Speaker 1: But I invited you here. I thought I made myself
Speaker 1: perfectly clear.
Speaker 2: But you're a guest to my home.
Speaker 1: You gotta come to me empty, And I said, no, guests,
Speaker 1: your presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff,
Speaker 1: So how did you dare.
Speaker 2: To surbey me?
Speaker 3: Welcome to? I said, no gifts. I'm Richard Wineker, We're
Speaker 3: in the backyard. I'm completely rattled. I woke up to
Speaker 3: countless emails. Almost every one of them was an email
Speaker 3: I snoozed last week, and so I'm just on the edge,
Speaker 3: absolutely freaking out. Let's get into the podcast. I love
Speaker 3: today's guest. It's Richard Perez. Richard, Welcome to. I said,
Speaker 3: no gifts.
Speaker 2: Hi, good morning.
Speaker 3: You kind have already walked me through your morning, which
Speaker 3: sounded so relaxed, and I was just.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the opposite of you're so tense. You are tense.
Speaker 2: Do you snooze emails? Yeah? Yeah, depens depends, but yeah.
Speaker 3: I snooze almost every email just to put it off
Speaker 3: for a minute. But last week I think I snoozed
Speaker 3: every email every day, and I woke up to probably
Speaker 3: twenty extra emails. No, they've all been snoozed until this afternoon.
Speaker 3: And they're all like urgent. They're not urgent, but they
Speaker 3: all need to be responded to, right it they do.
Speaker 3: So it's I feel like my week is just wrecked.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but you've you woke up at six
Speaker 3: thirty this morning? I did, You're in Los Angeles. I'm
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles from New York. How's it feeling so far?
Speaker 4: Well, I flew into the Pacific Northwest Saturday.
Speaker 2: What's today? Today's Monday?
Speaker 4: I flew in Wednesday night, Okay, And so I think
Speaker 4: I'm like acclimated or is that even the right word.
Speaker 3: Sure, Like when you put a fish in from the
Speaker 3: pet store and you have to put it in the
Speaker 3: bag into the.
Speaker 2: That's what happened to me. I wonder if anyone knows
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about. No, no, no, yeah, yeah, you gotta
Speaker 2: you got leave the.
Speaker 3: Bag in the fish tank right until it like gets
Speaker 3: used to the temperature of the water.
Speaker 2: Yes, I feel like I remember seeing something like that.
Speaker 2: I think a.
Speaker 3: Video you watched as a kid. So you've acclimated to
Speaker 3: what's happening the time. Did you drive from Portland or
Speaker 3: Seattle to here?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, no, I flew You're flying all over the place. Yeah,
Speaker 3: do you enjoy flying?
Speaker 4: The thing is like I'm new to flying. You are
Speaker 4: the first time I ever got on a plane twenty two.
Speaker 2: No way, yeah, wow? And what was that experience?
Speaker 4: Like it was honestly like really emotional and like amazing.
Speaker 4: Was it scary a little bit but like not really
Speaker 4: like I I And it was to fly here to
Speaker 4: LA It's a long true, so it's like, you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: like a five and a half hour flight and that's
Speaker 4: my first time ever. Wow, Because I don't know, like
Speaker 4: I grew up in Jersey and like moved to New
Speaker 4: York really young, and I'd like been there for like
Speaker 4: thirteen years now, and so I just like stayed put
Speaker 4: in one place and no reason to go elsewhere, I guess, yeah,
Speaker 4: And like we just like never got on planes growing
Speaker 4: up or anything. I was just like everyone else does that,
Speaker 4: Like I won't know or something. I just kept like
Speaker 4: putting it off for you, it's not for me, like
Speaker 4: everyone else can whatever. And so then finally like I
Speaker 4: got on the plane and I was a little bit scared,
Speaker 4: but then once the it like took off, like I
Speaker 4: was so emotional and I was like crying. I had
Speaker 4: a window seat. This really hot eye was hit next
Speaker 4: to me. I didn't want him to see.
Speaker 3: I'm like, couldn't my shoulders convulsay, just like looking at
Speaker 3: the window.
Speaker 2: You feel his hands undernath Wow, that's wild. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I've flown like a little you know, more time
Speaker 4: since then, and then definitely this past month I've gone
Speaker 4: on like four plane rides or something, which now I'm like,
Speaker 4: i feel like I'm getting experience and I'm starting to
Speaker 4: understand a little bit like different airports have different vibes,
Speaker 4: and like Portland was like a three second security check.
Speaker 2: You yeah, yeah, honey, I could get through. You're holding
Speaker 2: a rifle. Yeah, like I had a gun. I could
Speaker 2: buy my gun too.
Speaker 4: They're just like, yes, we did just get just go
Speaker 4: go ahead and get here. I have a great time
Speaker 4: that first flight.
Speaker 3: Was it boring at all or was it like I
Speaker 3: feel like, yeah, no, oh, did did get more quickly?
Speaker 4: It was it was more the build up of like
Speaker 4: take off, and then I started crying, and I'm like thinking,
Speaker 4: you know, I am so grandiose like in my mind,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh my gosh, like.
Speaker 2: This is the newness of things.
Speaker 3: I have a whole world of things to discover about
Speaker 3: myself and life and there's so much things.
Speaker 4: To try in this life. And I was like, I
Speaker 4: just turned thirty. I'm like my thirties, Like, oh, my
Speaker 4: goodness is gonna be amazing. And then I could I
Speaker 4: also popped a z equill or something like that. Oh sure,
Speaker 4: I board it, And so then it really it hit me.
Speaker 4: I slept for like forty minutes, and then I woke
Speaker 4: up and I was like, are we almost there? We
Speaker 4: had like four hours left. Horrible feeling, and then I
Speaker 4: was like, wait, this is really boring.
Speaker 2: It's like I was like, no, like what am I
Speaker 2: gonna do? How do I get through this? And I
Speaker 2: just had to figure it out.
Speaker 3: Right, that happens to me on almost every flight. We're
Speaker 3: all fall asleep for probably fifteen minutes and think that
Speaker 3: I've been asleep from the entire time, and then I
Speaker 3: have to occupy myself.
Speaker 2: For all of that. Yeah, what do you I like?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 3: I read, I listened to pod and I play video
Speaker 3: games kind of in cycles until it's all over.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I'm finding I do something similar thing.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 4: Also, it's just like your interest kind of goes in
Speaker 4: and out I'm like, oh, I'll go on Instagram and
Speaker 4: then I'm like I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2: And then I'm like.
Speaker 4: I'll watch something and then I'm just like I'm over it.
Speaker 4: I can concentrate after like twenty minutes, and then I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'll uh, maybe I'll just like try to answer an
Speaker 4: email or like write something down, like an idea of something.
Speaker 3: And see, I won't get on the internet on a flight.
Speaker 3: First of all, it costs eight dollars, so I said
Speaker 3: no to that. And I also love that I can't
Speaker 3: that I can't like answer an email or anything.
Speaker 2: Right, it feels incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I feel like we're getting close to there
Speaker 3: being free Wi Fi on planes. Yeah, and then it
Speaker 3: will again just be another thing that I won't do
Speaker 3: anything on except for.
Speaker 2: A look at my phone. Right, But that's fine.
Speaker 4: I suppose some seats or what if you get like
Speaker 4: more space or like whatever they like provide Wi Fi.
Speaker 2: I don't know that it ever comes. I mean maybe
Speaker 2: in first class.
Speaker 3: I would I would hope that if you're paying that
Speaker 3: much money they would give you.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you, like, do you fly first class
Speaker 2: like all the time? I God, I wish not in
Speaker 2: a million. I know nothing. I know nothing. I'm new
Speaker 2: to this.
Speaker 3: Okay, first class, as far as I know, is just
Speaker 3: truly unattainable.
Speaker 2: I mean it's so expensive, it's super super expensive. Oh.
Speaker 4: When I flew to Chicago last weekend, I upgraded my
Speaker 4: seat at the last minute because I was like, I
Speaker 4: just want to like get on the first boarding group
Speaker 4: and not worry get my chances to like put my
Speaker 4: carry on. I travel light. I just have one carry
Speaker 4: on in one bag. I have never done checked bags.
Speaker 3: Like, Oh, chacking a bag is a huge mistake that
Speaker 3: I'm like scared to experience.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure one day I'll have to.
Speaker 3: You don't have to, really, I'll never do it again. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just take less things, Yeah, I truly.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's like yeah, I mean, if you really need something,
Speaker 3: you'll get it.
Speaker 2: Wherever you go, right, That's what. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I used to check bags, but then when you're sending
Speaker 3: it a luggage carousel at the end of a flight,
Speaker 3: you just want to die.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't want to go through that. No, you
Speaker 2: shouldn't have to go through that.
Speaker 4: I'm like scared too, So I'm like I'm like I'll
Speaker 4: do anything. I'll upgrade my you know. So, like last minute,
Speaker 4: I like upgraded my seat and it was like one A.
Speaker 2: So I was like, wow, I was like one A.
Speaker 4: I like didn't look at like the map of like
Speaker 4: the seats or like whatever, and I thought it would
Speaker 4: be like, oh, there's first class, like the nice seats
Speaker 4: and you know, like the essentially beds or whatever, and
Speaker 4: then you get the rest of it.
Speaker 2: And I thought I was going to be there.
Speaker 4: So then when I get to the plane, I see
Speaker 4: that that wasn't there, and I like showed it to
Speaker 4: one of the like flight attendants.
Speaker 2: They're like, yep, you're sitting right there.
Speaker 4: That's you for first you know whatever, And I was
Speaker 4: just like my first class.
Speaker 3: So wasn't a playing without first class just entirely, or
Speaker 3: you accidentally bought a first class ticket?
Speaker 2: Were you in one of the bed things?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I wasn't.
Speaker 3: And it was one of these plays, one of those
Speaker 3: place has like everyone's the same, Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4: I think that's how they're like, and they still label
Speaker 4: it first class. Oh interesting, yeah. So but then I
Speaker 4: had such imposter syndrome about it. I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 4: first class. There's no way.
Speaker 2: I'm new to this. Were you treated differently a little bit?
Speaker 2: A little bit? What does that mean?
Speaker 4: Well, the same thing happened on my way from Portland
Speaker 4: to LA I was also sitting in one A. I'm
Speaker 4: sensing like a pattern here, but I was I was
Speaker 4: hitting in one A and yeah, I feel like someone.
Speaker 4: This flight attendant came up to me and was called
Speaker 4: me by my last name, mister Perez.
Speaker 2: Can I take your coat?
Speaker 3: Because I had a trench coat and I was like wow,
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't deserve this.
Speaker 2: Is that really? That feels like you were actually in
Speaker 2: first class? Yeah? And then they took my coat? Why.
Speaker 2: Then they were also just like, do you want anything
Speaker 2: to drink? I was like, ginger ale.
Speaker 4: They brought a little glass with ice cubes and a
Speaker 4: ginger Ale.
Speaker 2: Are you a ginger ale drinker outside of a plane? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, because I feel like ginger ale is like a
Speaker 3: flight drink. Oh it is, Yeah, but you just happened
Speaker 3: to just drink ginger ale all the time. Yeah, ginger
Speaker 3: and Dia Cooke.
Speaker 4: Especially if I'm at a bar or something, I don't drink,
Speaker 4: so I'll usually order those two.
Speaker 3: I do love a ginger Ale. On a plane. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I feel like I've been recently getting the fruit flavored mineral.
Speaker 3: What is what do we call it? Like a Lacroix
Speaker 3: X it's but it's called like aha, which is the
Speaker 3: worst thing to have to order to say I want
Speaker 3: an ahah.
Speaker 2: It feels insane. Is it just seltzer?
Speaker 3: It's just seltzer. It's like and it's the worst flavor.
Speaker 3: It's like watermelon, lime or something.
Speaker 4: Do you have to like like You're like, can I
Speaker 4: have an ah watermelon?
Speaker 3: Because I've tried, because I don't want to say that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll just say like could I just have a sparkling water?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And then they make me specify what it is.
Speaker 3: And aha is a hard thing to say loud on
Speaker 3: a plane because there's no real hard consonant there.
Speaker 2: Yeah ah Yeah.
Speaker 3: It just kind of feels like you're opening your mouth
Speaker 3: to them. It's they need to get a different type
Speaker 3: of Seltzer on planes. Yeah, there are so many other ones.
Speaker 3: Lacroi is easy to say, yeah, Waterloo, Well those are
Speaker 3: the two I can think of. A friend recently stayed
Speaker 3: here at my house and left some Trader Joe's sparkling water.
Speaker 3: That's blueberry lemon Oka the worst liquid I've ever tasted,
Speaker 3: real blueberry lemon. Yeah, that sounds like I'll drink anything,
Speaker 3: and I just need to warn people.
Speaker 4: I think blueberry lemon you can't fake that so much
Speaker 4: like blueberry especially Righteah, you can't fake blueberry like I think.
Speaker 4: Like I literally had over the weekend a blueberry lemon
Speaker 4: cheese Danish what And it was fabulous.
Speaker 2: Where in Portland?
Speaker 3: Oh okay, okay, And I just like popped in and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go for it.
Speaker 2: And it was really really good. But you can't fake it.
Speaker 2: They had to use the real ingredients. They used the
Speaker 2: real thing. Let oh, so I guess it was probably
Speaker 2: like lemon curd or something.
Speaker 4: I think actually maybe there wasn't lemon in it. I
Speaker 4: mean there was lemon in it.
Speaker 2: It sounds nice. Yeah, I remember it was really delicious.
Speaker 2: Do you when you're in LA do you go to
Speaker 2: any bakeries? Not? Really? Yeah? What are you doing for
Speaker 2: entertainment while you're here? What do you do? Do you enjoy?
Speaker 2: In Los Angeles?
Speaker 4: I'm really big on like going for a walk, like
Speaker 4: I need to, especially if I'm like I'm here to
Speaker 4: like perform like do my show right, but doing it
Speaker 4: two times this week, So like I feel the day
Speaker 4: of I get nervous, of course, and so I just
Speaker 4: like need like at least an hour to kind of
Speaker 4: just like walk and like listen to music and kind
Speaker 4: of just like And I know they say that La
Speaker 4: is like not such a walking city, but there are
Speaker 4: some pockets, like there's some.
Speaker 2: Places to definitely go for a walk.
Speaker 4: So I find myself like going in this like routine
Speaker 4: like walk through like Beechwood Canyon too, Franklin Franklin Avenue.
Speaker 2: Yes, all the way to North Vermont. Oh, you're passing
Speaker 2: the Gelson's.
Speaker 3: You're passing the house Pies, my former barber. Yeah, trying
Speaker 3: to think if there's anything else there. UCB, You're definitely
Speaker 3: passing UCB and all the horrible restaurants around it. Guys,
Speaker 3: what music are you listening to?
Speaker 2: I listened to.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I will get kind of like, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna listen to like LA music.
Speaker 2: I think that's fine.
Speaker 3: I think to have a theme to kind of set
Speaker 3: up the vibe of the city you're in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I have like two bands that come to mind from
Speaker 4: like my first time visiting here, I felt like I
Speaker 4: was heavy listening to uh ryle O Kylie.
Speaker 3: Oh sure and no doubt both very La bands. Yeah,
Speaker 3: very one of them has child actors in it. Yes,
Speaker 3: And then gwent Stefani and Anaheim Anaheim, she's an Anaheim.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think that's fine. Yeah, it's just like.
Speaker 4: That kind of like rock like right, like whatever, and
Speaker 4: I'm just like, yeah, I'm here, I'm here.
Speaker 2: We'll throw in best coast.
Speaker 3: Oh sure that's fair that sometimes, yeah, I'm sure, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: here we are. I've heard I don't know if you
Speaker 3: have heard this, but like when you go to a
Speaker 3: new city or whatever you're supposed to listen to, like
Speaker 3: if you listen to a specific type of music or
Speaker 3: new type of music, it will be tied to that city,
Speaker 3: like the memory will be like the sense memory really
Speaker 3: works for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: Literally, that's what happened.
Speaker 4: That's been that's been happening on this like little trip Chicago.
Speaker 2: I've never been to Chicago.
Speaker 4: I went for the first time last weekend, and you know,
Speaker 4: I'm on Instagram stories like screaming promoting the Hell Shop
Speaker 4: and I type in I like take a little silly picture.
Speaker 2: I put music to it.
Speaker 4: I type in Chicago, I'm like, what songs called Chicago,
Speaker 4: and then it hit me Sufi and stevens Oh, he
Speaker 4: has the whole alcohol Yeah, Illinois, right and Chicago.
Speaker 2: That's a song, right, And I put that on there,
Speaker 2: and it's like I fell in love again. All things go,
Speaker 2: all things go. I'm going to do the whole song.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be quiet into the song. So there's
Speaker 3: nothing more comfortable than imitating Sufi and Stephens.
Speaker 2: I'm like making intense eye contact with you. It's really
Speaker 2: I fell in love again. I don't. I haven't heard
Speaker 2: that song in such a long time.
Speaker 4: Same and then I like did go on a walk,
Speaker 4: like an hour walk in Chicago and that song Like
Speaker 4: at first I was like, oh ha haa, like whatever,
Speaker 4: there's like a two thousand and four like completely indie
Speaker 4: like whatever. And then I listened to the song and
Speaker 4: it like hit me in this way that now it'll forever.
Speaker 2: Be like that.
Speaker 3: That's my memory of Chicago. And I listened to it
Speaker 3: on the ride back to New York. I'm sure Sufien
Speaker 3: would be so happy to hear this. Yeah, that was
Speaker 3: kind of the beginning of his he was going to
Speaker 3: do fifty states and then I think he did one, two,
Speaker 3: two albums after states, right, that was why would you
Speaker 3: announce that? I mean he truly was telling people, I'm
Speaker 3: going to do fifty albums, one after each state of
Speaker 3: the United States. Really, yes, this was a real thing.
Speaker 3: And then of course you can't do that, Yeah, that
Speaker 3: would take three lifetimes. Yeah, so I think that was
Speaker 3: the last. That was kind of the last one that
Speaker 3: he did, and that's when he was announcing it, right.
Speaker 2: God bless, but so curious what New Jersey would have been, Like,
Speaker 2: I know, I wanted to know what Utah would have been. Yeah,
Speaker 2: literally what would those But he.
Speaker 3: Probably wanted to know what any of those would have been,
Speaker 3: Like he doesn't know the states that well, yeah, he
Speaker 3: probably would have just ended up being like him reading
Speaker 3: a Wikipedia article or sex strumming the guitar.
Speaker 2: I kind of, yeah, I haven't listened to it.
Speaker 3: He feels like a very of a time and place,
Speaker 3: and so I haven't really tried to revisit, but maybe
Speaker 3: I should.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I mean, well, I don't know his work, like super Wow,
Speaker 4: but I think he like just came out with a people.
Speaker 4: I feel like I don't know there's I don't know,
Speaker 4: he think too much whispering for me.
Speaker 2: Really, I like have grown to like love that shit.
Speaker 4: I love when a singer is like whispering or has
Speaker 4: like I love that. Like in middle school, I played
Speaker 4: trumpet okay, and my teacher I took it super serious
Speaker 4: and I was like, this is my life path. And
Speaker 4: my teacher was like, you should listen to vocalists to
Speaker 4: think that way when you're playing Okay. So he's like
Speaker 4: Aretha Franklin, Karen Carpenter like, and I love he like
Speaker 4: showed me like those artists. And then like at a
Speaker 4: Barnes and Noble like those like CD preview things you
Speaker 4: can like Barnes.
Speaker 3: And I try an album. I wonder where those are all.
Speaker 3: They must have just thrown them into a dump or something. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're like, yeah, I thought have one in my home.
Speaker 3: Yeah me too. I love that feeling.
Speaker 4: Oh like and Mariah Carrey, Selein, Dion Whitneys and all
Speaker 4: three of them like came into my life at the
Speaker 4: same time. Oh incredible, And I just like went through
Speaker 4: this like deep dive of like all three of them
Speaker 4: and throughout middle school, like I thought good music would
Speaker 4: only be if you like felt have the greatest voice technically, yeah,
Speaker 4: if you like have that that that like grand like
Speaker 4: incredible voice, then that's good music only.
Speaker 3: And so it wasn't until high school where like that
Speaker 3: kind of changed. And right now I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 3: love I love a whisper. Right, but you're a good singer?
Speaker 2: Did you think so?
Speaker 3: I think you're a good singer from like the bits
Speaker 3: of i've heard you singing, thank you so feeling.
Speaker 2: But don't you think you're you're a pretty decent singer.
Speaker 2: I think you. I think I'm acknowledge that.
Speaker 4: I think I'm good at impersonating singing.
Speaker 2: Oh, interest, well that's all you need. Yeah, I could
Speaker 2: impersonate singing.
Speaker 3: If I were to say, like, can you sing this note?
Speaker 3: Would you be able to just do it?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Can you sing like a a middle C.
Speaker 3: March Simpson's that comes out of piano?
Speaker 2: Don't ray me? Wow, that's great. Did you ever take
Speaker 2: singing lessons?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: I was too scared of just trumpet trumpet? Yeah? Do
Speaker 2: you still play the trumpet?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Do you own a trumpet?
Speaker 3: And no?
Speaker 4: I gave it away to a family member. But you know,
Speaker 4: I do catch myself. I do like scales sometimes.
Speaker 3: Oh it's just with your finger positioning of them air trumpet. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I do that sometimes when I'm like thinking or oh interesting,
Speaker 3: it's like still somehow tied into your brain. Yeah, when
Speaker 3: was the last time you played the trumpet?
Speaker 4: Probably not since since, like maybe like sophomore year of
Speaker 4: high school. Okay, Yeah, I like quit band when because
Speaker 4: we you know, we got we go to a different
Speaker 4: school for freshman year onwards, and it was a different program.
Speaker 4: I was a different teacher, so and it was like
Speaker 4: new students too, like from a different town that like
Speaker 4: we share school with.
Speaker 2: Was there ever temptation to join a SKA band? No, no, no,
Speaker 2: not SCA. I probably would want to do that now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that feels like the one place of trumpet's kind
Speaker 3: of a let or Sophie and Stevens probably right, or
Speaker 3: no doubt kind of a SCA bank, Yeah, what is
Speaker 3: no doubt? No Doubt's kind of scotti ish sco.
Speaker 4: And then like then they can of send it to
Speaker 4: like pop right, like they've even did a little reggae.
Speaker 3: By right, some new wave new wave, yeah, kind of
Speaker 3: all over the place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but ska feels to me very Anaheim. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: can see that, and I've never been.
Speaker 3: You've never been? Oh, of course you haven't been it.
Speaker 3: Have you been to any sort of Disney prop?
Speaker 2: I have nott never? Do you have any interest? I do?
Speaker 3: Okay, I mean I think it's worth one time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: where's the nearest one in Anahei? That's that's Disneyland.
Speaker 2: How far is that from here?
Speaker 3: Like, I think probably an hour drive. Okay, it's probably.
Speaker 2: Like twenty miles or something. Uber there after this sudden
Speaker 2: I inspired my cars here for sure, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: To take an uber to Disneyland. It probably cost three
Speaker 3: hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: Wow, Well you'll have to go at some point. I'm
Speaker 3: always curious what an adult like that has been. I've been,
Speaker 3: but I went as a kid, right, and that I've
Speaker 3: been a few times since, and it's obviously such a
Speaker 3: different experience as an adult.
Speaker 2: Was Disney like everything too? Growing up?
Speaker 3: When I was in like elementary school, I loved Disney.
Speaker 3: I loved the idea of going to Disneyland. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: now when I go, I'm I have a hard time.
Speaker 3: I have a pretty rough time there, right, But I
Speaker 3: think it just entirely depends on who you're with.
Speaker 2: Are you into like amusement parks and like rides?
Speaker 3: And I like to like, if I'm on a ride,
Speaker 3: I'm having a good time, although I get really nauseous
Speaker 3: now on most rides. Yeah, Like I was okay until
Speaker 3: probably the end of high school, and now I get
Speaker 3: so nauseous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you get no, I do. Don't go on ride.
Speaker 2: You don't go on any terrified. Have you ever been
Speaker 2: on a ride?
Speaker 4: Like when I was little, like like maybe like middle
Speaker 4: school was like the last time I tried.
Speaker 2: Wow, And then I was like, Nope, it's not for me.
Speaker 2: What are you afraid's going to happen?
Speaker 4: I don't probably die or something. But I'm like, that's
Speaker 4: not so bad.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm like, uh, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's like but now I've taken plane rides now, so
Speaker 4: I'm like maybe.
Speaker 3: The weird thing about planes for me is I'm now
Speaker 3: getting more and more scared being on planes, like and
Speaker 3: I've been on I think the more I go on planes, the.
Speaker 2: More afraid I am.
Speaker 3: No, which is very it feels like the opposite of
Speaker 3: what should be happening. I don't know, but turbulence, don't
Speaker 3: you get scared? During turbulence.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've only experienced it once. Horrifying. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: is scary.
Speaker 4: I like woke up it was a red eye, and
Speaker 4: I just like woke up in the middle of like sleeping,
Speaker 4: and I was like, and I was.
Speaker 2: Like, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 2: And I was also just so tired. You're just happy
Speaker 2: to die anyway.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was like, I'm down to die. And when
Speaker 4: you're so tired, you're down to die. Like do you
Speaker 4: ever have that, Like, oh yeah, when you're like a
Speaker 4: little paranoid, like you hear something in the middle of
Speaker 4: the night in the hallway or something, but you're so
Speaker 4: tired or like whatever.
Speaker 3: So I can either go to sleep and die or
Speaker 3: go to sleep and wake up. Yeah, that's how I am,
Speaker 3: like during turbulence, Like I go through an entire cycle
Speaker 3: where I'm like, oh my god, we're gonna die, and
Speaker 3: then I have to like come to peace with that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and then there's a moment where I'm like, well, at
Speaker 3: least i won't be on the plane anymore. And then
Speaker 3: then I've finally come around to it because I'm like
Speaker 3: everyone else seems fine, and even the flight attendants are
Speaker 3: like walking around, So why am I.
Speaker 2: Having a meltdown? Right? Yeah? But what if it's the time? Wait,
Speaker 2: and I guess, then I guess it just then it's
Speaker 2: just it's then it's over, and it's over.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we should talk about something else. Look, Richard,
Speaker 3: I was very happy to have you here today. I
Speaker 3: was really excited to have you come over and chat,
Speaker 3: just looking forward to it. So it was a little
Speaker 3: surprised the podcast is called I said no gifts, and I, okay,
Speaker 3: come down to the driveway and you're standing there with
Speaker 3: in a You're holding a huge bag. Yeah, it's clearly
Speaker 3: a gift. Okay, I'm just curious what's going on?
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I just well, in New Jersey, we you know,
Speaker 4: my MoMA raised made it. You know, I'm going over
Speaker 4: to someone's house. I think it's polite to just bring something,
Speaker 4: a little treat, Okay, sure to you know who's hosting me.
Speaker 4: And I'm just so excited to be here, to have
Speaker 4: a conversation with you in your beautiful backyard. And I
Speaker 4: thought maybe you would appreciate this gift.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, should I open it here on the podcast
Speaker 3: or I'm happy to open it at another time.
Speaker 2: I think you should open it.
Speaker 3: It's in this enormous bag that's just thank you on it. Yes,
Speaker 3: we're pulling it out.
Speaker 2: The birds sound wonderful. Okay.
Speaker 3: Now it's in a little a little brown paper panera bag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now we're reaching in more. There's a napkin. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I forgot about that tissue paper. Oh and there's a
Speaker 2: cooking inside.
Speaker 3: A cookie that's like covered in eminem's that are very
Speaker 3: off color.
Speaker 2: I'll say, yeah, they really are.
Speaker 3: These are the weirdest color like fake eminems I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: There's like an army green, like a mustard yellow. I mean,
Speaker 3: they're kind of tasteful, like it would be a taste
Speaker 3: tasteful color palette in any other category, but as a candy,
Speaker 3: it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: You hate it. I hate it. I know I shouldn't
Speaker 2: have done this. Tell me why you brought this to Okay.
Speaker 4: I need you to understand that this is incredibly intentional. Okay, okay,
Speaker 4: and I put so much effort into this gift. Okay,
Speaker 4: So yesterday I arrived at Lax right right, and I'm
Speaker 4: thinking about I'm like, oh, yeah, tomorrow morning I'm gonna
Speaker 4: go to Bridgers.
Speaker 2: I'm doing his podcast. I gotta get him a little gift.
Speaker 4: I want to I want to show him who I
Speaker 4: am some some semblence of that.
Speaker 3: And I took an uber from the airport. Horrible experience
Speaker 3: over there. It feels like children of Men anyway, it's horrible.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I did that, okay, and then I take
Speaker 4: an uber to the nearest Panera Bread, which was like
Speaker 4: a ten minute drive outside the airport. Okay, I get there.
Speaker 4: I ordered myself a little meal. But then I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm going to bring a cookie to your house. Panera
Speaker 4: Bread is very, very meaningful to me because it was
Speaker 4: the first job I ever worked at as in high school, right,
Speaker 4: and I worked there for like four years.
Speaker 2: In what position cashier cook.
Speaker 4: Cashier sometimes bury stock quote unquote in like dining room.
Speaker 2: I'd like clean the tables right right.
Speaker 4: And so I was like, you know what, I think
Speaker 4: Panera bread is something we can we can dive into.
Speaker 2: This is Ebbs.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think we kind of shared this in common.
Speaker 3: I kind of worked at Utah's version of a Panera
Speaker 3: Bread one of my early jobs. And I probably told
Speaker 3: this story on this podcast before but they accused me
Speaker 3: of burglarizing it.
Speaker 2: But I was doing similar things. I was cashier.
Speaker 3: Well, I was not to brag the night shift leader,
Speaker 3: and so I had a lot of a lot on
Speaker 3: my plate. We were both working at kind of a
Speaker 3: bakery where I don't know, it doesn't have a lot
Speaker 3: of respect my bakery. Well, and I also had to
Speaker 3: do a thing where I had to rip apart a
Speaker 3: whole turkey every morning. What Yeah, why, Well, when I
Speaker 3: would work the day shift, they had like turkey on
Speaker 3: their sandwiches, and so they would cook whole turkeys and
Speaker 3: then you would have to like shred it at six
Speaker 3: a m. Just with your bare hands, which is one
Speaker 3: of the most disgusting possible things. Yeah, but I want
Speaker 3: to hear about your Panera experience.
Speaker 2: My Panera experience.
Speaker 4: I started working there when I was sixteen, and then
Speaker 4: I still worked there in college. Like I would bop
Speaker 4: back like from like the location, yeah, when I was
Speaker 4: on break and stuff like that. So I started working
Speaker 4: there it was what like two thousand and like six
Speaker 4: or seven or something, And I remember in training day
Speaker 4: they were like, We're an oasis from the hustle bustle
Speaker 4: of like everyday life. We're here to give people a
Speaker 4: little break from all that stress. We would never open
Speaker 4: a Panera Bread in a major city because we want
Speaker 4: to keep things really like chill essentially. And then as
Speaker 4: soon as I moved to New York City in twenty eleven,
Speaker 4: they opened to their first location on J Street. That's
Speaker 4: just so clearly not true, which I'm like, downtown Brooklyn.
Speaker 4: I'm like, that's crazy, and the whole I feel like
Speaker 4: the vibe of the plate like chain like changed. Oh
Speaker 4: so you felt an actual shift, yeah, because I'm like
Speaker 4: my memory of Panera Bread even like the music. I
Speaker 4: remember this song. I don't know the name of it.
Speaker 4: If someone knows the name of the song, please let
Speaker 4: me know. But this is how it goes.
Speaker 2: You know that song, Okay, they would play that all time.
Speaker 3: Everyone's just losing their yeah on repeat, torturing their employees.
Speaker 2: They would play that.
Speaker 4: And then now I get the feeling when I go
Speaker 4: to Panera Brea like more like now i feel like
Speaker 4: they're like playing like we're just getting older and we
Speaker 4: don't even get anymore Dana Dana, Like, I feel like
Speaker 4: they would play more of that kind of stuff now, right,
Speaker 4: So something changed.
Speaker 2: I hope.
Speaker 3: That's the literally the only thing they've changed. They stop
Speaker 3: playing circus music.
Speaker 4: So something something, there was a shift there. And also
Speaker 4: just like I don't know. My memory of it was like,
Speaker 4: you know, I thought Paneraba was like the most sophisticated,
Speaker 4: like Raying, and I was just like, I don't know,
Speaker 4: especially even like people I would see from high school there,
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, these are like the cool, like artsy like.
Speaker 2: Right, because it was like a bakery cafe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they like sit together in the corner, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, if only I could be like them.
Speaker 3: I bet Panera at some point did have more of
Speaker 3: that vibe, and they've just expanded rapidly, right, Yeah, Because
Speaker 3: I remember in two thousand and five, my sister and
Speaker 3: I came to La under the most insane circumstances to
Speaker 3: be in a Weezer music video.
Speaker 2: We had zero money.
Speaker 3: I think we spent all of our money to get here,
Speaker 3: and we probably had a total song.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's horrifying. The whole thing is hills.
Speaker 3: I have to defend myself. I didn't know what I
Speaker 3: was walking into.
Speaker 2: Oh Z, can you speak? Can you see yourself in
Speaker 2: the video? Yes?
Speaker 3: Unfortunately I mean, you're going to watch that. Oh my,
Speaker 3: I love that song so much.
Speaker 2: It is a horrible piece of music.
Speaker 3: So well, I'm definitely gonna be listening to that during
Speaker 3: my time here in La adding it to the soundtrack.
Speaker 3: But we came here with no money and we went
Speaker 3: to Panera. I had never been, and it was like
Speaker 3: that during that time of when you're you're like, you've
Speaker 3: go on a trip and everything is incredible. And I
Speaker 3: think we probably had a total of twenty six dollars
Speaker 3: and we I don't know how we didn't starve that weekend,
Speaker 3: but I think we split a brownie to eat it.
Speaker 3: But I was like, this is the best brownie I've
Speaker 3: ever eaten, and it was at Panera bread Wow. But
Speaker 3: now we took it after the shoot. This was before
Speaker 3: before the shoot, and then we had craft services at
Speaker 3: the shoot. It was at the Playboy Mansion. The whole
Speaker 3: thing was just such a surreal experience. And then I
Speaker 3: don't even know how we got home, I mean, how
Speaker 3: we got back to the hotel or anything, but Panera
Speaker 3: is a huge part of that trip for me. Eating
Speaker 3: a brownie at Panera, drinking a cactus cooler, and then
Speaker 3: having craft services at the playpoint, Wow, did you feel
Speaker 3: like you were a good Panera employee?
Speaker 4: I feel like in some ways, yeah, okay, I was.
Speaker 4: I was following the rules. I worked a lot, honestly,
Speaker 4: because like there'd be some schedules were like I don't know,
Speaker 4: like I just remember seeing the number of hours per
Speaker 4: week at the end of it, right, it's like, this
Speaker 4: is how many hours are working, and like there would
Speaker 4: be some weeks where I'm working like thirty five hours.
Speaker 2: That's a while.
Speaker 3: I'm like a full time student, right, that's a lot.
Speaker 3: And I was like, whoa, it's nearly a full time job.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I like, I don't know, I had the
Speaker 4: energy and I could just like do it or whatever.
Speaker 4: And I also just give you it was my first job,
Speaker 4: and I just felt like I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 4: Like I have my job and I can like I'm
Speaker 4: getting get paid, right, four hundred dollars, and I could
Speaker 4: do whatever. I can go to the mall, I can
Speaker 4: like you know whatever, like get dinner with my friends.
Speaker 4: Like I feel like an adult, right, And I was like, so,
Speaker 4: I like, I think I'm mostly focused on that. It's
Speaker 4: thrilling you get a paid check, and yeah, how much
Speaker 4: were you making an hour?
Speaker 2: I think it was like eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not exactly how much I was making or something.
Speaker 3: And I remember the daytime manager was making a lot
Speaker 3: more money than me. I felt like I was getting
Speaker 3: ripped off. But then I did not gloriz that. They
Speaker 3: they did think I did. That thought you did. But
Speaker 3: so you were a decent employee. Do you stay in
Speaker 3: touch with any former employees.
Speaker 4: I haven't in a while, but because like that job,
Speaker 4: like I really feel like informed, like even like my
Speaker 4: sense of humor, because I don't know, like working those
Speaker 4: kinds of jobs, like it's not competitive necessarily, right, And
Speaker 4: like we were most of us were like teenagers, were
Speaker 4: like early twenties, and like we did not care, and
Speaker 4: we were just so goofy and playful and like the
Speaker 4: inside jokes we'd come up with, like it was crazy.
Speaker 4: It just felt so like, Yeah, I don't know, there's
Speaker 4: just some some characters there that I feel like totally
Speaker 4: have like stayed with me right since then, But I yeah,
Speaker 4: like there's these two people who we dm here and there,
Speaker 4: Jenny and Melissa. We they're still like best friends. Oh
Speaker 4: that's great, Yeah, okay, well yeah right, no now they're yeah,
Speaker 4: they're doing something completely different. But I hope the stars
Speaker 4: the line and we like hang out again because I'm
Speaker 4: sure we could just like go three hours of just reminiscing.
Speaker 2: Oh that's like about that of course.
Speaker 3: Yeah, those like part time jobs are so strange because
Speaker 3: you put get put into a group of people that
Speaker 3: you probably never spend.
Speaker 2: Time with otherwise.
Speaker 3: Yeah then yeah, you all kind of don't like being there,
Speaker 3: but it's fun anyway, right, Yeah, I think bonding Yeah,
Speaker 3: that way, it's like no other Like once you actually
Speaker 3: start doing career things, there's I don't feel like there's
Speaker 3: any other thing that can compare to that. Right, And
Speaker 3: like to be at a job where you just don't
Speaker 3: care about the quality of the product, that's such a
Speaker 3: great feeling.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Literally every coffee I ever made was returned to
Speaker 3: the counter where they were like this, you didn't do
Speaker 3: this correctly, But I shouldn't have been allowed to do
Speaker 3: that anyway.
Speaker 2: Uh, do you want to try the cookie? Yeah? I
Speaker 2: think you should try it. Not, at least you want
Speaker 2: to try some cooking here. Okay, everyone grabs they're they're like,
Speaker 2: soft is a decent cookie.
Speaker 3: It's good, right, it has every right to be a
Speaker 3: bad cookie. Yeah, it's really not bad.
Speaker 2: Color looks crazy, but it tastes, tastes good and tastes good.
Speaker 3: The eminems really are like I hope that that's like
Speaker 3: a purposeful It looks like they found them in a
Speaker 3: closet or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're like expired Eminem's or they're a memory of eminem.
Speaker 2: They are kind of like a like a seventies memory. Yeah,
Speaker 2: seventies memory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's like a filter over them.
Speaker 2: What was your order at Panera?
Speaker 4: I remember the first one I ever had that I
Speaker 4: repeated again and again was a bacon turkey Bravo Bravo.
Speaker 4: I don't know if they still do it, but it
Speaker 4: was like a tomato basil bread thick slice. And then
Speaker 4: there was like bacon turkey tomato. I forget what cheese.
Speaker 4: I think it was a Gouda cheese or something. This
Speaker 4: like Bravo sauce, which was essentially like thousand Island dress,
Speaker 4: and then like at us or something, and with a
Speaker 4: tomato soup.
Speaker 2: Oh that sounds true, mummy tomato. It was so good.
Speaker 2: And I would also get the Italian combo too. What's
Speaker 2: in the Italian combo.
Speaker 3: For catcha bread with turkey. I think there's like maybe
Speaker 3: ham ham sure prolonge okay, no or Swiss no prolong
Speaker 3: caper and chinik. The first time I never heard that word.
Speaker 3: I still to this day mumbled up because I don't
Speaker 3: know that I'm pronouncing it correct. When I have to
Speaker 3: order it somewhere, I just kind of yeah, pointing a
Speaker 3: Mrginiini to make sure you catch the beginning and the
Speaker 3: ending GINII, Oh thank you.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was really really yummy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was my order, and I don't When I
Speaker 4: went yesterday, I just got like the soup in the
Speaker 4: mac and cheese, okay, which when I worked there, the
Speaker 4: mac and cheese was like new.
Speaker 2: Oh that was like brand new. Has it held up? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Good for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm so I've baffled though, because you flew into
Speaker 3: lax and then you took an uber specifically to a Panera.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to specifically get you this. This was so. It
Speaker 2: wasn't for lunch, No, it was for it was incredible. Okay,
Speaker 2: that makes more that I was.
Speaker 4: Like, I'm gonna I was like, this will open a door.
Speaker 4: I love it to talk about Panera the past. It's
Speaker 4: wherever we want to go.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course with I could talk about this topic
Speaker 3: truly all day. I had so many part time jobs
Speaker 3: like this. Yeah, one that was so similar. My very
Speaker 3: first job was at Schlatsky's Delhi. Have you ever heard
Speaker 3: of this? No, it's like a chain out of Texas,
Speaker 3: I think, But is that kind of in the same category,
Speaker 3: except for every sandwich is like on an English muffin
Speaker 3: or something very odd? And I worked there for three days,
Speaker 3: quit and never got paid. They still only probably sixty
Speaker 3: dollars wait a little longer and gee, but it was
Speaker 3: like a taste of a first job that was just
Speaker 3: so miserable. I was like, I can't do this. I
Speaker 3: think it was in ninth grade, but then I think
Speaker 3: my next job was at Gecko's Mexican Grill.
Speaker 2: First day was on nine to eleven. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So just a lot of.
Speaker 3: Things like that, right, But after Panera, did you have
Speaker 3: another job like this or was this kind of your
Speaker 3: last chain restaurant job?
Speaker 2: Like I've worked retail too.
Speaker 4: Where I've worked retail at Esop okay, which I've realized
Speaker 4: on this trip has been like my north star for
Speaker 4: cities because I'm like, I went to Chicago, Seattle, Portland.
Speaker 2: Never been to either of those places.
Speaker 3: So when I have some time off, I'm like, I
Speaker 3: want to walk around, So I google, like, Where's Esop
Speaker 3: because I know the area, like other shops or a
Speaker 3: little cafe like some cutesy little like suggests a neighborhood. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so I type Esop and then I go to
Speaker 3: so like I go to ESOPs whenever I travel, travel
Speaker 3: tip for anyone, and yeah, I just I just checked
Speaker 3: that out. I worked there for like two years, like
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen or like twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Did they give you an employee discount? They did good
Speaker 2: discount bad?
Speaker 4: It was pretty good actually, And they also gave us
Speaker 4: like free like like shrink, which was like if a
Speaker 4: customer return even if they like didn't open it, they
Speaker 4: just wanted to exchange something.
Speaker 2: It's immediately unsellable. Yeah, we couldn't. We can't sell it.
Speaker 2: We can't resell it.
Speaker 4: So we would just collect that and then divide it
Speaker 4: amongst our correc at the end of the month.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So my whole bathroom everything was ESA. Oh and I
Speaker 3: had an expensive back full full skincare routine like seven
Speaker 3: step routine at that time.
Speaker 2: But you're no longer doing that routine.
Speaker 3: No unsustainable, I imagine, Yeah, I wonder if they don't
Speaker 3: allow it because they think people like went home and
Speaker 3: stuck a syringe into the soap or whatever you filled
Speaker 3: it with poison. I'm not yeah that yeah, like if
Speaker 3: it's unopened, I don't but that's the only thing I
Speaker 3: can imagine. They probably also charge way more than what
Speaker 3: it's worth, so it's probably right, like the markup is
Speaker 3: probably enormous on soap that they're just like whatever, like right, well,
Speaker 3: just I don't think I've ever actually been in any
Speaker 3: sub you have. Obviously I have seen and used the product.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's like for as a customer, it's
Speaker 4: like so nice. How so because like you walk in
Speaker 4: and I think, here you can get a little weird,
Speaker 4: like depending on the vibe of the person, of course,
Speaker 4: but like like I don't know, some people like walk
Speaker 4: up to you like Hi, what brings you in today,
Speaker 4: and you're just like, I'm just taking a browse.
Speaker 2: Oh are you familiar with with the brand, And you're
Speaker 2: just like yeah, no, whatever.
Speaker 4: You can go from there and then, but if you
Speaker 4: are looking for like a product, especially skincare, something a
Speaker 4: little bit more prescriptive. They can like walk you through
Speaker 4: it and they take you to the basin.
Speaker 2: Oh. They have like the hand washing, Yeah, I love
Speaker 2: and then they do it. They do it on your hand.
Speaker 4: Then you get to like feel it and smell it
Speaker 4: and they give you samples. They also have like tea
Speaker 4: or like Osha BORI like sometimes I have that and
Speaker 4: like the colder weather. It's incredible cool off for warm
Speaker 4: your fate, steam it whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe I'll go to one today. Yeah. They treat
Speaker 2: you so well.
Speaker 3: And when I stopped working there, and then when I
Speaker 3: came here to lay for the first time, I was like,
Speaker 3: let me pop by the silver like location and I
Speaker 3: was like holding my breath, like I'm like, I can't
Speaker 3: let them know that I used to work at because
Speaker 3: I want to be treated like like a customer. I
Speaker 3: would never work here, yeah, because I don't know there's
Speaker 3: something in me that's like nervous that they'll be like,
Speaker 3: oh you did you know?
Speaker 2: And that drops like that. Then their tone changes with me.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there would be right, Yeah, they're like oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so did you feel like you were treated at that point?
Speaker 3: It feels like you're like a secret shopper where you're
Speaker 3: like doing a quality assurance chip.
Speaker 2: Were you treated well on this trip at the Silver?
Speaker 2: Like okay?
Speaker 4: The Silver I was okay, But then I I went
Speaker 4: there twice. The second time, I bought something for my
Speaker 4: friend who I was staying with, and they asked for
Speaker 4: your first or last name, you know, for a client
Speaker 4: profile they can log your purchases, you know whatever, and
Speaker 4: I created a new one with my personal email and
Speaker 4: so I gave them that. But then the guy found
Speaker 4: my like other account and was just like, oh, you
Speaker 4: used to work here, and then I was like my
Speaker 4: face just like dropped and I was like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Like forever ago. I'm a different person here.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: He's like, oh cool, like where and I'm like New
Speaker 4: York and I was just completely like, I was like,
Speaker 4: I want to die.
Speaker 2: I want to die.
Speaker 3: I want to die.
Speaker 2: I want to die. I want to die. He's like,
Speaker 2: do you want samples?
Speaker 1: Load?
Speaker 3: Like sure, Oh that's good, because that interact could go
Speaker 3: either way where they're like, oh you fraud or they're like,
Speaker 3: oh you're part.
Speaker 2: Of the family, right, you know what this is? Yeah,
Speaker 2: Well I'm glad that works.
Speaker 4: I just I just feel embarrassed because definitely before we
Speaker 4: got to check out.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, this is so lovely, completely exposed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you saw that, Like I was caught.
Speaker 4: It's so embarrassing.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, oh it smells good.
Speaker 3: I think I would have tried to keep up the
Speaker 3: line like someone's using my name, yeah, like one if
Speaker 3: your employees us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh no, wow, Well I have to try that.
Speaker 2: I should go.
Speaker 3: We were talking about Keels on a recent episode The
Speaker 3: Keels Experience and been in their store. I haven't, Actually,
Speaker 3: I wonder if it's a similar thing. Yeah, me too,
Speaker 3: I'm sure. I just like to go in and get
Speaker 3: I like to use a free standing sink. I think
Speaker 3: that's what's really important to me. Yeah, to go into
Speaker 3: a retail store and just see a sink free of
Speaker 3: a bathroom and washway.
Speaker 2: I mean it's a novelty.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is lovely, just like pop in. I just
Speaker 4: gotta watch. And I remember some people would do that,
Speaker 4: like in the summer, if you leave the door open,
Speaker 4: customer would come in and be like can.
Speaker 2: I just wash my hands? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Like yeah, of course, And I'm like that's fabulous.
Speaker 2: That's not a bad idea.
Speaker 3: Every retail store should just have a sink to kind
Speaker 3: of pop in and wash your hands. Yeah, especially in
Speaker 3: New York when it's almost like bathrooms are inaccessible.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, much harder to get too. Oh. And then
Speaker 2: then other job.
Speaker 3: That I worked at too was Everlane Ever Like, well,
Speaker 3: you've really worked at nice retails, like retail stores that
Speaker 3: are you know. What's so funny is like Panera Bread
Speaker 3: was like at that time, newer, and it had this
Speaker 3: like appeal of like I don't know, like it almost
Speaker 3: was like reminds me a little bit of Aesop. It
Speaker 3: had this like word of mouth sort of like it's
Speaker 3: buzzy buzzy yees because.
Speaker 4: Like yeah, and I remember them saying like we would
Speaker 4: never advertise, like you wouldn't see us on like a
Speaker 4: billboard or a magazine or TV like.
Speaker 2: The way they turned.
Speaker 4: Yeah they yeah, And I remember Esop like, and I
Speaker 4: think may probably stay true to this. But their strategy
Speaker 4: is also kind of that like word of mouth, Like
Speaker 4: they provide their hand wash in like you know, intentionally,
Speaker 4: like in different like restaurants or establishments or whatever that
Speaker 4: from there, like people will be like, oh, this is
Speaker 4: so nice and the bottles really cute, and then they
Speaker 4: like get led to a store right and they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: I saw your hand wash at this restaurant and whatever.
Speaker 4: You take it from there. But yeah, I feel like both,
Speaker 4: I don't know, there's like that kind of theme or
Speaker 4: that kind of ethos. Yeah that I guess I just
Speaker 4: kind of strive yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And what was ever what was I've never been.
Speaker 4: In an f neither Everlane. I don't know if Everlaine's
Speaker 4: necessarily trying to do the same thing.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: But their thing is like radical transparency or something yeah
Speaker 4: like that, so they're like, oh, like we'll let you know.
Speaker 4: Like I think on their website you can see how
Speaker 4: much like the process of how the products are made
Speaker 4: to like how much they cost to what you're getting
Speaker 4: charged interesting or something, so you know, like why it's
Speaker 4: expensive yeah, or like that you are getting a good
Speaker 4: deal and that like this isn't like exploitative or like
Speaker 4: labor or anything like Like I can't even picture what
Speaker 4: an Everlain piece of clothing looks like.
Speaker 2: I have a sweater on. Oh, it's very nice. So
Speaker 2: it's just kind of casual.
Speaker 3: What staple pieces right right, Like you want you know,
Speaker 3: go to Jenes go to like buying up suirt jacket, you.
Speaker 2: Can go there.
Speaker 3: Did you work on commission? No, thank god, that would
Speaker 3: stress me out. Yeah, that I've never experienced. I don't
Speaker 3: think I could do it ever worked. Yeah, I worked
Speaker 3: at the Apple store. Oh really, no commission there, no commission. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was a fine job that Actually I didn't mind
Speaker 3: that job at all. But the weird thing was it
Speaker 3: was the first Apple store in Salt Lake City, and
Speaker 3: so it was like obviously packed all the time. And
Speaker 3: it was during a period when Apple was like really
Speaker 3: focused on how their stores looked, even more so than
Speaker 3: they are now, and so they wouldn't have security devices
Speaker 3: on anything. And this was like iPods were very popular
Speaker 3: at the time, and like teens would come in and
Speaker 3: just knock like multiple iPods into a bag and walk
Speaker 3: out of the store, and we couldn't do anything about it.
Speaker 3: People were just stealing NonStop.
Speaker 2: Holy shit. It was a but I feel like that's.
Speaker 3: Kind of like a mall thing, where like you can't
Speaker 3: really confront a shoplifter. Yeah, so people just come in
Speaker 3: and take whatever they want. It's so bold, which is
Speaker 3: good for them. Yeah, I was so scared.
Speaker 2: I would be terrified. Yeah, have you ever shoplifted. Yeah
Speaker 2: from where ma see's what did you steal? I stole?
Speaker 4: This is like in my show, which is so funny,
Speaker 4: but I'm like, I stole a T shirt and jeans,
Speaker 4: skinny jeans. I think it was like Levi's and like
Speaker 4: Calvin Client, like a Calvin Klein T shirt that said
Speaker 4: Calvin Clin on it and these skinny jeans. And I
Speaker 4: was making a return to Lord and Taylor a cardigan,
Speaker 4: shopping a cardigan. Something's ever changed, and like I was,
Speaker 4: I was like exchanging size or something. And then I
Speaker 4: walked through Macy's and I got caught stealing. I don't
Speaker 4: know what came over me, but I like decided to steal.
Speaker 4: And and I was sixteen, and I feel like that year,
Speaker 4: I was like I'm gonna st it. Yeah, I want
Speaker 4: to go for it, like I like stole from like
Speaker 4: a thrift store, Like I stole a full ass jacket
Speaker 4: from the thrift store. So I was like, I was
Speaker 4: like I can I can do anything. I felt like invincible,
Speaker 4: and so then I was like, I can steal from Macy's.
Speaker 2: Like people always steal from Macy's.
Speaker 4: So then I tried and then I was caught instantly
Speaker 4: how they were like watching me. I guess I was
Speaker 4: probably being so sus I was probably just.
Speaker 2: Like really like like I starting, yeah, like.
Speaker 3: Just looking everywhere, like contemplating, pacing back and forward, like
Speaker 3: should I do it?
Speaker 2: When I? Should I do it? Should I?
Speaker 3: And then finally running to the dressing room. Running out,
Speaker 3: I took two steps out of Macy's. Then this like
Speaker 3: huge security guard, the deepest voice was like, excuse me,
Speaker 3: where do you think you're going with those jeans? And
Speaker 3: I was like I'm I. He's like, yeah, those jeans.
Speaker 3: He like pointed at my shopping bag and then he's
Speaker 3: like come with me, and I was like I can
Speaker 3: pay for it, like I have money, like how you know,
Speaker 3: like I had like eighty dollars or something. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'll pay for the jeans like that. He's like you
Speaker 3: should have thought about that before he stole.
Speaker 2: So what happened? Did they take you into a back room? Yes,
Speaker 2: they took me. Did they threaten like calling the police?
Speaker 2: They took me to the back room. Yeah. The guy
Speaker 2: like there was this guy I just remember.
Speaker 4: He was kind of like, so we've been watching you
Speaker 4: and I'm like oh, and there's like little screens. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I was like ah, and he like interrogated me,
Speaker 4: was asking me all these questions, and I was like
Speaker 4: so terrified. I feel like I was just like telling
Speaker 4: him anything and I was just like I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just I was gonna go to New York. And
Speaker 2: he's like, what are you doing in New York? And
Speaker 2: I'm like I was just gonna go there with my friends.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just like I'm taking pictures. Like He's like, what
Speaker 3: do you take pictures of? And I'm like i don't know,
Speaker 3: just like anything. I want to go to art school
Speaker 3: and like he was just like art school, what are
Speaker 3: you gonna do there?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I really don't know. You're on a date.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I went on a speed date with him and
Speaker 4: he I just remember he was just like usually we
Speaker 4: have to call the police.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 4: He's like, you seem I remember, he was like you
Speaker 4: seem like a good kid who fucked up, and he's
Speaker 4: like you know, but before he said that, he was
Speaker 4: just like like, you know, you can get in big
Speaker 4: trouble doing stuff like this, Like you know, we can
Speaker 4: call the police and this will be on your record.
Speaker 2: And you know that dream.
Speaker 4: You have about going to art school and you can
Speaker 4: kiss that goodbye. I was like, pit, my stomach's like turning,
Speaker 4: and I'm just like, what's gonna happen to me? What
Speaker 4: did I just do? I like just ruined my life?
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh my god. And then yeah,
Speaker 4: he had to He called my mom and that was
Speaker 4: like I can hear her voice, like I'll never forget,
Speaker 4: like him calling her and he's like, hello, we have
Speaker 4: your son, Richard Perez here at Macy's security department.
Speaker 2: He was caught stealing we blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: And then he backs his head away from the phone
Speaker 4: because she's screaming.
Speaker 2: I just hear her.
Speaker 4: Like like, and I was like, I'm fucked. So she
Speaker 4: had to pay, like should pay a fine to get
Speaker 4: me out?
Speaker 2: Well, what the Macy's fine? What does that mean? Yeah,
Speaker 2: Macy's law.
Speaker 4: I think it was like that had like my mom
Speaker 4: had to pay the amount of what those things were.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, that feels illegal to or something. Yeah. Part
Speaker 2: of me was like maybe it wasn't really just taking
Speaker 2: our money or something right, And he was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we won't call the cops. We only take cash. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was weird.
Speaker 4: But then he was like, you are banned from ever
Speaker 4: entering a Macy's for I think he said ten years.
Speaker 2: That's not enforceable.
Speaker 4: And he was like, you know, are we gonna know
Speaker 4: where you like you're in a Macy's. No, but he's like,
Speaker 4: but if you get caught stealing again into Macy's, it
Speaker 4: will show up and then we'll press charges.
Speaker 3: So you're been from stealing from Macy's ever. But I
Speaker 3: was terrified of Macy's for ten years.
Speaker 2: Have you been in yes? I think literally for the
Speaker 2: first time, like two years ago. How did that feel?
Speaker 4: I could just like laugh about it. I was like,
Speaker 4: why was I so scared? It wasn't so bad.
Speaker 3: That is incredible.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's just, yeah, it is grind.
Speaker 3: I mean that's traumatic. Though my brother, my mom had
Speaker 3: taken me and my siblings to this. It was kind
Speaker 3: of like Kmart was called shop Coo to just like
Speaker 3: buy stuff, and my brother switched the price tag on
Speaker 3: like a model plane, and she, my mom bought it
Speaker 3: not knowing this, and then we were caught and then
Speaker 3: it was just literally the whole family crying. They're like
Speaker 3: back in the security room, just harassing my mom. It
Speaker 3: was a wild experience, especially over something like a nine
Speaker 3: year old did. Is an interesting thing to a hard
Speaker 3: stance on that. But I guess maybe they thought my
Speaker 3: mom was the leader of a crime ring.
Speaker 2: I don't know. And they were like, we're going to
Speaker 2: get our son to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's using children to steal to get discounts on
Speaker 3: toy planes.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like that must be behind us that
Speaker 3: left that time of security. Yeah, although I don't know,
Speaker 3: I'm still a tempted to shoplift, Like I could take this,
Speaker 3: have you not? As an adult, I've stolen so much.
Speaker 3: There's like a thrift store chain in Utah that I
Speaker 3: would steal from as a teenager all the time. I
Speaker 3: probably stole. I definitely have stolen there as an adult. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I'm like, I don't want to pay for this,
Speaker 3: right and who cares?
Speaker 2: Right? Literally, who cares?
Speaker 3: But there's a thrilled to shoplifting there. I encourage anyone
Speaker 3: to do it. Yeah, I think people should go for it.
Speaker 2: It's free.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna endorse that too. It's an adread rush,
Speaker 4: you know those big companies, right, of course, see what happened. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I feel like my sister has unintentionally shoplifted because she
Speaker 4: has kids and they like put things into.
Speaker 2: Her shopping card. That kind of thing. Now, so I say,
Speaker 2: go for it.
Speaker 4: I remember one time I was really little, like Pokemon.
Speaker 4: I was like obsessed with Pokemon and I was like
Speaker 4: collecting cards and I stole a pack of cards like
Speaker 4: from like a Canian store or whatever, and my dad like,
Speaker 4: I slid them into my jacket sleeves or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's very magician.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then when we stepped out, they fell out
Speaker 4: of my pocket.
Speaker 2: And I was kind of like, wait, what is that?
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, this is from like earlier,
Speaker 4: and he's like, oh okay, he like didn't really question it,
Speaker 4: which I was like truly touched by an angel, because
Speaker 4: of course I don't even know what happened.
Speaker 3: Well, even as an adult, like the parent in that situation,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't want to be like, now I have to
Speaker 3: take you back into Yeah, mom, I have to learn
Speaker 3: a lesson, right. I don't have the time or the
Speaker 3: energy for this kind of thing. Yeah, did you get
Speaker 3: any good cards in the Pokemon pack?
Speaker 4: I don't remember that pack, but I mean I did
Speaker 4: have all one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 2: Wow. That's a fresh generation. Wow.
Speaker 4: And I I think it's at my dad's place, Like
Speaker 4: there's a binder that has like me and my brother
Speaker 4: collected Pokemon cards and we still have the one hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty.
Speaker 2: I feel like that must be worth something at this point.
Speaker 4: If anyone is interested in buying our cards, please reach
Speaker 4: out so down to sell them.
Speaker 2: Was it hard getting to one hundred and fifty? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think probably to buy trade them too, that's right.
Speaker 4: At school, it's like, oh, I have two of these
Speaker 4: holographic one like or whatever.
Speaker 3: You know, I'll trade you one of them for that
Speaker 3: other one. Right, So there was that kind of thing.
Speaker 4: I think eventually my brother and I were both like
Speaker 4: full time trying to.
Speaker 3: Kind of became a career. Yeah, did you have a
Speaker 3: favorite Pokemon?
Speaker 4: I mean I think classic, like Jigglypuff is someone that I
Speaker 4: think has made me who I am today and made
Speaker 4: me want to be.
Speaker 3: A Performerglypuff is a performer, yeah, first and foremost singer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's all jigglypuffed up.
Speaker 4: The tragedies that like everyone sleeps and like Jigglypuff doesn't
Speaker 4: feel horrible yeah, and.
Speaker 2: Kind of does their own thing. Yeah. Well that's a
Speaker 2: good choice though, that makes perfect sense. Were you into
Speaker 2: Jigglypuff I Pokemon? Yeah, I like Jigglypuff.
Speaker 3: I liked the middle of the chars chars Ard, what's Charmander?
Speaker 3: Charmander like Charmander's the first Yes, and I liked There
Speaker 3: were various forms of Pikachu, but I wasn't Pikachu's fine. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're like smaller versions Piachu. Piachu I loved, which was
Speaker 3: somehow even cuter than Pikacha. Yes, a really adorable little creature. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I love Piachu. Right, cho Wright's kind of like a
Speaker 3: more mature, cooler Pikachu.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we should play a game. Okay, we've
Speaker 3: got to play Gift to a Curse. I needed a
Speaker 3: number between one and ten from you.
Speaker 2: Seven.
Speaker 3: Okay, I have to do some light calculating right now
Speaker 3: to get our game pieces. You have the microphone, you
Speaker 3: can recommend, promote, do whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, my name is Richard. If you.
Speaker 4: Didn't catch that from the title of this episode. I
Speaker 4: am on tour right now doing my show. It's called
Speaker 4: I have to do this, and by the time this
Speaker 4: comes out, I would have been done with it, but
Speaker 4: I will be continuing to do the show again in
Speaker 4: New York, LA, and there's talks of in the near
Speaker 4: future going to San Francisco. I got a DM from
Speaker 4: a venue in Massachusetts near Boston that reached out. It
Speaker 4: looked really cute, like a cute little black box theater,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, that's literally where I want to do
Speaker 4: the show. So I'm going to talk to them and
Speaker 4: potentially maybe I'll be doing it there.
Speaker 2: So yeah, think about that beautiful. I hope this is
Speaker 2: how the venue finds out. Yeah, they're like, oh, so
Speaker 2: he wants to do it. He refuses to answer our emails. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he hasn't answered.
Speaker 3: But everyone goes see Richard, follow Richard on whatever social
Speaker 3: media to do whatever you want. This is how we
Speaker 3: play Gift to a Curse and the name three things.
Speaker 3: You'll tell me if there are a gift or a curse,
Speaker 3: and and then I'll tell you if you're right or wrong. Okay,
Speaker 3: because there are correct answers. This first is a suggestion
Speaker 3: from a listener named Ayana ai y a n a
Speaker 3: that feels right, Ayanna, Gift to a Curse. People who
Speaker 3: get a lot of likes on comments and then edit
Speaker 3: the comment to thank the people for liking it.
Speaker 2: Curse why.
Speaker 4: I think you don't need to do that. I think
Speaker 4: just own it. You did it, amazing that you're having
Speaker 4: a moment and that it shined. And just trust that
Speaker 4: whoever really received it received it, and whoever wants to
Speaker 4: then go on the journey with you, they'll go on
Speaker 4: the journey with you.
Speaker 2: Wrong. Wrong, Okay, I think that's it. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think that's it. I've never seen this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I love this idea of kind of monitoring
Speaker 3: how many likes your comment is getting and then returning later.
Speaker 3: The idea of editing and saying, hi, everyone, thank you
Speaker 3: liking my comment is an incredible idea to me.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'll do it. I think we should all start
Speaker 2: doing that. You've never done it. I've never done it,
Speaker 2: but I'm willing to try. Okay, maybe I'll try. How
Speaker 2: many likes does your comment need to get for you
Speaker 2: to return to think? True?
Speaker 4: Because I'm like, I also don't comment that much. I
Speaker 4: realized I don't know if I do. It's like I'm
Speaker 4: an emoji, right, I never like? Aha, and like, that's it.
Speaker 2: Leaving an essay for people to enjoy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't have like quippy like one line like
Speaker 4: more like blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: And then you know a lot of people like it.
Speaker 2: But you could return to thank people for liking the emoji.
Speaker 2: You know what I think it's worth.
Speaker 3: I've never have you seen this on a lease. This
Speaker 3: behavior is interesting to me. I mean it makes perfect when.
Speaker 4: You post this, I'm just gonna comment and be like,
Speaker 4: thank you for liking my comment.
Speaker 3: You're now committed comment on that, then return to edit that.
Speaker 3: This is it's gonna like shut down the servers. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I won't be able to handle how much editing is happening.
Speaker 3: I didn't know you could even edit a comment. Yeah
Speaker 3: I didn't really either, just like it was kind of
Speaker 3: set in stone. Yeah, but I guess that's the thing
Speaker 3: you got it wrong.
Speaker 2: Okay. Number two This is from a listener named Matt Gifter.
Speaker 2: A curse cookie spread cook nice spread.
Speaker 3: I assume that's like, you know, like a Trader Joe
Speaker 3: is I have, like it's like peanut butter, but it's
Speaker 3: made from cookies.
Speaker 2: Oh, a curse? Why?
Speaker 4: Because I think it's also you know, just trust yourself,
Speaker 4: you know, like it's you don't have to.
Speaker 2: If you want cookies and.
Speaker 4: Peanut butter together, literally just get a cookie and put
Speaker 4: peanut butter on it. It almost reminds me of like
Speaker 4: blueberry lemon saltzer. What like, what is cookie like spread?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: What is it? Cookie and oil just crushed together.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, do you make cookie oil like out
Speaker 3: of like a cookie?
Speaker 2: And then you ask me, I've never even considered this.
Speaker 2: How would do they get? A liquid? Cookie? Is such
Speaker 2: a dry thing? Yeah? On at least you have any
Speaker 2: idea what the ingredients are in this.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just just so it's you have to
Speaker 3: take bisk Off cookies or Speculus cookies and then you
Speaker 3: boil them.
Speaker 2: You need coconut oil, honey, ground cinnamon. I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't know everything in there sounds really good to me.
Speaker 2: I'm not seeing it. At least don't get in on this.
Speaker 2: It's a curse. It's a bad idea for product.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's just like, I mean, it's just essentially frosting,
Speaker 3: isn't that what we're talking about? So just and I
Speaker 3: don't know where you even put that? Where do you
Speaker 3: put the cookies spread? You're not making a sandwich out
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't get that.
Speaker 3: I think it's a bad idea for product. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: I love peanut butter. Yeah, helicopter is roaring through the backyard,
Speaker 3: absolutely crashing through the.
Speaker 2: Backyard because you're wrong.
Speaker 3: It's straighter shokes. No, it's on a leash. You've been unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Let go.
Speaker 3: The rest of I'll produce the rest of the podcast.
Speaker 3: No curse, job on that.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Number three. This is from a listener named Calli Gifter.
Speaker 3: A curse marrying the Homecoming King.
Speaker 4: Oh shit, homecoming King, as in a like like I'm
Speaker 4: like thirty three, like marrying him.
Speaker 2: Damn. I think I'm so sorry. I think it's a curse.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think some things are just I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 4: I just it's I mean, this is so like boring.
Speaker 4: But like you know the classic like you know, you
Speaker 4: peak in high school blah blah blah or whatever, like
Speaker 4: if that's kind of the vibe, like I think the
Speaker 4: Homecoming King. Maybe I'm just thinking of a specific kind
Speaker 4: of person that like flops after that moment, right, and
Speaker 4: then to like marry a flop and if they and
Speaker 4: then also if this Homecoming King is being so like,
Speaker 4: but I was the homecoming King. It's like, come on,
Speaker 4: you gotta let it go. You gotta let it go.
Speaker 4: Then that's a curse. But if he's like so chill,
Speaker 4: he's just like, yeah, it's homecoming King. It was so dumb.
Speaker 4: I was homecoming King, and he just like is still
Speaker 4: fine as hell and sweet doing it.
Speaker 2: Popular And that's a little blessing.
Speaker 4: But I'm gonna just I'm gonna envision that this is
Speaker 4: like someone that's like high school was my glory days.
Speaker 2: Right, that's a curse.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'd love to try to find a way
Speaker 3: to say you're wrong here, but I think, I mean,
Speaker 3: you've made a very I mean, every one of your
Speaker 3: points is exactly on think you. I mean the idea
Speaker 3: of like anyone after age, when do you become the
Speaker 3: homecoming king.
Speaker 2: Like seventeen seventeen or seventeen yeah.
Speaker 3: Ten minutes after that, you shouldn't be talking about it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: imagine being in an adult relationship with someone who I
Speaker 3: don't don't feel like it's the right thing to do. Yeah,
Speaker 3: although you know, go for it, right, That's actually it's
Speaker 3: a gift.
Speaker 2: It's an absolute gift. This person's accomplished something.
Speaker 3: They really they've got something in their past that they
Speaker 3: can bling to.
Speaker 4: Like success is like so young and also to lose
Speaker 4: it and then maybe get it back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they really have kind of experienced the entire rate
Speaker 3: of life so early and can build from there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So you've really married kind of a jam and you
Speaker 3: found the best person in high school and he's nothing
Speaker 3: but gold from there. I mean, we all know that
Speaker 3: the Homecoming King is.
Speaker 2: As good as it gets. Yeah, so it's a gift.
Speaker 3: I think we're the three of us sitting here or
Speaker 3: not married to the Homecoming King, and that probably played
Speaker 3: into our answers, our initial answers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry to anyone who's a homecoming king. I'm
Speaker 4: really sorry, and I'm sure you're wonderful.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I feel like you kind of got I
Speaker 3: don't even know how to calculate what you've got for
Speaker 3: a score this time, because the last answer we kind
Speaker 3: of circled back on. But you did a decent job. Okay,
Speaker 3: good job, Thank you. This is the final segment of
Speaker 3: the podcast. It's called I Said No Emails. People write
Speaker 3: into I Said No Gifts at gmail dot com just
Speaker 3: in need of answers. Advice guidance. Will you hope me
Speaker 3: answer a question? Okay, yeah, Okay. This is highbridger, so
Speaker 3: they didn't even mention you, which is fine.
Speaker 2: Okay, says I.
Speaker 3: Have a non gift related question. You said, the emails
Speaker 3: can be about anything, okay, pointing fingers. I have been
Speaker 3: seeing my current therapist for about six months. She has
Speaker 3: been pretty helpful, and while she never takes notes, she
Speaker 3: seems to recall every detail I've spoken about week after
Speaker 3: a week. I am an artist and talk a lot
Speaker 3: about how my work relates to my lived experience in
Speaker 3: what I believe was an attempt to relate to me.
Speaker 3: This therapist has recently revealed that she is a screenwriter.
Speaker 3: Let me say we do not live in hot Hollywood.
Speaker 3: We are in a small city on the East Coast.
Speaker 3: I wonder where this could possibly be, but she's made
Speaker 3: it clear in the latest sessions that she is passionate
Speaker 3: about her scripts and getting them made into films. This
Speaker 3: therapist is talking a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: In one of our reservices, in one of our recent meetings,
Speaker 3: she said, talking to you is like walking through an
Speaker 3: old library filled with stories I want to read. First,
Speaker 3: I was flattered thinking that she finds me terribly interesting.
Speaker 3: She later admitted that after a career changed from architect
Speaker 3: to licensed therapists. While this person is the career changes
Speaker 3: are big swings. She changed from architect to licensed therapists,
Speaker 3: she just wanted a job where she could listen to
Speaker 3: people's stories all day. Now, I'm concerned that this major
Speaker 3: career move was made purely to gain fodder for her
Speaker 3: own written stories. I'm bringing this quandary to you being
Speaker 3: that you yourself are a screenwriter and have often Hollywood types.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at Richard right now on your podcast. What
Speaker 3: do you say it might be fun to see my
Speaker 3: trauma played out on the big screen one? Or am
Speaker 3: I wasting my time and this woman isn't capable of
Speaker 3: truly helping me while she's preoccupied with memorizing the most
Speaker 3: compelling aspects of my tales? What do you guys think,
Speaker 3: Molly whoa this therapist started as an architect, became a
Speaker 3: therapist and is clearly making another pivot to film to film.
Speaker 3: And this person is wondering should she just play into
Speaker 3: this game right? Or I guess not playing this game?
Speaker 3: I think those are the two options. Or I guess
Speaker 3: you could confront the therapists and say I need you
Speaker 3: to stop thinking trying to turn my life into a movie.
Speaker 2: First of all, therapy is expensive. Therapy is very expensive.
Speaker 4: It's expensive, hard to find, hard to find, and especially
Speaker 4: like yeah, like clicking with someone that you want to
Speaker 4: keep going back to and being like, here's what's going on,
Speaker 4: here's my you know, here's my stuff, here's my story,
Speaker 4: here's da da da that. Like if you're if you
Speaker 4: feel like you're getting something out of it, like really
Speaker 4: getting some thing out of it, then like maybe try
Speaker 4: to see it through.
Speaker 2: I guess like that's fine. Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think it's weird to like bring in your outside
Speaker 4: interests as a therapist into your like sessions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never known about a therapist's anything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like maybe the most is that like they have
Speaker 4: kids or something like right or right they used to
Speaker 4: live in this other city, right, you know, Like I
Speaker 4: totally get if like a therapist is like here's a story,
Speaker 4: an anecdote or something to relate to what you're talking
Speaker 4: about or your situation, like briefly like here's this blah
Speaker 4: blah blah. The lesson is this, and I'm like Okay, like,
Speaker 4: you know totally, but yeah, I really don't like that
Speaker 4: vibe of like you've got such interesting stories. So tell
Speaker 4: me more. What else happened when you were when you
Speaker 4: were in art school?
Speaker 2: Wait? Can you tell me again?
Speaker 4: So what happened in art school when you you were
Speaker 4: going through that breakup and that you moved to that
Speaker 4: new city and you and your mom did what like
Speaker 4: what happened was I'm just kind of like, I don't
Speaker 4: know that that.
Speaker 2: I don't think will I don't know, maybe maybe.
Speaker 3: Confront confront Have you ever confronted a therapist?
Speaker 4: Actually, the last therapist I saw, I remember one time
Speaker 4: I told him that I was just in a stream
Speaker 4: of consciousness just like talking, and I was like, I'm
Speaker 4: trying to impress you, right or whatever, because it's more
Speaker 4: of like in my mind, you're like some authority figure
Speaker 4: or something even like in a sexual.
Speaker 2: Sense, right, right.
Speaker 4: And I like remember like saying that to him, and
Speaker 4: he was kind of like, Okay, then continue and then yeah,
Speaker 4: and I just like kept going and he was really
Speaker 4: chill about it. I don't I know, it kind of
Speaker 4: blocked out like what his response was, but he had
Speaker 4: a little more understanding of like.
Speaker 2: My vibe at that time, But that was probably like
Speaker 2: a break through.
Speaker 3: Maybe you're like, now I've been so honest that, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that I'm like, I can, I can, Like I might
Speaker 3: still be trying to impress, but at least there's some transparency,
Speaker 3: kind of an ever lain level of transparency. Yeah. I
Speaker 3: think that's probably natural for a lot of therapy, right,
Speaker 3: where like, yeah, for the first while, you're like, well,
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell them.
Speaker 2: Four percent of what's real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then so you're just paying someone money to
Speaker 3: impress them.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's been a lot of my therapy
Speaker 3: actually just never really breaking down and actually revealing. But
Speaker 3: this person has revealed so much, so much that their
Speaker 3: therapist has revealed so much. We know about the therapist's.
Speaker 2: Sole job job. We shouldn't be doing. We shouldn't be
Speaker 2: knowing that.
Speaker 3: No, and this is a huge mistake on the therapist's part,
Speaker 3: to be honest. If they want to do write this
Speaker 3: to steal this person's stories, they should have just shut up. Yeah,
Speaker 3: don't tell Molly, don't take the notes, write the movie right,
Speaker 3: and then once it's on the big screen, deal with
Speaker 3: the court battle or whatever. But by then you'll have
Speaker 3: made enough money to sue Molly into the ground, kind
Speaker 3: of gaslight Molly into thinking, this isn't.
Speaker 2: Your story, isn't your story, it's.
Speaker 3: These are things I told you and our therapy sessions.
Speaker 3: So what I'm we're actually reaching out to the therapist at
Speaker 3: this point. And I think it's really a matter of
Speaker 3: telling Molly that you can't see her anymore, destroy the records,
Speaker 3: and then write the movie and Mollie, I don't know,
Speaker 3: do whatever you want.
Speaker 2: I don't care.
Speaker 3: It's not my problem. We answered the question perfectly, Richard.
Speaker 3: I've had such a nice time, fabulous. I love to
Speaker 3: talk about bakery cafes. I could talk about them for weeks.
Speaker 3: Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for
Speaker 3: having me listener. The podcast is just over it. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's there's nothing left to say. I love you, goodbye,
Speaker 3: I said. No Gifts is an exactly right production. It's
Speaker 3: produced by our dear friend Annalise Nelson, and it's beautifully
Speaker 3: mixed by Ben Holliday. And we couldn't do it without
Speaker 3: our guest booker, Patrick Coottner. The theme song, of course,
Speaker 3: could only come from miracle worker Amy Mann. You must
Speaker 3: follow the show on Instagram at I said, no gifts.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear any excuses. That's where you
Speaker 3: get to see pictures of all these gorgeous gifts I'm getting.
Speaker 3: And don't you want to see pictures of the gifts?
Speaker 2: THEO invit? Did you hear?
Speaker 1: Funa man myself perfectly clear. When you're a guest to me,
Speaker 1: you gotta come to me empty. And I said, no guests,
Speaker 1: your presences presents enough. I'm already too much stuff.
Speaker 2: So how do you dare to survey me?
Speaker 1: The game bet