you know, she loved Cardinals and I feel I believe this Cardinal was mom coming back to check on me. If you include things like that, and after death communications, which we do, you know, you can begin, you start thinking about your own life, the people, you know, your relatives, your friends, many of them endorse experiences like this and don't think it's weird.

Nick VinZant 5:26

That's, that would be, you know, the question that would jump out at me. And I'll use an example from from my personal life. My mother passed, I go on this hike to kind of clear my head, long hike, I get up to the central point of the hike cloudy all the time, I get up to the top and the sun comes out. And I guess you could read that, depending on how you believe two ways, right? Like this is a sign my mother is wherever? Or like, it's just a complete coincidence? Like, how do you kind of separate between those two?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 5:59

You know, that's a really good question. And it can be tough. And a lot of it boils down to the interpretations and beliefs of the individual. So there might be someone who believes it was just pure coincidence, and thinks nothing of it. Oh, you know, this, the clouds burned off. It's that time of day. And this makes sense to me. And that's what they'll go with. And others, you know, again, it depends on the timing, it depends on the belief. May I say, Yes, you know, that's, that's my mother telling me she's here with me. And in some ways, you know, again, it does depend on what people report how they interpret it. As a clinical psychologist, which, which is what I am in my background, I'm way more interested in how it impacts people. Because the reality is, it could be both, you know, and we've often lost the sight of of, okay, you know, maybe it's ambiguous, maybe it's both, maybe, yeah, this, the clouds burned off and the sun came up, because time passed. And who knows, maybe it's some sort of communication from the other side to reassure you. And, to me, the important thing, is the impact it has on you. Does that make you feel better? Does it help you cope with your grief? Does it make you feel like you're not alone? Those are important things. And if it helps to do that, then, you know, I'm less worried about whether you can you call it a real after death communication or not.

Nick VinZant 7:44

That makes sense, right? Because I'm not a religious person. I'm not a spiritual person. But it does make me happy, in a way, right. And so I guess, kind of, but is there a, is there a, I just use the phrase dark side to that kind of thing, right? Like, okay, it makes somebody happy. So what leave them alone? But can this go negative where people obsess? Or it, it weighs down on them rather than lifting them up?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 8:12

Well, I mean, I think you can ask that of any kind of belief system. You know, you think about any structured religion, can it go sideways? Oh, yeah. You've seen that we've seen that. Yeah, it can be used against people, it can be manipulated. So yes, that's definitely a possibility. And that's, you know, that would be an interesting line of research to look at. We do know, that in the after death communication research, when we've explored that there are people who feel like they've been contacted and had experiences, and they were sort of, you know, not real positive for them. So it might have been sort of alarming or negative in some way with you know, their effect is impacted in a negative way. However, what we do find in the literature in the research is that for the majority of people, and I'm talking about 75% or higher, maybe 85%, even, it is genuinely a genuine dren. generally seen as a positive thing. So they feel that it is demonstrating to them that there is something beyond that someone is still connected to them sort of that continuation of the connection. And for many of them, they decrease their fear of death and dying, which can be very beneficial for folks. We also found in a recent study that looked at about almost 1000 people, that people who have after death communications Generally become more spiritual, not religious, necessarily. So we looked at that difference between religiosity, which is practicing in a more formal religion, whether or not you go to church or synagogue or something, versus spirituality, which was a little more, a little more personalized, if you will.

Nick VinZant 10:21

So your research is focused more on the idea that people have this, not necessarily trying to prove that these things are really exist or not. It's more the idea of like, this is a commonality that people have.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 10:36

Yes, because in my in my role as a clinical psychologist, you know, I'm not an astrophysicist. I'm not a theoretical physicist, I'm not, I am not that smart. I tell you what, so I work with people. And a lot of my work is with people who have very serious illness, I work with oncology patients, people who are really facing their own death, and many of them have significant fear of death and dying, this is very problematic. I've seen many very bad deaths, which are just heartbreaking, it's hard enough to work with someone who is actively dying, and then to work with someone who's dying and denying it or fighting it. Because of fear. So I look to this work as a way to help improve the quality of life for people as as one of the objectives so really, how it's the sort of so what question these happens, so what, you know, we can go the route of looking at the, the, the science of it, the physics of it, or the, you know, the theology of it, or we can look at what's the impact right here, right now, whether or not we know much more about these. So in some ways, you know, it's interesting to look at all of that, as a clinician with my clinician hat on, I'm really looking at the impact. How does this impact people? How does it make their lives better? How does it make their death? A better death, so to speak? So that's sort of where I'm at with the after death communication research?

Nick VinZant 12:21

Is there like people who report after death experiences near death experience after death communications? Do they fit into a kind of a category? Right? Like, are they? Is it mostly men, mostly women, mostly religious people, mostly spiritual people? Like do they ultimately kind of trend in a certain direction?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 12:39

Well, here's what's interesting when when you look at after people who report after death communications, it is global, there are people around the world that report this. So it is, it's universal. And we see it most commonly, obviously, in people who have someone who passed away fairly recently. So it's most often seen in people who've had someone they love passed away within the year, it is more common in women. There again, we don't really know if that's a true statistic, or if it's just that women tend to endorse these things more than men. In general, they sort of self report things like this more psychological components, emotions, that sort of thing. So the answer is really it it happens universally. And across time, I mean, you can find reports of these in you know, as far back to the Bible, and earlier Greek writings and things like that. So it seems to be something that humans have experienced since the beginning of humanity, you specialize

Nick VinZant 13:55

in after death communication. So an after death communication is text message, I'm assuming is not not a text message from Uncle Bob. Right. But

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 14:06

you know, um, so typically, the we think about the various categories and obviously, you can be contacted in different ways visually, what we might think of is an apparition or, like we were talking about the sun coming out or a cardinal, you know, something that's significant signifies the loved one who's passed away. It can be a voice hearing words, and that includes, you know, some people will get phone calls that are like sort of staticky or happen and they attribute it again, this is all what they attribute it to. This is my mother calling some feel a presence so they just feel the sense that someone's in that person's in the room with them. They smell aromas, you might smell their perfume. Touch, you can also feel that you know, the hand on the face or a hand on your shoulder. So all of these ways can be ways that we experienced and after death communication.

Nick VinZant 15:13

I think the thing that jumps out to you, right for skeptical people, they could just be like, Okay, it's just a missed phone call, right? Like, is that difficult from a research perspective to kind of be like, well, you know, what, maybe you like, I got a phone call from my mother after I've been drinking all night like, Well, maybe it's because you're drinking all night, right? Like, is it difficult to kind of? Do you have to? How do you take into account those things where that maybe jump out, like, well, maybe this was happening?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 15:50

Well, it's interesting, you bring this up, because we don't, you know, we don't typically have people knocking down our doors to tell us about these experiences. So you do have to consider the source, obviously. And many people are sort of hesitant and a little reluctant and take a little bit of feeling safe and being invited to share these things. So I think that's one thing to keep in mind. There's a bit of a hurdle to get over for these folks. And of course, you're right. There can be people who tell us these things, and we may think it's a different kind of attribution, you know, like, that seems more like a missed phone call to me. Again, I'm going to go back to what does this individual believe in? Why might it be important? And how could it be helpful. You also have to distinguish, you know, between people with true thought disorders. So there are people who have thought disorders, like people with schizophrenia, who have delusions or psychotic thoughts. And what we found in the research is that the people who report after death communications are not psychotic, they do not have thought disorders. So there is a big difference there. And we do look at that research. So we're talking about people who don't, they may be grieving, they might have some anxiety or other sort of symptoms, like many of us do. When we've lost someone, however, they don't have a thought disorder. So I think it is important to clarify that.

Nick VinZant 17:34

When you look at the I believe, if I looked at there was like 12 kinds of 12 main categories of after death communications, is there one or two that are much more prevalent than other ones?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 17:46

Yeah, I would say, you know, you, you can look at the research sort of varies depending on the sample that you look at. I think it's very common for people to sense a presence of someone. And I think part of that maybe, because it's sort of general enough that, you know, it's, it's, it seems more accessible. Maybe

Nick VinZant 18:10

it's both specific enough and vague enough, that kind of can categorize as anything, or like, yeah, you just kind of feel like somebody's there with you.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 18:19

Yeah. And we all know what that feels like, which is also interesting. So

Nick VinZant 18:26

is, is there any research, though, that would suggest that you know, what, like, this is just a brain coping mechanism?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 18:33

Yeah. And there are people who who argue that? I don't know, again, that's not my specific area of expertise. And I'm not very aware of any research that has said yes, this is where you know, where that happens in the brain. And that's what's going on. It's certainly a hypothesis more. What's more common is a hypothesis that these are just sort of wishes. And, as you sort of alluded to, like, I want to, I want to believe this. So then I imbue it with this attribution. I say that, yes, this is what it is. And again, that's sort of challenging to, to sort of tease apart well, then what does that mean? Is this real, is it not it's real to the individual person. One of the things we can do and this may be, what you're sort of trying to get at is for some of these, we can look at, sometimes information is past the location of missing items or some information. And if that is reported to us through this after death communication from that individual who had it, we could go back and then look at at verifying this information. So there are some cases of that where you look at the information and determine if it's true or not. And some of them have been shown to be valid. So at that point, you know, again, that's a little bit more proof. You still have naysayers who say, well, it could be luck it could be. So you could still argue against that as proof. However, we do know that we've seen those instances, it takes some information is passed,

Nick VinZant 20:22

it does seem like something that like no matter what you could pick holes apart, there's how did you kind of get into it? What made you focus on this area?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 20:32

Well, I'm, I've always been very open to, you know, all kinds of ideas. As a young person, I was very curious. And I had wonderful parents that really encouraged that. And, and I had, you know, a strong sense of science. My father was a surgeon, my mother, a nurse, and she probably would have been, I don't know, some, some mystic leader if she knew about that. She was very, into nature. And, and in sort of this open spirituality and growing up, I would ask them both things, because their, their, their, their answers. were so different. It was so fun. You know, I asked my dad, what is the purpose of life as a little kid, because I just had these ideas. Oh, you know, I wanted to find out. He said, Well, that's easy. And was like, wow, okay, great. I didn't expect that. He said, it's to reproduce. Because as a scientist, yeah. Right. Okay. And I asked my mom the same question separately. And she said, overhead is so easy. Again, I'm like, Yes. She said, It's love. And so I then asked them, well, what happens when you die? And my dad proceeded to say, again, this is easy, here you go, you're ready, starts to tell me all about how the system is shut down, and the decomposition of the body or six year old, and I asked my mom the same, and she said, Oh, that's easy. You reunite with love. It's eternal love. And so I grew up with these thoughts. And, and that they, they are compatible, that they're totally compatible. And so I went into psychology because I thought people were fascinating, I loved how we can hold multiple thoughts in our head. And, you know, in the creativity, we have the genius we have the kindness we have, as well as the darker side of that, and very fascinated in what impacts that how that develops, how it can change what you can do for people to help them and became a clinical psychologist. And I think it was also informed by experiences I had as a young person, and even in my 20s that's when I had an experience that really impacted me and made me realize that I don't have all the answers and there are things going on that I don't understand in and there may be may be pretty positive things. So if you'll indulge me I'll share my mother and I love the beach. I did not grow up at the beach but we always went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. And would were there one summer was just my mother and I and I was probably in my late teens or early 20s I don't know why was just the two of us. And she went in for a swim we had been sort of laying in the sand and I just laid I had to towel over my face just to protect it and dozed off, I'm pretty sure and woke up to sort of a you know, the noise of a crowd on the beach and so got up on my elbows to look and I saw a big crowd at the water's edge. And I saw that the lifeguard and this other man were bringing my mother in from the ocean. And she looked okay, she was standing up and everything. So I I just felt like okay, I don't need to rush over there. There's plenty of people she looks fine. But it was curious to me I noticed that the the man the one not the lifeguard, the other man looked older and he was like in regular clothes, not beach clothes, like a short sleeve button down shirt and, and khaki pants and I didn't recognize them. And so then she came up to the to the blanket and lay down she said she was fine, don't worry. And so after we both lay down, we're both there with our eyes closed. And I said Well, Mom I'm, who was that other guy? Who was he? And she said, Oh, that was my grandfather. And to this day, I still get chills. She had grown up in a sort of a challenging home environment, and was raised primarily by her grandfather, who just adored her and really cherished her. And I never met him. I didn't even know what he looked like. But then, when we returned home, I happened. We never really talked about it again. I mean, it was just not a big deal to her. It was like, Well, that happened. Okay. And I just followed her cues.

Nick VinZant 25:44

Like, yeah, like, I mean, that's, that's what you do you know, that age, right? Yeah.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 25:51

When I came home, I, you know, start digging around. And sure enough, I found a picture of him. It was him. And I was like, oh, that's the man I saw. I couldn't believe it. So, again, I didn't go telling everybody, I just really sort of kept it here. And it opened up this part of me that was thinking, you know, there's so much more than we know, how can I explain that, especially in my science mind, you know, I'm in, I'm getting ready to go to college and, you know, study science and biology. And so, I've always, that's, that's really driven me great, a great deal. And in you, you know, is that an after death communication? Sort of? Is it a ghost? I guess, you know, I, I didn't call it that. I still don't I really think of it as some you know, we know that in in times of crisis, things like this can happen, our sense of our consciousness can become altered. I mean, you can think of this as sort of an altered state of consciousness, that I'm now accessing some other piece of reality, you know, where this is now sort of apparent to me or evident to me, in a way. So I guess I sort of conceptualized it like that, and kept it with me and have have thought more and more about it as I've gone into this work. And maybe it impacted me in going into this direction more than I realize. I'm not sure.

Nick VinZant 27:36

That's kind of my personal opinion about, I would say I'll use the word stuff like this, right, is that it doesn't matter if it's real or not, it's real to you. And it does. I mean, obviously, it's an incredibly powerful experience. Does it change people's lives? Would you say? Like,

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 27:53

like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so people, definitely, you know, and this includes things like near death experiences, and out of body experiences, which often come with near death experiences, I mean, we can have out of body experiences. Anytime we can do that through meditation, or some people sort of spontaneously do some people do in a time of crisis. All of these sort of the hypothesis is number one, they they do impact you, they change your outlook, they often people endorse it, they are more spiritual with all that. That means to them, maybe they're, they feel more connected to people, they feel like there is something bigger than themselves. They feel like there's a purpose. Many people experience a very intense positive aspects, some sort of some knowledge that everything is okay, that it's all the way it should be sort of this profound equanimity. That is obviously very, very helpful in living your life, when you feel connected, supported, that you're supposed to be here, that your life is moving the way it should. Those all help people feel much more safe, more connected, more productive. And also, interestingly, simultaneously reduce the fear of death. So I can be engaged in my life fully and really embrace it and also accept that that there is this other phase of it called death. And it's, it doesn't have to be terrifying.

Nick VinZant 29:37

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? I'm one of those people like I don't transition well, I just do it. Let's get right into one of the hard ones. What do you think we fear more death or not knowing what happens next, or if something happens next.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 29:58

So I Interestingly, for that question, it's a really good question, I'm going to add a third choice in there. What the research shows people fear most is the pain of dying. The process of dying. You know, think about it a prolonged, agonizing death. When we've done research, this is the thing that most people fear the most.

Nick VinZant 30:25

That is the exact opposite of what I want. My dream is to be eaten by a bear. I want to experience I want to experience the whole thing. Like every second of it.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 30:36

I have never heard anyone say that. That's, that's impressive. I don't I don't know what to make with that, though.

Nick VinZant 30:45

I want to know what it's like, right? It's the last thing you were like me, and that was pretty bad. But this is the way I've always thought about it. Like, if everybody's in the afterlife, and they're all sitting around the table, like I went in my sleep, I had this I had that. I got eaten by bear. That's the person like, that's a good story. Okay, there's my personal thing is that, um, do you think like, Okay, if there is an afterlife, would it then make our lives less valuable?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 31:13

Well, in, you know, I think afterlife is sort of an interesting term. different belief systems, think of it differently. So, you know, yes, sort of Christians, sort of the Abrahamic religions, some of them have this sort of sense of an afterlife, not all of them, but that, you know, we go to heaven, or we do something, there's another phase. And there's also a sense of, Well, what if this is a sort of a reconnection with something larger? So we sort of, you know, our individual selves, we're so used to thinking of that in our culture, but that we're really just part of this larger thing. And a little piece has come into this body for this period of time, and then reunites with this larger consciousness. There's a way of looking at that, as well. Um, I think it's an interesting question, you know, does it make this life less? What was the word valuable, valuable,

Nick VinZant 32:18

or pressing or whatever, right? This, I'll use the word be overly dramatic, like, cheapen this life, like, alright, well, I'm just doing this until I do this thing.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 32:29

And I think there is a risk for for that, you know, you do see people and again, certain very extreme religions where this life is all about just getting to the next. And those are often in in sort of these religions where, where we are sort of waiting for the next big thing, so to speak, you know, and there can be a risk of that. That's where you get people who are willing to, you know, commit suicide and do things to move on to that next level. So I think that's more of a risk, and then thinking about this as sort of a cheapened version. Because, again, it's interesting that many, if you think about it, many people that that have these experiences, actually value this life more. So the research would seem to contradict that. Even though it is a risk, you know, that we could sort of diminish this life and think of this as less important. Interestingly, the research would show people who have near death experiences who have after death communications or even out of body experiences, find that they value this life more that this is the you know, that they have more positive aspect. And part of it is that we suspect is that they understand some sort of shift happens in their consciousness that they understand they're not alone, they are connected, that, that they're already that way. You know,

Nick VinZant 33:57

yeah, I could see more, I could see where people who are more spiritual more nature re would feel that way more, right. Because the idea like if you're super into nature, you know, that the trees are connected to the grass to the animals. Right, and

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 34:15

a lot of collective societies. Also that, you know, that I think we're so used to thinking of being independent of our own, you know, in America, it's all about the individual and our rights and our and there's nothing wrong with that, except there are cultures we forget where it is all about the collective. And where people's minds just much more naturally go to that, that it's we not me. And that's a we as in my community, my society, my country, but this is another level of we, as in, you know, all of consciousness, all of creation.

Nick VinZant 34:55

That's the one thing that I want to happen when I die. I just want somebody to be like, Hey, you This is what happens. Like, this isn't here, you know, like, this is what happens. They should give you like a pamphlet. I feel like you should get a brochure explaining how this all works.

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 35:10

I agree. I just hope that you know, being eaten by a bear doesn't mean you become the bear that gets to heaven. I don't know, I wondered about that. If you're zoomed by another creature? Do you go as the bear? Or do you go as Nick? That

Nick VinZant 35:27

is a good question. Either way, though, I feel okay with it. Right? Like, I could be half bear half person would make you know, guy, you could have some that would be an interesting time. Yeah, that would be interesting to think about, like all the possibilities, like what could happen. The other thing that I would like to happen is like somebody to say like, you know, what, if you would have made this decision here, this is where you would have been, like a life review. If you would have mowed the lawn at one o'clock instead of 12 o'clock, you would have won the lottery that day? Like what? Those things? Yes. So cool. Um, do you personally believe in an afterlife?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 36:12

I mean, you know, I have had, I have had experiences that have allowed me to perceive that there is more out there than we currently think about in our modern day science. I would say that, you know, modern day science is pretty materialistic, where you're in your body, your brain is what produces all the stuff. And then when your brain dies, and your body dies, you're gone. I don't know if I buy that. I will say that. What what is the alternative? I'm still exploring, I think there are other possibilities. And that, to some extent, we can research them. I'm very interested in how we can research what these beliefs mean to people and how they impact the quality of their life, how they treat other people, how they treat the earth, that sort of thing. So for me, I guess it's less important to find the ultimate answer. And maybe more important to think about, well, what are the implications here and now, for our world? And for individuals?

Nick VinZant 37:31

Do you think, Okay, what do you think would impact the world more? If we found out absolutely with like, 100% proof that yes, there is or 100% proof that No, there isn't?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 37:44

I think, first of all, not everyone's going to believe everything. But if we go hypothetically, personally, I think it would be far more tragic to put out there, that that idea that this is all it is that it were just material. And when we die, that's it. We had no sort of consequence. We're not connected to anything larger, there was really no meaning in our life. I think that would be really hard. I think it would probably have a much more negative impact.

Nick VinZant 38:17

Yeah, I feel like we would start destroying the world. Really? Yeah. Don't accidentally prove it the other way. Yeah, that's one of those things like we like each probably keep that to yourself. If you accidentally discovered that, like, let's just go ahead and not put that out there was like, How do other How do you? You know, other researchers view it? Is it like, if you go to the convention, are they kind of like, oh, boy, here comes the near death people? Are they like, how do they view? How do they view that research?

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 38:54

Well, I have not been shunned. I will tell you that. So that's number one. There are a couple of answers to that. So yes, I do I do mainstream research as well, what we would call mainstream research. Coming up through my career, I did a lot of research in chronic depression and addiction. And then working, of course, with oncology patients, and in really started doing meditation research early on when it was fringe, and have seen that become more mainstream. And yes, sometimes she would have the people eye rolling or whatever. The the key really is to do very good science, you know, do good research. Make a quality so that people can look at the research and say yes, I see how you did this. This is standard operating procedure type of thing. And then it's it's more difficult for people to dispute. The other thing is, you know, as more people do this research and I'm invested in training people and spreading the word, then then becomes validated. So more people in different labs are doing it and finding out answers. And we also have developed conferences that are, you know, like many things, you develop specialty conferences. So when it was not always well received in maybe other conference centers, you could go to one that focused on after death studies or palliative care, things like that, where you're looking at people who run into this all the time, who literally see this in their work. And it's important to them. So I think that as we do more, and do quality research, it, it may, it may go the way of meditation where it becomes more and more mainstream, and people see the value. Not so much, you know, with with meditation, it's, it's, it was really developed from some of the ancient work, not to be so much like, here's a way of life, here's the spiritual path, you have to take, like Buddhism or something. It was It was developed in a way to say, how can we help people. And that may be part of why it became accepted, because people did quality research and saw the positive impact, initially, really working with chronic pain patients and, and people like that, where there was nothing else to help. So so we may see this developing the similar way, how can we help people with severe fear of death and dying? Having some exposure to thoughts about you know, after death, communication, or out of body experiences, can help reduce that we know from the research, so we may see it continue to grow.

Nick VinZant 41:53

It does seem like the kind of thing that I could see somebody's like, the most skeptical person in the world at the same time being like, this is the absolute blah, blah, blah, and then pulling you aside and being like, hey, this thing happened to me the other day, that does

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 42:05

happen. So people have disclosed their own experiences and how profoundly impacted them, they still usually report that they can't come public with it because of the fear of, you know, a stigma attached to it. Or they're early in their career, and they need to, you know, build up their career before they move into that area. So, yeah,

Nick VinZant 42:35

this would be the last question that we got, what after death communication or near death experience stands out to you the most besides your own? Obviously,

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy 42:45

there are so many there are so many. One really amazing one to me, was interesting, because it was the first one I heard where it was, it was a sort of a more harsh version, that we often think of loving and supportive, and, you know, very touching type of encounters. And this was a gentleman who was struggling with alcohol addiction. And we'd been working a long time, and he was not making much progress. And I was I had taught him meditation. And, you know, early on, when I was doing the meditation work, a lot of these experiences came from people learning to meditate and practicing their meditation. And then they would report some of these unusual experiences. He had an, an, what he considered he called it some sort of communication from someone that he felt connected to, but he he didn't really know who they were, but he felt a sense that they were connected. And it was this voice, this very harsh, female voice, who was telling him to get his shit together, and stop being you know, a baby and just get on board and he needed to quit drinking or he was going to die. So it was clearly not him. It was not his own thoughts. He said, No, it's I've had those thoughts. I know that stuff. This was someone else coming to me and I heard them playing his day. This is what they told me. Now he was not psychotic, he did not have a thought disorder. He was not actively drinking excessively, where he would have had some sort of delusion. He changed overnight. Because he said that that that communication knew him got him and that it resonated with him and I you know, I've not heard many stories like that, where someone comes back and scold you so harshly and says pretty harsh things to you. And you attribute it to someone that that is invested in you but you don't know them. So that was that was a little odd and bizarre. What I was most impressed With was the impact. I mean, it worked. And I can tell you, I swear, we had worked for so long to help him reduce his intake, and he just quit just right. And didn't pick it up again, the last communication I had with him, he was still not drinking. And, you know, so what was that? I may never know. It was important to him, it came through His act of work on, on his meditation on altering his consciousness on sort of expanding, and I suspect it was some sort of contact with some awareness. Maybe that was within him maybe from external. And it was just some point he had to get to, and maybe some, some point he had to get to in his work with me, in addition to some opening up with some, maybe some increased awareness or availability to accept this. And we see sort of similar things with psychedelic drugs, you know, not to get too off topic. But this idea of, of expanding this consciousness having some sort of experience where it's almost like everything shifts, and it can do so really quickly. Because it's like some light bulb going off, like, Ah, now I get it. And what that is for each person is a little bit different. It is, however, really profoundly focused on on connection on something larger than themselves some insight into, I'm not alone. And this all has meaning.

Turkey Calling Champion Dave Owens

Turkey calling is more than what it seems. It’s not just making sounds, it’s having a conversation with an animal. Speaking their language in order to convince a turkey that you are a turkey. Dave Owens is one of the best turkey callers in the world. We talk turkey calling, turkey hunting and being an advocate for conservation and wildlife. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Best Birds

Dave Owens: 01:44

Pointless: 42:49

Top 5: 01:07:07

Sponsor: Go to BetterHelp.com/POINTLESS for 10% off your first month of therapy

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

The Pinhoti Project

The Pinhoti Project YouTube

Dave Owens Instagram / Pinhoti Project Instagram

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/turkey-calling-champion-dave-owens/id1410461576?i=1000593688050


Interview with Dave Owens of the Pinhoti Project

Nick VinZant 0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, The Art of turkey calling and the best birds.

Dave Owens 0:25

But that's your yield. That's the essentially like a people saying, Hi, you have basically fooled the ears of some of the most critical judges, and you're on the other side of that curtain a mere feet away often, and you're folding them to thinking that you're a turkey. I started this stuff when I was a college kid, you don't get much broker than college, I did that to Gulf Coast to country living out of the back of my truck sleeping on a cottage is funny as it sounds, Turkeys themselves have put me in places that I would have never seen had it not been for Turkey. So I've done things in my life that I never thought was obtainable. And it's all due to Turkeys,

Nick VinZant 1:02

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is one of the best Turkey callers in the world. And what's so interesting to me about turkey calling, it's not just making some sounds trying to get the attention to the turkey. It's having a conversation with the turkey. It's fascinating. This is turkey call champion, Dave Owens, what is the importance of having like a turkey call where Why do you need this? Where does this come from?

Dave Owens 1:50

Well, the calling aspect of turkey hunting is is kind of the defining factor. That's what kind of makes it different because we have a communication with our prey, we are able to carry on a conversation carry on a dialogue, what we're essentially trying to do is is enter their flock convince them that we are one of the flock and convince them to come investigate for one reason or another. So the culling aspect is is what makes it different is extremely important because without it turkey hunting would just blend with any other type of spot and stalk or the sit and wait kind of games that you get in with with often oftentimes with big game hunting. The calling is very important because it sets it apart and kind of what gives turkey hunting in itself a different feel. And I think that's what is the big fascination for most of us that are just obsessed with it. That's kind of what gives it that that drawl.

Nick VinZant 2:43

So like when you're doing the call, you're not just like, hey, Turkeys come here, like you're going back and forth with them.

Dave Owens 2:51

It's like any other conversation like the one that we're having here. Now. I mean, there's, they have a whole vocabulary, I mean, you can get excited, you can do subtle stuff. It's no different than saying, Hey, how you doing Nick? Hey, Nick, how's it going? Like you just learned over time, how to the dialects and the different, you know, the excitement levels, and what to say, I mean, they have a couple off the top, like, the most standard Turkey sound as a Yelp is what everything else is kind of developed around and kind of builds off of you have cutting, which is a very excited sound, which typically means aggression or excitement of some level, you have purring, which is can be a contented call, which is what they do when they're just, you know, just kind of subtle talk, because, you know, like you would do if you were, you know, in your office chatting with a co worker while you were you know, doing something else. But that same purring sound can also get aggressive because that's what they do when they're fighting. You know, it's almost like when you're fighting, you're grunting and growling and whatever. You know, it can be, you know, to that level. So as you can quickly probably gather the calling is that there's a big part in it. A lot of layers do

Nick VinZant 4:04

it. Could you give us an example of like those, what the calls sound like I got one

Dave Owens 4:09

right here. Oh, this is what I'd use a lot. There's a lot of different kinds of calls but this is what you call a mouth call or a Yelper diaphragm call. It's essentially an aluminum frame that's below this tape this tape is kind of like to explain it, it would be kind of like medical tape that you would you know wrap a bandage or something with and it's got an aluminum frame in it and this is latex that stretch between that aluminum frame and you blow air across it and you get vibrations off the ends. There's a lot of different cut configurations that you can use to get different sounds and probably the most universal call you can use the mouth calls to do little bit everything and but there's also pot and peg top calls or pots call I was gonna see if I had one of those laying around here. No don't um But basically, it's just different instruments just like musical instruments, you got horns and guitars and drums. I mean, it's the same thing with turkey calls, you got different things that can kind of make the same sounds but they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The mouth collies, you can obviously tail it's very small, you put it in your mouth, you can still hold your firearm or whatever else you may have in your hands that you may not have available. If you're having to run like a box call, which is another instrument, you can use deer and turkey. Calling that I'll demonstrate it, but you caught me off guard here. So let me

Nick VinZant 5:32

Yeah, yeah, I didn't give him a chance to really do something. So like,

Dave Owens 5:37

like anything else, you got to loosen it up. It's like a guitar player that's gonna, you know, strum the strings and in a set tune his guitar and everything and nothing's different with turkey calls. And we're gonna try to rush this. But the yield just just explained or just kind of hinted to

I don't know how that comes across with audio when these earbuds in the machine here, but that's your yield. That's the essentially like a people saying hi, or hey, or where are you, you can take that to so many different levels, it can be a curiosity deal, it can be a demanding deal. And it's all going to be with the personality that you want to put behind that hand, the voice that you want to give the hand that you're trying to portray some more. It's gonna be hard to do cutting, it's going to pick the audio, but we can do clucking is more or less, it's a dress up word in the turkey world that kind of it can be contended. It's kind of one of those things that turkeys are going to be doing all the time. And so you do the clucking, kind of dresses it up, it's almost like a, I'll explain it as larvae, kind of like an adjective in human vocabulary, it's going to help add personality, it's going to help detail the nail and that you're trying to explain the point you're trying to get across other sounds that would just send it to like the purr, which can be very contented. It's the sound that turkeys are going to make when they're congregated, and feeding. There just being content.

And all these sales are just made by putting air across this litex. And these reads, and vibrations that you make with your throat with your tongue and causing those sounds to come across there. To mimic a turkey.

Nick VinZant 7:50

I can't believe how do people figure this out? Like to me looking at it from the outside of it. I assume that like all right, you make a couple of sounds and turkeys come down and take him out. I didn't realize that that was that in depth.

Dave Owens 8:06

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it isn't. There's turkey calling competitions. We do it competitively. I mean, you're obviously judged by me. And so you know, not judged by Turkey, per se. But it's all on the realism realism that we can put into turkey calling and how realistic we can be using these devices, who can sound the best. There is so many layers and so I mean, you can get so deep on trying to be perfect. Just like anything else. You just work and work and work and try to polish your sounds to be as realistic as possible. And when it you know that's going to obviously be good when you're competing against others. But once you take those talents into the woods when you're you're actually hunting turkeys, the more realistic you can sound, the more you're going to be able to obviously mimic what you're trying to try to replicate in the wild and full more turkeys.

Nick VinZant 9:05

But will you like blow a hunt because you messed up a sound right? Like I had them right where I wanted. And then I made the clock when I should have made the cut and the turkeys were gone.

Dave Owens 9:19

No, it's not a hard and fast situation like that. Just like we have in human vocabulary. I mean, if you and I are talking and I say a word, it's out of place, or my voice cracks, or I'm happy to get a drink of water because I get cotton mouth. Same thing happens with turkeys. So it's I won't say it's impossible. But I will say it's quite difficult if you've got a turkeys attention and you're having a conversation to really just say something out of place. Now, you know, if you flip a read, which is something that we refer to in the turkey calling world like you have these latex reads that I just talked about, and they do have a tendency of one of the tongues flipping backwards. sticking onto itself, like so. That just comes out as squeaks. I mean, as you can, it's like popping a guitar string. You obviously can't strum the guitar when the guitar strings are going the same way. So if something like that happens, yeah, sure, you could run one off because it's going to sound like you got something caught in the trap. You know, it's kind of squirrel and squirrel. And, and, yeah, you could run them off that way. But fortunately, just like with people, turkeys have different voices, they have different enunciations. So there's a lot of flexibility when it comes to creating Turkey sales.

Nick VinZant 10:34

But why so then what are you doing on the other end of it in the sense that like, eventually, even if you making all these great sounds right, like, doesn't the turkey expect to see another turkey?

Dave Owens 10:43

Absolutely. And you're hunting turkeys which are hunted by everything, 365 days a year, you're hunting the most paranoid critters out there. I mean, they are hunted from the air, they're hunted from the ground, they're hunted all the time. So what you're trying to do is convince them to trust their second most important, since they live and die by their eyes. That is how they stay safe is their eyesight is incredible. So what you're trying to do is get them to trust their ears enough to second guess their eyesight. That's the whole drawl to turkey hunting, you are really trying to put a turkey in a position to where he is so convinced that you have convinced him by his ears through auditory effects that he almost second guess is his asset, you know, he's going to put his main line of defense that he has lived with, and it has trusted his whole life. And he's going to put that on the shelf because you've convinced him to, to trust his ears. So that's, that's the big draw. That's the big poll, to me, is kind of taking something that has absolutely, and you're hunting turkeys which are hunted by everything, 365 days a year as you're hunting the most paranoid critters out there. I mean, they are hunted from the air, they're hunted from the ground, they're hunted all the time. So live in the wild, you know, and been hunted by everything and in convincing it to, to that you're one of them. So

Nick VinZant 12:22

So now are you female Turkey, trying to lure a male, male Turkey trying to lure a female like, or how does that usually?

Dave Owens 12:32

Typically, I mean, just to be the stereotypical thing is yes, you're a hand you're a female Turkey, you're trying to replicate like, you know, a turkey wanting company is breeding season. That's why we are most often hunting deer in the spring. And is Yeah, exactly. You're just trying to lower the gobbler, which is the male turkey into into shotgun Ranger archery range by mimicking, you know, his his desire to breed So,

Nick VinZant 12:58

so the range that you would be looking at to try to get them close? I obviously it depends on the the firearm right, but like, what's the ideal? I want to get in within 500 yards? I want to get five feet?

Dave Owens 13:11

Yeah, I mean, the standard answer here is going to be typically most people are hunting them with shotguns, which is you know, more of a shorter range weapon. Because turkeys you typically shoot him in the head and neck area, because that's what's most lethal. It's most ethical. And, and that's something that's very seldom steel, if you've watched a turkey, their pay is always moving because they rely on their ass out there constantly tilting their head to get a better view, they can see like 320 degrees around them. So unless you're directly behind them, they can still see you moving. So we're shooting with shotguns at close range. Typically, that's going to be 40, orbs and en, which is kind of that standard. Advancements in shot and things of that nature may extend that range a little bit. But you will find that in the turkey hunting crowd, there's a lot of ethics that are self imposed. I mean, there's a lot of us out there in the community, that although we may have the ability to take a turkey at extreme ranges or something, maybe, quote unquote, legal, you might get in trouble for you're not breaking any laws. But we kind of just put things into place because we want to play this game that we are essentially play and we want to want to self impose some restrictions so that we can get the most enjoyment out of the out of the resources possible. You know,

Nick VinZant 14:31

that's one thing I think we should jump into fairly quickly, right, like some people. I grew up in Kansas and my general experience has been there's very few people who are as good as stewards of the land as hunters are. Do you ever get a lot of pushback? Is there pushback in the hunting community that like why are you doing this? That kind of thing?

Dave Owens 14:53

I'm not in the hunting community. I mean, we we know we're brothers in arms. I think we're all on the same team and we understand And that we have to be because we are a minority in the human population. I mean, we're hunters, like a fragment of the population. But while I will say the wildlife populations that we're all able to enjoy, whether you're a hunter or not, is because of hunters, hood hunters and shooters, were the ones that fit the veal. And we're happy to do so we have self imposed taxes that we put into place. You know, we enjoy the populations. And we're the first ones like right now, for instance, a lot of your turkey populations have seen reintroductions, and starting in about 2000, a lot of the areas that turkeys were reintroduced, they basically fulfilled all the carrying capacity of the land. So basically, their populations were just climbing exponentially there for a while. And now they're we're starting to see a plateau, maybe even dip a little bit before they plateau, which is pretty standard, when you introduce a spacey in a lot of turkey hunters, louder than anybody else is on the horn saying, hey, you know, our turkey populations aren't where they were 10 years ago, it's time to put some additional regulation into place, it's time to kind of dial back to make sure that we have this resource for many generations, hunters are the people that are doing that hundreds of people who are excited about making sure that these these animals are here for for years to come. So

Nick VinZant 16:24

when you go to the competition aspect of it, what makes one call better than another, like how competitive is that, that arena?

Dave Owens 16:35

It's very competitive, you have different divisions, because like the calls that I was explaining earlier, you have the mouth calls like this. And that's an air operated call, it's, you know, obviously operated with air, you have a certain number of calls that are operated through friction, and that's the pot and pig calls that have like a slight surface or glass surface. And you have a wooden peg that you scrape against that surface. And it makes a sound that replicates a turkey and that's a friction call. So you have a division devoted strictly to friction, you have an open division, which is open to anything. But essentially, regardless of what kind of instrument you're using, the whole idea is to be as realistic as possible. You're judged by a panel of judges who are behind the curtain or under the stage. So they don't know who's calling in most situations, and their judging strictly off what they're listening to and what what is most closely resembles the sounds of a hand turkey.

Nick VinZant 17:36

So is it a hard thing to do? Or is that a hard thing to do? Well,

Dave Owens 17:40

making the sounds of a turkey are not a very difficult thing to do to make the sounds of a turkey that are extremely realistic can be very difficult. I mean, it's like with anything else, you know, we can you know, with with a little bit of practice, you can teach an eight year old to toss the ball up in the air and hit it with a bat to go to the big leagues and get into the Hall of Fame. It takes a considerable amount of practice and effort to become that skilled at that. So same way with turkey calling I mean as far as picking up a call and and making a sound that can sound somewhat like a turkey and probably fool a turkey. not difficult at all to get on the big stage and full human ears and you know, consistently full turkeys. It's considerably more difficult.

Nick VinZant 18:27

So, okay, correct me if I'm wrong here. You got second place in the most recent national competition?

Dave Owens 18:35

Yeah. There's a lot of turkey calling competitions across the country. We're trying to get the popularity of that built back up. It's not quite what it was in the early 90s When the turkey populations were peaking. As matter of fact, it was popular. Everybody was doing it turkey calling competitions got popular. And they're coming back. We're seeing a lot more involvement than we used to. But yes, the big one, I guess you would call it the Super Bowl of turkey calling is the grand nationals. It's held at the National Wild Turkey Federation, their national convention in Nashville, Tennessee. And they have the big grand national turkey calling competition. And yes, last year placed second and the year prior play second. And then the year prior. I mean, yeah, it's it's been. It's been a fun little run. But yeah, that's the most recent finishes.

Nick VinZant 19:23

So putting kind of all humbleness aside, I guess, for you like, why did you play second? In the sense that like, what are you doing that makes you better than other people? But what did the person who won do that like you didn't? It's

Dave Owens 19:41

all when you get to that stage. You have basically they cut down all of the colors in the country, down to 13. There's 13 callers to go across the finals stage. Just making that stage is a huge accomplishment. Basically, you're one of the best. You have been Basically fooled the ears of some of the most critical judges, some judges that are behind the curtain that know turkeys that have 2030 4050 years of turkey hunting experience. So they know what a turkey sounds like, and you're on the other side of that curtain a mere feet away often, and you're folding them to thinking that you're a turkey. So basically, they scale, they judge you on a scale from one to 20. And if they think if they basically think that there was a turkey on the other side of that curtain, they're gonna give you a 20 if they think you were almost a turkey, but there was a few things in there that, you know, they'll give you 1819, you know, so basically, they're all judged. And there's anywhere from five to seven judges, and they'll total the total of the points and they claim the winner. But as far as what I'm doing, it's, it's, it's once you get to that stage, everybody up there is so good and so polished. It's splitting hairs, you know what I mean? It's, it's really competitive, you always try to do something that's a little bit unique, that may hurt the ears of the judges, that maybe the guy next to you is not. And of course, you're just trying to have a clean run, you're not you're trying not to slip up and make one of those unrealistic Saionji try not to flip wreaths on your car, you try not let us peg slip on your surface, you're trying to be as much a wild turkey as you possibly can.

Nick VinZant 21:26

So is it more for kind of personal competition reasons or necessarily or is this like something like you can make some money doing this?

Dave Owens 21:35

Who it's hard to make money in this. I mean, it's definitely out of passion, it's definitely out of an obsession with turkey hunting, turkey hunting is what got me to wanting to do competition calling, because it's gonna make you a better turkey hunter, it makes you practice on your call more and makes you more proficient on your call. And all of that is going to translate into being able to communicate with turkeys better,

Nick VinZant 21:57

how often a day, or how many hours a day, or a week or whatever, like, how much will you practice,

Dave Owens 22:04

that's all going to be dependent on the collar themselves. A lot of these guys practice a number of hours a day, a lot of folks have jobs that they can practice when they're on the clock, so to speak, and I got a good friend who operates heavy machinery and he's up there. And he said he keeps a mouth collar on his mouth all the time. He's up there by itself. So he's just, you know, practicing and getting new sounds and working. For me personally, I practice quite a bit when I was trying to kind of find my sound and kind of figure out what I wanted to do. But once I have I have found a lot of practice doesn't exactly do favors for me because I pick up bad habits like anything else. So I don't practice that much. Now. I don't practice you know, it's more just making sure I have the right equipment making sure I have the right call. And because we make a ton of calls because no two calls are the same. You got to find just that rat, you know, everybody has their favorite you know everybody has their favorite guitar if you're if you're a musician and just Turkey callers we have our favorite calls and typically everybody builds their own calls. And so now the practice for me now is usually breaking in new calls and trying to find that that rap call to have on game day.

Nick VinZant 23:18

So I googled some stuff right and you were described as the best turkey hunter alive

Dave Owens 23:27

now it's it's it's pretty subjective considering that you don't keep score at this game, you know. So yeah, that's you know, that I've never and I don't think anybody that turkey hunts and considers themselves a big turkey hunter or whatever. Like be gunning for that accolade. I don't think anybody will really want that title because the guys who really love this stuff I would much rather be known as like a an ambassador for the sport somebody that wanted to see turkey hunting popular wanted to say turkey hunting done in the right way and wanted to be a champion for the resource wanted to see that tomorrow there's more turkey hunters than there was I mean turkey hunters and turkeys is there was yesterday so that's what I'm I hoped that when when I'm getting going and when the Pinhoti projects you know, seen its final sunset I hope that people can look back on and go the guy look turkeys and he wanted more turkeys and he wanted everybody to enjoy what he enjoyed because as funny as it sounds, Turkeys themselves have put me in places that I would have never seen had it not been for Turkey so I've done things in my life that I never thought was obtainable. And it's all due to turkeys and I just had the fear I'll just always hear these you always hear when I retire or one day I'm going to do that when I retire. I'm going to do this and I just had a fear much younger hearing horror stories that man you don't ever know if that day is going to come. So I've always looked at you know, man if I can if I can make it If it was possible, then I was gonna try to obtain it. And that's kind of the way I learned early on with this turkey hunting thing. That's what I love to do is what I wanted to be good at. And I'll work and just add a passion. It's not like when when you say you work, it's not like a professional sport where you got to go run wind sprints is not, you know, it's not it's almost involuntary, your passion is so strong that you're gonna get out there and do it either way, you're gonna get out there and do it because you love it. And that's kind of what I've fallen into is just strictly a passion that's caused me to love this stuff as much as I do. And it's, like I said, has provided me with so much that I just thought Man, if there's somebody that never is exposed to this, this could potentially have such a profound effect on them as it just as it did me. But if they're never exposed to it, how would they ever know? So that's why I thought it was a really good idea to start making it available for folks you know, putting out content that they could find and see how it had affected me and how more fulfilled I am as a person in life just because of wild turkeys and wild things wild places and getting to go I've traveled to all 49 states that have a huntable turkey population I find it turkeys in all 49 states there's no way I would have ever went to Rhode Island or Delaware or you know Nevada I mean these places are just I mean managed to get from southeast I'm happy being in the southeast you know I'm a majority of Florida Alabama that's that's kind of where I like to do my thing but this attraction to want to experience wild turkeys and and all over the country has put me in these places and I've seen things and had experiences that man I'm just every time I do I think there's somebody out there that they won't ever see this and you know, exposing them to wild turkeys. Maybe they will so that's that's my that's my place.

Nick VinZant 26:57

What's the Hawaii is the one state that doesn't I'm assuming it's gotta be Hawaii, right?

Dave Owens 27:01

No, it's Alaska. Hawaii actually has a lot of turkeys. Really? Absolutely. Yep.

Nick VinZant 27:07

How the hell they get to a Hawaii not to Alaska.

Dave Owens 27:11

They don't? Well, Alaska. See turkeys function on a photo period like length of day. That's how they know when it's time to breed. That's how they know when it's not you know, this the length of day and if you're aware of Alaska has this point of time, whether it's daylight all time and dark. So turkeys can't deal with that they function off the photoperiods Hawaii's actually got a ton of Turkeys because they don't have any natural predators like we do in the continental US. You know, the turkeys have a lot of predators here. Like I mentioned earlier, they're hunted by everything. Everything needs to Turkey. But in Hawaii, there's very few I think they have like a weasel or something that's a predator. And and that's about the only thing so their turkeys out there are plentiful.

Nick VinZant 27:52

Man. Those are great. That was a great sentiment that you put before I asked that dumb question about. But that's all I could think of is like, man, which state is it? I had to be Hawaii? But like, do you when you go out there? Do you have an overall strategy? Or is it just kind of whatever nature gives you?

Dave Owens 28:11

Yeah, I mean, hunting turkeys whether you're doing it from South Florida to you know, Washington, I mean, from sea to shining sea gets pretty similar. You're doing the whole dialogue. It's the whole conversation thing and you're trying to replicate Oh, he in Turkey most of the time and trying to look to fool the turkey into thinking that he's coming up there to breed. So all of that is pretty, pretty much the same. It's just the topography, the terrain changes. You know, and that's what makes it attractive to battle the turkeys across the country because you never know what's around the next corner when you're on unfamiliar ground and I think that's the that's the drawl to a lot of us that travel to turkey hunt like I do is wanting to experience something familiar in an unfamiliar place. And turkeys gives you the ability to do this somewhat on a budget. You know, if you're an elk Hunter, or even a deer hunter. The cost of entry is pretty steep. A lot of times I mean, your tag cost is five $800 over $1,000 Sometimes the access to property that may have these animals is pretty limited sometimes turkeys are pretty affordable. I've kind of prided myself and kind of built a reputation on doing everything on a budget just trying to be in a you know, I started this stuff when I was a college kid you don't get much broker than college kids. You know what I mean? eat ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I did that took off across the country living out of the back of my truck sleeping on a cot and just living out of a cooler, you know we would take off and the only thing we would have in the whole trip was the cost of tags you can typically get Turkey tags for around 200 bucks or less. And you can go out there and hunt and you live out of the back of your truck eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and have the experiences of a life and you know you have less than $1,000 in this thing and this hard to find any, it's hard to find that much fine for that path little bit of money.

Nick VinZant 30:08

Now, where does turkey hunting rank Mike okay, this in terms of like, alright, this is the most popular, this is second like where's turkey hunting kind of in the, in the pecking order, like

Dave Owens 30:19

it's all gonna depend on your region. You know turret county is not nearly as popular out on the west side, you know, on the west side is big game. It's elk, antelope, mule deer, whitetail mountain line, you know, that kind of stuffs really big out west. And then across the country, white tailed deer going to be keen, I mean, white tailed deer, the amount of people that hunt whitetail deer, the, the amount of money it generates for the states is huge. In the southeast, it's probably still gonna be white tailed deer. But in the southeast, turkeys are a very close second, it's almost a religion down here, turkey hunting is pretty sacred down here. I mean, we have a, you'll come down here and you'll find a lot of literature and you don't find that as much on white tails, you know, even though they're as popular, they generate more or less revenue than turkey hunting down here, but you get to look at the just just the, the amount of people that put more effort into the game, you know, the the hunting of the turkey and you'll find people trying to put words to the to the interaction and put words to the connection they feel with their with the, you know, in the challenge that they experienced with their, with the game that they're pursuing. And you see a lot of literature around turkeys, because I believe people are constantly trying to put a description that that does it justice, and I'm not sure anybody ever has, that you look at people that are, you know, Colonel Tom Kelly, you know, Jean nun, or you got some authors out there that have done a really good job of trying and putting pen to paper to kind of document the feelings and the emotions that this stuff evokes. And you don't find that with anything else. So the SE I guess is your short answer is there's turkeys are is close to Second of all in the pecking orders is anywhere in the country.

Nick VinZant 32:18

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Sure. Hardest call to do easiest call to do.

Dave Owens 32:29

That's all going to be do it's going to be up to the individual. But the most difficult call for most people is glycolic o'clock. And per it takes a fluttering of the tongue or a gargling of the throat when a mouth call that causes that little bubbly sound. And that's typically harder for people to accomplish. The easiest call is the easiest and the hardest. And I'll explain what I mean by that. A Yelp is probably the one that people start off with. Typically, they'll pick up a boss call or a pot call and they can mimic that call well enough easier. But in my opinion, when it comes to judging a turkey sound, it's harder to fool my ears with a turkey yield. Like very few people in the country can Yelp on a call and me hear it and go that's that's a turkey and it not be a turkey. So it's the easiest to kind of come you know to make. But it's the most difficult in my opinion to actually be realistic.

Nick VinZant 33:23

Has anyone ever entered an actual turkey into a turkey haul turkey calling competition? And where do you think the actual Turkey would place?

Dave Owens 33:33

If the turkey didn't win? You've got a problem with judges. Because no matter how hard we try, and how much we practice and all the little knickknacks that we gather to try to replicate the sounds. We still have so far to go. I mean, if we still have so far to go, I mean, you can listen to the most accomplished Polish callers in the country. And you can put them beside a wild turkey and man we all we don't even it's not even close. So there's a lot of room for improvement there. So yes, what a wild turkey when he better or she better. But no, I don't know if anybody's ever done that. Is this gonna be hard to get your hands on one and make them talk when you want them spoke? You know, speak when they're spoken to?

Nick VinZant 34:19

Yeah, that's true. I'm always reminded of the things that Groucho Marx that famous comedian took third and a Groucho Marx and lookalike competition. It's always made me laugh. Um, all right, man. feet to the fire. You got to pick a state best place for hunting. Best place for turkey hunting

Dave Owens 34:37

best place for turkey hunting it's gotta it's gotta be hard to beat Georgia and Alabama because opportunity or bag limits are available here I think you can still kill for in an Alabama even though it's went through a reduction used to be out to kill three in Georgia they went to a reduction you can only kill two now because like I mentioned earlier hunters are the first He wants to start pulling back on the reins when it's necessary. But we have long seasons, seasons or, you know, 40 days, 45 days. So the opportunity to get out there for that amount of time, I don't think you can find that anywhere else in the country.

Nick VinZant 35:13

Can you do other calls? Right? Like, are you good? Could you just go into Duck Calling and knock it out like a pro?

Dave Owens 35:19

Yeah, well, maybe not like a pro. But the app spin when I was, even when I was young, I was just one of those kids that could hear a sound and replicate it and get pretty doggone close with just a little bit of practice. So Duck Calling goose calling elk. Even though I've only hunted elk a handful of times, it's a lot of it goes hand in hand with the mouth reads the diaphragms that you that you use in turkey calling. But yeah, I've always been one of those guys, and they can just hear something and replicate it pretty quickly.

Nick VinZant 35:49

Is there a rivalry, rivalry between Turkey and duck collars?

Dave Owens 35:55

Now know, I don't think so it's such a different, such a different avenue, I guess. I mean, because with Duck Calling competitions, they're there to typically showcase the ability to be able to call as much as they are the ability of the caller, where turkey hunting, in turkey calling it's all about, you know, being the turkey, they're there to replicate the sounds of the intended animal. So they're not thinking about the call, they're not there to showcase the call, they don't care what kind of call it is. So that's kind of two totally different. Totally different deals their

Nick VinZant 36:34

best Turkey haul, best turkey call to start out with best like second turkey call, like

Dave Owens 36:41

the easiest. That typically your your when you start out, this is going to be with like something like a push pin, or a box call, which is a friction top call, typically made out of wood, it's very easy to get a sound out of. And with just a little bit of practice and even some instructions off the off the paper that comes with the call, you can usually get something that's going to somewhat replicate a turkey quickly encouraged and most people do, they'll pick up a mouth diaphragm pretty quickly, just because of the necessity. Like I say a turkeys live and die with their eyes. So if you can imagine trying to get a turkey into 40 yards or less running something that you have to actually move to make the sounds can be a conflict, you can't sit there and call to the turkey with him looking at you and making the movements because he's going to know that it's not a real Turkey and he's going to flee. So that's why you use the mouth diaphragms, you can you know you have your you have a face mask on. So you have it pulled up to here. So you can still call with a mouth diaphragm in your mouth and the turkey can't see it. So typically, that's the second call everybody's going to pick up just due to the necessity of being able to continue to coax the turkey into that close range and him not be able to see any movement.

Nick VinZant 37:56

So tell me about the Pinhoti project. When did you start that what's kind of the mission

Dave Owens 38:01

Pinhoti project started in 2018. It was just to produce turkey hunting content it was to give turkey hunters like myself something that to watch that they could relate to. We all get kind of amped about this time of year when Turkey seasons are knocking on the door, everybody wants to kind of live through somebody else live vicariously relive haunts and that kind of thing. And with the popularity of like digital media and YouTube and these different streaming platforms, we saw the opportunity to hop in there and provide something that we felt like was was tasteful, and kind of you know, illustrated how we Turkey hunted and just the cool factor of turkey hunting making it popular again, making people care about Turkeys just saw the opportunity to make all of that something so that's kind of why we hopped in and here we are.

Nick VinZant 38:56

White meat or dark meat.

Dave Owens 38:59

Oh man, it's it's hard to choose you can't beat turkey breasts. Everybody likes turkey breast rot. But if you know how to prepare turkey legs and thighs, they are extremely good. We make turkey tacos and Turkey pot pie we make we actually had Turkey enchiladas not before last make a lot of stuff with the turkey legs and the dark meat. So it's it's hard to be you shouldn't throw any other way. I promise you.

Nick VinZant 39:28

That's pretty much all the questions I got manage anything else you think we missed? Or what's kind of coming up next for you?

Dave Owens 39:35

Oh, next for me. It sits the busy season for me. It's essentially turkey season. We're planning where we're going this next spring. I have turkey content I still have we typically I typically turkey hunt in the neighborhood of 90 to 95 days a year. And everything's videoed if I'm awake unfortunately, when I signed up for the Pinhoti project, I might promise that I was going to video and document every single thing and I'm it's kind of What I'm doing now is we produce and I try to get that as much of that content out there real time. Typically, that's only about 1517 episodes during the spring season. Because as you can imagine trying to document everything, hunt, if it's daylight we're hunting, if we're legally allowed to and then also having time to edit which is an extremely strenuous and and time consuming process. You can only do so much of that when you're doing it all at the same time. So we have a ton of footage that after the season is over that we're just sitting at home and all offseason I am cleaning that footage up coming out with episode so the year before the season, like I mentioned, when everybody's ramping up and getting excited wanting to live through live some hunts from last year, I have a lot of that content available. And that's what we're doing now. I had about two months of content that I had to clean up and I've been nose to the grindstone now for gosh, next to two months to get this stuff cleaned up. So we're we're down to about three weeks left footage, and so I had to power it down to get on this call with you. So it's it's busy.

Bellydancer Valerick Molinary

Bellydancing is more than just a dance. It’s an art form that is both sacred and scandalous. Award-winning Bellydancer Valerick Molinary has performed all over the world. We talk Bellydancing basics, the stigma of seduction and more. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Georges.

Valerick Molinary: 01:43

Pointless: 35:37

Top 5: 54:57

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Contact the Show)

http://www.valerickmolinary.com (Valerick’s Website)

https://www.instagram.com/valerick23 (Valerick’s Instagram)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063834995015 (Valerick’s Facebook)

http://www.bellydancestories.com (Belly Dance Stories Website)

https://www.instagram.com/bellydance_stories (Bellydance Stories Instagram)

Interview with Bellydancer Valerick Molinary

Nick VinZant 0:12

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, belly dancing, and George's

Valerick Molinary 0:20

there's a lot of stigma about the dance. There's this idea that it's a seduction, dance the relationship between culture and religion. And then dancing can get a little messy. Sometimes in Arabic music, there's something called Terra, which is like the dance produce the music produce this type of like ecstasy is experience. And that's part of the magic of it, and that slowly, graceful movements, even though they look very easy, they're not.

Nick VinZant 0:56

I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it, it really helps out the show. If you're a new listener, welcome. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of the support. So our first guest is an award winning belly dancer who has performed all over the world. What's really interesting, I think about this, though, is not just the history of the dance or how you do it, but the culture that surrounds it, because it is both sought after and stigmatized at the same time. This is belly dancer, Valerie Molinari. So his belly dancing, is it fundamentally different than other kinds of dancing?

Valerick Molinary 1:47

There's a lot of things that makes it very particular and unique, starting by the history of the name and the label of bellydancing. Okay, so the name, the title, the word bellydancing, is a colonial term that doesn't necessarily translate or refers to a specific geographic region where this dance coming from comes from. So when you say belly dance people, specially in the western, social imaginary and right in the West here, in America, we kind of like don't have a clearer perspective of where's this dancing coming from? Okay, compare to ballet, and other Western disciplines that were more popular. In ballet, there's more use of the extensions of the body, right arms legs. The French call it belly dancing, because they started invading the North of Africa, they started seeing awasi and Gypsies dancers. And they noticed that there was a lot of focus in the middle part of the body, which in ballet, that's totally forbidden, right? Because in ballet, you dance with a very rigid torso. So that's how they call it belly dancing, because for them for the colonizers, they could see this constant movie of the belly. And that's something that we have that is very particular and unique, compared to other styles of dancing is a focus on the movement in the middle part of the body, between the hips, and the belly area,

Nick VinZant 3:28

the name belly dancing, then does that irritate people who had

Valerick Molinary 3:33

question? For some people, especially for Middle Eastern people can be a term that they don't necessarily like it because it really doesn't bring any type of visibility to them or their culture, or in this case, their dance. And for other people, they're just like, okay, you know, this is part of like, the history it is what it is, but honestly, for marketing purposes is very difficult. Because if I use FRAC Sharky, which would be like a correct Arabic term, people have no idea what I'm referring to.

Nick VinZant 4:12

It's become so pervasive that you can't get around it.

Valerick Molinary 4:15

Exactly. So now what I do is I use it. And once people come to my class, or people asked me, let's say in a platform like a podcast like this about the term, then I use it as a more gray moment to kind of like educate people about it.

Nick VinZant 4:30

You mentioned it very briefly, but what's the traditional name of it? Where does it originate from?

Valerick Molinary 4:35

Mostly, let's say in the Arab world, the term will be racks which mean that's our Charkie which means that's from the east. Okay? And when we talk about dance from the east, we're talking more about the style of dance that it's a little bit more theatrical. Then we have the term racks Baladi, that racks means dance, that LSD means from the people or belonging to a certain area, that it's what we term, the term that we use to describe more casual and social dancing. Meaning that if I go to an Arabic party, and they have Arabic music playing, and I see people gathering and dancing for each other, they're just doing Rex vanity, meaning using this beautiful hip work in a very social context. When I do production, Sharky means when I do it all by myself in a more theatrical way with a two piece costume and the way Hollywood has kind of like frame it and make it more popular for us.

Nick VinZant 5:41

When I think about other styles of dance that I know, right, that all seem to be more focused on the whole body or the extremities, big kind of movements. Why is his belly dancing different than that?

Valerick Molinary 5:55

Well, there's more focus in the middle part of the body. And if you really pay attention to many folklore, dancers dances in a global scale, even me that I come from the Caribbean, you know that there's a lot of folklore dances that include hip work, Polynesian dance, salsa, Afro Brazilian, you name it, there's a lot of folklore dances, that includes really nice torso and, and hip work. But they haven't become I want to say so commercialise. As the way we see belly. And so we tend to identify only belly there's with hip work, but let's say pull dimension. There's, it's the use a lot of in fact, very similar hip work.

Nick VinZant 6:52

Is it harder than other kinds of dancing? In

Valerick Molinary 6:55

a way? Yes. It's a very different idea of moving also, for me that I come from Puerto Rico, like social dance, it's a partner's dance. And I feel these dance even though in a casual context, yes, you can be dancing, but it's all about you. It's a solo type of performance. It's more difficult in that sense, because you're generating everything. You're generating the musicality, when you're dancing with a partner. There's this constant communication of information, right, the partner is telling you to turn, whatever. So there's this constant information happening from body to body. For me, when I do belly dance all by myself, it's all about me. It's my body guiding that energy. And connecting to the audience. Yes, there's, there's gonna be communication between the audience and the dancer. But it's totally different. When you are a solo dancer, a soloist that you're dancing completely by

Nick VinZant 8:02

yourself, it seems very flowy

Valerick Molinary 8:05

it is. And that's part of the magic of it. And that slowly, graceful movements, even though they look very easy. They're not requires a lot of control, because you want the movement to be flowing. But you don't want it to look like it's lacking energy. So we use your muscles in a certain way to create those undulations and those movements, circular, very flowy. But at the same time that you see it and you're like, kind of like immediately drawn or kind of like hypnotized.

Nick VinZant 8:42

So you know, the thing that I always see in like the media necessarily, right, like TVs and movies, it's one belly dancer up on a stage. Is that kind of like the traditional way that it's done?

Valerick Molinary 8:53

Yes, since the 1920s. There was this lady in Cairo. She opened a casino obrera because she wanted it to present to Western audience that were in Cairo right now at the moment. Our show that it was similar to the Moulin Rouge, so she what she did was like, Okay, I'm gonna take certain indigenous dancing or dances, right? But I'm gonna have to refine them. I'm gonna have to sanitize them, to bring them to the stage so they can actually be related to Western audience. And also, our local native audience can also enjoy it. So she started integrating the veil, she started integrating the two piece costume, which she literally took it from the Moulin Rouge in Paris. So that idea of the two piece costume is something that we got from burlesque. It was not the authentic costume that you will see let's say there was a dancers or bedwin Dancers wearing Is it

Nick VinZant 10:00

a though in those cultures though, where it seems to be practiced the most is there a kind of irritation, I guess that like, to me, at least what seems like the bastardized version of it is now the thing that everybody knows?

Valerick Molinary 10:16

Well, there's a lot of stigma about the dance in the Middle East. Even though it's a folklore, dance is not well seen. Generally,

Nick VinZant 10:28

I'm not going to choose the right words for this necessarily, but I think of that culture as being much more kind of religious and more cover up women. And then belly dance seems like a very sexualized dance like, those two things don't seem like they go together very

Valerick Molinary 10:45

well. So it's been a problem, because I feel the dance has been very sexualized. But I think it has to do a lot with the way in general in a global scale, we tend to also sexualized women in entertainment businesses, like it's very common this type of practice. And definitely the the relationship between culture and religion. And then dancing can get a little messy sometimes. And on the other half, I also have to say that these days also, in historical practice, it has been related to sex work. So in the social imaginary, there's this idea that the dancer, it's still kind of like some type of sex worker. But it's really interesting, also this dynamic, because, for example, in the Middle East is an example that they use a lot. It's like, they will want a dancer for the wedding. You know, they will go crazy for the dancer, everybody loves the dancer, as long as she can marry any member of the family. I, for me, it's easy and more accepted. Let's say if I would decide to go to Egypt and become a dancer, for me to do it, then for an Egyptian woman to do it herself. She has to confront other challenges that I don't have to confront. Because I'm an outsider of the of the culture. I go there, I dance and like, they're like, oh, yeah, you know, she said, answer. But, you know, she's American, you know, it's, you know, I don't get that. So harsh judge, they would see me as an artist, but it's different. When an Egyptian woman that society has other type of expectations from her. When she decides to dance, it's she has to comfort her family. Rarely members of her family would not like it, probably, you know, it's it could be even difficult for them to find a place where to live. Because there's a stigma, also the dancer. So those are some of the situations and challenges that these dance has. It's it's interesting, because I just recently came from Egypt. And Egypt we consider kind of like a mecca of the dance like the dancer la dance is very present in the nightlife. Meaning that you go out and you see men and women, belly dancing in nightclubs, cabaret and everywhere. There's a belly dancer everywhere. But still, when you talk to the dancers, you realize that they are, you're constantly going through the struggle and dealing with this thickness

Nick VinZant 13:48

for you know, for for dancers, then that are from that part of the world that you know, is that a big struggle with them? We're like, I like to do this thing. But in my society, even though it's adored, it's also discriminated again.

Valerick Molinary 14:04

Yes, yes. And also, I will say, Nick, there's not too many differences between the stigmas that I also have to come from here in the West, that what they have to confront. So that's why I have a lot of, and I think that's in the beginning, probably I didn't notice or didn't know. That's why I felt so so attracted for Arab woman dancing, because I noticed that they dance differently. Like I noticed that they danced with a different type of power and passion. You know, when I say to people in America that I'm a belly dancer, yes, it's easier for me a question that I always get a lot that I know in the moment people ask me this is that they have no idea what type of work I do. When they asked me do you do passion or it's parties? Is that

Nick VinZant 14:53

from the like, I'll say this, right? Like whenever I see it in movies, there's always the implication that Right, the belly dancer is going to perform and then maybe she's going to do something else afterwards. Yes,

Valerick Molinary 15:04

there's this idea that is a seduction dance. That is a dance to. That's the main idea. Everybody like, the dancer comes, especially in films, she's coming to seduce to distract somebody very faithful, because she's trying to obtain something. Okay. So yeah, there's this expectation, with I feel, in general with exotic dance that if a woman is doing some type of sensual dance right there, there's going to have, there's going to be an after performance that we don't get to see, right? Or it's leading to that place. So people can be more religious, and they can be like, hey, you know what, I'm not gonna even rent you this apartment, because I don't want a belly dancer to be leaving in my property. But But yeah, there's, there's this huge stigma about a dancer, that it's very common. Where you can have the dancer entertaining, basically, the most important events of your life, like birthday parties, like she's the life of the party. But then if, if a member of the family decides to record a video of them belly dancing on teeth, or whatever, that that can be a big deal.

Nick VinZant 16:17

It almost sounds like in the United States, kind of like like a stripper.

Valerick Molinary 16:21

Yeah, yes, it is consumed, it's in certain context. And that's the thing also, like, where is the dad presented, the context will tell you a lot on how it's people consuming this. So for example, if I'm dancing in a wedding, where I'm calming, and the responsibility of the dancer in the wedding, is to kind of like symbolize that type of sensual energy. And like, you're there to kind of like, celebrate love, but symbolically, you are kind of like a representation of Venus, you know, and that the the dancer calm that she says it with the bride and the room, and it's like, this beautiful energy and atmosphere, and everybody's dancing perfectly with it as her everybody's enjoying the performance, then you can also go to the cat barrette, which the camera is a more private context. It's a place where you cannot record it's a place for people who can can go like really wild, they're very fun. You know, people can have all type of, you know, farm get on this day shaky, get crazy, even religious people. But in that type of venue, there are sex workers, there could be some dancers, that could also be sex workers. So you know, that's a place where if I immerse myself there, I know people are going to be consuming my dad's kind of like some type of soft.

Nick VinZant 18:08

Last question kind of in this regard, right? But then how come belly dancing got viewed like that? Where I don't look at other types of dancing like that? It seems to be only specifically belly dancing.

Valerick Molinary 18:19

Yeah. And that you're correct about that. Many people will say to you that this is like the story of colonization, that since the beginning since the 1001 Nights, there's the West has this idea of portraying the Arab world as a place full of sensuality, and made them very, you know, exotic, and there's a movement on artistic movement called Orientalism at the ending of the 19th centuries, where they started to paint and even photograph some of these women in the Turkish bath, but sexualizing them and I think that stereotype of like, like you say, that is such an accurate observation, like, you don't see ballet dancers the same way that you see a belly dancer at all right? But I think the West has been very obsessed with portraying these types of dances, seduction dance, because it's new. It makes sense. And the fact that many of the movements were very focused in the area of the pelvis, I think we immediately want to like super sexualized them.

Nick VinZant 19:45

Welcome in. i What got you into it. What drew you to it?

Valerick Molinary 19:49

Well, I was I was in doing ballet, jazz and acrobatics. When I was very young. I started when I was eight years old. By that time that I was 13. I was in a dance camp, and they offer belly dance class. And my body was changing there at that time that I was becoming a teenager. And puberty was like, really not like, nice to me.

Nick VinZant 20:18

It's a tough time for a lot of tough.

Valerick Molinary 20:21

Yeah. Tough time. And I love the class. Because then at the time, I was getting, you know, I was growing, I did not have the skinny body for ballet, or for jazz. So I was developing a lot of body issues. And then suddenly, I took billions. And I was like, Oh my God, you know, this is a dance where it's all about the curves. This is like difficult, it's new. It looks good on my body. I feel like I can do it. And like it was it was it was the best hobby that I could ask life to have it when I was a teenager.

Nick VinZant 21:07

The correct me if I'm wrong here right now. Have you won international awards are performed internationally are Philip kind of fill in the resume?

Valerick Molinary 21:15

Yes, I did. I competed for four years. My first competition I wanted to tell said nine was the Miami Bellydance Convention, which was an event here. That's how I actually finished in Miami because I won that competition and they offered me a job here. Then I did another one here in Miami called Rockstar that I got second place and people show it somewhere. Then I did another one called queen of rec Sharkey in Texas that had a full the judges were all Egyptian. And then 2014 or 13. I do now group festival that that was an art competition that I did in a festival in Egypt in Cairo. And I got the first place professional category.

Nick VinZant 22:04

That must have been a really big deal. Oh, feel like that would be a big deal.

Valerick Molinary 22:09

Yeah, no, that was like to be able to measure myself in that scale. It was very majestic, beautiful and empowering and difficult at the same time.

Nick VinZant 22:26

How is the kind of atmosphere in terms of like how much people like it different over there than it is in the United States?

Valerick Molinary 22:34

First of all, it's part of their culture. So everybody dances like naturally and even men. This is something that people have this idea of constantly framing this dance as only for women. But it's incredible. When you go there in the nightlife and you see the amount of guys doing hip work.

Nick VinZant 22:52

Like what would you compare it to there that something that you would compare it to here, okay?

Valerick Molinary 22:58

The audiences are looking for different things. Here in the West, they're looking for entertainment. So I have to bring swords, I have to really candle Dre, I have to give them more elements of showmanship. Okay. They're they're just looking for an answer that it's more connected to the music,

Nick VinZant 23:20

a shell versus a performer.

Valerick Molinary 23:22

Exactly. Yeah. So they're the dancer. It's really connecting with the music, the musicians and the audience. She's kind of like, in Arabic music, there's something called Terra, which is like the dance. The music produced this type of like ecstasies experience. And in terrible music, the music tends to repeat a lot. So it kind of like takes you to that moment, you know, when you like that song a lot. And you put it and you put it and every time you put it, it sounds better, better, better, better. Some of the musical structures over the songs in the Arab world are meant like that to take up the audience into that tap experience to the ecstasy says three years, we'll do it just like in this enjoying music into a different level. And the dancer has to amplify that experience. The dancer, it's kind of like being a visual representation of that. And here in the West, we don't have that type of communication with the audience.

Nick VinZant 24:23

It seems like Western dancing is more paint by numbers, right? Like you're doing specific movements. Like there's an instructional seat. mm sheet for it. Exactly. And that kind of music is more like just flowing with it.

Valerick Molinary 24:36

Exactly. It's drastically different.

Nick VinZant 24:40

Are there certain kinds of traditional movements to it like,

Valerick Molinary 24:43

yeah, for sure steps are going to be very basic. What makes it different is actually the dancer each dancer, their goal is to create their own style, and that's what people will like about you. That's why people will enjoy to see one Our of our show of yours because you will get you move in a very particular way. And that means that you your musicality, it's very particular the way that you hear the music is very particular. The way you execute the movement are very particular. But we're basically sharing the same set of steps. But they can be done in drastically different ways. And the shape and the body of the dancer can make the also the movement look totally different.

Nick VinZant 25:30

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted? Question? Yes. Best place to perform

Valerick Molinary 25:37

that the classroom the dance classroom?

Nick VinZant 25:41

Is there a country though?

Valerick Molinary 25:43

Oh, you want me play culturally? Okay, I country, a country a country, best place to perform? I'll have like, God, this is so difficult. I have to pick three Puerto Rico because of course I'm very attached to my land, like the few times that I get to have performing opportunities there. Like I really, like I'm back home. Second one, I have to say Egypt. For sure. Egypt. Yeah, that's it. I say Brother regarding Egypt.

Nick VinZant 26:18

Who's the best celebrity belly dancer.

Valerick Molinary 26:20

Ah, oh, there's a lot of them. There's, well, one of my favorites. It's Fifi Abdu, which was a very famous dancer in the 80s and 90s. She has super strong personality. She became also like a TV personality. And she's already older, but she looks super good. And she put videos of her dancing the entire time. In her Instagram. The entire time she's always putting videos of her dancing, so I love her what she represents. I love that. She eats profanity like, easy her 60s And like she just make herself super glamorous and dance with so much confidence. And you can tell she loves her body. So I want to say Fie, fie, fie. Fie. Fie is my favorite belly dance personality.

Nick VinZant 27:25

The one I always think of is Shakira.

Valerick Molinary 27:27

Oh Shaq, Kira, chalky, has Lebanese background. But Shakira, what she does is a lot of like, we couldn't like isolating movements and accents. I haven't seen a performance of her what I say okay, you know, she's really, really, really belly dancing. Like, what'd she do with the robe and everything? It's still too westernized for me.

Nick VinZant 27:58

It's, it's got it's like derived from it exactly why

Valerick Molinary 28:02

I can't tell the jazz teacher was there telling her all work here. And then we'll combine it with this. And that's it.

Nick VinZant 28:12

Who is there somebody that's like I always use Michael Jordan. Is there somebody that would be like, Oh, that's the best Jelly Belly Dancer of all time.

Valerick Molinary 28:19

Right now in Egypt. I like a dancer a lot that is called Oksana. And Oksana is a Russian dancer that has incredible flexibility and she can do things with her body that have never seen anybody doing. I like a Brazilian dancer a lot called Sariah. Yet, that for me, she was one of the best entertainers of all time, she will finish her. Her show playing that our Buka and like she would do all type of variety of folklore dancers dances, like you will see her show and it was like, show, show all her all her and she's like 411 She's super small. And she's this giant heels. So I like her a lot. Her hip work is ridiculous. She's Brazilian, also. So she incorporates some of Brazilian dancing in her belly dancing. And it looks so good. And yeah, I want to say like those two are basically some of my favorite dancers nowadays that I like other words,

Nick VinZant 29:33

does belly dancing, expose or cover up a bad dancer? Like if you're a bad dancer? Does belly dancing really showcase that or can you be like, Oh, you can kind of hide it a little bit with this.

Valerick Molinary 29:47

Not really if you're a bad dancer, you know and also what represents to be a bad dancer. I think that there's certain things that are different, difficult to kind of like cut verb with values, for example, the musicality of a person. If you're a person that doesn't have musicality, this is the type of dance that will definitely highlight it.

Nick VinZant 30:13

That makes sense. Now, are you a good dancer and other things? Yes. Our most but our most good belly dancers, probably good dancers and other things not

Valerick Molinary 30:21

I mean, I think it's good to like, explore other than styles. But for me, I had a training before get into belly dance, like I used to do ballet, jazz, modern dance, so I'm okay.

Nick VinZant 30:39

Best belly dancing scene in a movie, or a TV show.

Valerick Molinary 30:49

My Favorite Dancer is from an Indian movie. I don't remember the name, but it's Nadia Jamal, if I'm mistaking it's from the 1970s 80s poem, read GRE from GRE. But yeah, it's a very iconic that scene where she's dancing on the stage. And like, there's a thing, these investigators that arrive and she's dancing, and they're like, totally mesmerized by her dancing, and there's a little bit of comedy involved. But and yeah, and she's one of my favorite dancers. Also nadie Jamal. She was a famous Egyptian dancer, she moved to Lebanon did her career in Lebanon, and was one of the first dancers that came here to the US, from the Middle East to train dancers in the 90s. And yeah, she has that iconic, that scene, and she asked me the kinas Flora work there.

Nick VinZant 31:55

What tip would you give to somebody just starting out? Tip you would give to somebody that's like, Ah, I'm struggling with this aspect of it. Like, I just can't get this down.

Valerick Molinary 32:05

For somebody that is starting out. Okay? Be patient. It takes time, and enjoy the journey. Okay, because people take the first classes and they find that that is very difficult it is oh my god. Yeah, like everything, it takes time. You know, you just have to like, go later by later, find a really good teacher with good credentials. This is very important. Now, because somebody is a Zumba teacher doesn't mean that they have the preparation to teach this dance with the cultural sensibility that it requires us to teach us something correct and authentic. And for people that are struggling with their challenges in today's it could be something technical, it could be like starting improvisation. Give it a time, give it a time. Be very have compassion with yourself. And understand also that discipline is not necessarily like this, they simply can't be like this. So as long as you can keep those commitments, it's okay. It's then suddenly you take a month that you couldn't make it to class, or you could have practiced this. Okay, and then next month is coming and you're gonna continue at so try to be as close system as you can. I will say that that will be my main advice.

Nick VinZant 33:31

That's pretty much all the questions that I had. Is there anything that you think we missed or what's kind of not next for you? Well, I

Valerick Molinary 33:38

have lots of future projects. I am organizing the first Miami Bellydance retreat in Miami, happening August 24, to the 28th. And we're combining Bellydance with other wellness alternatives. So that's something that I think is going to be majestic next year. And I have a theatrical production, also called Bellydance stories with Alexandra Molina, which is another dancer here from Miami, where we actually we combine creative writing and dancing. And in this production, the dancers, which are some of our students and people from our community. Tell a little bit about their story, what their dancing and what their performance represents. And then they perform it so we we did the the the first show this year, in August, I think we did it and it was very majestic because we have we have pieces in the show talking about fatphobia depression, body positivity. You name it, and all these ladies basically talk about how the Belizeans journey how to them. That's good with all those challenges. So yeah, basically my platform is just to continue helping women and empowering them to dance and rebellious and. And that's it. That's what makes me very happy.