Another Brother

#019 The Space Sim Summary

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #019, The Space Sim Summary, the brothers discuss the ethics of AI! Are they qualified, you ask? Of course not! But when have you come to the podcast to hear a qualified opinion? If you haven't thought about how AI should interact with society yet, it's time to start, because it isn't going anywhere. Which of the brothers' points do you agree with? Alex returns to the topic of episode #001, this time give a basic look into the world of Star Citizen!
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Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
Here's the official YouTube channel of Star Citizen to see more of what the game is like!

#018 The Harbored Haunted House

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #018, The Harbored Haunted House, the brothers talk final meals! Why are the wondering about final meals? Is a zombie apocalypse about to happen? Are they going to jail. We'll never know, but as usual the answers reveal a lot about them and show their differences. It's also a fitting discussion to have before the tail that Jacob tells. What would the hero of this tail have chosen as her final meal?
Visit our website for merch and other brother goodness.
Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
See, German pancakes are of American origin! But it could be a little more complicated.
And while we're at it, French toast comes from ancient Rome. Read through the article to see where the name comes  from.
Here's a short article about the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse with some pictures of it!
Read Lischen Miller's work for yourself!

#017 The Remarkable Revolutionary Rebel

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #017, The Remarkable Revolutionary Rebel, the Brothers set upon a quest that will take them through rules, background information, context, dungeons, and dragons immemorial! Aided by their trusty elder brother, they learn fascinating things like, can my TTRPG character do whatever it wants? What if it wants to be evil like Lizzie? But FIRST, Jacob has his own orb-sighting experience. Finally, Josh takes us through a wave top telling of the story of Hugh Mercer, done in pseudo-Memento-like fashion.
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Transcript:
The following transcript was in part created using the Deepgram API:
[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:37] Another Brother Theme Song [00:00:00] Stewnerds Segment Jacob: Okay, I'm gonna get started real quick. This is just a quick tangent before we get into the actual Stewnerds for today. Alex: Sorry, I'm gonna have to cut you off right here even. Jacob: That's fine. Alex: For people that are still confused, we call the first segment of this show, Stewnerds, as a play on Stewart. Lizzie: Jared literally asked about this today. Josh: Oh really? Lizzie: Yeah Alex: Stewnerds because we just nerd out about whatever we feel like in the first segment. Go on Jacob. Jacob: I think you get it brothers. Okay so this just happened To Heather and me 2 nights ago. I don't know if you guys even know we were down in Bryce Canyon With Heather's whole family. We left the our Airbnb at like 1030 to go to The rim of the canyon to go stargazing. So, we had just got out of the truck, we're walking towards the rim, and we saw an orb. Lizzie: No, you didn't! Alex: What?? Jacob: It had to have been. Lizzie: No. Jacob: Now, of course, Jake saw it too, and he's like, oh, look at someone's laser pointer or something like that. It was a single focused ball of light. Alex: Where? Josh: What color? Jacob: Down in the canyon. Alex: Okay. Yeah, what color? Jacob: It was bright white. Alex: That's not a laser. Jacob: No, it's not a laser. Alex: I don't know of any lasers that do white. There are no RGB lasers that are just a white beam. Jacob: And there's no beam to it it was just a single point of light. Single source. Just very spherical. Josh: Was it moving around like a fairy? Jacob: It just zoomed by. Like And it was quick. Alex: So it couldn't be like a trail runner with a headlight on. Jacob: No, no, no, no. This was suspended- Lizzie: Out in the middle- Jacob: in the air, in the middle of, Josh: What? Jacob: Up above the canyon. So probably like, Josh: Was it dark out? Could it have been something that- Jacob: It was pitch black. Alex: They were going star gazing, so. Josh: Oh, yeah. Jacob: This is 1 of those certified dark skies Areas, you know, the country only has so many, Bryce Canyon's one of them. Lizzie: Good to know. Josh: Could it have been a quad copter? With lights on. Jacob: So, I mean if it if it had if they had removed or disabled their red and green lights to show you orientation And if they put a spotlight on it or sort of a point light, Josh: so it was okay So describe the light. Jacob: didn't make a sound. I mean like. So it was a- It was a sphere of light. Josh: so like no blurring around the edges of this sphere. Or, you know, is it a crisp, crisp delineation between the light. Alex: Yeah, why do you call it a sphere? What about it makes you say it was a sphere? Lizzie: Because it was a ball of light. Jacob: Yeah, literally just a ball of light. Alex: Well yeah but you look at a... Jacob: I mean, it was so fast, right? Like, yeah, at the least, there was motion. There would have been perceived motion blur. But it just, it zoomed by. Josh: A straight path, no deviation? Jacob: Yeah. Josh: Crazy. Alex: If it was curved, it was subtly, and it just looked like a straight line. Jacob: Yeah. Lizzie: How How far, you said like out in the middle of the canyon. Jacob: Yeah, so it wasn't actually in the middle, it was maybe like 100 feet from us. Alex: Oh, that's pretty close actually. Jacob: Oh, it was, I'll say 50 to 100 feet. It was quite close. Lizzie: That's very close. Jacob: Yeah Lizzie: How big was it, was it little then? Jacob: I mean You know, maybe basketball size from that Far of a distance away Josh: that tracks with them the blue orbs On the ranch they suggest the blue orbs that they see are kind of like volleyball the basketball size. Jacob: Yeah that's right they do. Alex: But those are blue Josh: meanwhile the red orbs are smaller they're more like grapefoot- great- sorry, grape foot Lizzie: What? Josh: That's what said. Alex: Don't bring cryptids into this now. Josh: The crypt... Yeah, grapefruit, softball size for the red orbs. Jacob: For the distance it was I think it would have been larger than that. So again, it felt like an orb sighting. I'm such a skeptic. I can't really 100% claim it was an orb. I don't know. I don't know what it would have been logically. And you can ask Heather about it offline. You can get her take on it too. Lizzie: Oh, Heather is going to diss it. Jacob: No, Heather's with me. She doesn't know what the heck that would have been. Josh: You said you don't know what else it would be logically. What's so illogical about orbs these days? Alex: If it was a hundred to 50 feet away and it was a drone, you would have heard a drone. Jacob: Yes, Yeah, and there was no sound. Lizzie: And those aren't crazy fast. Alex: They can be. Jacob: They can be very fast. Alex: Racing drones are ridiculous. Lizzie: That's a thing? Jacob: Oh yeah. Alex: Yeah, welcome to the 2020s, geez Louise! Jacob: Okay, anyway, that took longer than I meant. It just wasn't big enough to be its own segment. So and it was so fresh, I had to tell you guys about that. Alex: Okay. Josh: Recorded, event recorded. Wait, timestamp. Alex: yeah, we'll see if We actually do keep this recorder. Okay, so we were planning to talk about Dungeons and Dragons this week. This is like the pinnacle of nerdiness, I think. I've always thought of it that way. So I wanted to start off with defining what Dungeons & Dragons is. Not like something that would go in a dictionary necessarily, but most people don't know what Dungeons & Dragons is. I want to do this because I'm the 1 that's played the most I think. Jacob: Absolutely. Josh: Definitely. Lizzie: Yeah. Jacob: Easily. Alex: I have the most D&D playing friends probably. So if you guys have any questions along the way or comments please do interject. But Dungeons & Dragons is a set of rules that allows you to play a tabletop role-playing game. There are other sets of rules that allow you to play, but all of the games that allow you to do this kind of gameplay are collectively known as tabletop role-playing games or TTRPGs. So Dungeons and Dragons is not a fantasy setting it is just a group of rules. But you could also say that it is a specific group of settings where you can play because within the Dungeons & Dragons brand you have the Forgotten Realms which is the setting that everyone thinks of when they think about dungeons and dragons. Jacob: And most people, that's the realm they play in, right? Alex: I don't know for sure, but I would I would believe so. Jacob: Probably the most material that they build around it as well. Alex: Yeah, right. It's a high fantasy. Jacob: Stranger Things? Is this the realm that they were playing? Alex: Yeah, yeah it sure seems like it. Yeah, for sure. It's a high fantasy setting, lots of dragons, lots of dungeons, lots of magic. That's what makes it a high fantasy setting is that it's there's a lot of magic. Magic's all over the place But there's also- What is that 1 called? Gray something Josh: Grey Skull. Alex: No, that's what I start thinking about. Jacob: He-Man Josh: Grey Moore Alex: Don't try to help. Josh: Oh. Alex: There's another setting that's a low fantasy setting that is Dungeons & Dragons where there's not a lot of magic so magic items or magic weapons not very common in that setting some people love it Lizzie: So guns? Alex: no no guns, Lizzie: swords? Alex: yeah it's still fantasy Lizzie: oh low fantasy, my bad Alex: It would be a little bit more like... Josh: Game of Thrones. Jacob: Lord of the Rings. Lizzie: Isn't there magic? Alex: Could be. I've never watched Game of Thrones. Josh: Oh, no, there probably is a lot of magic. Lizzie: We obviously don't know game of thrones. Alex: Yeah, there's some magic, I just don't know how much. There's plenty of dragons. Josh: The dragons. Alex: I mean, I'm sure there's still, well, I'm not sure actually, because I've never played in that setting. But I think you might think of it a little bit more like the Souls games, Dark Souls set of video games, where it's more about like this grim medieval setting with not a lot of magic. Josh: Oh, what's that new game that I tried playing? Lizzie: Elden Ring. Josh: Elden Ring. Alex: Oh, there's a lot of magic in that one. Josh: Oh, I never got far enough to experience magic. Lizzie: Yeah, that one's not the same as the- Alex: Magic is the most powerful way to play the game, is what I understand. Josh: Yeah, my bad. Alex: Okay, There's other settings that are really cool like there's a futuristic 1 I think actually I'm thinking of a Pathfinder setting which is a different set of rules. Josh: Different TTRPG? Alex: Yes a different TTRPG. Pathfinders was a spin-off from Dungeons & Dragons. Jacob: Oh, okay, I thought it was part of D&D so that's good to know. Alex: Right, no. It was based on, I think... I don't want to say because if we have any real nerds listening they will chew me up. Josh: I was gonna say, I thought I remember seeing a set of YouTube videos on Pathfinder and it was very much more sci-fi-y and it really interested me. Alex: It's just they have a setting called Starfinder that is, it is pretty sci-fi. I think a lot of weapons are like, you know, lasery weapons. There's guns Stuff I think you get shields Packs or something like like you might in Halo kind of a thing. I've never played it, so I don't really know the specifics. Jacob: So at some point I would like to talk about, or not talk, just see what the other settings are in Dungeons and Dragons, not necessarily on the podcast. Lizzie: Like, I've played Lord of the Rings. Alex: Using 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons rules? Lizzie: I think so. I'm not... Yeah, I think so. Alex: I think if it's not official, It's practically official. People really love that setting. Lizzie: That was the most fun I had playing with Sheridan and his siblings, was The Lord of the Rings, and I was a dwarf, and it was great. Josh: That'd be kind of easy. You could be like Frodo and just be like, oh, no! All the time to everything like, Jacob: save me, Sam! Josh: Oh, Samwise! Yeah, I could get into that character. Jacob: Alex was saying he wanted to first explain what D&D is because most people don't truly know. Right. And he said, even us at the table, who we've all played with Alex and Lizzie plays with Jared and his family so he said even we might not actually know what it is. I didn't know about these other settings. Yeah, to me D&D is forgotten this single realm yeah D&D isn't a set of rules of how to play tabletop RPG. It's this world. So that's cool. Josh: Thanks a lot Chris Pine. Such lies. Alex: No, there's a reason why that movie was in the Forgotten realms because it is the most popular. There are a lot of Dungeons & Dragons novels and most of them take place in the Forgotten Realms. Most people do know that Dungeons & Dragons has been around since the 80s but what they may not know is that there have been different updates to the rules, different versions of the rules since then. Actually, I think it might be around since the late 70s, but unofficially at that point. It was just something that the creator was doing with friends in his basement. And I think it was in his basement, unfortunately. Josh: Is that a capital C, the Creator? Is that- did he- Lizzie: The Creator! Alex: Gary Gygax Josh: in D&D lore is he The Creator? Alex: no he's Gary. Josh: All hail the Creator, all hail the Creator. Jacob: Has he written himself into it? Alex: No, I don't think so. Jacob: He should. Josh: He should be the most powerful creature! Jacob: he should be the gelatinous cube. Lizzie: The Gary. Alex: Why- Why would you- that's kind of offensive, isn't it? Josh: Why did you choose the gelatinous one? Jacob: Well, my history of it is really from Onward, the Pixar movie. And it was a thing to greatly be feared. Alex: I mean, it is, really. They're pretty disgusting. They can be used to great effect. Josh: It's like the blob? Alex: I don't know. What is the blob? Josh: It's an old movie. Alex: Yeah, that really old 1, right? Josh: Old black and white. Yeah, it just seeps into everything. Alex: I don't think it's... I think they're worse than the blob. But anyway, that's a different topic. So right now, Dungeons & Dragons is on the fifth edition of the rules. And they tried to focus on simplicity of rules so that play is not so much about remembering all of the rules and the mechanics as much as telling a story and role-playing because that's what the game is supposed to quote-unquote be about But a lot of people like the game just for the mechanics and the combat. And I think that's an equally legitimate way to play the game. You know? But telling the story is pretty cool if you can manage to get your head into a character and figure out who that character is, what they would want, what they would do. Josh: I just want to smash buttons and move joysticks and then have it tell me what the story is. Like the DM- Jacob: Yeah Alex: well that is what the DM is for. Josh: -tell me the story. Alex: So you might be one of those players that's all about the mechanics and the combat. So within Dungeons and Dragons, there are different types of characters you can play that are broken down. I didn't think about what language to use for describing Josh: English please. Jacob: English. Ah dangit! Alex: Well, okay. I'm not going to use Italian because I've never played Dungeons and Dragons in Italian. But you have a number of different really important decisions to make about who and what your character is when building your character from the beginning. Class is probably the biggest decider. Your class is like, are you a fighter? Are you a wizard? Are you a barbarian, a monk? Jacob: Bard. Alex: Cleric, paladin. Bard is good. Josh: Those are defined by the rule set. Yes, so 5 E's. Alex: Each of these classes has a name and a set of rules and abilities and upgrades as you level up that are unlocked according to the rule set that is in this case fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons. So that's that's the first big decision I think is the class. The next 1 is your... People are using different words for it nowadays. Ancestry, I think, is the most current word for it right now. Josh: It was race? Alex: It was race. Okay, so now, okay. Which is stupid because if it's anything, it's species. Jacob: Species, yeah, okay, actually, that's true. Alex: But that feels weird, I think, to say species. Josh: Yeah, ancestry's fine. That's safe enough. Alex: And unfortunately, This is a fantasy thing, so it's not exactly scientific. You can crossbreed any of these, which is why they call it ancestry. You could be a half human, half elf, which has classically been called a half-elf. In Dungeons & Dragons, I'm not sure you can be a half-elf, half-orc. I think you can be half-human, half-orc, or half-human, half-elf. But in Pathfinder, you can be half-anything, half-anything else. Jacob: How about quarters. Alex: No, I don't think so. Because you only have 2 parents. Jacob: Well... Josh: But they have 2 parents. Alex: Okay, fair enough. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know, man. Josh: Okay, so that's ancestry. So we have class, ancestry. Alex: And background. Background is like... Josh: That's like your, what's my motivation? Alex: Like the backstory sort of, like where did your character come from? What kind of life did they come from? Were they a... Lizzie: Like Evil! Alex: Were they a charlatan? No, not like evil. Jacob: That's alignment. Alex: We don't talk about alignment anymore in tabletop RPGs. It's useless. Lizzie: What? Jacob: Really? Alex: Yeah, I mean, unless you're a paladin, it's really just not important. Josh: No, because items, quest lines, certain things like... Jacob: motivation. Josh: line... line... Alex: I mean, again, this isn't really... What? Lizzie: What? Josh: Cut that. Jacob: Someone was supposed to feed him what to say next. Alex: This isn't... This isn't supposed to feed them what to say next. This isn't a video game. So they try not to simplify things so much as alignment. Alignment's just so constricting. If you need it to help you role play your character, then by all means, use whatever tools you need. Jacob: Yeah, I feel like it should be built into the backstory, but not necessarily. Alex: Right, sure. Yeah, I mean, and it kind of is, but why shouldn't your character change as they experience life? Lizzie: Character development! Alex: Yeah. Josh: Because that's unrealistic. Nobody changes these days. Alex: Maybe for you. Jacob: Well, this isn't these days. Josh: Oh yeah, duh, these are those days. Alex: Because this is a real thing in the past! Jacob: That's why we don't have wizards anymore. Alex: So you can be like an urchin. That's a common one. like a street urchin. You know or charlatan or a guard, a soldier. Josh: So if I remember right though based on the rule set also per I don't know if it was ancestry or class but there's like suggested backgrounds too. Alex: yeah right Because with each of these 3 different choices, class, race, or ancestry, and background, they each have their own different things that they give your character. And so, some races... It's just such a habit for me because I've been playing long enough. Some ancestries. And actually, you know what? I think there's a new set of rules in Dungeons & Dragons for ancestry that I'm not really super familiar with, that might not do this anymore. Part of the reason people had problems with race was that different races had very specific attributes. Like, you were more dexterous as an elf, and more wise. All elves are more dexterous and more wise than other... Josh: Right, that's what makes them elves. Alex: ...Ancestries, which people thought was racism, you know? Jacob: What? No, it makes sense. Josh: It was just a way for them to... Jacob: Oh, for race versus species or ancestry. Is that why people are upset about it? Or have they gotten rid of those? Alex: It was too close to real-world racism, thinking that everybody of a certain kind is exactly the same way. Josh: Yeah, which is unfortunate because obviously the game designers and creators are just like, we need a way to try to stack stats differently So there's different ways to play. And they chose to attach it to what was then race. And that's unfortunate. Jacob: So are you saying they've gotten rid of that? Alex: I know Pathfinder has in some way, where like instead of getting a plus 2 to dexterity and plus 1 to wisdom, you get plus 2 and plus 1 to whatever stats you want. Except you can't put the 2 and the 1 on the same stat. Josh: There's probably still suggested. Alex: But there are other things. Jacob: Yeah, you're probably right about that. Alex: There are other things, for example, movement speed. Dwarves are short and slow because they got tiny little legs. That is always the case. Dwarves are just slower than other people. Jacob: But elves can now be dumb. Alex: Dwarves can be dumb? Jacob: Elves no longer by default get the wisdom booster so they can be dumb. Alex: So that's the other thing where I'm not so sure I agree with the racism criticism is that even though you get a plus 2 bonus to wisdom, that doesn't mean your character is going to be a wise character because you get to choose the stats. Jacob: Yeah. You're still play. Josh: There's still some dumb dude behind that elf. Alex: It's just a bonus. Jacob: So that's why, because it should be species, and species do have biological advantages over other species. Alex: Right, and they still do. They've gotten rid of the attribute, I should define what an attribute is I guess, there are 6 attributes that make up a character in the game also. And these things determine what kinds of actions and things your character is good at and which ones they're bad at in the game. You have strength, constitution, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, and charisma. So a really dexterous character is going to be good at dodging fireballs, and a really charismatic 1 is going to be really good at lying to people, and so on. Josh: or getting good deals on merchant trades. Alex: Yes. If you have a DM that will play that way. I should define DM. A DM is a Dungeon Master. There's 1 person that's in charge of the game that basically says what happens when everybody says, I want to do this. Then they roll some dice, or the character, the player rolls some dice and the numbers, I'm not doing a good job explaining this. But there's lots of rules with lots of numbers involved to keep things a little more lively so that it's not just constantly success, success, success. Oh, you want to do that? Cool, you did it. Awesome, you're cool! There's a little bit of randomness, a little bit of danger. Josh: So to recap, lots of dungeons, lots of dragons, race is bad, we talk about ancestry now, you can be charismatic, but if you're not, when you're playing the character, it's probably not gonna come off that way, and the DM is gonna say no. Jacob: And most importantly, elves can now be dumb. Alex: The DM will not say no. They'll say, you failed. Because you can try anything in D&D. The DM that I've played with the most, that was his favorite thing to say. When someone says, can I do this? He will say, you can attempt anything in D&D. And then he tells you what you need to roll for. Like what skill you need to roll for. And you roll the die and add everything up. And he tells you whether you failed or succeeded. Lizzie: And then there's Jared's sister who will smuggly say, you can try! Alex: Wow. Jacob: Rude. There's also, obviously, you'll encounter bad guys and have to fight them. That's another thing that the Dungeon Master does. He controls the movement, decisions, fighting, all the things that the bad guys do. Brothers, if you haven't watched the TV show Community, they've got some killer D&D episode. Alex: They only have 1 killer D&D episode. Josh: There's only one left. Jacob: You don't like the other 1? Alex: They got rid of it. Josh: It's not around. Jacob: Oh, that 1. Alex: Because Chang did black face. Lizzie: I thought you were only talking about that 1. Josh: It's not streaming. I think you can still own it. Yeah, Chang took that ancestry issue a little too far. Alex: Yeah. So, that brings up a good point. There are some people that want to dress up as their character when they play. Most people do not. There's no dressing up required to play Dungeons & Dragons. It's just people sitting around a table, sharing snacks, making a weird interactive story together. Most of the time, it's really silly. Some, most people, I think, play really silly. But it doesn't have to be. It can be anything you want, that's the cool part. It's like video games but way more free. Jacob: Yes, so like when Heather and I first I think started dating she asked me like what was the appeal of video games like why do you care to play it's like I said like well think of it as like a movie as you love movies everyone loves movies you just sit down and you watch this movie it's a great escape, a tool of escapism and you see these amazing things that you've never seen otherwise in video games I get to be the hero I get to be the lead character and choose what paths and things I do in that movie that's that's D&D basically you're choosing literally everything in this adventure that you're unfolding. Josh: My escape is I'm usually always the hero, so then when I play video games I'm the villain! Don't look at me wrong! Are you talking to me?! Alex: You can play D&D that way too. Jacob: But I don't want to be on a Jerk's team. Josh: No, no, no, it's the character who's the jerk. Lizzie: Yeah, his character doesn't want to be on your character's team! Josh: How do you know? You don't, you haven't met your character yet! Alex: You guys are opening up a new bag of topics that tabletop RPG players are always talking about, but we can talk about that another time. Josh: Psh. Naturals. [00:25:35] Stewnerds! [00:25:43] Storytime Segment Josh: Today's storytime, I want to do something slightly different. It's not one of my stories, but it's a pretty dang cool story that I heard recently, and I think it's a cool story for a lot of people to hear. But if you'll bear with me, I'm gonna attempt to tell this story in reverse. So prepare yourselves. Alex: Why...? Josh: This could be a train wreck! Lizzie: What? Alex: Alright. Josh: Speaking of train wrecks... Jacob: With that preface. Is it a literal train wreck? Josh: No, that'd be awesome though. It's a train wreck of sorts. So, the year is 1781. The date is 19 October. Revolutionary War, American forces have finally defeated the British once and for all. On this day, the British surrender to American forces. And that surrender ceremony is a legend, but you might not know it. General Cornwallis, the British, the general of British forces, wasn't present for the surrender. He was supposedly ill. So, his second-in-command, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, was gonna be the British representative to surrender to US Forces. The Brits still really did not like Americans. They thought they were inferior in every way. Jacob: Sure enough. The war just ended. Alex: Well, yeah, yeah. Josh: So even though they were defeated, Brigadier General O'Hara attempted to surrender to the French general on the battlefield, Comte de Rochambeau. Jacob: Ro-cham-beau! Josh: Rochambeau, rather than taking the surrender, pointed to George Washington and said, you surrender to the Americans. So the French really just digging it to the British. George Washington's response was to point to his second in command and say, you can surrender to him. To say, hey bud, we're not on the same level. Jacob: Yeah. Alex: Ohhh. Josh: So that's where we get doing a Rochambeau or pulling a Rochambeau when you like jockey or someone's trying to get something out of you and you just kind of spin them around. And point them somewhere else. Alex: I only know Rochambeau as another name for rock, paper, scissors. Josh: Think about it. Alex: Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, no, I found that, yeah. Josh: Yeah, so that's, that's, yeah, prior to that It's doing a Rochambeau. Lizzie: I've never heard this before. Jacob: Shanghai Noon. Josh: Oh Yeah, okay. So that's where it comes from now. That's the setting 4 years earlier January 3rd 1777 American forces are battling the British during the Battle of Princeton. US forces are battling General Charles Cornwallis' forces, and although the American forces win once Washington brings his reserves into the battle, laying dead on the battlefield is a US general named Hugh Mercer. Hugh Mercer, by many accounts, was actually George Washington's secondhand man. He was a very close friend of George Washington, and he was by trade an apothecaryist and a trained surgeon. And unfortunately, while leading his troops in the Battle of Princeton against General Cornwallis, he succumbed to wounds and died. So that was January 3rd, 1777. Just 8 days prior to that, on Christmas morning, do you know what happens Christmas Day of 1776? Jacob: No. Alex: Christmas. Oh.... right... Josh: You know that, George Washington crossing the Delaware under the guise of night on Christmas day... Alex: Oh, I feel dumb now. shoulda known that. Josh: To gain an advantage on the British. So, there's... I've only heard it in spoken folklore, but the idea to launch that raid in the middle of the night was Hugh Mercer's idea. And surprisingly to him, George accepted the plan and said, yeah, that's a great idea. Let's figure out how to make it work. And they did. And because of that, and because of that victory 8 days later, despite Hugh's own demise, that was enough to convince a lot of American colonists that Washington was a good general and they could ultimately defeat the British. And so that was a drive towards enlistment and support. Jacob: And ultimate victory came 4 years after that. Josh: And then ultimate victory was 4 years later. Rewind a little bit more. Before the start of the American Revolutionary War, Hugh Mercer is living in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is the hometown of George Washington. And in Fredericksburg, Hugh Mercer sets up an apothecary and starts dealing medicine to American colonists. This is pre-revolutionary war. One of Hugh's patients is George Washington's mother. And in fact, Hugh even purchases George Washington's old family home. And it's a huge estate. He has plans to settle down with his apothecary as his business and to establish a large immigrant community on this plot of land. Unfortunately, we know he doesn't get to because he gets pulled into the war as a Captain and then later on gets promoted up the way to General as he's leading these troops and ultimately dies. Prior to settling in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Hugh Mercer is a member of the British Army and fights in the French and Indian Wars. Jacob: Oh, so he has actual combat experience. Josh: He – Alex: British tactical experience. Josh: One of the battles that he's known for is during the French and Indian War is the battle for Fort Duchesne, which Fort Duchesne was an actual pivotal battle at the time and it held a very strategic location for the French and the British. Based on- Fort Deschaine was this outcropping of land right in the middle of 3 rivers that connected. And so, if you control this one point, you can control all movement up and down these rivers. So, now we're back into 1750. So, in early 1750, French troops arrived in the Ohio Valley to build a series of forts, including Fort Duchesne. At the time, a young Virginian officer, George Washington, was sent to deliver a letter to the French, demanding that the French leave that region altogether. The mission was ultimately a failure, but when passing through the region, Washington noted that the point of this land at the junction of the rivers was an excellent location for a fort. So it was actually George Washington prior to the Revolutionary War, prior to the French and Indian War, was a land prospector. So his history was he actually rode with British surveyors and he'd go out and he'd survey land in that entire like wild, their wild Western Front. And so he got to know the land very well. He got to, you know, great leadership skills, survival skills, all these things. And so he had a great eye for terrain and value of land and property. So in early 1754, in response to Washington's suggestion to build a fort there, the British did build a fort there, called it Fort Prince George, but the French troops arrived because they saw its strategic placement, overran it, and then renamed it to Fort Duchesne. So, having doubled back, now the British realize just how great of a location Fort Duchesne is, and under, I think, 2 battles, they fought to regain control of Fort Duchesne, and who was part of those battles but our friend Hugh Mercer. And that is where... That is one of the first battles of the French Indian War that we know Hugh Mercer was a part of. Now, go backwards in time a little bit more. This is so cool. I'm just blown away by this guy. In the fall of 1746, Hugh Mercer comes to America on a ship that departed from Leith. Alex: Sorry, sorry, sorry. What year? Josh: 1746. Jacob: I just want to know how old he was. Josh: So he died at age 50. Jacob: Oh okay. Lizzie: In 1776? Jacob: So this was about 30 years before his death. Josh: Yeah, so he's like 20. Yeah, he's a young kid. He's a young kid. So he immigrated to the U.S. Through Philadelphia in 1746. And he immigrated while hiding and running for his life. Because prior to this, he was a member of the Jacobite rebellion against the British and fought at the Battle of Culloden, which was the final battle- Lizzie: No way Josh: -that sealed the fate of the Jacobite Revolution against the British in Scotland. And in the Battle of Culloden, he fought and acted as a surgeon for the Scottish troops that were fighting. Alex: I think it's Culloden. Josh: Culloden. Culloden. And so 4 years prior to that, he studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, starting at the age of 15. Jacob: Wow. Yeah. Young. Josh: He sudied medicine. Yeah. And then he immediately joined the cause of the Jacobites, fought against the British. They lost. The British were looking for him. He got on a boat, immigrated to Pennsylvania, tried to set down roots as an apothecary at that time as well. He got roped up into the French and Indian War working for the British this time because he's a medicine man so he wants to help heal people. Ultimately after the French and Indian War settles down, he makes friends with George Washington in the French and Indian War, then he settles down next to George Washington's hometown, gets to know his mom, sets up an apothecary, starts being really good friends with George Washington, launches into the Revolutionary War alongside his friend George, starts getting promoted from captain up to Brigadier General. Ultimately, he has the brainchild that launched the US war into its victorious end state and dies just in a field suffering musket wounds to the forces of the British general that we ultimately defeat and kick off our continent. So, anyway, I heard about this guy and I'm like, I've never heard of this man before. But he was so pivotal in so many events in our history. And when you look at Scotland, you think of like the Scottish Enlightenment is probably one of the main movements that even resulted in our American concepts of freedom and liberty. Religious liberties, like all these liberties that we hold dear now. And then- And he's a product of that. He's a product of wanting to do good, to help people, to have freedoms of his own. Lizzie: Take down the British. Josh: Take it to the British. And he spent almost, you know, probably 35 years of his life just fighting- Jacob: for freedoms. Josh: -for freedom. And just a really, really cool figure. So I wanted to, when I heard his story, I was like, man, this, more People need to know about this. It's pretty good. I'd love for my kids to hear about him, learn about him, his entire span of life, what he chose to spend his time doing. Why am I getting emotional? Lizzie: Cuz Scotland. Alex: I'm not totally sure, but that's cool. Jacob: And freedom. Lizzie: And freedom. Jacob: Yeah, but it's inspiring. Lizzie: Well, and you chose to... Jacob: Do the same. Lizzie: Not really. I love Brits. So, anyway, cool guy, Hugh Mercer. On the East Coast, there are a number of monuments and towns and counties named after him, so he's not totally forgotten. Lizzie: No, I knew about him. I didn't know he was Scottish. Josh: Yep. And one of the coolest things about him that I haven't mentioned yet, He's one of the ancestors of General Patton. Alex: Oh. Jacob: Huh. Josh: Who's, like, just a crazy guy. Alex: Just a crazy guy. I wonder if he's related to Matt Mercer, who is tying it back into Dungeons & Dragons from earlier, one of the greatest Dungeon Masters on the internet. Josh: He's the best around! Alex: But also an incredible voice actor. The first person to ever voice Ganondorf in a video game. Jacob: That's why the name's familiar. You've brought him up on the podcast before. Alex: Yeah. He's amazing. Lizzie: That's crazy. Well, so many people died at the Battle of... Culloden? Alex: Culloden. I believe it's Culloden. Yeah. Like, that's... Yeah, it's crazy. Josh: Yeah. Yeah, so he was, I mean, he, from all accounts, he was... He worked up until the very last second. And, like, until it was a done for thing, the British were rounding up anybody who had anything to do with supporting the Jacobites. And he couldn't hide with his parents. His dad was a preacher at the Scottish church? I can't remember. Episcopalean? Was that around? Lizzie: Presbyterian? Alex: I was thinking it was Protestant. Jacob: It might be Presbyterian. One of those is literally the Church of Scotland basically. Josh: Oh, Church of Scotland, yeah. So he was Reverend William Mercer, minister of the Church of Scotland. Yeah, so he couldn't stick around. So he just jumped on a boat to Philadelphia. Jacob: And if he hadn't, right, that's the big question. If he hadn't gotten himself in trouble, identifying as part of the Jacobite rebellion, if he hadn't jumped on that ship, if he hadn't met George Washington... Alex: That is- I mean- That is just a crazy ride. That's a crazy ride. Fight against the British... Lizzie: Run away. Alex: Then run from them. Fight for the British... Then fight against the British again. Josh: Yeah. Your entire life, And you're tied up with these amazing historical figures the whole time. Like, you have... You're fighting against kings and princes on the battlefield in Scotland. Alex: Clearly, he had some complex feelings about the Hippocratic Oath. Josh: There's a, if I have, if, when I have more time, there's a ton of letters between him and George Washington, just spanning like that entire time period, like 20 plus years, like "letter from Hugh Mercer to George Washington", "letter from George Washington to Hugh Mercer". And they talk about logistics and supply and also how his, how George's mom's doing. Cause he took care of her. He, you know, he, while, while George moved up to, I don't know, do Continental Congress stuff maybe. Hugh's back there taking care of his mom. Pretty cool. Jacob: It feels like people were built different back then. I mean, 20 year old deciding, I mean, not saying we don't have people like this in current history, but as a 20 year old to try to take that on, literally jump ship, Not jump on a ship, get out of there. But then to just continually be at the forefront of trying... And it's not just him, there was so many of those men who were in that same position as him, who were responsible eventually for the Brits even needing to try to fight back the American... for the revolt even happening, there's hundreds, thousands of people who made that a necessity for the British. That sounds like a weird way to put it, but... Josh: Yeah, to be so principaled. Either to be so principaled or so unhinged. Who knows what the actual mental state of this guy was. But just seeking, he obviously has a penchant for seeking excitement. Because I think being a battlefield surgeon, especially at the time, like how much medicine do you actually know? How many procedures do you have to like stop arterial bleeding? Alex: Oh, better stick a leech on that! Josh: Yeah, so I mean He had to have had some level of crazy. Jacob: Yeah. Lizzie: I think most of the Jacobites did. Jack-O-Bites. Josh: Jack-O-Bites. Yeah. Yeah, they had the crazy people. Alex: I have a Jacobite shirt. It's not very comfy. I don't love wearing it. Josh: Too much chest hair? Jacob: Yes. Alex: No. Jacob: I like my chest been covered up. [00:43:39] Another Brother Outro

#016 The Irresistible Italian Indulgence

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #016, The Irresistible Italian Indulgence, the Brothers (and Sister) go way back in memory to identify the video games that had the most indelible impression on them. But first, a plan is afoot to make genetic copies of Stephen Christian in order to populate the future with never ending versions of Anberlin! You can thank the Brothers later, world. And finally, Alex introduces us to his beautiful mind, and his very cultured past-time delight. 
Visit our website for merch and other brother goodness.
 
Transcript:
The following transcript was in part created using the Deepgram API:
[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:46] Another Brother Theme Song [00:01:05] Stewnerds Segment Josh: Well, this is a first. We are fully graced with all students. Jacob: It's all 4 of us. Josh: We haven't had all 4 on a segment before. Jacob: Congratulations. Alex: Yeah. Aside from that unpublished episode. Jacob: Not even once we like start monetizing and you pay for Patreon. Alex: Maybe if we get a million likes on this episode. Josh: Oh my gosh. Jacob: But with that, I'm dramatically going to interject. So just last night, Heather and I got back from San Diego. We went to a concert where Anberlin performed. And so I'm going to present before the brothers, the first Another Brother Relic. Josh: Oh, my gosh... That's fitting. Lizzie: Is that his? Jacob: Stephen Christian threw this bottle into the crowd. Josh: And hit you in the face? Jacob: and I got it. Lizzie: What? How? Why? Alex: we have his DNA! Lizzie: We can make another one! Josh: We can make more! Jacob: To be honest, I didn't see if he actually drank from it or not. It was 1 of those things he flung the water on the crowd. Alex: Oh darn it. Jacob: And then he ended up chucking the bottle too. Lizzie: Well his fingerprints? Jacob: Yeah, yeah, for sure. His fingerprints would definitely be on this. Alex: I don't think there's any DNA in a fingerprint. Josh: There's gotta be saliva in that bad boy. Jacob: So we were like maybe 30 feet from the stage. I made Heather get up there pretty close with me. Alex: Were you not in the middle of the mosh? Jacob: No 1 was moshing. No 1 knew Anberlin. Josh: Who was at this thing? Alex: Sad. Jacob: They were there for Yellow Card. It was Yellow Card's tour. Josh: Yellow Card is so overplayed. Jacob: So I was like, Alex: wait, wait, wait, Yellow Card was the headliner? Jacob: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Alex: I've never... I don't know Yellow Card. Jacob: They're big though. Alex: I know they are, but. Josh: Ocean Avenue. Lizzie: Yeah. Jacob: It was their 20th year anniversary of Ocean Avenue, which was a huge album. Josh: That's sad. I imagine Anberlin just didn't want to do a full, full on tour. They didn't really want to get back together. They just wanted to play for a little bit. Jacob: No, they're, come on, they just released that whole EP. Anyway, Alex: maybe, maybe, maybe. Jacob: I think they're getting back at it. Lizzie: But you're the only 1 cheering. Jacob: I was pretty much, no, no, everyone was, was getting into it-ish, but I was like, 1 of the only people around singing. So, but I made her get up close, of course. On the last song, Feel Good Drag, of course. Josh: Classic. Jacob: At the end, you see him drawing the crowd in, collecting them right in front of him. And like, I knew, like I had to make a move. So I hit it! I got right up there with everyone and he jumps into the crowd. Alex: Know way, He did? Jacob: He did. Alex: I've never seen him do that. Jacob: And I had to stop myself before I like full on fanboyed and pushed my way all the way in to touch him. Like, I was so close. Lizzie: Hold on, you should have... I would have. Jacob: This is a picture. Alex: And then taken something out of his pockets. Josh: Some more DNA! Jacob: Anyway, this was the real... This water bottle. That was the real- Josh: Gong Xi Fa Cai Jacob: Yep. Gong Xi Fa Cai. Alex: That's how you say cool in Chinese? Josh: Yeah. Alex: Oh my gosh. Lizzie: It just really rolls off the tongue. Josh: Everything does in that language. Jelly. Never been to an Anberlin concert. Definitely never went out of state to see them. Alex: Thrice. Josh: What? Jacob: I thought it was only twice. Alex: Thrice, I've been to an Anberlin- Josh: All in Salt Lake? Alex: Yes, always been Salt Lake. Josh: Dang. Jacob: Okay, the outdoor venue was awesome. Alex: The free concert was pretty sweet, yeah. Jacob: Oh. You went to a... Oh. Alex: Oh What? Jacob: I meant San Diego. Alex: Oh sorry Jacob: San Diego's was an outdoor venue. Alex: Yeah, right. Yeah, it was. Jacob: Did they play downtown Salt Lake? Alex: Gallivan Plaza in downtown Salt Lake for free. Jacob: Was it the Twilight series? Alex: On Facebook, the day of- No. No, because Twilight series happens in the park. Jacob: Right, that's why it's, okay. Alex: It was in the winter, which kind of sucked. But on Facebook, they were just like, Salt Lake! we're coming to Salt Lake City today! be there at Gallavan Plaza by 6! or something like that. It was again hosted by X96, which sucks. Anberlin, if somehow you guys are listening to this- Josh: They're not..... Alex: ditch those losers. Their mixers are terrible. Their audio guys are crap. I could mix it better than that. Well, that was a gauntlet. Oops! Jacob: Shots fired Josh: If we get a million likes, we might email them that. Alex: I actually don't know that I could. I don't think I could mix it that well. I've never done anything that loud. Josh: Have you ever mixed in the open? Alex: I've mixed plenty of live music, but nothing rock, nothing anywhere near that loud. Jacob: Yeah. Alex: And I'm sure the volume has some unique challenges that come with it. Josh: Nah, those guys just suck. Alex: Nevertheless, it's just not good mixing. I've got a friend, Mark. Mark could mix it way better. And now for something completely different. Well, I'm not sure we were completely on the same page about what we were talking about tonight. I hope so. Jacob: I think so. Josh: Yeah. Alex: Okay. My thought was, like, super early video game memories that were like ones that cemented us as gamers. Josh: Yeah. Alex: Yeah, those early memories that are like, oh, this game is amazing. I need to be a gamer forever Josh: yeah I have two. Alex: Oh. Jacob: Wow. Josh: so I guess I'll start Jacob: yeah do it. Josh: it's kind of a big amalgamation but I'll say 1 Jacob was there for sure so he'll know. okay so Xbox Halo LAN parties Alex: of course of course of course Josh: But specifically, together against Jacob's friends. And 1 of Jacob's friends in particular, Jason, who we've talked about, his character's name was Mr. Parshal. Our high school principal. Alex: Oh. Jacob: Oh that's right. So, every year that I went to McNary, I had a new principal each single year. Lizzie: McNary's awful. Jacob: Not anymore Josh: So, Mr. Parshal was the, well, he must have been the third principal. He sucked. Oh, no, the name was Mr. Parshal Sucks, I think. But anyway... So whenever you killed Mr. Parshal you were like, yeah! But Every time, and Jason was a good sniper. He was really good at that game. Every time he killed you, you got so angry. And it's just because of that name, really. Just, and... Alex: You think you got angry? How much older was I than him I got so mad! because I remember LAN parties where he was playing too. Josh: yeah yeah he was good Alex: at the church 4 TVs 4 different rooms extra long cables. Everyone had their own room, but you could still hear down the hall when, "No! We lost!" Josh: "Mr. Parshal!" I loved it. That... So good. Yeah. Something about... Anyway, that was it. I was like, if this is video games, then this is life. And that turned out not to be true. That's like my number 1, I think. LAN parties. Alex: Okay, if we've got time for number twos, ew, we'll go back around, but someone else. Me? Okay. My mine is way earlier than that. When I broke my leg, 8 years old. I woke up in the hospital on Christmas morning, because I broke my leg on Christmas Eve. And it was weird. I was disoriented. But you know, there were presents I unwrapped, I think I remember unwrapping a model of a submarine, like a plastic 150 piece model or something like that, that I assume I put together later. I don't remember because I guess video games was what I was all about after this. But I also remember this tiny little Radio Shack Christmas tree that was a PCB. Josh: Yeah, that sounds really familiar. Alex: PCB is like a computer board. Josh: Yeah, printed circuit board. Alex: Motherboard, circuit board, whatever. And it had giant fatty red LEDs all over it. And a switch. So like a lot of PCBs are green. So the tree was green because it was just a bare PCB with these lights all over it. It had a switch. You just turn it on. I don't know where it came from. Josh: I totally remember that though. Jacob: I have no clue. Lizzie: I wasn't alive. Jacob: Right. Naturally. Alex: But eventually, they wheeled in a Toys R Us cart that had a CRT on it and a Super Nintendo. And they kind of had paneling all over it so that it kind of sort of looked like an arcade machine. And it was clear that this was from Toys R Us, so that you wanted to go to Toys R Us later, I guess. But it had Star Fox in it. And I just laid in bed with an IV in my wrist because they couldn't get me anywhere else for some reason. I had bad veins apparently, but I didn't care. I didn't care how much it burned with that IV in my wrist. I played that Super Nintendo game. I don't know how long. Memories are not great from that period of time, but I think that might have been where I learned to like deal with trauma. Lizzie: Yay!! Alex: Like, forget what's happening around you and just play this game for a little while. Lizzie: Well, there is a study that says if you experience a traumatic event, go play Tetris. And that helps you process through it. Josh: organize it? Jacob: Yeah, the Soviets would love that. Alex: They created it. Lizzie: Oh really? Alex: Yeah, someone in Russia made it Lizzie: yeah. Okay. Alex: Yeah, that was it for me. That game, I was like, oh my gosh, these animals can fly spacecraft and they have personalities. Josh: That makes so much more sense. Alex: And there's a story! Jacob: In case this hasn't been said, we're talking about a Super Nintendo. So like, they were animals, but nothing looked that great, cause it's pretty early gen still... Alex: Yeah, they looked like really low quality Muppets. Josh: It had a pixelated frog, right? If the game didn't tell you it was a frog, you wouldn't have known? Alex: No, I knew. I mean, I could tell that it was a frog. Well, also, there was that iconic cover art for the game where they made these stuffed Animals of all the characters that were like really lifelike Josh: It makes a lot more sense because I've never really liked the game But you love it. Alex: Yeah I do Josh: And when the Nintendo like this was it the switch remake? Alex: No, Wii U Josh: Wii U remake came out I knew you were like all over it. I was like, yeah, I'm trying to be excited about it Jacob: What about Star Fox 64? Alex: yeah, you didn't like Star Fox 64? Josh: not really I mean I enjoyed it but it wasn't my favorit Alex: man I've got a lot of memories of multi-playering that 1 in their little battle arena Josh: with us? Alex: well I'm not sure actually I remember playing at the Nelsons. I remember playing at the Nelsons. Jacob: I do remember playing like in the arena. Alex: Yeah, well you know, sounds right. Jacob: Well, I didn't think about mine until just now. Josh: You mean you didn't come up with it? Surely you didn't come to this recording unprepared. Jacob: Yeah, absolutely I did. I didn't expect Josh to pick 1 so late in life. So I was trying to think of one of these experiences even earlier, thinking about Duck Hunt at grandma's house. Super Scope at home after we got our first Super Nintendo. Alex: Which we didn't get until after I broke my leg. Jacob: Yep, and dad would actually play on the super scope with us. Alex: That was pretty cool to see Josh: but the 1 I thought of Smash Bros at Whiteaker middle school. Alex: Oh At the game club? During lunch time? Jacob: During lunch hour. Lunch time, there was game club out in the portable. Alex: Oh, you had to go out and no portable for it? Bummer. Jacob: No, it was great. Lizzie: Yeah, I'd rather go with portable than the freaking cafeteria. Jacob: Because there was nothing in there. Like, it wasn't a classroom. I don't remember it being a classroom. I just remember the TV set up and a couple N64s and some other things. Josh: I forgot about that. Jacob: Yeah so lunch you just go out to this portable play Smash Bros on the N64 And I guess similar thing to like the LAN parties where it's playing against your peers, they're right there reacting in real time, you know, it gets heated, people get angry and there's lots of screaming, like, excited screaming, not anger. Alex: Dang, that would have been fun. Jacob: Yeah. It was amazing. Alex: There were no such thing as 4 player games when I was doing that in middle school. Josh: I mean, I remember it vaguely. I never really partook. Alex: I don't. There was no 64 when I was in middle school. Josh: Oh, dang. Alex: We played NES games like the original Nintendo and a little bit of Super Nintendo and some Apple II. Apple II games on floppy disk. Josh: In middle school? Alex: Yeah. That's what we had in our game lab anyway. Jacob: I'm glad they got a budget increase before I came along. Alex: Yeah, I'm surprised they did that at all, you know? Why would they have? Jacob: It's true. Lizzie: Yeah, I think that was cut I cuz I don't recall anybody ever talking about clubs at all Jacob: It was during lunchtime so it wasn't after school It really is pretty crazy that they had it at all. Like esports wasn't even a thought. I mean esports were around but nowhere near any kind of mainstream popularity. Josh: I feel like that was kind of a word-of-mouth thing Because I don't think I learned about it until I knew you were doing it. And then I would go and I would watch during lunches. I'd be like, yeah, it looks pretty fun. Lizzie: Wait you guys were in Middle School together. Josh: Yeah? Lizzie: No. Josh: No? Alex: You're 3 years apart so that would have been... Josh: oh, well, I don't know who it was then. Jacob: I was just going to let it slide Alex: Me? Josh: You should have Alex: Probably me. I mean, we would have been in middle school together for a year. Josh: No, no, no, but I was like in eighth grade and I was aware of younger grades that were doing it. So if it wasn't Jacob's grade, I don't know who it would have been. Alex: I don't know I don't remember seeing any girls there so it might have been sexism that kept you from Lizzie: yeah I don't think this is a thing Alex: well I guess that's true That's 12 years after I did it. Jacob: And 7 years after me, Alex: By that time people might've been a lot more anti-video game. Jacob: Yeah. Thanks, Obama. Lizzie: He was inaugurated when I was in sixth grade. Jacob: See? Alex: Dang it. Obama! Jacob: Michelle's all like, let's make kids healthy again. Alex: Oh yeah, the we. Stupid open window picture. Are you sure you don't want to take a break outside? Oh, I'm in the middle of Zelda here! Lizzie: My turn. Okay, Well, Jacob took what I was going to say, basically. Josh: Wait, Really? Lizzie: I was going to say melee. But it was mostly watching you guys because I didn't get to play. But I was excited to get older so I could play. Josh: Lizzie is just like, oh man, I can't wait! I can't wait to be able to play this game! Lizzie: Yeah, honestly though, I thought all the characters were cool. Alex: You got to play other games... Lizzie: Well, and it led into, so I mean, you guys didn't want to play with your weird little sister And so I would play single-player games by myself Jacob: So weird and so little Lizzie: So I started playing Ocarina and Alex had helped me Alex: Yeah I was expecting you to talk about this 1, Lizzie: but I wouldn't have cared if I didn't think Smash Bros was so cool because Link was in Smash Bros and I wanted to know all the characters that was cool but then yeah Ocarina I guess was like the first video game that consumed my life. Alex: Well, you didn't have much of a life to consume, so it wasn't very hard Josh: at that age yeah. Alex: Because you were like what, 6? Jacob: Wait a minute. Alex: Probably like first, yeah. Lizzie: You said that I beat it on your mission. Is that right? Alex: I don't remember Lizzie: I guess I was pretty little Josh: it's a worthy game Jacob: not to bring timelines into question again Lizzie: Well I don't Alex: Well we're talking about Zelda so timelines Josh: are off limits! Jacob: was it Smash Bros N64 or Melee? Lizzie: Melee. Jacob: Because we wouldn't have had the N64 in Ocarina. We had it on the GameCube. Josh: Ocarina? Alex: Yeah. The Master Quest disc. Lizzie: I had that thing up until like 10 years ago. Alex: Which had the original and then the 1 where they reverse and remix all the maps Jacob: dispute accepted Alex: Or I guess they mirrored and remixed them. Jacob: What about Animal Crossing? Josh: barf Lizzie: Well, but I was gonna ask Because I was so young. I don't remember what games came out at what point, what I might have played first, but I do remember mom and Jacob, I guess, also teaching me how to play Animal Crossing. Jacob: Heck yes. Lizzie: And I know mom was OK with it because she knew that I would be playing new games because you guys did. And so she'd rather her little girl be into something that wasn't violent or anything. So she's like, yeah, Alex: sexism.... Lizzie: Liz can play Animal Crossing. And that's a problem because I've spent too many hours on that franchise Alex: Not All of our games that we play were violent just the best ones Jacob: NoPretty much all of them. except for mario kart Alex: I mean you've got to worry you're in will crossing didn't Mario Kart Not start belly I mean, you've got Animal Crossing, Mario Kart. I didn't play it. Not Star Trek Valley. The Farm of Harvest Moon. Harvest Moon. That too, I got. Yeah. Wario's Woods. No. And that was on Super Nintendo. Yeah. No 1 played that, but mom. I did. I liked it. But mom did consume that, rabidly. So can I ask if your choice in games or whatever? No, that's a weird way to ask this. Never mind. Okay. What is your favorite family of systems, Jacob? Well, are you talking about brand? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so you're talking like Sony versus Microsoft versus Nintendo. PlayStation, yeah. Sony, right. Oh. Other than the Xbox, all I've ever had is Nintendo consoles. So it has to be Nintendo by default. Alex, Nintendo, yeah, sure. And I'm Xbox. And all the memories we chose are also in a line with those. I mean, I was gonna say, I loved watching you guys play Halo. And then when you guys got Fable, I'm not sure if you let me play it. I'm pretty sure I remember sneaking your room often. And playing games. But there's no way you didn't know. I didn't know. I played Fable as a kid. What? In a pro pro. And Grand Theft Auto. Oh, I forgot that we didn't have that. I didn't like it. I didn't play it. That was too far for me. I love Grand Theft Auto. I like it now. I didn't play it as a kid. I like games like it, but not it. And Morrowind? I like games like that. Morrowind? I hate it. That was my game. Coming back from my mission, I think you were like, you gotta get into this game. It was, it was the first like real open sandbox. Like running around. I loved it. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't, I don't even know if I could really read much. It's a pretty lame. Oh boy. You couldn't read for no matter about old school RPGs. So Alex, you said at my wedding, at our dinner, that you said that I beat Ocarina while you're on your mission and you were so proud. Well, I had a better memory at that point in time than I do now. So I was 8, but I remember playing Ocarina and Animal Crossing and I didn't I was I was a very slow reader like I I didn't read very well until I was like 10 or something. I, for a while in second grade, I thought maybe I was dyslexic or something. And so I was playing Ocarina. Could read like 3 words. I beat it somehow. So I was playing all that. And Animal Crossing, I could kind of read, kind of just figure out what to do. I definitely assumed you were able to read everything. A little, but yeah that's really impressive. Like Playing it again a few years later when I could read, maybe like when I was 12 or something specifically I was like, oh, I didn't know this was a thing. I just kind of was like, I want a horse. I'm gonna go where there's horses. I don't know. Ride it fast! It'd be a really great idea to just defeat this temple thing over here. Yeah. I know. I might just go do that. [00:22:55] Stewnerds! [00:23:04] Culinary Cornucopia Segment Alex: So this segment is going to perhaps be called something like culinary cornucopia, because I like food and I just want to talk about food in general. I'm not gonna try to do any like this is how you cook this on a podcast because that's stupid. You gotta you want to see how it's being cooked. You know, you don't want to listen to it. Josh: Really, I don't even want that I just want to eat it. Alex: But I still want to talk about food. So I've apparently always enjoyed food. I'm sure that's something I mean that's something mom liked to say a lot Josh: Yeah, can I share a memore real quick: Alex: Sure Josh: You're not gonna like this. Alex: oh good Josh: the black cherry Kool-Aid Alex: uh-huh Josh: dumping cinnamon into it. Alex: cinnamon. oh yeah. Josh: Dad got so mad. Alex just unloaded cinnamon into our massive black cherry Kool-Aid container. Alex: It just made sense to me that It would taste good. Josh: Stirred it up with the wooden spoon and it just sits on the top and it just all comes out in the first cup you know. Alex: That's the problem with it. Jacob: Wouldn't you cook- Alex: I still stand by that though. I think that should be good. I just don't know how to get the flavor in there good. Josh: Do you infuse the cinnamon? Alex: I mean, I guess I'd have to get a stick and like cook it in there- Jacob: boil it Alex: -in there for a little while. Jacob: Wouldn't you cook hamsteaks directly on the burners? Alex: Wouldn't you? Is that what you said? Jacob: Didn't you do that? Alex: Did I? Lizzie: Yeah. Alex: I don't remember doing that. Josh: I melted a lot of plastic. Lizzie: Yeah, and I thought the house was burning down and mom wasn't home and I was scared out of my mind. Josh: I was there! Lizzie: Yeah, you were the one who caused it! Alex: Yeah, the pyro who caused it! Josh: So, yeah. Well, now we know I'm not the foodie. And Alex was at a very, very young age. Alex: I tried to put my finger on why I've always enjoyed food and loved food. I haven't gotten there yet. So maybe in another segment, I'll finally get to say what my feelings are about why I like food so much. But when I was waiting to turn 19, before I could receive my call to serve a mission for our church, I was just inexplicably drawn to Food Network. And all of the Italian cooking shows that they had. Which at that point in time I think was really just Molto Mario. And it turns out that he's not a great person. But- Jacob: Emeril was definitely around by then, wasn't he? Alex: Yeah, but Emeril's... He didn't always do Italian food. He just did... He did his food. He did emerald got it But moto mario was always italian food Josh: Wait this sorry. This was before your mission call? Alex: Yeah Josh: Oh, so before you even knew you were going to Italy. Alex: Before I knew I was going to Italy. Josh: Huh, nice. Jacob: I see Alex: I just wanted to watch all of this stuff and then I finally got my call to Italy and food was not the same. Food is just a completely different thing outside of the United States, I think. I can't really speak for other countries other than like, perhaps Europe, Italy specifically. But in Italy, food was so affordable, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. Josh: Define food. Like, no, no, I mean like- Jacob: groceries or prepared food. Alex: Everything that you need to cook your own food. Josh: Okay, so groceries. Alex: Yes, groceries. But not just groceries, because groceries were so affordable, so were restaurants. I would go to Italy and get a pizza that was about maybe 14 inches across, and that's supposed to be eaten by 1 person because it's really thin crust and the toppings are generally more sparse, the cheese is more sparse. It's just about really delicious high quality bread, some simple tomato sauce that's not seasoned with much more than just salt, Maybe a little bit of sugar, really good high quality mozzarella. And then a few other things maybe like my favorite pizza when I was there was called the Caprichosa, which was a sort of a variation on another pizza, which was called Cuatro Staggioni. Cuatro Staggioni was the 4 seasons and the pizza was broken up into quarters. 1 quarter of it had artichokes. Another 1 had Kalamata olives. Another had mushrooms and another had ham. Josh: Strange choice in seasons... Alex: I've never thought about why those are the 4 seasons. Josh: Like seasonings? Or like Alex: No, like time of year. The 4 seasons. Josh: I guess we can't refer to seasonings as seasons. They're just seasonings. Alex: Right. Josh: Language is hard. Alex: But the capricciosa just had all 4 of those ingredients, toppings all over the pizza mixed instead of broken into little. Jacob: Anchovies? Alex: No anchovies. Ham? I'm sorry, I said car-chof-y because I couldn't think of what the name was in English. It's artichokes. Jacob: You said artichokes? Alex: Artichokes not anchovies. Jacob: Oh, I take back my ew. Alex: Okay. Jacob: Okay. Let's go on. Lizzie: I still say ew. Alex: Ham, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and mushrooms. Delicious. But an 8 ounce ball of mozzarella, which is normally the quantity of mozzarella that you buy, even in America, an 8 ounce ball, 50 cents in Italy. You'd spend $3.50 to $5 depending on the grocery store here in America. Josh: At the time? Alex: Now, you would- Yeah. Right. So this is between 2004 and 2006. I don't know what a ball of Mozzarella costs now. And I don't know what it costed... costed? What it cost? There it is. I don't know what it cost in America at that point in time either because I wasn't doing any cooking then. Not really. I was putting cinnamon in Kool-Aid... The great thing about being a missionary in our church in Italy was that, A, you had a well-established support system because there's just always missionaries there. Year round we've got missionaries in Italy, so you go to Italy and you're just put into the constantly changing group, and then eventually you become part of that support system for someone else. So we've had missionaries in Italy for since the 60s, I believe. And you cannot be a missionary in Italy without learning how to cook, because you have to feed yourself a lot of the time. And there's nothing to cook in Italy other than Italian food. You can't go get Kraft macaroni and cheese. You can go get hot dogs, but you're probably not, well, back when I was there, again, everything that I say about Italy is about when I was there in 2004. I don't remember, I do, I do remember hot dog buns. So I guess you could subsist on hot dogs if you really wanted to, but we're encouraged to learn the culture and pretty much everyone was really interested in cooking. There were some missionaries that didn't have the aptitude or interest, and so they didn't really learn and hope they kind of hoped that they had a companion that would do it. They would do the dishes while the companion did the cooking. But yeah, so I basically learned to cook for 2 years in Italy on food that was much higher quality than what you can get in America even today. Probably far better quality than what you get in America today than compared to what you got in America in 2004 because I think our food quality is just continuing to go further and further downhill. I am not an expert on this subject. I remember a history teacher talking about farming subsidies having to do something with food quality degradation in America. Well for instance I did just read today that high fructose corn syrup is the sweetener of choice in America because the government decided to subsidize the farming of corn, which made corn and corn-based ingredients cheaper for people to acquire. And since it was so sweet, high fructose corn syrup once it was created, so sweet and so cheap, That's what we use. But new research, I guess this isn't new research, I think it's a new, what do you call that, in the review. A new review of all the research that's out there posits a new position on the exact biological pathway for why high fructose corn syrup causes obesity. But the connection between high fructose corn syrup and obesity is well documented and has been for a while. That's why it's talked about in Parks and Rec. Sweetums? Alex: Yeah, exactly. Lizzie: Yeah. Alex: But in Italy, they didn't they didn't do that. For 1 thing, corn isn't as nearly as abundant or as cheap, so they just use sugar. Things weren't super processed like here, like the pasta that you ate, even the dried pasta was like 2 or 3 ingredients, the flour and the water necessary to make it and then they dry it and that's it. Josh: How can that be tasty though? Alex: You salt the water and you put sauce on it. Josh: It sounds so bland, ya know? Alex: That's my favorite thing about like truly well I can't say truly good food but there's a lot of good food that's just so simple. Like the food that I want to bring up this week. I recently decided to try making some cultured butter from scratch. Jacob: Wow. Alex: Cultured butter is the butter that they eat in Europe. Josh: That goes to museums. Alex: They go to the opera, they like Mozart. No, we're talking about probiotics cultures, living organisms in your dairy. Yeah, in Europe they don't generally pasteurize their dairy. I'm not really sure why we do it here. I'm sure there was a historic reason for mass producing dairy and making it sure, really sure that it was going to be safe. Jacob: I watched a video about this and I forgot what the reason was Josh: It's probably distribution, storage, and shelf life, and just how gross we are. I mean eggs, you eat eggs at the grocery store and they're already 3 or 4 weeks old. And they're only good for another 2 weeks. Alex: Right. So. That's not the only difference between our dairy and Europe's dairy. The cows in Europe tend to get more beta carotene. And I think that has to do with being more grass fed than our cows. We've started, not started, it's been quite a while now, we feed them all kinds of stuff. Even if you go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, which we're all huge fans of, you can see on the wall a display of a bunch of clear canisters attached to the wall. There's like 20 of them, all of these different components that go into the food that they feed the cows that get milked, that get then turned into the cheese. But, go ahead. Josh: Did you hear the story a number of years ago of the semi truck that like broke down and it's just a bunch of red Skittles fell off the back of the truck. And like the conspiracy was that these beef were being finished on red Skittles because it colorizes their meat. Alex: Gross. What was I saying? Oh yeah, the dairy. So the milk, because they're, I think more grass fed, they get more beta carotene, because apparently there's more beta carotene in grass, which I didn't know, the milk comes out more yellow than white. And so their butter is like really yellow, whereas most of the butter here in America is really white. So there's that difference. But then also they don't pasteurize the milk. So there's usually stuff in the milk still. Lizzie: What does that mean? Floaties? Alex: Cultures, probiotics, things that are gonna be good for your gut. And so when they make their butter, it has a flavor that's a little bit, not a lot, but a little bit more like yogurt or sour cream. It's cultured like yogurt or sour cream. So I tried to find some raw milk here, some raw cream. And there's a farm nearby, I think it's called Maddox Family Farms. Their website didn't show dairy products because I don't know how legal it is. Jacob: Contraband! That's what I thought. Alex: I don't know how legal it is. There are legal reasons why they probably can't put that up there You can't get it. I know you can yeah, but Larissa knows someone who gets their raw dairy so I'm trying to get that information and I will remake this but the way you do it if you can't get your hands on non-pasteurized cream is gonna freak out a lot of Americans it kind of freaks me out but I did it and it's fine Josh: you're only gonna freak out about 10 Americans actually Alex: So I took a full pint of heavy whipping cream and dumped it into the mixing bowl of my stand mixer and then I took I think it was a cup of cultured buttermilk, which I could get from WinCo just fine. I dumped that in too, covered it, stuck it in the corner of our kitchen for more than 36 hours at room temperature. And it started to get really thick on top. Like really really thick. Like it was turning into yogurt because it basically was turning into yogurt. What Josh? Josh: Oh, For the listeners who can't see me, I'm just very disturbed. Jacob: Josh is 1 in 10 Americans being freaked out. Josh: I'm lactose sensitive. So now I'm like lactose terrified. Lizzie: We leave butter out to eat and just put some on your toast. Alex: You shouldn't do that unless it's salted. Lizzie: It's always, well, mom bought salted. So yeah. No? Maybe? Alex: If it's the butter that's left out to be put on bread, it was probably salted. Generally, you use salted butter as a condiment and unsalted butter for cooking and baking. Josh: Because you add your salt. Alex: Because you want to control your sodium as precisely as possible when cooking and baking, especially when baking. Jacob: Don't worry about it Liz, you're still alive. Alex: Yeah, so once it was done doing that for like 36 hours, I stuck it in the fridge to get the bowl and the cream nice and cold. Oh, and the, the whisk attachment for my mixer. Put that in the fridge too, get that nice and cold. Once everything was as cold as it was going to get, take it out, put it on the mixer, set it to the lowest speed for a while because it's going to splash everywhere if I don't. And you just let it sit there and it starts to, it turns into whipped cream first. And then as you watch it, it starts to turn into what's called broken whipped cream. Like the, the like peaks that form start to get like weirdly broken and choppy. Jacob: Yeah, I've heard about that on Great British Bake Off. Alex: It just means you've over whipped it and you're starting to turn it into butter. You're starting to cause, Alton Brown would know the science, I don't know the science exactly, But you're doing something to the proteins that are causing them to glob together with the fat and The watery products are separating out. So you should start to see like the buttermilk is what it is. Buttermilk is the product of whipping dairy until it becomes butter And you get the solids and the liquids and the liquid is the buttermilk Josh: Is that like syrup the buttermilk syrup? What's butter milk, I mean I've heard of it, I just don't know, What do you do with it? Alex: Well, you can bake with it. I think the best recipes for red velvet cake use buttermilk and vinegar which sounds weird but the final product doesn't taste like vinegar it but it does interact with the for some reason buttermilk is acidic I'm not sure of all the reasons. Jacob: Yes. Alex: Probably lactic acid. From the lack of toast. I don't know. Josh: But So buttermilk pancakes, you're using buttermilk as just a core ingredient for baking. Alex: To help with the leavening. It helps with the leavening because it reacts with the baking soda or baking powder to just like you mean you make those Baking soda and vinegar volcanoes in school. It does exactly that It creates those bubbles in the batter and then as you cook it everything around the bubble just kind of solidifies and it's nice and airy and light. Which is exactly what I did with the buttermilk that I made from making this butter. I used, I had some pancake mix, I could have made it from scratch, but I didn't. I just dumped it into some pancake mix and they're really good pancakes. I have them in the freezer still. But The butter that resulted from it was Extremely soft like crazy soft the hard part is you have to take the butter out of the buttermilk and have a couple bowls of ice water ready to go. And you squeeze the butter, dunking it into the ice water to keep it from melting onto your hands and it's becoming liquid that you can't work with. You squeeze more buttermilk out of it. I'm sure- I don't know how to do this well at home. I followed the instructions of a French chef that I found on YouTube, Chef Jean-Pierre. He's really cool. Very funny guy. Josh: He's a young guy. Alex: No, he's not. Josh: Oh, I saw a guy on YouTube who's French. Alex: Well, there's a lot of those, I'm sure. Jacob: The chocolatier. Josh: No, he's cool though. Alex: I'm sure professional butter makers have a better way of getting more water content out of the butter than just trying to squish it with your hands. But you're like going between you start in the 1 bowl of ice water and you're like squeezing and get out get out buttermilk squeeze squeeze squeeze. And then when that water is all white and no longer transparent, you go to the other 1 and you just keep doing that. And at that point, if you're serious about butter making, you have wooden paddles that shape the butter. I mean, there are a lot of people in the world that do this because it tastes so good, guys. Like, you don't even know. Josh: I'm just picturing someone who's like really serious about butter making. Alex: Like a professional? Lizzie: No, like a crazy person. Alex: There are French people that get very serious about butter making, like they get crazy about it. But you have these wooden paddles that allow you to manipulate the butter and shape it so you're not touching it with your hands and making it softer again. You shape it, roll it up in wax paper or whatever you're going to do, stick it in the fridge. If you want to salt it also, you know, salt it while you're right before you shape it, mix the salt in. That's what I did. So I'm not sure exactly how safe it is to leave cultured butter out when it's salted. But the best research I could find was that if it's salted, you're going to be okay. Just don't leave it too long. Eat it. So I do. It's amazing. On some really good bread with some honey. Lizzie: Homemade bread. Alex: I haven't gone that far yet. To wrap things up real quick on a completely different note, now that Liz brings up the bread. We don't buy sliced bread anymore. I buy loaves of French bread baked at the bakery of the grocery store every few days when we need bread. We use 1 of those plastic containers from the WinCo muffins. So after I've cut a chunk out of the middle of the bread, I put the 2 ends together and it will fit diagonally in the muffin container. And then I just keep slicing off slices from the center, continuing to push the 2 halves together to keep it from drying out in the middle. And the crust isn't crispy anymore. It does get soft, but when you toast it, it does get crispy. It's just way better. It's a way better bread experience than getting pretty sliced bread in America, because our bread is terrible. Our bread is cake. It's stupid. The end. Jacob: I think you need to make German pancakes with your homemade butter. Alex: Well, I oversalted this butter so. Jacob: Next time. Alex: Actually, that would actually be pretty good. I think, I generally think that a little extra salt would go well in the jam pancakes I've had. So I've got a lot of it. I should do that. Josh: I wonder if raw milk will work in my tummy. Alex: Yeah, I don't know. Jacob: With the probiotics? Josh: Yeah. Oh yeah, I've taken a lot of different pre-pro-post-biotics. Jacob: Postbiotics. What? Josh: ...making post-biotic techy noises... Jacob: What's the prebiotic? Josh: Oh, that's the amoeba. Alex: So 1 last thing. I'm going to start soon 1 more dairy adventure. I'm going to try making my own homemade mascarpone next, which is an Italian cream cheese. Jacob: Yeah, I've never actually had it. Alex: Very simple, very easy to make, but I'm not going to do it in the traditional way with an acid. Normally you heat up the milk, or sorry, cream, and you add an acid once it gets to 85 degrees, no warmer than 85. You dump in an acid, you take it off the heat, and the acid curdles the milk, turns it into solids. And you can separate that from the whey, which is different than buttermilk for some reason, science reason. And then you've got your creamy mascarpone. But what I read, okay, when I was in Italy, mascarpone was a yellow cream cheese, Not bright yellow, not a really concentrated yellow, but a yellow color, I guess. It looked like a custard, like a custard yellow. And I was reading about making mascarpone and I found 1 person who was using rennet to make their mascarpone, which is a traditional ingredient for making cheese. It's an enzyme that does the curdling instead of a reaction with the acid. The enzyme breaks up the sugars in the milk and turns it into lactic acid. And the lactic acid then does all of that same stuff. He says that Rennet mascarpone ends up with a mascarpone that's more like a dairy custard, which sounds a lot more like to me like the Mascarpone I had in Italy that I can't find here anywhere so I'm gonna try that next. To be continued. [00:47:39] Another Brother Outro

#015 The Calamitous Coastal Caper

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #015, The Calamitous Coastal Caper, after much waiting and anticipation the Brothers introduce their Sister! And, she's a sister after Josh's own heart. We're not saying it's because of aliens, but... by now you should know it's because of aliens. Are they real and billions of dollars are being spent studying them without Congressional oversight? Or, are aliens not real and billions of dollars are being spent on golden toilet seats without Congressional oversight? You be the judge. But if you need help, you can always call Jared. He is in fact the Hero Bonnie Tyler has been looking for.
Visit our website for merch and other brother goodness.
Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
"Today, we are not just debating the existence of UAPs, we are deliberating on the principles that define our republic, which is a commitment to transparency and accountability." See the full session of the 26 July 2023 Congressional hearing on UAPs.
Read the UAP Task Force's unclassified preliminary assessment published 25 June 2021.
Octopus DNA? What does that have to do with aliens? Well, according to Scientific American, in a-totally-not-taken-out-of-context quote, octopus are "...alien[s]...". So, there ya have it.
The article that started it all... again... Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal. Yep, them again.
Watch the NatGeo show UFOs: Investigating the Unknown now, on Disney+
Transcript:
The following transcript was in part created using the Deepgram API:
[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:39] Another Brother Theme Song [00:00:58] Stewnerds Segment Alex: So what are we talking about today? Josh: I'm not going to say it's aliens. But it's aliens. Alex: And we've got a guest who was on an unpublished episode first, but now is gonna be on this published episode. Josh: Yay. Alex: Our sister Liz. Josh: Cue the clap track. Alex: Yay. Josh: Yes, Liz was a part of our first failed recording. Lizzie: It's cause I was there. Josh: No, and we finally convinced her to come back and To help help with a topic that is always near and dear to my heart. I know what you're thinking no It's not that I have no idea what you're thinking actually, but it's aliens. Yeah, so Liz what cool thing just happened? Lizzie: I don't actually know what it's called. It was a Congress hearing about aliens. Josh: Yeah, it was. Let me find, I can't remember which subcommittee it was. Something about, for some reason, oh, it was the compliance and oversight, oh, the oversight committee and accountability. Alex: About aliens? Literally about aliens or about UAP? Lizzie: UAP Josh: So the committee is the House or Senate committee on oversight and accountability. Alex: But the hearing is on? Josh: UAP. Alex: UAPs. Josh: As rolled under the subcommittee on national security Alex: and is it UAP or UAPs for plural? Lizzie: UAPi Alex: because you don't put an S at the end of phenomenons though it should be UAP singular and plural, right? Josh: Yeah. It's all encompassing. Alex: I said that wrong Josh: just like the phenomena itself. For some background This is for anyone who listens that has not seen this or heard of this. The UAP hearings were first held on July 26, 2023. So as of this recording, that was a couple days ago. And they were attended by David Grusch, who's a former military intel officer who became a whistleblower and told House lawmakers that Congress is being kept in the dark about unidentified anomalous phenomena. That's your UAP right there. David Grusch alleged at the hearing that executive branch agencies have withheld information about the mysterious objects for years. Grusch served as a representative on 2 Pentagon task forces investigating UAP until earlier this year. So he was on the UAP task force, which our friend Travis from that TV show of notoriety Alex: Skinwalker Ranch Josh: Skinwalker Ranch. was also on that test force, right? Lizzie: Is he our friend now? Josh: Oh yeah, Travis and us go way back. Yeah, I mean if you just say it Lizzie: enough? Josh: enough, it becomes true. So 1 of the most jaw-dropping things that David told Congress was he informed them of a multi-decade long UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program that the US government has been executing. He said he was denied access to those programs when he requested access and he accused the military of misappropriating funds to shield these operations from congressional oversight. He later said he had interviewed officials who had direct knowledge of aircraft with non-human origins. We don't call it extraterrestrial anymore or alien. I guess the new Vogue term is non-human intelligence. Alex: It's more PC. Josh: And so-called biologics were recovered from some craft, which I don't know if that's a real word? But- Alex: no actually that sounds more governmental military, you know speak Josh: yeah Lizzie: basically they have aliens though. Josh: Yeah, you'd think that's kind of what it sounds like Alex: so I guess it is about aliens in the end. Lizzie: Yeah. Though they say non-humans. Josh: Right well I think he said non-human biologics. Lizzie: Yeah. Alex: Right Josh: the Congress lady Congresswoman Luna she first said I think you know her staffers probably prepared her But I think she asked him and she found you know extraterrestrial biologics right? and then he reiterated the phrase biologics. It's Kind of strange, but that made me think you know like they didn't say bodies right, but then all these like little news entities start saying like alien body bodies of pilots or whatever. I don't remember him saying pilots I remember him saying biologics. Lizzie: No in fact somebody specifically asked so you have like them that later think even asked You have the pilots then basically? and he's like like I said earlier we have biologics and that was all he said Josh: Oh yeah, and I can't talk about it in the open Lizzie: and yeah, he said a lot Yeah, Josh: so in my mind Okay, right because there's like to stop me if I'm going Beyond the scope of what we wanted to talk about. Alex: All right, Josh: but there's kind of like 2 UFO/UAP fanbases right there's like- Alex: nuts and bolts Josh: nuts and bolts. The aliens drive the things or control them. And there's the UFO as alien. Alex: Right. Josh: Like the craft itself is a- Alex: It's not a craft. Josh: Right. Alex: It's a life form. Josh: It is the alien. Alex: Like in the movie NOPE. Spoiler alert. Josh: Oh no. Oh spoiler. Which that transformation looks a lot like the squids and octopus videos that I've seen on YouTube lately. Alex: Might have taken inspiration. Josh: Horrifying transformations. Not to mention octopus DNA. It's out of this world. But if I say too much, Shana's gonna come on as a Ghost just to fact check me on everything. So we'll leave it out. But yeah, he said biologics. So that's the question. Biology has to have some sort of like organic what we call like organic tissue or something like that. bacteria? Alex: could be that if there were pilots they incinerated themselves but we found their food Josh: Ohhhhh Alex: that's That wasn't really serious, but technically it would fit. Josh: They're like, oh no, "we're going down!" "Jimmy, pull the embolism device!" Alex: Or they have like a cyanide pill in a tooth and they just chomp down on it And it's actually an enzyme that melts them Josh: interesting. So I was thinking more along the lines of like non earth-based like bacteria Lizzie: amoebo Alex: Like maybe these craft were built in a clean room. Sterile environment. Josh: Yeah. Maybe they are remotely operated, drone-like craft, but yeah, through whatever processes of leaving and coming and going, collected some non-Earth bacteria. So just choice of words, yeah, very government, very like designed to be specific, but also vague. It's Beautiful. Alex: Well, it sounds to me just from 1 of the things that you've said that he said. It sounds like some things are at a level of classification, and, like, he knows. He understands what the levels of classification are, and he's following it, whereas beforehand, before he came out with all of this stuff, it was not being properly reported on. Like, there were things that were of a level of classification where Congress should have been made known, been made aware, it wasn't being done. But He's not gonna just hand over everything. He's not a lunatic. He's still following the correct guidelines. Josh: protocol. Lizzie: Yeah. I think that was a big part of this whole thing happening is that all these Congress men and women where like, okay, we don't know anything about this. We've tried asking to get this information. We're not allowed. Why are we not allowed? Why is this being hidden? What's going on? And yeah, these guys are all, the 1 in specific, I can't remember which 1, was very cautious, because he seemed to be the 1 that knew I guess the most and they asked so many things and the majority of what he said during that 2 hours or whatever was "I can't say that We can talk about it later in a non-public", but yeah, so. Josh: Yeah, the whole thing seems very strategic. So basically this committee needed to get these 3 guys in front, in a public open setting to get their testimonies on public record, first and foremost, and I think, and then follow it up with a SCIF-based, high classification level discussion where all the nitty-gritty details come out that the Congress members are authorized to hear. And in part, I think a lot is to do kind of, so the same reason why they got, so you're talking about David Grusch, that was Grusch. Lizzie: Yeah Josh: The reason they went with The Drive for the initial story to break the story was because the New York Times and these other news organizations weren't moving fast enough. And the Leslie Keane and I can't remember both reporters behind him. They're the ones behind the Tic Tac New York Times article if I'm correct. Alex: Yeah, she's in that show that I mentioned to you guys on Disney Plus, Nat Geo. Lizzie: Yeah Josh: Nice. Yeah. And probably George Knapp probably is too. Alex: Not yet. Josh: So George was sitting right behind David Grusch at the hearing. He's sitting right there. But anyway, yeah. So Leslie Keane, and her partner, They went to The Drive with this news article with Dave Grusch because these other locations weren't moving fast enough and they were so worried and concerned that if they didn't get his story out fast enough that it would imperil him like mortally and as a witness and as a testifier. So there's like, you know, you kind of see it with like mob hit jobs, like when you're going to court, cases, like the mobster will try to knock their guy out, this guy out before he testifies against him. Alex: Right. Josh: That kind of feeling kind of pervaded the hearing. Lizzie: Yeah. Josh: They asked a lot, like, have you ever been intimidated or received physical, you know, like physical violence or they even asked, Are you aware of anyone who has been killed? to cover up Lizzie: They first asked if you know of anybody that's been harmed. And he was like, yeah. Josh: Harmed / injured, I think. Lizzie: Yeah. He said yes to that. Do you know anybody that was killed? And he was like, Yeah, I can't talk about that here. Josh: Yeah, he said, I have presented the individuals who know that information to the Inspector General. That was specifically about the UAP crash retrieval program. Alex: So have they gotten any answer? This is still ongoing, is it not? Josh: Yeah, this was- Alex: It probably won't be by the time this episode is published, but as we're speaking- Josh: It might, I mean it might take months. Alex: Oh wow, really? To get everything through, yeah. Have they had any answers as to why are we not getting the information that we need? Why has this been so difficult? Have they answered any of that yet, or is that all, I can't talk about that here in the open? Josh: A lot of that, yeah. Alex: Yeah, okay. Josh: He's kind of alluded to certain high-power figures within both the federal government and former government who are now, like, senior execs in defense contracting companies who wield a lot of influence and power and money to kind of keep things under wraps. Alex: I haven't seen anything or read anything about this congressional hearing, but in this National Geographic show, I think it's called... Investigating UFOs? And then it has a subtitle- Josh: Undisclosed? or no Lizzie: Yeah, something like that. Alex: I mean I can look it up, but it's not that important. Nah, I'm not gonna do it Josh: And links in the show notes for anyone who wants to watch it! because I do I saw the messages come through, but it was a bad day, so I didn't read it thoroughly. Lizzie: it talks a lot about that article. Josh: The New York Times, Tic Tac? Lizzie: Yeah, mhmm. Josh: Yeah with David Fraver. Lizzie: How that all built up and them getting it out and stuff. Josh: Oh, cool. Alex: It is called UFOs Investigating the Unknown. And it talks about and to a lot of journalists. Leslie Keene is regularly in the program talking about more or less the history of the non-disclosure basically Project Blue Book and all of its names that came before it became Project Blue Book. The head scientist for Project Blue Book that I can't remember the name of right now and how he was a huge skeptical. Josh: Oh, yeah Lizzie: Hynek or something Alex: Yeah, Hynek! Good job. Josh: Oh Hynek was the- Alex: lead scientist for Blue Book. Josh: Oh! Initially or always a skeptic? Alex: always a skeptic- not always. initially. You're right initially. and he he was writing off as many of these things as he could possibly get. And I don't remember them saying specifically that Hynek was hired to do that. I'm not sure they were taking that approach yet. Lizzie: I think so, kind of. Alex: There was another scientist later that was specifically hired to do that. Josh: And he closed Project Blue Book, right? Alex: University of Colorado. Josh: He wrote their final report, closed the book on it. He was like, this is all... Alex: Without reading the 999 other pages written by his students, that gave a lot of credit to a lot of the sightings. He wrote his one-page conclusion saying, the government needs to wash their hands of this and stop. This is stupid. Because he didn't want to believe. And he was paid to do it also. Josh: Awesome. So they tell this whole background context. Alex: All of that stuff. Josh: That's so great. Alex: While also going into a lot more recent sightings and the people that were part of the sightings. So We've got, dang it, I can't remember the name of the pilot. I can only remember his call sign. Josh: It's Fravor. David Fraver. Alex: His call sign was sex. Josh: Oh no not David Fraver. Come on, that's too short. Alex: I don't understand. I remember very clearly, it was his first name, sex in quotation marks, and his last name. Josh: Oh, that shouldn't fly. It sounds too much like six. Alex: Well, he did. He was a pretty good pilot. Lizzie: he-he Josh: Over the radio when he... Alex: But also his wingman during the Tic Tac sighting, a female pilot that I also do not remember the name of- Josh: Uh-oh, what's her nickname? Alex: I don't remember that either. Josh: Oh, okay. Alex: Yeah, they talked to them both about that sighting and the radar technician who watched it happen and also analyzed everything afterwards. And then they also go into this Stephenville, Texas sighting from 2008. Josh: Oh, you brought that up. But I didn't look into it. Lizzie: Oh yeah. Josh: 2008? Alex: Mmhm. But they also have Congress folks on the show, 1 of which is in Parks and Rec. Leslie Knope writes a little, what do you call that? Josh: Love letter? Alex: No, she has the Congresswoman's book, and she wrote something in it, and then asked her to sign it. Lizzie: Oh, yeah. Josh: Oh, that's so funny. Alex: "I left extra space if you think there's anything else you want to add." Lizzie: It was like, "you're my best friend, I love you." Alex: "You're my inspiration and everything." She goes, I think I've said everything I wanted to say. Lizzie: That's her? Alex: Yeah. Yeah, that's her. I wish I could remember her name. I don't remember the names of any of these Congress people. But they had a Republican congressman who said, "Republicans are just as interested in these things and just as open-minded about them as the Democrats." It's an interesting show and makes me want to look into this congressional hearing, of course. Josh: It was awesome. But I think there was an agenda. I think there was a political agenda, but the political agenda seemed to be, because I mean, this is the oversight committee. So the agenda was we should have oversight over all intelligence programs. And I think they established pretty well that you know, they clearly don't. Alex: I mean I think that is the law right now. Yeah I don't think it's just that's the way it should be. I think it's that's the way it is on the books. Josh: Right it's just it's really it's a fascinating problem set though. because who says any of these Congress people are trustworthy enough to hold a clearance and to have access to all of these extremely sensitive programs? As a normal American citizen, you get vetted first, and if you're not vetted, you don't get it. You don't have the privilege of working in it. Alex: Right Josh: For politicians, you get voted. Like, the American people say, you know, give them what they want. Alex: Yeah. There's a lot to our government. Our government is so bloated now in its function. I don't even know. I don't know how that works. Josh: Yeah, so, I mean, yes, Congress that represents the American people runs the show. The military defers to the people. The intelligence community, the Department of Defense, defer to the American citizen. So it's just really, it's a strange dance of sorts. Lizzie: Well and something that I, I mean I learned a lot of things obviously, but something that I didn't know at all that was happening was that there are plenty of commercial pilots that see these things all the time too. I didn't know. I thought for sure it was just with the military and their drills and everything, them mostly finding stuff. Alex: I mean that's 1 of the reasons why I wanted to become a pilot. Lizzie: Oh, okay. I mean I wanted to be a biologist so I could find Bigfoot, so. Alex: 1 of the things I thought was the most interesting, not about Blue Book, but about the University of Colorado. I think it's University of Colorado. If it's not University of Colorado, it's a university in Colorado. Josh: That sounds right, yeah Alex: That was given this job of basically wrapping everything up for the military. So they didn't have to keep answering all of these calls was that the sighting that they thought was the most interesting and the most credible was the McMinnville, Oregon sighting Lizzie: yeah Josh: really? Alex: from the 1950s Lizzie: With that old timey picture Alex: yeah Josh: okay yeah that one keeps sticking around, huh? Lizzie: it's creepy Josh: it's just because of the yeah well in the accounts that they recorded and kept is pretty wild. Alex: They wrote quite a bit about it. In that report. Josh: This is what is hard. This is what's hard for me to spin my head around. Because I'm, you know, you guys know, I'm like a 95% alien guy. Alex: What does that mean, 95% alien? Lizzie: You're 95% alien? Josh: 5% of me is like show me and then I'll trust it. 95% is like, shut up 5%-er, it's real. So all these like older sightings that we consider that we're aware of are like the nuts and bolts type. Alex: Yeah right they do appear that way way more than the glowing orbs of today. Josh: Right so the question being did we just not did we see those and just not think they were weird or, is it- Alex: alien technology has advanced and now they are glowing orbs. Josh: Yeah, interesting. Lizzie: I mean it's not like they're all the same exact thing. Josh: Which is another thing to wrap my head around. They're not all the same thing! Lizzie: Like there are quite a few different witnesses of these- Josh: Makes and models? Oh. Lizzie: Well yeah. But witnesses of the ones that are a cube. No, no. It's a sphere. A clear sphere with a cube inside. And then there's- Josh: so the corners of the cube are all touching the inside inside of the sphere. Lizzie: and then there's the you know, stereotypical saucer There's that the 1 in Texas from Stephenville that was a mile wide Alex: A mile wide he estimated Lizzie: with Lights all around it, but it was- Josh: what the heck Lizzie: but it was solid- Alex: It was also shape Shifting Josh: Amorphous? Lizzie: oh yeah it was moving Alex: he said that He saw the lights in a row blinking randomly, and then it turned into, the lights on the outside moved down and made an arc. Downward towards the ground. Josh: But you can see the craft itself or you can only see like- Alex: that's what I don't know Lizzie: that's what they said... Josh: just get a sense of an outline of it... Alex: I don't know that I'm I tried to listen carefully for any indication of that But I don't even remember what time of day Lizzie: at some point Somebody said like it's moving around but you can tell it's 1 physical thing. I'm pretty sure Alex: here's the weird thing crazy move on the mutual UFO Network got their hands on radar data of the area from that time period where it was supposed to be going on. And they found multiple radar pings in a line, as if it were separate crafts, which is why I'm confused about whether it was 1 or separate things. Josh: Yeah, that's just, that's nuts. Alex: And bolts! [00:23:21] Stewnerds! [00:23:29] Storytime Segment Soundbyte: Hey kids, do you know what time it is? Story time! Lizzie: Okay, so I'm gonna tell this story. I'm mostly telling it out of spite to my husband. Josh: Oh no. Lizzie: To make him admit how wonderful he is, because he doesn't like to do that. Alex: Doesn't really sound like spite. Lizzie: He told me not to do it but I'm doing it anyway so it's that spite. Josh: There it is. Lizzie: Jared grew up his his dad and his siblings all went in well actually no their grandfather bought this cabin on the beach in Rockaway, Oregon and then you know he passed away and then the ownership went to all the kids you know so they've all shared it throughout the years and eventually they had to sell it in I guess that was 2020. Alex: Yeah he mentioned this when he was last here. Josh: Yeah that was episode 12. Lizzie: My bad. forgot. Alex: All good. Lizzie: Yeah so we We went on like 1 last trip with his parents in 2020 to spend a few days at the cabin. And so, you know, we brought all the beach stuff, we brought boogie boards to go, you know, play in the water. And I had never actually gone boogie boarding before because I'm terrified of water I'm terrified of bodies of water. I love rain and Showers, but I don't like- Josh: what about puddles? Lizzie: Puddles are fine. I can't drown in a puddle. Alex: My body is 70% water. Josh: That is a big body of water! Lizzie: So like whenever I went to the beach I mean I'd play up until like the water hits my waist mostly and I'd never go far than that 1. Alex: That's pretty deep in the ocean. Lizzie: I mean yeah it's cold. Josh: Especially in the North Pacific Ocean. Lizzie: The Oregon coast is cold. The waves are pretty strong. They're always, you know, we're always told about rip tides and stuff. So even though like I would, you, I mean, you guys would go farther too. Sometimes. Alex: 1 time I went farther than that. Josh: If I had a boogie board, I would go further, but without any floaties? Heck no. Lizzie: I remember you guys and dad too going out and you know like wave hopping. Trying to get me to go farther But I wouldn't. Anyway, so this I was like, oh this might be the last time I go to the beach in a while also Because we don't live in Oregon anymore So I let Jared convince me to try boogie boarding. You know, I go, it's fun, I'm getting used to it, and so I get more daring. We're going out farther and farther and we're fine. And it's so fun. And it's usually I'm terrified of water, but I was having so much fun. And until I look back and realize I can't see Jared and the coastline is farther away than I expected, and I can't touch the ground anymore. Alex: were you in a riptide? Lizzie: And I got caught in a riptide. Josh: Oh... Alex: oh boy. Lizzie: And... Alex: Did you swim sideways? Lizzie: I tried. Josh: So You couldn't feel... Lizzie: I couldn't feel it. Josh: You couldn't feel like you were being... You couldn't feel like the speed of it or... Lizzie: Uh-uh, it just happened. Josh: Crazy. And... Alex: Did you have a board? Lizzie: Yeah. Alex: Okay. At least you had flotation. Lizzie: So if I didn't have that I would I would be dead. I would have died. I remember you know at the point where I couldn't feel the ground anymore I think there might have also been like a I mean that's probably where the riptide came from I think there might have been a drop off of it there might be more of a current you know to go to and And even when I started getting battered under, still couldn't feel the ground. Couldn't feel the sand. And so I was like, OK, OK, swim sideways. Well, I still get swimming. I tried taking lessons, and that never really worked. Josh: Yeah, for the record, Stewarts are land-based creatures. Alex: I swim pretty good. Lizzie: Oh. Josh: Okay, maybe Jacob does too, I don't know. Alex: But not freestyle. I hate that stroke. Josh: Okay, the Yellow and Red Stewart are not water people. Lizzie: I sink pretty hard. I've also got asthma, so... Josh: Hey, I did too! Lizzie: ...I started having trouble breathing also while trying to figure this out. Josh: Oh no. It's cold. It's on it's everywhere You're panicking anyway. Lizzie: I can't see where Jared is I can't swim sideways. I'm doing my darndest. I can't can't even go so I'm just getting hit over the head with waves Alex: you're out by the breakers? Josh: must be, yeah Alex: where the waves break so they would actually fall on top of you? Lizzie: Oh yeah yeah I'm getting hit I'm quite sure I'm about to drown. Doing my darndest to swim and I'm at least able to hold onto the board and you're like sideways up under my arm but I am not really able to do much else and I was really panicking I was like I'm I'm actually about to die right now. And I can't do anything about it. Until I hear Jared yelling, and then I feel him grab me. We start struggling. And Jared is a good swimmer. He grew up going to the coast and actually going to pools and stuff Like we didn't. Alex: yeah, he mentioned the pools too. Lizzie: Yeah Josh: Oh yeah he did. Lizzie: And you know he's surfed before and all this, and he's strong! And a lot bigger than me. Josh: All right, what else? keep going. let's get this out. Lizzie: he's actually able to get us moving, but... And, like, you know, I don't know how long I was out there struggling by myself and how long it was us trying to get back up. It felt like forever. Felt like forever of him pulling me and you know, we're trying to go sideways trying to go forward a little bit going sideways I still feel like it's getting farther and farther away I'm just like okay great now I'm gonna make Jared die with me like I could have just gone on my own but no Jared had to come try to be a hero and now we're both gonna die that's great but I mean yeah I don't know and I feel like I was just a dead weight and he's just pulling me because I'm like also feeling like I'm close to having an asthma attack while I'm out in the middle of the ocean. And I don't know. Anyways, eventually we get to the point where I can kind of touch the ground and so I start pushing. But it feels like, I don't know, the tide was going out. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. It was pretty crazy. But I'm trying to push on my tippy toes and swim, and I feel like I'm not moving at all, and we're just struggling. I don't know. It felt like forever. At least 15 minutes. Gosh, we eventually get up onto the sand with both our feet down and we're able to really walk out and we get to, you know, we're able to like fall down on our hands and knees outside of the water and we're looking around at other people and they're kind of looking at us like we're weirdos. Like they didn't just see us nearly die, I don't know. And so we're sitting there, we're laying there and I start crying. I don't know what Jared was doing, but I'm crying. And Also, you know like you just saved my life like do you get that? He's like no no you would've been fine. like no no I wouldn't have! Alex: You would have been fine Lizzie: You came because you knew I wasn't! Josh: Nah nah, you were good. Yeah yeah you were great. I just missed you. Alex: I came out to save you because you were gonna be fine. Lizzie: Yeah. I mean, that's why he didn't want me to tell the story. He doesn't want to admit that he was a hero. That he was actually cool and saved my life. Josh: Cue Bonnie Taylor. Lizzie: What? Josh: Bonnie Tyler. Dang it. Alex: I still don't know who that is. Josh: "I need a hero" Alex: Oh. Cue Foo Fighters. "There goes my hero" Lizzie: Okay. well anyways Josh: Lizzie, Cue Jared. Lizzie: Yeah. So we, also not wanting to figure his parents out because we're assuming that they would have seen us go way out But we so you know we start walking back, and they're like oh You guys had fun. You're so wet did you have fun? We're like yeah, yeah, we're totally fine Yeah, it's great And his mom loves taking pictures. She's like, okay, let me take pictures of you guys in your wetsuits. Alex: So you have a picture of when you almost died? Lizzie: Yes, and that is in the book that his mom printed for everybody to like commemorate the cabin. So like the last page is a picture of us right after we nearly died. Josh: Oh creepy Alex: Good thing we're selling. Because we almost died. Lizzie: Because, yeah, that made Jared be like, I'm okay not going to the beach for a while now. Alex: This is why he said that was a traumatic day. Lizzie: Oh, he did? Josh: Oh...... Alex: Not because of all the emotions of losing the cabin, though that probably played some part. Lizzie: Yeah, no, he was pretty torn up, but no, we nearly died. I nearly died at least Alex: He would have been fine probably Lizzie: He would've been fine! Josh: We're unraveling the web of lies! Lizzie: His parents still know, so hopefully they don't listen Alex: I'd be surprised if they did Lizzie: we immediately told all his siblings though when we got home. While his parents were away. Josh: Was it so, yeah, with events like that, like it kind of not uncommon for like time to like stand still right I wonder if that Cuz rip tides like move you quick. I wonder if it just like if you guys were just like out and you know back so quickly that no one really had an opportunity to even be like- Lizzie: Ah look at them! Josh: Wow You guys were out there forever. What were you doing? Alex: right Lizzie: Yeah Yeah, it felt like forever to me Especially because I feel like the majority of the time was me struggling before Jared even got to me, and there was actually a point like right before dear got to me that I was like I can't keep struggling I'm gonna have to stop struggling soon, and just let it happen I guess. I don't know. I did my best to like get up on the board and everything, but I- Josh: I can see the dramatized, the dramatized, she just leans back and puts her arms up above her head, like, ahhhh, and then right into Jared's arms. Lizzie: Nah, it was like ahhh. It was so stressful and I can't believe he actually got to me too. I feel like I was so far out. I don't know. Alex: What beach was this? Josh: Rockaway? Lizzie: Rockaway. Alex: Can I picture Rockaway Beach? Is that the beach that we went to? Post chemo camp out? Lizzie: Was Jared there? Alex: no Lizzie: then no. I Think- Josh: I went. I've been there. Alex: With the trailer? When we went trailer camping? Lizzie: Oh, no that was with Aunt Vickie Alex: Well They weren't there, but it was that they're in their trailer. post chemo. They set it up for us and then they left. Lizzie: Yeah. I thought they were there. Alex: No. Lizzie: Oh, they were there for a second though. Alex: and we like sat in a little grass patch to get out of the wind. Lizzie: Yeah, no, I remember. But no, that was Pacific City. Josh: Rockaway is pretty much rock away. It's as it sounds. Say it with me... Alex: It rocks you away? Josh: It was a lot. It's like rocks, right? It's like smaller rocks. It's not very sandy? Lizzie: No Josh: really? The day I went there it was really overcast And gloomy like- Alex: So the sand looked like rocks? You might want to get your eyes checked. Josh: Too make a long story short, they're basically rocks, right? Isn't that what all sand is? Alex: Well, yeah. Tiny, tiny rocks. Josh: Churches, churches. Alex: So, when you say that you were trying to swim sideways. Lizzie: Yeah. Alex: What are you saying exactly? I... Josh: It's not the side stroke. You're supposed to go perpendicular... Lizzie: Yeah, no, yeah, I went perpendicular Alex: north or south. So you're trying to swim north or south. Okay, all you nieces, nephews, and brothers, if you're in a riptide, you need to swim north or south so look for land, if you can't see it give up now... Josh: ah! wait no! Alex: but swim parallel to the land so that you move with the land when swimming Josh: out directly out of the flow of the riptide. Alex: Right, because the riptide takes you away from land. Lizzie: I mean just don't go out that far if you're not a good swimmer too, because I swear I was doing my darkness and I was just getting pushed out farther and farther and I don't know Eventually, you're supposed to break out of it. But I would've been dead anyway! Alex: well, it might have been a combination of the tide and the riptide. Like the tide was going out. and you didn't know it. Lizzie: I just suck at swimming I guess, mostly Josh: I mean, truth. This is why I don't trust the- I have a very strong mistrust of the water. Lizzie: Yeah, I'm not... I'm going knee-deep at most again. That will be the rest of my life I was right I had it right the first time but Alex: it's just scary out in the ocean you don't know what else is around you out there you can't see it! Lizzie: I felt lots of stuff too Alex: yeah not cool! Lizzie: I hated it. Josh: so that's funny cuz I actually feel I feel safer in natural water- Alex: If you can get your mind in the right place, like where you're not thinking about what you can't see, but if you think about the fact that you could not be seeing something that's right there, then you're in trouble. Josh: Yeah. Interesting. Lizzie: No, I hate pools. I'd much rather go to a lake or a river than a pool. Josh: Yes. Yeah. Alex: And again, I've been to some crystal clear Oregon lakes too and being able to see the bottom freaked me out too. Lizzie: Yeah, that's scarier to me. Alex: It looks like it's a mile away, but I can see it because of the like magnification of the water or something and it freaks me out. I hate it. Josh: I always have this idea that there's like a malevolent sea creature in all water. And as soon as my legs go in, it's gonna get me! Alex: We're too Scottish. Josh: It's looking for me. Lizzie: Nessie's waiting! Alex: We're afraid of kelpies. Josh: Yeah, the kelpies. Yeah, we're in a landlocked state now. We good. Lizzie: Yeah, it's fine. Bear Lake was great. Alex: Bear Lake was pretty shallow. It had a pretty wide, shallow end of the pool. Josh: The north end. Alex: That is where we were, I think, is the north end, right? The shallow part of it was so long. Josh: Well, that just gives us 1 more reason to like Jared even more. And then you married him! Lizzie: That- That- Alex: That was after they were already married... Josh: He pulls you out and you're like, "oh, thanks". Marriage proposal! He's like, "no, I knew it!" You guys were already married. [00:38:26] Another Brother Outro

#014 The Implausible Ice cream Incident

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #014, The Implausible Ice cream incident, the brothers share what their favorite cartoons were growing up. Get ready for a menagerie of 80's and 90's awesomeness! But before that, of course Dragon Ball Z was discussed first! Find out what other cartoons painted their childhoods and formed who they are. And don't worry, the links below include all of the awesome original intros. Jacob then shares one of his most impressive feats ever. Yes, it involves ice cream. Check out the pictures below!
Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
Dragon Ball Z AWESOMENESS!
The original, good Dexter's Laboratory
Rockin Swat Kats!
Josh's surprising entry, Darkwing Duck. Check it out on Disney+
Biker Mice from Mars also rock
Unbeknownst to us, right around the same time we recorded, Ryan Reynolds announced he's rebooting Bike Mice from Mars!
Street Sharks confirms that kids shows used to rock a lot more
TaleSpin is also on Disney+
The epic Thundercats. It's pretty dope animation.
And who could forget Voltron! Defender of the universe
We promised pictures of the pig's trough. It's big. Bigger than you're thinking. Check out its sheer size. This is right around the time where Jacob started shaking... But there's always a celebration!
Transcript:
The following transcript was in part created using the Deepgram API:
[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:24] Another Brother Theme Song [00:00:42] Stewnerds Segment Josh: How did we start these normally? Alex: 1 of us just says, okay, cartoons! Jacob: Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes Josh: great well there it was Jacob: we're in. Dragon Ball Z! I said it! I did it first. Josh: no. all right, nope. pick a new 1. Jacob: Dexter's Lab! Alex: You wanted to do a countdown? I've got- I can't- I can't do that. I don't have 1 thing. Jacob: oh you don't? Alex: no, no way. Jacob: Okay. that's what- this is way easier than like picking a favorite song for me. Josh: So we wanted to take a trip down memory lane and remember our favorite cartoons from childhood. Alex: Or other TV shows. Josh: And or other TV shows. Jacob: Right. Josh: Dragon Ball Z! Jacob: Oh come on! I said that! Alex: yeah, I mean, yeah. It's a big 1 for us, you know? Josh: You know, and Again, I think I told you guys earlier- Alex: It was a soap opera for teenage boys. Josh: Hey. That's an offensive way of describing that, but it is correct. Jacob: It's pretty accurate. Josh: I got season 1 of Dragon Ball Z Kai. Jacob: Yeah. Josh: So good. Jacob: I've noticed that. Josh: And I'm so... Oh, yeah. Jacob: In your prime. Alex: What makes it Kai, exactly? Josh: Kai. Alex: Oh so that's without all of the filler? Josh: So the Chinese is gai 改, which is like "modified", "changed". And I guess Japanese is kai. So yeah, it means Yeah without filler Alex: without the filler episodes Josh: apparently according to Lizzie it goes back more closely to the- Jacob: You mean nothing but action? Josh: No, no, no. Jacob: What are the filler episodes? Josh: So, there's- It originally was a manga, a 漫画. Alex: A manga, yeah. Josh: And a lot of the TV show went Game of Thrones style and started deviating from the manga and started creating its own storyline. So there's a bunch of like little story arcs and things that happen that aren't in the manga and so DBZ Kai cut out anything that wasn't true to the manga and also kind of reduced a bunch of the recapping. Alex: So it's just manga canon. Josh: Manga canon made for streaming. Jacob: What saga is it? Alex: Z. All of it. Jacob: Okay, all of Z. Alex: From the beginning to the end. I mean, he got the first season. Jacob: So the first season is Frieza. Josh: No. Raditz. Alex: No, it's Vegeta. Vegeta. Jacob: Dragon Ball Z? Alex: And Raditz, yeah. Raditz. Josh: Raditz shows up. Jacob: Oh, I thought that was all the same season. Okay. Alex: Is it? Oh my gosh. Josh: There's no way. There's only like 30 something episodes in the season. Jacob: That's a lot! Josh: But there's like 12 episodes of Frieza just going, "oh, how could you?" So yeah, good show. I'm annoyed that my kids don't appreciate it Alex: yeah I can't even understand the attitude Jacob: I'm I'm certain Henry will Henry I know you're listening right now. Once I allow him to watch it, once he's old enough, he'll love it. I already know. Josh: I still love it. Jacob: It's so good. Josh: I know. It gave me so much fire. I think I was, the height of that show, once we started watching it as kids is when I discovered dad's weight bench in the garage and the weird sand-filled weight plates, you know like I wanted to be buff like Goku and so- Jacob: that's what did it Josh: -that's what started me like lifting in the garage. I failed but uh... Jacob: I daydream that I'm a Z fighter still. Alex: well that's goes to show how important this show was Jacob: It's so good! that's my top cartoon Josh: yeah I'd say top formative cartoon for me. Alex: I wish I could watch Dragon Ball Super. I don't think it's on Crunchyroll. Because that's the sequel series to Dragon Ball Z. Josh: Those guys just started getting too nuts like we're dudes and we're gonna fuse and different person Alex: well that was still in Z Jacob: Goku turns into a little, he's a kid- Josh: What??? Alex: No, that's GT. Jacob: Oh, that's GT? Alex: Now that was cut it's not canon anymore. Jacob: Super is where he goes like monkey Super Saiyan, he's same size but all furry? Alex: I think Jacob: so yeah see that's still- Alex: and eventually God Super Saiyan God and he starts fighting gods. It's called Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. Jacob: See that's so bad. Josh: Cause Japanese. Alex: It's Japanese, yeah. Jacob: After Dragon Ball, after the Z series, I don't care too much. Alex: But he's blue instead of gold! Josh: Oh, that's interesting. Isn't that a more of a Hindu thing? Alex: I don't know. Cause- Josh: like the Krishna god's blue Alex: are like Egyptian. He starts with an Egyptian god. Josh: Oh, interesting. Well, Yeah. That's a great show. Jacob: Oh Yeah. Alex: Yeah. Yeah. The hairless cat like. Jacob: Yes. Okay. Alex: Have you guys ever seen interviews of the voice actors for Vegeta and Goku? Jacob: No. Josh: The Japanese original? Alex: No, no, no, no. No, English. Sorry, the English dub guys. Josh: Oh, no. Jacob: Was this you or Lizzie telling us about this recently? Alex: They are freaking hilarious. They are awesome. Jacob: They're like Pip and Mary. Alex: Yeah. If they don't have a podcast of their own, they need 1 because they seem like they were, they became pretty good friends being in the recording room together- Josh: Being Saiyan brothers. Alex: -screaming. But 1 of them looks like Richard Ayoade. Even with the way he does his hair with that crazy hearted afro. Yeah, they're hilarious. You gotta look it up. Josh: Yeah, that sounds good. Alex: They're awesome, guys. Josh: That sounds fun. Lizzie was telling me the Japanese voice, voices are horrible. Alex: Goku is a woman Josh: Oh, an actual woman? Alex: Yeah, it's an actual woman. Jacob: Oh that's why he sounds like that. Alex: That makes me sound terrible but, it's just weird. Josh: Well, you expect a male voice when you're watching a male character. Jacob: Especially watching the English version. Alex: Well it's Goku! Goku for crying out loud! Josh: Yeah. That's an interesting... we'll have to ask Jared about that. Jacob: Maybe having a more feminine voice makes him feel more... I mean, he's like... He typifies honesty and... Josh: Naivety. Naivety. Alex: That too, for sure. Jacob: I mean, lots of good traits and characteristics. That's Goku. So I think maybe tapping into more feminine voice draws that out. Alex: I think what happened was she did Goku as a kid. Jacob: Oh, in Dragon Ball. Alex: Which is normal even in our cartoons. Jacob: Bart Simpson. Alex: That ladies do younger boys. Josh: Like the Rugrats. Alex: And then they just kept her on. Yeah, right. And then they kept her on. Jacob: Familiar voice. That you grew up with. Alex: I think is what I've heard. Yeah. And there's a video game that's even on the Switch, though I don't imagine the performance is particularly good on the Switch. I think it's called Dragon Ball Kakarot. I mean, there's a crap load of Dragon Ball games. Jacob: Is this the free- the open world one? Alex: Yeah. And you go through the Z saga the whole thing in that game RPG style Where like it's really it's it's open world story heavy, but you know you get little side quests that weren't necessarily in the show to grind your strength and stuff and- Josh: I thought I played it on game pass it was just a just like a Mortal Kombat fighter Jacob: must have been a different one Alex: that would have been a different game. Jacob: they do have a bunch of those too Alex: there's a ton of different Dragon Ball series of games that are all about fighting only. I can't even count how many series of games they have but Dragon Ball Kakarot is specifically the story of the Z-Saga. Josh: I like how this segment was gonna be favorite shows and it's actually just the Dragon Ball Z segment. Jacob: I was just gonna say, well this segment turned into Dragon Ball Z. Alex: Well there's a demo on the Switch if you wanna try it out. And actually, the performance wasn't so bad. But the boss fight, fighting Raditz, I couldn't do it. It was too hard. But that's cause I couldn't grind levels in the demo. Jacob: Right it was just a demo. Level up enough. Josh: I just remember being so heartbroken at Gohan, how Gohan turned out. Jacob: Yeah, that's true. Josh: And I'm like, dude. Jacob: What name moniker did he end up going by? Alex: Saiya Man. Josh: Saiya Man. Alex: But again, that's in GT, which is not canon... Jacob: No... Bu? Josh: Yeah, that's Majin Bu Saga. Alex: Oh crap, you're right. Well, they continue that story in GT and I guess I forgot. They build him up to be like Goku- Jacob: greater than Goku! Alex: -squared. Jacob: I mean, one-handed taking down Cell. Come on. Josh: They must have just decided like, no, we can't do Goku the dirty. He's just gotta keep being the best. Jacob: That's how father-son stories are supposed to go. Josh: I know. Jacob: But I mean I will admit Goku is my favorite anyway Josh: It couldn't have happened to a better guy though. Goku is my favorite. Good show. Jacob: Okay, moving on from Dragon Ball. Josh: Alright, my next show was Darkwing Duck. Alex: Oh my gosh, yes. This is why I can't pick 1. Josh: I know. Alex: There's so many. We grew up with so many good cartoons. Josh: And I love ducks. I think it's because of the Oregon Ducks. Jacob: Oh you did always draw ducks! Josh: I did. I think I started with the Oregon Ducks, and then I started drawing the Looney Tunes duck characters Jacob: constantly. Alex: With that S thing with the... Josh: Oh, that was later, yeah. Alex: Well, I think you made the head the S, and then the bill came out. Josh: Well, because I noticed the eyes when I was drawing the eyes. The order in which I was drawing the head the last component was the hairdo. And I was just looking at the eyes 1 day and I think this is when max and I had started like branding- I might have created it- I can't remember if Max was involved, I had this like "Shadow Publishing" or something. And I was looking at the eyes and like, wait a minute, the lines between the eyes makes the bottom of an S. So I did that, what do they call that S? Alex: I have no idea man. Jacob: Who knows Josh: Superman S or something Alex: But we used it in our hand drawn, Another Brother, what do you call it? Jacob: Oh yeah, it is on there. Josh: Banner: Alex: The full version of it, which I'm not sure is visible anywhere yet. Jacob: I'll have to check that. Alex: It does have 1 of those in it somewhere. Jacob: Remember, you'd even put the hat on him in some drawings. As Darkwing Duck. Alex: And you used Shad as a name in video games. Josh: Oh my gosh. Alex: During that same period of time. Jacob: I don't remember that Josh: So Shad was the name I gave to Simba. I started drawing Simba heads. Alex: What? Jacob: What? Josh: Yeah. And I named him Shad. Alex: I can't say I remember that. Jacob: I don't even know what's going on anymore. Josh: Yeah, that's a deviation, but anyway. I really like ducks and I liked all the shows that had ducks in them. Alex: Darkwing Duck Josh: and that was the best Alex: was bomb Jacob: that's not 1 I think I watched Josh: oh it was like it was a it was a take on the Batman the shadow like those types of dark grungy superheroes. Alex: Yeah. But goofy because it was a Donald Duck type duck. Josh: Loved it. Alex: But it wasn't quite Donald. He was a little more serious than that. Jacob: A little more edgy. Josh: I think they're rebooting it. Seth Rogen for Disney. Alex: Okay I hope Seth can pull that 1 out. He seems to be doing okay by the Ninja Turtles movie that's coming out. That seems to be like it's gonna be okay. Josh: I'm not going to watch it. Alex: I don't know that I will in theaters but I'll probably watch it eventually because they were 1 of my formative cartoons growing up for sure. Jacob: It's a cool art style too. Alex: Yeah it is. Darkwing Duck. He had that sweet plane which for me was always big for any kind of character or hero if he had a plane it was like, "Oh Yeah!" Josh: yeah what's your mode of transportation?? Jacob: a duck in a plane! Josh: which is probably why that's the first thing billionaires buy is a g6 or something. gotta get their plane. Alex: there's all but there was also that side character that I do not remember the name of who would whenever he said blathering blatherskite this crazy armor would fly onto him and he would wheel around on a single wheel Josh: yes! Jacob: Oh! Alex: he was like part Iron Man part Robo Cop Josh: was that Quack McDuck? I think that- Alex: mmm no that might be a character from Tail Spin Josh: I think it's the same I think he's the only like character that's been in multiple shows Jacob: I didn't I thought that I thought he was just a robot and he was always like that I didn't know it was a suit Alex: yeah very Iron Man-ey but but in appearance more Robo Cop Jacob: And he had like an antenna on his head. Yeah and a visor like Robo Cop over his eyes. Yes. okay. That guy was cool. I remember that. Alex: Yeah, but but that led into eventually like the Mighty Ducks Series which was like- Jacob: I forgot about that cartoon series. Alex: -they were hockey players, but they were also superheroes Josh: Wait, what?? Alex: oh but they were aliens Josh: Okay, we're not- Alex: pretty sure Josh: we're not talking about the movies... Alex: no no no this is again Disney duck-based superheroes Jacob: It was an animated series Josh: Okay how did I not know about this? Alex: I'm sure you did. Josh: It's checking all the boxes. Alex: Yeah I think they had like a mothership that was like a like a duck bill shaped goalie mask. Jacob: Yeah like their logo. Josh: Okay that I can see it in my mind Alex: it didn't last for very long I don't think it was very successful. Josh: Even Darkwing Duck was only like 2 years. 2 seasons. Alex: Was it really? Oh, that 1 was So good to me though. Jacob: Are these on Disney plus I wonder. Alex: Darkwing Duck is. Josh: oh if they are... Jacob: It is? Alex: It is. Jacob: nice Alex: I'm pretty sure. Gargoyles? Josh: Gargoyles was cool. Jacob: yes. we've watched that with the boys and they like it. Josh: Really? Alex: That was way better than a children's cartoon had any reason to be. Jacob: Oh man, Goliath. The voice actor does Goliath. So good. Josh: I'd have to watch it again. I did like that show that was 1 of those other dark grungy, like should I be watching this mom and dad? Jacob: It was a very 90s cartoon Alex: the 90s Batman was epic Jacob: But you loved Batman Beyond too. Alex: I did, for sure. Josh: Batman Beyond was with the kid Batman? Jacob: Teenage. Josh: Teenager Batman? Alex: Bruce is old and not really walking around so great no more and he passes on the mantle. Jacob: Terry. Terry-something. Alex: Yeah. And he was voiced by the guy that played Eric in Boy Meets World Josh: oh Jacob: Oh wow Alex: yeah Josh: Kyle. Jacob: And Ron in Kim Possible. Alex: Who is also hilarious Jacob: I've got a few more rapid-fire ones Alex: go Jacob: Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, Swat Cats Alex: Swat Cats! Ohhh! That theme song. Oh my gosh. Josh: Those guys are rad. Jacob: Yeah. Alright, show notes. We gotta put that in show notes. Josh: Yeah. Man, they don't make cartoons like this anymore. Alex: They don't. Jacob: No, they don't. Josh: It was because you had Saturday night cartoons. Jacob: Saturday morning? Josh: Saturday morning cartoons. Alex: Right. Josh: Adult Swim later for Saturday night cartoons. Jacob: Live TV used to be a thing. Josh: Yeah and it was great and you could count on a certain percentage of children in America tuning in to watch these shows, making you money so they produced good good cartoons. Alex: Yeah for the most part some of them were not. I've got 1 in mind right now. Josh: Go, what? Alex: Doug. Jacob: You didn't like Doug? Josh: I liked Doug. Alex: Doug started on Nickelodeon and was excellent, and was a formative cartoon for me. Not always in a good way, but mostly. But then they canceled it, Disney bought it, and turned it into a Saturday morning cartoon and it sucked forever after. Jacob: Yes. It did, it's true. It was like when Gennady Tartakovsky. Alex: Genddy Tartakovsky. Josh: Oh Dexter's Lab? Jacob: Dexter's Lab. When he stopped working on Dexter's Lab, it just fell into a pile of garbage. Alex: Yep, same with Sponge Bob. Jacob: Sponge Bob, yeah. Dexter's lab is my number 2. Alex: Dexter's lab is excellent. Josh: That was so good. Jacob: So good. Josh: I, yeah, I loved Mandark. Alex: Yes. Mandark was so good. Josh: Most least understood character. Poor Mandark. Jacob: So ridiculous. Josh: And they had, what was the crossover show they'd do within the show with the monkey? Alex: Oh yeah. Jacob: And the heroes. Monkey, I mean the monkey's name was Monkey. Alex: It was it was just Monkey. Josh: Did the Powerpuff Girls come out of Dexter's Lab? Alex: They came first. Jacob: Yeah, they were completely separate. Josh: Oh they were before Dexter's Lab. Alex: Powerpuff Girls were first. Jacob: People make fun of it sometimes because it's a quote unquote girl show, but Powerpuff Girls was good too. Mojo Jojo. Good guy. Alex: I grew up with a little too much machismo and I felt a need to feel that way When liking Powerpuff Girls, but, it was just a good cartoon. Jacob: It was. Josh: That's when you just lean into Buttercup. "Yeah! I like Buttercup!" "Buttercup's the best!" Alex: "She'll kick your butt!" Jacob: Somehow just saying that out loud though. "Buttercup's my favorite Powerpuff Girl". Josh: I mean, no- Jacob: I mean it's not My Little Ponies, so. No offense to all you Bronies out there. Josh: All of you bronies. Alex: Right. For me, Tail Spin. Was hugely formative. Like, I fell in love with aeronautics in my youth because of that cartoon for sure Josh: yeah that's when I decided planes are really cool yeah and surf I don't know what you'd call it. The, yeah, the dude had the younger... Alex: Kit Cloud Kicker. Had his little metal croissant that we talked about before Josh: Croissant board. Alex: And he was, yeah, like... Josh: Toed behind the plane. Alex: Cloud kicking. He was cloud kicking. Josh: Cloud kicking. Jacob: I forgot about that. Josh: Those were, I mean, you guys, I think you've pretty much nailed all of the cartoons that I thought of Jacob: Especially Street Sharks- Josh: Street Sharks I forgot about. Alex: I did too. Josh: That one was great. Jacob: -Like I could feel that. I had a little hand puppet that I would play with, maybe 2, that I would play in the tub with. Josh: Street Sharks. Jacob: Street Sharks Alex: Well, let me take it back even further then. Josh: I know what you're thinking. Alex: Because I'm a lot older. Josh: I know what you got. Alex: Sometimes I'm a lot older. Do you? well let me hear it? Jacob: ready, 3-2-1, Go! Josh: Thundercats! Alex: Thundercats was good. I I tried to say the thing- Jacob: Oh I know! Alex: -but I couldn't. Jacob: Voltron! Alex: Voltron. Josh: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Alex: I remember like just stumbling across Voltron one, one morning sometime when I was like 7 or something and then I didn't know what it was called so I couldn't find it again and then 1 Christmas like 8 or 9 years old they after doing the original Because that was the only version at that point in time. The original The Grinch Stole Christmas. They had a Voltron marathon all day and I was like- Jacob: This is it! Alex: This is like Christmas! Josh: This is what I've been needing! Netflix's reboot of that. Alex: Oh my gosh. Josh: Amazing! Alex: It is so good. Jacob: Oh is it? Alex: Oh yeah. Josh: Dude, they nail it. Jacob: I watched a couple episodes. Alex: Not a kid's cartoon anymore, though. Jacob: I don't know. It didn't... Alex: Not that it's inappropriate for kids, but... really?? Josh: The soundtrack? Jacob: I didn't get into it. Josh: The sound engineering is just... Alex: It's a little slow. I'll give it that. Jacob: Yeah. Maybe that's what it was. Alex: The first season starts out slow for sure. But it goes beyond what I think the original cartoon did with like story arc and lore and everything. It's big. Josh: Here's a controversial one that flopped for me. He-Man, Castle Grayskull. Jacob: Are you talking, oh sorry, the original or this reboot on Netflix? Alex: you're talking about the original. Josh: yeah, the original. Jacob: yeah, I would only Rarely watch that one. Alex: I liked it. Definitely did. Jacob: I think I did too, but it wasn't like a go-to. I was happy when it was on but you know, I wouldn't seek it. Alex: But that reminded me of another cartoon that was on really early in the morning. I don't know that you guys would have ever seen it because I watched it before going to super early morning seminary. Josh: I never got up early enough to watch TV before seminary. That's insane. Jacob: Oh, I would just flip it on while I ate cereal. Alex: Yeah, right, exactly. I was eating some toast and it would be on. I can't remember exactly what it was called. It might've been, it wasn't Mad Max because that's a movie. But the character's name was Max and he had his own little Polly Pocket line of toys. Jacob: I know this! Josh: Oh, I remember the toys. Because you had one! Alex: Right, because of the cartoon. Jacob: Yeah, I watched this. What was that called? Josh: Crud, what was it? Alex: I liked it because he had a not not exactly anthropomorphic but his like mentor was an owl just like in Ocarina of Time you've got the big owl giving you hints and secrets here and there Josh: Dang, what was that show?! Alex: max- I'm sure it had max in it Jacob: yeah I can't remember, but- Josh: Polley Pocket, we remember Polly pocket, but we don't remember Max's Polley Pocket Jacob: Hey Polley was a lot bigger than Max. Let's be real. I'm glad you brought up Thundercats though because- Alex: classic Jacob: -those are yeah, those are like definite memories from Grandma's house Alex: also been re-made now Josh: Grandma Robinson's house? Jacob: Yeah that was the only place I ever watched it. She had it on VHS and we would just go downstairs and pop it in and watch Thundercats. Josh: I think that's where I first saw SWAT Cats too, maybe. Does that Ring a bell? Jacob: No, but that's okay. Alex: I definitely watched that at home. Not that I didn't watch it at Grandma's, but... Josh: Yeah, SWAT cats. And then you'd watch it and then you'd be done, then you'd take the tape out- for my children. So, you used to have these things called VHS tapes that were magnetic tapes that you had a- and then you'd take it out and you'd put it in the race car rewinder Alex: yeah the red race car Josh: to rewind the tape Jacob: I guarantee she still has that VHS in the same cabinet still Josh: yeah Alex: yeah most likely. Josh: Those were good memories. Jacob: Yeah. Josh: AHa ha ha ha Alex: ha ha ha ha ha. Jacob: No, that's the story! [00:22:55] Stewnerds! [00:23:02] Storytime Segment Soundbyte: Hey kids, do you know what time it is? Story time! Jacob: Okay, this is my first track story. There will be more to come. Josh: Track and field track. Jacob: Yes, thank you. And ironically, it's not even, it's not a running story. Okay. So junior year, I qualified for the state championship in the Open 400 and on the 400x400. In Oregon, the state championship is 3 days long, down in Eugene, which is about an hour and a half south of Keizer. So we stayed overnight, 2 nights in a hotel. And it was like a blast. It's so much fun. There were – they had traditions of what the coaches would do with the kids when they were down in Eugene. I bombed the 400. It sucked. It was not a good race. And then the 400x400 didn't go – so that was day 1. Day 2, I was like, all right, just get out of my head, get prepped for the 400x400. I think we placed ninth in the prelims, maybe tenth. So we were either 1 or 2 spots off of qualifying for the finals. As the anchor, stupid, but as the anchor I was like it's my fault we didn't get to finals because I didn't anchor the team I didn't get us there. Josh: When really it was the second leg. Gosh. That guy. Jacob: We have to go to athletic.net and see who it was. Shane, I think Shane was probably like 2. Anyway, so you know, like I had a complete like mental breakdown, like it sucked. I spent probably 20 minutes walking around the warmup cool down track, crying. Like I was burnt out. I didn't run the entire summer after that just because it was... Wait, no, that's not true. That's the same summer I went to the BYU track camp. Anyway, I was burnt out, just mentally done, pretty crappy, neat, not feeling very good. Alex: Is that a normal attitude for anchors? Josh: Yeah Jacob: Yeah Alex: Carrying a little extra responsibility? Josh: Yeah Jacob: Definitely Josh: You're the fast- you're usually the fastest on the team too Alex: and you're the fastest... Jacob: and you're the last Obviously you're obviously the last one with the baton, last one to cross the line. So you have the potential to make anything happen. Alex: Sure Jacob: right? Josh: You do, no I mean- Alex: I guess, but there are certain things that are gonna be outside of your control if your team doesn't- Jacob: Sure Josh: but you never see a crazy first, second, or third leg, maybe third leg to an extent, but you never see a first and second leg that just like blows the other runners out of the water. They're usually like pretty standard rotation around the track, but the last 2 guys, there's just that extra adrenaline, that extra surge, like crazy stuff happens in those last legs Jacob: Yeah, coaches will often stack it in that way. so that night after the 400 x 400 we it was actually it's a really good night after that crappy 400x400. We went to see Spider-Man... Can't remember which 1. Maybe Spider-Man 2 with Tobey Maguire. Alex: With Tobey Maguire? Nice. Josh: Really dating yourself now. Jacob: Oh, man. And then we went out to Chili's for dinner. I had a big old plate of Alex: Man, Chili's, I haven't been there forever Jacob: Feticini no no sorry chicken Alfredo wait what the heck What am I trying to say? Alex: Chicken Alfredo, yeah? Fettuccine Alfredo. Jacob: Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo, yeah. Alex: There we go. With chicken, yeah. Jacob: Nice and creamy and heavy sitting in your stomach and filling you up with the chicken. After Chili's, we went to, I think it was called the Pearl Street Creamery in Eugene. This was the tradition. Every year for State, during that three-day trip, they would go to this creamery, this parlor, ice cream parlor, and they have a dish that's called the pig's trough. 2 big old scoops of chocolate ice cream, 2 of vanilla, I think 2 of strawberry, 2 full bananas, you know, cherries, well maybe not cherries, I don't like cherries, I don't remember cherries, I take that 1 back, whipped cream, pineapple, nuts, maybe 1 or 2 other toppings, and it's served in a pig's trough. It's literally this big metal dish and it sits in this wooden trough and they serve it to you that way. Alex: Do you get a spoon? Jacob: Yeah. Josh: Most people order this and share it as a group. Jacob: Yeah. But so what we do, whoever wants to, you each get 1 and it's an eating competition and they keep track of time. They, They time you every time and every year, every season, they keep record of that time. Alex: Just like any of your other times. Jacob: Oh yeah, yeah, right. State championship, obviously super competitive kids there. The coaches are super, so the coaches do it too. Our coaches were super competitive, they were awesome. We had so fun. Alex: This is a cool way to blow off steam without really changing the dynamic a whole lot. Jacob: Absolutely. And as a teenager, like even if you had to compete the next day, most teenagers would be fine eating that and then running the next day. I think I say that, but I think the people who competed Saturday didn't enter the pig's trough. Alex: Probably for the best. Jacob: Probably. Yeah, our coaching staff was so good. They were awesome. That's, yeah, you'll see from other stories I have in the future. So, as I'm going into the bathroom, Coach Scott, Scott's coming out of the bathroom. Josh: Wait, wait, wait, rewind. Have you eaten the pig's trough? Jacob: No, no, no, no, sorry. Alex: Okay, alright, a good question, very important. Jacob: So we've gone to the ice cream parlor. Yeah, I know. I jumped a little bit. I obviously entered the competition, but before we started, before we even ordered, I obviously needed to get some space, Alex: make some space, gross Jacob: I go to the restroom. As I'm entering the restroom, Coach Scott, Scott's coming out of the bathroom and he says, hey Stew, I'll give you a pointer. I'll give you this tip, I won't tell anyone else. Try to put the bananas down early on Most people put them off Later and once you've eaten that much ice cream, you're not gonna be able to eat the bananas Alex: I can see how that would work But ice cream can you can usually pack it down. Jacob: Yep It's like alright. Thanks Scott Okay, so come out of the restroom. We're all there, we've all ordered, we all have our pigs troughs, pig troughs in front of us. Let me preface this by saying, I'm 5 foot 6 in high school. Junior year, I probably weighed around 130 pounds, maybe a little less. So I was by far the smallest guy there. And previous people who had eaten this include who was the current record holder, a 6' 9" high jumper he ate it in like oh something like 536 5 minutes 36 seconds we've had throwers who who've made it to state before who ate it Phil again the high jumper he he beat Taylor I think was his name the previous record holder he was a big guy javelin thrower. Josh: Yeah. Jacob: Kacey. Josh: Kacey though. Jacob: Kacey- Josh: Yeah he did it. Yeah he was there. I... observed him. Jacob: Kacey- actually Kacey would be a fun person to bring on sometime. Kacey was in a wheelchair. He had a racing chair. Kacey was a big guy. He didn't have his... Yeah, Josh, go. Josh: So, he got hit by a semi-truck when he was 6 years old. His legs got severed right below the hip joint. And he wrestled. His wrestling weight... He didn't have to cut weight, obviously, at all, he kind of already cut weight! Jacob: ahhhh Josh.... Josh: He'd love that joke! Jacob: That's true he would! Josh: He does stand up. Jacob: This was the kind of kid he'd get on the cross country bus after a cross country race. And right as the driver's leaving, he'll yell "My shoes! My shoes! I forgot my shoes!". Kid's got no legs. Josh: every- Alex laughs. Every race, Alex. It was so horrible. But every driver would fall for it. Yeah, yeah. So, his wrestling weight, sans legs, was 105 pounds. Alex: Which is his only weight. Is the one with sans legs. Josh: He was a 105 pound torso. Huge. Jacob: So he had the frame of a six-foot-three guy, wrestler, football player Alex: core strength just up to wazoo well that's not how core strength works that's not where it goes Jacob: so he had and he ate like a machine and that kid yeah he would put food down anyway all I'm saying is he had eaten the pig's trough, he wasn't the record holder. Big old throwers had eaten it, they weren't the record holders. 6 foot 9 high jumper, he was the record holder. Okay, so we get in... Alex: So you're trying to put some kind of importance on height being important for the record, right? Josh: Well he's scrawny. Jumpers are scrawny too. was this guy thin? Jacob: He was a thin guy. Josh: It's a, I wouldn't expect it. Alex: All right, all right, all right. Jacob: Okay, back to current time. Me eating it. I think all the other guys, almost all the other guys were doing it too. Coach Scott was doing it. Stinson wasn't doing it. Walker was doing it. Anyway, so we've got a couple coaches in there. You know, all the guys are all like talking smack about winning and eating faster and better and I'm just sitting there, you know, the small shrimpy guy just sitting there quietly, just excited to eat ice cream. Josh: That the coaches pay for. Jacob: Yeah, yeah. They call out. So they get the stopwatch ready, right? Cause every coach there has a stopwatch there. Just makes sense. And we go, we start going. I start shoveling like as fast as I can. Alex: Do you go for the bananas? Jacob: I absolutely followed Scott's advice. I, yeah, I think early on I took a bite of banana with every single scoop. So I had banana and ice cream on initially with every spoonful. So I did put the banana down pretty early. I definitely ended with only having to eat ice cream. So yeah I'm just, I'm shoveling like as fast as I can head down. Like I'm not even looking around. I'm not seeing how anyone is doing. Josh: Jacob means business. Alex: but what's his pace? He doesn't know! Jacob: Exactly. But Hey, I mean, it's the same thing when you're, when you're on the track, you see people do it all the time, but you do not look backwards. Looking backwards is moving the center of your mass away from Josh: the goal! Jacob: away from the finish line. You're diverting your energy somewhere else. You're slowing yourself down by looking backwards. Alex: This is a sprint. Just sprint. Jacob: Well, same when it comes to ice cream eating. Josh: You'd think it'd be a distance event Jacob: No, it was definitely a distance. Alex: Can you pick this thing up or is it too big? Jacob: I'll show you pictures. We'll put pictures on the show. Alex: But tell me now. Jacob: Yeah, yeah, you can well- Alex: I mean, I'm just I I can picture it But like would you be able to pick it up and like drink what's left if you needed to? Jacob: Yeah Alex: or would you have to shovel? Jacob: So the dish is about yay big. Alex: Okay. All right. All right. No more than a foot long. Josh: About a foot long. Jacob: Yeah, maybe about a foot long. But remember, 2 full bananas. They didn't half a banana. Alex: Not a banana split. Double banana. Josh: Yeah, none of that weak stuff. Soundbyte: Hey, brothers. Jacob asked for an editor's note here. After recording the episode, we took a look at Jacob's pictures. The 2 bananas were in fact halved. They were placed end to end so that the trough is 2 bananas length long. It was definitely more than 6 scoops of ice cream. So it's definitely bigger than we said here in the episode. It's pretty crazy how big it is. Go check out the pictures in the show notes on our website. Jacob: So yeah, I'm going in early on the bananas, make sure to put that down, because bananas are obviously way heavier than ice cream. Man, about 2 thirds of the way in, I'd say, my hand starts shaking. Alex: Oh boy! Jacob: Like, it is shaking the whole time I'm shoveling and shoving into my mouth. Josh: out of fatigue, out of sugar rush, adrenaline? Alex: Fullness? Jacob: Probably all of the above. The speed with which I'm going, how, because chicken Alfredo. Josh: Oh yeah. Jacob: At Chili's immediately before us. Josh: Oh gross Jacob: I'm feeling pretty good. Like I know I'm flying. Alex: But how full do you feel? Jacob: Oh yeah. Okay. My stomach was huge. Josh: That's the feeling of self-deception, my friend. Jacob: You know, at this point, I don't know if I'm in the lead, but I know I'm doing pretty well. I think I've got a good shot at probably hitting the podium, right? Top 3 is what I'm thinking and expecting. And then all of a sudden, all of the girls who aren't eating, they start cheering Scott. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott. And maybe I just had selective hearing and That's all I could hear. Maybe someone was chearing my name too. I don't know. Alex: This is the coach? Jacob: Yes, yeah. Coach Scott. Josh: Distance runner. Also super tall. Also super thin. Jacob: Yeah, he was over 6 foot as well. And if you listen, Scott, he was a hurdler. Josh: Oh yeah, my bad. Sorry. Jacob: I just had to, for the record So like that's what like really told me like, all right It's time. Alex: Final leg! Jacob: I might be shaking but I'm putting this down cuz like if they're cheering I I knew how much I had left I didn't have a lot left and if they're cheering his name he must be close to finishing so yeah it's my final kick I'm on the home straight away I'm putting this ice cream down and I did I from that point it was probably like 30 seconds left and I was done I finished threw my spoon down stood up finally lifting my head off the ice cream and I did it I was the first like Scott still had ice cream left in there everyone else not even close to the 2 of us. So remember the record 6 foot 9 guy was something like 5m 36s. I put it down in just under 4 minutes. Josh: Oh my gosh. Jacob: Over a minute and a half improved. Alex: Do you know, is that still the record? Jacob: I can guarantee you that's still the record because I went back to state my senior year and the ice cream parlor was closed. So I finished with the record. Sub 4, and it was just so fitting because you know like. Alex: It's like breaking a 4 minute mile. Jacob: Exactly, in track and field- Josh: No one knew it could be done! Jacob: I am the Roger Bannister of ice cream. It really did, it just felt so fitting for all of you non-track people, like the 4 minute mile, like that's 1 of just the classic barriers of running. If you can get a mile in under 4 minutes, you're a phenomenal distance runner. And it's a mile. Josh: Everyone thought the human body was not physically capable of running faster than a 4 minute mile. Jacob: Scientists literally thought the human heart would give up and you would die if you ran a mile in 4 minutes or less. Josh: And Jacob did it! Alex: And now they know that the stomach won't explode! when you- Jacob: Yep, you can do that much ice cream that quickly, as it turns out. Man, it was a true redemption story for me. That state meat sucked, and then the pig's trough was so awesome. Alex: it's too bad there's not a trophy. Jacob: I've got a ribbon. Alex: Nice. Jacob: But everyone who completes it gets a ribbon. So. Alex: Oh. Bummer. Josh: It's hard to complete though. Alex: I'm sure. Josh: That's a pretty big deal. Jacob: There were some who didn't finish it. I think that was you Andy. Alex: Was it a blue ribbon? Jacob: Oh, that would have been good. Alex: Like you're a county fair winning prize pig? Jacob: Yeah, blue is the... number one position ribbon. Josh: They should let you bring your trough home with you. Jacob: Nah, they lose way too much money on that. Oh, and then Scott finished up like a minute after me, I think. So I beat him, I think, by a whole minute. So he would have even beaten the old record by 30 seconds. It was a record year. If they hadn't been cheering for him, who knows what I would have done. Josh: My question is, how much pain were you in after all the adrenaline left? Alex: Any projectile vomiting? Jacob: No, no, I kept it all down, man. Josh: On top of the fettuccine. Jacob: It was an absolute sugar rush. I was like tingly and shaky after that. Not just from being so full, but from consuming all that cold sugar that quickly. It was just doing all kinds of weird things. Alex: Probably some adrenaline. Jacob: Yeah, there's def- absolutely adrenaline. That was a race. That was very comparable to what I would have gone through for a race. My button definitely came undone. I couldn't keep the button buttoned in my pants. Too full for that. One of my greatest sporting achievements. It's not my only record that's still at McNary, but that is a story for later. It just makes me so giddy and happy every time I think about it. It's just so ridiculous and unlikely. Alex: It's too bad that place is closed. Jacob: It is. Alex: Because I mean they should they should have made it an in-house event too. and like got some commentating. Jacob: So it was really funny there were like 2 instances after that point where like- Alex: I mean it was in Eugene right yeah it's like the center of Oregon track and field uh-huh because of Nike and the University so like Jacob: track town USA Alex: why wouldn't they have done something crazy with that? Jacob: there's there's a pizzeria track down pizza mmm heard of it I think is what they call is what their name is yeah there's like there are 2 instances after 1 was at Dairy Queen where a couple of us got Sundays and another was that Mongolian grill, is that what its called? Alex: Chang's Josh: Chang's Jacob: Chang's Mongolian Grill Where we got soft serve and there's 1 of the guys specifically who must have thought it was like a fluke somehow or something, or maybe he was just being funny. He was like, all right, dude, we both got 2 like complete full bowls of soft serve ice cream. Okay, man, ready? I'm gonna take you down this time. But no, I'm like Alex: Not even close. Jacob: No, not even close. He had like half of his soft serve left by the time I was done. Alex: Sounds to me like we might need to have our own ice cream. Josh: Oh, no. I need non-dairy ice cream. Alex: I don't know if that can be- Jacob: Different textures. I don't know if that would count Josh: Dude I'm so lactose I'm so lactose sensitive now Jacob: take a pill man Alex: are you really? Josh: yeah I don't drink milk or anything it's been forever so like that really hits my gut Alex: dang Jacob: well dad would want to do an in endurance eating competition rather than speed. He said I don't think I could beat how fast you ate it, but I think I could eat more than you. Which is probably true. Dad could probably eat more ice cream. Alex: Just who can put- Josh: just quarts of ice cream and just count how many you clear. Alex: We'll do a hot ones challenge. We can get their flight of sauces Josh: oh really? Alex: yeah you can buy the whole flight Jacob: wait this is so different than eating ice cream how do we- Josh: I'd need cauliflower. Alex: I think we would just have to see who can go the furthest down the line of sauces. Like who can make it to the hottest sauce. Jacob: Not me. That's not ice cream. Josh: Yeah, we've been talking about ice cream. Jacob: Yeah, how'd you jump from ice cream eating to- Alex: eating competitions! Josh: Oh pig's trough, he was thinking pork. Alex: What? What does that have to do with chicken wings?? [00:44:10] Another Brother Outro

#013 The Shocking Subterranean Surprise

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #013, The Shocking Subterranean Surprise, Jared replaces Josh. You know how the old saying goes, "when the kids don't sleep, the dads don't get to record their podcast." The rest of the brothers recount what summers used to be like in simpler times. To sum it up, video games, bikes, and slurpees. Of course there were other shenanigans too and visits to the pool. Then Alex tells us about a surprising discovery while going through underground tunnels at work!
Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
7-Eleven and Dairy Queen, just a stone's throw... *ahem* a bolder's throw(?) away from each other in Keizer, Oregon.
Fantasy Star Online
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time... I mean, does this even need episode linking?
Kingdom Hearts
Beautifully rainy and windy Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
Tillamook Cheese Factory. If you look closely enough (or just visit!) you may see a wooden ship stranded somewhere...
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Seaside, Oregon
Willark Park, as linked to and explained in past episodes, is now called Bob Newton Park.
As discussed in Episode 11's show notes, this is Willamette Mission State Park. "Mission Bottom" as the area was historically known as before becoming an Oregon state park, was a spot on the fringe of French Prairie on the Willamette River, just North of present-day Keizer, OR. For a history of the Methodist Mission to the Willamette River Valley (not Catholic mission), read this!
The intersection of Wheatland and Raven, Raven Drive being the scary steep side street that severely lacked visibility with oncoming traffic.
The Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah
Transcript:
The following transcript was in part created using the Deepgram API:
[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:29] Another Brother Theme Song [00:00:46] Stewnerds Segment Alex: Well, Josh is sick. No, he's not sick. Jacob: No. Alex: Josh is detained. Jacob: Children. Alex: So we've got our other brother here today again, Jared. Yay. Jacob: Woo! Yeah, yeah. Woo! Jared: Thank you, large crowd. Thank you. Alex: So we wanted to do this last time, and then I think I stole the show and decided unilaterally at the last minute that we were gonna talk about Zelda. But all of us, including Jared, grew up in Oregon. So we're gonna talk this time about, like, you know, the things you did as a kid growing up in the summer in Oregon. Who wants to go first? This is kind of blind, none of us have really thought this through what we're gonna say this time. So this could be interesting. Jacob: So for us, it was all about 7-Eleven and Dairy Queen. In Keizer, they were right next to each other. Like you couldn't just throw a rock, you could throw like a boulder and hit the other one. They were that close. So we would typically, depending on the summer, we would, some summers it would be like scooters, Some summers it would be bikes, but you know we'd always get on our things and ride down together. You'd have someone who would come from Gubser neighborhood and then I'd link up onto 14th Avenue, not 14th, on Lock Haven and others would link up somewhere else and we'd all just kind of converge at some point and then we'd get to first 7-Eleven and we'd buy, you know, well I would get a donut because donuts and a Slurpee, you know, sometimes we'd get the weird rolled taquito meat things on the hot rollers. Maybe a slice of pizza. But again, Slurpee's always the Slurpee. Alex: I think those were more, nevermind, not important. Jacob: Slurpees were so cheap. And then we'd go over to DQ and we'd sit outside on DQ's tables. Alex: Oh. Ohhh. Jacob: Because by that time the sun would be far enough where they'd be in the shade from the building. And if it was really hot and we wanted to go inside, one of us would buy like an order of french fries And we'd go inside and eat all of our 7-Eleven stuff because one person bought french fries Jared: Did they ever get mad at you for having 7-Eleven stuff in there? Jacob: Not if we bought the french fries So that's what that's gonna. They did until yeah, that was right. Jared: Okay. Jacob: They did so that's what we started- Alex: Did you have to find out the hard way? Jacob: Yeah, we definitely got kicked out. And then sometimes it ended up being, sometimes we would actually buy a Sunday there even. But for the most part it was all about the 7-Eleven food. That to me this is like the thing of summer. That was it for me. There's obviously more but that's the thing that will always stand out. Riding down to DQ and 7-Eleven And everyone else pretty much had a membership to the local pool. So a lot of times, which was, which ironically, we were the ones who lived closest to the pool. I think it was just two streets down from us. Alex: Down a very dangerous hill. Jacob: The best hill. So yeah, we would spend a lot of time at the pool too. A lot of time video gaming. Alex: Like, what games? Jacob: That's a good question. Jared: What games screams summer? Jacob: Well this is an interesting one. The first one that came to my mind was Fantasy Star Online. Yeah, we all had it on GameCube. Alex: Was that multiplayer? Jacob: Yeah. Four player split screen. Had it on GameCube. It was a Dreamcast port, I think. Yeah, there were a couple summers where That was the big game for us. And then things change once you all got licenses and cars. And it just, not that it wasn't fun and good still, but I guess the childhood innocence is kind of gone once you're up to that age. It's not- different kind of memories I think for me. Alex: I don't know if that that's necessarily the case for me. Jacob: You liked the freedom? Alex: I guess I stayed a kid for a longer time. Jacob: Not that we started getting into different things, just, I don't know, something about those early years of like the preteen years, 12, 13 of, you can only get around on your bike and your scooter. To me, that was like the epitome of summer joy, for some reason. Alex: Well, I didn't get my license until I was 17. So that gave me an extra year of not having a car that maybe had an effect on that. Jacob: Oh, another thing. At that age, none of us had like cell phones. Alex: Right. Yeah. Jacob: Once I was in high school all my friends had cell phones so I feel like that also kind of changed things where they were all texting calling each other and I didn't have a cell phone. But when you were all that young and none of you had cell phones you know it's just kind of this long thing of phone tag until everyone's gotten called and you're all synced up on your plans and then you head out at a specific time and meet up. It was just different times than it is now. Alex: Yeah, my friends did not have cell phones, even as seniors in high school. Jacob: So maybe that's more the bigger differentiation there is, I wasn't the only one out of the loop. I knew everyone was as out of the loop as I was, and you all just kind of went out on faith that you were all gonna show up at 11 o'clock, you know? Alex: Right. Jacob: Whereas when I was older, I'd hop in the car and like I was no longer in contact, but everyone else was still in contact between them. Alex: Yuck. Jacob: Yeah. Alex: So they could change plans. Jacob: I mean, they never would, but. Jared: "Tell Jacob we're going at 10!" Alex: Okay. Jared. Jared: I feel the same as Jacob in that. I think of summer differently depending on the age range. Early summer, I'll skip past Arizona because summer in Arizona was boring. You just had to stay inside all day because- Jacob: Too hot! Jared: it was always at least a hundred. Jacob: When did you live in Arizona? Jared: From 5 to 8. So those summers were just being inside with the AC cranked up, trying to not go outside. Jacob: Did you guys not have a pool? Jared: No, we were the only house on our street without a pool. I've confirmed this on Google Earth, But then someone put in a pool recently. So now it is no longer, but at the time it was. Alex: So you continue to creep on these people in this house. Jared: Occasionally I get the Arizona need to creep. No, but in Oregon when I actually could go outside Summer was still a lot of water stuff. You know, so We had gotten so accustomed to go into a neighbor's house to go to their pool in Arizona that when we moved to Oregon we felt the need to go to a pool, but we didn't want to go to the public one because we were so used to just being able to go to a neighbor's house to do it. So our mom got one of those big blue inflatable pools. Alex: Like an above-ground pool? Jared: Yeah. Alex: Oh nice. Jared: That take forever to fill and pump up. Yeah. If you kick them too hard all the water sloshes out. We got one of those and so there was a lot of that, especially when I was younger, there was a lot of slip and slide stuff. Jacob: Oh yes. Jared: Especially in Arizona, which was not fun once you fell out of the Slipping Slide because then it was on to like sand or rocks. Jacob: Yeah because you didn't have grass yards there. Alex: Like pumous. Jacob: Ouch. Jared: We did have a grass yard but the grass is almost burnt so not exactly a soft landing compared to Oregon. Then as I got older like 10 or 12 it was definitely more summer's the time to get through all the games. So a lot of Ocarina of Time, a lot of Kingdom Hearts, pretty much switching back and forth on those two and always playing the Manu, getting up to a certain point and then giving up and then going to the other one. And then next summer it'd be the same thing. So it actually took me quite a while to beat either of those games. I've started them each probably 20 times. I've beaten them only a handful. That's how I used to play games though as a kid. I would just play until I got to a point where I either got bored or I hit a wall And I was like I'm doing this for fun. I'm not gonna push past this wall. We're done. We're doing something else We're going outside So that was games We went to the beach quite a bit. Jacob: That's what I was going to ask. How long has your family had that house? At Rockaway beach? Jared: So my grandpa got it. If I remember correctly in the late forties, I could be wrong. Alex: Wow Jacob: Oh. This is a long time Family property. Jared: Yeah. I know the property property was made I think in the 1920s. 40s might be undershooting it he might have gotten in the 60s but sometime in that time period is when he got it and then we've actually sold it since Liz and I got married. So we were, we were one of the last people- Alex: Wah, you really are Ben Wyatt. Jacob: Yeah. It was rough. That episode was traumatizing. It's like, Not again! We went there a lot. We would go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, we'd go to Cannon Beach, we'd go to Seaside. We always went when it was super duper windy. Alex: That's... On purpose? Jared: No. Alex: Okay. Jacob: Just happened. Jared: Our luck, yeah. We would either get no wind but rainy or nice weather and super windy. We never seem to get one of the other. Alex: Yeah. And that can be pretty unpleasant on the beach, being sandblasted. Jacob: Yeah. Well, especially in Rockaway, the shore is pretty flat. And so if you're sitting there, you're getting pelted in the face with sand. If you try to lay down, the sand's gonna get up your nose, it's gonna get everywhere. But we loved it, we always went to the cabin and that was kind of our family thing and our extended family would come a lot. Sometimes that was fun, sometimes that was not fun because then there would be 30 people in a tiny little cabin and there's no AC and things can get pretty bad. Alex: Yeah, Oregon coast, no AC. Jacob: Yeah, that's a lot of people. So how long of a drive was that for you guys? Jared: About an hour and a half. Oh, okay, so that's- Alex: Similar. Jacob: Pretty much the same for us. Different part of the coast of course, but- Alex: definitely. Jared: I feel like if you live in the most populous area of Oregon, you're only going to be about an hour and a half away. Anything east of that, you know. Yeah. The only other thing I can think of is I Had the same mentality with video games, but for book ideas so growing up I wanted to be an author And so summers were a lot of brainstorming about worlds and characters and plot lines and stuff. And I never actually wrote anything. Never. Jacob: Oh really. Not even notes. Jared: No, I would just think about it a lot. Jacob: Do you remember any of it though? Like any of your favorite ideas? Jared: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I have several. Jacob: Dude. Yes. You should, you should hop on that with like AI help have AI help you write it all out. Jared: Well I finally started writing one. Jacob: Yeah? And Lizzie could illustrate it for you? Jared: maybe yeah it's it's gonna be a- Jacob: pressure's on now Liz! Alex: yeah geez Jared: it's a zombie book so I don't know if she'll want to draw it but that's kind of the direction I'm- Jacob: I can hear her in the back of my head right now. "Yeah, I'll totally draw that!" Jared: But yeah, as a kid, I don't know why I never thought to actually write stuff down or actually start writing the book. I just had so much fun thinking that I would just do that. I'd go back in the backyard and pretend I can map out the world and map out the characters and the plot and this is going to be what the first book is about. And then the second book, it was all very detailed. And then I would just, all right, onto the next thing. Alex: Sounds like you should have studied philosophy. Just thinking about everything. Jared: Sociology. I ended up somewhere... not really close. Oh, last thing before I pass it. This BYU sociology shirt I'm wearing. I was at the Dollar Tree last week and the cashier when I went up and talked to him, he said, "Ohhhhh, sociology. I thought that said BYU Scientology!" Alex: That would be weird. Jared: I thought, that would be so weird. What would BYU Scientology look like? Alex: Okay. Well, I had a pretty good group of friends as far as size and how tight we were. We did lots of different things during the summer. It's hard for me to really focus on anything in particular. Like later on there were summers where we did a lot of paintballing. But that was with a smaller subset of those friends, mostly the ones that went to the same church with us. Yeah, My friends that weren't in our church didn't really do any paintballing. Jacob: I never connected that. Alex: However, we did all do a lot of laser tag in the summertime. Jacob: It was Russell's backyard! Alex: Yeah, Russell's backyard, Danny's front and backyard, Willark Park. Jacob: Oh, I didn't know where Danny lived, apparently. Alex: Kurt's house, too, their front and backyard. Then from those yards, Russell's and Kurt's, from those yards into the park, between the two, because they both lived on the same street and their backyards abutted directly against the park so we could just... zip around. Jacob: So you actually used their backyard as part of the playing field? Alex: Sure, yeah. Jacob: Of course. Dang. Alex: Yeah. You know, set up barricades up on the deck or something. We had a grenade, a laser-tag grenade that we could chuck from up there. But I think maybe the thing that stands out the most, I think probably came when I was 14 between middle school and high school. I was about to go to high school. We did a lot of biking, just a ton of biking that summer. I think it was that summer and probably other summers, too. But there was a state park. It was about seven or eight miles from town. Willamette Mission. We called it Mission Bottom. I don't know why. Jacob: Wait. Alex: It was a low, a lower area than where we were, but... Jacob: Its name isn't Mission Bottom? Alex: No, it's Willamette Mission State Park. Jacob: My whole life has been a lie. Alex: I'm pretty sure anyway I could be wrong. Jacob: That's what you both call it, you and Josh call it that. Jared: Is that that big wide open lawless feeling space? Alex: Yeah. Jared: Okay, Liz took me there and I felt freaked out the entire time. Alex: Yeah, I mean there are densely wooded areas you can get to the Willamette River at the park. There's a section of it that's along the river. Jacob: There's also a really tall tree there. It's the tallest, tallest, whatever species in Utah. Gah, Oregon. Alex: Yeah. Tallest Black Cottonwood. But I believe it is where, I mean, it's called Willamette Mission because it was like a Catholic mission. Like, it had the old-style, Adobe-type mission building. And I think it's still there. I think it's like the official office building for the park now. But you don't really go there for that. Like you drive, you sail right on past that building. And I think, I don't even think you can see it. I think it's got trees around it. It's such a way that you drive into the park and you don't even know it's there. And we would ride our bikes all the way out there. It was rough, because there was a big hill you had to get up. But then once you were up there, you got to go back down it on the other side to get down to the park, and you could get going pretty quick. Jacob: Because that other side is way steeper, right? It's like a, no? Alex: Yes. Jacob: Yeah, I thought it was like, Alex: No, it is. Jacob: Super steep. Alex: Well, there's a side street that goes down the hill more steeply and we would sometimes stop and spend some time with someone down at the bottom of the hill watching for traffic. Jacob: Watching for cars. Yeah. Alex: Say, "Yeah, okay, go ahead!" See how fast you could get going. But sticking to the street that takes you to the park wasn't quite as steep. Nevertheless, you could get going pretty quick. And I lost some weight that year. That summer for sure. Because we did that ride really frequently, like 14-mile round trip, not including all the riding inside the park that you would do. And the park was littered with horse trails that were pretty rough terrain for a bike. And we would go bike on these trails that were just full of roots constantly, up and down, kind of hilly. Not super hilly, but not really gentle terrain for the most part. Just a lot of roots that had taken over. Jacob: So that's what you'd do. You would ride to the park to ride in the park? Alex: To ride in the park, yeah. Yeah, Or play laser tag. We played laser tag out there, too. Jacob: Okay. I was going to ask. K. Good good. Alex: Sure. We did do that from time to time. There was some good training out there for that. That was like before we had found the thicket of trees where we ended up playing paintball, which would have been a good spot for laser tag, too. But you'd never be able to play paintball out at Willamette Mission State Park. But you know, we also rode to 7-Eleven sometimes, got Slurpees. We only ever got Slurpees, we didn't get food there. We would get Slurpees. 99 cent giant freaking Slurpee. Jacob: So good. Mix all the flavors in? Alex: Yeah. Yeah. Do at least three flavors at a time. But we would also do lots of sleepovers, lots of Legos. Jacob: Yes. Yeah, lots of sleepovers. Alex: Lego stop-motion movies. Did a couple of those. One friend had in their basement a giant chalkboard, really long chalkboard on one of the walls in their basement. And we would do these, we would draw these stick figure wars where someone would just draw out the terrain and it would include caves that would go down inside, kind of like an ant farm almost. And then we would just start drawing these stick figures all over the place. Jacob: Like Worms Armageddon, but on chalkboard. Alex: Yeah, like one of those video games. And one side would have bandanas on, I think. That's how we differentiated them. Rocket packs, rocket launchers, machine guns, swords, baseball bats with nails. There was no limit. We just draw them all over the place. Yeah, that was, I mean, sandbox, blowing up sandbox with fireworks. Jacob: That's what I was thinking of. You guys did all kinds of stuff at Russell's house. Alex: I mean, just, we had so many different things that we did. I'd never be able to get through all of it. Jacob: There's one I'm surprised you've left out so far. Tennis ball golf. Alex: Yeah, that was an excellent summertime invention. Jacob: Yeah, it was. Jared: What's that? Alex: So it's basically golf, but you use a tennis ball, and We only ever used old-school woods that we would get from Goodwill for like a dollar. Probably even less than that. And the rules were more or less the same, except that the hole was determined by the person who was in the lead at that point in time. After you finish a hole, whoever's in the lead gets to determine what the next hole is. So at this park, Willark Park, this game is really an invention brought on by Willark Park. I've tried to duplicate it, replicate it here in Utah. I can't find any parks that are good for this game. You need a park with varied terrain, trees, a creek. Going through it would be great, especially if It doesn't have any water in it. Jacob: Basically, you need Willark Park. Alex: Yeah, trees, backstops, swing sets, other... Jacob: Random manholes sticking out of the ground. Alex: Yeah, just all kinds of crazy stuff and no people. Jacob: That was the key. Alex: That's the most important thing, or else they will complain. I mean, you get hit by a golf ball or a tennis ball falling from one of these swings, it's not going to hurt very much. Even a little kid, it's not gonna hurt too much. We would do holes such as hit the ball across the creek three times, then go literally over the bridge. You can't just chip it over. You have to make it roll over the bridge, and then the hole is hitting the drinking fountain. Jacob: So you just count your strokes. Alex: You count your strokes. The entire time. And then at the end of each hole, whoever has the lowest number of strokes, everybody subtracts that number of strokes from their score just to keep all the numbers low. You don't end up with like 50 strokes at the end of the game. Well, you might, but you do get really bad because someone ends up at the end of the game with zero strokes. The winner is always a person with zero strokes at the end of the game because you just keep subtracting that lowest number from everybody's score. Jared: Nice. Alex: It was so much fun. Jacob: It was a lot of fun. Alex: It's a very fun game. Jacob: As someone who doesn't golf at all, can't drive even, it was a lot of fun. Even I was able to pick it up and play it with my own friends a couple of times. Alex: I think this might have come from Kevin's adventure-style croquet. I think I'm pretty sure it was him that brought it to the group where you don't set up the normal figure eight croquet course you set them up a lot like what I was just talking about you set up each one like all over the place you're going all over the park and you're just going from wicket to wicket and it's really just a race to the end Jacob: for some reason just the phrase "Kevin's Adventure-Style Croquet" just feels so right. That just, that feels like Kevin for some reason. Alex: Kevin was probably the most creative person I've ever met. Jared: I don't even know him, but it sounds like a weird eighties teen show. Alex: That would be fun. Jacob: Oh, man. Alex: Yeah, you're just racing to the end of the course to hit that, what do you call that? The peg at the end? Jacob: The stake. Alex: The stake. Yeah, The stake at the end after the last wicket. And as soon as you hit it, I'm pretty sure you become poison at that point. You might have to hit it a certain ways out before you're poisoned, I can't remember, but... Yeah, good times. [00:24:15] Stewnerds! [00:24:23] Storytime Segment Soundbyte: Hey kids, do you know what time it is? Story time! Alex: So speaking of summer memories, this story comes from a much later time in life than my childhood. While in college-ish, while I was still living in Provo, where the college that I went to was. I got a job working at the Missionary Training Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Provo. Jacob: Curious where this is going. Alex: There's a few of them around the world. A lot of people probably don't even know that we have any such training facilities. But those missionaries out there in the white shirts and ties and skirts and on their bikes with the black tags, they do receive training because most of our missionaries don't stick around in this country. They go out in the world, and so they need to learn the language. They need to learn- Jacob: how to teach Alex: yeah how to teach well, not just how to say certain words about church stuff in the language they're learning, but literally how to be good at talking about anything, really, just how to teach people. These training centers have a lot of professional personnel. I can't even remember the number I heard last before I left the MTC, but I worked at the Provo Missionary Training Center. From now on, I'm going to refer to it as the MTC. I worked there from 2011 to 2018. So for a little more than seven years. Jacob: Man that was a long time. Alex: Just a couple months more. And it was kind of like of Mice and Men. They were the best of times and they were the worst of times sometimes. It was an intense, intense job. Most people that are members of our church, when they hear that you worked at the MTC, immediately ask you, oh, what did you teach? Because there are a lot of teachers there that teach the missionaries the language that they need to learn and or how to teach. I did not teach. There's a lot to do there professionally besides just teach. I worked in broadcast media, which I will try now to explain as succinctly as possible, because I've found it's very hard to explain this to people who just don't understand what goes on with this sort of stuff. So I'm going to speak about probably the biggest thing that we did. Maybe not the most frequent thing that we did, but the biggest, most important type thing that we did. On Sunday nights and Tuesday nights, all of the missionaries, which ranged from 1,500 to 2,500 missionaries at a time while I worked there, would all gather in the gym, which was able to be converted into an auditorium with, like, pull-out seats, just like any high school gym. And there would be a special speaker that would talk to the missionaries for 45 minutes or so about some spiritual topic or something uplifting to help them feel motivated to go out there and teach the world. Because it can be kind of hard sometimes to do two years, year and a half of just being a missionary and nothing else. You don't get to be a boyfriend, you don't get to be a girlfriend, you are a missionary. First and foremost, the end. Jacob: And that MTC experience was, for a lot of people, like grueling. It is nonstop. The entire day, you are doing nothing but learning. Alex: You are hearing from someone that would know right now because you spent eight months learning Russian. Jacob: So, yeah, I was in the MTC for 12 weeks. Alex: 12 weeks! Not eight months. I said eight months, didn't I? I meant eight weeks. 12 weeks. Some languages you were there for 12 weeks. Jacob: 12 weeks. Where your brain is, well, yeah Jared learned Japanese. Alex: Oh yeah, geez, two guys. Jacob: So that was probably also 12 weeks, or was it reduced by then? Jared: It was nine. Jacob: Okay. Oh, you would have been twelve earlier. Jared: I also took four years of Japanese in high school. Alex: You did?! You cheater! You stink! Jacob: Wait a minute, what? How did I never, you what? Jared: It was great going in the first day, knowing everything that was going on. Alex: Just showing up literally everyone. Jacob: You can read all of the characters. Jared: Like, who's this white guy and why does he know how to... Alex: Dang. Jacob: Okay. Well, for others of us, no- Jared: Yeah. I'm not representative of most people. Jacob: Like your brain is just wanting to explode the entire time. Not just the language, but also you're trying to memorize specific scriptures, figuring out how to ask- I don't know. It's hard to explain it, but It's just, it's a tough experience. I loved it. Other people, they're just dying to get out of there. So these devotionals were like pretty core for a lot of people. Alex: Yeah, especially, I would say, Tuesday nights were particularly uplifting. Those were the nights that the, I guess what you might call the upper echelon of the leadership of our church would come to speak. Whereas on Sunday nights, it could be a BYU choir, Brigham Young University Choir, could sing as the devotional that night. Former football players that are now motivational speakers slash news broadcasters would come and speak about their mission experiences and try to inspire the missionaries, you know? Jared: Sounds like a very frequent combo. Alex: Yeah. Very. But Tuesday nights was probably what the missionaries looked forward to the most because most every missionary, once they're at the MTC, they catch the bug. Like, the spirit is just so strong at the MTC. And you just want to know more. You want to learn everything you possibly can. And getting it from these people that have been called by God to lead the church, it's like a second dessert, because they go to dinner right before. And usually, maybe not on Tuesdays, on Sunday nights there was an ice cream bar usually, but not on Tuesday nights. So I guess the first dessert after dinner? Anyway, these meetings were pretty big productions. I would liken it to a TED Talk with a higher level of production. We had five cameras, mostly robotically controlled, some manual. Sometimes all of them were manual. It just depended. Two different audio mixers. One guy mixed the audio for the audience live in-house down on the floor. We called it a floor mixer. I think it's technically in the industry known as the front of house mixer, not the floor mixer. But we did develop our own jargon, much to the chagrin of one of the full-timers that had worked at NBC previously. He hated that we had our own jargon. He just wanted us to be industry people. But, you know, it happens sometimes. Anyway, and then there was another guy who mixed in the booth for the recording, because we recorded all of these and would even play back the best ones on Sunday nights after the devotionals. There would be another hour and a half of movie, quote unquote, movie watching. Jacob: Oh yeah, I never stuck around for those. Alex: That often included, not often, always included in one area of the MTC, playback of really good devotional talks. I got paid to basically listen to these great people, men and women, speak about amazing topics, like, how do you recognize the Holy Ghost? It's a difficult thing for a lot of people to understand how to recognize the Holy Ghost, and I got paid to listen to people talk about this sort of thing. Anyway, back to what the job actually was, because the job wasn't just to sit there and listen. We had five cameras. We had two audio mixing positions. We had someone on lights. We had someone in the director's chair. And when I say director's chair, I really mean the technical director's chair. That's the guy in front of that Death Star-looking board with levers and buttons and everything, and a giant monitor with all kinds of different camera shots on it. That's the technical director's position. He would actually force the video to change between the cameras, whereas the director, which we didn't always have, most of the time we had a technical director who was also the director. But sometimes for really big productions, we had both. The director was the one that would say, ready camera one and take. And the technical director would be the one to push the button when he says to do it. When he says ready camera one, that means camera one, the operator at the joystick of camera one knows, okay, I need to not be fiddling with my camera right now, they're about to take to me. Or the director will say, I want you to do a slow push until you get to a certain level of tightness on the shot, and then I just want you to come to a halt naturally. Ready? Start your motion and take camera one. And so when he says start motion, you start that push. That way when they take to the camera, there's not this weird transition of you starting the movement, you're already moving and it's nice and smooth. We had someone working the graphics position. That person sat at their own computer and often ran a camera on top of doing the graphics. And if the speaker had some kind of PowerPoint presentation, the graphics person would run that presentation. They would advance to the next slide. There would be hymns being sung throughout the show, usually at the beginning and the end, to open and close the meeting. And so the graphics position would have the lyrics to the hymn up on the projector screen. Oh, yeah, I haven't talked about the projectors yet. On either side of the stage, there would be two, I think 300 inch projection screens. And each one of them had, by the time I left, a very bright 3D projector. We never used the 3D capabilities of the projector. We got the 3D projectors because, in general, 3D cinema projectors are brighter than regular because each eye needs its own image, which means the overall brightness is cut in half because each eye is getting half that light. If that doesn't make immediate sense to you, I don't know if that can make sense, but that's how it works. So they're brighter to make up for that splitting of the image. So like when I saw Avatar for the first time in 3D, it looked really dim. I don't think they had a very good 3D projector because it didn't compensate for the loss in brightness. You also tend to have an extra bright silver lined screen to help increase the brightness too. I don't know that we had special screens, but our projectors were extra bright 3D projectors. And they were on little scissor lifts that would go up into the ceiling so that stray volleyball when the auditorium was in gym mode wouldn't break one of those very expensive projectors so some person would have to go up into the rafters and bring them down until we finally got them rigged up so that from one of the booths, they could be lowered and raised. Jacob: Are you kidding me? Alex: No I'm not. Jacob: That's funny. Alex: It was fun. Jacob: I mean that'd be cool. Alex: Yeah, it was really fun going up there. Jacob: Huh, wouldn't have guessed that. Alex: Let's see what else. Graphics, camera. Jacob: Sound. Alex: Two audio guys directing lights. That's pretty much it. Sometimes we would have teleprompting. If the speaker wanted to be teleprompted, we would set up those little screens that had slanted glass so that you could shoot your camera through the pane of glass without, like, distorting the image too much. And they could see on that glass a reflection of the screen down below it to see the words that they wanted to say and someone in a booth would have a little spring-loaded twisty controller that would advance those words for them so as you twist it in one direction- Jacob: No way. I didn't know that's how that worked. Alex: -it would start to scroll slowly and the more you twist it the faster it would scroll Jacob: So you're listening to the speaker and reading it along with the text itself to keep it on pace with their cadence. Alex: Yeah Jared: That is interesting. Alex: And you can twist it the other way to make it go the other direction if you need to back up for some reason. And it was a very interesting thing to do because you don't want to lead them. You always want to make that person feel like they're in control because- Jacob: yeah, which sounds really difficult Alex: -they are very nervous about giving someone else control, especially "some college kid that's not really a professional". We were, I mean, some of us didn't get to do everything often enough to be like really great, but some of us were dang good at everything that we did. And that was pretty much always the case for the teleprompters when I was there because the teleprompters were always a member of the graphics team. So there were no more than four of us that got to do teleprompting instead of all 20 of us that never got to do it. And so you had some guy that had maybe done it once that was terrible at it. Yeah, you had to make sure they felt like they were in control, that you were following them. But then you also need to keep, there was a little triangle on the left side of the screen that was to like indicate to their eye where they should be. Like which line they need to be reading from. Jacob: Oh, gotcha. Alex: But that's not for in process speaking. You want to have that be a little lower than the carrot. But when they come to a stop, or they start stuttering, like maybe they lose their place, then you use the carrot to point to them. This is where you are. So you can kind of go back and forth a little bit, rocking on that line, and it helps, "oh, yeah, okay". And they keep going. Jacob: Weird. I really thought it would have just been an automatic process. You just set it at a speed and it goes. But that makes total sense that someone would need to manually get in there. Alex: That would be great if that worked. Jacob: I would think now with voice recognition. Alex: There are some pieces of software that do that now. Jacob: Now software should be able to. Alex: Definitely. But I would doubt that the church would be using it for general conference, for example. Have to ask someone. I know the guy that does the teleprompting for the church, And he's excellent. He has the trust of all of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They know him personally. They really know Wolf. His name is Wolf. He's rad. He's a really cool guy. Actually, no, I don't think he's retired yet. He might be, I don't know. Anyway, so this was like a really weird job. Like nobody in the world knows this is going on at this place in Provo, Utah. Like all of these things that you have to do, because due to scheduling, it would be impossible to say, okay, you are a camera operator. This is what you do all the time. But then you get into a school schedule that makes it so that you can't be at all the things that you need to be at as a camera operator necessarily. So everyone needed to be cross-trained on everything, just for logistics' sake. So that was a little rough on some people. I didn't get to do a lot of- Jacob: Cross training? Getting- like well trained on all of the- Alex: being really good at mixing audio, but also being really good at running a camera, that is not a normal thing. But Yeah, those are pretty different skill sets. It is pretty normal for a graphics operator to run a camera. That's in the news broadcasting world, for example. That's pretty normal. But not really camera and audio, I don't think. Maybe in really small places that can't afford to hire a bunch of people. Maybe that's normal. But, yeah, and for most of my time there, we were in white shirt and tie or dresses. Jacob: So uncomfortable. Alex: Blouses and skirts, you know, like more like business formal wear for most of the time. And when I first started, we were a small group of people. There was like maybe 10 of us. And we were kind of goofy, except for when it was time to work. When it was time to work, we took it very seriously and we did good work. But the rest of the time, there was a lot of downtime. There was a lot of hurry up and wait type stuff going on in the position, and we loved to goof around and have fun, play card games while we were waiting for the next thing to start. One of my- Jacob: Maybe it should be said or noted, for a time, Josh also worked on this team. Alex: It's true yeah Josh and I worked together for a good few years at the MTC. Jacob: Not bad. Jared: I didn't know that. Jacob: They tried to get me in but... Alex: Did you actually apply? Jacob: No. Alex: I didn't think you did. Jacob: No. I think it was my freshman year. Yeah I think my freshman year? Alex: No definitely not. Jacob: No? Alex: No. Jacob: I just didn't think I'd cut it. Alex: Because I didn't start it until 2011. Jacob: Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, okay. Alex: So, after your mission, after you came back from your mission. Jacob: Yeah, okay. Alex: So, this is a pretty big campus. Okay. Here we go. There's... I meant to count ahead of time, but there's at least 20 buildings that are multi-storied on the MTC campus. And kind of like Disney World, like Magic Kingdom, there are utility corridors underground. They're not like Disneyland's or Disney World's. Actually, I don't know if Disneyland has these, but I know Magic Kingdom does, where you can, like, drive golf carts and still have plenty of room on either side of you for another golf cart and a bunch of people walking. Jacob: Oh, boy. Alex: They weren't anywhere near like that. These were more like tall crawl spaces. But they weren't like a crawl space under a house. Like, these were concrete, enclosed, dust- Very dusty, actually. Yeah, very dusty. But not dirt. Well, no, they were dirty because they were that dusty. They were pretty dusty. Jacob: Wait, are you saying like three, four feet tall? Alex: Four feet tall, yeah, maybe. Jacob: Why? Alex: Well, it really helped us a lot to get fiber optic cables between the building I knew as 1M, which is the building where Large Group Meeting type trainings would happen and where the cafeteria was, where all new mission presidents were trained for a long time. Jacob: Yeah, but they couldn't have just dug two feet deeper when they were making those? Alex: I mean, I remember having to crouch a little bit, not like a lot, but I had to crouch a little bit. Jacob: I guess a lot of people don't spend a lot of time down in these. Alex: And not even for all of it. Some of it I needed to crouch low, but not all of it. In the early days, we were a little more rambunctious because we could be. We went exploring in these corridors. I don't know that anybody at the MTC in the media department now is probably even aware of how to do that anymore, but back in the day we could get away with a little more. And we were crawling through these tunnels, walking, stooping, lots of pipes, and it reminded me of high school. I had a friend who loved to explore underneath the high school, because it was very much like the high school, where there were these little corridors that you needed to crouch under with all the pipes and cables and everything. And it was so much fun. We're going from, I think the building was 20M, no 19. The building where our office was and where the gym and auditorium was. We were in those tunnels going to 1M, following pipes and stuff. And it felt like half an hour. It probably wasn't, like, not even close. I start to hear some music, and it is not normal MTC missionary-approved music. These are not hymns. Jacob: You found a tunnel? Alex: Is that a guitar? What? Is that a drum set? We come out of this tight corridor into a large basement storage area beneath the cafeteria, and my boss is playing bass guitar with his band. He's five years or so, no, he's seven years from, no, sorry, nine. He's nine years from retiring and he always rode a motorcycle to work. He was the best. Stan was an excellent, excellent boss. He's sitting there playing his guitar with his band. There's a drum set, a keyboard, another guitar, someone's singing. Jacob: He brought his entire band into the MTC with all of their musical instruments. Alex: Into the basement of the cafeteria to practice. I don't even remember why. There was an explanation. I just don't remember what it is. Jacob: I don't want to know why, I want to know how! Jared: At the time, did you know he was in a band? Alex: No. Jacob: Yes. Alex: No, I did not. Jacob: That makes it so much better. Alex: It surprised the heck out of me. And then and then it and then it didn't because you know he rides a motorcycle to work at the MTC. It was definitely the craziest thing I ever saw at the MTC but I do have plenty of other crazy stories at the MTC. Jacob: What were they playing? Alex: I don't remember. Jacob: Was it rock? I mean genre. Alex: Yeah, there's something rockish at least, yeah. Jacob: Oh my word. I thought you were gonna say you found a tunnel that took you out to BYU campus. Alex: No, that's a rumor. I don't think there are any tunnels that do that. And if they do, they're probably a lot deeper than the ones we were in, because we went pretty deep, and there was literally no other tunnels there. So unless you could somehow turn a key and make that elevator go even deeper, no. Jacob: So he had a reason why it was happening. Alex: Yeah, I just don't remember what. Jacob: Was it a justifiable reason? Like did you buy it? Alex: Buy what? Jacob: His reasoning. Like was it was a sound reason? Alex: Oh yeah. Jacob: Did it actually makes sense why this band would be there? Alex: Absolutely. I just can't remember. He was going to be playing for something MTC related. I just don't remember what. Jacob: Yeah, was it Talent Show? They did Talent Show when I was there at least once. Alex: It was summertime, and the professional side of the MTC, as in versus the ecclesiastical side, the people that got paid to be doing stuff at the MTC. There was always a summer barbecue for the professional staff, at least for the three-quarter and full-timers. The part-timers didn't really get much of anything. So they were gonna be playing at that and they needed to practice and for some reason they did it in the basement of the MTC. Jacob: Because certainly the barbecue wasn't gonna be at the MTC. Alex: It was just so random. It's so weird. The day we decide we have enough down time to go explore is the day we run into Stan and his band in the basement. Oh my gosh. Jared: I thought, I thought you were leading up to stumbling upon an upper echelon church leader listening to hardcore rock in the basement. Alex: I wish. That'd be pretty cool. Jared: And like head banging or something. Alex: Yeah, no, not so much. Jared: That's still cool though, especially because he didn't know he was in the band. Yeah. So I was just like, what is happening? Alex: I was still pretty new at the MTC at that point too. So I was like, oh, this is okay, huh? Jacob: No kidding. So were they any good? Alex: They were all right, Yeah. Jacob: Good job, Stan. [00:48:54] Another Brother Outro

#012 The Absurd Army Anxiety

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #012, The Absurd Army Anxiety, the brothers respond to their first listener write-in question, and it's a doozy! Just what advice would they give themselves as kids knowing what they know now? And Josh spills the beans on just how to get out of Army Basic Combat Training if you find yourself in over your head, or, should we say, in over your knee... ? SPOILER: You're not getting out of Basic...
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Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
Join Skinwalker Ranch (SWR) Insider for all the latest and greatest from the investigative team!
George Knapp's co-authored book, alongside Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D., "Hunt for the Skinwalker", which recounts Kelleher's own investigations at the Ranch.
The poorly titled, "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insider's Account of the Secret Government UFO Program", co-authored by James T. Lacatski D.Eng., Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D., George Knapp.
The Oregon Department of Education's Talented and Gifted (TAG) program.
The Odyssey of the Mind (OM) program that Josh was lucky enough to participate in from 3rd grade to 5th grade.
We're pretty sure the Army's Basic Combat Training (BCT) is quite a bit different than when Josh went through ages ago...
Transcript:
The following transcript was created using the OpenAI Whisper API: [00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:22] Another Brother Theme Song [00:00:40] Stewnerds Segment Jacob: all right brothers both in this room and elsewhere got a little update I just wanted to share with everyone we might have be about to have a saga on our hands well we'll find out Josh: did you say saga? Jacob: saga. so yesterday was 4th of July Alex: yeah Jacob: Heather's parents were with her grandma and her uncle Alex: oh my gosh oh my gosh! Jacob: and so Melanie my mother-in-law texted me yesterday middle of the day, "Craig, Heather's uncle-" Alex: yeah yeah! Josh: okay Jacob: "-says he can most certainly get you all on to SkinwalkerRanch -" Josh: no way! Alex: oh my gosh! Jacob: "-but Brandon Fugal the owner won't let his kids go on the property, Craig's wife won't let him go either, Craig's got some good stories from Brandon he's been telling us today." so then I texted her and she texted back, "He says people go home and seem to have things follow them. I asked if they are all bad things or if there are good things? no answer. But Brandon bought it- but Brandon bought the ranch to discover the science behind the stories and quickly became astounded. He tries to figure out if the veil is thin there, or a window, or another realm. If people ask if he's a believer he says he doesn't have to believe he's seen it." Josh: See that's like Tom- okay well first of all, ahhhhhhh yeahh baby!!!! Jacob: so let me real quickly let me let me temper a little bit I texted Craig today and he said, "just be aware I'm not certain about how many people Brandon lets go out there, so it's possible he might say no." so that that's all just got keep in mind- Josh: you emphasized people... because they'll allow total like complete herds of cattle. is that why you did that? okay okay Jacob: but speaking of- oh go ahead. Josh: sorry- no no I'm just I'm preparing myself right now. boom. all right, prepared. Jacob: I was gonna say speaking of the ranch this morning episode 10 got published that was the episode where we first spoke about the ranch. Alex: Oh episode 10 of the podcast yes right Jacob: yeah yeah it only published like two or three out of our total channels. it didn't publish anywhere else I had to go back in and manually hit update and then it went to the rest of our channels and even then it took hours until our show nuts finally got to Spotify. Josh: oh so they are on spotify Jacob: they are now yep Josh: cuz I looked probably around 2 p.m. and they still weren't there I think Jacob: yeah I think it was around 7 that I looked again. so anyway just more weird stuff that's all Josh: yeah that hasn't happened on any of the previous ten published tracks Jacob: no, it hasn't. Alex: a lot of "this has never happened before" on that episode Jacob: oh no, I'm wrong sorry, shownotes still are not there Josh: they're still not on, right? Alex: sorry everybody, if the ranch doesn't want you to read them, it doesn't want you to read them Josh: well, but I got them on the website. I'm in control of that, not you, Ranch. Alex: Don't challenge the Ranch you crazy! Josh: No, I'm gonna bring smudge sticks and rosary- not a rosary- Jacob: the show notes are everywhere else it's only Spotify Alex: sage. you need bundles of sage. Josh: sage, yeah, for the smudging. Alex: yeah right Josh: I mean that would be awesome and if we're new people we'd be new people to the ranch and if they're prepared and like okay let's see if the ranch is gonna respond you know we could help produce some science for them. Jacob: I think that's part of the problem I don't think they want random strangers coming in- Alex: right Josh: right, so I mean hopefully they would they would coordinate and we'd set a time so that they can make sure that current ongoing experiments are completed and or they're at a stage of an experiment where they're ready to maybe stimulate some responses. Jacob: no no, that's what I'm saying I don't think they want people- Josh: oh they don't want people to stimulate the Ranch Jacob: I don't think so. I mean you keep hearing how much how safety conscious they are. Alex: True Jacob: I don't want things to happen as a result of bringing guests to the Ranch other than experts Alex: Brandon seems- Brandon- right exactly, Brandon seems to me to be pretty mindful of the optics around the ranch they get real professionals real experts to come do whatever extra tests the normal crew can't handle I don't know that he would want it hitting the news that three bing bongs like us went out to the ranch and like died or something Josh: we better not die, I mean it's still a ranch, I don't plan on dying, but I mean like you know we grew up in the Pacific Northwest we have respect for like the native cultures and and spiritual things and we're not gonna be like these like ghost-hunter type guys that are gonna be, you know- Jacob: Dumb. Alex: Yo I'm Ricky from New Jersey! Josh: Yeah, I mean we're cool. Alex: I don't know what that was Jacob: I don't either Josh: but you got New Jersey, so... Jacob: okay, so that's my update. Josh: okay so... Alex: he's been letting that hang over our heads since yesterday by the way, not having any idea what this update was gonna be- Jacob: Yeah, I- I shouldn't- I shouldn't have said anything Josh: I mean, I called it Jacob: I ruined it Alex: you did, you did, and I thought no that's no Josh: I didn't call the precise update, but I can tell, you can tell when you've got Jacob because then he goes silent and his face gets serious and he doesn't allow himself to say anything anymore. that's when you know you spoiled his surprises. Jacob: Yeah, that was my bad. Josh: cool Alex: well if our wives allow it we'll see what happens Josh: that's the thing, like after reading some of George- some of George Knapp's recountings of stuff... Jacob: well let's just cut it there cuz Heather's already okay with me going, so we'll leave it at that... Josh: it sounds like a great place. it's like Disneyland. Jacob: well should we get to it?! Josh: okay we had our first listener provided feedback through our website, anotherbrotherpodcast.com there is a contact form where you can submit questions or input, whatever you'd like Alex: yeah you could tell us we suck, ya know, whatever Jacob: plase don't though Josh: which she did start that way, no. actually she started by saying I'm one of the, I'm the wife a wife of one of the brothers! Jacob: come on you didn't have to say that! Josh: just cut it in post Alex: she said she'd been listening from the beginning Josh: okay that's true that's what she said but I read the email address so I know who it is. regardless of who it was, we had a suggestion to discuss a point or a couple points of advice that we might give ourselves in hindsight when we were growing up. yeah, so the question at hand that we will be answering is what advice would you give yourself at X age, and why? so I'll start- Jacob: wait at X age or Y age? Josh: 'n', no, cuz probably 'an' age... Alex: ohhh okay Josh: take that grammatically or mathematically if you will... which segues into my advice for myself, "take math seriously" Jacob: Oh okay Josh: and don't let drama and feelings and poor inner dialogue throw you off the hunt for mathematics. Jacob: drama threw you off of math? Alex: yeah so I'm just gonna- Alex: it was that fever dream right where the numbers came alive? Josh: no that was- that was horrifying though. that probably didn't help, yeah I still actually it's been a while, but I would still have it like that recur. Jacob: that's real Alex: really? this is a literal fever dream by the way he had a fever and had a crazy dream Josh: I was in like 5th grade when I was memorizing the multiplication tables and I got really sick had a fever and I was like knocked out on the sofa in the TV room... no no I think I was in my bed. but anyway I had this dream of these- it started off slow it was like here's a mathematics table like the sheet and it was just kind of float- floating in vision and then it would swap out and a new one would show up and a new one would show up and then they started like spinning and they'd start spinning faster and faster, and they kept like spinning around in my view and eventually I'm like I just knew these things were like going to explode. it was terrifying. I guess I woke up screaming and sweaty. I think then mom moved me to the sofa maybe. gave me heavy dose of Tylenol. So prior to that in third grade yeah I'll say this I don't think it's wise to do these like Talented and Gifted programs or especially at that young age. Alex: Odyssey of the Mind isn't that what you were in? Josh: that was different though, yeah that was that that didn't make any self-perception- didn't create self perceptions of "I'm stupid" or "I'm smarter than everyone else" that was just kind of like you got to create a play and create all the- that was fun. that was like more artsy. Alex: okay cool didn't know that Josh: yeah but like so in second grade I got into the Oregon's talented and gifted program which did zero for me by the way I never had extra homework I never got treated differently I never was given additional assignments or- Alex: oh really? Josh: yeah and supposed to follow you through middle school Alex: yeah right Josh: it did nothing it was really it was not implemented whatsoever other than the testing in second grade, but then third grade I had an awesome teacher, I was super smart for my age and to the point where my teacher would have me grade other peoples' homework so I would get done so fast- Alex: hahaha! what a racket! Jacob: nerd Josh: I know. I would get done so fast that that when I finished she'd send me into the back room that was attached to our classroom and I'd wait and then as other kids got done they'd bring me their paper. Alex: teachers aid Josh: yeah and I'd have like the the grading key and so I had this whole classroom to myself and I'd start grading and just mark like you know with the red pen and everything, and so I felt good like I didn't I didn't feel prideful about it at that point but it felt really good I felt like, "man I'm a smart kid this is awesome"! And a bunch of other stuff, I started dabbling with the reader board for the library and I was like programming- Jacob: oh yeah Alex: right Jacob: I remember that actually Alex: This was at Gubser? Josh: At Gubster, yeah. yeah but anyway then fast forward to fourth grade- Mr. Kenton. and I'm putting that name out there. You're a horrible teacher. Alex: I did not like that guy. He was bad Josh: Horrible teacher Jacob: oh man... Alex: he was bad Jacob: I only had him for math, so Josh: I had- I had a friend that I had created a story for- this is just a little vignette, I had created a story I was telling him this story idea I had I had written most of it out he's like hey that's really cool you should come over to my house and we should type it up on my computer because I have a computer and a printer. Alex: his friend, not Mr. Kenton Josh: My friend, yeah my friend. and so I'm like oh cool I might make a friend out of this I go over we type up the story that's my story we don't change anything about it then I go home and I illustrate it and then we show up to class and my friend it's like "hey look at this story we wrote" and Mr. Kenton and so we like read it to the- he read it to the class. and he just refused to think that I had written any of it Alex: cool Josh: yeah he like just ignored me, gave all the credit to this my friend, I was so mad. but okay anyway he's just a bad teacher he made me feel really crappy about myself. Alex: Me too. Josh: And I'd "fidget" in my desk and he'd get mad at me Jacob: I remember this! Josh: and it might- it would happen with parent-teacher conference, it was a big ordeal. And I'm like what the crap dude, like I- Alex: He thought I was restless! Josh: were you? did you think you were? Alex: no I have no idea what he was talking about Josh: dude, I had an eraser inside my cubby desk that I would fiddle between my fingers. I wasn't like slamming- I wasn't making any noise whatsoever. and I'd get done with his freaking assignments in like 10 minutes, and he had those geometric shape puzzle things- Alex: yeah Josh: I burned through all like hundred of those in like the first few months of that school year cuz I'd be done, I didn't have anything to do, I'd get up and grab one and knock it out and I think he was just upset that he sucks as a teacher Alex: couldn't keep you challenged Josh: but anyway so then we had math in a separate classroom, and he had identified me as a problem child Alex: of course Josh: so I got put in the low- the problem kid math class Alex: yeah me too Jacob: what?? Josh: yeah, I remember that. yeah. and that teacher was- I can't remember her name Alex: I don't remember her name either Josh: I don't think she was bad but she wasn't supportive she didn't do a lot to teach Alex: I liked her better than Mr. Kenton but yeah Josh: oh I did too. but I didn't feel like I was really learning much. so then that- oh, you're bad at math, follows you into the fifth grade. and all of my peers that I viewed as like the most social most outgoing most fun like that were in our ward as well, went to Mrs. Ream's homeroom. Alex: yeah that's where all my friends were too Josh: and she was also the high math teacher Alex: yep. Josh: I went to Mrs. Frazier, who I loved Alex: oh wait I did have Mrs. Kenton for like homeroom class or whatever you would call, she was my fifth grade teacher. Jacob: who? Josh: Ream or Frazier? Alex: sorry sorry Mrs. Ream Josh: yeah yeah, you had Mrs. Ream Alex: yeah, I had Mrs. Ream Jacob: I had Mrs. Fromherz for everything- Josh: Or Fromherz, that's what I meant Jacob: but she did all- when I was there she was highest for math and reading- Josh: oh I wonder if they just rotate each year Jacob: maybe Josh: yeah, I had Mrs. Fromherz Alex: I had a Curry with me in Mrs. Ream's so I have to imagine that she was considered the high. Curry's were always very high achieving Josh: they were, yeah very gung-ho. yes and then and then I had the low math teacher again and it was just oh it was just memorizing anyway so I just really always thought I was horrible at math and whenever I had a math assignment I would like get into that internal dialogue like you're never gonna get this and it became really not fun even though I love puzzles, I love analysis, I love data, I love programming, all of these things. right to the point where like I can't math I can't has math it's frustrating. Alex: yeah Jacob: that's sad Josh: yeah I don't know where I'd be or what I'd be doing now like my mechanical engineering pre-professional program- Jacob: yeah that's what I was going to say Josh: I couldn't continue that because I bombed the math classes... there's a lot of reasons for that... anyway, so if time is circular- Alex: oh boy! Josh: if little Josh you're gonna listen to this in the future- Jacob: Josh wakes up tomorrow, goes into his engineering job... Josh: -in the future's past, give yourself a break, you're smart kid, you're capable, you you work hard, learn that math! you do you boy! old Josh out! Alex: mic drop. well mine's not too dissimilar from that I don't know about you Jacob so I don't know if you want to go now or you want me to go? Jacob: I'll go. okay I was telling them this is gonna end up like the the music students where they had legitimate like awesome songs with like deep personal meanings and stuff and then I was like yeah I like emo music. makes me rock! the very first thing I- Josh: you talked about crying. that got raw. Jacob: it's true. yeah, sure. I am generally very happy with my life and the way things have gone and I wouldn't change things so the very first thing that popped into my head I would go back and tell high school me to take a weightlifting class every single year. Alex: okay Jacob: because sophomore year was the only year I took a lifting class and I made huge PRs in track. I think it has to be correlated to just the the raw strength and power gain from lifting. Alex: yeah you focused on sprinting right? Jacob: yeah Alex: yeah that's yeah that's a strength thing not an endurance thing Jacob: trains those fast twitch muscles. sprinting is about explosion explosives and power. so I would go back and take away lifting class every year of high school. Josh: and what would be even greater- here's additional advice for yourself I mean like the thing in high school was like just classical lifting but if you were able to do it and apply it to sprinting it's like yeah the explosive movements, not just your typical- Jacob: right, which was something I might not have known about that my sophomore year but later in high school I knew that the way the way in which you perform the lifting movement has bearing on that as well yeah quick explosive. and then an actual real like sincere one- Josh: hey that's- Alex: there's nothing wrong with that. that's good. Jacob: I know, I know. Be nicer to my little sister like I was just such a- Alex: dingus Jacob: -jerkwad to Lizzie. Josh: you really were Alex: what a jerk Josh: I think it sounds like all of us were though Jacob: well that's- Alex: well yeah Josh: or insensitive at least Jacob: well great. I think I can probably say that's my one regret in life being a crappy bigger brother. I might have one other regret but like that's that's that's it that takes the cake. Josh: that would probably be my earliest regret on a list of many. that would probably be my earliest one. my first. just not being- just not knowing what I know now and like when I'm raising my kids to like you know like the older sibling like hey beware of your younger sibling talk to them play with them well build a relationship even if they're you're you know ten years older than them. Jacob: it wasn't even just that it was it was the the polar opposite I actively was mean to her it wasn't just like ignoring or the lack of building relationship it was that I took that to the other end which just sucks. Josh: that does suck. we love you Lizzie. Jacob: it's true. Alex: it is true. is that the passing of the baton to me? Jacob: that's it. yeah, yeah. nice. baton. I appreciate that. Alex: Yeah, track. Okay so, like I said mine's not too dissimilar from from Josh's so after graduating high school I spent a year working to save up money to pay for for those of you for those of you that aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the missionaries that go out and serve missions for our church pay for their missions this isn't something that the church pays for- Jacob: you betcha! Josh: the church totally could but they don't Alex: I mean- Jacob: where needed it does Alex: yes it's done in such a way that every missionary pays the same oh actually that might have changed now I can't remember how it works anymore but when I was a missionary every missionary paid the same amount no matter where in the world they went on their mission. and I do believe that some of that was subsidized by the church through tithing and stuff. Josh: 400 a month was not paying for my Plano Texas apartment and food and gas and everything Alex: yeah totally yeah what what we paid did not pay for everything that I got in Italy but it was still a not insignificant amount of money for those two years so I spent a year before my mission working to save up money to try and pay for as much of it as I could and I became an absolute idiot. my brain just died that year working as a cashier at Sportsman's Warehouse surrounded by a genre of music I don't enjoy at all. still really good people that I worked with and as we've said before it did sort of help with the paintball hobby with those professional discounts on things. but my my advice to myself I I can't say that I would tell myself not to do that and to go to school because that was money that I think we needed to pay for my mission. but to do something to keep myself stimulated. don't go home depressed and watch nothing but Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and play video games and paintball. do something especially with music. keep playing the trumpet. get in some kind of band. I I just I had no idea how to even figure that out how to what resources were available to find people to play with. you know Craig's List wasn't exactly a thing back then. Jacob: that was a lot harder back then compared to now. Alex: but do something to stay active in music to keep up on math and science as much as possible because I was really good at math too at that point in time now I'm a complete reject when it comes to math. I can't I can't remember how to how to do integrals anymore. Josh: heaven forbid I ever learned to do an integral Alex: well, I thought I would never forget how to do integrals but I do not recall Jacob: well I do wish I could have held on to all like science and math knowledge it makes sense it's all gone when and why would have I have ever used that at all. it does suck though. Josh: I kind of to an extent blame our education at that time like no one was actively trying to like apply it like you need to know this right you know applied sciences applied math applied language I think but it sounds like from Shana's education and education in education things are a lot different now Alex: yeah Jacob: I think so Alex: but like my life might have been a lot smoother had I done all of that you know I might be in aviation right now whether as an engineer or pilot I don't know but I've always wanted to be in aviation and I don't see that happening anymore Josh: boooo Alex: I don't see how that even as a private pilot license I don't I don't think that's gonna happen which is a bummer Josh: I found a common thread! maybe not the weightlifting one... Jacob: that's what I thought Josh: lack of loving ourselves. yeah yeah you didn't love yourself enough to work out to lift not work out but lift or to let yourself be nice to Lizzie I didn't love myself enough to tell myself that I can do math you don't love yourself enough to go home and- Jacob: the music and- Alex: to accept that these were real skills that needed to be held on to at all costs Josh: to enjoy and keep working on Alex: for sure. Jacob: so brothers, make sure you love yourself. Alex: that's what brothers are for [00:23:37] Storytime Segment Soundbyte: Hey kids do you know what time it is? Story time! Josh: this is gonna be kind of like an account of some of the funnier things well a mixture of it's gonna be a mixed bag of some basic combat training stories I don't think I've talked to either of you guys about any basic training stories Alex: I don't think Jacob: no Josh: so to tee up the first story how basic training works is you actually you've probably seen like commercials and things or like YouTube videos of like the drill sergeant's yelling at the new recruits and they're of course getting yelled off the bus like Alex: sure Jacob: classic Josh: so classic well that happens actually at what's called a reception so you take like a red-eye bus straight into the basic training base but they drive you into what's called the reception and it's kind of like a holding area for like days or weeks until the training company you're gonna join is ready to receive you and it's horrible Jacob: at their own leisure? Josh: yeah yeah so- Jacob: I feel like military training is all about discomfort Josh: it 100% is. you yeah. so this is part of it throughout the entire experience you sit when how and where they want you to you stand when how and where they want you to you make eye contact with who when they want you to everything is everything is completely regimented you have no freedom of movement or freedom of behavior whatsoever. if you want to have a smooth experience. so anyway but like so reception like you come in it's but you're basically there to just in process into the training base and so most holdovers at reception are because like some paperwork issues and or medical issues or just your training company is not ready to receive you that's also where you get chunks of your scalp ripped out- Jacob: what? Josh: as they're giving you your 30-second haircut- Jacob: okay, thank you Josh: with the razor and you take like a little mini physical fitness test and are just generally made to feel like crap and you're not getting nearly enough sleep and just being yelled at and told to go stand on this line and actually go stand on that line just stupid stuff to keep you uncomfortable and on your toes and fearful of when the next instruction is gonna come and who it's gonna come from because in reception you have people that like administratively over you but also any of these drill sergeants there because they know you're not you don't have a timeline you have nothing to do any drill sergeant there if they see you they can just like bark an order at you and you just have to go do it you have to comply. it's ridiculous. Alex: is this just like the gatekeeping classes like pre-med classes that are meant to break someone who's not gonna be up to snuff as a doctor, sort of a thing? Josh: that's basically all of basic, yeah that's like the entire basic because at any point people can will fall out and leave which goes into my first story and second story. so once you to go to the training company you show up at the company and it's basically your company's like it's this big kind of apartment like looking building like a stucco facade really tall like multiple floors tall and then you have these little I would call them like open- um, Whiteaker Middle School and McNary had that like center- Jacob: courtyard Josh: courtyard thing, okay. so it's kind of it's kind of like a courtyard but it's open on one side so and then on either side of that opening our is more concrete part of the building you know it's pretty big so you walk into this into this like opening of the courtyard and then all around you is like an open floor and then the ceiling above you. I don't know how- Alex: in the courtyard? Josh: I don't know how to explain this very well Alex: there's a courtyard I or a ceiling in the courtyard? Josh: this is like the only place that I've been that looks like this so here's a picture so that out that's where you would enter this this area Jacob: oh okay Josh: and on either side of this open courtyard is your platoon area and this entire area is called your company training area so there's four platoons in the company and each platoon is sectioned off in one quarter of this area and that's like where you form up and get harassed out in the open at the beginning of the day middle of the day end of the day Alex: right Josh: so that's kind of like where a lot of the training like a lot of the yelling training goes on and then inside you have these open bay rooms just for your platoon. males and females are separated for the entire company. but then each platoon of males have their own open bay. so it's a big open floor plan and you have two- you have bunk beds lining the outside of the room and then you have a wall locker each person in each bunk has a wall locker. and then in the dead center of the open bay is the no-man's-zone no-man's land, and you do not touch it there can be no trash on it there can be no deaths there can be no object of any kind in the no-man's-zone or you just get destroyed and we're talking like hours upon hours of getting smoked Jacob: and is it everyone? Josh: yeah everybody Jacob: one person messes up and everyone suffers Josh: absolutely Alex: and getting smoked meaning meaning push-ups until you fail? Josh: meaning if you're inside that room getting smoked the walls are dripping with sweat or you know moisture from breathing it's disgusting. we had one particular drill sergeant who we would have to run outside this would be at like 10 at night they'd wake us up we'd have to- if we were lucky enough to be asleep already- right we have to run down multiple flights of stairs grab sandbags bring them back upstairs and we would do sandbag PT sandbag physical training in our freaking room getting sand everywhere you're doing sit-ups sandbag push-ups shoulder presses Jacob: and then you have to clean up all that stuff perfectly after Josh: and then you have to cleanup- yes exactly. and not just not just using the broom, you have to mop so whenever you broom you have also have to follow up with a mop every single time. so just a horrible place to be. I I preferred getting smoked outside because you have the wind. but then and then at the far end of the bay was the bathroom and had two swinging doors get into the bathroom there were only four stalls- Alex: like batwing doors? Josh: yeah well no a full door but it just hinges open on either- Alex: sure yeah like a restaurant kitchen or something Josh: yeah yep okay and just you'd like four stalls for all 40 of you to use four sinks and maybe six shower heads in an open tree of life shower Jacob: I hate those Alex: oh boy yeah Josh: and we're talking you had tight tight bedtimes tight hygiene times to the point where you would be given like 15 minutes to like the end of the training day you'd have 15 minutes to use a bathroom brush your teeth- Jacob: for all 40 men Josh: -to shower- for everybody shower and- Alex: how? Josh: -get dressed in your sleep uniform and- Alex: Ha, sleep uniform Josh: it's your PT uniform Alex: sounds like Barney Stinson sleeping in a suit Jacob: I just like that you have issued pajamas. Josh: Yeah, it's your physical fitness uniform. and then and also toe the line. Toeing the line means your toe you're in position of attention toes on the line circling around the no man's no man's zone. and if anybody's missing so you have this in the morning toe the line and you have it at night before lights out, toe the line, anybody's missing all hell breaks loose and like one particular night- Alex: this sounds like a classic scene from a movie Josh: oh yeah Alex: like you've like I think we've all seen the this this scenario Josh: yes yeah usually I think it's usually like the Marines in the movies I've seen. quintessential basic training. we had one guy who had a really unfortunate bowel movement timing. so he was in the toilet we're all just like so he toes the line but then he's like oh you know I gotta go and we're all like no just wait man it's like sneaking to the bathroom after lights out come on dude he couldn't hold it and really so because the dining facility food can do just a number on you so sure enough our drill sergeant, Drill Sergeant Hong Tong, who was a crazy crazy man. he comes in he does his headcount he's like why are there only 41? where's number 42? and we're all just like just point to the bathroom I mean he goes oh yeah and he runs like these guys live to just mess you up and so he sprints down the length of the open bay, and he- Jacob: this is- the imagery is just so good Alex: I'm picturing the kool-aid man, "oh yeah!" Josh: he runs and he does this flying like flying ninja kick into this- into the swinging door- and his foot no kidding makes contact with the door if you're just slice it up into quarters height wise it hits the three-quarter and the door breaks at that point and gets knocked off its hinges like it pulls the hinges out of the doorframe and he just like swats it to the side as he still just like moving right in and he's just yelling at this kid and he's like I you know he's pooping he's on the toilet he can't get off the toilet doesn't matter what you're yelling at me and so after Hong Tong's done yelling at him he comes out he's like ah! he picks the door up it's like shove the hinges back into the doorframe he's like ah! he just throws this and he was like "you guys will fix this tomorrow morning" Alex: not an army engineer, clearly Josh: he was um he was actually a special forces weapon certain it's called an 18B and the dude's insane Jacob: I want to know what would have happened to that poor kid if he had kept toeing the line and it had happened like I swear I just I know that drill sergeant would have been on him just as bad Josh: oh we would all- Alex: but that kid would have been on everybody else too, pretty bad Josh: oh that would have been like a major health you know violation. so that's kind of just that's kind of the environment it's just chaos all the freaking time so one of these kids that I was with I was the so for two weeks my response was always to just kind of like smile when they're yelling at me like you know well like you know they're the brim of their hat is on your forehead you're spitting in my face because I can no longer hold my rifle above my head like it's ridiculous I can't physically hold my rifle anymore now just laugh I'm like dude I had already you know I had served my LDS mission I had been to two years of college that's a pretty decent life experience I was probably as old or close in age to the drill sergeants and I'm just like dude you can't hurt like you can't your responses aren't gonna hurt me you can't do anything I know you can't touch me I'm gonna work out as hard as I can but when I can't anymore like whatever man. and so very quickly they made me the platoon sergeant- the student platoon sergeant, and then like a couple weeks after that they made me the company student first sergeant which actually really sucked. but- Alex: not where I thought that was gonna go Josh: well so as the platoon sergeant all these kids who are like fresh out of high school- Jacob: right you're the oldest guy there Josh: I'm the second oldest the oldest was like a 41 year old Jacob: whoa Josh: he got age waivers cuz he was he was an attorney and he's- Alex: the life choices, I don't even... Josh: he was it's like a midlife crisis thing he want he was going to go fly helicopters so he enlisted so he could go warrant officer to fly helicopters Jacob: oh warrant officer, okay Alex: so he joined the army to be a pilot? okay Jacob: crazy Alex: interesting choice Josh: yeah just he was a really cool. Thurman, his name was Thurman. he was he was solid I mean he's an attorney just even keel yeah slow to temper you like you couldn't he was non plus you couldn't get to him yeah so other than him and then some junior college football player who thought he was like the shiz, he was my age he had something to prove everybody of course whatever so but most of these kids like really like looked up to me and this one kid in particular I remember I was in the bathroom brush my teeth real quick oh I think I was on fire guard which you have two shifts of fire guard every night and two people on each shift for fire guard and it's from back in the days when you'd like be bivouacked and people would be smoking and they fall asleep with their cigarette and they set fires in the camp Alex: oh interesting Jacob: no way Josh: so they started- the army started setting fire guards to like respond to any sort of incidents like that so now the army uses fire guard as like a 24-7 you're just on watch so we had to do that every night in our own Bay part of the fire guards job was to also sweep and clean quietly and then if a drill sergeant comes in at night if like the fire guards asleep that's when you get woken up and you're going doing PT at like 2 in the morning and so I think I was on fire guard so I was getting ready to brush my teeth this kid comes in he's like hey Stewart uh yeah I just had a question you know what do you think would happen if someone like took like maybe 20 ibuprofen? and first of all you're not supposed to have ibuprofen you're not supposed to have any drugs with you at all Alex: wow not even ibuprofen? dang Josh: you can't have anything like the drill sergeants have to like they're in control of all sorts like okay right so I'm just like why are you asking like who cares we don't have like I'm like dude I don't know. Alex: kidney failure Josh: he's like well well okay maybe not 20 but like how many do you think you can take at once? I'm like dude what does the bottle say? like two 200 milligram tablets in four hours or something not to exceed more you know like what does the bottle say just do with the balls of them like why are you even asking me he's like oh yeah no problem yeah I I just curious one of these weird things got stuck in my head so in the weeks preceding this he's telling everybody because when the shiz really starts getting tiring and annoying and hard he's like dude I can get you out of here you want to go home let me know trust me I know how to get people out of here Alex: what?? Josh: just like strategies to get kicked out of basic training without having to come back Alex: oh okay wait I thought- Jacob: is there no way to just voluntarily of your own will drop out? Josh: I- I'm not certain because you've signed a contract. okay oh here's why I'm not certain yeah so later that night as I'm on fire guard to be honest I was asleep Jacob: oh yeah! Josh: I was asleep I really didn't care but all of a sudden I get woken up and I hear just this kid like screaming on top of his lungs and I hear like boom boom like someone's running up the stairs and then the back door slams open and it's another one of my soldiers and he's like oh I can't run this kid's name we'll call him Eddie whatever "Eddie oh he's hurt real bad you gotta come look" I'm like what so I run over to the stairwell I look down two flights of stairs and he's like crumpled on the landing holding his knee like ah like what the crap is going on so I run down there he's like "ah I slipped and fell and hit my kneecap ah" and there's two the guys' two rifles are on the ground on the landing Alex: okay Josh: which you shouldn't they shouldn't have had their rifles with them Alex: well right yeah Josh: so I'm like all right dude so I'm like me and the other guy who found him because he heard him screaming first we help him up the stairs and then I go down to the duty office to our other drill sergeant who's there overnight all the time and I'm like you know basically report to her and tell her what happened well come to find out he the kid who's been telling everyone that he can get you out and sent you home no problem all will be forgiven he paid this other kid $200 to break his kneecap by- Alex: with the butt of his rifle? Josh: yeah by buttstroking it Jacob: oh my gosh, I knew it Josh: so what happened low and behold so he cracked a kneecap in half what the beautiful wonderful army machine did what is because he's on a training base so it's under their watch and under their care so they put him on what's called convalescent leave take him to the hospital you know do whatever they do stitch him up whatever put him in cast put him in traction- Jacob: off base hospital or on base? Josh: on base. totally on base this man is owned by the army they put him on convalescent leave until he heals and finishes physical therapy and then they recycle him which means they started him over in the next class Alex: right Jacob: so he just prolonged his suffering Josh: yes and this happened at like week five like we were almost done Jacob: oh my gosh. what was ibuprofen for though did he like shove as much down as he could before cracking it? Josh: I think that's my thought that's what he must have done Jacob: oh my gosh. idiot Josh: it was funny cuz when the drill sergeant later came and talked to me she called me Stuart little hated her for that because she'd also scream it in my face in front of everybody and so I'm like, come on... and she's smaller than me, yo! she loved me though she was like she's kind of like a mom she was psychotic though she was like the worst of all of them but um she's like Stuart little come into my office! I'm like, okay. she's like what the bleep happened? and I tell her everything she's like are you saying you saw rifles down there? like yeah two rifles. she's like and he asked you what about ibuprofen? I'm like yep. she's like okay thanks we're gonna get his you know butt! I'm like yeah, good do it. you know and I'm telling her all the other stuff he told everyone so I bought a lot of street cred with her so I'm like pshh I'll rat on everybody Alex: that's not street cred. She's the man. that's not street cred! Jacob: Eddie got the street cred! Josh: Eddie did. Alex: yeah Josh: oh my gosh I wish I remembered his name cuz I would totally come up and see if he's on the like global address list or anything. but uh and then but then that goes into another story we had this other kid in another one of the platoons who were like two weeks from graduation we go into the dining facility so you you wake up really early I think I can't remember when 530 maybe five you go to physical training first and then you go straight from physical training to breakfast and then from breakfast to hygiene change get all your equipment get ready for the training day. and when you go through the dining facility line like your prim and proper like you have steps and things to do for how you walk obviously like how you walk which direction you're gonna turn how you hold the door open how to get out of the way if drill sergeant's coming Alex: goodness Josh: how you like walk with your tray in your hand and you have to like do facing movements like drilling ceremony facing movements so like so you'll march and then when you're ready to get your next food item you like right Alex: right face Josh: right face and you have like they say thank you to everybody- Alex: present the tray Josh: yeah basically and you do that for the entire freaking length of this dining facility line- Jacob: oh gosh Josh: -until you get to your table and then you get your table you know and you're like get there you set it down and you it's crazy so I'm already sitting down eating and you have like five minutes to eat period just go rawr get out and go Alex: I mean it probably wasn't food you wanted to savor anyway right? Josh: not yeah not particularly I don't say I don't don't really remember Jacob: sure but that's the kind of there's a kind of habits that prevents people from towing the line Alex: true that true that Jacob: scarfing down in 5 minutes. Josh: well it's beacues they forgot to eat their dinner rolls. that always clogs you up. so this one this one morning I'm sitting down it's just carvings fact I can and you just hear this kid screaming at the top of his lungs from the food line all the things that you're supposed to say to the food server like "yes ma'am thank you ma'am" and then next position "no ma'am thank you ma'am" and then the next one "yes ma'am thank you ma'am!" and he just keeps yelling like louder and louder and louder Alex: he finally lost it Josh: dude he broke. just like as soon as the drill sergeants hear him screaming they're on him like sharks you know they're like what do you do- what do you- and he's responding to them by yelling at the top of his lungs. and they're like soldier what the heck- you know, like what are you- you can't talk to me that way, and he's like drill sergeant i'm not talking to you anyway! you could tell when you looked at him and the things he was saying like he either did not know what he was doing or he was literally not in control of his voice box. he had lost it. and the rumor on the street was that they shipped him off to medical for like a psych eval and everything because it was like something like snapped for sure. so just a crazy time. it was actually really fun. it was mostly fun to be kind of disconnected from the drama and not really care about the pressure and what was going on and just observe everyone else just eating it and not handling it well at all was amazing. so- Alex: 10 out of 10, would recommend? Josh: basic training, 10 out of 10, would go again. Jacob: has gone again! Josh: has gone again! and recommended to everyone except for my children. [00:46:50] Another Brother Outro

#011 The Bear-Bundled Bigfoot Brother

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #011, The Bigfoot Brother Bluster, the brothers recount their favorite, least favorite, and punk rock memories of Boy Scouting in Oregon? Who knew denim jeans could get a guy into so much trouble. Though Jacob should have known better than to play King Arthur with camp hatchets. Josh would not have known better than to pour honey into enemies' shoes. That was just how he do. And does Bigfoot have burly brawny bear-bundled Buryatian brothers?
Visit our website for merch and other brother goodness.
Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
BSA Camp Baldwin
BSA Camp Cooper
BSA Camp Meriwether
BSA Camp Pioneer
The Astronomy merit badge
The Climbing merit badge
The Horsemanship merit badge (we swear this used to be Horseback Riding...)
The Environmental Science merit badge
The Pioneering merit badge
A look into BSA's Jamborees
The Willamette Mission State Park. "Mission Bottom" was a spot on the fringe of French Prairie on the Willamette River, just North of present-day Keizer, OR. Hence the brothers fondness and oft travels there. For a history of the Methodist Mission to the Willamette River Valley, read this.
Some light readings on Chuchunya ('Chuchuna') and Almasti ('Almast').
A YouTube video on Яг Морт ('Yag-Mort' / 'yogmort')
Some awesome artist's renditions of Яг-Морт.
And don't forget there's a ballet too!
Transcript:
The following transcript was created using the OpenAI Whisper API:
[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother [00:00:23] Another Brother Theme Song [00:00:42] Stewnerds Segment Alex: okay so by this point everybody knows we've talked about Skinwalker Ranch and things did not go according to plan Josh: now there's going to be some skeptics out there in the audience we understand but you haven't experienced what we've talked about Jacob: like have you even watched the show Alex: I'm talking to you Johnny yeah like I had to do two editors notes and honestly I could have done three or four because things continued to go wrong as I was trying to edit the episode and export it and everything Josh: and it's not because we're amateurs Alex: no and well I mean I'm not exactly a professional at this point, but I used to be you know I I worked in broadcasting for seven years granted room audio wasn't something I got to do a lot of and I didn't do anything post-production ever Josh: but this is an extremely simple signal flow and it is an SD card for crying out loud Alex: yeah yeah we record onto an external recorder onto an SD card I put that into my PC I use professional software, Pro Tools to do all of the editing and exporting and mastering and Josh: so what happens you still haven't told us Alex: so as I was about to record the second editors note to say what- Josh: "boring alert" Alex: no actually this was after I recorded the second editors note I was trying to grab the rest of the audio clips on the various tracks so I could slide them over because now I needed to make more room for this extra editors note it started giving me it just it gave me a dialog box that I've never seen before and I don't even know why I started selecting clips and it just said nope nope nope nope and I could I kept clicking okay and it just kept coming back okay okay okay Josh: It's a denial of service attack Alex: I couldn't save I couldn't save that new editors note that said by the way all the really good stuff is what we lost it didn't it's like it did- Jacob: It didn't even want the people to know that there was good stuff Alex: yeah I do kind of hate it when they talk like that on the show the ranch responded but- Jacob: hey when you poke the hornet's nest- Josh: and golly gee whiz us talking about it really must have upset- Jacob: our four listeners know now they know Josh: yeah dad you might want to wipe your device and clear out your hearing aids Alex: but I wasn't the only one to have weird stuff happen after the episode- Jacob: so real quick did we even mention that like our recorder just stopped the recording 20 minutes into us recording it just stopped. that's like that's another big thing like we talked about the ranch alone for 28 minutes only to find out it captured 20 minutes and then of that 20 minutes it was like Swiss cheese Alex: right Josh: yeah yeah but the second segment we recorded was fine is that accurate? Jacob: no it was all lost too so we had to record Alex's story Josh: that's right and hit record again yes we came back following evening to finish it off Jacob: because we didn't even notice it's crazy Josh: but but also I didn't even to mention this until I heard about the other stuff but so I'm a pretty fancy guy, I have, I drive a Tesla which is all you know computer brains man and for the next for the three days after we recorded that episode it was not starting up it wasn't connecting to my phone I couldn't use any of the Bluetooth capability I couldn't use my phone as a key I had to use the super dumb RFID card but I mean it's really obnoxious when you're used to a certain standard of living and now I have to put this credit card on the center console just to drive the dang car and it wouldn't drive me itself anymore either for those three days Alex: how dare it Josh: I had to turn the steering wheel Alex: are you kidding me? Josh: dude atrocious Jacob: that sounds like something the ranch would want to happen Josh: right? I ended up rebooting the car twice Jacob: holy cow Josh: and I had to restart my phone I ended up restarting my phone a total of probably three cycles and then three days later it all worked so you I mean I'm not saying it's aliens but... Alex: Classic! okay that's it yeah the ranch for now all right please don't punish us ranch Jacob: we'll come back to you sometime don't worry about it Alex: yeah, punish us then. but now we're gonna talk about Boy Scout camp! different kind of nerd. Jacob: summer, it's the season. Josh: it is. oh so we haven't even identified that we were all Boy Scouts and stuff for the audience. Alex: I guess not. Jacob: well, we were all Boy Scouts. Josh: how Boy Scout-ey were you guys? I was a life scout. Alex: yep that's where I got. Josh: oh I thought you got your eagle. you got your eagle? Alex: no, I didn't. Josh: you got arrow of light though. Alex: I got real close but I chose to focus on band cuz at that point in time band was taking a lot of time. Jacob: I can I can hear mom crying off in the distance. Josh: me too. which is why I also stopped at life scout. so Jacob though I think Jacob petered out at tenderfoot. you plateaued, didn't you? Jacob: oh come on no I was obviously life as well. Alex: none of us got our Eagle? Jacob: I stopped at- no I stopped at Life because I wanted to have a life. Alex: I'm sorry mom I'm sure you blame me. Josh: Alex set the standard. Jacob: No, whatever. Josh: I just didn't want to go through the pain of that- Jacob: the board Josh: yeah Jacob: the interviews and the questioning. and look at us now, Josh has a Tesla. Josh: yeah yeah. Alex: And I edit my brother's podcast Josh: although I learned when I enlisted in the army that had I had my Eagle Scout I could have come in as an E2 instead of an E1. that's like a hundred bucks more a month. But I mean it's a lot more credibility too. you have a rank as an E2 as an E1 you just have a fuzzy, You can't wear anything. Jacob: oh, it's just it's just the velcro on your chest. Josh: it's just a velcro patch, yeah with nothing to put on it. Alex: nice Jacob: that being said our experiences of us scouting were awesome and great and yeah especially summer camp was so much fun. Alex: yeah yeah and growing up in Oregon there were some really cool choices for summer camp Josh: my favorite was probably the one on the coast, I can't think of its name... Alex: Merriweather Josh: Merriweather thank you. Alex: yeah right next to according to the historians of the camp, Camp Merriweather that's right next to Cape Lookout which is apparently where Lewis and Clark ended their trek west. Josh: and they looked over the ocean and said this is the place. Alex: now you're confusing it for church history Josh: see I didn't care much for the history during scouting. but yeah I like Merriweather because Merriweather- my perception was that Merriweather was the like the more adult camp like you were less handheld Alex: interesting hmm I guess I get that because this is the only camp where I did what did they call that an out something, I think out something. Jacob: was it the pioneering merit badge? Alex: no it wasn't a merit badge at all. A counselor of some kind at the camp would they took all of us without our leaders down the beach and said "okay see ya, survive the night" you know like "survive". Josh: like an excursion was it called- Alex: I don't think we called it that but we hiked a little bit further found like this little V in the side of the it wasn't exactly a cliff face but it was a pretty sheer bit of sand dunage with like grass growing in it so it kind of held its shape there was like a V in that we climbed up in there and it was a little bowl in the sand and we set up camp there made a fire just stayed the night without any leaders. Jacob: hmm yeah I didn't have that experience Josh: hmm yeah I can't think what that experience was called. bu yeah that was really cool. they had the astronomy merit badge. Jacob: yes that I did do there. Josh: yeah so there are some merit badges that only can't Merriweather offered because the locations weren't- Alex: same with other camps right yeah I can't remember the name of that camp but- Jacob: Baldwin? Alex: Baldwin yeah Baldwin had rock climbing and horseback riding. Jacob: was that was it in Central Oregon because I never went to Baldwin Alex: I think it was I don't recall very clearly though Jacob: and Cooper. I never went to Cooper Alex: you never went to Cooper? where did you go? Jacob: only Merriweather and Pioneer Alex: I never went to pioneer Josh: oh so did I do pioneer? I might have- Jacob: Pioneer's my number one. Alex: dang it. Sad I never went. Jacob: well so when I went to Merriweather it was it was a merit badge grind. we filled as much time as we possibly could doing merit badge. That included like environmental oh what was that- you know the one? Josh: yeah cuz I have a story about that one- Jacob: Environmental something Alex: no I don't know what the is Jacob: I can't remember the full name of it. it was more of like a study-based learning thing. Alex: sounds very Oregonian. Josh: it was you like you like draw pictures of palm fronds and track number of species of birds that you see in and out of a certain area you keep a journal of the environment around you. Jacob: yes it was a lots of journaling Alex: yeah you know what I do remember that Josh: it was a eagle one of the requirement badges Jacob: it was Alex: that is a nice Jacob: yeah wasn't fun Alex: no Jacob: so Merriweather was fun but yeah we were just so I mean I got like six or seven merit badges at Merriweather Alex: did you do any like bonfires on the beach? Jacob: no Alex: well no wonder you didn't like it that much. Jacob: we did the astronomy one where we had to go to the beach and observe for two or three hours just observe the stars that was cool but pioneer was more fun we we obviously still got like four or some badges but it was it was more fun Alex: you chilled out a little more Jacob: yeah Alex: well, yeah Josh: I- our thing, because again with the group that I was scouting with, my friends and I we were not all about the merit badges. we would do them because we had to justify the expense, so we would do some but most of it was just kind of just enjoying being kind of off on your own in the woods. Alex: You didn't set off any squirrel traps did you? Josh: we did. okay I don't want to hear about those. Jacob: yeah that was all Josh's group. Josh: yeah you don't want to hear about those? Alex: no because I know what my group did for squirrel traps and that was enough for me I thought they was- Josh: no ours weren't percussive or kinetic in any way and they never kept the squirrels in them the squirrels got out. Alex: okay well the trap that my group set up was not animal friendly. lasting damage to the animal if it worked I don't even know if it worked. Jacob: I'd like on record my group didn't set up a single squirrel trap. so. we did play a hatchet game. Josh: I guess you actually learned something from that merit badge. Alex: wait, you played what now? Jacob: we called it the hatchet game. it was so good. our camp was right next to the mess hall and we just had us we had a stump and for some reason someone had a hatchet with them. so we would just slam this hatchet down into this stump as hard as you could and then the next guy in rotation would have to yank it out and depending on how difficult it was to yank it out you know just determined who won who was better. Josh: it's the inverse of Excalibur. pulling out Excaliber. Alex: it's better than the game where you like throw knives between each other's feet and try to get close to the other person's foot. Jacob: but we like we eventually got shut down because there's a whole group of kids on the hill above us where the mess hall was just watching us Josh: so you got reported? Jacob: yeah so camps counselors came out you can't do that Alex: you would think that the troop from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be the straight shooting nerdy troop but we were the opposite every camp we went to. Josh: every every other troop would have like the full uniform set the boots the socks, everything. Alex: the official shorts Josh: and so later when I did the Scoutmaster thing that would have been like $300 easy per person for those full uniforms Alex: and I mean it's cool if you do scouts that way but for us as young men in the church it was a required thing like you you did boy scouts Jacob: yeah it wasn't so much of a free choice that we made Alex: they wanted to be boy scouts Josh: and I wanted to be a boy- Jacob: you wanted the outdoor experience Josh: I wanted the experience I didn't yeah yeah- Alex: yeah sure Jacob: like I had some badges that were safety pinned on Josh: of course Jacob: yeah right Alex: because you never learned how to sew them on yourself Jacob: yeah exactly so this this kid comes up to me "why aren't your badges sewn on?" because my mom hasn't sewn them on yet. "you don't sew on your own badges?!" okay we're different we're- Josh: you call yourself a boy scout?! Alex: in comparison to everyone else there our troops were always basically the punk rockers by comparison Josh: yeah and for real we kind of let the BSA down we went to camp Alex: I suppose we did Josh: well and you have the skits right so you always have like the end-of-camp skits and we never my group never once did one. Jacob: no nope Josh: but I feel like all these other groups had like a little laundry list of like choices and they were always really good and really funny and really well done and I'm like you guys clearly spend a large percentage of your time working on these skits that I just you know didn't have a- Jacob: don't care about. that's part of why I enjoyed pioneer they actually had a relay race so you know there's like a running leg, three-legged race section, swimming, canoeing and we we did we showed up we got second place well I led out on that running leg and got us off to a good start but so that was fun that was cool. Josh: oh was there like an a-frame where you have to lash like use your pioneering merit badge and like lash together an a-frame and then like stilt walk it over. Jacob: probably something like that. Alex: interesting Josh: this sounds kind of familiar. yeah I always thought pioneer was kind of like the outdoor adventure one Alex: like they had the ropes course? Jacob: No. That was Baldwin I think or Cooper, ah it was one of those two. Alex: I think Cooper- it wasn't Baldwin so it must have been Cooper Josh: I always remember I always thought of Cooper as like the vanilla the vanilla camp. like the easy experience. you go they have the mess hall where they cook all your food for you. unlike Merriweather where they bring it out to you in milk cartons or milk crates. Alex: Oh yeah! Josh: Remember that? Alex: I forgot about that! Josh: Or maybe it was Baldwin? Alex: No Cooper. Cooper cooked and Merriweather yeah gave you milk crates. you had to cook yeah I remember doing breakfast at the very least at camp. Josh: yeah although I remember at Cooper we had a stew like for our first night dinner and nothing in that stew was cooked the potatoes were raw, the carrots were raw, although raw carrots are you know delicious but- Alex: might have been the first troop of the summer so the crew was still learning how to cook Josh: oh disgusting Alex: that might be a fun job for me actually I think I would enjoy being a camp cook at a Boy Scout camp Josh: I mean I think we were we were probably the boys that the other Scouts detested. for example at Merriweather like we found a group of boys that were just like obnoxious and annoying and kind of abusive like we'd go wandering the woods- Alex: this is not where I thought this was gonna end up going, this conversation- Josh: you'll you'll see Jacob: that's fair Josh: so we'd go wandering- my bad, the whole segment- Alex: yeah yeah the whole segment. we were punks. Jacob: hey this is how it goes right we throw it out there and- Josh: well I mean so we would get honey in our milk crates and we'd identify where the camp where these guys were that were being jerks and we'd sneak in in the cover of night cover of darkness and they left their boots out of their tents... Alex: Oh my gosh Jacob: Ohhhhh Josh: And we'd just fill them with honey... Alex: oh my gosh!! okay, my gorup never did anything like that that I'm aware of. but we did lean into this punk identity that other people kind of seem to see us like we showed up to like the first flag ceremony in the morning on the on the first morning and you'd just tell everybody was looking down on us. so we were like okay cool well that's how you want it then that's how you're gonna get it. Josh: yeah. because we're wearing jeans and stuff, heaven forbid- Alex: exactly. we're wearing denim! Jacob: yeah I've got one memory that really typifies the same thing to once and only once did we do a jamboree- Josh: oh I never did Jacob: jamboree is like the the embodiment of the nerdy Boy Scout cuz you're supposed to have like your own your troop cheer you make and bring a banner for your troop all this just ridiculous stuff you're supposed to be in your full outfit the entire time Alex: Troop 87 baby! Josh: 5-0-3! Jacob: you do all these challenges and obstacles and things and you're supposed to have this stuff with you like there's a you've got a string 15 inches up and you got to build a fire and burn it the fastest. we didn't even have matches with us Alex: true boy scouts! Jacob: so we're boy scouts we got the fastest time but because we had to borrow matches we didn't win it. anyway- Josh: you weren't prepared! you were not "be prepared"! Jacob: not at all! we hated it it was so lame and so boring so Jason did a rain dance- Josh: and rained them out? Jacob: -a rain dance and sure enough a couple hours later it started to absolutely pour Josh: that's awesome Jacob: right this is this wasn't even summer this is Oregon springtime and it just dumps so like all right come on leaders we're not doing this you know we already think this is dumb let's go home. and we did. Alex: wow Josh: 87 packs up and leaves the jamboree. Jacob: I mean it was it was just right in the valley we didn't drive far it was like Mission Bottom or something like that. it was really close. Alex: Well if they didn't think 87 sucked before that they certainly did after! Josh: I just you know I credit I credit the dads the fathers who were like they're not getting any value from this we have stuff we could be doing yeah we're packing up we have we have nothing to gain here. Alex: but we got we got the real full experience like we may have looked like loser boy scouts to everybody else there but boy did we go hard in our troop with the campouts and all the high adventure activities. Jacob: yes that's what I was gonna say our high adventures were in sharp contrast to the organized BSA summer camps Josh: did you say "BS" A summer camps? Jacob: yeah Josh: but the high adventure wasn't wasn't scouting Alex: I mean I guess not but yeah only in the sense that like had we done a service project at the end it would have been and we would have gotten a badge for it Jacob: everyone had enough badges to get the Eagle, ya know? It wasn't about the badges anymore. Alex: but it's not even a merit badge it's just a you completed a 50 miler okay yeah decorative badge Josh: yeah like your goodwill goodwill badge with the things around it Alex: right but yeah that was the only thing stopping us because you know surviving 50 miles on the river white water rafting or 50 miles up in the mountains trekking for an entire week isn't enough you have to also perform a service project while you're out there Josh: and those were pretty legitimate I mean there were rattle snakes we came face-to-face with rattle snakes pretty frequently Alex: You will die on the river. Jacob: bear-droppings Josh: lots of river deaths Jacob: yeah the river some of those crossings were yeah they were kind of scary. [00:21:32] Stewnerds! [00:21:40] Cryptid Curiosities Segment Soundbyte: Your hair stands on end at the back of your neck. Something struck the boat. I don't know what it was. It looked like a giant ape with a man's face. I don't think it is a human, I think it's a sasquatch. Jacob: well for the first cryptid story it's only fitting that I go with a Bigfoot like creature Josh: classic Alex: alright, alright Josh: oh 'like' creature? Jacob: we're not in America so I can't say that it is Sasquatch or Bigfoot Alex: yeti? Jacob: dude, we're going back to Russia. Alex: already? Jacob: oh yeah already Alex: okay, okay Jacob: I can't help it. oh man I I've had the feeling in the past to say this just to get it out there I love the culture the language the people of Russia. Putin, the government, the state, hate it all. Fully on Ukraine's side. okay moving on. like if you were to look at like just Google Maps and then scan the globe of like if Bigfoot is out there somewhere dude Russia is where it would be. it is just massive right and so- Alex: remote like a lot of it? isn't it really remote? Jacob: yes so what's the opposite of densely populated? Josh: sparsely Alex: remote Jacob: remote yeah it's so remote Josh: so are you in the camp that Bigfoot is a single mythological creature? or Alex: a species? Josh: or aliens? alien visitors. prisoners that are released on earth. Jacob: I don't think it's a single individual. I think it's a species we can get to theories later I have my own working hypothesis of alien versus- Alex: wow you really are the Bigfoot one I do not think about this Jacob: I am. okay, but Russia so obviously across all of Russia there are a bunch of enclaves of indigenous peoples throughout the entire land again it's so expansive and massive so with that you have lots of different oral traditions and ideas of or sightings of Bigfoot in the Caucasus region which is down by Georgia Alex: Sure, I know geography... Josh: Azerbaijan Jacob: they've got a creature there that they call Almasti. that's the Bigfoot of the Caucasus region. where we're going is far east Siberia like Yakutia. Alex: okay Josh: that's on the risk board Alex: yeah, that's on risk. Jacob: yeah it sure is you know where that is Alex: I love that country actually Jacob: and and in my mind that's where like Russia's population sparseness that's at its height of sparseness Josh: it's peak- it's peak sparseness Jacob: I love oxymorons I just had to use it yeah just there's there's hardly anybody out there and it's just all forested all swampy you get some rolling hills some mountains depending on the specific region in Yakutia they call Bigfoot or their Bigfoot creature Chuchuna Josh: oh chewy Jacob: Chuchuna nice Alex: Ha. Chubaca. Jacob: some other native peoples also call it Mulienna but we're just just for simplicity we're going with Chuchuna. so Chuchuna has a lot in common with Sasquatch Bigfoot in North America. tall large human like creature extremely strong surprisingly agile for its size and quick. it's covered in everything I've read they've described it as wool. like a long wool. which again if you're in Siberia you're a creature that makes sense you're gonna need something thicker than just normal fur Alex: your average fur? yeah sure Jacob: so covered in a long wool and there have been reports of Chuchuna throwing rocks like at people that settlings- settlings? Josh: That tracks. Alex: I think I've heard that of sasquatch too. Jacob: yeah that's a very common trait that people report for Bigfoot but prepare yourself for the differences now. I almost wanted to refer to these creatures as wild men rather than Bigfoot like creatures. here we go this is why. Chuchuna have bows and arrows Alex: Uhoh! Jacob: primitive bows Josh: Oh No! Jacob: Spears Alex: Oh Crap Jacob: metal knives Josh: What? Jacob: and they sometimes fashion rudimentary clothing out of skins of dead animals Josh: oh not people Jacob: no not people Alex: oh my gosh that'd be horrifying Josh: okay so they clothe themselves? Jacob: they clothe themselves they fashion and they arm themselves and they arm themselves Alex: so we're talking a technological civilization basically Josh: primitive Jacob: primitive but yes they they they can craft intentionally tools yeah it's believed if the blood of a slain Chuchuna lands on the clothing or on the hand of the hunter that his whole family will go insane which will eventually lead to their deaths. Josh: the premise being that hunters are hunting these things? Jacob: well hunters a general term here right if someone kills a Chuchuna and the blood lands on you you're in trouble. the same goes if you steal the Chuchuna's knife. I don't know what it is about that knife man but the people of Tunguska right that's where that big meteor hundred years ago exploded there's there's lots of weird stuff out there that happens too, but the people who live there they have a tradition that a Chuchuna want that a Chuchuna once broke into a barn stole all the food storage that was being stored for winter the hunters followed its tracks and found it in a mountain cave. the Chuchuna dropped down on its knees and started muttering something as if it was like pleading for like mercy it's like they're intelligent creatures like it knew it was in trouble Alex: that's disturbing Jacob: but without hesitation they stabbed it Josh: and their families went crazy Jacob: I you know I don't know what the rest of that story is Alex: what the crap Jacob: that's this oral tradition of those people which is another common trait I've seen the word that's been used in Russia is inarticulate I would switch it out for unintelligible they seem to have an unintelligible language that humans don't understand but it seems purposeful and what they're saying like they're trying to communicate or they have you know in- 1929 an article is published in the local Yakutian newspaper it purported that Chuchuna are real living creatures and it even included testimonies of like eyewitnesses from that time not just oral tradition but actual eyewitness reports. I couldn't find this article as hard as I tried I mean it's almost 100 years old in Far East Siberia. Josh: Wow that is almost a hundred years ago. Wow. Jacob: But it stated that two or three Chuchuna had been killed before and that the hunters buried the bodies and hid it from the authorities because they were afraid of being criminally charged for murder. so that shows you- Josh: how similar Jacob: and how intelligent these creatures did seem. Josh: But presumably these things are still covered in wool, you know. but have the appearance and demeanor and behavior of a person Jacob: of a man. I know so again that's that's why like I said I was tempted to class I am tempted to call them wild men Alex: that's upsetting Jacob: like tribes of some missing link or something you know because there are some of the articles do they just call them wild men. Diki-yudi. Josh: I just- out of the annals- annals? Jacob: Annals? Josh: Anthropology. We'll not use that word because I don't know but I was gonna try to go with that one but are we are there any human tribes that are classified as wild men I mean the most like remote tribe I can think of don't you they're obviously humans, homo sapiens. they have their naked skin you know they're not covered in wool and exhibit you know really advanced language. Jacob: Yeah fully developed languages they communicate with each other. Josh: Culture. Art. buildings. Religion. Straw hatched stuff. Jacob: yeah yeah so yeah I don't know of any because so that's where I'm then at my next point in 1933 a professor wrote another article about Chachunas where he called them a tribe of very undeveloped people again living in eastern Siberia who were covered in long wool like fur and that they speak a kind of language that humans can't make sense of. they live a nomadic hunter-gatherer life alone or sometimes in small groups and he says they they don't attack people unless they feel like they themselves are threatened. though they have stolen guns and clothes from people before. he ended his article with a call to action to put Chuchuna under protection by Soviet law because they had almost gone extinct by that point. so I think this guy definitely felt like there was more to them than just these wild animals like they are almost a- Josh: but he's he's a he's seemingly tracking like population- Jacob: yeah again I haven't read the actual article this is- so it's hard to say I'm sure for him again he's probably looking at this as more of an anthropological approach where he's talking to the locals getting anecdotal data rather than actual hard data Josh: sure but if you compare that to other localities in other places of the world where you have similar oral traditions about Bigfoot, I doubt it's gonna be as consistent or direct in the statements and claims they're making as this appears to be. you know? where consistently here they're talking about the exact same being but anywhere else is gonna be like "yo I saw a Sasquatch. I saw a Bigfoot" it's not gonna be like persistent Jacob: and like these cultural things like it's armed, it creates tools, it was trying to mutter something to me, it was trying to communicate. Alex: that's really upsetting Josh: killed it anyway. Jacob: I mean you can't communicate with the thing it's huge it's armed you've got to protect and defend your family Josh: until you get his blood on you, now look what you did! Alex: Idiot! Josh: and you probably stole his knife after the fact too Alex: double idiot! Josh: well this is probably how they learned not to do that stuff was that instance Jacob: yeah Josh: right? because they were hunters. boom. Jacob: so yeah that's Chuchuna. Josh: how do you- Chuchuna- are there any like roots to that name? Jacob: it's not Russian so I have no clue yeah different language. so I mean all of them. Alamasti no clue what that's supposed to mean. Muliana don't know what that means either. they're all non-Russian languages. this one however this is a very specific event it's probably more of just I mean it's not quite folklore I don't think but it's probably more of a tradition an oral tradition rather than a what appears to be an actual population of creature that has had consistent sightings over the years. all the article said was "a long time ago" so I don't even have a date range unfortunately. Josh: Good start. Alex: Fabulous. Jacob: So I'd say probably maybe a thousand years ago. but I know I know well maybe not even quite a thousand anyway I'll get into it so this is northern Russia in the Komi actually what is Oblast cry whatever Republic. in Komi back when they were just tribes of people living along the Pachauri River they hadn't even learned agriculture yet by this point so they hunted fish and they could breed cattle. Alex: a thousand years ago they hadn't learned agriculture? Josh: very remote remember Alex: that's I that's note worthy in and of itself Jacob: yeah I'd have to look more into the history of like the Slavic tribes but I think I think they were slower to get there and probably in large part because of their environment I mean it's just a lot more difficult to you know Josh: That's why Ukraine's the breadbasket Jacob: yeah but they had actual like permanent settlements and stuff they weren't nomads traveling they were Josh: wow that's different Jacob: they were rooted in their villages Alex: yeah this is pretty different Jacob: this giant I don't even know again I don't know what to call it this giant wild man started showing up and they called him Yag-Mort. Alex: cool cool name. Jacob: which literally means forest man. they said he was as tall as the trees. as tall as pines. he would prey on women children and cattle and just had the demeanor of like a wild animal. Josh: is that because you don't prey on men cuz like this is just a masculine thing? like we're never gonna call it like you're preying on men? like because they're fighting back? this seems I don't like it. I can think of a few of our listeners that are not gonna like that. Jacob: This is definitely a damsel in distress story right okay okay he wore crude clothing made out of bear fur okay Josh: a lot of bears' fur Alex: he probably smelled real bad. dead bears are stinky. living bears are stinky. Jacob: so one point he chose a night darker than most nights and he set ablaze the trees next to the village Josh: Why would he do that? Alex: so he could start fires on purpose? Jacob: yes so within this chaos that he created he stole the daughter of one of the village elders her name was Rida. Rida was betrothed to to gone so to gone he's like yo bro stealing my still my woman so he gathered all the other men in the village and they took off after Yag-Mort. to go hunt him down. giant dude so he's obviously leaving tracks. Alex: beauty and the beast Josh: hey Jacob: so they follow the tracks they're obviously armed they're ready to go they find a point of hiding by the riverbank to wait for him to ambush him he comes out as soon as he stepped on the river the bank they jump out and like they just go at it man they're throwing spears, shooting arrows, throwing rocks at him, and he just like stares at them with this like just bloodthirsty animalistic stare, lets out this crazy roar, grabs his club, and just starts swinging. you know just hacking guys down. so then this battle takes place and they're just battling out like so long I don't know how many men were in this village but the battle goes on long enough that Yag-Mort eventually collapses from exhaustion after killing who knows how many men. he just tires out and falls down. so the surviving men gathered around and cut his arms off. Josh: nice. Jacob: You know so he couldn't do any more damage. Alex: Sheeeze. Jacob: So when he woke up though "all right, where is she?" Josh: He didn't bleed out? Jacob: it might have been 'hands'. it's the same word in Russian- Josh: You would still bleed out from your hands. You still have those arteries that get down there. Jacob: that's always something that bugs me the same it's the same word for a 'foot' or excuse me for 'hand' verse 'arm' oh and it's the same word for 'foot' verse 'leg'. Josh: really?? Jacob: I hate it it's hard Josh: that's Russian? Jacob: yeah Josh: get out Jacob: it's weird Alex: weird Josh: how no wait how do you refer to your foot? your left foot? Jacob: it's the same as you would say your left leg. yeah it's weird. anyway- Josh: Russia, that's a glaring issue. Alex: Fix your dang language Josh: You gotta fix that. Jacob: so Yag-Mort comes back to consciousness. tells him where his cave is. they go to the cave. Alex: he can speak?? Josh: probably went rawr-rawr Jacob: pointing and stuff Josh: sprayed blood, arterial blood over in that direction Alex: but they understood him. Jacob: so I mean they're different accounts some accounts say he took them there let's go with that he led them to his cave. Tugan finds Rida dead she didn't she wasn't even surviving he also had a ton of just like all of his plunderings in the cave. they took those all out. burnt it all. they took Yag-Mort back to where the battle was, chopped his head off, shoved him into a grave, and drove a stake through his chest into the ground. Alex: just to make sure Jacob: yeah so he couldn't stand up. buried him up. and then from that point on the tradition carried whenever you passed by his grave you take a rock you put it on top and you spit on him. Alex: okay Jacob: and they say that now to this day a mountain stands where his grave was. It may be not a literal mountain but a mountain of rocks Alex: oh so we don't know? that is quite a myth Jacob: yeah I'll show you some pictures we'll have not pictures paintings artistic representations of Yag-Mort they'll be in the show notes they're actually really cool. you guys should check them out but I also found a Russian youtuber who the way to which he refers to yogmort makes it sound like he thinks yogmort is more like a Bigfoot like creature because he thinks yogmort still lives oh and so he posts videos from the Komi region going around the forest looking for him looking for things like footprints and other traces that this yogmort creature or species is still out there and still alive. so I'll stand by it. If Bigfoot lives there are definitely Bigfoot in Russia. you heard it here. Josh: ...oh wait. How'd you end it? We have to laugh. Jacob: Do we have to? Josh: No, but what's your conclusion? Jacob: Oh that was it. If Bigfoot lives, there's definitely Bigfoot in Russia. Josh: Oh, okay. Um, yeah, great. Jacob: Yeah, laugh at that. [00:40:24] Another Brother Outro

#010 The Stoner Steve System

This Week on Another Brother:
In episode #010, The Stoner Steve System, the brothers dip their toes into the mysteries that reside at Skinwalker Ranch in Eastern Utah. They might take a deep dive at some point. Bear with us though, it seems like the Ranch doesn't like being talked about. The brothers suffered various technical difficulties including chunks of the recording being lost and the recording cutting off early. Josh is obsessed, just wait until you hear how enthusiastic he is! To follow this hard-hitting subject, Alex takes on his latest journey with mental health. Trust us, it's more interesting than you're thinking, you'll be left wanting to hear more and maybe even wanting to try out this therapy growing in popularity!
Visit our website for merch and other brother goodness.
 
Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):
Check out Skinwalker Ranch's own official site.
Do you want to watch the hit show the Secret of Skinwalker Ranch yourself? Well go ahead, it's free!
But don't forget, some of the crew helped make a podcast for season one.
An information site about EMDR, if you're interested in learning more!
An informational site about IFS if you're interested in learning more!
Eddie Munson, Alex's psyche's inspiration for Stoner Steve, 'nuff said.
Please take a listen to An American Elegy by Frank Ticheli and see how moving it truly is.
 
Transcript:
The following transcript was created using the OpenAI Whisper API: [00:00:00] Editor's Note Soundbyte: Hello, all you brothers out there. It's Alex. Before we get into this episode, I need to start with an editor's note. This week, we talked about Skinwalker Ranch. This is a place in Utah where very strange things happen, and we had some recording issues while talking about the ranch. This is not made up to sensationalize this episode. We've never had these problems before, but portions of our audio were just not recorded. Entire minutes at a time that were just not recorded, so that we'll be talking about one thing and suddenly we're talking about another thing during playback. I've done my best to edit something that makes sense out of this weird mess of a recording, but it is going to be a little janky. I apologize. I wish I could say this were made up because it's a little freaky. [00:00:59] Editor's Note Soundbyte: Editor's note 2. Now that I've actually completed the edit on this, I know what is missing from our recording. You may find this segment on Skinwalker Ranch a little on the boring side, and that's because all of the actual interesting stuff is missing. Take that as you will. Enjoy the episode. [00:01:22] This Week on Another Brother [00:01:53] Another Brother Theme Song [00:02:10] Stewnerds Segment Jacob: Skinwalker Ranch. Josh: Oh my gosh. Alex: Okay. Ready? Are you guys ready for? I think this is going to be the hot take. I'm a skeptic. Josh: Okay. Alex: I've seen four episodes, I think, now of season one of the History Channel show. Josh: Yeah. Alex: I haven't listened to any of the podcast. Josh: Part of your problem. Keep going. Alex: That's what you've said. Yeah. And I'm just not buying that they're doing their due diligence, which could totally be it. Jacob: I'm going to time out it real quick right there. We're going to back up for the listener. Skinwalker Ranch. This is a ranch in eastern Utah. Alex: Northeastern. Jacob: Thank you. Large property, 530, 512 acres. Lots of weird stuff going on there for decades, if not a couple of centuries. Josh: Hundreds of years if you count the Ute and Navajo records. Jacob: Right. Alex: Which is where the name comes from, is the Native tribes. Jacob: Native American Skinwalkers. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Go back at it. I think that's enough background. Josh: So I'll just say it's understandable from my perspective for you to be a skeptic if all you've done is watch the show because I was the same. Jacob: Josh has debate voice on. Josh: Oh, do I? Jacob: Yeah. Josh: It's just the gain on the microphone. No. I am 100% believer and we can get into it, but I don't want to like spoil season two and season three and all these things. Alex: Right. Josh: But they're trying to be deliberate. They're trying to go by the scientific method. So like hypothesis, test, conclusion, hypothesis, test, conclusion. Alex: Is that made more clear in the podcast? Josh: Absolutely Alex: Because the TV show makes their scientific method look like pee pee. Josh: Right. Yeah. Yep. I got really upset by that. And so that's when I found the podcast. But yeah, so all these guys are super uncomfortable behind the camera. Erik is and Erik mentions it in the podcast. He's like, "I would rather be by myself in the command center crunching data." Alex: Yeah. Jacob: He does come off that way. Josh: But Tom really, I think around season two- Alex: This is the superintendent of the property. Josh: Which you're like, OK, you know, he's got the cowboy hat. You learn that he's a very successful businessman. He's the president of like the Rotary Club or something. He's the president of a nonprofit international aid organization. Jacob: Wow. What the heck. Alex: I mean, he seems like a really nice guy. Jacob: He does. And that's he's becoming my favorite. Because if nothing else, the one thing I feel from him, he feels earnest. Josh: Yeah. Alex: He's like he's like the Batman of the Super Friends. He's like the human element. You know, the one guy that doesn't have the superpowers that you're like you, I can get. Josh: Yeah. Yeah. And he just works hard. He's like, all right, well, let's go do it. He'll say, what are you talking about? Come on. And he'll grab the cases. He'll- Alex: What do you mean I can't dig?! Like, I'm going to go dig! Jacob: Yes, exactly. Alex: Hospital. Jacob: OK, what about Dragon though? What were you going to say about Dragon? Josh: Oh so what I was going to say about Dragon. I also apologize. I was like, even now I'm in season three, I'm like, come on, Bryant. His real name is Bryant. Jacob: That's right. Josh: Like, dial it back man. You're a little you're a little extra. But in the podcast, like he comes across as very intelligent- Jacob: I'll have to listen to that episode. Josh: -very well meaning and you learn, the very first episode he's on, you learn because I'm like, who calls himself Dragon?! Jacob: Uhuh. Alex: Yeah, sure. Josh: It's not his nickname. Jacob: Well, I mean, it's almost none of them call him Dragon in the show. Alex: The owner does. That's it. Josh: There was a security guard on the ranch before him whose code or call sign was Dragon. And someone on the way out had called him drag because he's a new security guy. Alex: So you're the new dragon. Josh: They called him Dragon. And then I think somehow it's stuck. Jacob: Brandon probably thought it was funny. The owner of the ranch. Josh: Brandon probably thought it was funny. Yeah. And they're longtime friends. They were mission companions. Alex: Oh, cool! Didn't know that! Jacob: That was it. Josh: Dragon or Bryant was Brandon's mission trainer. Alex: Huh! Jacob: In Hawaii. Alex: And now employs him. Josh: Yeah. Jacob: Yes. Alex: Weird how life works sometimes. Josh: So but also- Alex: In Hawaii?? Those lucky. I went to Italy. Josh: Yeah. Whatever. No one's as lucky as me. I went to Dallas. Jacob: Yean and I'm the one who went to Siberia. So. Josh: But the ranch ranch hands, Kandus and oh, shoot. Alex: Not familiar with them yet. Josh: Was it Thomas as well? Jacob: Probably not. No, I don't think so. Josh: Well, he and Brandon are lifelong friends. Jacob: Right. They're both from Pleasant Grove. As well as Kandus, I think. Josh: Oh, I didn't know that. So there's just this. I don't know. It's cool. But I feel like they- he selected. Well, Kandus is a- Jacob: Anthropologist. Josh: Published anthropologist. Jacob: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Alex: What?? Jacob: All of these people, it's like shocking what they actually know and have done. Alex: The lady that lives in that house, that they go into the basement and there's like a sealed off box. Jacob: That's them. Josh: And they dig a hole into it. Alex: Really? Josh: Yeah. Published anthropologist. Alex: Wow. Neat. Josh: And and they start using her later to go collect. Well, she's she's more involved than this, but but she'll go and like try to collect like the local folklore. Jacob: Oh, cool. Josh: And do like an anthropology perspective. Alex: Nice. Josh: So anyway, the people, whatever you when you're watching the show, this is for all my listeners, please. When you're watching the show, realize that it's History Channel. And the editing, they're just trying to get viewership. Alex: It truly feels like Pawn Stars. It feels formulaic. It feels History Channel. Jacob: It does. It's very the show itself is produced very much as a History Channel show. Josh: And this this this executive producer, TJ, he's the one that got the whole show started. It took him a year to convince. He started talking with Thomas. Alex: Superintendent. Josh: Yeah. It took him a year of working through these guys, gaining trust, talking to Brandon Fugal to finally get them to agree that a show could be a good idea. They did not want this. Alex: Wow. Cuz- Josh: Because he sold it hard. Alex: I thought for sure he bought the property hoping for something like this. Josh: Nope. He- Jacob: That's kind of what I figured, too, as as an investment to start making that kind of money off. Josh: Yeah, no. And you'll see as in like season two and three, you'll see Brandon is like invested for personal reasons. He's like driven. Alex: I mean that is what he said at the beginning of the show. Josh: You can really tell some of the most mind blown expressions are coming from Brandon when they show him some of the stuff. Yeah, it's awesome. But so- Jacob: Yeah, Brandon Fugal, he's like one of the biggest real estate developers in the country. Josh: You'll see his name on all these nice new office lease buildings. Alex: He's a legit mogul. Jacob: The owner before him, the owner of the ranch before him was Robert Bigelow, who is the owner of Bigelow Aerospace. Alex: Billionaire. Jacob: So he owned the ranch for 20 years. And with some branch of the government, they were doing something very similar where they were doing all these scientific experiments trying to figure out what is going on here with with NIDS. What's what's NIDS stand for? Josh: Oh, shoot. Jacob: National- Josh: Investigative Development Science or something. Jacob: Something like that. Josh: It's basically, yeah, a lot of people will talk bad about NIDS. It's like a pseudoscience for. But that's what they developed NIDS for is to come to terms with observational science like phenomena. Alex: So like Mulder on the X-Files. Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Jacob: So, yeah, so he was funding and helping research with the government. Josh: Through AATIP contracts. It was AATIP programming. Jacob: Since it was with the government. Pretty much everything that they did and found and saw is classified. Josh: Or proprietary information or confidential. Jacob: So the cool thing is we're now Brandon, a private owner, owns it and is doing the research on his own. He's part of the intent was to make it all public and visible for everyone. Josh: And they do it. So I recently joined the Skinwalker Ranch Insider Program. Jacob: I thought so. Alex: Do you have to pay for it? Josh: It's seven, seven days free. And you get a shirt. Jacob: Josh is wearing said shirt right now. Josh: But they give you access to their live camera feeds. And- Alex: OK, OK. Josh: And spreadsheets full of data. Jacob: That's cool. Josh: And you can help kind of crowdsource data points from the camera feeds because it's impossible to like store all like they have so many cameras now. Jacob: So cool. Josh: It'd be impossible to store that data permanently. So they are reliant on volunteers, basically paid participants to watch the camera feeds when they can. Alex: I'm sorry, volunteers or paid? Josh: I mean, you're paying to participate, right? Alex: Oh, paid participation. Josh: That's what I mean. Yes. You're you're buying in. Jacob: You're not being paid. You are paying to join the community. Josh: Right. And then you're recording anomalous- Jacob: and flagging when you see weird things. Josh: You fill out the spreadsheet when you see it. Time stamp it. All that stuff. And you look at these spreadsheets. It is they are full of data points from just crowd crowdsource. Alex: Sounds like a nightmare to me. I hate spreadsheets full of data. Josh: Oh, I love. I love data. Alex: I mean that is what you talk about with Skinwalker Ranch in our chats. "So much data!" Josh: So much data! I mean, so I know I know we're on a time crunch and I could literally talk about this for days and days and days. But since you guys you're in season two, Jacob. Jacob: Yeah. Maybe halfway through. Josh: Alex, you're halfway through season one? Alex: Yeah. Josh: So I'll wait. Alex: I don't mind spoilers, truly. Jacob: But I just want to say a few things like I grew up on the History Channel and on Discovery Channel. I think all three of us did. Josh: Yeah. Alex: Uhuh. Jacob: The what makes this show different to me than like any of the others, like all the big shows I watch, Alex: the Ghost Hunter shows. Jacob: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, exactly. That is very much in the same vein. They're actually getting super weird, unexplainable, anomalous data and things happening every single episode. And again, the episodes are so such a condensed time frame of all of the experimentations that they're doing and everything that they're doing throughout the entire year. So it's crazy to me. Josh: It is crazy. I think there's a lot of- Jacob: radiation burns, people being hospitalized because of really weird things happening. I don't know. So much stuff. Josh: And and OK, can I tell you? There's so much I could go into, but I want to tell you. Alex: OK, I'm watching the show to get the information to watch the show. Josh: Oh, I know. I know. Alex: So I don't care how I get the information. Josh: So, OK, I just want to tell one quick thing. Oh, dang it. I just like, OK, first backpedal real quick. Conspiracy theory. But just random connections, right? So Robert Bigelow from the state of Senator Harry Reid, same state. Harry Reid is the one mostly responsible for funding AATIP and getting it going. Big $22 million contract goes to Robert Bigelow, one of his big campaign funders, and he's from his state. Alex: You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Josh: Yep. Harry Reid is LDS. Oh, you didn't know that? Alex: No. Josh: Yeah, I think he was a stake president at some point. So Harry LDS major, after all the data he's seen presented in Congress and through like the House and Senate Select Committee of Intelligence and things, he he has some interviews where he basically is like, yeah, there's something there. And so he's willing to go out and fund this stuff. So Robert Bigelow passes the property off to Brandon Fugal. Very strong, confident LDS member. And I think the majority, if not all of his staff on the ranch are LDS. Alex: I'm in love with his helicopter. That thing is beautiful. Josh: And Governor Herbert ends up getting on the show. Also, the Utah State Attorney General. Jacob: Yes. I saw that one. Josh: So that was season two, I think, or beginning of season two. Alex: Interesting. Jacob: Yes. Josh: And OK, and Travis Taylor, the PhD, PhD astrophysicist, he no one knew this until after he left government service, federal service. So now he's contracting. Sometime around the middle of season one. He gets approached by the director of the UAP Task Force, the new UAP Task Force. So post-AATIP. To be a I don't know the titles, they get titles, get mixed up. Right. But to be a lead scientist for the UAP Task Force. He does that for three years. So he does that during season two, season three and season four. Jacob: Whoa, wait a minute. Josh: And no one on the show knows Jacob: Oh it was during the Josh: Yes. Alex: But then they've changed the lower thirds since then, because that's listed. Jacob: Oh, really? Alex: In the episodes that I've seen as a credential of his. Josh: No, there's no way. Alex: I'm telling you, man, it was listed UAP programs. Josh: Programs. OK, Alex: I mean, I don't know. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it sure sounds like what you're saying. Josh: OK, well, it must be it must be a little bit different, though, because I watched the Q&A that they provide on Skinwalker Insider where he like tells them and this is after season four. After? Yeah. Yeah. Like he fairly recently left Federal Service. Well, I mean, they could have updated those and republished Jacob: on their streaming platform Alex: because that's what I'm watching is their app. Josh: Yeah, maybe the point being, although he's covered by like classification issues and he helps write the classification guide for the UAP Task Force program. So he helped him and the director of the program helped determine what type of information they collect is and isn't classified and at what level is classified and how you can share it and disseminate it. Alex: Wow. Interesting. Josh: So given that knowledge and his non-disclosure agreements with both Brandon Fugal and History Channel and the UAP Task Force and the federal government, Jacob: That's what I was going to say this feels like conflicts of interest. Alex: Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare. Josh: But and they talk about it in one of these Q&As. But he did at times use his guilty knowledge when he could to help steer the experiments going on at the ranch. Jacob: Yeah. Alex: Interesting. Josh: And vice versa. So this guy, this man is committed. He's in it. Alex: Yeah, he was he appeared to be quite a skeptic before getting to the ranch. Josh: Yeah. But I mean, he published this book called like How to Defend the Earth from an Alien Invasion. Jacob: Right. He's written two pieces of science fiction. But that. Alex: Well, yeah, but it was science fiction. Jacob: Yes. Josh: He. Yeah. So so anyway, just it's fascinating. Fascinating people, fascinating characters, great backgrounds and knowledge. OK, the one thing I want to tell you? Can I? Alex: Better make it quick man. Jacob: Because I have to leave us on a cliffhanger. So you go. Josh: OK, OK. So forward looking infrared (FLIR) detects heat. Yeah? Alex: Right. Jacob: Yeah. Josh: OK. Homestead 2? Homestead 2? Jacob: Uhuh. Oh yeah. The epicenter. Alex: Mhm. Josh: So they put up two or they put a multiple forward looking infrared cameras on the mesa looking down at the front of Homestead to. Alex: Oh, OK. Josh: So basically looking like right at the front door. Alex: That's the reverse of what I've seen so far. Josh: OK, so now you're looking down at it. Yeah. Apparently there's some Jewish Rabbinic tradition. Jacob: Yes. We just watched this episode. This is the last episode we watched. Josh: So you know what I'm talking about? Jacob: Uh huh. Josh: OK. Some rabbinic tradition where they believe they have this thing that they call tonal technology. Technology in the terms of like the answer. Anthropology technology. Right. Alex: Yeah. Josh: So it's total technology where given the right, I'm assuming voice frequencies, analog frequencies and words and procedures. They believe they can open and close gates or portals to inner-dimensions. Alex: There was a horror game on the Nintendo Wii based on this a little bit. Josh: Oh, cool. Alex: Yeah. Josh: Jewish specifically? Alex: Yes, specifically Jewish mythology. Josh: So, OK, so that background, right? So they set up this safe place. Jacob: Again, it's part of the Jewish tradition behind this. Josh: Yeah. You create like a holy center where you can where you're safe and whatever you might invite. Jacob: Invite is also safe. Josh: In harmony. Oh, yeah. Jacob: So one last thing, just a cliffhanger to keep everyone interested in the development of Skinwalker Ranch. I might have some connections. One of my coworkers, he personally knows Cameron Fugal, Brandon Fugal's brother, who flies the helicopter in the show to get them to the ranch. Alex: Such a nice helicopter, oh my gosh. Josh: It's beautiful. Jacob: Let's see, Matt, my brother in law, Matt's dad knows Brandon Fugal professionally. So maybe not super close, but he probably has contact with the guy maybe. And last and best, Heather's uncle knows him, I assume, again, professionally, but professionally well enough that it's like personal terms now, too. Alex: Is this the one that's been invited on the ranch before? Jacob: He has been invited to Skinwalker Ranch. Josh: And accepted? Jacob: He has not taken Brandon up on the invitation yet. Josh: Standing invitation unfulfilled. Jacob: So I'll be working those contacts. See what I can do to get us on the ranch. Josh: Knock those doors. Make those cold calls. Jacob: Oh, yeah. Heather's uncle's is going to be my main approach here. Josh: Well, I sent a connection request on LinkedIn to Brandon. Jacob: You did? That's funny. I just- Alex: Oh wow! That's aggressive. Jacob: I just looked him up yesterday, too. Josh: I have 11 common contacts. Jacob: Oh, dang. I have five. But 11. Alex: That's right. That's right. Not as aggressive as I as I was thinking. Josh: Brandon, if your secretary or your executive assistant is listening to this, we should already be friends. We should already be connected. Jacob: Let's make this happen. Alex: You're right. I need to update my LinkedIn to say editor, producer, director, Another Brother. [00:20:45] Stewnerds! [00:20:52] Storytime Segment Soundbyte: Hey, kids, do you know what time it is? Story time! Alex: This is a mental health warning. If you are not comfortable with the subject of mental health, I don't recommend listening to this. I guess the the more important trigger warning is suicide trigger warning. That is going to be talked about a tiny bit. Not not a lot, you know, but there you go. So this story deals with a form of therapy that's relatively new to me called IFS, internal family systems. I'm going to try to give a brief overview of mental health journey and methods and stuff to this point, to where I started IFS as quickly as possible. This is just really rough. So for more than a decade, I have been doing talk therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy with the best in the business down in Provo Canyon Counseling. They're amazing. And I got a lot of benefit out of doing that. It helped me a lot with a lot of different things, how I viewed myself and dealing with depression and anxiety. But nevertheless, I never felt like I was really fully healed. So when I heard about EMDR, not very long ago, a handful of months ago, maybe, I don't know, six months ago, I wanted to give that a try. So I started EMDR. Josh: And that's the rapid eye movement. Alex: That's based on rapid eye movement, science, neuroscience, how the bilateral stimulation of the brain through the rapid movement of your eyes while sleeping allows the brain to sort memories, to put them away so that if you have PTSD, you're stuck in a memory. You have memories that are not being processed properly. And this helps you to process them, put them away and basically recover from PTSD. Sometimes EMDR isn't quite enough and you have something else in your way. If you go through enough trauma, your personality will go into subdivisions. And this this gets really weird and freaky. And I was hugely skeptical of this process. But if you go through enough trauma, you have these sub personalities within your psyche. And if it's really bad, that's where like multiple personality dissociative identity disorder comes from. Like those personalities get so separated from your core. That they can take over. And your core personality is basically unconscious for all of that time. That is not what this deals with. I do not have DID. Josh: Wait, so so D.I.D. being kind of the extreme. Where your sub personalities are in control of the show. And possibly switching who's in control when. OK. Alex: And like how you can be narcissistic without having narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissistic personality disorder is extreme. But lots of people have a little bit of narcissism. Jacob: OK. I see what you're saying. Got it. Alex: So my therapist, while we were doing some EMDR, he was helping me process a memory. And while we were doing the process, I don't think I have enough time to talk about EMDR as a process, unfortunately. But as we were doing that, I had imagery of an older me holding the hand of a very little me in this memory type state, going around and telling the bullies to piss off. Josh: Can I pause pause real quick? Alex: Yeah. Josh: So with EMDR, so as you're processing memories, it's like semi dreamlike state is for that part. And or is the therapist instructing you like, OK, now you're going to be in this memory as adult Alex. Alex: He did not say any of that. He said he basically said, think about this painful memory. And then he takes me through like slow taps is how we do it, where I have my arms crossed with hands on my biceps, basically. And I'll tap my right hand on my left arm, my left hand on my right arm, slowly back and forth while thinking about this memory. And as I do so, it starts to take on a life of its own as if I were dreaming. I'm fully conscious, fully awake. But the more I surrender to letting it just do what it's going to do, the better the outcome in my experience so far. Josh: So it happens that you you happened in this example of the memory. You happened to manifest yourself. Alex: It just happened on its own. Yeah. Josh: OK. Really interesting. Alex: So while we were doing that, he was like later, he was like, it looks to me like we might want to integrate some IFS into this process because it kind of just happened on its own. It looks like you might benefit from that. And I was like, I have no idea what that is, but I'm open to anything. So in a later session, he tells me what IFS is. And in my head, I think it's bullcrap. I am so skeptical of it. It sounds like another BS pseudo science. Josh: Visualization techniques. Alex: And visualization techniques have never meant anything to me. Like they just seem hokey and stupid to me. I know a lot of people get a lot of benefit out of it. And I wish that I had been one of those people, but it just always felt dumb and weird to me. But I was also open to anything to help make this work a little better. So he said he told me to find a painful memory that I wanted to work on, that I felt that maybe EMDR wasn't helping me with enough. So I thought of a memory. I closed my eyes just because I thought it was easier. And I pictured where I was during this memory, brought that into my mind very clearly. And I started playing the most painful part of the memory kind of on a loop. Jacob: Oh, that sounds rought. Alex: Almost like I was rough. Almost like in the movie Captain Marvel, when she's in that weird machine that the Skrulls put her in, that allow them to like rewind and watch her memories. There's a part of the memory where she's talking to. We don't know in spoiler alert for the movie. We don't know at the time that this lady that she worked with, that she test piloted with was an alien. But she was and they're trying to find this alien's name. She keeps turning around and that lady is there at the start of the memory again. And then she'll go through the whole memory and they'll say, no, we need more. And she turns around and there she is again. And she just keeps replaying the memory on a loop. Don't know why I brought that up. You guys aren't familiar with the scenes. Josh: The other gal's like an older, older, more white lady. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Jacob: Fun and great in a Marvel movie, but yeah, in real practice with it being a traumatic memory, that sounds rough. Alex: I mean, it was fine. You know, I just I guess I've got enough grit that I want to get this done that I don't care about what what it takes. But yeah, so I'm playing that most painful part on a loop and I'm I'm able to like kind of separate myself from it and focus on what I'm feeling. That's what he wants me to do. Start naming all of the emotions that I'm feeling. So I start listing off a bunch of things. And he's able to take that list of feelings and organize it into three groups. These three groups are based on the three types of sub personalities one can have within them in this model of mental health, internal family systems. The three types of sub personality are the exile. This is the core of the family system. Then there is the protector or manager. And finally, the firefighter or rescuer. The exile takes a wound from a trauma and says, I'm going to carry this so the core person doesn't have to. And they try to go and hide. The manager or protector splinters off from your personality and says, I'm going to help hide this person. I'm going to keep the core you from finding the exile to keep the exile safe so that the wound doesn't grow any bigger and to keep you from even noticing that there is a wound at all. The firefighter or rescuer's job is to deal with anything that might get past the manager to the exile. So they're literally putting out the fire of the exile, having to deal with some pain. And the point, again, is so that you don't have to notice the exile at all because the exile wants to stay hidden because it's managing your pain for you. It's a form of what's that word where you separate everything off compartmentalization. Josh: You might cut this, but it's not super related to what you want to tell. I'm just really curious, like, what is the biological imperative? Like, what is the biological damage? Alex: Survival. Jacob: Self preservation, right? Josh: So what survival? I mean, like biologically, what damage or threat to survival exists from a traumatic memory? Alex: I believe it's a fight or flight response. And unfortunately, because it's in the mind, there's nothing you can do about it. Jacob: Yeah. An unhealthy psyche will lead to an unhealthy everything else. Alex: So you just get in this adrenaline loop and the adrenaline, too much adrenaline causes a lot of damage to the body. Josh: It's dumping cortisol, which also has an impact on your testosterone. Alex: And, you know, I'm not a trained professional, so unfortunately, I don't. I don't know. Jacob: Right. Just slap a big asterisk on that. Alex: With with talk therapy you do a lot of talking about mental health and learning about mental health. It's almost like taking a private lesson in college about mental health, Jacob: like giving yourself the tools. Right? Alex: Right. But not just giving yourself the tools. It's literally learning psychology, how the mind works, why it works the way it does. But with this kind of therapy, it's very. It's more clinical. It's more, I guess you might even say surgical. It's more about doing the process than learning and talking. So we don't have time to really talk about why everything is the way it is. So I love it. Yeah. Jacob: Later. Alex: Yeah, maybe. Jacob: And that can be a Stewnerds segment. Alex: Sure. Josh: But in this case with IFS, you categorize the subpersonalities that exhibit themselves as you're processing this memory. Alex: Kind of. Yeah. So I'm listing out the emotions and he's able to say that emotion belongs to an exile, that emotion belongs to a manager, that one to a firefighter. And then he says, OK, I want you to focus on this emotion, which is an exile emotion. As we do this, someone's going to come out of the woodwork to stop you from reaching the exile. Jacob: That's right. Alex: That's the point. We need to get all of the firefighters and the managers to trust us and what we're doing to let us in to the exile. Then we have to win the exile's trust. Jacob: OK, so that. OK, OK. So you're getting the trust of the people protecting you so that you can eventually get to the exile and and turn it. Alex: and talk to the exile and see what they need to heal. And heal that exile. Jacob: Got it. Cool. Alex: What? Josh: Can you visualize a wound for the exile? Alex: Oh, don't worry. Josh: Can it always be an arrow in the knee? Jacob: No way, did you get to an exile? Alex: I did! Jacob: Oh, OK, let's go! Alex: I've talked to an exile. So, Josh: Which just earlier this week you had not yet. Alex: Correct. This so this happened on Friday. Jacob: Yeah. Alex: Two days ago. So this first session of IFS, I'm I'm concentrating on this emotion that he told me to. And he says, find where it is in your body, find where you feel this emotion in your body. Jacob: Which is an interesting thing to me. Alex: I know. Well, like my body has always been like breaking and malfunctioning, and I've never been particularly coordinated or athletic. That marching band story, that's the most athletic I've ever been. Josh: That's dang it. Buttons. That's because you're this is your next life. And before you used to be a smaller person. Alex: Oh, right. Josh: So you're just not used to this body yet. Alex: Right. Josh: That's what Button says. Alex: Oh is it? Josh: Yeah because he's a big guy. And really, oafy. Jacob: Oh, OK. Alex: I see. OK. So anyway, yeah, it was kind of weird for me trying to find the emotion in my body. But I did. I found it kind of like right right above my sternum. This is where I felt any kind of physical sensation with the emotion. So I concentrated on that spot and on the emotion and the place where I was in the memory. Josh: Sorry, Alex is pointing to his sternum like that. Like dead center. Alex: Just above my sternum. Yeah. I mean, I did say it. Jacob: Yeah. Josh: I'm sorry. There's so much editing for this. Alex: It's all good. So I focus on it. And as I do, the place where I'm at in the memory, which is a real physical place, you know, just like where I was when this event took place for real skis, it morphs and stretches into a long, dark hallway. And I just know that the exile is at the end of that hallway. It does this on its own. I swear I am not trying to make anything happen because I'm super skeptical of this entire thing. So I'm trying to follow the emotion. I feel like I'm being pulled down the hallway through a string coming out of my sternum where that where I feel that pain, like I can feel like a strand coming out of it. And I'm like trying to pull myself down this strand, which is exactly how a high level spell in D&D works. You can you can separate your astral form from your body. And there's a tether, an astral tether between your astral form and your body back to your body, back to your body. But that tether can be severed and then you're screwed. But anyway, so I didn't even think about that until right now. So I don't know why this imagery came to my mind. Josh: But what if a protector tries to sever your tether? Alex: I'm sure you'd be fine. As long as you don't leave this plane of existence you'll be fine. Josh: Yeah. No Doctor Strange stuff going on. Alex: So I'm following it. And I don't get particularly far when someone steps out into the hallway from a room that's attached to the hallway. And strangely, he looks a lot like Eddie Munson from Stranger Things four, the hairband, Metallica, slowing D&D Dungeon Master from season four of Stranger Things. Josh: Who, by the way, sacrifices himself. Alex: He does. True that. Spoiler alert again. Jacob: Good call though. Alex: Wow lots of Spoiler alerts here this week. Josh: That's like three- Oh good point though Jacob: Yeah. If you're not up on season four- Josh: that's that's what I mean. You know, Eddie Munson. Legit character just puts himself on the line. Ultimate sacrifice to protect everyone else. Alex: I'm really sad he's gone. I would love to get a lot more. Jacob: But you never know. Right. No, there's no way they're bringing him back after Billy or Bobby. Billy, Bobby Brown? Bobby, Billy, Bobby? Josh: Bobby Billy Brown. The actress that plays Eleven. Jacob: Millie Alex: Millie Bobby Brown. Thank you. Good grief. After Millie Bobby Brown complained that they don't have the balls to kill off characters completely, there there's no way they're bringing him back. But I loved. I loved that character. Josh: Wow. Nice for you, Millie. You know you're safe. Jacob: Yeah you're Eleven! Josh: Your position is secured! Alex: You just killed- Josh: -these people's jobs. Yeah. It's not like they're going to pay him a severance package. Alex: So this character steps out. I'm like, OK, this is weird, whatever. And I tell my therapist that this person has stepped out and this is what it looks like. He's like, cool, great, awesome. Ask him what his name is. I'm like, what are you talking about? This is ridiculous. But in my head, I'm like, OK, what's your name? And what I feel like I hear is like chuckling. Stoner. I'm like, what the crap? No, no, no, no, no. First, first off, the sensation of hearing that at all was absolutely bizarre because I knew it came from in my mind, but did not come from me. Huh. But I'm like, no, your name cannot be Stoner. That doesn't make any sense. I've never used recreational drugs of any kind. Why would there be a subpersonality named Stoner inside of me? What is your name? And after a little while, he finally relented and said, Steve. So I told my therapist that his name was Stoner Steve. And he's like, awesome. Writing that down. Josh: Just so weird. Jacob: So good. Josh: Since you remember him looking like Eddie, but his name didn't come out as Eddie. Alex: Not exactly. Josh: But enough for you to make that connection, you know. But like it's a totally non connected name. Alex: Honestly, yes, this gets a little bit weird and might be uncomfortable for people in the family. I don't know. Honestly, I think it might be Uncle Steve. But dressed like he was an 80s- Jacob: Glam rocker. Alex: -glam rock fan. Which he might have been. I don't know. So he my therapist says, ask him how old he is. Ask him how old he thinks you are. And some other questions. And I ask him these things, none of which he doesn't know how old I am. He doesn't know where I'm at in life. Josh: That's weird. Alex: He thinks I'm stuck back in this memory, basically, which is probably to be expected. That's when he's splintered off from the core is when I was about that age. Jacob: That's his only frame of reference of time. Alex: And he's been busy with other things. He's he asks me to ask him what his job used to be, because something I haven't explained yet is these sub personalities are not just ethereal personalities. They were a part of your original functionality as a human being. They had a purpose. They they are literally a part of you. And since losing that personality, that part of your functionality has diminished. So I ask him and he says, I'm your smarts, man. Like, OK, can you be a little more specific? That could mean a few things. He's like, you know what I'm talking about. I mean, your ability to make connections between things that seem like they're not related, but totally are. I mean, your ability to learn things because that was how you learned things was making these weird connections. I'm your smarts. I'm your intelligence. And I was like, yeah, I guess I do know what you mean. So, you know, I tell my therapist, you're always telling your therapist all of these interactions. I'm supposed to thank him for everything that he's done for me. Show him a lot of appreciation and love and compassion and ask him if this new job is really what he wants to be doing. And it's not it's never what these sub personalities want to be doing. Josh: They don't get paid enough. Alex: Yeah. No one ever. They don't, like their job is to stay hidden. You know, it's like a media tech. Josh: You can't get promoted. You just get yelled at. Alex: Which is why the the whole model is called internal family systems, because principles of family therapy apply to these personalities within you. It's absolutely bizarre. Josh: Oh. I was wondering about that. OK. Alex: You need to be basically you need to be like the older sibling or the dad or the mom and love these parts, lead them when they need it, which we'll get to in a little bit. Jacob: It's wild. Alex: So I'm thinking, you know, blah, blah, blah. We end the session. In another session, we ask Steve if he could introduce me to another part that he knows. Oh, by the way, for anybody that's really interested in all of this, the book on IFS written by the doctor that came up with it is called No Bad Parts or No Bad Part. I can't remember which. I think his name is Schwartz. Jacob: I've watched some videos on YouTube now, and he always refers to them as parts. Alex: Yeah. Parts. Mm hmm. Steve, I'm back in that hallway, basically, with Steve, and he kind of holds out his hand and this little kid comes out into the hallway. He looks like he's between four and six years old. He's wearing a pale blue onesie footy pajama type thing and has a teddy bear. And Steve kind of puts his arm around him as the kid like sort of hugs his leg. I'm like, what the freak? This is so weird. Josh: Steve, when did you get a family? Alex: When the trauma happened to me, that's when he got a family. So I ask this little kid all of the same questions I asked Steve. His name is Patrick. Jacob: Patrick. Alex: Don't know why. He's a very sad, pitiful little guy. He thinks he's six years old. He thinks I'm six or seven. He doesn't know which. And he was the part of me that saw everybody as a friend in potentia. I used to when I was a lot younger. I didn't look at people the same way I look at them now. Literally, everyone was just a friend that I didn't know yet. I guess you could say I was a lot like Chris Traeger Parks and Rec. Josh: Anne Perkins! Alex: In that in that regard, anyway. Jacob: Are these parts the age that you were when the trauma that they're associated to happen? Alex: Yeah. So I don't know for a fact. That's what makes it. Jacob: So was Steve like a teenager? Alex: Steve was 17 and thought I was 14. Jacob: Thought you were 14. How interesting. Alex: He specifically wanted to be a little older than me. To be like, which is why, which is why my mind thought this is Eddie Munson, because all of his friends were younger than him. And he felt a need to like take care of them and teach them. Jacob: And yeah. OK. Josh: And he's a manager slash protector. Alex: Correct. Josh: So that makes sense. Alex: Yeah. This little guy, Patrick, he's a firefighter. He's the part of me. So he was the part of me that wanted to be friends with everybody. You might say he's my charity. But his current job was he was basically the part of me saying, this is too much. It's time to kill yourself. Just a very unwise, juvenile, illogical response. To what's going on. Jacob: Just a kid who doesn't have any other ways to handle things. Alex: So, yeah, it's time to make this all stop. Which I've come to learn now after getting into the exile that they're part of a family with that a lot of my anxiety just in general came from Patrick. But- Jacob: So these two are two our partners. Alex: Yeah. Jacob: He's the manager there and the firefighter for the same exile. Alex: As far as I understand so far, there's still a lot I don't understand, because as I said, we don't get to talk about the science of all of this and how it really works. You're in a family system. That's it. You don't really know other systems. I might be wrong about that. Josh: Like on a memory by memory basis or emotion by emotion basis? Alex: The problem with PTSD is that it's like a concussion. You get PTSD and other experiences in life later that shouldn't necessarily be traumatic are traumatic. So you you have a bad enough trauma to begin with. And future things- Jacob: You're more prone,. Alex: -a lot easier to be traumatized- Jacob: Oh, wow. Alex: -In the future. Jacob: That's another unfortunate response. Alex: And that's because of these personalities. They're just like primed for like, oh, that's not good. I need to do something about that. Where if they weren't there to begin with, that reaction wouldn't be there. And that less traumatic memory might not have been traumatic at all. Interesting. I think that's when you're dealing with CPTSD, complex post-traumatic stress disorder. So we talked to Patrick and I'm trying to ask him to please stop what he's doing. I appreciate everything he's done. You have to go in with a lot of appreciation and thankful. Josh: What has he done?? What has that guy done? I'm sorry. Alex: He's had good intentions of trying to keep me safe from pain, even if it was really destructive and hurtful. But he was doing his best. Jacob: I'm sure you thank him for the main function that he had been performing up to that point, too, right? Like you were so good at making me friendly. Alex: I actually know I haven't done any of that. Jacob: Remind them how good they were at their job! Alex: I have done that later. When it was time to start really winning them over. But at this point, I'm like, I know you care. It's it's been great that you've been caring and doing your best. Would you mind, please, not doing this anymore and maybe returning to your old job? And he's like, Oh, I don't know if I can do that. I got it. This is a big deal. OK, well, I really appreciate it if you stopped. Josh: Your way of going about things is kind of counterproductive there, bud. Alex: But yeah, but that's kind of the response to be expected until the exile has been healed. Jacob: Oh, right, right, right. Because they can't stop until- Alex: Mm hmm. Y Jacob: Yeah. OK. Alex: In another session, I decide that I want to try moving on to a different network or a different family system. What I think in my head is a different family system. And I think this because I don't know who the exile involved with these two really is. I think I do, but I don't. And I oh, right. We asked Steve what he thought I needed in life. And he said that I needed more music. So in another session, I said, OK, let's maybe try leaving them alone. And I have huge anxiety when it comes to practicing at home. I just can't do it. Josh: Which I remember you getting a mute for your trumpet. Alex: A couple of years ago? Josh: No. At home. Alex: Oh, well, I mean, you just have a mute because sometimes the music calls for a mute. Jacob: It's a different function. It doesn't just make it quieter. Josh: It is to make it quiter! Alex: It's to change the sound entirely. It does make it quieter. But I think the point of it is the sound it makes, it really changes the the timbre of the instrument. Larissa did get me a practice mute, an electric practice mute that has a microphone inside. And really, it doesn't mute everything, but it makes it a lot quieter. And somehow you have this thing plugged into a tiny little analog, digital, digital, analog converter. Josh: Oh, ADC. Alex: Yes, a DAC. Yeah. Digital analog converter. And it's able to take the weird sound that that microphone is probably hearing and turn it into totally naturally sounding trumpet and add a couple of different types of reverb to it. So if you want to sound like you're in a really big hall, you can. If you want to sound like you're in a practice room, you can. But it wasn't enough. I thought that would fix everything. No one's going to hear me practice. It's great. But no, there's just this anxiety I can't overcome. So I'm like, OK, let's let's figure this out. If I need more music, let's figure this out so I can play the trumpet again. And we go to a memory. We list out emotions. He says, go after this emotion. I focus on it and another figure comes out, but it's a lot more nebulous. I can't really see much of anything. Something in my brain says that this is that this might be a girl that I knew in high school. And so I ask, is this your name? Jacob: In band, right? Alex: Yeah. That I know in band. I ask, is this your name? And she doesn't talk with words like Steve did. Josh: They never do. Jacob: Josh.... Alex: OK, so that's another part. And I thought she was in a different network. It turns out she's in the same network as these other guys. Jacob: Oh, is she do you know her role yet? Alex: So she is now the part of me that makes me feel anxiety over practicing to protect me from being judged for practicing because practice always sounds bad. Jacob: So she the exile? Alex: No, no. She's she makes me feel the anxiety that protects the exile. Jacob: Sorry Alex: To keep me from practicing. So he doesn't. So I don't have to end up. Jacob: So she's a firefighter? Alex: No, no, because she she doesn't react to the exile feeling pain. She keeps the exiles and feeling the pain. OK, OK. I know it's hard to keep straight. But she was the part of me that connected my creativity with my emotions that brought my emotions into my creativity, which is probably why I can't do a lot of creativity without just crying anymore. Like I go from zero to 100 real fast. Josh: You've been on point with Minecraft, though. Have you been crying while you're playing Minecraft? Alex: No, No. Josh: It's just so beautiful! Alex: Because it's emotionless. That's emotionless creativity. Josh: Okay. I mean, mine isn't, but I understand. Alex: Yeah, if she were more integrated, I think I'd probably be able to put more emotion into like, I don't know, when I sing at church or, you know, other things without not being able to handle it at all and just crying, which still happened even when she was probably integrated. But anyway, so that was another part this Friday. A couple of days. Jacob: Yes. Yes. Alex: I say, I don't know what I want to do. And he's like, well, you feel good about Steve and Patrick. And how will you know them? Like, yeah, I do, actually. Oh, a quick and weird anecdote that has helped me gain more of a relationship with Steve. Larissa and I were out for a walk and I see some flowers and I'm thinking out loud, man, I used to know what those flowers were called. I really like them. And Larissa says, well, why don't you ask Steve? And so Larissa is my wife. So it's OK. How about it, Steve? What's it called? And immediately the answer came, Laetrice Picatta. And I immediately knew it was right, too. I had learned that in a class in college. Josh: Which class was that? Alex: Floral Design. Josh: Floral Design. OK. Just wanted to get that out there. Jacob: Hey. two out of the three of us took it. So. Josh: Yep. Wanted to get that out there, too. Okay. Alex: Yeah. I mercilessly made fun of Jacob for taking that class. I was a different person and I feel really bad about it now. Josh: I still feel great. Alex: I don't love everything about that person I used to be. But yeah, it was a fun class. I don't remember most of the flower names anymore, though. Josh: Yet. Alex: But that that one could come. It's true. If I can fully integrate Steve back into my mind, maybe I'll remember a lot more. That's my hope anyway. Yeah, I feel like I've been getting dumber and dumber for quite a few years now. So I'm hoping that with that, but. Jacob: Before you go full blown, full blown Jim Carrey on us. Alex: So I say, yeah, I think I feel comfortable with these guys and he's like, well, do you want to see if they'll let you talk to the exile today? I was like, oh, snap. OK. Yeah. Let's let's try it. Josh: Hold on let me get my Game face on. Alex: Why not? Let's try it. So I get back to where I can see and talk to Steve and Patrick, and I'm asking them how they feel about me talking to the exile. Do they have any questions about what might happen? They were both cool with it. So I find that that sensation again, that feeling based on that emotion, follow it to the end of that hallway. And I find the exile and I'm not going to get into the imagery because I feel like it's a little too intense. But this part doesn't have a different name. They just say they're Alex, which is apparently pretty normal. And it does look like me a little different, but I'm not going to get into it. And my therapist asked me where he is and he says, can you get down there with him? So I already was. So I said, I already am. He says, OK, will he let you hold him again? This is all about like family therapy stuff. It feels weird to be doing it with yourself, honestly. But I think the weirdest thing of all is that they don't feel like they're coming from you. These parts, they really do feel distinct and different. And like they have their own minds, but that they really are a part of you. At the same time, it's a very, very surreal. It's hard to explain. Anyway, I'm holding this part and my therapist asks, like I ask him all the same questions, age, what he's doing, what he was doing. He was my imagination and creativity. That's what he was doing for me. But he took the wound to keep me safe. My therapist asks if I can see the wound or ask him to show me the wound. So he does show me. And it's this almond or narrow football shaped wound right at the sternum, right where I felt that emotion that led me. Yeah, it was really weird. It was just like this open wound. It didn't really look like it was like bloody or anything. It more looked like a hole, like a black void. And my therapist tells me to ask him where he wants to go to be healed, and he wants to go to my high school band room. So so we go there and he wants my old band director, Mr. Pham, in his office while we're doing this. And I tell my therapist that and he's like, I was just about to ask if he was going to ask for any assistance of any kind. He tells me to ask him what he needs to be healed. How does he want to be healed? And apparently normal answers are water, fire, light, things of that nature. But I knew that wasn't going to be it. I kind of knew right away what he wanted. He wanted me to put the bell of my trumpet over the wound and play a solo that I had my senior year. That solo was in a song written after. I can't remember which school shooting incident he wanted to create a song to heal that community. I think it was Columbine. Josh: I think that was the one. Alex: So the song is called An American Elegy. Josh: Oh, I know that song. Alex: He went to the high school. He talked to people. He wanted to use part of their fight song, the high school's fight song in the song. They didn't have one. So he wrote them one and then put it in bits and pieces into the the final song. There are a few solos in it, two trumpet solos, both of which I had. One is barely a solo at all. It's a single note that I mean, it is a solo. It stands out above everyone, but it's pretty fleeting. There is an oboe solo that is actually I think there's only one oboe solo. The oboe solo is supposed to be a sibling of someone who died in the shooting, praying to ask if their sibling is OK now. You know, like, are they in heaven? Are they safe? Are they happy? Are they OK? And the second trumpet solo is the response, and it is supposed to be played off stage. It gives it this omnidirectional and also distant sound. It was a difficult thing for me. I felt a lot of pressure just because of that imagery. It was a very meaningful solo for me. That's what this part wanted me to do, to heal it. So I go to my locker, I get out my trumpet, put the bell right over the wound, I play the solo. And it heals him like I don't know how to describe it, really. It just it just does. And he's happy. He's smiling. I ask him if he can feel safe going back to what he was doing before. And he says that he's going to, you know, give it a shot. He'll do what he can. And I bring everyone else in to the memory, the Steve and Patrick and family hug. That's what he told me to do. But it was high fives. Josh: I was going to say and Pham is backing up like, uhhh. Alex: No, Pham was more like he wasn't really there. He was- Jacob: In his office you said. Alex: It was it was more like, it was it was it was more like a like a warding spell. And he was just he was there and that made him feel safe. But high fives all around. Everybody's happy. We're going to we're going to get back to work doing what we're supposed to be doing. And life is life has felt very different since then. But you kind of expect like this beam of light on your life. That's like, oh, I feel so magical. And that's not really what it feels like. It feels it does feel way better, but it's normal because these are your parts. They're just getting back to work. It feels normal, but different at the same time. Josh: Maybe like a little more capacity. In certain areas. Alex: Yeah. Jacob: Fogs removed. Alex: And like almost an entire lack of anxiety. So far. Jacob: Geeze. That would be amazing. Alex: And I thought it would be startling and like how it have these really positive feelings constantly welling up inside of me. But I don't. It just feels totally cool. Totally normal. So far, you know, it's only been a couple of days. Jacob: Yeah Josh: I think I think that's a I think that's a testament to what really is the reality of like the principles line up online, precept upon precept. Like there aren't- or it's almost like the big revelatory type moments are fleeting. Like it's not a persistent benefit. And I think the long the lasting things are the ones that are just precipitously- Jacob: Yeah. Alex: Yeah. This this isn't the like I said a little bit before, this isn't the end of these parts, and it may not even be the end of the healing needed for these parts, because now that the exile is healed, there may be some EMDR work that needs to be done to help process some of the memories that caused the trauma in the first place. Really help kind of put it to bed. And yeah, they don't cause the memories to get stuck. Right. But they can keep you from processing those memories anyway. They can get in the way of your EMDR, which is why these two systems often go together. Jacob: So have you done anything creative in the last two days since the exile has been healed? Alex: I cooked all day on Saturday, the day after. I was really anxious about it. So from time to time, I like- Larissa and I like to have siblings, parents over for a four or five course Italian style meal. Still haven't had you guys over yet. I struggle with the vegetarian menu. Josh: Oh, I mean, I would pressure you into just making us something, but it's been hard to get away from any of the kids. Or all the kids. Alex: Right. But, you know, mom and dad are in town now, so hopefully they'd be able to do babysitting for you at some point. Yeah. Larissa got me a book that's considered like the American Bible on Italian cooking, but it's not just about Italian cooking. It's about Italian food as an experience. It's how you design a menu correctly, where all the dishes have some connecting theme between them, whether that's an ingredient or the season that the ingredients come from, which is normally how Italians cook anyway. Josh: Please tell me it's risotto. Alex: Oh, I can totally make you guys a risotto. I was planning on doing a mushroom risotto, but then you said more mushrooms. Vegetarians eat so many mushrooms. I'm trying to mushroom. Josh: Ew they do. Alex: "Can it be tofu?" Josh: Oh, no, I hate tofu! Alex: Oh ok. Yeah. So we were going to have we had Larissa's a pair of Larissa's siblings over sister and brother in law over on Saturday for her half birthday. And they're big foodies. These guys travel a lot. He's a producer now. He was in Italy not too long ago, like doing some location scouting. Josh: Oh, interesting. Alex: For a movie. I'm like, oh, great. And and he really knows how to cook, too. There are a lot of things that he cooks really well. So I was like, freaking crap. This is this is stressful. Jacob: Pressure. Alex: I planned a menu that I thought was going to be amazing. And I thought I totally had it in the bag. I did not. But I was really anxious until that session. I was like, no worries, bro. I got this. I tried to make ???? for the first time. Did not go well. I should have been panicking. I didn't. I just said this isn't working, so we're going to skip this course. And it doesn't matter what else I made. Everything else after that was really good. And it was really fun. Jacob: And anxious free. Alex: Yeah. Anxiety free. Anxiety free. But standing on the hard kitchen floor all day for those six hours with four of the hours being really intense in the kitchen, juggling all of the dishes, cooking at the same time, juggle dishes. You're going to try to keep everything cooking at the same time. But so that this finishes at the right time. And then we can just move into this course while also trying to chat with everybody. And- Josh: oh, they were over. They were over while you're- Alex: We put this table in the kitchen to have like a chef's table kind of experience where I'm cooking and talking with everybody at the same time. We're drinking apple and grape Martinelli's eating bread when there's nothing. No other dish on the table at the time, which is what you're supposed to do it. You're supposed to take two hours at least to eat and chat and just let things cook well. And while they're cooking, you're talking, you're chatting, you're enjoying yourselves. Jacob: You experience the whole thing. Josh: Apperetivo. Alex: That's like an opener. Yeah, I did that for six hours. I really enjoyed it, even though it was also really stressful. But the stress was just the stress was only I want to make something really good for you guys. Not if I don't make something really good for you guys, you're going to hate me and I'm going to die. Jacob: Yeah. Because most people would have stress in a situation like this anyway. Alex: Right. Jacob: So it's getting back to a more normal, emotional state. Alex: Normal stress. Yeah. Normal. Not anxiety. Not anxiety. Jacob: And I was telling Lizzie the other day, I feel like this is something she needs to explore. That's for her to decide obviously. Alex: Right. Yeah. She's totally aware of it. Like she's she's talked to people that have done it besides me. It kind of freaks her out a little bit. Jacob: She seemed she seemed more open and receptive. Alex: She did recently ask me where I go for this. For the for IFS. So hopefully she'll she's looking into it. I think probably. Jacob: Audrey, Heather's sister. You know, she's a marriage and family therapy therapist. She she practices IFS. She loves it. It's good stuff. It really is. She loves EMDR, but she hasn't been able to, like, get certified or take courses on that yet. But she thinks they're amazing therapies. Alex: Like, I can't believe it's been a little more than a month, and I'm already seeing huge gains in in in healing. Like I was doing CBT for over a decade. And didn't get this much. Jacob: The strides you're taking now. Alex: Which is not anything wrong with CBT. It's just it wasn't the right treatment for what was going on for me. Josh: And maybe it was right at the time. And it like, you know, helped prepare your mental landscape. Alex: Yeah it helped sustain me. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It did. Yeah. It did open my mind a lot. Josh: Because a part of me wonders, too, like, so the first things you're unlocking. I don't know how to speak clinically. Are centered on creativity. And you've been very creativity focused in the last few months. Alex: That's true. That might have something to do with that. Josh: So I wonder if that helped prime the pump and everything. Jacob: Honestly, your entire life also, though. ***Visit our website to see the rest of this episode's transcript***