Speaker 1: Pushkin. Well, here we are the bright lights and the
Speaker 1: glitz of Las Vegas. You've done it again, Brendan. This
Speaker 1: isn't what you thought I meant when I said we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a boy's weekend in Vegas. I just about
Speaker 1: got hit by a tumbleweed back there. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean like tumbleweeds adult gentlemen's club, which I would go to.
Speaker 1: I mean we're in the middle of nowhere. Where are
Speaker 1: we going right now? We're heading to the Hoover dam.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the right place to start because I
Speaker 1: think it literally gave rise to all of Vegas. So
Speaker 1: it's where Vegas began. This is because like water and power,
Speaker 1: basically exactly right. See these power lines right here. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's the juice that the damn sending that keeps those
Speaker 1: lights on and those fountain spinning, and those little guns
Speaker 1: that shoot like Coca Cola and diet Cola and ginger
Speaker 1: Allen Seltzer. They're all powered by all I can think
Speaker 1: of our the little pulses traveling through those lines all
Speaker 1: the way to a casino into a slot machine where
Speaker 1: I will then also be inserting money and winning hundreds,
Speaker 1: if not thousands, of dollars and it all starts out here.
Speaker 1: So you know what you've You've actually convinced me this
Speaker 1: is Vegas, baby, this is not lost. Each episode, a
Speaker 1: friend and I travel somewhere to see the sights and
Speaker 1: try to get invited to dinner. I'm Brendan Frances Newnham,
Speaker 1: not in real Vegas, but out of here. And that's
Speaker 1: my friend Luke Burbank. We've known each other since we
Speaker 1: were cub radio producers stilled the wild West, and this
Speaker 1: episode we're in Vegas. Well look at this, and behold,
Speaker 1: look at this. We are coming around the bend here
Speaker 1: and looking out on it. Would this be Lake Mead
Speaker 1: and in the distance then the Hoover dam This is
Speaker 1: I mean, this is genuinely gorgeous. Wow, where it is?
Speaker 1: Everything around us is massive, like this damn is massive.
Speaker 1: That bridge we drove under his massive. Brendon's anxiety is massive,
Speaker 1: That's all massive. Yes, it's been a minute since I've
Speaker 1: driven on a narrow highway without guardrails overlooking a canyon.
Speaker 1: But I've been to Vegas before. When I used to
Speaker 1: live in Los Angeles, I'd sometimes hop a short flight
Speaker 1: over to meet up with friends. We drink too much,
Speaker 1: play cards, and as my fifth grade teacher, mister Bicello
Speaker 1: used to say, act like knuckleheads. But that was a
Speaker 1: while ago, and lately I've been trying to leave my
Speaker 1: knucklehead days behind. Meanwhile, Lucas kept up his love for
Speaker 1: Since you're not you've been to Vegas before like a bunch, right, yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean probably thirty five or more times. He has
Speaker 1: a preferred hotel, a system for winning roulette, and a
Speaker 1: tattoo of two playing cards on his arm. And that's
Speaker 1: just the gambling tattoo I can see. But we are
Speaker 1: going to the casinos later, right, I mean staying not
Speaker 1: far from the strip now. Luke is newly single and
Speaker 1: it's Valentine's weekend, so I thought it'd be good for
Speaker 1: him to join me here. Would allow him to take
Speaker 1: his mind off things in one of his favorite places,
Speaker 1: and it would allow me to record an episode of
Speaker 1: my show. Instead of a dinner party, I thought we
Speaker 1: could just have dinner for two. It'll be happening somewhere
Speaker 1: now with my knucklehead days in the rear view, I
Speaker 1: built an itinerary that avoided the strip altogether. The only
Speaker 1: thing is I didn't tell Luke that, so I picked
Speaker 1: him up at the airport. I hate to break your heart,
Speaker 1: but if I have my way, we won't even send
Speaker 1: foot in the Gazino. Did anything in the contract I
Speaker 1: signed with you stipulate that I have to be physically
Speaker 1: near you this whole weekend? Well, also speak of this weekend.
Speaker 1: It is Valentine's Day weekend, and you know you were
Speaker 1: one of the people who could join me. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: of the fact that I'm going through a breakup. So
Speaker 1: once again I am back on the market. And I thought,
Speaker 1: where should I spend the most romantic day of the
Speaker 1: year out in the desert with my friend Brendan Holy shit?
Speaker 1: Or in Arizona. Are we supposed to be in Arizona
Speaker 1: right now? I don't think that's for the purview of
Speaker 1: this podcast. We might have to go dark for this
Speaker 1: portion of the ride. Really well, I'm gonna see if
Speaker 1: I can keep keep things rolling here in Vegas this
Speaker 1: weekend as part of Operation Luke Gets his Groove Back.
Speaker 1: We're back in the bottom of update. Hoover dam Bill
Speaker 1: under time and under budget from nineteen thirty one to
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty five during the Great Depression, back in the
Speaker 1: thirties that was all about you know, man over nature
Speaker 1: and great things, and Hoover Damn definitely represents that. Patty
Speaker 1: Aaron is a public affairs officer for the Federal Department
Speaker 1: of the Interior, whatever specialties Hoover DA did. They build
Speaker 1: this because they needed it for like hydroelectric power, or
Speaker 1: because people needed jobs. So the Colorado River was a
Speaker 1: really wild river and ran extremely high or extremely low,
Speaker 1: so that actually the primary reason that it was built
Speaker 1: was for flood control. How do you even like, do
Speaker 1: you have this huge rushing river when you don't have
Speaker 1: a dam. How do you get the beginnings started? Well,
Speaker 1: you start by building tunnels through the two sides of
Speaker 1: the canyon. So as you can look over here, it's scary.
Speaker 1: It is scary. Luke and I stare over the lip
Speaker 1: of the dam. Behind us is a massive lake being
Speaker 1: held at bay. And in front of us, or rather
Speaker 1: sixties stories of sheer concrete below us buys a river. Wow.
Speaker 1: From here, you can see the bottom of the generation deck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going down there. Oh my god, how do we
Speaker 1: get down there? We're going to go down in the dam. Wow,
Speaker 1: they're an elevator. Yeah, Patty points to the middle of
Speaker 1: the walkway running over the ridge of the dam, and
Speaker 1: in the midst of the backdrop of blue sky and
Speaker 1: brown canyon sit two gleaming brass doors marked off by
Speaker 1: a velvet rope. It looks like an entrance to a
Speaker 1: fantastical time machine. You guys, go ahead and go in there. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is incredible. So as you see here, we're at
Speaker 1: elevation twelve thirty three. Yeah, and we'll go down and
Speaker 1: we'll see other elevations set. Do you want to guess,
Speaker 1: Luke and see who gets closer to how far we've descended.
Speaker 1: I'll see how far we've descended. Yeah, times weekends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still in the elevator. Yeah, I could feel like
Speaker 1: the humidity changing. Have we gone below them of a
Speaker 1: rochic boundary? Yet that's a layer of the of the
Speaker 1: Earth's crusted dark cloth. Yeah, we're gonna now walk through
Speaker 1: the dam now all right, so we're gonna walk down
Speaker 1: this hall. We're gonna walk down this hall. I feel
Speaker 1: like we're going towards something angry. We're going towards the
Speaker 1: generator deck. We're gonna see where the power is generated,
Speaker 1: Like how this is gonna be noisy for you. Are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? Are we in a sci fi film?
Speaker 1: Right now? You can see lights on on top of
Speaker 1: a few of the generators. That means that they're generating
Speaker 1: power right now that is being spun by the pressure
Speaker 1: of Lake Mead and the Colorado River coming through. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So those large generators are the ones that generate power
Speaker 1: for Arizona, California, and Nevada. Okay, now we are in
Speaker 1: what is a hallway that is carved out of solid rock. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean this is something out of some kind of
Speaker 1: jewels vern. See. You can see the dynamite holes, holy gow.
Speaker 1: And so we're walking through the mountain to the tunnel
Speaker 1: that was blasted out. Wow. Wow, it's skinny smell, it's
Speaker 1: like dank a little bit. Well, you see the salt
Speaker 1: crystals here on the walls. Is water through the rock? No,
Speaker 1: it's what it's what nature does, water seas. But nature
Speaker 1: also had a river that was untamed, but man tamed it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you think we'll ever do something like
Speaker 1: this again, Patty? No, I don't see how we would.
Speaker 1: This is a door. You gotta be kidding, You're right,
Speaker 1: probably the thickest like steel doors just opened longer at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the Damn. Yes, we are, Holy cow.
Speaker 1: We are looking at the Hoover Dam from river level
Speaker 1: and it is quite something. It's hard to come out
Speaker 1: here and not be completely amazed. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know that this part of Las Vegas existed them.
Speaker 1: It's like, of course Vegas has a Chinatown, but it
Speaker 1: never occurred to me to go to it. You're welcome, Luke,
Speaker 1: Thank you. What a voyage of discovery. This is turning
Speaker 1: into Brendon. We're on our way to Big Dan. Chauncey Taste,
Speaker 1: a tiny food counter inside a Chinese supermarket, which itself
Speaker 1: is inside a double decker strip mall filled with immigrant
Speaker 1: jasper of restaurants. It's like a Turducan of conference because
Speaker 1: it looks like we've got an intersection of a supermarcano
Speaker 1: and then a Vietnamese name, and then we're going to
Speaker 1: a Chinese restaurant. This is a rule. We're here to
Speaker 1: meet Kim Foster, a critically acclaimed food writer who moved
Speaker 1: to Vegas with her family a few years back and
Speaker 1: surprised herself by falling in love with it. If we're
Speaker 1: going in here, so we're entering a grocery store. He there,
Speaker 1: she is Hello. Kim has bleae, blonde hair, an easy laugh,
Speaker 1: and she's cool, not in and off putting way, but
Speaker 1: in that I want to be near her way. She's
Speaker 1: joined by her food buddy, David Claire. He's a samolier
Speaker 1: from a buzzy restaurant named Esters, but he loves coming
Speaker 1: to this food counter for its taste of cuisine from
Speaker 1: Shuanca Province, a place he used to visit regularly. It
Speaker 1: turns out cuisine from most regions of China are available
Speaker 1: with Vegas. Is Some people would disagree with me, but
Speaker 1: I think our Chinatown rivals New York and San Francisco
Speaker 1: in terms of Chinatown. Can you can order for the table?
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you want how do you want
Speaker 1: to tackle this hunt is definitely order the cold noodles.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think about food in Vegas.
Speaker 1: This is not the neighborhood they're thinking of. Star chefs.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the evolution of your relationship to food
Speaker 1: in Vegas. One of the big surprising things about Vegas
Speaker 1: is that it's one of the most diverse cities, and
Speaker 1: Nevada is one of the most diverse states. There is
Speaker 1: a huge Mexican, Filipino, Chinese. This is the ninth island
Speaker 1: for Hawaiians, and there's strange diversity, like because we have
Speaker 1: struck to slay, we have a community of Mongolians here,
Speaker 1: so with that comes these food experiences. So that's n P.
Speaker 1: So what did we get here? Delivered? So this is limpeak.
Speaker 1: So Lenpe is very classically associated with the city. Ission
Speaker 1: he's kind of hand pressed wheat noodles literally translates to
Speaker 1: cold skin. Las Vegas is this place where people think
Speaker 1: that the strip is like Times Square. So it's like
Speaker 1: saying New York is like Times Square, right, that's just
Speaker 1: a tiny tiny part of New York and that isn't
Speaker 1: even like a way to define New York. And the
Speaker 1: same thing happens in Vegas. Would like the first time
Speaker 1: Tim was like where do you live? And you were like,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas? Because that's a whole statement unto itself. Right,
Speaker 1: you know, it's still kind of weird every time that
Speaker 1: I say, because you know, you have to kind of
Speaker 1: go a ends what people already think they know about
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. You're living a penthouse and you're maybe a
Speaker 1: male hooker, or some kind of something like that. But
Speaker 1: like you know, I now want to mention that I
Speaker 1: live in Las Vegas. Nobody would think that about the
Speaker 1: physical condition d versus me. Our physical conditions were all
Speaker 1: in jeopardy due to the slurpy deliciousness of these hand
Speaker 1: press noodles. But I didn't meet up with Kim and
Speaker 1: David to just talk about food. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: Kim wrote a series of articles called The Meth Lunches
Speaker 1: about the man she and her husband had hired to
Speaker 1: fix up the house they live in with their foster children.
Speaker 1: It turned out he was a meth addict, and every
Speaker 1: day she would prepare him lunch and sit with him.
Speaker 1: And meth is really like a big problem here. So
Speaker 1: the piece that I wrote is really about my relationship
Speaker 1: of feeding this addict and going through his addiction with him.
Speaker 1: And we ended up becoming foster parents. And I would
Speaker 1: say that probably three quarters of the kids that came
Speaker 1: to us came to us because of a drug addiction
Speaker 1: meth related issue in their house. Our meth is extremely addictive,
Speaker 1: It's very very difficult for people to get off, and
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of you know, services are tricky.
Speaker 1: You know, we are a state. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: it's reasonable to live here is because there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of taxes. We don't pay city taxes, we don't
Speaker 1: pay state income taxes. But we're not thick with programs either,
Speaker 1: because we don't have the revenue for Yeah, so things
Speaker 1: like if you have a problem and you can't afford
Speaker 1: to be shipped off to you know, a really expensive yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: then you know you're then you're scrambling for your own stop. Awesome?
Speaker 1: Is that like the shadow of the libertarian ethos that
Speaker 1: purvades this area? Right? Education is fifty out of fifty
Speaker 1: in Nevada, where the bottom with number fifty in the US.
Speaker 1: That's interesting because I was gonna say, I remember a statistic,
Speaker 1: which is this town, if you only have a high
Speaker 1: school diploma, you have the highest quality of life than
Speaker 1: any other city in America because there are good unions
Speaker 1: and a lot of hospitality jobs. But it's interesting to
Speaker 1: contrast that, so they don't invest in their schools because
Speaker 1: maybe having a certain level of aptitude isn't necessary for
Speaker 1: business here. It's like we're like discussing the sort of
Speaker 1: civic infrastructure of Vegas while eating some of the best
Speaker 1: food of all time and not commenting on it. But
Speaker 1: instead of getting into like tax district. Is that is welcome? Welcome,
Speaker 1: welcome to my nerdy brain. It's true, a big part
Speaker 1: of my nerdy brain does like to chop it up
Speaker 1: about public policy, but another part likes to rustle up
Speaker 1: dinner parties with near strangers. Now I'd imagine Luke and
Speaker 1: I would be dining solo tomorrow, But I can't help
Speaker 1: but ask what Kim and David, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: What are you doing tomorrow? Um, it's Valentine's Day. My
Speaker 1: husband and I are going to go to Esther's and
Speaker 1: have pasta and homemade bread and a lot of carps.
Speaker 1: But what about you? What are you? What are you
Speaker 1: doing tomorrow? I'm gonna be slang in a sparkling roseate. Right,
Speaker 1: you're working, You're working. It's every every service industry person's
Speaker 1: favorite night of the years. It's like amateur, Yeah, it's amateur.
Speaker 1: It's the night that everyone goes to a restaurant who
Speaker 1: never goes to a restaurant and any See, this is
Speaker 1: my thinking. So when I booked this trip on Valentine's
Speaker 1: I was like, no one, really, it's not a real holiday,
Speaker 1: you know. And I asked my girlfriend if it was
Speaker 1: okay that I came out here, and she was like,
Speaker 1: it's fine that you left her on Valentine's Day? Yeah,
Speaker 1: are you sure about that? I learned this in marriage
Speaker 1: one and two. Yeah, after leaving him and David. My
Speaker 1: belly is full, but my mind is racing. Perhaps I
Speaker 1: should have taken Valentine's Day more seriously. Also, why didn't
Speaker 1: my girlfriend take it more seriously? Doesn't she want to
Speaker 1: spend Valentine's Day with me? Anyway? You know what's funny
Speaker 1: to me is I feel like we may be passing
Speaker 1: each other Brendan in terms of like, I, you know,
Speaker 1: usually keep it on the strip and I have all
Speaker 1: the places I go to, and you're very anti, but
Speaker 1: I think that there's also some fun and excitement to
Speaker 1: be had on the strip for you. Oh, I just
Speaker 1: want to say I'm not anti strip as much as
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I feel like there's those are simple,
Speaker 1: big pleasures that right I've I've partaken in. I just
Speaker 1: had a real big gulp of being single, and now
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be in a real relationship. I'm just
Speaker 1: like I think the quieter different pleasures are. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to lean into them a little bit. That could be
Speaker 1: a little bit of what's happening in the background. That's
Speaker 1: fine with me, man. You know, I'm in a sort
Speaker 1: of fragile place in my personal life, and I think
Speaker 1: you me book it a BEPO in front of the
Speaker 1: ex caliber. But now I kind of hear what you're saying,
Speaker 1: like that, you know this is uh, this is Sin City,
Speaker 1: like we gotta do. You know, you can't not touch
Speaker 1: upon that. And so I'm taking us now to talk
Speaker 1: to someone who has insight into it. M That doesn't
Speaker 1: sound very fun. The chapel at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic
Speaker 1: Center is just a rhinestone throw away from the strip.
Speaker 1: Now Vegas might seem like a thankless place to battle
Speaker 1: sin the Father Daniel tells us there are advantages. I
Speaker 1: always say that, you know, coming to Sin City is
Speaker 1: job security for me. And the reason I wanted to
Speaker 1: come here is, as you may know, I'm also a magician.
Speaker 1: So I'm a priest who does magic. I made an
Speaker 1: agreement with Jesus I don't do any of his material.
Speaker 1: He doesn't do any of mine. But do you like
Speaker 1: kerchiefs or or or? Yeah. So the type of magic
Speaker 1: I do is called parlor magic. This is happening. I'm
Speaker 1: it's excited when he saw that deca card. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: this is the closest I've gotten to a gambling situation
Speaker 1: this trip, So it's it is pretty exciting. Well, this
Speaker 1: is what I took off the deck of cards was
Speaker 1: some rubber bands. Oh, okay, okay, I know. So so
Speaker 1: you have two rubber bands, two rubber bands, but they're
Speaker 1: intertwined so that they can't get out. Yeah. So I say,
Speaker 1: sometimes we get ourselves into situations in which we think
Speaker 1: we're free, but then we're not. Yeah, no, because the
Speaker 1: other rubber band's restricting that one rubber band. There are
Speaker 1: boundaries in our lives, boundaries which prevent us from being
Speaker 1: all that we can be. But Jesus sets us free.
Speaker 1: Whow And so the one rubber band penetrates through the other,
Speaker 1: and now they're free. In the illustration, we are, honestly,
Speaker 1: we are like like ten inches from your hands right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I do not know how you did that. We
Speaker 1: haven't had a drink in a while, Like this is
Speaker 1: we are clear eyed, and I don't know how you
Speaker 1: did that. Is there a different kind of clientele or
Speaker 1: parishioner being in Vegas? The people who are off the
Speaker 1: strip generally are you know, for lack of a better
Speaker 1: way to say, a run of the mill center, to
Speaker 1: get to run of the mill center status that he's
Speaker 1: coming down, I'm moving up. Yeah, you know, with people
Speaker 1: who are traveling to Las Vegas, those can questions that
Speaker 1: I hear, you know, really speak to a lot of loneliness, pornography,
Speaker 1: some gambling addictions, but a lot of that is from
Speaker 1: the people who are visiting. Do you ever have occasion
Speaker 1: to be walking around the trip in your color? I
Speaker 1: feel like you would be like really standing out on
Speaker 1: the strip if you're dressed as I would do. They
Speaker 1: think you're promoting a comedy show, right, you know, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this must be the Friar from the ex Caliber, you know,
Speaker 1: Um no, I don't want people thinking, oh, my father
Speaker 1: was that the collection this Sunday? And yeah, I wonder
Speaker 1: if security would rush you out. You're like, Harry comes,
Speaker 1: He's going to really put it dead in our earnings.
Speaker 1: They're all gonna scatter. Or people are like, oh, you know, father,
Speaker 1: bless my machine or whatever, Mother Cabrini, Mother Cabrini, bless
Speaker 1: my machine? Anyway? Um, who can we just back up
Speaker 1: a minute? Sure and a lucky chance. No, No, that's
Speaker 1: it's a made up thing. Well, that sounds legit to me.
Speaker 1: When you're counseling couples, is one of the major issues
Speaker 1: that one of the people did a bad job at
Speaker 1: remembering Valentine's days. That come up a lot, not particularly,
Speaker 1: but it's a symptom of lack of communication, and that's
Speaker 1: the number one problem with couples. Yeah, what's your I'm
Speaker 1: you know, I'm embarking on single, single, doom, single hood.
Speaker 1: I'm going back out in the world. Father. Do you
Speaker 1: have any advice for me in terms of seeking a
Speaker 1: partner or just relationship stuff or I know, how can
Speaker 1: I not get divorced again? Okay? Well, I think one
Speaker 1: thing would be to take time for yourself. And I
Speaker 1: don't mean like all right, party, No, I mean take
Speaker 1: time to get to know yourself and make sure that
Speaker 1: you know what it is that you're offering to another person.
Speaker 1: In every relationship, there's something really wonderful and really good
Speaker 1: and you really want to treasure that. And then there's
Speaker 1: stuff that you just really need to let go of
Speaker 1: and maybe change within you or know that that was
Speaker 1: that person's stuff so that you don't bring it into
Speaker 1: the next relationship. Okay, okay, thank you for that. All right.
Speaker 1: I feel like I need to bow to you or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You can just shake my hands. This
Speaker 1: has me very much, Father Daniel, and also with you.
Speaker 1: After our visit with Father Daniel, we'd go back to
Speaker 1: our lodgings. Luke begins to play online poker and I
Speaker 1: call my girlfriend, but it goes straight to message. When
Speaker 1: the desert sun begins its descent, we hop in our
Speaker 1: rental car and head to the strip and then keep going.
Speaker 1: I feel like every time I think we're gonna do
Speaker 1: something fun, we start driving again away from the city
Speaker 1: of Las Vegas. So we're currently doing that is what's happening.
Speaker 1: We're getting into the lake. Things that didn't bounce back
Speaker 1: from two thousand and eight districts, all right, So next stop.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do something fun in the evening that
Speaker 1: wasn't gambling, and so I was looking around, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I found this. Only I have no idea who she
Speaker 1: is and she gives tours of the stars okay, and
Speaker 1: she also claims that sometimes they see UFOs. Nevada has
Speaker 1: long been considered a UFO hotspot. So when I came
Speaker 1: across a nighttime UFO tour in the desert, I signed
Speaker 1: us up. Luke might prefer playing poker, but I was
Speaker 1: betting a close encounter of the third kind beats a
Speaker 1: royal flush. I'm glad to get into this spirit of things. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I looked to our left. I didn't see those mountains
Speaker 1: and that pink sky. I mean, you hear it all
Speaker 1: the time. We really are in a valley. I guess
Speaker 1: it's never even occurred to me, the geography of this area. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like I've never been out here. One forget.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's designed to forget. You fly in right,
Speaker 1: airport's so close, and then you're in just this sealed
Speaker 1: warren of pleasure. Look at that. See those balloons, they're
Speaker 1: Valentine's balloons. Someone let them off in the desert. I
Speaker 1: was poetically. Yeah, I think your day away from this
Speaker 1: trip is really no enaching your soul. We're in a
Speaker 1: Sam Mendi's film. You're making keen observations. Now we're going off,
Speaker 1: and now we're really going into what they call in Nevada,
Speaker 1: the rurals. You know that. No, no, all right, we're
Speaker 1: taking a left, but there's no road right now where
Speaker 1: we're about to take a left. Yeah, we are leaving,
Speaker 1: all right, the paved road. Okay, there we are. All right,
Speaker 1: we're coming in. There's other people. There's two people. There's
Speaker 1: a malamute dog, a shovel. Oh. I bet to tell you, Brendan,
Speaker 1: I've got some gambling beds. Um, I'm gonna put my
Speaker 1: car out front. There. You go on for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's smart, all right, what's our safe word? Run? Hey,
Speaker 1: our guide Misha greets us with the big smile. She's
Speaker 1: wearing a Patagonia fleece, and I suddenly realize we are
Speaker 1: probably underdressed for the cold desert night. Behind her are
Speaker 1: a handful of camping chairs, and a couple of other
Speaker 1: folks have come along. So we're sitting in a little
Speaker 1: semicircle here with the crew. We're wearing night vision goggles
Speaker 1: that are military grade because we're looking up at the stars,
Speaker 1: but behind us we're seeing the allure of the strip
Speaker 1: and like the beautiful skyline of Las Vegas and the stratosphere,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to identify unidentified flying objects. Marty seeing
Speaker 1: more stars than I see in New York City. I'd
Speaker 1: like to share with you this area. Oh, of course
Speaker 1: you've heard of Area fifty one. That's two and a
Speaker 1: half hours from here, But just about an hour and
Speaker 1: maybe five minutes is Creachair for space. Go into it
Speaker 1: another fifteen miles you'll find ets, actual texture, terrestaurants or etis. Yes,
Speaker 1: along with leading night tours, Misha is very active in
Speaker 1: what is called the experience or community. So she tells
Speaker 1: us about the kind of ets that might be hovering
Speaker 1: above us. So you'll find two different types of ets
Speaker 1: that many people have seen. The first being the tall whites,
Speaker 1: which I'm going to show you a picture of, and
Speaker 1: then there's a couple of great types out there. These
Speaker 1: are some of the beings that I had encounters with. Really,
Speaker 1: I was a child in toront my life. Here this
Speaker 1: is a this is a tourist spot for them. Basically,
Speaker 1: they come from their planet. So you're saying, basically, this
Speaker 1: is their Vegas, this is their Vegas. Absolutely, it's true.
Speaker 1: They come here because they love the desert, and believe
Speaker 1: it or not, these ets like to gamble. So there's
Speaker 1: been sightings of them here in the casino and the casinos,
Speaker 1: and they also have a system, and they also like bling.
Speaker 1: They like that jewelry and fancy and hats, and that's
Speaker 1: how they the women have come to Vegas and be
Speaker 1: unseen for When you recount these experiences and people are
Speaker 1: you know, skeptical about it? What does I feel like
Speaker 1: for you? And and I mean are you years of
Speaker 1: doing this? That doesn't bother me anymore? Years of talking
Speaker 1: about this. It's my truth. It's what I know, what
Speaker 1: happened to me. And if people are skeptical, well that's
Speaker 1: on them. It was part of the impids of leading
Speaker 1: the tours to kind of show people this reality. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm doing this. What do you think if people
Speaker 1: accepted that there were ets more widely? How do you
Speaker 1: think that could do you think like humans would be
Speaker 1: kinder to each other or something? Well, yeah, because they
Speaker 1: said disease would be around, dedicated age, you would be
Speaker 1: gone stuff like that sounds really appealing. Yeah, But what
Speaker 1: they wanted us to do is drop our worrying ways.
Speaker 1: We have been watching you and you have been worrying
Speaker 1: since your civilization began. Stop your battles, stop your wars,
Speaker 1: and live in peace with the galactic, and you'll be
Speaker 1: able to join the Galactic. But until you stop that,
Speaker 1: stop the violence, violence, you do not get to join
Speaker 1: the Galactic. Go ahead and focus on for yourself. Look up,
Speaker 1: oh man. What we're looking for is things that don't flash, Okay,
Speaker 1: that are just moving along. Okay, whoa, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I see something moving right now. Can you see that?
Speaker 1: Is that a satellite where you looking? Okay it Luke, No,
Speaker 1: I can't. It's going into a cloud. Oh I see it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh I see another one. Yeah. Oh we got a
Speaker 1: good right there. Yeah, look at that thing. Is there
Speaker 1: two parallel? You're seeing it again? Oh? I see one? Yeah,
Speaker 1: definite one. O. Ryan is a very hot spot because
Speaker 1: all right, he's going fast right up. Yeah, and he's
Speaker 1: going up. That is it? Definitely it is where there
Speaker 1: is some kind of a wormhole there that that's where
Speaker 1: we see him coming in all the time. Yeah, even
Speaker 1: just looking through these goggles into the night sky, and
Speaker 1: they're all of the things that are moving up there
Speaker 1: which may or may not be accounted for. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is really cool, and yet from where I am, I
Speaker 1: could turn around and just like I could almost throw
Speaker 1: a rock and hit the strip is wild. It's like
Speaker 1: this whole trip has been so close but so far away. Lookye, yes,
Speaker 1: I totally see it, right, Yeah, exactly. Well, dude, we
Speaker 1: started it with man made wonders and now we're like
Speaker 1: staring at the mystery. Yeah. I think Father Daniel would
Speaker 1: like get out here. Yeah, we should get him out
Speaker 1: here next time. Look, there's one. Yes, I see it.
Speaker 1: It's straight up like really, I know, if we stay
Speaker 1: out here much longer, we are turning into serious, true believers,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if I can handle that. Before
Speaker 1: our minds get abducted, we call it a night. On
Speaker 1: the way back to our place, we passed through the bling,
Speaker 1: bling and human spectacle of Vegas night life and Luke
Speaker 1: doesn't even turn his head. If the goal was to
Speaker 1: show him another side of Las Vegas. Well, we've made
Speaker 1: contact the NPR News and Facebook is Evadam Public Radio.
Speaker 1: Do everyone out there have a great weekend. This is
Speaker 1: State of Nevada. What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas
Speaker 1: is one of the most recognized ad slogans in history,
Speaker 1: but it's time for a change. What happens here only
Speaker 1: happens here. Arnie to George is with R and R Partners,
Speaker 1: which came up with both the Old and the New campaigns. Arnie,
Speaker 1: welcome back, Thank you, thanks for having me. What do
Speaker 1: you think made that what happens in Vegas Stays in
Speaker 1: Vegas slogans so successful in the first place. Oh, it
Speaker 1: was the truth of it. I mean people were coming
Speaker 1: here for years. I mean when it all started, just
Speaker 1: to hide away from the rest of the world. And
Speaker 1: so once it got into people those heads, I mean,
Speaker 1: it is the truth, and it, you know, inspired them
Speaker 1: to come here and try and have those moments. You know,
Speaker 1: what the where am I? Why is everything so orange?
Speaker 1: Orange is the color of the future, future future? What
Speaker 1: is this place? I feel like I'm in some sort
Speaker 1: of rat Pack fantasy clubhouse. Well, I was born and
Speaker 1: raised here and I've always loved the rat Pack and
Speaker 1: Frank and Dino and Sammy. Wait, this is Vegas. It's
Speaker 1: it's kind of all around, all around. The experiences you
Speaker 1: can have you can't have anywhere else. You're just not
Speaker 1: going to get the same energy because the energy is insane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, the energy is insane, which is partially why
Speaker 1: I've been trying to explore the non hedonistic part of
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. I just think Vegas helps you get out
Speaker 1: of your skin. It isn't a thing where you have
Speaker 1: to go and get drunk and projectile vomit. And you
Speaker 1: can go to a lot of different vacations and you're
Speaker 1: expected to do things. You go to Europe and you
Speaker 1: go to Paris, you're expected to go see certain things
Speaker 1: and do certain things. You have to go see that time.
Speaker 1: Vegas is a much more kind of It's just more free,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like it's like you
Speaker 1: don't know where it's going to take you. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it seems like where it takes you is always the strip.
Speaker 1: And isn't that a bit silly and a little obvious.
Speaker 1: I still, I still say you got to go down
Speaker 1: to the strip and to the strip, But do you
Speaker 1: know you just can't go to the other place. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to go to the strap of the strip.
Speaker 1: I love this town, and I love a lot of
Speaker 1: parts in this town. It's unlike any other place. You
Speaker 1: know that something's going to happen, you don't know where
Speaker 1: it's going to take you, and you don't know what
Speaker 1: that thing is. You lose a little bit of control,
Speaker 1: and it's energy. Can say it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: like I said, it's just more free. It starts really slow.
Speaker 1: You go to dinner and you're and you're having fun
Speaker 1: at dinner, and then you might have a drink and
Speaker 1: then like a pool cocktail party, you know, and then
Speaker 1: you're ramping up, ramping up, and then you go and
Speaker 1: you hit the table. Oh and you win side, and
Speaker 1: then you're all excited and you're all running around like ll.
Speaker 1: It takes your gettle club. I mean, you don't know
Speaker 1: where it's gonna take. It goes pretty quick. Of the
Speaker 1: time you're done with the evening. You can't believe how
Speaker 1: it just kept reaching a new level, reaching a new
Speaker 1: level and energy, you know what I mean. You have
Speaker 1: to go to this trip, all right. It's more about
Speaker 1: letting go and enjoying yourself and maybe this place can
Speaker 1: inspire you to a lesson if you had something going
Speaker 1: on your head that would fit a lesson. I'm learning
Speaker 1: this trip is that when your girlfriend says it's okay
Speaker 1: to travel on Valentine's Day might not be the case. Well,
Speaker 1: it's probably you probably made a mistake doing that one.
Speaker 1: You should have brought her with you, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean it can be a kind of a romantic place too,
Speaker 1: But what'd you do? It didn't brig her. You're gonna
Speaker 1: go down the tubes probably on that one. No matter
Speaker 1: what you do, how you do, what happened here? Only
Speaker 1: atmosphere is black. Vegas's new slogan, Arnie to George is
Speaker 1: with R and R partners. When you came up with
Speaker 1: the campaign Arnie to George, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your time today. All right, here we go. Hey man, Hey,
Speaker 1: good morning. How did you sleep? Um? Well, great? Which
Speaker 1: is not the point of being in Vegas. That's right.
Speaker 1: This is probably the most you've ever slept. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you go to sleep at eleven pm. While I guess
Speaker 1: it's good that I'm rested and refreshed, it's to what end?
Speaker 1: Because what is it like? The Today's the Stamp museum
Speaker 1: or something where we're supposed to go to the Neon
Speaker 1: Museum in an hour, I'll be I'll be full of
Speaker 1: vim and vigor for that. Honestly though, I've been thinking
Speaker 1: and I think, um, I feel like it's nay on
Speaker 1: the Eon Museum. I think it is. It would be
Speaker 1: like journalistic malpractice not to play cards and do some
Speaker 1: of the nightlife activities on the strip. This is a
Speaker 1: very exciting development for me. I know, sorry for feeding
Speaker 1: us vegetables. I will still I accept your apology and
Speaker 1: your money. What is the pre dym on this, by
Speaker 1: the way, because I am going to double that easily
Speaker 1: in the first like twenty minutes. Oh clever plus honestly,
Speaker 1: like I was gonna go regardless of if you work.
Speaker 1: I feel it like I was laying in bed this
Speaker 1: morning and like a little voice in my head was like, dude,
Speaker 1: you should really just do it. So so what that
Speaker 1: means is basically the day's free. M one other thing. Though,
Speaker 1: not to like get serious, but I know that you
Speaker 1: know how to play blackjack and stuff. But if things
Speaker 1: go right, okay, we may end up in some semi
Speaker 1: high stakes situations. And that's like, don't like step on
Speaker 1: anybody else's cards. Don't do the wrong thing. So if
Speaker 1: you don't need I've been to the strip before, man,
Speaker 1: I know how to play cards. I think you just
Speaker 1: need to make sure that you write the checks you're cashing.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Yeah, it's good, and I
Speaker 1: hope you're bringing that kind of smack talk to the table.
Speaker 1: Is there smack talk involved? I mean, ideally not. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. We got to cut like a medium profile.
Speaker 1: Let's just have fun and not embarrass ourselves. We'll catch
Speaker 1: a brown dinner. Yeah, totally, so I'll see on the
Speaker 1: strip Valentine. Happy Valentine's Day. We make plans to meet
Speaker 1: up at six o'clock in the heart of the strip.
Speaker 1: Luke looks up something on his phone, then leaves in
Speaker 1: a cab, and once he's gone, I peek in my watch.
Speaker 1: I have seven hours to learn how to play blackjack.
Speaker 1: A Casino Quest is a gambling school in the ma
Speaker 1: All in the center of Las Vegas. My instructor is
Speaker 1: one of the owners, Alex Kids. Everybody wants to learn
Speaker 1: how to play the games. We're not interested in losing money.
Speaker 1: So that's what Casino Quest is. That's the quest I'm
Speaker 1: on right now. Yeah, Alex, we're on the quest to
Speaker 1: help you save money. Well, yeah, which is hardily why
Speaker 1: I've been ambivalent to even enter the arena. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: is it about gambling that makes it like so attractive.
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks that they're the one that can beat the casino.
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks somewhere along in the line, oh I'm the one.
Speaker 1: You still have that in your heart. No, meanwhile, I
Speaker 1: don't know what's happened to Luke never told me where
Speaker 1: he was going, and he's not responding to my text.
Speaker 1: Welcome to regenerating the impidration. So what are you looking for?
Speaker 1: If I understand this right, this is a place where
Speaker 1: if you have a very bad hangover, you guys will
Speaker 1: basically cure it. Yes, we give you like a hangover rescue. Now,
Speaker 1: I actually am about to go out tonight and do
Speaker 1: it up. What do I need? Help me not die tonight?
Speaker 1: So it would be the party. Party prep is something
Speaker 1: that a lot of people do before they go out
Speaker 1: for the night, like insulate my system a little bit
Speaker 1: against the delaterious effects of too much party. Absolutely off
Speaker 1: the bat, what's the worst game for players? Roulette? By far?
Speaker 1: You got all the numbers together, it equals six six six.
Speaker 1: It's called the devil's game blackjack depending on how the
Speaker 1: blackjacks set up. I wanted you to give me some
Speaker 1: blackjack tips, But is that naives? Should I not mess
Speaker 1: around with like, now I can help you. Blackjack's a
Speaker 1: very good game. It just depends if it's like eight
Speaker 1: decks continue shuffler black jack space six to five. That's
Speaker 1: what the house gets their edge back on you. Right,
Speaker 1: So you just lost me at the end there, but
Speaker 1: I leave you, which we're going to skype in with
Speaker 1: a doctor basically. Yes, we have to do that with
Speaker 1: every patient. Hi are you? I'm good? Getting part that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Any allergies to medication no, and any menimbal conditions like
Speaker 1: chronic disease. No. Is it Valentine's Day? Where you are? Hues? What?
Speaker 1: That's the saddest answer of all time? What's going on
Speaker 1: with you? Did I pass? Okay? Cool? Thank you? Happy
Speaker 1: Valentine Night? All right, so let's go all chips that circle.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be going big. Yeah, there you go. Ten
Speaker 1: dollars okay, so you have a thirteen so it says
Speaker 1: the hits yep. Okay, we're gonna give you a card
Speaker 1: up too many, so you have a twenty three total
Speaker 1: to deal with to take the money. Can take it
Speaker 1: a little easier on me, man, That was firsthand. You're
Speaker 1: supposed to build confidence. You just beat me with the twelve?
Speaker 1: Is this the part where I'm gonna get stuck? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: do you have a special thing you said? Quick? Poke? Okay?
Speaker 1: What are some other things do you think I need
Speaker 1: to know that would make the person think I'm really
Speaker 1: good what I'm doing? Play at a three to two table,
Speaker 1: don't play at six to five, don't play at a
Speaker 1: continual shuffling machine. Yeah, just tell everyone you're a dj
Speaker 1: dgen slank for degenerate dgen. Yeah for real? Wait are
Speaker 1: you trolling me as a joke? Yeah'd be like when
Speaker 1: you press your bed up, You're like, man, I'm getting
Speaker 1: the dgen tingles. Right now we go. This is a
Speaker 1: much more clinical approach to partying in Vegas. Then. Let's
Speaker 1: say I would have been doing twenty years ago as
Speaker 1: a young man of twenty three. Is there a phrase
Speaker 1: I just say, like booyah, or like just don't say winner,
Speaker 1: winner chicken dinner. Yeah, you say that every dealer wish
Speaker 1: upon you to lose. Yeah, never ever say that. Yeah?
Speaker 1: What about? What about? What was it? Cabrini Cabrini Moderini.
Speaker 1: If this works too well and I am just able
Speaker 1: to have copious amounts of alcohol, and stay up late
Speaker 1: and then wake up find tomorrow you could have re
Speaker 1: unleashed a dragon. Oh blackjack twenty one baby. So you
Speaker 1: say that as a game of chance, but I feel
Speaker 1: like I have a certain bring the turnal neck to
Speaker 1: the table and you'll be there in no time. This
Speaker 1: has been awesome, man, Thank you. So ut is it
Speaker 1: normal for me to feel right now, like very close
Speaker 1: to peeing my pants? I mean a full leader of fluid.
Speaker 1: So just all the I mean, let me ask you
Speaker 1: this is an important question. Where is the bathroom? Literally
Speaker 1: straight down there? Okay? Feeling confident in my blackjack skills,
Speaker 1: there was one last thing I had to resolve before
Speaker 1: meeting back up with Luke. Hey, baby, I thought I
Speaker 1: might get your voicemail again. I've been trying. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess I thought I checked. Since it was no, Well
Speaker 1: we're gonna go out tonight. Yeah, no, I guess It's
Speaker 1: nice to have the whole bit to yourself. You have
Speaker 1: to go, okay, okay, have fun. Finally, I was ready
Speaker 1: to let the energy of in city the way mister
Speaker 1: Burbank Happy Valentine's This is definitely one of the weirder
Speaker 1: Valentine's days I've ever had Valentine's Day that I have
Speaker 1: not been in a relationship in probably sixteen years. Right,
Speaker 1: So I don't want to put too much pressure on you,
Speaker 1: but this is the first Valentine's Day in years that
Speaker 1: I actually have someone to celebrate with. But and you're
Speaker 1: stuck with me, and I'm stuck with you. So so
Speaker 1: we're here in Caesar's Palace. So tell me why you
Speaker 1: picked this bottom all spot. Well, yeah, I Caesar's has
Speaker 1: a kind of a special place in my heart because
Speaker 1: to me it represents a real like iconic Las Vegas
Speaker 1: strip spot right across streets of the Flamingo, which it
Speaker 1: seems like an old casino has classic old Neon Museum
Speaker 1: of Neon if you will, sure got the Eiffel Tower.
Speaker 1: I see fountains from the Blagio shooting up over there. Like, Hey,
Speaker 1: you were kind of tepid on the idea of this trip,
Speaker 1: but as you stand here and look around, you have
Speaker 1: to kind of appreciate the whateverness of this whole thing.
Speaker 1: This is cool. I'm glad this isn't the only thing
Speaker 1: we did in Vegas. I think I'll appreciate it more
Speaker 1: knowing that there are other pleasures. But the lights are bright,
Speaker 1: the night is crisp, there's people around have been fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're right in the heart of it. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: ready to go. Here's my only thing. I assume they
Speaker 1: have blackjack here. That's my game, and I hope that
Speaker 1: it's kind of a fancy one. I hope they don't
Speaker 1: have computer generated shuffling, because that's bogus. I don't want
Speaker 1: tables to six to five odds. I just want to
Speaker 1: do coming out of a boot three two. I might
Speaker 1: get a little d gen tonight, Luke, I'm okay curious,
Speaker 1: but hey, seriously though, before we stop recording, I just
Speaker 1: want to say I've been coming to this town for
Speaker 1: twenty two years of my life on the regular, and like,
Speaker 1: in this forty eight hours, I have seen a side
Speaker 1: of this city that I have never seen before. So
Speaker 1: thanks for bringing me along. Has been like this has
Speaker 1: been really cool. I'm blushing. And as for this on
Speaker 1: it thanks. Yeah, I'm psyched. And I I didn't just
Speaker 1: bring your hair to like gambling finished, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: but if I have to do one more non gambling
Speaker 1: thing I want, so can we go in there? Please?
Speaker 1: All right, let's do it. I'm eager to see your Vegas.
Speaker 1: A little scared frankly, Yeah, well as well you should be,
Speaker 1: and just make sure we catch the flight tomorrow. Yeah
Speaker 1: all right. So we're about to go in here. As
Speaker 1: we've learned. One of the things about Vegas, it's about freedom,
Speaker 1: and we need to be free from being monitored by
Speaker 1: microphones because we're about to engage in some adult behaviors.
Speaker 1: So this is where the radio microphone has to stop.
Speaker 1: Say goodbye, Luke Burbank, goodbye, Luke Burbank, good eye crazy.
Speaker 1: Oh there's just one thing left to say, which is
Speaker 1: the classic gambler's blessing, which is, of course Kbrini. Help
Speaker 1: us on the machine right now in that topi area
Speaker 1: in a minute. The lead producer on this episode of
Speaker 1: Natloss was the fantastic Bart Warshaw. The show was also
Speaker 1: produced and written by me Brendan Francis Newnham. Our associate
Speaker 1: producer was Jackson Musker. Our story editor was Mira Bert
Speaker 1: went Tonic. A big thanks to my friend and this
Speaker 1: episode's travel partner, Luke Burbank. Yes we survived. We left
Speaker 1: Las Vegas alive. Do yourself a favorite and go listen
Speaker 1: to his show. He's got a couple shows. One is
Speaker 1: Live Wire, the other one is called Too Beautiful to Live.
Speaker 1: Natloss is a co production of Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios,
Speaker 1: and iHeartMedia. It was developed at Topic Studios. The show's
Speaker 1: executive producers are me Christy Gressman, Maria Zuckerman, Lisa line Gang,
Speaker 1: and La Tomlade. Production assistance on this episode also came
Speaker 1: from Jacob Smith, Amy Gaines, and Julia Barton. Our theme
Speaker 1: song was created by Alexis g Orchropolis aka ARP. He's
Speaker 1: got a new single out now called New Pleasures. Check
Speaker 1: it out. Thank you to everyone who showed us Vegas
Speaker 1: life beyond the Strip, Patty Aaron, Kim Foster, David Clare Father,
Speaker 1: Daniel Misha and all our fellow UFO seekers UFOs Arnie
Speaker 1: to George, Alex Kim and the folks that regenerate me
Speaker 1: ivy hydration. I wish I knew that was an option
Speaker 1: before our last night there. You made sure that Luke
Speaker 1: didn't die, and that's a great thing. If you want
Speaker 1: to see some pictures or learn anything about our guest,
Speaker 1: head to not Lawshow dot com. And if you're still
Speaker 1: listening to this show you've either fallen asleep or you
Speaker 1: really like it, and if it's the latter, just please
Speaker 1: do me a favorite. Head to Apple Podcasts, rate and
Speaker 1: review it. It seems like a dumb, silly thing, but
Speaker 1: it is actually an important thing. It matters and I
Speaker 1: would really appreciate it. After you do that, you can
Speaker 1: learn more about Topic Studios at topic studiviews dot com.
Speaker 1: To find more pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Brendan Francis, Newnham.
Speaker 1: Until next time, bon Voyage