SPOTLIGHT Anthony David Vernon

SPEAKER_05 0:09

Hi, and welcome to this episode of Sassin Sips Spotlight. Today we are talking with Professor Anthony David Vernon. And I am Lisa, and today I am sipping on a big old jug of lemonade, and it may or may not have a little vodka in it.

SPEAKER_07 0:30

If it doesn't, I'll be highly disappointed in you, Lisa. Oh, it definitely does. Okay, good. Good. Because I'm Agnes and I am drinking, don't hate me, iced coffee with no Kahlua, just plain old big old iced coffee.

SPEAKER_05 0:45

Oh, we match cheese fat.

unknown 0:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

And uh I'm about to be deeply disappointing. Uh, I guess I'm here to do a sober sips. Uh, I have a already finished cup of water with nothing left in it but ice. Because I am a fish and I drink water like uh like crazy. So um yeah, so I have been off the alcohol bandwagon for a while personally. But uh, you know, that all being said, uh I am glad you guys are enjoying your own uh, you know, uh substances, right? Because uh we'll count coffee as a drug.

SPEAKER_07 1:23

That's my it is the caffeine definitely well it's decaf, not that I mention it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

So oh well what are you doing then?

SPEAKER_07 1:29

What is your life right now? Okay, so to be fair, I don't drink coffee for the caffeine. I it's been in my bottle since the infant. Coffee. So I don't drink coffee for caffeine, I just do it for the taste and like ooh, so I make some decaf espresso, decaf coffee, and I'm getting up there in age, so the caffeine bothers me now.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

So as a cubanal, that is that is not a valid sentence. Uh, I did not hear that properly. Right. The the the choice drug of the cubanals is, you know, you know, un cortadito, colados, you know, cafe con leches. Those are those are our go-to. And again, uh, you know, but uh again, there's this is a judgment-free zone, I hope.

SPEAKER_07 2:11

But I'm highly judging you.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Judge not lest you be judged yourself, but y'all, y'all judge me right back.

unknown 2:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:21

Okay, so I have to leave now.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Thank you. So I am uh let me rephrase that. Today I'm not working my night job, so I am sipping.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

And you should. I um back when I did drink though, I was the worst type of drinker because it was very much like college football style drinker. So I went I went to UCF, had a great time. Um, and uh my uh apartment, we jokingly called it the hangover house, uh, because I had roommates. Um so I used to be very much in the spirit, but it was a lot of like um natty lights and a lot of just like your um paps blue ribbons and just being ready to stumble in on game day. And it was during the era where UCL football was like really, really good. So yeah, we would absolutely torture the um the mall there, and it would just get filled with cans after cans after cans.

SPEAKER_07 3:19

Oh okay, you were that person. Not mad at it though.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

No, no, I'm not mad at it either. I think it's it's funny though, because I uh you know, I'll tell students where I'm like, look, I wasn't the perfect student. And you know, when you have those like, you know, some students are very relieved by that in a sense, because it's like, okay, like you don't have to be perfect your whole life to be in a good position. But then I have like kind of the you know, the straight A excelling type of students that look at me horrified when I make these statements, where it's like, oh God, what type of person is teaching me? Like what is happening here? So yeah, so I think and I think it's one of those things where you know, uh, you know, people find their balances or lack thereof. And you know, I think it's uh I think it's important uh, you know, in these sorts of regards, right, to uh, you know, find your own personal balances within yourself, but not like be completely like, oh, I can't believe I did this or I didn't do this. Like, you know, everyone's got their own sort of vibe going on. And unfortunately, decaf coffee exists.

SPEAKER_07 4:26

I'm never going to live that down. Okay, I accept that. I do accept that because you know, yeah. Okay, okay, feeling's over.

SPEAKER_05 4:38

Okay. You wanted to be an adult, right?

SPEAKER_07 4:43

No, mind you, I okay, and also my espresso machine is broken, and I I and I haven't replaced it yet. Okay, it's not an excuse. I know.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

No, no, no, no, no. This isn't no, that's a valid excuse. I mean, you you need to have your proper espresso, but you know, it if if you don't like it's not it's not worth it in the same way when you get used to like the nice coffee. This is why like Starbucks in part is so popular. Like uh you'll have tons of people, they'll travel to a new city and yet they'll still go to Starbucks because they don't want to like take a risk on their coffee being like bad.

SPEAKER_07 5:18

Right. If the coffee is bad, it ruins my whole day. Like I've been known to like damn it, I don't have any like I need espresso. I've make my iced coffee and I've gone to Starbucks to get like just the shots so I could add to it later once I'm at work. Yeah, that's that's a problem, right?

SPEAKER_05 5:38

Okay. It's fine. It might be sure to just get you an espresso machine. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 5:48

I don't think about it until I'm like I'm going downstairs, about to grab my I'm like, fuck the espresso machine. And I don't think about it until I'm leaving out the door for work. By the time I get somewhere to order a new one, I have forgotten about it until the next morning. I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah, those repeated processes of like, oh, that would be good to do. And then you don't do it. Like there's just so much, there's just so much of life that can, you know, be like that. The the ease of putting things off, not on like purpose, just because something else comes up to mind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 6:24

Yeah, you're like, oh, do I board at the suspressive machine? Should I just go to work? Unfortunately, I pick the adult decision, I go to work. That's that was my biggest problem. I should have never right.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, you should have never worked.

SPEAKER_07 6:36

Well, that's but it never worked. I mean never gone to work.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

You know, a few nights ago this week, I was leaving my night job and my car won't start. Luckily, my coworker was like, No worries. Um, let's get your cables. And then I'm like, Where are my cables? I have no idea where my jumper cables are, they're not in my car. And he's like, Well, I have this machine, it runs on batteries, so like, but it's like almost dead. Let's just try. Uh so, but it worked, right? My car turned right over, and I'm like, cool, okay, tomorrow I gotta go get a battery. It's been a few days. And then I remember when I'm getting in my car to go to work, and I'm like, shit. Well, I hope it starts.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

The check engine light type of phenomenon where you just have the check engine light for just week after week.

SPEAKER_05 7:29

Yeah, and the but the funny thing is that when it comes to the lights on the dashboard, I'm very much the opposite. It's like the light comes on, and I want to make a detour right to my mechanic. Like, hey, can you check this for me? Because I don't know what this is and I don't want to drive on it. So the only light that usually stays on in my car is the one that says low tire because it's cold. And I'm like, yeah, that's not important.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I was gonna say, as a floral as a Floridian, if you have like low tire pressure, that's all on you. Like you, you messed up on that regard.

SPEAKER_07 7:59

There's no reason not to right. Okay, so I wanted those. I have two sets of jumper cables in my car. I have the the thing that fills up the air and the tie, the little portable one. I had it, I replaced it. I am so paranoid because I don't live in the city anymore. Well, it's a city. I originally from both from New York, Brooklyn, and now live in Wisconsin. So I was like, I cannot get caught out in cow territory with so I'm one of those paranoid. If you need it, I have it. I have a preppers go bag in the car just in case.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

I've just I mean, I the worst instance I had of like an air pump failure. So I've lived in a couple states. I lived in Oklahoma for a bit, and on my first day of taking myself from Tulsa to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where I worked, it was an hour and a half uh each direction. Uh, but anyways, I got worked out. But my first time literally heading there should have been an omen that I should have left the state sooner. Uh, I had like low tire pressure, and the only place I could fill it up was like a gas station um uh casito from the like Pawnee uh tribe. And it was just like like I don't know if the gas station still even worked, but I can tell you the slot machine in these are not because I used it, I saw someone else using it, and I'm just pumping it there, and literally there is was nothing for like 20 minutes in both directions from this like one random gas station, like you know, casino type thing, and just using my portable air pump to like pump there, and I'm just like, I don't know where I am. I have a floor, and I had my Florida license plate, so just the confusion of oh, you're not from around here, it's like I I I you're correct.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

I certainly am not from around here.

SPEAKER_07 9:50

The fact that there's towns that like that that exist that you could see tumbleweeds just go by and not a person for my mother. Wanted to do like a cross-country trip. And funny story, my mother looked white, and I was like, Well, you have to sit in the backseat, I will have to drive you that way. We could be safe because you just you could just tell me I'm your girl. She said, Okay, that's the plan because this female.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

That's crazy. I I lived in tumbleweed country in New Mexico, so uh I I you know it was one of those things where it's like, oh, it is certainly overblown. Bless you. It's certain bless you again. Uh it's certainly it certainly is overblown how many tumbleweeds there are at times, not always, like that's more of a like a great plains thing. Um, but yeah, I think uh, you know, there's tons of places where you end up in, you know, a lot of like middle of nowhere towns can get a bad rep for no reason, right? There is some validity to some places, but like the same can go for a lot of big cities, right? So I think you know, uh uh assuming anything is gonna be some type of way because it's big or small, or because if it's it's this in this region, right? You you just don't know what you're going to run into. Maybe there's propensities, but I I try to avoid um sort of judgment unless I have like a reason to judge as well. I'm not gonna let this down once again, unless I have a reason to coffee judge.

SPEAKER_07 11:26

I deserve that judgment. I would take that judgment.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

I gotta stop bullying you though. This is this is getting too much.

SPEAKER_07 11:33

But I kind of like it though. Oh just a little bit. I I am in a relationship on my head. D for Dcaf. Oh, it's a D for coffee, you know, but yeah, D for D calf.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

D for DC.

SPEAKER_07 11:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

You're a DC girl, not a Marvel girl, despite going through the whole Marvel series.

SPEAKER_07 11:54

I've gone from Marvel to DC. You know what? The funny thing is, I'm not a DC fan, though. Like I'll watch. DC about Batman, though. I'm just saying, there's something about Batman. And who's an Aquaman? I could go for Jason Momoa any day, but that's neither here nor there. Um, see, let's tell you about tangents.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

We got no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, if if if if it's become a favorite superhero thing, I um uh what's the word I'm looking for? Yeah, a lot of my favorites are not in DC personally, so I'm I'm with you on the Marvel track, but Batman would be a good steal. I'm not gonna lie. It would be a good I and Superman, the new movie was very good, but he's just kind of a bit corny in general.

SPEAKER_07 12:37

Yeah, I'm kidding, kind of I think he's a little bit overplayed. No, a little generic Wonder Woman.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

That's someone that I, you know, that's that's someone I'll always take.

SPEAKER_07 12:48

I want to be her when I grow up. I really do. I want to be Wonder Woman. I want to be the Amazonian, but I play five foot one, so there's that.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

And no, no, no. I mean, as look, it with enough Latino women in my life, like there's there's some power in that chancleta. It doesn't matter how it doesn't matter how big the woman reeling the chancl is. Like there, there could be wow, like a thing becomes like a heat-seeking missile.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

Yeah. And it and it follows and it boomerangs, and it's the power of the ancestors.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah, the US military needs to look into that, like heat-seeking arm technology.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

Like it's the way you just it's just the next time we go to war, which probably won't be that far away. We just send all the little abuelitas with no, we're gonna lose.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Auelitas are in Venezuela. They already got the chanclas ready. Like, we cannot do a ground invasion. Just chanclass are gonna be coming after the Vivian vehicle.

SPEAKER_07 13:49

There's this guy that does like videos, and he he's uh I think an Arab American man, and he makes videos about making fun of his mother and the the flip-flop, the chocolate. And it was one video when it's like a whole bunch of different races, you know, the black, the Hispanic, the Italians, and there's this white guy, he goes, stand up to your mom. And also all the ethnic moms are standing there like with their shoes, with their chocolatas out. And it was just I was like, That's numerous. That's about right. Like, I think in most cultures, you have the there's a there's a chunkletas man.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah, the wooden spoon is the other big one. Obviously, belts are like a go-to, but yeah, you know, the uh the I I guess that there is something funny about the you know, the the meme of the junkla, just because you know, again, it's the it's like the you know, you see the stereotypical, you know, uh Latina mom, and it's like, oh, like, you know, it's you know, there's just a height, general height disproportion, and like, okay, there's not this perception of athleticism. And then here's this like Olympic style feat where just across the house going around the vase, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Like no plates ever get broken in the process somehow.

SPEAKER_05 15:11

My dad tells this story when he was younger, so he he grew up in the lower east side of Manhattan. When he he said when he was younger one day, he came home, he was going up into his building, and when he got to his floor, there was red all over the place. His parents weren't home, and there was a wooden food, a wooden spoon laying in the mess of red, and he thought, oh my god, my mother killed my father. Turns out somebody got hurt. I don't remember who in the house got hurt, but and she dropped the spoon when she was cooking, and it was like tomato sauce. Oh, and she like just dropped it, but ran to take whoever it was to the hospital. But my father was like, I saw that spoon and the red, and I thought for sure she killed him.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

That's by a wooden spoon.

SPEAKER_05 16:04

Oh, that's a funny one. I'm not impossible.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yeah, I mean, oh go on.

SPEAKER_07 16:10

No, I was like, I think you need to leave like some sauce on the floor, the wooden spoon, and see what Alex says when he comes home.

SPEAKER_05 16:16

Clean up this fucking mess. He's not gonna have any suspicions. Right. If my husband's coming home and finds a mess, he's not gonna think I killed one of the kids. Now, if the kids came home, they might Okay, so vice versa.

SPEAKER_07 16:28

Let's do that with the kids. Yeah, yeah, okay. Or when you know your dad's coming over. God's functional uh traumatic memory for him. He's like, Oh, where do we buy ring Alex? Like, where do we put him? Just let me know.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

You're setting up this turned into like a good fellas situation where it's like, all right, so the and mind you, this is like the worst staging of a murder because it's I mean I well actually wait, it's pretty good because tomato sauce doesn't really have a DNA in it. So, like, ah, you just you just spill tomato sauce all over where the blood is and hope for them.

SPEAKER_07 17:09

We we have a whole plan for that, honestly, like behind the scenes, and this is where most of our conversations end up, though.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Don't find here's the problem: depending on what sauce you use to hide. If you use ragu, you can already get some hints because no actual Italian is gonna be using Ragu.

SPEAKER_04 17:27

Good boy.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

See, like the sauce might give hints of like what the background is.

SPEAKER_07 17:36

Oh, oh Lisa, wait, this camera does this weird thing. Hello, get back into Zoom.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Away with you. You're like, it's like a it's like dandoff with the bell rock, just away with an automatic zoom, but it's not backing up.

SPEAKER_07 17:51

Oh well, you're just stuck with nose and tits for a minute. Okay, it's fine. Oh, see? Nobody the moment you said that's like, oh, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

It didn't mean to be inappropriate here.

SPEAKER_07 18:02

Thank you, Canva. Okay, so our cameras are listening to us now. Okay, great. Oh, all the technology is listening. Yeah, and I just if they were really listening, someone would give me a winning lotto ticket. I'm just saying. Because if you're really listening, like if I'm being if I'm being stalked, send tacos. No, okay, no, that didn't work.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

Um no, no. All right, well, I'm gonna ask my silly question.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Yay.

SPEAKER_05 18:32

How would you be able to solve problems if you were from Mars?

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Well, I I I don't think I could survive on Mars. I I don't have the biological or chemical composition, the lack of an atmosphere, a magnetic field.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So uh actually all my problems would be solved because I wouldn't have any. So that's the uh No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

Not if you were on Mars, but if you were from Mars.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Yeah, like uh, you know, I'm born on Mars.

SPEAKER_07 19:27

You're a Martian, and then I'm dead. Well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Are we assuming that like we have like infrastructure, like like I'm being very technical here?

SPEAKER_05 19:40

I love how my question backfires. You're like you're Ant-Man, the Martian. You are this is like the the question with the hotel room, and it's like, why were we in the hotel? What are we doing there? Are we in the same hotel room?

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Oh, I can oh, I can survive on Mars. You are a Martian.

SPEAKER_05 19:56

Yeah. I don't know. You're special and and you're from Mars. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

I mean, I don't think I think problem in terms of solving my problems, I'm not coming to Earth.

SPEAKER_05 20:10

I think that's I think that's the I think that might be the answer.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah, that'll get rid of a lot of problems. I'll just be chilling alone on that giant iceberg at the top, and that's it. That will be that will be uh that's that's my that's my solution.

SPEAKER_07 20:25

Okay, I'm liking that idea. I co-signed that one. Okay, I had to refresh my memory. Are you ready? Okay. If your life was a movie, wait, I gotta ask myself a question who would play you and what would the genre be?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Oh, easy. It's Paul Rudd, um, because I'm already the Ant-Man, so I'm getting played by Paul Rudd. Um and I guess where I'm at in my life, I think it's uh kind of one of those like uh Dead Poet Society, goodwill hunting style movies where you have like, you know, the in the hopefully inspiring teacher. Although I never liked the trope uh because it's always very like white saviory-y, and I'm just always kind of like, what are we doing out here? But that being said, unfortunately, I feel like I'd be in casted in that type of way as Paul Rudd in his first ever serious role. That's I think the uh that would be the uh the destiny here.

SPEAKER_07 21:24

I think when we publish, we should definitely tag um Paul Rudd in this. But hey, you know. He needs to make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah, and I don't know what the title uh you know would be. Uh, you know, maybe maybe it could still just be called Ant-Man and just people get wildly confused and disappointed.

SPEAKER_05 21:46

Like, I started this to watch uh action. Why is the guy sitting in a classroom reading to students?

SPEAKER_07 21:56

No, this is Simone de Bouvoir, and it's like okay, this is this is like the Easter egg. We're waiting for the good part.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Is he gonna shrink? Is he gonna grow?

SPEAKER_07 22:08

Right, like a bad Marvel movie. Give me one second.

SPEAKER_05 22:15

Um, my oldest daughter just started college.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Thank you. So that's why. Picked up the second job just to help her out with tuition. So yeah, it I mean it's whatever.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

What does she plan on studying?

SPEAKER_05 22:36

So she picked math as a major.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 22:42

But when I asked her, I was like, oh, I didn't realize that you were that into math. And she's like, a little bit, but I didn't know what else to pick. And I was like, oh, okay. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Oh my god. I so many of my students are like that where they um, you know, where they just pick something because they think it's gonna like make money. Right. And that's okay. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's just I I've just seen I've seen a bigger growth of students who think in that regard of like, oh, I'm going to uh pick this major for uh the money, you know, as opposed to having like an actual passion in a career, right? And just the difference, you know, from like my gen to like the students I observe.

SPEAKER_07 23:28

I think it's a little unfair, and not unfair, but it's a lot to put on a person in their early 20s, well, 18, 19, 20, to decide what they want to be when they grow up. And listen, a lot of us don't we didn't find our passion until our quote unquote second go around and our 30s and 40s and 50s. So that's I always tell people my employees, I'm like, don't stress.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah, I completely agree. I think let it go.

SPEAKER_07 24:01

Like just pick something you love and don't love, or you think you might, it's okay if you have to change a major. It's okay. Or even to trade school or whatever the case. I think it's a lot of pressure. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Complete complete agreement for sure. I think it's just uh it's just something interesting to notice, like the change in people being like, you know, you know, more like hesitant on like jumping into something, or uh at least the on the downside of what I'm seeing that less passionate about going after a route. But it's still very important to tell people like, hey, it's okay if you want to change your route. It's okay if you're not sure what you're doing. It's something I've said to students all the time. I even tell students where I'm like, look, if college ain't for you, it ain't for you, right? Like, you don't, you know, no one's making you finish up here. If this is not the best route for you, that is more than okay. My job as a professor is not to be like, you must do school, right? It's like, no, my job is to make sure I can guide you to the best of your learning, whatever you need or want to learn.

SPEAKER_07 25:00

I love that.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

How did you get into teaching? And and did like, did you always want to become a professor? Was it something you fell into, or was it something that you did want to do, whether you decided early in life or later in life?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

I mean, I think what I always wanted to do was engage with ideas, right? That's something I've always liked. As a little little kid, I wanted to be a paleontologist. So I've always been into some sense of like digging into things, got a bachelor's in history and thought about being a history teacher or professor. I really liked my history classes. And then, you know, uh, funny enough, thanks to YouTube algorithm polls and, you know, amongst other factors, but uh funny enough, mainly that one, uh, fell into philosophy and really liked it. And um, you know, in terms of jobs for philosophers, they are um quite uh what's the word I'm looking for? It is a mill of like your philosophy classes produce philosophers, which pollutes produce professors, which produce philosophers. But I teach at the gen ed level, which is something I always want to do and love doing because I really love the uh you know, introducing people to concepts that they otherwise may not ever confront ever, you know, again, right? So that's I I very much like that sort of thing. And I love that I have a room full of like nurses and business people and accountants and all that sort of stuff. And all I can hope to do is just add perspective to other people's lives. And I think, you know, if you're not, you know, as if you have to take a gen ed and it can be kind of annoying for your career, like I know oftentimes gen eds can feel like obstacles. Okay, well then what I can do is hopefully teach the class in such a way where you can like pull some value out of it for you know yourself.

SPEAKER_07 26:53

I thought you were gonna say something.

SPEAKER_05 26:55

How long have you been teaching?

SPEAKER_07 26:56

Oh, um, I thought you were gonna say something, but then you end up saying well, I've been teaching at various levels.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

I mean, one of my favorite uh teaching jobs was a uh second grade summer school teaching. Um and that actually experience taught me the most about education. Um, and it taught me that all education at every level is a negotiation. It's a very different thing to negotiate with second graders because it's like, hey, you know, you know, do the activity and then here's candy, right? Like that type of thing, right? You can't do that with college students with like skills.

SPEAKER_06 27:32

You can't just I mean, sometimes you could. I mean, you could do that with me. You throw a snippet bar at me. I'm like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Well it also get pretty expensive because at like the school I taught at, like, there was a candy supply, and uh on an adjunct salary, right? While I'm very lucky to live with family and it helps save money, right? Like at the end of the day, right? Like I, you know, um uh it may not work as well in the same way monetarily, so it's like you know, and it may not even be like as motivating. It's like I have to answer your question on Socrates and I get a Snickers. Okay. It's not the same.

SPEAKER_07 28:12

It's not the it's not that exciting, it's not that much fun.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, but you're still negotiating, right? Like you're still negotiating with people's circumstances, their experiences, right? It's just it's a very different, like the only thing that's different is you're uh, you know, you're still negotiating. It's just like what you're negotiating around uh changes, right? And that's true for every subject, right? Um, and so yeah, I I think in total of my teaching, how much experience do I have at this point? It's been two years of being a professor. I've done some like assistant work, and so I think in total I have about four to five years of of teaching experience at this point, and I am uh 28 now. So um yeah, it so I think I guess it's an okay amount of teaching experience for someone my age. I I don't necessarily know.

SPEAKER_07 29:00

I think that's a pretty amazing progress, but what do I know?

SPEAKER_01 29:05

I well, I don't know either. Like I don't I don't I'm I'm a philosopher, I'm not allowed to know.

SPEAKER_07 29:11

You cannot have the answer.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah, I know that I know nothing. That's the catchphrase. That's our that's our that's our that's our motto.

SPEAKER_07 29:20

I know nothing, but I said I judge everyone. I'm just joking. They're coffee drinkers.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

I know that I know nothing, but I'll still judge your ass. Especially on your coffee choices.

SPEAKER_07 29:32

Uh beware of him.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Don't yeah, don't don't meet me at the Ventanita. Don't go to Visayas with me. You're you're not gonna have a good time.

SPEAKER_07 29:45

You know what I would our next meeting, I promise you, I would be totally caffeinated with the brand new espresso machine.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Do you need more energy?

SPEAKER_07 29:56

I don't.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

I mean, I don't either. I'm an I'm an energizer bunny myself.

SPEAKER_07 30:01

But I will drink caffeine. I'm like, oh, that only comes a caffeinated? Okay, I'll take two. Like, ooh-hoo. She's like, okay.

SPEAKER_05 30:14

I just I just can't keep up.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Well, I feel that you're you're you're in our Zoom like panel, you're like sandwiched in between two energizer bunnies at the moment.

SPEAKER_07 30:28

Should be fine. She's fine, she's used to it. Don't let her fool you because there's times I'm like, Lisa, just stop. Can we I'm crashing? I don't know, not me.

SPEAKER_05 30:40

I I know not of what you speak. I'm always quiet, calm, cool, and collected.

SPEAKER_07 30:48

She's like, let's walk two and a half miles to the grocery store in Florida. I'm like, bitch, I'm not walking two and a half miles with groceries. I thought it was a good idea. It was nice out.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

God, the worst grocery experience. This is a remind me when I was in, I was in Vegas and um I walked like it was, mind you, it was like one of those like Vegas days where it's like Phoenix, where it's like a hundred and like 115, yeah, that type of shit. To walk to a Filipino grocery store, and I'm I'm doing this walk, and I'm just out here like, can't we just do it? Uber, what are we doing? We're going to a grocery store. What is happening? What is happening and just just this insistency of the person I was with to go to the grocery store. I'm like, I don't now I will say this. Was it worthwhile? Yes, but maybe it was also worthwhile because I was dead at that point. However, I got like four different like Ube products, they were all very good and tasty. So got some like an Ube chocolate, uh, ice cream milkshake. Um, you know, got an Ube like pastry thing. I just I just went full on like I deserve all the sugar in the world.

SPEAKER_07 31:58

All of this. Well, we will actually have to walk back with groceries.

SPEAKER_05 32:04

Yeah, but we didn't have to walk back, we could have Ubered back and just walked there. And you know what's the sad part? Is that in his Vegas story, you could have popped my name in there, and anybody who knows me would have been like, oh, okay, that's because I feel like a lot of people in my life have stories that start with, and then this bitch wanted to walk, so you know where? Like actually, once even in Vegas, my husband and I were there, we're friends, and we were at I don't remember what hotel we were at. We were at some hotel roof bar, something, I don't know. And I was like, Oh, the hotel is not, and this is like before there was a such thing as Uber, and and I don't even know if we had cell phones, but we were like, Oh, let's just walk back to the hotel, and he was like, I think it's far, and I was like, Nah, we'll be fine. And next thing I know, we were walking over some highway, and he's like, Where the fuck are we? I was like, I don't know, but like the hotels are that way because you know you can see them, and I was like, Let's just keep going. He was like, and it's the middle of the night, he was like, We're gonna get murdered.

SPEAKER_07 33:13

Lisa, you suck. I just I'm looking for the name of this book that is pissing me off because I like having it.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

I love walking too. I I mean, I even did like cross-country, so I like movement and activity, however, 120 degrees. Well, it's just that's not that was the part where I'm just like, I I feel like I'm in a toaster oven. I feel like the Pillsbury doughboy out here, right? Just you know, I'm just like, please, please do not roast me.

SPEAKER_05 33:44

Yeah, that's fair. I mean, that's fair. I wouldn't have asked you to walk, probably, if it was that weather.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Yeah, I love walking. I I I when I lived in New Mexico, I three times a week I would do 10 mile hikes. So the the activity on my end is is is um it was has never been like an issue. Uh, it was just the the circumstances of the activity and what I thought we were going for, right? Because I'm like, how special could a random grocery store be? It did turn out to be very unique and okay, but like, you know, before getting there, I'm just out here, just like literally like you know, like you know, type weather where it's just like the cowboy music, you know, plays in your head, you know.

SPEAKER_05 34:31

And the tumbleweed are passing.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Yeah, we're not in tumbleweed. And we're not in the cool part of Vegas, right? We just like because we because uh I like to check out colleges and universities because one, they could be cool environments to walk around. Secondly, you know, nerdy person. So like I like to, you know, you know, see other colleges and institutes, whatever, right? So it was from UNLV to the grocery store. It's like, oh, we'll just walk there from UNLV. And so I'm like, yeah, and so we weren't in like a cool part of Vegas.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

It wasn't like, oh, look at all the cool stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Yeah, it was just like you know, traffic people trying to get around the strip, like the actual people who live in Vegas.

SPEAKER_05 35:16

Right, that's where we ended up. Oh no, you know, everything looks like it's close. What did I know?

SPEAKER_01 35:23

I I guess it's like a New York mentality.

SPEAKER_07 35:26

It's like, hey, it's two miles away. What's the what's the problem? Okay, so I've walked like the entire spans of the island of Manhattan with no problems. Yeah, I was also 20 plus, nope, nope, I was also 20 plus years younger, pre-ilnesses. I was healthy, you know. And also like 20 pounds lighter. So there's that.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Um you can also bail out and get on the subway if you're you know, you know, that's like or even the butt, or even the bus system, right? If you're not concerned, like buy it. Where here it's like there ain't no public transport.

SPEAKER_07 36:02

Once you decide to walk, it kind of asked out.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

So exactly, right? At least in New York, you have like an outlet, right? That's like not expensive, right? And and like, you know, as a Miami and like it's a very similar situation, like there's very few parts of town where there is like very easy public transportation. If you're not along um US one, you're or in downtown itself, you're there's there's now now. Just now just now. There ain't no public, there ain't no reasonable public transit around. No impromptu public transit, I should say. Because obviously there's consistent schedules, but like and that's one thing I very much liked about New York, like the the ability to just wee, we just like like I'm gonna hop on this, I'm gonna hop on that, and just end up in random stores.

SPEAKER_07 36:49

I miss that. I do miss that about New York. I also like getting in my car and going home in the middle of the night if I don't have to wait for the train by the crazy dude in the corner jacking off. So there's you know you're not a fan of you're not a fan of creepy Dave? No, no, no. Creepy Bob, yes. Dave. Creepy Dave. Um, no. I've one too many times of someone sitting next to me and then jacking off, like, really? Time to get up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

I do miss home though. I think my mind would change if I had someone masturbate next to me. Um, and I don't care what their gender is. I I'm I'm I'm like, you know, it's it I don't care if it I don't care who and if they're looking straight at me, like, oh god. Like it's awkward.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

I'm like, I'm not actually Paul Rudd, please. No.

SPEAKER_07 37:44

I know I just look like him, but it was not really him. Okay, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

I look like every generic white guy. You know, like when you start a video game and they just have like default man. Like, I'm just I'm default man.

SPEAKER_07 37:55

Default man. There's your character in your movie. Default man, man, man.

SPEAKER_06 38:04

The new superheroes.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Default man. I think he's gonna be amazing.

SPEAKER_06 38:07

He blends in that movie. Yeah, he doesn't even need a disguise. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

He solves every crime in Akron, Ohio because nobody can tell that he's a superhero or a cop.

SPEAKER_07 38:24

He's an acronym, Ohio. Oh god. Okay. I co-signed that. I would definitely watch that movie. I will watch that movie. I would actually pay to watch that movie, and I don't pay to watch any movie.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Paul Rudd is default man this summer. The city of Akron is losing its mind, and it's like all those like Gen Z TikTok sort of memes where like Ohio is just like a hellish nightmare. You guys know about this?

SPEAKER_07 38:58

We do now.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a there's a trend on like on like on like Gen Z TikTok where it's like Ohio's like this like dyscopian cloverfield style like hellscape.

SPEAKER_07 39:14

Yeah, you know what? I'm not surprised.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Well, I and my family, my dad's side of the family's from Ohio, and so it's very funny. Like, I was being shown these types of TikToks, and I'm like, oh yeah, my dad's family's like from Ohio. And they're like, what?

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Ohio?

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Like I and what makes it amazing is I I'm not I'm not an Ohio hater, but it's not very entertaining of a place.

SPEAKER_07 39:41

It's the most, it's one of the most boring places in the universe, and so I would have to say about 90% of our country is that. Maybe 80, to be fair. There's a lot of just dryness.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

But there's a lot of like surprise pockets, right? Like I concur. I okay, I know there's problems socially with Arkansas, but I recommend people visiting Arkansas in their lifetime. It is a beautiful, beautiful state, uh, natural wise. And um, there's just it it it's one it there's just so many beautiful caves and little waterfalls and like small mountains, and it's it's just yeah, like obviously, like you have that Ozark region, of course, that like Arkansas's a part of too, a little bit. But yeah, like there are there is a lot of the um you know, walla walla Michigans alongside.

SPEAKER_07 40:37

It's like what did they? I feel like certain areas is like just a scene from Footloose, and it's like no dancing, no fun. Just I was like, this is 2026, right? Okay, um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Yeah, right here in my little places places like Stringtown, Oklahoma. This is a this is a real town sign that we saw. I'm just and and now my like go-to name, if like anytime there's a town that's like you know, really small like that, I just think string town. Like they're just to me, they're just string towns, I think is the uh I think it's the slang that should be adopted. Like, oh look at that string town over there.

SPEAKER_07 41:19

I um recently was in uh Mississippi and I don't know, have you seen the movie Sinners yet?

SPEAKER_01 41:26

No, but I did see the universe. No, I did see Sinners, but I just wanted to make a a reference to like the University of Miami beating Ole Miss. That's right, that's right, Lane Kiffin. You got yours. But yes, I I have seen Sinners actually.

SPEAKER_07 41:39

So it takes place in 1930, Mississippi, and in Clarksdale. My family was actually the next county over from Clarksdale, so I was there. Oh wow. Um, and it's pretty much the same shit, but the roads are now paved slightly as opposed to dirt. But everything else is the same. The shacks, the fields, it's nothing has changed since 1933, Mississippi. I where's my flight?

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Controversial take. I like everything before the barn. And once they get inside the music barn, I think it kind of lost its like feel, its vibe.

SPEAKER_07 42:17

That movie hit home for me on so many different levels because um stories from my mother and all this other stuff. I'm like, oh my god, I I I see it like and live and in color. And then the religious aspects and the Oraishas and the Oshun, and and I was just like, ah!

SPEAKER_01 42:36

And it was just a lot in that movie that I would just like I guess I guess for me, like once they uh um like that one sequence where they're all spinning around and they did like the music from like the past and the future. Yes, I think I didn't like the the future music included. I didn't think it like hit the sonic sort of vibe, and I think it like threw off like kind of like the tone for me. I wish it would have like kept to the time that it was like in, and I think they still could have had that same really like cool like you know narration, right? Like, because I was actually like really immersed in the world and characters, and I think there was this uh um there was this this kind of way where uh you know like the kind of because they don't really lead into that side of like past and future stuff, with the exception of that scene and like the beginning narration. So I don't hate sinners. There was just like moments where I'm like I didn't feel like I'm like as invested. So it's still like a you know, it's a good like eight or nine like kind of range, like somewhere in between like an eight and like a nine, you know, for me. So it's still solid. Kougler is a fantastic uh director. Yeah. I mean, obviously Kugler's work with like NWA was like I think that was really well done, even if the movie has like things that aren't factual, I think it hit the the the feel. Um yeah, and and and and it's good to see Kougler kind of I think kind of in a way taking over like kind of Quentin Tarantino sort of like vibe.

SPEAKER_07 44:03

Yeah, yeah, I see that. I see that a lot. I think it's doing another movie. I don't know if it's real or not, or just you know, the internet losing their mind. Why can't I remember this name of this man? But he was the richest man in the world at the time, an African man.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Oh, Monsamusa.

SPEAKER_07 44:20

Thank you. Love you, that's why I love you. Um, he's doing a movie with Michael B. Jordan again.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

As Monsamusa. Yes.

SPEAKER_07 44:27

Like, oh, I hope that's real. And I didn't do further research. So to be determined, I used like to do research of what I read. Um, but I didn't. I got excited. I'm like, oh you saw an AI trailer and you're just like, yes, like I will research this later, but I'm so down for this. Lisa has to see sinners yet. I have not. It's pretty good. So I've heard.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

And I didn't spoil it, so I'm very glad.

SPEAKER_07 44:57

Yes. No, it's yeah. I forgot she didn't see that.

SPEAKER_05 44:59

Sorry, Lisa. That's okay. Eventually I'll see it, probably.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

But what's the last good movie you saw, Lisa?

SPEAKER_05 45:11

Oh god. I don't watch a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_07 45:16

At all. We make I make fun of her. Yeah. Like she's not.

SPEAKER_05 45:22

Yeah, like the list of movies I have seen is definitely way shorter than the havens.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

The last good book you read?

SPEAKER_02 45:39

The last thing that gave you joy, please.

SPEAKER_05 45:44

Me?

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 45:46

Yeah. No, no. So like I I watch TV. I'm more of a TV.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

Because I'm not a TV person, so uh I do I do read and uh I have I actually have like different I have a book on my iPad and a and a physical book the book that I'm reading in the physical form is more of like a anthropological type like recollection. So it's it's good, it's it's a really heavy read. Um the book on my iPad is actually so I had signed up I I was approached by someone who was like marketing um like up-and-coming authors who were promoting their new stuff, and the deal was that I would get free copies of the books just you know like and in return just make sure you leave a review, otherwise you don't get the next book, right? And so I was doing that for a while, but some of the books were okay, okay? Some of them were not okay. Well then I understand why you're kind of paying for reviews. Right. But the last one that I read was it's interesting in a way, and I I don't want to say the name of the book because I'm I'm not gonna say nice things, so yeah, you're not trying to you're not trying to bring anybody down. And my go-to genre is like suspense, psychological thriller, things like that. And so this book was definitely in there. It's like a whodunit, but it's set in like a metaverse. Right, you know, so it's it's kind of like oh, you know, it's a different take on the who'd done it. But when you're reading it, it's like the names that this author chose to use and the personality and descriptions that he attributes, it's like a ripoff of the actual people and and like you know, I I don't want to say because they're very, very well known people in technological um spaces. Spaces, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Okay, it it it's like instead of like Elon Musk, it's like, oh, there's Alon Tusk.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

Basically, right.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

And and so then there's characters that are just kind of like people that I am not fans of, also, so it's like but it's oh no, not Ronald Dump out here, you know, doing his thing.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Like that's what it was, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_05 48:48

Yeah, so it's like you know, I'm still reading it because I'm like kind of I I want to see how it turns out, but I'm like, I've been struggling to read this book for a year now. I was I'm trying to remember, I'm like, I feel like you told me about this like eons ago. I know because every so often I'm like sitting somewhere, and because it's digital, you know, it's like oh this is right there, right? Let me pull up the book and read like a page or two, and it's a very, very slow read.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

I mean as a I mean as a writer myself, like I know I've written things that aren't amazing, right? And I think that's I think it's important to acknowledge, like, you know, that like I, you know, if if if there's people who have dissed my writing, uh, you know, I'm like, yeah, you're correct, right? Because each sort of judgment of a text is based on like the reader of you know a given text. But that's also very hard in writing to know what will necessarily click. And even if you get good feedback, right, even that may not always be helpful because you don't even necessarily know what you did right or different, right? Uh if you're just trying to write within the spirit of something, and and maybe that's because I'm not very formulaic with my writing, I just kind of throw something out there and hope for the best. And excuse me. And I think in that sort of regard, though, right? I think writers who do have a formula, sometimes they have winning formulas and losing formulas. But I guess the thing I encourage writers to do is not like try too hard to shove something in like a certain perspective, right? I think it's more of like, hey man, if you're feeling it, you're feeling it. My I guess my go-to author advice is like, look, if you don't like it, how do you not expect how do you expect anyone else to like it? Like if you yeah, if you don't read it and go, that's something I would read again, then like why ain't nobody gonna read it in the first place, right?

SPEAKER_07 50:42

But and then I have a question, then I feel where does the whole I feel like creative people a little bit harder on themselves? So does that fall into it also like, oh my god, that was a horrible book. Meanwhile, back in the farm, it was pure genius. So where do you like cross that line between overcritical yourself and then being honest?

SPEAKER_01 51:07

I mean, I'm you know, I tell a lot of other creative individuals to not be hard on themselves. It and it's it's the sort of thing where um, you know, that sort of criticalness is, I think, not necessary or unnecessary, but I think, you know, to get around that like criticalness, I think it's important to just vibe with whatever, right? You know, because I think it's it's very easy to judge based upon like metrics as opposed to feels, right? So the person put out that initial work because they felt some type of way about it, hopefully, hopefully felt positive about it. And oftentimes you'll see the works of regret be those works that were like rushed and be those works um that didn't felt right. And you know, sometimes someone could put out a good work that didn't hit their vibe. My kind of go-to um example of this is like Majora's Mask in The Legend of Zelda, where they were put on a crime time crunch developmentally, but it's regarded as like you know, a classic Nintendo game and just with these very unique mechanics. Um, but when they went back and did the remake for it, they changed a bunch of elements of the of the remake to a where it sold well, but I the fans of the original series felt like something was very much lost and uh and it like lowered the difficulty, allowing people to finish it. But like, you know, was that really what it was meant to do? So it's it's tough to really know because also there are things artists may or may not be aiming for. And I guess I'm the type of person who goes, Look, the reason you shouldn't aim for something is that the at the end of the day, the goal should be make sure that one other person likes your stuff. That's all that should matter, right? Do you first and foremost like it? Great. And if you first and foremost like it, then it is possible that one other person will like it. And if it's possible that one other person will like it, it's possible that two or three or so on. So I think that's sort of the goal, right? That you can't assume that your thing is going to be, you know, hitting all this or all that. I think the end goal is do you like it? And if you like it, then one other person could like it, and so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_05 53:19

Yeah. And that's definitely important because even me sitting here saying this book is just like that's only my opinion. The next person may come along and think, what was what was Lisa thinking? This book is amazing, you know. And that's fair. You know, it's just it's just my opinion. And the truth is that the story is interesting. It's just the character development and the things like that are annoying to me. And for me, that creates a discourse. So it's like, I want to like the characters or at least dislike them because I'm supposed to dislike them.

SPEAKER_07 54:03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 54:04

You know, and so like when I'm reading a book, I want to be in it. I want to picture it in my head and feel like I'm there. And when I read this book, it's like, all right, let me. Oh, yeah, that's so-and-so, and that's so-and-so.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

There it is, William Winton again.

SPEAKER_05 54:23

I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

No, it's just like a Bill Clinton like message. Oh, right, right, right, right, right, yeah. There's Will Winton.

SPEAKER_05 54:30

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

Yeah. Well, I I mean, that I mean, this, you know, I just did this like two seconds ago with like uh uh Sinners, right? And obviously, I could I make a movie as good as Sinners? No, right? The perspective I'm coming at with critique is the the viewer perspective, right? Like, you know, I I got a minor in film, but like I I realize I hate everything other than editing, right? I can't direct. I'm like, you go no, like I can't, you know, I can't act. I'm like, you know, I don't know lighting, I don't know sound well. So no, I mean there's tons of elements going into creative stuff. So, you know, it's not that but this isn't like a oh, don't say anything about stuff. It's I think it's good to be okay to be a critic, like the whole Squidward line of like everyone's a critic. Yeah. And that's okay. It's okay for everyone to be a critic and you know, to be like, look, this is how I feel about things. I mean, my go-to example of this is with AI, right? Like I abhor AI like art and music and just the hyper formulaicness of it, right? I like things that attempt to go outside you know the box, right? That attempt to take things in a different direction towards the orthodox, whether that succeeds or fails. So my favorite type of movies are like the classics or the so bad that they're good, right? Because at least everyone there was, you know, by and large, I should say, we know was trying something. And yeah, and I and I think in that regard though, right? Like I see a lot of like the AI writing or art stuff, and I personally don't like it because I I just see how mathematized the creative process is, and that's not my preference. Maybe there is someone around that's like, oh, I just need a very just like cogent text. But I guess for me, my taste isn't based around cogency, it's based around surprise.

SPEAKER_07 56:27

There was, I was looking at something you written. Um, if I got the name wrong, please forgive me. I got an old age thing going on in my head. Um The Assumption of Death.

SPEAKER_03 56:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 56:40

That's correct. Yeah, that's correct. I started to read like the the blurb on it, and I was like, oh wait, I gotta log in. And it's gonna be about a collection of stories, yep, little writings, writings and stuff. I don't know, but that's that I was reading through your extensive catalogs of writings and editing, and that one hit that one hit me. I was like, ooh, I'm gonna have to put that in my shopping cart. Oh, thank you. What was your story about that one? Like, what made you write start writing this one? What was your my brain is shutting down.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

Yeah, I wrote it while in grad school. Um, and for me, um it was just about taking, you know, this like this this thing I had seen a little bit in philosophy, right? Like, not very often, but from time to time, people in philosophy saying, like, you know, we can't like you know assume death is the case, we can't assume death is the case, and other people being like, oh, there's a guarantee of death, of course there is. And so, right, it kind of just started with like, oh, well, why don't I just come with like a technical term for that, right? Like the assumption of death, the whole like Ben Franklin thing of like there are two guarantees in life, death and tax. Death and tax. Right. And so the assumption of death is the like the assuming like one's non-existence as a certainty. And for me, um, you know, I wanted to engage with that sort of idea in multitudes of ways, right? So uh I wanted to engage with it through poetry, through fiction, and through just like more straightforward like philosophical aphorisms. Because I think when if I could if I just wrote like, hey, maybe you don't die, or like, hey, maybe you die in some ways, but not in others, right? Like that's not really gonna like capture the idea. And it doesn't really capture the idea of what being gone is. And you know, it wasn't like any sort of like super rigidly planned uh sort of thing. Um, a lot of it was just like writings that I had already, some published some stuff that I like you know, worked on, some stuff that I made specifically for the collection. So yeah, it was very like impromptu thrown together. And for like a first chat book, like I would I've been very surprised at the you know, the the pleasant perception. And I think it's the most like popular stuff I've done thus far, um, which is kind of cool. Like your first try is your best try in a way, and I'm not against that by any means. I'm not like, oh darn, like you know, um, but yeah, I think it's that sort of sense of it's weird to start with death in a in a weird sort of way, right? Um, you know, to almost start at the end. And I think that's I think it's okay to uh start at our ends. And so yeah, it was just kind of one of those things where uh um I just let again, I let the vibes guide me, let the whatever was coming out, whatever topic grab my interest at that time, I just put out there. And that's kind of how I've always done my writing. Like, you know, I just put out a little article on like philosophy and nonverbal communication, right? I'll put out you know stuff a lot on like anti-fascism, I'll put out stuff on you know whatever topic that I you know have taken an interest in based off what I'm reading, watching, you know, what's going on around me. And I think it's uh it's cool. I mean, if you are like a specialist and you're in a single topic, amazing, awesome, kick butt in that. But I think it's also nice to make sure that there's room for generalists like myself who are like, oh, cool, this thing, cool, this thing, cool that thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:22

I love that about um I love those type of people. I think I I joke with Lisa and my family. I like I know a little bit about a lot of different things. Because I think that's I like to know a little bit of everything. I like to be in the mix and like to learn this and that. Will I ever use it again after the conversation? Probably not, but you never know. A year and later, two years like, oh, I remember the conversation I had with Ant-Man a couple of years ago. We talked about this, and I I think people like that are interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

There's nothing wrong with being a very wide pond, right? I and I think the the thing is that we live in a society that generally wants us to be a deep lake, and that's cool, right? If you're a deep lake, but you know, being a wide pond, yeah, it may have that failure of like the nuances of a particular thing, but it allows you to touch a lot of space, it allows you to interact with a lot of people, and it may just be on the surface, but again, there's you know, there's still a value with having like myriad surface interactions, you know, as opposed to only being able to talk about like a few things like you know with uh with depth. And again, neither are bad or inherently good. They're just you know different things that can yeah, that we can, you know, celebrate in the ways that they you know can be celebrated.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:50

And I think honest back to your the death being like your first go, like you're beginning with the end. I find I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I find people look excuse the way I'm saying this, but people look towards death for purpose for their living. Um so I I think like you said, there's a good ending. Like I want dessert first sometimes. Sometimes you want you want the end so you can enjoy the the after the main course sometimes. It's just it gives breakfast or dinner. Oh hello. It gives it gives everything everything's just sweeter, everything just means more, everything just like the sun's brighter, the flower smells better, like because you have a different perception and a deaf because you're coming from things from a different view. You're like, ah, yeah. Sounds so corny. And Lisa's looking at me like, what have you been smoking today?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:46

And no, I don't think it sounds corny. I think that that's a fair, yeah, I think that that's a fair outlook on it.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:52

This is my my 2026. I don't have resolutions, but I'm doing a year of living life with the joy of a five-year-old.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

Nice.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:03

And I just yeah, I am going, I'm gonna throw it to potato every so often, but but I just want to really spin around, make yourself dizzy, fall down, cry about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:15

But you know, the wonder in life and find the good in it, and be curious, and just find joy like a five-year-old. So when I do curse someone out, they gave me reason to. I was trying to play nice, and yeah, fuck with me.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:32

Well, I really appreciate what you said about like death giving uh meaning to life because that's one of the things I want to like tackle that sort of assumption, right? Like, I think life can have plenty of meaning in and of itself, right? Like, I I I reference a line from like Emil Chiron where he talks about life being captured by death, and I kind of like flip it where I'm like, no, no, no, wait. Like, you know, death is captured by life because you could have life without death, but you can't have death without life. Like something needs to come to pass, right? You know, and so it's to me, it's that sort of way of like we don't need death to give our lives meaning. We don't need for it to end, right? Lots of people make the statement, like, oh, what'd be the purpose of life if it kept on going? Well, again, that is also like existential assumptions, and uh not trying to do all that right now. That's a different episode. That's a different, that's a different, that's a different rabbit hole. But yeah, I see a lot of people do that. And on my end, I'm like, well, uh, you know, life already provides purpose in of itself, potentially, right? And so why assume that there needs to be this extra thing that you haven't come into contact with directly yet? Like directly with like in and of yourself. Like obviously, we see death and face death, like and you know, but I and then also what I try to hope um, you know, with my own sort of writing is like um sort of an improvement on how to deal with death. Um, right, like one of uh one passage I was very much inspired by just a passing line my Auela said, and she forgot that she had said um was this line that like funerals are for the living, right? Like that that the funeral is not like a dead person, like you know, in a weird way, has never been to a funeral, right? Has never been they're never gonna go to their own funeral. Right. And so it's this sort of way of like, you know, when we think about death through the lens of like life, you know, you know, I think for me at least, it has helped me be more like sympathetic, it has helped me, you know, understand, you know, better how to deal with moments of death in you know the waking moments, because in a sense, those are the only times I'm gonna be dealing with death in a sense, right? I mean, you know, ignoring any possible like hells or reincarnations.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:48

Right. Okay. Yeah. Who thought the talk about death could be so lively?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

Uh well, that's I think the thing where it's like I I with my own students, I mean, my goal in part, amongst many other things, is to be like, okay, well, here's the typical way of thinking about it. But what about this way of ah like the uh remember that dress from years ago?

SPEAKER_07 1:06:20

The the blue blue and black. Yeah, blue and black, white and gold. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

Yeah. Right. A lot of the debate was like, well, is it this or is it that? But there was very little like and or thinking about it. And I think even like adding like a oh, it is both it's in both states simultaneously, or it's in both states because different perspectives are seen.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:42

It's like shoulder stress.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:45

Shoulding your foot. Yeah, and there was there was something else also. Um with the voice, like with the voice, right? With like the street name or something like that, right? Wasn't it like a name or yeah?

SPEAKER_07 1:06:56

And it was the street name or the person's name, those they have different versions, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:01

And you would listen and like different people would hear different things.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:05

But if but if you heard like if you heard name one, but someone said name two, you automatically hear name two. It's just the way the the human mind.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:15

Right, but then it goes back to the whole and or or so it's both or it can be and it's Schrdinger's life. Yeah, Schrdinger, you know, got a dress, uh name cat to go along with his cat.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:33

Speaking of cats, you have like four cats, a doll, like four cats.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

So this goes weirdly enough back to the death thing where it's like some many of those pets I have listed on my site are you know, unfortunately deceased. But because I have an attitude about like things not truly coming to pass in the past, yes, like obviously, you know, those animals have come to biologically pass, but I'm not gonna put them down as like writ, right? Because they're they're still in my memory. They're not like you know, they're not dead, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:01

Like they're still you know, as long as there's someone to remember you, you live on.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:06

Yeah, I forget who says that quote, but it's like a yeah, paraphased it, but yeah. Yeah, but no, right now I have two cats, one that lives here with my you know, me, my abuelo, and my abuela, and another indoor-outdoor at my mom's. Uh, so I uh I love animals. I am a complete animal nerd. Um, I've grown up with more cats via happenstance. Um, but yeah, so I uh um um yeah, I just I just love my little critters and uh I'm also a vegetarian. So one of the things also in that regard, which again, there's a hypocrisy with that and like giving cats meat, but I have to work I I have to work out those things of like I don't want my cat to die. If I don't give it meat, it's gonna die. It's gonna die. I am a person I can choose not to eat meat, so I won't. So, you know, the imperfect ethics of that aside. Um, yeah, I love my I love my little animals and love animals of all sort of uh backgrounds.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:06

And the yeah, I I was like, oh, he's a cute animal lover. That's it. He's my new best friend, whether he wants to be or not. Um I kidnap friends, it's fine. That's why Lisa is still with me because I you know she's actually in the the basement of my house. It looks like shackled is yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

Are you shackled up with the cats?

SPEAKER_07 1:09:27

Well, the cat has no the cat's in the bed. The cat is right, right, right. Yeah, the cat gets treated better. The cat we take turns though. Sometimes in a I'm in her basement, sometimes she's in my basement.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:42

Oh, perfect. Okay, good. But the cats always stay in the bed.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:46

Absolutely. He's normally he's around my lap, but he's in the bed now, my little because he runs the house.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

Well, it's funny. So my the the cat here is getting a bit old, and for the first time ever, she jumped up on like one of those TV tables and knocked over my Awela morning coffee, and it was just like, Lucy, this isn't you.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:16

Lucy, Lucy, not the morning coffee. That first cup of coffee hits like it's something it's nothing like that first, and it has to be hot. Like my first cup of coffee, once I brew it, it has to be hot. And then I put the rest in the refrigerator and make iced coffee, but it uh uh.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:38

But one of the one of the funny things there is that so when uh she originally came over, she was a different family members cat, and her original name was Lucy Fur, right? It was a it was you know a like a pun, obviously, on on the devil. Um, but um my Awela was like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. Right? She's she's like, you know, yeah, I have a literally right here, like a little, like a little rosary piece right here, um, you know, next to me. And so she uh did an informal baptism of the cat and baptized her as Lucy Maria. Lucy Haria, see, perfecto acento.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:16

She actually's been bat. She's been baptized. I was like, oh, I love this.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:22

You gotta do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:23

I mean, yeah, I don't. Doesn't matter if it's she might have to do a re-baptism after the coffee. Or confirmation. Maybe it's time for confirmation. Confirmation.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:34

Maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:35

Yep. Oh my god, I'm so cute.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:40

Yeah, so it's the it's it's one of those things where none of the other cats were uh baptized, so we have one one cat going to heaven and the rest are uh we'll we'll we're gonna hope that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:51

All animals go to heaven. Uh I think it's uh it's a given. All all animals go to heaven.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:56

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

No, no, no, no, you're good, you're good. You guys know you need help with anything?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:06

Okay. No, no, you're good. Hey speaking of the speaking of the baptizer. So yeah, that's the that's the fun, that's the fun sort of uh, you know, facts there. But yeah, I don't I don't know if I will stick to uh Catholic naming conventions for any future pets. Although there is a joke like in my family, because a lot of people have middle names. So my sister's uh fiance calls me Anthony Maria.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:43

Oh, okay. So we were talking about your books a lot. Do you have anything else coming out anytime soon? Any writings?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

I do have something coming out soon. Um, I have a book called Optimistic Absurdism. Sounds like a very technical uh title, um, but the cover is very uh cute. Uh it is uh with an independent press who is absolutely great, wins publishing. They are fantastic, and that should be out uh in a few months. But yeah, it's it's kind of my kind of little baby there, uh, because it's about the kind of the school of philosophy that first got me into uh well philosophy in general. And yeah, it's uh kind of the quickest thing that it's about. It's like how does one find happiness when life meaning is uncertain, right? So it's kind of like you know, a an elaboration on like the go-to, like, so you're a philosopher. What's the meaning of life? And you know, rather than I never give a meaning of life, I don't know if such a thing is the case. So instead, I'm like, oh, well, how could one be happy whether they, you know, can or cannot figure out a meaning of life, whether there is an uncertainty about what the meaning of life is, or if there even is one.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:02

I will be staying tuned for that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:05

Or we can get you a review copy. I think that would be even better, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

Oh no, wait, wait, wait, we can't do that because last time Lisa did, she got bad books. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:15

No, I in fairness, I only got one bad book.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:21

Hopefully, I don't become two bad books. That would be no follow-up is like, oh god, this one's even worse.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:30

You're right, this wasn't bad, it was horrible. He's a nice guy, but an atrocious writer. Who would put this out?

SPEAKER_07 1:14:41

I mean, as long as you don't use the same word 77 times in one book, like one particular author and the word voiced. Or God, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

I don't use that word 77 times, but there are technical terms I use a lot. Like I will that's a tricky. I will be honest there. I will be honest. There are technical terms repeated because I am talking about a particular idea. Um, but I hope what this book is, um it hits that sort of nice range of being like, you know, not like uh oversimplifying for an audience and not assuming the dumbness of an audience, but you know, still hits a lot of like, you know, uh tough stuff, right? And I try to do that in my own classrooms where it's like, I'm you know, like I will teach grad level material in an intro class, but I try to like convey it in such a way where um you know intro students could get something out of it. And if my rate, my professor is a good indicator, uh, I'm not hated and somebody and and somebody learned something at least.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:44

Yay! I love that. Um that's right up my alley, Lisa's alley also, because while we are, I mean, we're not at a could we be PhD candidates in a in a in the life? We probably could have, but we're not. But at the same time, we do have brain cells and with things. So I like to be like we both like to be pushed and you know, think outside the box and use. I love that. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:08

But I think so many I think some Amy half jokes aside, like I think so many people have brain cells but get beat up by like jargon, right? Where the you know they just get jargoned to hell because again, that like you know, that non-specialization. And so I try in my stuff to be like, hey, like I know you know stuff. Can I put it in such a way where you know I'm not talking, you know, about like the absolute spirit? Like, how can I, instead of going absolute spirit, you know, how can I simplify a term like phenomenology? Like, how can I make these things you know graspable, but I'm not like deviating from what the term is. It's a tough challenge, but I think it's something I'm okay at. And then and and this is the most help I've ever gotten, like on a text. This is the first time I've worked with a publisher that's like actually been like going through the process, going through the cover, going through the edits with me. Amazing. So, so you know, I've I've worked with other small presses before that like, you know, they obviously have helped out and they great. I have no complaints about any one I've worked with uh prior, um, at least thus far. Um, but you know, um no, this uh Wins Publishing, they're fantastic. The head, she's awesome. She's like ultimate South Carolina fairy girl. So, so, you know, really, really cool uh energy on you know her end. And um, yeah, I'm very excited about you know when that comes out. But yeah, I'm working on, you know, in a time that admittedly is very hard to be optimistic in um in the United States, I would say, for many. I think uh uh I just so happen to be working on something that uh hones in on optimism in the midst of well, absurdity.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:51

Okay. I think that's something we all can use right now. Um I think unfortunately, I think we're getting to the point where we're a little like fatigued. We're just like a little, okay, a lot, but like you're like, I I you just can't do it anymore. Like, but you can say something just I can't sit back, but I can't do this anymore. I just ah and then here comes the calm and get you, you know, we just need something just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:19

Well, I don't know, I don't know if I provide necessarily that it because again, I think at the end of the day, right, when one tries to find um optimism in the midst of any absurdity, whether it's the absurdity of if life even has a meaning itself or just confronting something as absurd as just the way people geopolitically act, right? To say that, like, all right, here's a one size fits all. No, I think that's a little bit silly. But you know, it it's that sort of sense of that um, you know, examining you know a question of like, do we even need to have a meaning of life to be happy in it, in of itself, I think is useful. And I know it's like, well, that sounds very heady and philosophical. Well, I don't know what to tell you.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:05

That's what I do, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:06

Hey, it's a me, the philosopher.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:08

I'm philosophizing here.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:10

This is what I do, and this is what I'm doing. This is this is my medium. I don't know what to tell you. This is it. Make something else, but this is what oh, I'm so excited. Yeah, can I ask a question? Um go ahead. Okay, that was that was my question. Um, how did we connect? I know you put the your request in, so thank you for reaching for requesting to yay to want to talk to us, like little LS. Um, how did that happen, if you don't mind me asking?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:41

Uh shoot, I don't even remember. Might have been Reddit.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:44

I think it was Reddit, yeah. Reddit, okay. Thank you, Reddit. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:47

Just let's go. R slash podcast guest exchange.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:51

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

Love talking to people, right? Like for me, it's just the sort of thing of like, I don't care if someone has two million or two subs. Like, I like to engage with individuals because at the end of the day, uh, it's just nice. It's just a nice thing to connect with people in person, online. Like use the both the physical presence and technology to connect with people you otherwise would not have. And if a podcast is an excuse for that, so be it. I love podcasts for that very reason.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:20

Yay. Thank you, Reddit. I love online. What the hell did my computer just do?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

I love Reddit. What did my computer do? Like the I love technology. What is technology doing to me?

SPEAKER_07 1:20:31

I'm sorry, just like just did something. Okay, that's great. Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:35

So I have to ask, you also mentioned that possible topics would be disability, homelessness, and love is blind.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:47

Oh no, we did not go down any of those routes.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:51

That's very well-rounded. I thought you were talking about me.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:59

Yeah, we did not cover any of that at all. Uh uh for sure.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:04

The person who put the request in is not the same person today. Like he is a totally different ant. He's a different ant man, okay?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:10

I'm a different ant man every time. I shrink, I grow, you know, I take on new forms. No, I mean, in terms of like, um, in terms of like some of the social topics I cover, like I would consider myself above all else a social philosopher. And uh a lot of my work uh has been in disability and homeless slash unhoused uh issues, right? And using philosophy to talk about those. Um and then in terms of Love is Blind, right, as a more like casual topic, I had never watched a full reality TV show or series. And uh my very first foray into like that type of reality TV or just reality TV in general was Love is Blind UK season one.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:54

And I learned what it means to hate watch because uh the guy's actual name is Benaya, but I just kept on calling him Benny Hana, and he was just to me making the wrong romantic decisions like Benny Hana, stop it!

SPEAKER_01 1:22:10

It's not good for you, stop it. Benihana, what are you doing to yourself?

SPEAKER_07 1:22:19

I feel I need to I need to watch that one. We actually did um season one, Love It's Blind on our other series under the umbrella of Love is the the US version. Um I was like, I don't want to watch this. So I was like, oh hell no, I was with I was right with you with the whole hate watching. I was like, that son of a bitch.

unknown 1:22:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:46

Well that's that's pretty much how I watched all of Ladies of London. Yeah, oh you you didn't you just hate watching is an understatement. You were just like I was not feeling it. Yeah, you are. I end up liking, but I was I was hate watching because I was like I was hate I loved watching it because I was I this certain people just did smucked up things. I was like, oh no, I gotta see what this person does. I are they're gonna call them out on this shit, and yeah, it's it was Love is Fly was pretty good. I will give you that, Lisa. You did a good job.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:24

I mean, it didn't bother me that much. That's my that's my gauge, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:30

You didn't come across Benny Hanna.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:31

That was your problem.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:32

I did not maybe we need to watch the season one of UK version now. Maybe we need to watch that.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:37

Yeah, I watched it. My my uh my novia was like, oh, you know, we should watch this. And of course, I'm like, yeah, babe, of course. Like, I'll do that type of stuff. I don't care. Like, you know, watching a season, all that sort of stuff. Oh, it's a masculine. No, I'll get into it and I'll get into the spirit of it. And I get ended up yelling a lot more at Benny Hanna than uh. But also, I never want to watch it again. I'm like, I got all that energy out. I do it, but like, okay, by the time they get to like, once they leave the pods, I'm like, no, actually, no. The the worst part is like not even after they leave the pods. Like they do the little vacation thing, whatever, that's fine. There's still some when they start living together as like normal people, I'm like, I don't want to see you make beans and toast. Like, I you know, I I cannot eat that myself. Like, I'm I'm like I don't like I don't care about what your normal people are doing now. Like I I I can I can just do I'm just doing that.

unknown 1:24:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:38

But if you're in Majorca, oh okay, it is so something right. Yeah, or like normal stuff, a cool backdrop, then I can I can Yeah, like what if I'm what am I watching entertainment for if not to do something I could not engage with myself? Like I watch the NBA because I cannot dunk like LeBron James. I can play basketball, sure, but I'm gonna miss it like 90% of the shots.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:07

And it's funny because I like the parts where they're in their apartments and they're and they're trying to figure out how to do their mundane tests with their basically brand new person that they have really no idea who the other person is. I mean, they've met them now, they've known them for like a week, and you know, they have to like divvy out the chores and responsibilities and all and for me, I'm like I wanna I want to see them argue. I wanna I wanna see the fake, you know, because you know, and it's like, oh, you're cooking, and then somebody cooks and the other one has to eat it, and it's like, oh yeah, it's delicious.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:53

Oh no, my can I spoil something from from Love is Blind season one of the Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm not gonna watch it.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:01

So there was there was one line that like one of the mom said meeting one of the dudes, and she was like, uh quote, uneducated people are very hard to talk to.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:16

I just said it straight up like that in front of him. I love that. I'm like, that's crazy. Uneducated people are very hard to talk to.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:29

That will I have a screenshot of it, like I have it as like a beam now, like used, and it's just it's just her with the as the subtitled the like her face in anger people are very hard to talk to.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:44

That reminds me the one time it was real housewives of Miami, and one of the mothers she has a very deep accent, she goes, ugly makes my brain hurt, and I was just like, I get that, I get that Mama Elsa. She's like beautiful woman too, but she was like, ugly makes my brain hurt. I'm like, oh, a woman after my own heart because ugly makes my head hurt too.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:19

That would that one's fair. That one you could make a fair argument for, but just like the just uneducated people are hard to talk to. Like, that's so so crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:29

That's crazy. It's true. No, it's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:32

No, there's no, no, no. I don't think education equals your charisma or your intelligence. No, I won't but but I will I will say this. I mean, can there be easier navigations of conversation with similar experience? Yeah, of course. But to like inherently, like inherently, if you're uneducated, like that's crazy.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:53

I mean, I mean, I mean you're gonna use it like specifically educated as far as you know college, grad, well, I mean, but you don't have to have a degree to be educated. Right. I think that's well that's how the woman meant it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:09

That's how the mom meant it.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:13

Okay, not giving it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:14

Right, she didn't mean street smarts or like you know, like trying to win.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:17

Specifically, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a lot of things. Yeah, exactly. Now you see yeah, yeah, I showed Gwynad.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:26

That's a horse of a different color.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:31

So yeah, it was very ho nid. But yeah, um, reality TV, it's it's not my cup of tea, but like again, I will get into anything that my partner wants to because that girl's awesome. And you know, uh, if she wants to watch uh Love is Blind with Her Man again, I will not even reluct reluctantly, I'll be like, sure, and I will get into it as much as she wants me to get into it. I will hate watch it as much as she needs me to get it.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:56

How much as she wants you to, or much as you want to?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:59

Like, I'll get into it, of course.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:02

Oh, oh, of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:04

But I don't, I don't how do I how do I put things? I'm the type of person that even if it's not the thing I would go out of my way to do, if I'm a part of it, I'm gonna get into it. If if you invite me to a cricket match, I'll have no idea what's going on, but I will be like, yeah, go hit it.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:22

Like pretty woman, the polo match. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. Like, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:30

Yeah, that's me at the cricket rounds.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:36

I love that. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:41

My favorite version of this though, my because uh my dad's a stereotypical you know, Midwestern business guy, so he will go golfing a lot. And uh there's a part of Southwest Florida called Naples, lots of golf courses in lots of money there, right? And so, yeah, we're driving live, and my girlfriend's like, wow, there's a lot of golf fields out here. And I'm just like, oh babe, you're so close. She's like, What do you mean? There are fields, there are fields everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:12

Like all the golf fields. Like, no, it's not it, babe.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:16

Not a field, it's a golf field.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:17

I'm like, don't tell my dad that you're going to the golf field.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:20

She's like, it's a golf course, babe. It's like, no, it's a golf field, and I'm gonna tell him that when they see him.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:28

She's she's not really wrong, but I mean, that's like say, you know, football course as opposed to a football field. Like, you know, you know, you know. Well, you're not wrong, you're not right.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:40

I mean, her go-to sport is uh, you know, football de los pies. So, like, you know, real football. Football. Yeah, yeah. Exactamente. So for her, like, you know, it's a field, everything it's field.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:52

The fields, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:54

Yeah, she had to ask, it's like, okay, it's not a basketball field because it's there's no grass. So which one is it? So yeah, she grew up like very stereotypical uh Mexican household, like you know, like you know, the the the only re I mean, her brother got into other sports a little bit, but like really the main thing that was like the religion of you know La Liga Mexico and you know, like the international Mexico game. So, you know, the only sport she knows well is that one, but man, she she knows the sport. Like in the same way that I was getting mad at Benny Hannah she's you know, she'll just be like, I don't know you got my stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:39

She's a deep uh she's a deep lake on on that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:42

Oh yeah, that's her deep well that and that and uh that and uh uh she's a social worker and um wow and amongst amongst many other like things that she inspires me on, she just uh so happened like my my mom and my sister are speech pathologists, so um I got introduced to disability very early. Um and then in a sense, like even though it's you know kind of communicative and mental and learning disabilities are very different, obviously, and even calling all of it disabil, there's a lot of there's a lot of tracks one can go in disability studies, but my own partner happens to have a mobility, you know, very visible physical disability. So, you know, it like she's been a big inspiration for me to like obviously pursue that more because it's like you know, I just see um how much of the world can be an obstacle for such like an intelligent, bright, kind person. So um, yeah, so so that's like you know, part of you know why I think you know highlight disability above all because I think disability advocacy is you know important, right? Because it is a group, not just because it's a group that's bigger than people expect, but you know, just you know, making the world more accommodating and access accessible is just you know just beneficial for everybody. It's just it just makes people's lives easier in a way that like you know will go unnoticed for you, most likely, if you're of normative body and mind, like myself included. Um so yeah, uh that's so it's just you know kind of one of those things that I try to bring awareness on. And obviously there's not always ways that someone can like directly act towards disability, right? Very few like architects are you know in any sort of crowd or audience, for example. But you know, if there's like a bill or if you know that's passed, right, whether something to vote on or petition on, or you know, or you know, if there are like certain projects, it's like wait, can like all people you know, you don't know even just by talking about it or bringing disability to awareness how that could you know change one little thing, whether it's in like one little cafe, like you know, for somebody's uh benefit.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:53

We um sorry, I like I just like big note to potentially end on, it sounds like and on that note, and on that note, bye who's fascinated by listening. I'm like, wait, I have to shift now.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:08

I can't so now let's just keep ignoring the disabled. No, I no, no, I I uh obviously not.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:17

No, but I appreciate you being candid and and open with everything that you've talked about. And when your book comes out, please feel free to reach back out to us and we can talk about it before we can plug it. We can talk about the next season of Love is Blind.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:36

I'll watch like Love is Blind. I'll just watch a random one like Love is Blind UAE.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:41

Whichever one is the next one you have to hate watch, we'll talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:45

Yeah, that or I'll just watch more like badly dubbed Godzilla movies, like I would usually do.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:51

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, we can talk about all the things that we didn't get to talk about this time around.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:58

Of course. Or get in all other tangents and still miss out on them.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:02

Or that, right? How many times it takes us to get to those things? Let's count how many episodes it'll take.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:09

I like that. I'll just keep delaying it.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:11

I'll just I'll just keep I'll just keep uh pushing it out for that part of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:17

Oh no, no, that wasn't a far enough cast.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:18

Just ten episodes later. Oh, hello.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:23

Yeah, we we got to we didn't even get to hope list, we just got to home.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:30

And what's the point where you become one of our guests, uh one of our co-hosts?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:34

I just here.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:35

He's a naturally, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:37

I took up alcohol, everybody.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:38

I'm here because you know, talking to these two women, I had to do something and caffeinated coffee, of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:45

I will never betray, no decaf.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:47

All right, Lisa. You had to bring that up again and get me in trouble. Yes, but we do want to say thank you for being here, for talking about everything, for being very open, and for just hanging out with us and our listeners.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:01

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:04

Of course. And please, one more time, tell everyone where they can go to find you and your stuff and any and anything that you want to plug.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:14

Honestly, the e if you I'm not a big plugger, I kind of hate it, but like I will do it because of course. Uh, if you want to find me, the easiest way is to Google my full name, Anthony David Vernon, and my full name comes up first, and it's a bunch of stuff that I've done and do, and um, you know, and you can see my stuff, whether you agree, disagree, like, dislike, it's out there. And uh, you know, if anything I've said's like, oh, he seems not the worst, you know, come Google me. There's plenty of stuff I have online that's free, you know, and you could just find all my work, you know, via just Googling my full name.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:52

Okay, and then we're definitely gonna have you back when Paul Rudd signs on for default man.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:58

Yes, right, yeah, yes, on the on the default man book tour.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:02

If we can get in, I don't know. You know, hope we you know we don't forget about us little people. Oh no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:08

You guys are getting like red carpet VIP access, you know. But you un you know, the only thing I ask for is don't be like Lady Gaga and wear like a meat dress as a vegetarian. I'll be quite offended. I'll be quite but if you wear a broccoli dress, that's more than fine by me.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:25

Okay, we'll come in broccoli. I could come as eggplant. Oh no, maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe I feel like this little no, no, that's perfect.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:33

No, no, I'll be an asparagus. I got the perfect shoes.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:40

They're just they're just two eggplants that you just shoved on your feet.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:43

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:47

I just bought the most perfect shoes. I will wear them. Like I would have wear them to check the mail.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:52

That's how I got them at Kroger. I don't I don't know what they look for groceries, so I just picked Kroger.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:57

Kroger's pick and save, yes. Um from like the vegetarian vegan line. Um I'm so going to hell right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:07

I love in the meantime. We remind everyone to drink responsibly and not to drink and drive. And you can visit us at assassinsips.com for all the ways to connect with us and our guests. Current, previous, future. I don't know, you know, future. And what else? Oh we thank our guests once again. And hold on.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:43

You're welcome, Lisa, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:45

I never lose my train of thought at this part. Oh my goodness. Okay, wait. Wait, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:56

She's Lisa. I'm Agnes, the best ant man.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:03

And I guess that means we're out of here.