Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week, at my dining table and the illustrious card
table in the creative house where Rhett, I see you're sitting. Yes, once again. Yes, once again. We're gonna dive into a number of topics that you have dictated in response to a prompt that we put out across the universe. I mean, when you put prompts out there, it's like, hey guys, do you
have any questions for us? I wonder if aliens are
like tempted to respond. You know, it's like if there
are aliens with a capacity to monitor everything we're doing. Are they like man, I
really want to respond. And if they do, could
they be using an alias as one of these people? I don't know, we can assess that. Well, from a physical
limitations standpoint, if they wanted to respond, I mean, the best technology that
we have at this point can only move information
at the speed of light. So if they do respond, it's
gonna be years from now and it will be irrelevant. Now if they are here. Oh, you're assuming that they have the
limitations that we have. Well, no, I mean, they may be here in some form or fashion, or they may have a way to
monitor us even from a distance in a way that we don't. So in that case, they could respond.
They could also communicate with us,
yeah, instantaneously. My mind's really, in the world of aliens, because even though I read
"The Three-Body Problem", then I read the sequel, "Dark Forest", and then I was like, you know what? This is too bleak and it's too heady and it's too much, I can't do it. And then I realized that
I've been paying for Audible and I'd forgotten that I should
listen to some audio books. You said that you listened to books while you you're walking
around the neighborhood. And I was like, I should give that a try. And so I downloaded the third book, the final book in the trilogy. I've been listening to that. It may, I mean, I can
walk for a long time. Like I'm walking like over an hour 'cause I'm just walking as
a way to listen to a book. I don't even know where I am. Yeah and you get so many more books and I use the term read, I don't care. When somebody says, I don't specify, I'm listening to a book. I'm like, I'm reading a book
because I mean, who am I? I'm not a guy that listens to books. No, actually I am. And I've gotten through so
many more books than normal just because I've been walking so much. Do you walk slower or faster
when it gets more intense or is it irrespective? Irrespective, I walk more
like what you're saying, when I want to keep listening. In fact, last night I finished
a book that was great. And this one took me like five
days of walking to finish. What book? So it was a pretty short book. It's called, "The Stranger in the Woods." You remember we did that, I would have made this a
wreck in a subsequent episode, so now you're stealing it from me. We did that episode on GMM about hermits or weird people, I don't know what it was, it was back in the day and we talked about the North Pond Hermit, the guy who lived next
to that lake in Maine and was isolated, by himself,
with no human contact-- That is what isolation means. Except for one-- You could be isolated
with people, I guess. Except for one interaction in 27 years and he's thought to be a person who was the most isolated person in
human history potentially. Which I think is what we titled the video back when we did those types of videos. It's an incredible story of a journalist who wanted to--
Track him down? Interact with this guy. No, no, no. It's after he got arrested
again and, you know, because he was stealing from everybody. Right. I was like, why is this
book rated so highly? And then I, well I learned by reading it, AKA listening to it because it's an incredibly introspective, like the journalist is very introspective and the way that he explores
the concept of isolation. And hermitage, if that's a word. Hmm. It's only like a six hour listen-- And it's a good time to read it. When you're trying to gain
some sort of, what's the word-- Perspective? No, like a connection to this guy who's done this there's comradery. Like, hey, I'm not
alone in these feelings. His level of isolation, the funny thing is it not at
one point during the book, did it strike me that I was doing anything remotely close to
what this guy was doing. Did that help or was it, didn't matter? No, it didn't matter. It's just, it's touching. In fact.
Wow. At the end, like I'd walked
for four and a half miles last night listening to this book and I was coming up to my house and I was like, I don't really want to, I can look at my I'm listening
to the book on my watch. I don't even have my
phone, it's just my watch and my headphones. And I'm like, there's 15 minutes left, I went and sat on my front steps and then I just began to weep. Really? There's a moment at the end where-- Oh, don't spoil it. Where it will make you
cry if you have a heart. What do you mean? You don't know if I have a heart? I'm just saying for all
the people out there, not everybody cries at everything. Rhett, no one's listening
to this conversation. It's just me and you, man. And I do have-- I didn't plan on talking about that. I was gonna make it a rec for later because "The Stranger in the Woods", "The Stranger in the
Woods", I think it's called. So where do you land right now on podcasts versus audio books. And how are you navigating that? 'Cause I know you like
listening to podcasts too and if you get on a good series? Yeah. And see for me, my thing is always about like, am I gonna listen to music? 'Cause I'm, you know, or am
I gonna listen to a podcast? And now am I gonna listen to an audio? I think audio book has
taken the place of podcasts for me at this moment. Yeah. Well it, you know, for some reason, because
I listen to podcasts a lot and I listen to them,
especially while driving. I was already listening
to a lot of audio books, but slowly audio books have
sort of pushed podcast out. But it's an interesting dynamic
because I also listen to, I don't listen to music when I work out. Most people do. Most people need some kind of music and I understand that-- Some BPM. baby. But I'm just like, I kind of want what I get from
the book or from the podcast more than I want the feeling
that the music gives me when I'm working out and some books can get too complex to listen to while you're like. Well, you have to be present. I mean, you have to be
embodied to really work out 'cause as opposed to walking. I think that it could be dangerous. But I do both. I still do more audio book listening while working out than podcasts, but I find that podcast because there sort of a
lighthearted conversation most of the time, you can kind of tune in and tune out and it is better for working out, but-- I can't count to 10, like I couldn't count reps and listen to the book I'm listening to. I mean, it's a very complex book and I'm not that complex of a guy, so I really gotta apply myself. If I had to count to 10,
three times in a row, I couldn't do it. Which reminds me of meditation. There's a thing in
meditation where it's like, you count your breaths
and when you get to 10, you start over, most of the time I don't ever get to 10, the first time. You know? I definitely couldn't-- Yeah, it's very difficult. I don't want to be trying
to do my reps, anyway. Or sometimes I'll find myself in the teens and I'll be like, oh, you're
supposed to start over. Yeah.
That happens sometimes too, Because you can count on autopilot unless you're doing bench presses.
Two quick things though. Two quick things before
we get into the real deal. Take all the time you need. First thing is I want
to acknowledge the fact that this is very likely unforeseeable circumstances
not withstanding. Fingers crossed. That we will do the
podcast separate, right? So we actually-- The last split screen podcast. We can break this to you, Ear Biscuiteer, because you're gonna
find out tomorrow anyway if you listen to this when it comes out, but we actually went back into the studio, just the two of us--
No, no, this comes out Monday, along with the episode,
they're at the same time. Oh, yeah, on Monday, not on Sunday. So, no one's finding anything out. Yeah, so the episode of GMM that you could watch today, if you're listening to this
on Monday when it comes out, you'll see that it's just, it's me and Link and Stevie in the studio, because the three of us
have been in quarantine and we have determined
that it is safe for us to get together and
shoot the show together and that's the way we're gonna do it until we hear further
information that will allow us to bring in a few more people and social distance and
masks and all that stuff. So along with that, we will be going back into the Ear Biscuit Studio with the Round Table of Dim Lighting.
Hallejuah! So the echo that you hear, especially on my side will be gone. The USB audio quality, which I've seen some audiophiles
actually complain about because we're using these USB mics, that'll be gone. We're going XLR all the way, all the time. Mm-hmm. So we'll be back to the way it should be. The way it needs to be.
And we can smell each other. Don't forget about that. That's the biggest part.
We can smell each other. I was gonna let you mention that. We can see each other directly versus through screens.
And there will be no delay. And we have shot, so yesterday we went in and we shot, a few episodes of GMM with Stevie and it was a joy, was it not? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was, I mean, I think I said it in
one of the episodes that like, I had a hard time
sleeping the night before, 'cause I was so excited about it. But I was also nervous because it was just the
three of us in charge of a lot of technical things. But Morgan Mogan had set up
this amazing system with GoPros covering the space and
shooting the settings panel on like the audio output and where Stevie would
sit and kind of control and maintain all of these things. And so they were all on, Morgan and the rest of the crew that was needed for all the episodes they were monitoring live
and communicating with us, even though we were the only three people, we were the six hands for the, who knows how many people were watching in addition to-- But five cam for like our traditional five camera set up
running at the same time, our audio feed coming from the mic and being monitored by Chris, our audio guy, who was
watching a video feed of just the wave forms or
just the audio kit basically. It was an incredible system and-- And it was demanding.
We sent it to the crew. We sent it to the crew, but it was like one of the things that
we've said multiple times is how easy they make it for
us when we're in the studio. Well, they actually made it easy for us when they weren't in the studio. Now, there was a lot of like moving parts and cleaning up and stuff that we normally don't
have to worry about. Yeah. But it was still, I mean,
you'll be able to see when you see these episodes,
next week's episodes, which is still just three a week for now. You can say today's episode. Yeah, this week's episode. There's a joy.
We were having a good time. Yeah, there's a palpable joy-- Having a good time. I was so relieved that the system worked and then we got, you know, there was a couple of
hitches at the beginning with getting everything booted up and all the cameras to wake up. But then, and there were
there creative limitations when it's just the three of us there. I'm so appreciative to the extended team and I mean, you'll be
able to see the difference in this week's episodes. And again, it's still just three of them. We're gonna go to five as soon as we can, but that's not this week as
you're listening to this fresh. But yeah, it was great to be in the space and afterwards the thing that
I Slacked out to the team and that I was reflecting. It's funny because as I
was driving home yesterday, having recorded the
episodes in the studio, I started listening to the audio book because I'm so hooked on this story, I just want to keep going, but then I was like, you know what? I'm gonna pause this and I'm gonna reflect
on what happened today. And so on the ride home, which was a lot shorter, 'cause ain't nobody on the freeway still. I just took that time
just to stop and celebrate the fact that we did it. I mean, so by the time I got home, I was able to convey what I
appreciated myself to the team and that was, it was the experience
of being behind the desk and for us to like be in the same space and to make the show and
it was the most normal that I felt since being in quarantine. I mean, it was just, it was refreshing, it was relieving, it was like a sigh of
relief to drive into work and to do it and then to drive back home. It felt so like it used to be and then when I got home, I entered back into a space where no one else was feeling that and we're navigating all the challenges of the accumulation of isolation and frustration, and how
all that comes out sideways. But I had more in my tank than I've had in a really long time, because just of the sense
of normalcy is so powerful. Well, it's funny you talk
about that transition from basically going to
work for the first time. I mean, we've been working, but the whole idea of
going into the studio, and getting back into that
rhythm of like I'm at this space where it is designated as
a place where I do my job. And then I come back to my home
and I was in the same place. I was feeling really good. I was very proud of our team. They show us all the time,
how good they are what they do and how they facilitate
what we're best at doing. They do what they're best at, so that we can do what we're best at, and it works, right?
Hmm-mm. And yesterday, even though we had doubts
about this process, like what is it gonna be
like for just the three of us to be in there and not be remote. Well, they figured it out and it worked. And then we could have a good
time, which is the key to us making a good show is
us having a good time. So I was thinking the same
thing, and then I got home and we had experimented with this, we've had trouble getting
Shepherd to do his schoolwork without constant
interference or intervening. And so me and Sharon had
a conversation last week where we were like, we're
gonna try something new, even though this is like
the last week of school or the last two weeks of school, but I was like we're gonna try something and just see if we can get this, we're gonna give you the opportunity to basically set your schedule
and get your work done and we're gonna check in
at the end of the day, and what we're trying to do
is we're trying to instill or establish trust with you so that then you can have freedom, right? 'Cause no one is enjoying
this constant argument about, hey, are you doing your work? You doing your work? And this is especially
difficult for Jessie because she's the one who, I'm over here at the
creative house or whatever and she's dealing with it constantly. So, I get home and it's like, first of all, I'm gonna grill some
tuna steaks on the grill. That was my job for dinner, but I was also gonna check in on Shepherd and I check in on Shepherd, and he kind of did some stuff, but then he didn't fully do it and then there was an argument
that broke out about that and then there was an argument
that broke out with Lock. I don't even remember what it was. I was in the kitchen and
Jessie was cutting something with a pair of scissors and then I was walking and she
turned around with scissors and I bumped into her and no one was hurt, but then she thought it was my fault, I thought it was her fault. We're yelling at each other and she's got a pair of scissors. Oh, gosh. And so basically with every family member, with the exception of Barbara, I don't think Barbara did
anything to piss me off. She rarely does. It was like, I had gone from this place where everyone was doing exactly what I needed them to do in order to make my life easier. To a place where no one was doing anything that made my life easy. It wasn't about me and my life being easy. It was about being a part of this family where everybody's got their own needs, everybody's got their own stuff that they're dealing with and we're all tired of each other. And it was just like I
went from zero to 11, just all of a sudden. And then after dinner, Jessie was like, she said, "Do you want to go sleep "at the creative house tonight?" Oh, see that bed that I've put in there that you've been giving
me a hard time about. Now it's a pretty good idea.
Well, it was funny, because she there is a bed. Yeah.
I was like, it's a child's bed. Do I look like a child? It's not a child's bed, it's a twin bed. So did you sleep on it, how did it feel? Well, I didn't sleep on it. I said, "I'm gonna do that." I said, "I just need a little time "to myself I guess, "'cause she's giving it to me." And that's how I took my really long four and a half mile walk. And then you sat on the steps and weeped. Was that yesterday?
Yeah, mm-hmm. That was last night and--- Wept, I think is the word.
All I had to say, I don't have, I mean, I'm just saying I
relate to what you're saying. And all I can do is be grateful for, because not everybody has that. Not everybody, like most people, and I'm not saying we don't
have frustrations at work from time to time, but it's an exceptional
thing to be like, man, they just did all this stuff for us and the level of ownership, I think that's the thing
that is so impressive with so many members of our
team is that they're like, this isn't just Rhett and Link saying, this is our thing and
we're gonna do it well, like we're gonna do it in an excellent way and it just makes it fun, you know? Yeah and I mean, so many people have it so difficult. I mean, so many people don't
even have jobs to go to. So it's, you know--
A lot of people. Again, I want to acknowledge that. And just if there's any
way to, from my experience, I guess the encouragement, and I don't know if there's much to it is that if there's not normal in your life is there's a way to simulate it. I don't even know what that would mean. Even just a glimpse of
it for a few minutes helps so much. Okay, before we get into the questions, let's make it a little plug. Let's plug it up, plug action. We like to groom ourselves and, like a couple of chimpanzees. Well, we just groom each other. We groom ourselves.
No, we don't. And we have grooming products
available at mythical.com. You can see the Link
holding them right there. We've got Mythical pomade
for all your hair needs. I'm basically out. I gonna get some more. Look at that.
Your hair's gotten too long. Oh, I'm wearing a hat.
To using more of it. I'm wearing a hat today
because it's too long. Yeah, there's that and Mythical lip balm, Link's Peculiarly Perfect
Peanut Butter Peppermint flavor is available along with
Rhett's Wood 'N' Berries. I think we still have some of that. This particular one, it says Link's on it, 'cause that's on the label, but then it also has a
printed label that says Link. Because it's yours and it's yours? It's mine and it is mine. That's right. This came from the office where I think it was in my makeup bag. Mythical.com.
My kit. Groom yourself. People always say that
they're pleasantly surprised 'cause they think it's
just some sort of a gimmick that we sell lip balm, but I'll put this lip balm up
against anybody's lip balm. You will be pleasantly surprised because it's peculiarly perfect. Get it in a two pack, mythical.com. Okay, let's start with a
question from Michelle, @miss_belvedere on the Twitter. Mm-hmm. "What's your most irrational fear? "I am oddly afraid of wind turbines, "and other large things, and bones." Wind turbines, wind turbine? How do you say that? She told me like a
windmill, like the ones out, going out to Palm Springs,
the huge windmills. Those are--
Yeah. I mean, you drive by those on the freeway if you're going out to Palm Springs, I remember the first time
I drove out to Palm Springs it was when we were going to, we were going to the
wrestlers reality house. I can't remember what it was called-- Legends' house.
Legends' house. They had a reality show and they brought us in as guest judges 'cause the wrestlers
divided up into two teams and made local commercials. We got to meet Rowdy Roddy Piper, who's may he rest in peace. Main Gene, may he rest in peace. Mean Gene, cool guy. That guy, man, you just got a sense this guy was full of stories. I wish we could have
hung out with him more. Hillbilly Jim. Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
Was there? No, Hacksaw was there, who's one of Christy's
favorites for some reason. But I remember that was the
first time we went out to, we went to Palm Springs
and they put us in a, it wasn't a limo, it was a car. We're both sitting in the
backseat of some like town car. And I was like, crap,
look at those windmills. You remember that? That was the first time I'd ever seen 'em. Probably you too. I don't remember the moment
specifically, but yeah. Maybe we saw some when we traveled across the country for the Mythical road trip, but this one left the
most indelible impression. And I do relate to
Michelle's sense of fear. I have a clarifying question
about this because-- Because they're huge. First of all, they're much
bigger than you understand or can appreciate until
you get right next to them. I mean, even, 'cause they look like they're just sort of moving like this, but if you were to get up there
and there's a reason that, if a bird flies into one, it's like hitting a golf ball
with a baseball bat or worse. Oh, gosh, oh yeah. I mean, these things are, they're so going so fast. They're just so big, it
doesn't look like it. Yeah, I can imagine if
I was right next to it, having a sense of awe inspiring fear. You can take a tour. We should go take a tour of one of these. It's just like looking at a whole hillside of them is scary? Like we don't, listen, we don't have to analyze Michelle's fear. She's really asking us what
is our irrational fear. I think you know mine, what's yours? What's yours, is your heights? I don't know what yours is actually. I think I've got a few. I mean, I don't know if
height is an irrational fear. There are certain situations in which it's very rational
to be scared of heights. I'm scared of heights that are associated, I'm scared of heights plus no handholds. Does that make sense? Like a railing? Like your wife sent us that video in our group chat of those people in some tourist attraction
where you have to like walk on these weird things that
look like a mile high. And one of them was like-- Yeah, it was like planks that were on two, what are those metal wire? Cables.
Cables. Why am I forgetting the word, cables? But one of 'em, and you had
to jump from one to the other. One of them is like a trapeze, where it's just a plank and two ropes and you have, like swings, and you have to go to the next one. Now I'm not saying I'd be okay with this, but I would be much
more okay with that one 'cause I've got something to hold on to. Then the second one,
which is just the cables and the planks and you just
got to go to the next point. It's something about being tall-- If you took a step, you
could go the next plank, but then after a couple of those, the plank started to get further apart so you had to jump and it
was like fricking Mario and you're tethered-- You're strapped in. You're tethered, but there's
nothing to hold on to. So you're just standing there. Well and it's loose, like
you're tethered, but-- You forget about it. There's full slack, so you don't feel any protective measures. So that's one, but the one that my wife makes fun of me all the
time for is my fear of bats. I remember the being in the hot tub story where the bats kept swooping down. So yeah, I mean, in most
places in the United States, 'cause I mean, I'm saying most places because it happens in California and it happened in North Carolina. Like once dusk comes around, you start seeing in the air, is that a bird flying erratically. Like, no, that's a bat. It's a bat and he's flying in
weird directions and swooping, swooping down like, and getting
really close to your head. And I told you the story of what happened to
Heather Dinklage growing up where we were outside and a bat
fricking landed in her hair, and bit her on the neck. What? At least she said that
it bit her on the neck, but I think it may just got
caught in her hair or something. Might've clawed her. They got claws, man. In my mind at one point was, oh, the bats will never actually
come in contact with you 'cause they got like sonar,
you know what I'm saying? They're not gonna, they're not actually gonna
come in contact with you. They're indelible get close to you. No, no, no, not If
Heather Dinklage is any-- Indication.
Indication. That's the word I'm looking for. Well you've never been
touched by a bat though, but you fear it. And I've never touched a bat, But you'll run from a bat. You're afraid of bees too. I'm afraid of a flying bat. If you were to hand me a bat, to pet, no problem. Maybe even cute, it's a mouse with wings, but the flying and the potential for the bite and the rabies. So what happened with
the situation with Jessie that you're talking about, is I got out of the hot
tub and I was drying off and they had been
swooping over the hot tub the whole time that we were in there, but one came right at me as I'm drying off and I just fell to the ground 'cause I had nowhere to go. I couldn't go under the
water, like normally would do, so I just fell completely back. And Jessie never let me live that down. And I'm like, well, you don't
know about Heather Dinklage. You weren't there. You weren't there either. Yeah, she told us about it. But, I mean, she was my neighbor. And you'll fall flat for a bee, man. I don't like bees. If you swat a bee, it's gonna increase the
chances of it stinging you. That's my belief, my experience with a bee is if you're just still, and I ain't even talking about when I had 10,000 of them on my face and trying to go into my eyeballs and my nose holes and my mouth hole. I'm talking about like
normal walking the dog, and you hear a bunch of buzzing in a particular blooming tree and there's like bees coming around you and like, if you're still,
they'll leave you alone. They're like, oh, you're not nectar. I have a difficult time relaxing. A wasp is different. But I think it's based on the fact that I have had to bee
in my hand as a kid, that bit me, not bit me, but stung me. I mean, I know that you're mostly right. That they usually won't do that. But especially if you don't
know that they're there and there's like one under
your arm and you reach there, you can get stung, man. There's a potential to get stung. I know that's not the end of the world, but I just don't like getting stung. But the way you act increases that chance of getting stung. It's a little embarrassing
to be around you, man. Well, you know, I gotta
be scared of something. Well, my choice is blood flow and you know this, I mean, everybody knows this at this point. I mean, people have a fear
of blood and I do too. I mean, I cut myself, the tried and true story, opening a Barbie on Christmas morning at
my father in law's house with his knife and I ran to the kitchen. Next thing I know I'm
coming to from fainting and looking up and I'm in
my father-in-law's arms at the sink. That was embarrassing. I like you said, I've
never lived that down, but I have this, I just get afraid when
I think about blood flow and I actually looked that up before this, I'm like fear of blood circulation. And I couldn't find anything. All I could find was just fear of blood. And people talk about
the theories of fainting, the evolutionary theories
of fainting are that like, if you faint, you're basically,
it's your body playing dead. So then whatever scared
the crap out of you, like the impending death was circumvented by fainting, so then you're like playing
possum and you don't get killed and then you pass along your genes, which give a proclivity towards fainting. It also, you also say that when you faint like your
blood pressure goes down and your blood pools in your legs, that's why you're
supposed to put your head between your knees so
that you can get blood to like pool in your
head, so you don't faint. But the theory there is, if you have an injury
and you are bleeding, so like if you see yourself bleeding and you faint at your
father-in-law's kitchen sink, well--
You stop bleeding. You don't bleed as much. You don't bleed out
because it's slowed down. Of course is a little pesky when you're not alert and
you can't treat yourself, but if other people are there. Well, question though. So specifically with
the fear of blood flow, because while I acknowledge
that fear of bats or fear of bees is, to the
level that I exercise it, is irrational, but there
is a rational element to it that I'm like, well, I
don't want to get stung or I don't want to get bit, right? So with a fear of blood flow,
what is the specific fear that you're, what's the route? Where does it go? It's interesting because I mean, I should be afraid of my blood
not flowing like, oh my gosh. I don't think my blood's moving. I'm going to die. If it wasn't flowing, I don't think you could
even process that thought. I know, but that's the rational thing-- I think blood flow is
required for thought. Exactly, so I shouldn't
be afraid of the thing that is necessary to continue living, but it makes me queasy. Like if I have to get my blood drawn, I tell him now I tell 'em now, hey, I could faint. I would like to lay
down before you do this 'cause I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to hit my head.
But that's different. But that's different. That's getting your blood taken. Oh yeah. That's somebody literally
tapping into a vein, which I don't like. I mean and I've gotten close
to fainting in that situation. I think that's a pretty normal thing-- But there's no rationality-- Well--
Yeah, there is. No, there's some rational to that. There's rational to the injury because it's like I said-- If somebody sticks something into you and starts sucking out your life force, you should be afraid of that. That's natural.
I think it's just the direct association. Like if I can feel the blood
pumping through my veins, I can think of it coming out of the veins. I can think of it spilling everywhere. You don't like to feel like
if you were to feel like, if IO look at my wrist right here, I can see a little, I can see
the heartbeat a little bit like that grosses you out? Currently, right now
it is grossing me out. It's making me feel a
little weak in the knee. You don't even want to look, but you also were afraid of your rib that wouldn't come to the party. So? No, but I'm saying that-- It doesn't have to eat, but it does have to come to the party. Because here, listen to this, 'cause the thing we haven't talked about is the only times in
my life that I fainted is when I've gotten bad medical news. Right? So the notorious story is the first time I found out that I had herniated discs, when I had convinced myself that I didn't have herniated discs and I'd also convinced
myself that herniated discs meant that life was over as I knew it and that I was going to
basically be incapable of doing anything athletic
for the rest of my life, which is not true. But when I got that news, and the doctor left the doctor's office. I heard a boom, a bang. And I was like, oh man, something happened in
the office behind me. And then I realized that I
was laying up against the wall and I had fallen off, not fallen off, but I was sitting on the table
and falling back to the wall. I had fainted and I had caused the boom. And it was because I was sitting there contemplating my fate. Yeah, and then the doctor comes back in. And I didn't tell him, of course, because I wasn't there for fainting, I was there for my back. I'm not gonna tell the
back doctor, hey man, I got a fainting problem too. He sent me to a specialist.
I'm sure that helped your back, slamming it
against the wall like that. And then when I hurt my
knee, skiing this year, when we were talking about
it at the dinner table, I started feeling like I was gonna faint, 'cause again, I was thinking about, well, what does this mean? What does this mean for my future? It's rational.
It's irrational. Well, but-- It's irrational, but it's based on a little
thread of rationality, but then it becomes irrational. It's based on logic. It's based on taking something to like, it's scary extent. Yeah, I don't have-- Most phobias are based on something, based on some logic.
I mean, Lily, it's hard for me to believe, but she swears up and down
that she has a phobia of whales and I just, I'm like okay, they're huge. You've never had an
encounter with a whale. I don't understand why
you're afraid of whales just from watching Nemo or something? As a baby, as a kid. But I don't know why it, I mean, I can only guess that circulation makes me uncomfortable because if something goes wrong, circulation leads to leads to gushing and that's, a lot of
people are afraid of that. It's just an association. Maybe, maybe this is it. There are times when
I'm just sitting there and I start thinking about
the fact that I have a body. Yeah? And then I started thinking
about what that body is and what it looks like. And I'm like, oh crap. There's just like, there's
just like stuff inside of me, that's soft and doing
things, you know what I mean? And it's responsible for
things and I'm not aware of it and it's just happening and the day that it stops happening, I stop happening and that, I will get close
to inducing a panic attack If I think about that enough. You just start, sometimes you just think about
the fragility of humanity. You just look at this
stuff and you're like, I could just take a metal thing and just stick it into this hand and it would just go right through it. You know what I mean? We're fragile, we're just gooey stuff. But there's people who, I mean surgeons, but lots of different types of people come to grips with this. And the treatment for a lot of
phobias is exposure therapy, which they can, they look at blood as just, okay, this is just something that happens. It's a physical thing that happens. And if the pain associated with injuries and like guts being spilled out, this is all the stuff that I've studied and then I'll understand
being inside of people and mushy is now outside and
we got to get it back inside. Yeah, and I could see how
over time that would become, yeah, I'm sure lots of people
would go to medical school not because they have a, you know, they're impervious to that stuff, it's because their parents
want them to be a doctor. And then by the time they're
done with medical school, they're impervious to it. But in college, well, definitely my mom told me in like the studies that she did that, they had to work with cadavers and there's like, at that point, people are like fainting left and right. Like there's certain people
when you get to that point, when you're gonna touch a dead body and you're gonna start working
with it that, you know, that's a big test. But in college, I did exposure therapy. Twice a week, we would go donate plasma. They would shove a huge freaking needle, like a pipe needle in you vein in your arm and they would suck out your blood, run it through a machine,
get the plasma out, and then they would pump the blood back in through the same vein. And it would go through cycles. And if you wanted to do it quicker, you'd like really get
get your hand pumping. I still don't understand, 'cause I was there.
How did I do that? Well, I mean, as we've discussed before, I mean, one of the reasons is
because of one of the nurses, April was hot-- You know the main reason? If she was there, it was worth whatever
she was gonna do you. The main reason was, the
thing I'm most afraid of is going broke. I'mma be honest, I've always
had this fear of going broke-- And you got $20 for doing-- I got $20 cash for, so it redeemed it. And I did get more comfortable with it, but every time they
would put the needle in, especially because sometimes-- They would miss. All right, here's a warning guys. You know, if you're like me, you need to be seated, put
your head in between your knees 'cause the worst thing that would happen is they would put the needle into the vein and then they would, they
would call it something, but then they would keep going and they would puncture both sides of it. Oh, gosh. See, I'm even getting you. And then--
Yeah, I hate it, man. Then blood-- 'Cause you don't understand
how big the needle is. Blood would start spilling into your arm and you come out with a huge bruise because they would, I don't know I can't remember what the word they would use is and then they have to pull the needle back and thread it into the vein. Oh, my gosh. The fact that I can even talk about it. That makes me queasy, man. I don't think that's irrational. I think that there's a
reason to be scared of that. And I can endure that, yet after stopping the plasma donation by like junior year or
something or senior year. I mean, I still have the scars,
but I'm queasy now about it. What if I told that story and fainted in the middle of the podcast? That would be sensational. Foomp. I mean, don't you feel when
you're about to start fainting or does it happen immediately? There's a good, like 15 to 20 second sort of on set for me.
It depends. It varies. Next question. On a slightly different
note from Adam B Grim. I don't know if that is a
real name or a pseudonym. "How do you pronounce", I'm gonna have to pronounce
it by asking this question. Yeah, that's it. Worcestershire sauce. I think in the history of Ear Biscuits, this may be the first question
that in reading the question, we've answered it. How do you pronounce Worcestershire sauce? Okay. You just made up a pronunciation. I know there's people who say it that way. I say Worcestershire. Worcestershire, but I
think it's Worcestershire. Worcestershire, it's got shire on the end. It's not sheer. Yeah, I know, but
pronunciation adapts over time. I know that it's, this is, I guess this has gotta be
related to a district in England that's actually--
Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire.
Worcestershire. Worcestershire. And I don't know how well, first of all, let's just put it into a
pronunciation thing here. That's the key, we got to do that. I don't trust these pronunciation things. These are just people who want
to get ad revenue on YouTube. So they make videos where
a bot says something. Bot don't know how to talk.
You're right. Have you ever listened to a GPS? It gets the street names
wrong all the time. But it's a starting point,
it's a point of reference. Here we go. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire.
She's British. First of all, in England,
they don't say Yorkshire. They say shire.
Yorkshire, Yorkshire. So it's all, they put
that on the end of it, but they always say, shore, so you don't need to say shire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Again. Worcestershire. Wost. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Like what's the sure, almost. There's not a T that early. Next question.
I know. Daphne @golden_army asks, "Is ignorance really bliss?" Oh, we're going to get philosophical here? Or is this practical? How do you want to approach this? You know both Jessie, my wife and I are, there are people who are
sort of news junkies, right? So like every day they got
to find out what's going on. If something happened, they're gonna know, we're both like that. But, there's just a bunch of
shit going on all the time. Right? I mean, and so that's why the, the Some Good News, which ironically got sold to Viacom, that's why that was such a
good idea from John Krasinski, is that how you say his name?
Worcestershire. Because you know, because the whole idea is that we're just bombarded with bad news. So I was having a conversation
with my therapist about how, one of the things that I've noticed in being home a whole lot
more and not being at work and gone during the day, but being at home and
actually seeing Jessie a lot more than normal is that Jessie tends to get, more so than me. She'll read about something in the news. And it will anger her, right? She'll get mad out of a sense of, it might be a sense of justice. It's often a sense of justice, whereas just a sense of
being annoyed with people for being idiots about something. And she needs somebody
to talk to about that. And so that person when I'm home is me. And so I was talking about
therapist and saying, I'm kind of realizing that first of all, we always have a lot going on, but as things begin to sort of move back to more of a normal place
and we're figuring out how to get all the stuff done
that we need to get done, the stuff that you see like this, but also the stuff that we're working on that may never see the light of day. I started feeling this
sense of being overwhelmed. And I started realizing that if a certain percentage of
my interactions with her were based on her relaying some bullshit that happened in the world. A lot of times, for me, when I hear about somebody
who did something stupid or something wrong that happened, I immediately add it to my big bag of things that
I'm supposed to figure out. So that's why occasionally I'll write one of these medium pieces
about some issue, right? And it's because my personality is is if you give me this information, I feel responsible for
having an opinion about it. And then sometimes that responsibility for having an opinion
because of my platform translates into, you have
to say something about this. Like, it is your responsibility to speak your perspective on this. And that's probably based on narcissism and thinking that my perspective
is important, whatever, but it is based on my sense of justice and feeling like I need to say something. But what I was realizing is that she's telling me about something
that the president said or something that happened. And it's just adding to this bag of stuff that I feel like I have to process. And I told my therapist, I feel like for this month of, that we're moving into June, I'm gonna kind of take a news fast and not feel like I have to be informed about every single thing that's happening with the virus or every single thing that the president is saying or doing, like just sort of for a second turn that faucet off
and see how it affects my personal health and perspective. Because a lot of times,
even before eating, when I get up in the morning
and I'm about to meditate, if I've gone on Twitter and I've seen the latest bullshit thing, is I take that into that process and it's very difficult to let go of. Yeah. So in that sense, what I'm getting at in
answer to this question is I feel like to a certain
degree, ignorance is bliss. Yeah, I mean, I think it's
clear in this situation that the key is moderation. I mean, welcome to my world. I err on the opposite side of just not, of being more ignorant about
things that are happening. I mean, when you talk
about news especially, it's like, it gets to
me in a different way because I feel like, I think
you have this sense of like, because there's something that you can do, whether it's the fact
that we have a platform or the fact that you enjoy writing and piecing things together. So you do have an outlet to
weigh in on these things. I actually feel personally because that I don't have
that same experience, I feel a frustration and
kind of a helplessness when those things happen, so it's not a pressure to engage. It's a frustration that I just don't feel like I'm equipped to do that. I feel that sometimes. But then if I get bombarded
with a lot of things, I have this palpable sense of capacity. You talk about things accumulating and it just kind of builds up, to me, it's not a pressure. Its a, I just get buried underneath it and I feel like I can't
do the things that I want, that I do need to devote
my energy and attention to. And to a fault, right? So there are times when there's
certain things in the news that I do need to know about and at least be exposed to it. Maybe I don't have to have an opinion that then I would publicly
lay in somebody about it, but it is, it's good and it's healthy to understand what's happening out there again, to just stay on the news front. So, I try to, like I'll listen to Up First, which is like a very quick, like the headlines, you know, it just kind of takes
you through the headlines and then you move on, but I'm
not reading these articles and like getting really
deep in a lot of things. So that's been my correction is I need to be a little bit more, I need to be a little
less ignorant about things because yes, I think it does simplify my life and it gives me the capacity
to invest in the things I need to invest in, but there's some things
that come in sideways that you didn't anticipate that
you need to be informed by. And so I've made some
adjustments on that level, but in this day and age, I try not to get too deep in it, because-- Well, and I think it's personality based. It's very personality based. For instance, okay, those of you who follow me
on Instagram or Twitter, know that first of all,
I'm incredibly sporadic and sometimes I'll just
go on a run for a few days or a few weeks where I'm pretty
active on those platforms. And it's usually an
indication that I don't, we don't have a project that's
taking a lot of bulk time. And at the very beginning of quarantine, we had a lot of time all of a sudden, because our lives were turned upside down and our business was turned upside down. And then, you know, I
get really frustrated when I just see people spouting
off things that aren't true. And there's been so much
misinformation around COVID and it's like, people
just fall into two camps and they don't, it's like
everything has become political. And so I, and listen, I'm no authority. And I try to say that over and over again. I'm just a dude who's
interested in this stuff who has a platform, who
makes a living on YouTube. So I'm definitely not an
authority on any of this, but I like to point and sort
of elevate voices that are, point to voices that are authorities. And, you know, I went through this phase where I was kind of like engaging. I was posting something and the people would like
have questions about it or be critical of it and
I would personally engage. And you may notice, well,
I haven't been doing that for the past few weeks and it's largely, I mean, there's a number of reasons. One is we are busy with other things. There is a couple of
things that are taking more like bulk pieces of my
time, more attention. There's also a sense of
hopelessness, you know? There's this sense that like, there are just some people
who are so committed to, they're just dug in their trench so deeply that nothing that you can say and no fact that you can point them to is gonna change anything and so there just becomes
a sense of hopelessness. And so I've kind of backed off that and then the thing that
I'm adding to it is. Well, I also don't even
want to really know what's happening in the
news for a little bit, just for my own personal health. But I am very grateful to
the people who day by day, especially those people who are
authorities on these issues. And there are a few
people I follow on Twitter who are like a daily briefing about COVID and here's the latest, you know, or you've got certain websites like Snopes that are committed to
setting the record straight on all these issues and they're constantly having
to deal with misinformation. I just am very grateful to those people who are in the trenches
and fighting that battle and trying to fight this information and get the right information out, but I just, I can't do it. It's just not, it's not healthy to do it, but like you said, there
are some things, you know, like what happened with Ahmaud Arbery or what happened when
we're recording this, just happened two days ago, two days ago in Minneapolis
with George Floyd. And I'll put something on
Instagram or Twitter about that, just to acknowledge that, you know, again, I want to elevate those voices, and I want to bring attention
to something with my platform. I'm not trying to pontificate or come in and try to
say something about it. I'm just more like this is a thing that you should know about. So like you said, there's a balance because I don't want to completely detach because there's so much injustice and there's so much misinformation that's constantly just happening that if you have a platform, I feel like you've got to
be engaged on some level Or, I mean, not even a platform. I think for me, it's like,
I know we're very fortunate. Hashtag blessed, you know, in so many ways and we're privileged, right? And it's not necessarily just, and so it's, I can live in this bubble of ignorance and be blissful and it's in this. And if you take that too far, it's I just, I don't want to be that person. And it's just not right to say, okay, as long as I'm happy, then I'm good. It's very self centered. Now, to take that to an extreme, right? But you also have to know
what your limits are. and I think that's what
we're talking about. So it's not, I'm going to check out and I'm going to do whatever
it takes for me to be happy. I don't want my actions to
just be about my happiness or just the people that I love the most, because I know them or
I'm related to them, it's like, you want to-- Well and there's a way to-- I wanna extend myself and that
starts with being informed. And there's a way to be informed-- You cant fight every battle, but if you're not fighting any battles, at least I don't feel like
that's the right choice for me. Well, and there's a way to be informed that doesn't take all your
time like you're saying. I think one of the things that helps me and I'm not, you know, I'm not organized, but I am very like goal
oriented task driven. And one of the things that helps me with just getting all the
things that I do done is like, okay, here's the day. This is what I got. I'm gonna actually, I'd like to get this
much of this thing done and I'd like to get this
much of this thing done and I kind of got a vision for what that day's gonna look like. And then I kind of do it and I cut myself some slack
if I don't quite get there, but at least I kind of
know where I'm gonna go. And then when it comes to
stuff like social media, even if you're going on to Twitter with the intention of figuring out what's going on in the world, is there any news that
I need to know about, should I be informed about something? It's it's one thing to just basically constantly go back in there every time you get a little bit bored. And then when you learn about an issue, kind of go down that rabbit hole and start arguing with somebody
on the internet about it or finding every perspective on it. And then the next thing you know, you spent two hours on your phone and you've accomplished nothing. That's one thing and then
it's another thing to be like, I want to know about this. It's like with you know, I kind of checked out yesterday, didn't pay attention to much stuff. That's another thing I didn't mention, when I got home, all that stuff happened with my kids and my wife,
but in the middle of all that I stepped outside and went on Twitter and that's when I saw the
George Floyd video and I got very angry. I just was, I was so angry about that. And then of course, all
I did was just post, I think this morning actually just post a picture of him on my Instagram and it's like, I'm sure I could do more-- And I didn't find out
about it until this morning when I had my slot where I was
like catching up on the news. And I wouldn't want to
never have known about it and for it to impact me the
way that it did this morning 'cause it certainly did and it does. But it didn't last night
because I set up parameters and there were things I was invested in last night with my family. I think we can leave it at that, right? I wanted to switch gears
to one more question. Cat, @Chinalinkster, okay. You can use my picture if you want to. Could a snake physically wear clothes? You know what? I just want to just want to highlight the video version of this with
our answer to this question and share with you, that Jenna put a scarf on Craig, who she's been taking care of at her home. Craig, the snake has a scarf
and he's wearing it constantly because, did Jenna make it for him? I think she's not-- He's not wearing it, to clarify. He's not wearing it constantly. That would probably be
some form of animal abuse, but he did wear it for a picture and she did make it for it him. He wore it for a picture,
I know, I was joking. And he seemed to enjoy it. As much as you can tell whether a reptile is enjoying something. So yeah, a snake can
wear at least a scarf. I would think that a
snake could wear a shirt, which would just be like a tube sock, but I don't think they
necessarily need it. I don't think they need it. You read it for a rec?
Yeah. Rec baby one, two, three, four. I'm gonna give another Reddit rec. I follow the thread Movie Details. I think I may have mentioned this before because I'm into it. Again, it's just a little escape from,. you can read this thread and like here's a recent one. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom you know, one of my faves, John Williams gave Short Round, you know, the kid who was with Indy, his own hero theme music. Anytime he is in action, the theme plays. Just like Indy's theme plays for him. And there's lots of movie
details you can get into like Jack Black was in Waterworld. What? Yeah, I saw that one a few times back. Yeah, if you just search
Jack Black Waterworld. That's crazy. He appears as a smoking pilot. It's crazy.
Okay, yeah. I mean, I actually don't know
if that's true, but it is. No, no, I see it. Here it is, see? Movie details, Reddit thread, follow that. It can remind you of movies
that you need to watch again or watch for the first time. And as you're watching movies, if you want to contribute to the thread, it gives you something to think about. It's like, hey, here's a
little something I noticed. It kind of raises the bar on how intentionally you watch a movie. So check it out if you're
on Reddit, Movie Details. And thanks again for all your questions. They sparked some good discussions, discussions that we didn't even know that we needed to have.
Yep. So, personally, I really
liked these episodes that are driven by the
mythical beast questions, because I think like I said, we get into some things that we wouldn't otherwise intend to get into, so I
want to do more of these. Follow us on Twitter whenever we put those prompts out there and as always, use #EarBiscuits in order to continue this conversation, weigh in on any aspect
of that you want to, and we'll talk to you next week. And also let us know using #EarBiscuits, how you're feeling about these episodes, where we answer your questions, because I want to know. All right, next week. To watch more Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous
episode of Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist to the left. And don't forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it's available on all your
favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your mythical best.
Anyone know the name of the book Rhett mentions reading during this? I need something to listen to while I work