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Speaker 1: Hey, folks, this is a little bonus episode that I

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Speaker 1: originally filmed as a video for my YouTube channel as

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Speaker 1: part of a series of these mini documentaries I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to do once a month. And if you're hearing this

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Speaker 1: right now, it means that you're not listening on Spotify,

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Speaker 1: which means I can't upload the video on whatever podcast

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Speaker 1: platform you are listening on. So you can either go

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Speaker 1: to the link in the episode description to watch this

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Speaker 1: as a video, or you can stick around and I

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Speaker 1: have edited a version of this video that works to

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Speaker 1: listen to as just audio. Okay, And with that context given,

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Speaker 1: let's play the thing. Would you rather be a human

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Speaker 1: or a gecko?

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Speaker 2: Human? For sure? Why would you rather be a human?

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Speaker 2: The human experience? I mean, would you rather be a lizard?

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Speaker 2: I mean, obviously, I guess huh, Well.

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Speaker 1: I was thinking about it, right, because like there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of suffering I think that comes with like just

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Speaker 1: being conscious.

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Speaker 2: We're the only animals that like, like know we're going

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Speaker 2: to die.

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Speaker 1: You get on this, Oh yeah, we're the only animals

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Speaker 1: that know we're gonna die. It's an interesting burden that

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Speaker 1: the human race suffers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but we get way cooler stuff because of it.

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Speaker 2: That is true.

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Speaker 1: I got invited to the opening of a new gecko

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Speaker 1: zoo that these two guys are running out of a

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Speaker 1: basement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It also happens to be right

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Speaker 1: next to the Museum of Bones. This was shortly after

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Speaker 1: I experienced an existential crisis that sent me spiraling into

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Speaker 1: my own brain thinking about death and consciousness and the

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Speaker 1: meaning of existence. As I looked at the lizards, I

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Speaker 1: thought about the blissful ignorance that comes with being a

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Speaker 1: dumb animal with no thoughts. They live a purely objective

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Speaker 1: life of eating, sleeping, and mating. We do all that

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Speaker 1: stuff too, but we have this added layer of consciousness

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Speaker 1: that brings with it both higher highs and lower lows

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Speaker 1: than that of a lizard. It made me think about whether,

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Speaker 1: if given the choice, would most people prefer to keep

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Speaker 1: the high highs and low lows of being human or

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Speaker 1: would they rather experience a more stable baseline as a lizard.

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Speaker 2: Would you rather be a lizard or a human?

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Speaker 1: I want to be a lizard.

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Speaker 3: I want to be a covid animal with no emotions,

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Speaker 3: well cared for. I'm yeah, e books, it's just hard

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Speaker 3: power here for humans, poverty, hunger, unemployment, and also when

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Speaker 3: at a hyper capitalistic society and everything's basically spectacle and

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Speaker 3: as time grows one gets tired of it.

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Speaker 4: Humans are probably the least moral of the animals. They

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Speaker 4: start wars, they they do crimes, they do things that

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Speaker 4: animals don't. You know, they we don't we'll get into politics.

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Speaker 4: We don't want need to get in politics. But you know,

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Speaker 4: humans are in way corrupt, right, whereas animals are very

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Speaker 4: instinctual and they don't have to deal with those kinds

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Speaker 4: of things because they're intrinsically simple or at so they're

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Speaker 4: the big scale problems that humans face are not are

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Speaker 4: not always present on TV and being like oh shit,

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Speaker 4: that's our new president or oh shit, that's going on

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Speaker 4: in the Middle East or something. You know, Geckos are

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Speaker 4: very simple in that way, and I wish I had

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Speaker 4: a gacko brain.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything at all that you would miss about

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Speaker 1: humanity if you were a lizard, I.

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Speaker 3: Will miss like the process of studying and acquiring knowledge

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Speaker 3: and also making things.

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Speaker 2: With my hands.

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Speaker 1: And do you feel as though the process of acquiring

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Speaker 1: knowledge and making things and whatnot you would give it

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Speaker 1: all up.

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Speaker 2: To be a lizard.

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Speaker 3: Just I'm okay with blissful ignorance.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, just living in my own little world.

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Speaker 1: And you would acquire that, but at the cost of

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Speaker 1: all the gifts that your human consciousness gives you.

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Speaker 3: Again, like I said before, one gets tired of being sentient.

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Speaker 1: It's true. Being sentient can be tiresome, and it's made

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Speaker 1: even more difficult by the fact that we're constantly inundated

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Speaker 1: with an infinite amount of information about the flaws and

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Speaker 1: corruptions of our species that the lizards are blissfully unaware of.

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Speaker 1: But I did talk to a lot of people who

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Speaker 1: believe that despite all the crazy shit it comes with,

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Speaker 1: sentience remains worth it. What kind of cool stuff do

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Speaker 1: you like about being a human?

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Speaker 4: Video games, good food, the ability to travel more than

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Speaker 4: like a five mile radius?

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Speaker 2: What about art too? Do we know any animals that

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Speaker 2: have art? I guess like there's like funny dog videos

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Speaker 2: and stuff. Yeah, but the dog isn't taken the video.

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Speaker 2: That's true. Would you guys rather be a human or

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Speaker 2: a lizard?

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Speaker 1: When you stare at the lizard and you see how

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Speaker 1: it like as like an absent mind, does that ever

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Speaker 1: look appealing to?

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Speaker 2: Just have no thoughts. No, honey, no, do you enjoy

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Speaker 2: the quality of your thoughts?

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Speaker 4: I do?

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Speaker 2: What kinds of things do you normally think about it

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Speaker 2: throughout the day. We might respect money, but if.

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Speaker 1: You were a lizard, you wouldn't have to think about

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Speaker 1: money ever.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's okay.

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Speaker 1: I was getting a little tired of talking about existential crap,

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Speaker 1: so I took a break to go to this room

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Speaker 1: where they had drinks and snacks. It was a good

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Speaker 1: exercise of my human agency. What was his name again, Richie, Ritchie.

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Speaker 1: Richie said that he wished he had a lizard brain.

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Speaker 1: That's like a that makes a joke. Well, there is

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Speaker 1: this desire to have a brain that is totally objective.

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Speaker 5: What he meant, essentially is that sometimes having a simpler

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Speaker 5: life is a lot easier. With geckos, it's very repetitive,

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Speaker 5: they're very habitual. So you know, when he said that,

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Speaker 5: he just means that simplicity sometimes isn't a bad thing.

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Speaker 1: Do you ever have times where you genuinely do wish

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Speaker 1: that you had like a simple lizard brain and you

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Speaker 1: didn't have to deal with all this shit?

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Speaker 5: No, because if I had a simple lizard brain, I

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Speaker 5: wouldn't be able to do this. With every struggle comes

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Speaker 5: a lesson. With every struggle comes to newfound knowledge about something.

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Speaker 5: You know, there's no such thing as success without struggle.

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Speaker 5: That's called luck. That's not success. So being a human,

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Speaker 5: it has his ups and downs. With the ups or

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Speaker 5: I get to live out a dream.

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Speaker 1: I appreciated that this man used his higher human consciousness

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Speaker 1: to embrace struggle and find a purpose that he would

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Speaker 1: not give up to become a lizard, even if that

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Speaker 1: purpose ironically involves lizards.

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Speaker 6: Limbers have a beautiful existence. But at the same time,

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Speaker 6: do they know they exist?

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Speaker 7: As humans were innately aware of our own consciousness, Like,

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Speaker 7: look at this guy.

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Speaker 2: You think he knows where he where?

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Speaker 7: This little man is right now that he's sitting on

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Speaker 7: someone's hand coseplaying as a giant gig day gecko.

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Speaker 1: No, do you think that lizards are happier because they

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Speaker 1: don't know that they exist?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 6: Because Dandrew's literally just here. If you're here and you

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Speaker 6: don't know that tomorrow is gonna bring sad? Is what

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Speaker 6: tomorrow is gonna bring? Any and what's smallw is gonna

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Speaker 6: bring anything? This makes you automatically happen.

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Speaker 1: Do you think humans can develop the braining of a

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Speaker 1: lizard in that sense of like trying to always be

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Speaker 1: in the present.

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Speaker 2: You can try what.

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Speaker 6: You might have to get like motom eyes or something,

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Speaker 6: because how are you gonna stop yourself from thinking about

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Speaker 6: their future or even the past. The past and the

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Speaker 6: future always hants us. So that's part of even human.

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Speaker 6: But that's the beautiful point about being human. I love

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Speaker 6: knowing that I'm here. It's beautiful that we actually know

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Speaker 6: we have a past.

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Speaker 2: Let me know we have a future.

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Speaker 7: We are aware of our own existence, and that's both

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Speaker 7: scary yet beautiful.

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Speaker 1: You would take the beautiful curse over the ignorant lizard stuff.

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Speaker 2: A million a million funds in the paints.

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Speaker 1: I liked this perspective that the knowledge we have of

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Speaker 1: our own existence is a gift to be appreciated rather

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Speaker 1: than a weird, scary thing to be burdened with. It's

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Speaker 1: a choice of how you want to view it. Would

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Speaker 1: you rather be a human being or a lizard?

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Speaker 2: Take a human more freedom?

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Speaker 1: Do you think consciousness is more freedom or more restrictive? Right,

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Speaker 1: because a lizard has like freedom from a lot of

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Speaker 1: the kind of difficulties the humans have.

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Speaker 2: You know, true, all you gotta do is eat and poop.

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Speaker 2: That's it, right. Do you ever envy that lifestyle or

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Speaker 2: would you still want to be a human? I think

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Speaker 2: i'd be a humor. I could drive, Yeah, you can't

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Speaker 2: drive as a lizard. Yeah, you can't drive as a lizard.

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Speaker 1: Have you traveled any places recently that you really liked

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Speaker 1: that you couldn't have gone to if you were a lizard?

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Speaker 6: New Mexico it's kind of far, especially from here to

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Speaker 6: get down there, and it travel a whole year, that's true.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it would take a whole year. It's a walk

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Speaker 2: as a lizard from year to New Mexico.

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Speaker 1: I guess the lizards don't even want that because they

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Speaker 1: don't even lizards don't even know that New Mexico exists.

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Speaker 4: Nah.

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Speaker 2: Is there anything about being a lizard that you envy

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Speaker 2: that you wish you could? Uh? Who you could do?

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Speaker 2: Who she could be?

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Speaker 1: Lizard?

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Speaker 5: Ah?

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Speaker 1: I don't know, to be honest.

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Speaker 2: Never thought about that. I guess you don't have to

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Speaker 2: think about it. I'm good the way I am no lizard.

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Speaker 1: After the event, I journaled on my phone about my

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Speaker 1: conclusion from these interviews. While the human experience can be

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Speaker 1: very challenging. It can be improved by having purpose, appreciating

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Speaker 1: the little things I feel like. I read that Redemption

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Speaker 1: two would be one of the reasons for me why

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Speaker 1: I would want to be a human instead of a lizard.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, there you go. If that's all it.

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Speaker 1: Is, choosing to view the bigger things as beautiful instead

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Speaker 1: of scary, maintaining good quality of thoughts, and going to

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Speaker 1: to New Mexico. And at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: I would also choose to remain a human. It is

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Speaker 1: an honor