00:00:08 Speaker 1: Well, I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. When you're a guest in my home, you gotta come to me empty. And I said, no, guests, your presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff, So how do you dare to surbey me? 00:00:47 Speaker 2: Welcome to I said, no gift time. I'm Bridger Wine girl. You know that. 00:00:53 Speaker 3: Hopefully. 00:00:55 Speaker 2: I hope you're having a nice day. I you know, it's been an interesting morning for me. I've went to the dentist with some high hopes and I have some news. The plan was to get my permanent retainer removed today. This has been my post or vaccinated dream to go and get the permanent retainer removed. And unfortunately, I guess that's not something they can just do during a dental appointment. That's another appointment you have to schedule. So now I'm kind of just dealing with that. This isn't the news I wanted to bring you. I know it's not the news you wanted to hear. I still have my permanent retainer, but you know, there is now a firm date for it to be removed, and we're going to just march towards that and it's a little something to look forward to. So enjoy these last few episodes of me with a permanent retainer because hopefully it'll be gone soon. And please can we move on with the podcast. That's what I want to do. I want to introduce our guest. Our guest today is a very very finn Man, someone who's just fantastic, none other than zachly Yama. Zach, welcome to I said no gifts. 00:02:08 Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much for having me. Bridgart is honestly a true honor to be here. 00:02:16 Speaker 2: Thank you for being honored to be here. It's the least you could do. Yeah, Zach, how are you doing? 00:02:23 Speaker 3: I'm doing good. You telling me, You telling the story about your dentist reminded me that I just canceled a dentist appointment by email so they wouldn't make me reschedule, which is what happens every time I call or they call me. 00:02:36 Speaker 2: Wait, so you didn't want to reschedule. 00:02:38 Speaker 3: I've just been kind of punting a dentist appointment for I don't know about eight months, and I just knew that in my heart that whatever next appointment I scheduled, I would just reschedule later and so I was like, let's just take a little break. I'm brushing my teeth and flossing every day. I'm pretty sure they're good. I just I feel like they make me go all the time and I don't understand it. 00:03:03 Speaker 2: How are you going twice a year? 00:03:05 Speaker 3: I feel like I'm going seven times a year. But I did in visi line, and I guess you could say I thought that, like my my dentists had that as a part of it. I don't know if that's normal for just or like you go to Orthodonis normally for that, but I thought it would take about seven months or it was quoted something like that, and it is. I'm going on maybe four years. 00:03:30 Speaker 2: Four years. What do you wear it at night? Is that how it works? 00:03:34 Speaker 3: Yeah? Now I just wear it at night. But there was like a sort of like month long solidifying period that was supposed to happen at the end of or actually the beginning of quarantine that I kind of never did because like every they were in visi line is just a string of lies. 00:03:51 Speaker 4: That they they give you. I guess it worked, but like, yeah, I feel like you have nice teeth. Did you have your teeth like fairly out of place before. 00:04:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a little bit of a few crooked teeth here and there, and I don't know, I had braces in like eighth grade, and they did a thing where they were like, cool, he did the like bracest thing, and now for the next step, we want to like break his jaw and move it back or whatever. This is true. This is like what I guess they thought was normal. They were like, let's just take out part of his jaw because that seems like the next step. And I think my mom was just like, no, I don't think we're going to do that part. And I don't know, I feel like generally it was the right move because I don't know how much that would have helped him. Probably would have just changed my whole head. 00:04:42 Speaker 2: Right, you would just have a completely restructured skull. 00:04:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, and it seems really drastic and anyways, so for in visil line, they said that it would only take a certain amount of time. I could talk about this for a really long time. 00:04:55 Speaker 2: So, well, this is the invisile line hour. 00:04:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, my ortho Donnis that was a part of that dentistry basically was just a liar for for about three years and then it hit a point where she was like, she was like, you know what, this is good. You can actually be done and then uh, and then then she was like and also, this is my last day and quit. And then the and the dentist that was there was like, hey, it seems like you had some problems with the orthodonist and it seems like the orthodonist was not liked there, and uh, maybe was a con artist or something. And then kind of just took over because she was also certified in orthodonistry or something. Anyways, it sounded really confusing. 00:05:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, so this orthodonist, did you ever notice any red flags or did it feel like a plus? 00:05:46 Speaker 3: Kind of a lot? It was. It was this kind of thing where I feel like she never really looked at my teeth, and you know, I would be lying if I said, first off that I was doing a job with it, because it's annoying and gross and teeth all the time, and sometimes I just didn't wear it as much as I could have. But yeah, there was a lot of like, you're really on track, and I was like, really, I kind of haven't been doing what you've said. And then realizing that the teeth thrill it all off and having to get new measurements and things. I don't know. It really felt like she was pretending every time I went in there. 00:06:25 Speaker 2: So then this other person at the office has taken over. Yes, three years of being lied to and now you have someone new who could very well be lying to you as well. 00:06:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but I'm so at the end of it, and maybe I'm just resigned to like, yeah, for the rest of my life, I'll just put these on at night. And maybe that's normal, maybe not. But I really didn't realize that's what I was getting into. But it's my life now and I fully accepted it. 00:06:51 Speaker 2: Right, as long as you embrace it, I think that's fine. You just have to make the decision yes or no. You can't ride the fence of orthodontia your entire life. 00:07:00 Speaker 3: You can't. 00:07:00 Speaker 2: And I have been defeated, I know, as long as you're completely broken. I mean that's That was the permanent retainer situation where I kind of just was wishy washy, and then eventually it was like, I don't want to be buried with this thing I want to have. I don't want some you know, archaeologists stumbling upon my tiny skeleton one hundred years fromund and there's like a piece of metal attached to these teeth. I want to be clean of it. Embarrassing, no humiliating. I want them to say, he just had naturally straight teeth. Look at this beautiful skeleton, look at this beautiful smile. Yes, so hopefully it'll be removed. I mean, of course today the other thing. And I'm sure this is well trodden territory, but with the X rays, the amount of X rays that are being shot at my head while a lead vest is over the rest of my body, I don't understand the science of that. Yes, I assume it's safe, but I just don't understand why a safety measure has to be taken for the rest of your body and not the part your brain, not your whole head. 00:08:01 Speaker 3: Yeah one, I mean this is another jaw related tangent. But when I was in college, I broke my jaw. Oh how I was playing. I was trying to fit in And I went to state school in Alabama and where I'm from and joined a fraternity just because that was sort of the culture of the world, the sad, sad, horrible world I was. And they were playing tackle football in the front lawn and I was like, I guess I'll play and I was like at the back there like just tackle whoever gets through. And sure enough, there's all this commotion up front. I don't know what's going on. A lot of people are hitting each other or whatever. A guy gets through, I go to tackle him. I do tackle him, but with my knee hitting his. 00:08:53 Speaker 2: Jaw, sorry his jaw against your job. 00:08:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, he had to at me back and he just curged on me. But no, it was it was really bad where like I hit my jaw and I like felt the world flip upside down and like immediately knew something was wrong or it just fell off and like spit up this is gross, spit up some blood and then it was just kind of hanging out for a while like yeah, I'm fine, and then slowly realized, oh, something's wrong and my jaw was broken. Had to go to a hospital called Druid City Hospital in Tuscalus, Alabama. That it's d H A lot of people say it stands for don't come here. Got Someone was doing the X rays on my head and she, I think, didn't know how to do it. And I had to take fourteen X rays of my head because. 00:09:49 Speaker 2: Your jokin like people should know where your jaw is a good area to zoom in on. 00:09:54 Speaker 3: Apparently this, like the doctor in charge of it was like, you have to do it again. This isn't the way to see where the break is. And this person doing the X rays on my head when I have a fully broken jaw and there, they don't know that one hundred percent yet. It literally starts crying to me, telling me the doctor keeps making her do it with a broken jaw. I have to console this person that it's okay, that it's tough. It's tough, I'm sure while I'm on X ray fourteen, my brain's completely scrambled. 00:10:27 Speaker 2: You can just hear it sizzling in your skull, a little bit smoke coming out of my ears. Wait, so what do I mean when you break your jaw? Is this like a like a Kanye West wired shut style? 00:10:40 Speaker 3: Shut? Yeah? I had to be wired shut for about six weeks. Oh, They're like it was just like bracet like a very serious bracest thing with like a metal wire that like kind of curved up and down my jaw. I could not eat solid foods that whole time, just literally drinking like milk chicks to have calories and stuff right, and smoothies and just broth was horrible. 00:11:06 Speaker 2: Oh that's terrible. But yes, it seems like you just have a lot of mouth problems. 00:11:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, hopefully this is the end of that. Hopefully nothing will hit my face anymore. Hopefully on the other side of that. 00:11:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, something I was going to mention. I saw you recently and I feel absolutely terrible because you got married a few months ago. You eloped, right, and I forgot I saw you and your wife Phoebe and totally didn't it said nothing, no, congratulations, nothing. But now I mean, let's say congratulations. Now. Maybe this is how I draw in Phoebe as a listener. Congratulations to both of you. But I want to hear about you. 00:11:50 Speaker 3: Oh well, yeah. It was something that we had been planning to do for a man getting married, and then, you know, midway through the pandemic of just like just kind of sitting there, we like kind of thought about ways to do it, and it felt, you know, just excactly, it felt just really at that time, like when will this ever end? And we didn't feel like we just like we want to get married and we feel scared to do it. And like endanger our family. This is you know, pre vaccine stuff. And so we looked at some options to do it, and we thought Big Sur would be really cool. But we also had to like wait several months to go because a lot of stuff was booked up, and I think it kind of became like a more popular idea to a lope than we realized, right, and eventually like it was kind of I think the thing about it that we wish we could have a redo of was just having to keep it secret for months, which felt like very very stressful. 00:12:49 Speaker 2: Oh that's so stressful for kind of no reason at all, not. 00:12:52 Speaker 3: Really any reason at all. I mean, I'm sure it would have been fine if we told people, but I think that's just part of like not telling people people felt like the way to just do it safely and not have our parents to suddenly try to come right. 00:13:05 Speaker 2: That makes sense because I feel like parents want to be part of that situation. 00:13:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't want to kill our parents by and so we yeah, we went to Big Sur and we found like a cool little like yeah, like this this place we stayed at had like a little redwood growth that led us like elope with our friends Matt Nanny, who my buddy Matt cort of A is just kind of a guy who has is the go to guy to do ceremonies for weddings. I guess with everyone in his life. He has like that kind of presence and uh yeah, and we just brought in the ringer and he you know, did the ceremony and it was really beautiful. 00:13:46 Speaker 2: It was that's incredible. Yeah. I feel like for a long time, eloping was only something I saw as a sitcom plot. Like through the nineties, I felt like every television show had to have someone a low at some point. But now it feels like, I mean, especially with the pandemic, it's like the option. 00:14:06 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I feel like we're hitting the point where, like, I don't know, I feel like we could successfully have like a party or something soon. 00:14:13 Speaker 2: Right. 00:14:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, at that point it was like this could be four years, who knows. Yeah. 00:14:20 Speaker 2: I like getting married slightly just because you're bored, just you. 00:14:24 Speaker 3: Know, I think it's healthy and it's good. That's the way to do it. If you're born out there, get married. 00:14:33 Speaker 2: Even if you're not in a relationship. It's something to do with an afternoon have you has married life? Felt different, or is it kind of just like, well, now we're just married. 00:14:44 Speaker 3: Well, we were already living together, you know, I think it really it's kind of I think it's it doesn't feel that different just because we haven't had the feedback of being able to hang out with people's so it's sort of the same for us, you know. 00:15:04 Speaker 2: Right, And you didn't get a bunch of wedding gifts that kind. 00:15:06 Speaker 3: Of We finally both like, well, we were going to see her parents like at the end of the month, but my parents have been fully vaccinated for a little bit, and they flew out here and we got to finally see them in person since we did it. And you know, my other sister who had a baby at the very beginning of quarantine, flew out and we got to see her as well, my brother. 00:15:30 Speaker 2: It was gratefully speaking of parents, this is something I want to talk to you about. Your correct me if I'm wrong. But your dad was in Get Out and it is not an actor? 00:15:40 Speaker 3: Is that he is not an actor? 00:15:42 Speaker 2: And he is I remember, Yeah, your sister Erica, it was a very funny writer. I remember her telling me about this, but I don't remember. 00:15:49 Speaker 1: I remember. 00:15:49 Speaker 2: I should have just looked it up at the time. But it's kind of a wild story, isn't it. 00:15:53 Speaker 3: It's very bizarre. I yeah, So, like I guess how this happened was that I when I first started getting into you know, TV film stuff, my brother in law was shooting a movie called Wanderlust that shot in Georgia. He like he wrote and produced it and stuff, and I got to go like intern on it and I met a bunch of people, including Jordan Peel, who was in that movie. And then that was like the last thing I did in college or in credit I needed. And then moved to LA where I worked on that post. And then I like, since I met him there, I like just emailed him about his sketch show that got picked up. I was like, do you need a PA, and he like hired me, and I was like, you know, his assistant for many years, just like driving him around because at the time he didn't drive. And he met my dad when he visited sat one day and when he made get out, they ended up shooting it in Alabama, not too far from where I'm from, right, And I think the idea was like he had met my dad, thought he could like say two lines you know, and was like, rather than like go through like a weird this, you know, the southeast not known for having huge populations of Japanese men, and so he was like, rather than like try to like figure out like a local higher thing, I think he was like, would your dad just want to do it? 00:17:13 Speaker 2: Oh my god? And what how did your dad? I mean, what was your dad's reaction? Was it difficult? I mean, did he want to do it? 00:17:19 Speaker 3: Or he was like I think he was like excited, but like a little you know, skeptical because like I think, obviously that movie was like a huge success and very cool and awesome, like, but when hearing about it, he just like didn't know what it would be like. And I think he does. My dad really likes movies and that that world, and well, so he was excited to try something about it, but like a little nervous about what it would be. And so my mom and him drove to Fair Hope, Alabama, I think is like is very South Alabama to do it and get to stay like a few days. And like he's like a stubborn old guy who teaches cor that he teaches karate, Yeah, the United States to teach karate and oh my god. And so he is a part of a bigger organization that like his brother went to New York, a guy went to another guy went to Chicago, and they're like, maybe a third guy in the southeast. How about bring him Alabama. So that's why that's where I'm from. 00:18:22 Speaker 2: Ooh, that's amazing. Yeah, well you're I mean, God bless you in Erica. But your father is the coolest member of this family. 00:18:29 Speaker 3: I just feel like there's. 00:18:30 Speaker 2: Gonna be a lot of jealousy. 00:18:32 Speaker 3: It was so cool. 00:18:36 Speaker 2: So he so he went and stayed and then for a few days and shot this movie. 00:18:41 Speaker 3: And yes, and he is like his world of karate, especially in karate and Alabama, he is like hot shit for him, Like he like doesn't he doesn't have to listen to anyone, and so he's like his own boss. And you know, it's hard for him to be like in a thing like a movie set where there's like you have to be here at this time and then you have to do this at this time. You know, like you're so your hand is held so hard as like a performer, I think, and uh, that was very weird for him. And I think they asked him to stay for a few more days for like another shot or something. And he just said no. 00:19:19 Speaker 2: That is incredible. He's like the one person in America this play would say no to being I. 00:19:24 Speaker 3: Have to teach a class on Friday. 00:19:26 Speaker 1: So no. 00:19:27 Speaker 3: It was like, which, I don't know. I think I could use a little more backbone in that way, but honestly, give me work. 00:19:35 Speaker 2: I'm like, I'll do. You can kill me, you can do whatever you want with me. We got to shoot you in the head on Friday. Yeah, I can be that. What time did need me to be there? That's really wonderful. Does he have I does he have any intention to be in to act anymore? Was like, that's good for me. 00:19:51 Speaker 3: You know, I don't know what his future of acting holds. I think he We'll see. I think he would. I'm sure do something like that again if he was asked right where. 00:20:01 Speaker 2: It's kind of just like, come beyond the movie or what. 00:20:04 Speaker 3: Totally. 00:20:05 Speaker 2: That is so funny. By the way, Erica, when telling the story, completely erased you from it. You were not any element of this story, Erica. 00:20:13 Speaker 3: It probably did that because famously, in kindergarten I or pre k I did a family portrait of my entire family and didn't I forgot her and it has me my other sister, Emily. My parents are dog and cat, and I forgot Eric. 00:20:29 Speaker 2: Okay, well then she's gotten her revenge. I think that things are Oh yeah, well look, Zach, this is not this is not easy for me. I mentioned earlier in the podcast that I saw you recently. I came by your house just to kind of scope it out. I guess you could say, see your front yard. 00:20:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, I looked at the window. You were kind of you're taking measurements of the property. You're doing right. 00:20:56 Speaker 2: I had my little laser beam set up and was kind of doing, you know, your your standard measurements of a house in Los Angeles. This is kind of something I've been doing with my time. You've got a beautiful yard, and I thought I'll just check it out. And I see you peering out the window. What's happening here? And then I realized, oh, Zach's going to be on the podcast soon. I should say hello. So I knock on the door. You come out extremely flustered. Bridge or what are you doing here? I explained, I'm measuring the house. I don't understand what the problem is. We you know, we had ten or fifteen minutes of tense conversation. I'll say that, yes, yes, really eventually right, eventually broken by Phoebe coming out to say hi. I of course I thought I should congratulate them on their recent marriage. But things are tense enough already. I don't want to get into it. And then I don't know if it was an attempt on your part to one up me for being in your yard without ass but you said, Bridge, I have something for you. You disappear into the house, and this is where my heart starts to race. I wonder Zach can to reappear with a knife and get me off of his property. What is it going to be? And you walk out and you're holding a large bag, which I would almost describe as a wizard's bag. 00:22:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's sort of like a bag of holding. It could be like how Mary Poppins just has like an infinite bag on the inside. It felt like has that. 00:22:30 Speaker 2: Energy, right, it does feel like, you know, a video game character could carry all of their food for the rest of their life in this bag, various coins, the sort of thing that said, I know, I know it's not that Zach. This podcast is obviously called. I said, no gifts. You know that. I know that. I assume all of your neighbors that I interacted with on my way towards your house know that. But I have so I have to ask, is this is a gift for me? 00:23:02 Speaker 3: Bridge, that is a gift for you? And I did so as a threat at the time, just sort of something that it felt like a very powerful HBO drama kind of threatening. I don't know there's some sort of metaphorical subtext to it, but I was getting you off my line with. 00:23:20 Speaker 2: That is something that is this how you usually get people off your property and just handing them kind of mysterious, ominous bag. 00:23:29 Speaker 3: Is there anything more ominous and threatening than a gift handed on your own on your own line. 00:23:36 Speaker 2: I don't think there is, at least in my opinion. I mean, while we're here, should I open it? 00:23:49 Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, you know, I've cooled down a little bit, and I hope you can open it and we can be friends. 00:23:54 Speaker 2: I mean I had cooled down, temperature rising again, I'm going to try to keep things cool. 00:24:01 Speaker 3: Try to shave a memory of that fateful day. 00:24:04 Speaker 2: Yes, of course, Okay, I'm going to open it up. It's some kind of as I described a wizard's bag. It's gray, very soft, with some green ribbon. Very nice. Let's open this up and see what's happening inside. 00:24:20 Speaker 3: Hastily packed basically when I ran inside. 00:24:26 Speaker 2: All right, let me reach inside here. Okay, I like to just feel around initially without looking. It's just always kind of a weird sensation. So I'm feeling like a piece of cardboard or paper. Initially, I'm going to pull this out, and is there any order I should? There are multiple objects in here. 00:24:44 Speaker 3: So I think that maybe I think that you can't go wrong. I think the cardboards maybe first. 00:24:51 Speaker 2: Cardboards first. Okay, I did the right thing as usual. Okay, Oh what this is so crazy. This is open, So I swear I did not open this bag prior to this podcast. This is so weird. So I opened a The piece of cardboard is like a calendar for world. O Yama karate. I assume this is your dad. 00:25:17 Speaker 3: Is a calendar of my father kicking with all the months, and it has a few messages on there, because he has a lot of philosophies he lives by and messages he really desperately, I mean, he wants everyone to hear me as his son. He really wants me to hear it, and so I get a lot of things. 00:25:36 Speaker 2: Like that, let me, should I read them? Or do you want to read them? 00:25:39 Speaker 3: Please read them? Yeah? 00:25:40 Speaker 2: Okay. It says, so world, are Yama karate? And then it says put down the cell phone. Just sweat. This is a registered trademark. 00:25:48 Speaker 3: Just sweat is a registered trademark. He almost tried to soon Nintendo for a wee game where they say just sweat what? And I was like, Dad, I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think it also, I don't think it matters. 00:26:00 Speaker 2: But what was the video? Kay? 00:26:02 Speaker 3: I think it was like a wee fit exercise game from right, like one of the you know, there's like something for the Switch now, but this was like one where you maybe stand on a platform and you do you. 00:26:15 Speaker 2: Know the Switch game is frequently a topic of conversation on this podcast. Oh yes, yeah, okay, So it says just sweat. Your father is highly litigious. And then there's one that says a beautiful day and ugly day. All's up to you. Today is your day? 00:26:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, there's kind of a little sort of a little bit of poetry about how you should live your day and live your life. 00:26:39 Speaker 2: That's a good philosophy, Yeah, I think it is. Wait, so I want to know why you gave this to me? 00:26:46 Speaker 3: Well, I really struggled with what would be my gift. I have right a few options that one thing i'd well, yeah, some things I decided for various reasons. What and bedn't be the thing? And I know that basically whenever I wear or people see things of my dad's, they're like, how can I get one? Should I get? Can? I? Can you please get me one? And it's a curse. It is truly a curse. If you're listening to this podcast, I can't give you one just because my dad is too obdue and strange about it, and you cannot order them online. And I felt like this is one of the gifts that when I give people something of this nature, they usually like it. And now it's incredible. I thought that this would this would be a good gift. 00:27:39 Speaker 2: Do you have a few like a stack of these at home? 00:27:42 Speaker 3: I calendars. I have one more, but like whenever I see my dad or when he's in town or whatever, I usually end up with a few more. And so that's so good. And I'm not actually not sure what you're that calendar. 00:27:54 Speaker 2: Let me look at it. 00:27:55 Speaker 3: I don't think it says a year if I remember, so if you could probably like, you know, look up what your head, you know, January first on a Wednesday. 00:28:02 Speaker 2: Or whatever, right, whatever year New Year's Eve was on a Tuesday. 00:28:07 Speaker 3: Got it? Got it? 00:28:08 Speaker 2: Have to say my birthday. Let's see, it's probably two to three years old. Yeah, I mean it's definitely not vintage. It talks about cell phones, that sort of thing. So we know that we're dealing with the last ten years totally. Yeah. Yeah, your father looks great, looks like he's having the time of his life as a kid. Did you take karate from your dad? 00:28:31 Speaker 3: I did. I grew up taking karate. It's like a little weird, I think because I grew up in Alabama where there are like four Asian people, right, and I think I didn't quite embrace it as hard as I could have for that reason. But so I'm not a black belt, which is a lot of a disappointment to everyone. 00:28:52 Speaker 2: I tell Is it a disappointment to your dad? 00:28:55 Speaker 3: It probably is due, yes, And so you know, I wish I could pause my life and go back to Alabama and become a black belt. But I think there just were other interests and other things that felt more important, and you know, doing it over again, I probably would have embraced it a little more and gave it a real go. But for me at the time, a lot of that like going up in belts. For him, he was always compared to like other like taekwondo and other karate kind of things around, you know, where there are like children that are black belts. Like he just like basically wouldn't allow it and was like you have to really really really prove it. And I was just kind of a little infrequent with how often I would go. And I think that when I think of why I'm not a black belt, that's a big part of it. 00:29:49 Speaker 2: I played lacrosse, interesting. 00:29:52 Speaker 3: Something that I was really glad I did in hindsight, really glad I spent high school playing lacrosse. 00:30:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I with your father, am disappointed in you? 00:30:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, I assul. 00:30:05 Speaker 2: It is a funny thing because it's like karate is like a cool thing, but it's like when your parents do something, it's just like that's not what I want to do, no matter how cool it is exactly. 00:30:17 Speaker 3: And I think I was just like not trying to. It was very difficult to not run into like stereotypes right when I grew up basically around all white people and was like, I'm the same, and you know, it was. It's a little sad to remember that being a reason for not embracing it. But I think I think it's cool. I feel like, I know karate is like how I put it. 00:30:44 Speaker 2: I'm sure you're better than most someone who hasn't taken karate. 00:30:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think I'm I wouldn't go so far as to say I at one point in my life was good at it. I think I'm a little you know, I haven't a little out of practice and stretched as much in the last decade as I should have. But but yeah, like one time, one summer, I like went to Japan for the whole summer to do karate and like train on the cycles. I would say, I know karate, Yeah, but where in Japan did you go to train with for karate? I well, it was just like one summer and I went, I stayed with you know, he's a part of this like karate organization that has a couple of branches in Japan, and so I trained with two of his different Black belts. Like a guy he he very often would bring people to the United States to train with him because he was like thought of as a very good teacher. They would like amazing, Yeah, it's a very interesting world. But he like would train these like young Japanese guys in karate that would yeah, they like basically would come a lot of them not knowing how to do karate at all, uh and basically not knowing English, and they would stay for a couple of years and like get really good and learn English and like just kind of learn how to like be adults or whatever, and like you know, like the philosophy on his calendar, uh, you know, grow grow up sort of. And so that was kind of the idea was like, yeah, Zach should go there and do something. And I honestly at the time I really didn't want to do it, but ended up being a very cool experience. And like trained with a guy in Tokyo that like had trained in Alabama, and then another guy in Yokohama who is just another that's just a. 00:32:27 Speaker 2: Way better summer camp. That's incredible. Wow, good for your dad, I mean the fact that I brought him up and then we're suddenly looking at his sclenar. 00:32:36 Speaker 3: As he started talking about I was like, this is gonna be fun. When we opened the. 00:32:41 Speaker 2: I need some some warning. I almost passed out. Okay, should I go deeper into the bag here? 00:32:48 Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I think we should. 00:32:51 Speaker 2: We can always circle back to your dad's karate. 00:32:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, and we'll circle back. I guess immediately with this your. 00:32:58 Speaker 2: Father's merchants and helpful. This is it. You now have a You've given me a sweatshirt. So this is when I say exclusively about your tad. 00:33:08 Speaker 3: It kind of you know, it's it's not hard to just suddenly start talking about it the whole time. My dad. Yeah, this is what I've mean when people ask me if they can have one, because I have a bunch of these sweatshirts. My dad over the years has consistently made oh Yama karate sweatshirts. I have some pretty old ones. This is kind of the newer crop where the graphic design of the sweatshirt is I think all his own. Where my dad, I'm sure just told someone to do exactly this, even though they probably give them feedback of you probably don't want three fonts on this, but it's sort of just like comic sands, something that's like a little more like watery, kind of like like a very fun Font's fine. So the three things it says are put down the cell phone and maybe comic sands at time, right then this sort of comic sands, yeah, like kind of like a wet ink pen says just sweat and then at the bottom and sort of a small sharp font that's like almost like when someone does a like Japanese character, you know, character font, but it's elish world of Democrat. 00:34:22 Speaker 2: I think that it works. I think if this was just one font, it wouldn't work. But the fact that you get three different the chaos kind of turns it into something. 00:34:31 Speaker 3: Well, it really separates the messages. 00:34:33 Speaker 2: Yeah right, I mean you're like you're getting just maybe put the put down the cell phone. Then you can just have just sweat, and then you've got the business. So it's a little bit of everything. Does your dad have like a lot of students or is it like because you know, like growing up in Utah, like and especially during like the Ninja Turtles fad, every kindergartener wanted to learn karate or whatever exactly, but you're not taking karate, You're going somewhere in your pajamas and like truly running around. 00:35:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that was like I think he's like consistently had like a good It's hard for me to really gauge honestly, but like it always felt like people thought he was the real deal to a degree that like when people were choosing where to take karate or whatever, they would at least try there, and maybe it would be too intense for them and they would do something like a Ninja Turtle party or whatever. But I think like around the karate kid, like he had like a boom in business for sure. I bet like it was a lot of it's funny because that is so what my dad hates and so of course, and so like it's maybe not it was a lot of him being like, don't do that like to people, and like making like really coming down hard on people who liked it and calling it bullshit all the time. But but yeah, I think I feel like it's been a little weird obviously with like in person stuff for the last year, but they're still they're still doing it. I think they're about to like be able to open up to a better degree. 00:36:11 Speaker 2: Now, right, And does he have like employees who also teach karate or is it just him? 00:36:17 Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, well he, like I think a lot of the Black Belts, once they hit that sort of status, he has like kind of a weird thing where they you know, they'll teach some classes too. And there's this guy Carl who's like been teaching for a while. That's sort of his like protege. A lot of Japanese people that like were his like students for a long time that would come here and train for years, but we were the teachers for most of the time I was growing up outside of him. 00:36:45 Speaker 1: Uh. 00:36:46 Speaker 3: And but a lot of them obviously end up just going back to Japan because they that's you know what I think their original goal was. Some people stayed in the United States, but just like go to a you know, go to a different part of the country to teach and under his umbrella or like doing their own thing. 00:37:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, and wait, what belt did you get to? 00:37:05 Speaker 3: So I'm a Green Belt with the brown stripe? Okay? 00:37:09 Speaker 2: What is the what is the levels? I want to I really want to know your level here? 00:37:13 Speaker 3: Okay, So here's the deal. It's always different in every kind of practice. But the Amacaradi was white blue. I think I forget if they have stripes in the earlier levels sometimes that I think that changed over the years. Yellow orange, I think orange with a green stripe, green green with a brown stripe, brown brown with a black stripe, another black stripe than black. 00:37:37 Speaker 2: Wow. So you did get fairly far down the road before turning your life to lacrosse. 00:37:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, before getting very mediocre at lacrosse, which arrived in Alabama when I was in seventh grade. Not of sport played there. 00:37:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, does your what's your mom do? 00:37:58 Speaker 3: My mom is a nurse. I just kind of retired now, but like she would, she was like a like labor and delivery nurse. 00:38:06 Speaker 2: Oh wow, well your parents are just really doing it up in Alabama. Wow, this is incredible. I you know, I'm always wanting a new sweatshirt, but it's the sort of thing that I'll see at the store and I'll be like, that's four dollars too much money. So it's nice to just have a sweatshirt given to me. Sweatshirts have made a big comeback. Oh yeah, A crew neck sweatshirt very popular. Oh my god, it's I mean a really coveted item, and even more so when it's from your dad. I mean, I feel like people in your life are going to be furious at me. 00:38:37 Speaker 3: That people are going to be pretty mad. You got to target on your back now, because it's also saying, you know, karate. 00:38:45 Speaker 2: Also, it's like telling people how to live their lives. I'm going out in public and telling them to put their phone. 00:38:50 Speaker 3: Down, being fully antagonistic. Yeah, all that's funny. I honestly like I've become so numb to it. I forget that people probably think I, like, I really care if they're on their cell phone or not, when it's just something my dad cares about. 00:39:07 Speaker 2: I mean, we should all care on some level how much we're on each other's cell phones. I mean, obviously we don't want to be pushing each other around, but it's it's gonna get us all cancer, and so why not you know, in this early on, I was on the right path. Maybe he's been a little too grumpy about it. I don't know. 00:39:23 Speaker 3: He really does not connect with it. Yeah he's not. He can't. There's no world where he looks at his phone for longer than thirty seconds. 00:39:30 Speaker 2: Oh God, bless him. Yeah, falling in love with your father. It's just impossible not to do. Now you you're a Dungeons and Dragons player and you have a podcast about Dungeons and Dragons. I do have like similar feelings about Dungeons and Dragons as to your father has about karate. Are you kind of like a no nonsense. 00:39:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think well, I do think that, like it is the kind of thing where, like if you Dungeons and Dragons, very strange thing that I feel like I've only started to do in the last like four or five years actually, or probably four years. My buddy Brennan Lee Mulligan introduced it to me and some other comedy friends and we we have like a little show that we would do on a little show. It's like a fun show that is a like actual play D and D show, but he taught us how to play, and it's like this thing that like requires a level for it to be very fun. Like I think it does require a level of immersion and like caring about your character, and it's sort of just like gambling with a story, you know, because you have the dice and stuff, and it kind of takes the fun out of it if someone is just sitting there on the phone the whole time, for sure, but bother Yeah, Yeah, it's like it's tough because everyone engages with it in their own way and there's not necessarily a wrong way to do it. But like, I think that is like a little bit of a let down when someone's just on phone the whole time. 00:41:02 Speaker 2: I feel like I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, but it does feel like the sort of game that you have to that requires similar level of sincerity or earnestness that you have to kind of give up in front of your friends because you're imagining together. 00:41:13 Speaker 3: Yes, it's sort of like this weird like fever dream where everyone's sort of imagining the same thing. Is it difficult to get into in that way? Well, it's immediately incredibly embarrassing, but once you cross through that and then it's just sort of fun. It's sort of I guess it's like the closest thing to improv I guess where it's like you're just kind of doing that with the same people for a long time, over many sessions. Yeah, and it's I think it is. It can feel less embarrassing once you're into it, and then you're all like doing a good job with it, you know, like where it's like, you know, kind of like improv. Like good improv is less embarrassing than bad improv. 00:41:54 Speaker 2: Right, I mean improv is largely like listening to someone tell you their dreams. So if it's bad, just like this is, I don't I can't follow any of this logic and it's not entertaining me. 00:42:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, and you can tell if someone's embarrassed, like this guy's not committed. He's like he knows what he's doing is stupid, which. 00:42:13 Speaker 2: Is more embarrassing. Yes, like it just adds to the embarrassment of all of it. Okay, well, I feel like we should play a game now. I want to play the game called Gift Master, because I feel like you'll be good at this with you know, you're a D and D player. This is kind of the D and D of I said, no gifts. Okay, I need a number between one and ten from you. 00:42:37 Speaker 3: Oh, one in ten, how about seven? 00:42:42 Speaker 2: Okay, I have to do some light calculating. Okay, I've got to go get the game pieces. So in the meantime, you can promote something, you can recommend something, you can you know, say some nice things. About your mom, who has not gotten enough spotlight on this podcast. 00:42:55 Speaker 3: She doesn't have her own merch. It's kind of a problem. 00:42:57 Speaker 2: That's a big. 00:43:00 Speaker 3: I should just make my mom. 00:43:02 Speaker 2: That's a great idea. I would buy your mom's merch. So do whatever you want. I'll be right back. 00:43:07 Speaker 3: Okay, gosh, well, hello everyone. What can I recommend? I guess I'll recommend my podcast. I have a podcast on Patreon called Rotating Heroes podcast that, as Bridger mentioned, is a D and D podcast. On the show, it's sort of just comedians playing D and D and it's called Rotating Heroes because every arc just sort of rotates in and out some friends of mine, you know, carrying on a story in the larger world with new people. Currently, I'm doing an arc with Victoria Longwell, Devin Field, and Jacob Wisaki. They're trapsing through a you know, a magical forest, and it's been very fun so far. Outside of that, I will recommend not asking me for merch of my father because I just he's too hard to nail down. It's cold way to get Zach. 00:44:05 Speaker 2: That was an excellent use of your time. I mean, I think I think you really did a good explanation of your podcast that people should go listen to. Sometimes when people are trying, they'll name the podcast, they don't explain what it is. I'm not blaming any past guests, but I just feel like you did a nice, tight promotion there, which I appreciate. This is how gift master works. I'm going to name three gifts, three potential things you can give away, and then three famous people, celebrities that kind of thing, and you have to tell me which person you'll give which gift. Does that make sense? 00:44:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense? All right. 00:44:38 Speaker 2: So the gifts you're going to be giving today are an airy tunic, so a tunic that's kind of a light more of a summary tunic springtime. Maybe you know you'd the length. The length is up to you. The only descriptor I have here is an airy tunic, so the rest is truly up to you. The next one is a less conventional gift, and it it's the one Ring. Now, the one ring is from Lord of the Rings, which I believe was forged in the fires of Mount Doom and so kind of allows the user some sort of unlimited power but also can corrupt. 00:45:16 Speaker 3: So that's I see. 00:45:18 Speaker 2: You know, the Baggin's family had it that kind of thing. And then finally, grapefruit spoons. So these are spoons, the tiny little spoons you use exclusively for grapefruit eating grapefruit. They kind of have like a little saw edge, I believe. Hmm, okay, yeah, I'll say it's an underappreciated utensil. Now the people you're going to be giving them to are this first person. I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce her name. I can't remember the last time I heard it pronounced, but Dina Lohan or is it Dinah Lohan? 00:45:51 Speaker 3: It's Lindsay's mom, Yes, Dinasa, I think it's. 00:45:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's I know, Okay, so d Lohan will call her uh. Tan France is the next one of Queer Eye, so he's kind of I believe he's a Utah resident actually. And finally we've got the judge herself, Judge Judy. 00:46:20 Speaker 3: Hmmm, So those. 00:46:21 Speaker 2: Are the three people you're going to be dealing. 00:46:23 Speaker 3: Lohan, Tan France, and Judge Judy. 00:46:28 Speaker 2: You know, I. 00:46:31 Speaker 3: Wish I knew more about Judge Judy. I just know the title of her book. Don't be on my. 00:46:36 Speaker 2: Leg and tell me it's Rainy, your dad could have had that, could have had that slogan. 00:46:42 Speaker 3: That could be his next one shirt. I really don't know that. I really don't feel like I should give the one ring to Dina Lohan. I worry about her presence. I worry about both her parents' presence in her life. It seemed like maybe they weren't the best influence my from my limited understanding of it. So I think you know that the power would corrupt her. We have, we would have another Smiegel or or worse on our hands. 00:47:14 Speaker 2: Her scurrying up mountains and raw fish at a waterfall. 00:47:21 Speaker 3: Tan France, I think could appreciate the airy Tunic, but again, Utah's I would say, probably you don't want to airy Tunic. You want a bit of a bit of a Patagonia or something in Utah you get, Yeah, but obviously travels the world, so who knows. Maybe that's I'll put that in the maybe for Tan. And last, gosh, Judge Judy, I think, I really hope I'm correct in saying that she has a strong moral character as a judge. Again, not one hundred percent sure where she really falls on the spectrum of judges, because some judges can be, of course really bad. 00:48:03 Speaker 2: I think the fact that she judges on television really says a lot about her wisdom. 00:48:08 Speaker 3: Mm yeah, yeah, gosh. I think I think I'm going to give Tan the one ring. Oh okay, interesting because I feel like it strikes me as a as a nice person trying to help people all around the world with you know, you know, on queer getting their life together, and it strikes me as like a positive, nice person that could hopefully resist the powers of the ring. I think that with Judge Judy, we might have a bit of a bora mirror, you know, a bit of a person who's trying to take it. You know, I really feels like they know what's right with the ring, and so I'm going to give her the airy tunic because I was You're used to wearing a gown, but you can't really wear that out and so like you're probably comfortable in that type of garb, and so maybe it's like kind of like an off duty judge gown and airy ta. 00:49:11 Speaker 2: A tunic is kind of the relaxed judge gown. That's a great choice. 00:49:16 Speaker 3: And you know that leaves Dino with the grapefood spoon. I think that maybe we'll promote some some routine, some healthy choices. And this is maybe I may be out of pocket just in commenting on her life in this way, but I think having a great foot spoon and starting your day with a grapefruit is probably a really nice, relaxing way to start your day. 00:49:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like Dina rolls out of bed into just eating beef jerky or something. So like a packet of cigarettes. 00:49:45 Speaker 3: And nine arts of coffee, I think, yeah, I'm like, why am I jittery like that? That's the energy making forty five phone calls before three pm. 00:49:59 Speaker 2: All to her daughter. 00:50:00 Speaker 3: Nobody's picking up with the phone. 00:50:05 Speaker 2: Excellent choices. I feel like you really did it there. The one ring could only go to in this situation, truly could only go to Tan France. It's the only person of those three that I would trust with that sort of power and temptation. At this point, I mean, judge Judy is almost a sar On level presence in the world, so to give her even more power could be difficult. I think, you, Yeah, you nailed it. I really appreciate a good gift giving session. So you did it. Let's move on. We have to get to this part of the podcast. This is called I Said No Questions. People write into I Said No gifts at gmail dot com. Every one of them could not be more desperate for answers. So would you help me answer some questions? I'd love to all Right, this first one says dear Bridger and esteemed qualified gift giving guests. So they've really just gone out of their way to in the span of two months. My boyfriend and I have a lot of gift giving opportunities. In June we will be celebrating our third anniversary, and in early August we will be celebrating his twenty seventh birthday and his graduation with a PhD in physics. Okay, so he's a boy wonder. Congratulations. Let's see, did I mention we're moving cross country from my master's degree. We're dealing with a couple of brainiacs here. They're going from Florida to California via two week road trip in July. There are a lot of gift giving opportunities and exciting times. Okay, well you already mentioned that, so we're falling apart here. My boyfriend loves experiences thrill seeking sports, both playing and watching Vinyl records, video games, and traveling. We have a sweet Mini Schnauzer and lived together. This person's just living this beautiful life before thirty. 00:51:53 Speaker 3: It's sharp, guys, Slow down. 00:51:55 Speaker 2: I was thinking of doing an experience for a day for our anniversary skydiving. I'm absolutely stuck on his graduation and birthday presence. I'm not sure about material goods being in the middle of a move, or experiences with such a big trip planned, I'm not I'm just not sure about anything. Okay, any advice would be a delight. And that's from Darby in Florida soon to be California. Darby is sending some I'm just going to put it out there, some conflicting messages here. 00:52:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, she's saying. 00:52:24 Speaker 2: Experiences, but they're not experiences and video games video games, right. 00:52:29 Speaker 3: Just that's an experience. So what were the three things? It's an anniversary. 00:52:33 Speaker 2: Anniversary, right, mister PhD in physics. So and then he seems to be kind of a you know, he likes music, he likes video games, he likes sports. He kind of does it all this. She's really painting a beautiful picture of this boyfriend here and they're going skydiving. 00:52:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, so they're going skydiving, so not including that, what are what are some opportunities? So this is an active. 00:52:58 Speaker 2: Person, it feels like, yeah, or at least posits themselves as an active person. I mean, look, they're going on our cross country road trip. There are so many experiences you can have when you hit Colorado. Why don't you go on a water rafting trip? 00:53:14 Speaker 3: Ooh, that is very fun and something I haven't done in many years. 00:53:18 Speaker 2: That feels like a good experience, right, Yeah. 00:53:22 Speaker 3: Well, there's this place called the Akoe River in Tennessee, and I think that's where they did the Olympics when they're in Atlanta, and we would go on a lot of church trips there and whitewater raft. I think that was the thing we did like maybe once a year growing up. 00:53:36 Speaker 2: That's very much a church trip activity. 00:53:39 Speaker 3: I briefly got into whitewater kayaking at that age and call it and going into high school, I think, and I was too scared to tell my friends that it was too scary for me and would just go on these horrible trips where I was frightened the whole time. But in their whitewater raft it's a little right. 00:54:01 Speaker 2: And you probably have a guide and you're kind of just the bumbling tourist flying down the river. 00:54:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, yeah, that's but it would be very fun to do that. 00:54:10 Speaker 2: You saying Tennessee reminds me. I recently learned that the world's largest subterranean lake is in Tennessee. 00:54:17 Speaker 3: What is it called? What do you mean by subterranean lake? 00:54:20 Speaker 2: It's everything you could dream of. It's a lake under the ground. I mean, it's like something I can get to it. You can absolutely this is something that you can apparently just go under the through a cavern or whatever, and there's a giant cave full of water and trout that are slowly going blind because just a bunch of like white eyed I believe. It's called the Lost Sea, and it's the largest lake under ground in at least the northern Hemisphere. And so that feels like you're headed from Florida to the West Coast. I don't know what the you know, the actual route is, but that feels like an experience. 00:55:01 Speaker 3: I think that would be great. I would love to see something like that. And when are you going to be back in that area again? 00:55:06 Speaker 2: Right out here going to Tennessee for any other reason unless you've got family or something, and once you. 00:55:14 Speaker 3: Move to California you kind of can't. Like, I feel like I never been able to go anywhere else in the Southeast other than where I'm from. 00:55:21 Speaker 2: I think that, I mean, yeah, yeah, it's like, why going anywhere else? I think, what am I saying? 00:55:29 Speaker 3: I'm saying. 00:55:29 Speaker 2: I'm about to echo exactly what you said, except for about Utah. 00:55:32 Speaker 3: It does not matter. 00:55:35 Speaker 2: But if you're headed this way, swing through Tennessee, you can see the Smoky Mountains, go to Dollywood. 00:55:42 Speaker 3: Gurg is very fun. 00:55:44 Speaker 2: Have you ever gag. 00:55:46 Speaker 3: Gallin Burg is a little town where there's about fifteen Ripley's, believe it or not, museums. 00:55:51 Speaker 2: Wait, is that near Dollywood? 00:55:53 Speaker 3: I can't remember if it's near Dollywood or not, but it's gosh. I think it's in Tennessee, and you can buy I bet every other store sells like a Thomas Kincaid painting or knives. And you know, there's like a little I think you can ski there technically, but it's one of those places that has almost exclusively like fake snow because it's like not necessarily high up enough. 00:56:19 Speaker 2: I feel like there are a lot of mini golf courses there if I've been. 00:56:22 Speaker 3: I feel, yeah, it's a very touristy little area, but I think it's you could go there and you could get plenty of gifts. 00:56:30 Speaker 2: Right, I'm receiving a word from our engineer on a lease. She's saying they're twenty two minutes apart, So there you go. I certainly have been through Gatlinburg. I've been to the parking lot of Dollywood. 00:56:41 Speaker 3: So I went to Dollywood and I accidentally lost my duct tape wallet that I made, so it's kind of a sour subject for me. I left it at a claw machine where but I think I only had about two dollars in it on a church trip. 00:56:56 Speaker 2: But that's some heartbreaking. 00:56:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, I made you make the wallet. Yeah, I made the duct tape wallet. It was kind of the cool thing to do at the time, and it was too heartbroken to ever make another one. 00:57:07 Speaker 2: Well, there you go. I feel like, make a wallet for the boyfriend or the what did we say here, Darby? Yeah, boyfriend, Okay, I don't know that. I think we gave some experiences there that fit into their little trip. I think, so get him a you know you're dry also going. 00:57:25 Speaker 3: On a trip. 00:57:25 Speaker 2: Get him a Nintendo Switch or something you can play that while you're driving. 00:57:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be great. I feel like or like a full van life van could be fun like all of those like converted vans that are about you know, probably too much for what you're talking about, unless you did all three gifts at once and you're also just really rich. They're probably about eighty grand. 00:57:46 Speaker 2: But can you rent those? 00:57:50 Speaker 3: I think you can. I don't know if you can. I mean from what I have done a little bit of quarantine research. Of course, I think it's probably to take a cross country road trip in one. But okay, I haven't priced that out. 00:58:04 Speaker 2: Look into it, Darby, that's not my job. It's not Zac's job either. We're just wanting to give it inspiration. Yes, okay, let's answer one more. This says, Hello Bridger and delightful guests. You're getting a lot of compliments today. My nephew's thirteenth birthday is coming up, and I don't know what present to get him. Last year I got him a gift of the month membership for science type things, and a couple of years before got him a laptop. He likes video games, okay, and outdoors the stuff like camping and biking. We were much closer when he was younger, so apparently there's been some sort of rift. The pandemic hasn't helped with that at all. Please help me figure out what to get this soon to be teenager. Thank you. That's sign from just aunt who has no clue what is cool anymore. I can relate to that. I cannot relate to the rift with a nephew who knows what happened, But apparently they're drifting further and further. 00:58:56 Speaker 3: A fourteen a tumultuous age, and who knows what the aunt did. 00:59:03 Speaker 2: I mean, she could have betrayed him in a huge way, and now she's reaching out to a podcast first to heal this. You know, this wound, which is a little tough for me to you know, it's a lot of weight for both of us to carry. 00:59:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, and I have a nephew around the same age. 00:59:20 Speaker 2: Have you got any many gifts? 00:59:21 Speaker 3: I got him a gift, And the problem with this is that I have not followed up on the other half of why this gift is good. And so it's hard for me to say this and then admit that I'm I have been a bad uncle here, But I. You know, we talked about how I played D and D. I think a D and D starter set is a good gift for a kid that age because it's like a fun, imaginative thing that that you know, kids can play with their friends, and it's very creative and in the playing of it kind of lets people test out kind of the things you need to test out at that age to like find out who you are and in a safe place where you are like, you know, morally understand what you're who you are, you know, and like teach teach like philosophical lessons to children. 01:00:16 Speaker 2: Here's your you've become your father. Just mister, no fun. 01:00:20 Speaker 3: No, I think it's to put down this cell phone, you know. 01:00:24 Speaker 2: No, this is I think a D and D. It's D and D said, I've never played D and D, but it does feel like a nice natural evolution of a video game interest. Let's just put it out there. The thirteen year old's a NERD. As a former and current NERD, I support this. Let's get this little geek playing D and D and enjoying himself, getting some friends, and imagine. 01:00:47 Speaker 3: It being right. You know, it's never been it's never been cooler to be a nerd truly. 01:00:52 Speaker 2: I mean it's almost almost dangerous to be a nerd. At this point, you're cooler than I mean, nerds are now in control of everything. 01:01:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, and do an honestly upsetting degree, or sometimes I think of being lightly bullied is okay. 01:01:08 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:01:08 Speaker 2: I feel like I benefited a little bit from that, and I feel like I can say this as a lifelong nerd, we maybe we could like go back into the shadows slightly. Yes, just like let cool people take a little bit more control over what's happening. 01:01:26 Speaker 3: I think some people that are very loud on the Internet could benefit from having their head put in a toilet for fifteen seconds. 01:01:36 Speaker 2: Absolutely no question about that. And so but that said, I think this thirteen year old, it's a nice age to start. You know, you're really using your brain in that way. I think this is the perfect gift. I don't have any I don't have what am I going to say? I buy him a tent, well, I don't have any outdoor thing. Buy some rope to tie knots I don't know, teach them some knots, yes, or take him on one of the trips we mentioned in the last answer. Those both feel like outdoorsy things. Take him to Tennessee ant nephew trip to the huge lake under the water. That also be something he never heard or not under the water, under the grounds. 01:02:16 Speaker 3: It sounds like The Descent three The Descent. 01:02:21 Speaker 2: Oh, I love that movie. I haven't seen the sequel. 01:02:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's probably not as good, but yeah, the first one's incredible. 01:02:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, so you could kind of that feels an ant in a nephew being chased by goblins through a cave. I think that that fits perfectly. Buy him The Descent on DVD. 01:02:39 Speaker 3: I don't know the emotional arc of an aunt and her nephew. We've all been waiting for that one. 01:02:45 Speaker 2: We have, Zach. We've done an excellent dare I say perfect job answering these questions. I now own some of your father's merchandise. I mean, this episode feels like it really came together in a beautiful way. Hopefully I've gained both your wife Phoebe and your father and your mother as listeners. We've we've spoken about them so much, hopefully that they're all now lifelong fans. Eventually they'll all be guessed. Maybe we'll do a family where you. 01:03:14 Speaker 3: Of course, well, my dad definitely knows how to find a podcast and he knows what it is. Yeah, and so he'll for sure listen. 01:03:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, mister Oyama, you have a lifelong fan in me. I'm happy to take sweatshirts whenever you want to send them. Nobody else gets a sweatshirt. Zach's been very clear about that. 01:03:34 Speaker 3: Yeah, not going to happen. I'm sorry. I have to be a little rude about it. If you ask me, I'm going to be mad. 01:03:40 Speaker 2: It's going to be a scene, a scene similar to what happened when Zach found me measuring his house, which was not pretty. 01:03:48 Speaker 3: I will intensely give you a gift that is not a sweatshirt. 01:03:53 Speaker 2: Zach, thank you so much for being here. I've had such a wonderful time. 01:03:56 Speaker 3: Oh this was incredible. 01:03:58 Speaker 2: And everybody go listen to zax pod and find him on the internet. He's on Instagram, he's on you know, Twitter is more and more causing. I think going to give us all work cancer. But he's very funny. Wherever you find him on the internet, So wherever you feel comfortable and isn't going to just send you into a spiral, go there or don't be on the Internet. That's also an option. 01:04:20 Speaker 3: Yeah, I just kind of ponder on the idea of me. If you want, right, just think about Zach and zach Oyama in your mind. 01:04:27 Speaker 2: When you're saying your prayers, just think at zach Oyama. But anyway, this is the end listener, So this as usual. The audio will eventually stop playing and you'll have to make some of your own life choices. And that's where I trust you to take control. I believe in you, and I will talk to you soon. 01:04:48 Speaker 3: Goodbye. 01:04:52 Speaker 2: I said No Gifts is an exactly right production. It's engineered by our dear friend Analise Nelson and the theme song is by Miracle wor Amy Mann. You must follow the show on Instagram at I Said No Gifts. That's where you're going to see pictures of all these wonderful gifts I'm getting. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcast, Stitcher or wherever you found me, and why not leave a review while you're there. It's really the least you could do. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, go to midroll dot com slash ads. 01:05:25 Speaker 1: Hello invit, did you hear Funna mad? Myself? Perfectly clear? But you're a guess to me, you gotta come to me empty, And I said, no guests, your presences presents enough, and I'm already too much stuff. So how do you dare to surbey me?