Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 187: AMA: How Do We Deal With Sadness? | Ear Biscuits Ep. 187
Episode Date: April 1, 2019You asked us anything, and we answer some of the things. What experience recently brought Link to tears? Would we want to know how we almost died? We're answering these and more on today's AMA episode... of Ear Biscuits! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This, this, this, this is Mythical.
Before we get started, we wanna let you know
that Ear Biscuits is supported by Headspace.
Headspace will teach you the life-changing skills
of meditation and mindfulness in just a few minutes a day.
In fact, just 10 days of Headspace has been proven
to reduce stress and increase happiness.
Yeah, meditation is rooted in tradition,
but it's also backed by scientific research.
Four weeks of Headspace improved focus by 14%
and three weeks of Headspace reduced aggression
and reactivity to negative feedback by 57%.
I think all of us could use reduced aggression
and reactivity to negative feedback by 57%.
Headspace has hundreds of meditation sessions
on everything from stress to sleep
and you'll be guided every step of the way
by Headspace co-founder,
the man with the milky voice, Andy Puddicombe,
who spent 10 years training as a monk.
Start your journey towards a healthier, happy life
by subscribing to Headspace.
Sign up now at headspace.com slash ear
to get a free month trial.
That's headspace.com slash ear for a free month trial
and start meditating today.
Now on with the biscuit.
Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett.
And I'm Link.
This week at the round table of dim lighting,
we're asking the questions that you ask us
and then we're answering them because anything goes.
Yeah, we've opened up the floodgates and.
The questions just rolled right in.
Anything, anything at all we're going to answer.
Well we're gonna, well the ones that we picked.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
Yeah, we're answering, ask us anything, we'll answer some.
But it's very, the way we pick these things is very loose.
It's like. It's so loose. You like, oh I picked some, I picked some,
and then we don't discuss it ahead of time.
I don't know, I don't even know my answers, honestly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm kinda like, well maybe something will come to me
for a lot of these.
But before we do that, we will let you know
that we're both about to head out on.
Oh, you're giving them a warning?
Spring breaks.
I'm excited.
At the end of this recording session, I'm on vacation.
Oh you're getting a little bit of an early start.
That's right.
You didn't, we didn't consult on this.
However, you are going international so you have
traveled two travel days.
I just flipped you to bird.
What are you doing?
It's just a peace sign backwards.
You coming in to work tomorrow?
I'm coming in hot.
You coming in to work tomorrow?
I'm not coming in, I don't know.
We didn't consult this.
I need you to come in if I'm not gonna be here.
I will be working tomorrow if that's your question.
Oh I'll be working, I'll be thinking about things.
If that's your question, I just whether or not I'm here.
But you know what?
You know what, don't work.
No, those days when you're not here,
and I feel like I got this big old office to myself,
that's pretty nice.
I play all the music that I want as loud as I want.
I fart openly.
Lots of things happen in there when you're not present.
You haven't said anything that you don't do anyway.
Like we had a meeting right before this.
That is true.
Right before this recording session,
we had a meeting which was preceded by us working
at our desks independently for about two hours.
And they come into the meeting and then Jacob was like,
it smells funny in here.
That wasn't farts.
You know the first thing I thought,
well we've been farting in here.
Well we've been playing a game of fart tennis.
Well we have.
That does, that does happen.
We face back to back and I don't know,
like yeah we just have like a fartversation.
The fart that you ripped yesterday,
it sounded like you were squishing something.
It's that chair, man.
It's the acoustic quality of that chair that I see.
It's almost a musical instrument,
the way it propels it out into the middle of the room.
I think it's designed.
Yeah. I think that is a design
to shoot your farts out,
the sound of your farts out into the middle of the room.
Fart-shooting chair.
And so it'll be like an hour of. A farticello. And you play the music you wanna room. Fart-shooting chair. And so it'll be like an hour of.
A fart-a-cello.
And you play the music you wanna play.
Fart-a-horn.
Rhett plays this like a.
Fart-net, fart-net.
Rhett plays this, I don't know,
it's like concentration music.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's got some beats in it.
No, it's Lo-Fi 24-7, which if you just Google Lo-Fi 24-7,
you'll get, there's a few YouTube channels.
And this is a Mythical Beast suggestion back when I-
Is this a rec?
This was a rec to me from the Mythical Beasts.
I've talked about it on the show before, I think,
because I was like, what's some good writing music,
because I don't like lyrics in my music when I'm writing.
Because I start just writing the lyrics.
Speaking of recommendations,
something I've been meaning to do
but haven't done for many episodes now is say that hey,
if you listen to the end of an Ear Biscuit,
we are now doing a recommendation.
Oh, you already know that though,
because you're not the kinds of people
that stop listening before the end.
Listen to the end and we're alternating episodes
throwing out a recommendation, it's a Rex in effect.
But anyway.
We're heading out.
Well, I'm still on the fart story.
Okay.
You're playing the music which it's not like
you don't play what you wanna play on me there.
You play the music.
Lo-fi 24 seven, yeah.
And then we're like quiet.
It's just strings.
But it's kinda quiet.
Actually yesterday there wasn't any music
because all of a sudden it was just butt music from you and like I just,
we hadn't talked for an hour and we're just sitting there
working on stuff.
Gotta mix things up sometimes.
Just kinda, we started laughing.
It was very third grade again.
Farts are funny, we've established that.
We've established that.
Farts are funny and if you don't think so,
something's wrong with you.
My abdomen is cramping hard and I might have to
add some music to the mix.
Oh yeah.
I'm in pain right now.
But it might be negative pressure,
it might not be positive pressure.
Anyway, so when Jacob came in and he was like,
it smells like something's rotting in here.
And then Josh said it smells like cruciferous vegetables.
He was right because there was cabbage inside the dish
that you had sealed up.
And I'd put it in the trash can.
So it wasn't our farts and I was glad that we didn't say,
well we've been farting it up for the past two hours.
I mean it's my office.
Anyway, we are heading out.
I'm doing another ski trip,
you're doing another London-y trip.
And by London-y trip, I'm going to London.
Going to London.
You're not just going to London, North Carolina.
There probably is one.
Yeah, for Lily's 16th birthday,
we're taking her wherever she wanted to go.
It's like we had this grand idea
that now we're gonna have to do for the other children if, I don't know,
unless the bottom falls out.
Well unless it doesn't go well, yeah.
Yeah, or like YouTube shuts down
and our entire financial ecosystem crumbles
and then I'll be asking my 16 year old son to house me.
Oh that's gonna be quite a turnaround.
Yeah.
Are you looking forward to it?
The financial crumble of my.
London, yeah so she wanted to go to London.
We're gonna do the Harry Potter stuff.
I'm sure I'll give you a full rundown on the back end.
But you know having had our complete London rundown,
my expectations are primed and I know,
I know how I'm gonna approach it.
Yeah, dinner every night at Slug and Lettuce.
The food aspect of it and stuff like that,
but yeah, I'm very excited.
I think it's gonna be a very special,
it's designed to be a special memory-forming occasion
for us with just Lily,
not with the boys not being there.
Lots of mental pictures and lots of actual pictures.
Yeah man.
No injuries, no snow, no mountains, no...
Be safe man.
But I heard tell that your wife is,
she's a little anxious
because these planes have been falling out of the sky
all over the world and she's gotta now get in one
and go across the ocean.
Well we're not on that plane and that plane's been grounded.
That plane's been grounded.
But planes.
We're not on that plane.
But planes.
She has a borderline phobia.
Right and this is in the news and she's taking that.
She's had a difficult week.
What's your plan?
She's had a difficult week. What's your plan? She's had a difficult week.
Massage?
Take a massage tool.
Hand holding.
I guess try not to sleep.
Poetry?
I'm trying not to sleep until she sleeps.
But it's gonna be difficult.
That's not gonna happen.
Because that mouth is gonna flop open,
I'm gonna be gone. She's not gonna sleep and you're gonna be difficult. Because that mouth is gonna flop open, I'm gonna be gone.
She's not gonna sleep and you're gonna sleep immediately.
Like literally, I was thinking about this on our last trip
and this is why I always snap pictures of you,
regardless of how long the flight is,
is that every single time we get on the plane
and then they start like the beverage service
or if there's a meal involved,
Yeah.
You sleep through that part.
Like it's, you follow,
because typically that's like we've reached 10,000,
whatever the feet is, 10,000 feet,
and now the wifi is working and like we're kinda leveling out
and they're starting to bring the beverages out.
You're gone.
And so last time we were flying, I woke you up
because I was like this can't happen again.
Now one time you laid down and put the sleep mask on
and slept right through the thing and then you wake up
and you're like, is there dinner?
It was like seven hours into the flight.
And they were like, well, not anymore.
Something about getting in the air makes me sleepy.
So you gotta take a Red Bull.
You gotta do a Red Bull before you get on the plane
if you don't wanna fall asleep.
Well I do wanna fall asleep but I'm gonna try
to stay awake for Christy and she's,
I mean she's got, there's like,
she's been given some like meditation,
guided meditations that she can go through
for like some positive oriented, some like,
well they're all positive oriented.
Some very negative.
Some focused on like.
The sound of screaming people.
Yeah, planes crashing, careening out of the sky.
This is what could be happening right now.
But it's not.
Actual audio.
I wonder if that would work.
From failed water landings.
Certain people might be into that.
I'm sure there are.
Because sometimes I tell my wife,
when she's upset with me, I'm like,
you know what I could be doing right now?
And then I make up a crazy scenario
that's a lot worse than what I am doing.
And then she's like, this reasoning doesn't work.
Yeah, that's called deflecting into the abyss.
Like usually you deflect to something
that's like also concrete.
I could be in prison right now.
Right, it's like okay, all right.
But I'm not.
It's like that's not effective.
I could be a murderer.
Right. I'm not that insensitive. Yeah, yeah. I could be a murderer. Right.
I'm not that insensitive.
Yeah, yeah.
I could be living a double life.
I know that's funny but I also feel like
maybe you said that to her.
Nah, I didn't say that.
Because it is kind of funny but you know,
you're like perspective.
Right, yeah, sometimes you gotta,
we could be crashing right now or not.
That's, if everything goes sideways,
you say that to your wife.
Here's a simple one to start with.
Why don't we take a small break
and then answer a question?
I'm gonna ask the question.
Oh, that's a teaser.
And it'll be like a teaser, got it.
Sarah A142266095.
Whoa.
Asks. Whoa.
What's the strangest thing you've ever found
the other person doing when you walked into the room?
Uh-oh.
Hashtag Ear Biscuits.
You'll get that answer and more in a second.
But first we're going to take a short break
to let you know that Ear Biscuits
is supported by Stitch Fix.
Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service
that finds and delivers clothes, shoes, and accessories
to fit your body, budget, and lifestyle.
All you gotta do is go to stitchfix.com slash ear,
you tell them your sizes, what styles you like,
and how much you want to spend on each item.
We've said this many times, we both do not like the process
of going into a store and having to try things on.
But I like the process of like getting boxes of stuff,
it's like gifts, it's like ooh, what's gonna be in here?
Oh I like this!
I mean they got cameras in those changing rooms, man.
I just know it, they got cameras in those changing rooms.
After you sign up, you'll be paired with your very own
personal stylist
who will handpick five items to send right to your door.
Stitch Fix's styling fee is only 20 bucks,
which is applied toward anything
you keep from your shipment.
Then you try them on, pay only for what you love,
and return the rest.
Shipping, exchanges, and returns are always free,
and there is no subscription required.
You can sign up to receive scheduled shipments
or get your fix whenever you want.
Get started now at stitchfix.com slash ear
and you'll get an extra 25% off when you keep
all five items in your box.
That's stitchfix.com slash ear to get started today.
Stitchfix.com slash ear.
Now on with the biscuit.
Strangest thing I've seen you doing walking in.
Yeah so we're answering your questions now.
Here it is, we're getting into it.
We made it through the ads.
The thing that this makes me think about
is the fact that we have our secret loft,
our not so secret loft, especially if you're a member
of the Mythical Society, you've seen that loft
in the Mythical addresses.
Oh yeah.
But both of us independently sometimes might get here early
and might use the loft for meditative purposes.
There's a meditation cushion up there.
And I've walked in and I was like,
I see your car when I get here,
vice versa, same thing's true, you walk in,
lights are on, you know somebody's in the office
but and then you kinda like settle down to your desk
and then I hear.
Little nostril flappage.
Little breathing.
Now I at least say when you walk in, I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here, I'm meditating.
I'm meditating.
It's a little weird to walk in on somebody meditating
but you can't see them.
Especially because we do it nude.
I wasn't gonna say that.
I've never meditated nude.
You should try it.
Weirdest thing I've seen you do when I walk in on you
was like when we're like traveling or like,
and then I get up in the morning
and you're like down on the floor in your underwear
like doing some sort of contortion.
Like I was like, dude, did you sleep on the floor last night?
I was like, it's like you fell off, you fell out of a skyscraper
and like splattered on the ground.
I'm practicing my moves.
And I'm like, good gosh, what happened, man?
And then I realize you're like doing, you're stretching.
Oh gosh, I'm doing, you know what, and the funny thing is.
The stretches you do are weird.
Well they're doctor and physical therapist prescribed.
I'll tell you one thing, they are, they have gotten.
Just in your boxers, it's just, I don't wanna see that.
You don't have to watch.
Well I didn't watch, I just saw.
Some people would pay to watch.
That's the weirdest thing that I've.
I might start a YouTube channel that's just called
Retching, which is Rhett and stretching mixed together,
it's not throwing up, because it's spelled R-H-E-T-C-H-I-N-G,
retching, Rhett stretching 24 seven. throwing up, because it's spelled R-H-E-T-C-H-I-N-G,
retching, ret stretching 24 seven. It's a live stream and I'm listening
to 24 seven lo-fi inception.
I think that's the weirdest thing.
I mean, hold on but.
You've seen me pick my nose, I do that every day.
My stretching, I was thinking about this,
I was thinking about this this morning,
I was having a conversation with my Pilates instructor
and it was, I'm spending a lot more time with my stretches
and not just my stretches but the rolling on the ball thing,
you know, I got a little lacrosse ball
and I like get it into
all the different nooks and crannies of my back
and all the places that there are knots
and I have discovered that, especially getting ready
to go ski for a week, I'm like, a lot of times
when I get ready to transition into something
and I'm about to go on vacation, my back gets tight
in anticipation of it, it's a weird stress thing
that happens and you don't wanna be out there
having paid all this money for this ski vacation
and then not be able to ski. Season up.
So I've been rolling my back out in upper, mid, and lower
with this ball every single morning.
That's a weird thing to walk in on
because it just looks like you're wallowing around
on the floor. And also I'm making noises
like oh.
This is what retching, the retching channel would be.
It would just be me laying on the ground going.
Oh.
You look, you probably look like a guy
who's just suffered some sort of injury.
Oh yes yes yes yes yes yes.
Because it's good.
You yes yes yes.
Yes because the pain is helping me.
The pain is so intense but it's unraveling,
I don't know how the science works,
it's doing something to the muscle knots,
releasing them, making me feel good.
Anyway, I think it's the key to my life right now.
I actually heard that rolling out is now not,
it's not proven to be as effective as active stretching.
It's not proven to be as effective for recovery, right?
Recovery?
Isn't that true?
I don't know, next question.
I'm rolling out for a different reason.
I'm rolling out for knots.
I'm not rolling out for recovery.
Like the way you work, my booty knot.
Lavish Lionel.
Lavish Lionel asks, I was recently asked,
when you die, if you were offered to view a top five list
of some moments in your life, which list would you choose?
Personally, I'm leaning towards the top five times
I was closest to death.
Do you say towards or toward when you write?
Towards.
That is incorrect for.
I don't write it.
I don't write it.
For you, for you.
I just say it.
Well, what I realized was happening,
I was looking at our editor who had gone through
the Google Docs where we wrote our novel
and all the towards had been changed to toward.
Oh yeah.
Because.
A lot of that.
Towards is the UK.
Really? That's what I say, I always add the S to toward because towards is the UK.
Really?
That's what I say, I always add the S
but technically the US, which I don't know why
we got so much beef about little things like that.
Like y'all don't have an S?
And it's right, it's right here but it's wrong for there.
And there was another weird word.
Oh, vice like,, okay. Vice-like grip.
Okay, vice-like grip is a phrase.
Vice dash like space.
That is in the Lost Causes of Bleak Creek.
It's in, so how would you spell vice-like?
Well, with a dash, vice dash like space.
How would you spell vice?
Oh, V-I-C-E.
Wrong.
Well yeah.
It's V-I-S-E. Wrong. Well yeah. It's V-I-S-E in America.
A vice in America with a C is like a moral vice.
It's like a part of you that's compromised.
Oh but a tool.
But a tool in America is with an S.
And in the UK, it's with a C both ways.
What is the world coming to?
Why do we have so many disagreements?
Why can't we just make a decision?
We have enough for that just to be,
I mean you gotta keep standards
or the language is just gonna fall into chaos.
But let's get to this question.
When you die, you were offered to view a top five list.
Man, I think that would be frustrating
to only see five moments.
That's a short list.
Oh, that's your complaint?
I mean, I would be grateful for seeing anything, I guess.
Well, which five would you choose?
Oh, I'm still able to see.
I'm not nothing.
There is an afterlife, so check.
That's a good start.
But what would you?
Oh, and now I get to see five things?
I wanna see the happiest moments of my life.
But what if it's all downhill from there?
But then that might make you sad.
It's like,
because I actually think his answer's pretty,
Lavish Lionel had a pretty good answer.
I wanna see the top five times I was closest to death.
Well and I would wanna see the ones I was,
my answer was closest to death that I did not realize.
Oh yeah, that's what I thought was implied
and I think he has the best answer
because sorry for taking it lavish but hey props to you.
Because then you're really grateful,
it's like man, I could have gone five other times.
Yeah. It turns out I had six could have gone five other times. Yeah.
It turns out I had six lives, like a cat.
And the thing is.
Well like a short changed cat.
And what kinds of things would those be?
I mean it wouldn't be the most obvious things.
Like you think it would be things like,
well there was this one time that you were almost
hit by a rig, it would be something like,
there was this one time where this virus
that would have gone into your brain
and started eating away at it.
You washed your hands.
You washed your hands at exactly the right time.
You blew your nose.
You sneezed and if you hadn't of sneezed,
you would be dead.
Oh wow.
It would be something like that.
Or there was a moment in which some little platelet
inside one of your veins could have gotten stuck
and caused a stroke, I don't know what causes a stroke.
But it just skated by.
Yeah, and it would be like.
That clot went the wrong direction.
It'd be the most boring video in history.
You're just watching a vein.
What am I seeing here, what am I seeing here?
Oh the plate went the other way, you would have died.
Closest to death.
But I would still be very grateful
to not have died sooner
and whereas with my initial answer of the happiest moments,
that would probably just make me so sentimental and sad.
But what you said reminded me of the other night,
you know, it's like we had 30 minutes before it was bedtime.
I was like, oh, we don't, we could watch one episode
of a sitcom but I'm just gonna throw on YouTube
and see what's going on.
And there was like this trending video
that was sportscasters getting upset part two,
and I'm like, this is trending.
So it was like new and fresh, probably hadn't seen it.
And I like.
You watched this as a family?
This was me, Lincoln, Lando, and Britton.
I started watching that one and it sucked.
And then Britton was like, you know what,
you should put on Close Calls from Fail Army.
Oh gosh, this is great.
And then I'm like, this sounds like a good idea.
Well, it wasn't a good idea because.
Oh, it made you stressed out.
You're sitting there and it's just like
a lot of traffic footage of like,
okay, here's just an intersection.
In Russia.
And all of a sudden you see this motorcycle,
instead of stopping, like he didn't know
how to use his motorcycle, and like he flips over
the handlebars.
And then he just walks away.
And as he flips over and tumbles into the intersection,
a car barrels through there and just misses
running over the guy.
Close call, huh? It was a close call, yeah. I mean the good news is you know everybody makes it a car barrels through there and just misses running over the guy.
Close call, huh?
It was a close call, yeah.
I mean the good news is you know everybody makes it
because it's a close call.
It's not like morbid, shouldn't actually be on YouTube
and can't stay up there long.
Well because that feels like it would be rewarding to watch.
Well the cumulative effect of like seeing like a guy
in a cowboy hat with his daughter like looking this way,
where's the train, where's the train?
And like, you can look past the guy and see,
the train is coming and you're like,
you're standing on the rail.
You're standing like halfway and at the last second
he turned because he heard it and got out of the way
but it was a close call.
Very close call.
I mean that was disconcerting, man.
And all types of these things.
It just made me think ever since then
if I'm walking on a sidewalk, I'm like, what if I trip?
You've seen the videos of like, you know,
there were these two girls walking down the street
on the sidewalk and the one girl just like hip checked
her friend just to be cute.
And the girl falls out into the street
and like a big freaking bus comes by
and like just barely misses running over her noggin.
Close call.
It was a close call.
Miraculously caught, miraculously timed
or miraculously caught on camera.
Miraculously caught.
Yeah man, it was, I was like I gotta turn this off.
And they weren't censored either so there was,
I mean sometimes with a close call
there's lots of colorful language that's used
so watch out for that.
Do you have a rec for later?
Because you made me think of a rec
based on what you just said,
watching something with your family.
Yeah, save your wreck.
Well if it's related to this, just give it.
I don't feel like, my wreck's not.
I have a wreck.
My wreck's not worthy of the final wreck.
Yeah, give it now.
This is a prereq, it's an effect.
Goldberg's.
As a family. The television show?
The television show, which incidentally,
our own Shane Topp is a series guest star,
regular something, whatever you would say.
Smosh Shane, yeah.
Yeah, I've only watched.
I was in a Thai restaurant last night
and they were playing Goldbergs and I told Christy,
I was like, see that guy right there, that's Shane.
He's in Smosh.
I think that it's just a good, it takes place,
you know the premise, it takes place in the 80s,
but it's just a family being a family.
I thought it was the 90s actually.
It's the 80s actually, it's the 80s.
Maybe some season it goes,
I don't know how many seasons there's been.
It'll get there.
But it may be in the 90s, but you know.
Are you recommending the show or something else?
I'm recommending the show.
Okay, do it.
I'm recommending the show to watch as a family
because we sat there as a family
and realized how like all these,
every member of the family is like a caricature
of a mom and a dad but it's also based on this dude's life,
the creator of the show, Adam Goldberg.
Goldberg.
And.
Okay.
But anyway, it was just like I see how I fall
into the dad trope and you know,
mom falls into the mom trope,
kids fall into the kids trope and mom falls into the mom trope, kids fall into the kids trope.
Anyway, it's a wreck.
What about near-death experiences made you think of that?
You said you would sit down and we have half an hour
to watch a sitcom as a family.
Oh, okay. So I was gonna say
that if you're in the mood for a half hour sitcom,
Goldberg's is a wreck.
Let's ask another question though.
Taco Picasso, highly educated with an X asks,
how do you cheer yourself up when you're feeling sad?
Hashtag your biscuits.
The first thing I think of is music.
Like music can help snap me out so like I can like,
I can go with like some bangers.
Like give me that banger playlist.
Like just something. Give me an example.
Miley Cyrus party in the USA.
Yeah right, that's it.
Hey, listen to that song and tell me it's not catchy.
It is a happy, happy song.
That song will make you happy.
I do not recommend the song Happy
because it's played out.
It's too on the nose.
It's too on the nose.
It's too played out.
Party in the USA is a bit tired,
but it probably always works.
Yeah, it's not a wreck.
I'm not making a wreck, man.
It's making a ref, a reference.
The thing that I do when I'm feeling sad lately is.
You've been feeling sad lately?
Actually yeah, well no, there are times when I feel sad
in general, maybe I don't think more so lately
but when I said lately I meant lately I'm trying to not say
oh I feel sad, I'm going to play Party in the USA,
but instead just leaning into it and saying, you know what?
Let's get sadder.
If you feel a little sad, let's just go ahead
and let's experience the entire wave of that emotion.
Yeah.
And instead of trying to fight it.
So, interestingly enough, yesterday morning,
coming into work, you know, Spotify will create,
based on what you've listened to,
and I'm sure all of the streaming services do it,
they'll like create this automated playlist for you.
The AI, man.
And I've been listening to some more Merle lately,
getting back into Merle.
Well, and there's a sad part to that too.
The other night I was listening to,
and I texted you about this.
I was listening to Ben Haggard,
Merle Haggard's youngest son,
who we know and who got us into his concerts, who basically enabled us to meet Merle Haggard's youngest son who we know and who got us into his concerts,
who basically enabled us to meet Merle
before he passed away a little over a year ago,
I guess it's been, maybe longer now.
I think it's been two years.
Yeah.
And I hadn't realized, even though you told me this,
that he does some covers on his Instagram,
I guess that's another rec, follow Ben Haggard on Instagram.
Tell him that we sent you.
Rhett and Link sent me, big fan or whatever.
He does covers of, he just like sits in an intimate space
like his living room or something with this one studio mic
and covers lots of stuff but Merle songs.
And I did not realize,
Christy said hey listen to this, I saw it on Facebook because your mom had posted it.
Your mom had posted a Ben Haggard cover of a Merle song
and she's like commenting, he's friends with Rhett and Link
and she's like commenting on Facebook about it
and it was really cute and so Christy's telling me this
and she starts playing the song and I'm just listening to it and I was like,
well this is Merle.
This is actually not Ben, this is actually,
this is just a Merle song that's being played.
But then she showed me the video and I'm like,
no, this is Ben and I.
He can sound just like Merle.
He can sound, I mean we know Merle Haggard so well
that like all the intricities, what's the word?
Intricities.
Intricities.
Yeah, of his vocal delivery.
Intricities.
Intricities.
Intricities, I can't say it.
Well intricate is the root word.
Intricities.
Intricities.
Intricities.
Is that how you say it, intricities? Intricities. Intricate is the root word. Intricate cities. Intricate cities. Intricities. Is that how you say it, intricities?
Intricities.
Intricities.
What is the word?
There's four people in this room
and no one else can say it.
Intricities.
No one wants to try to say it.
Intricities, whatever.
Intricicities.
Intricities.
That's not right. I cannot say it. It's definitely. Intricicities. Intricatees. That's not right.
I cannot say it.
It's definitely not intricatees.
That's the one thing that I know it's not.
Intricatees.
Intricatees.
Just the nuances.
He's got intricatees, you wouldn't believe it.
Of his, of Merle's vocal delivery,
he can nail to the point of,
here's what happened.
Tell me what happened.
Once I realized that it was Ben singing,
I just sat there and listened to it
and my eyes welled up with tears and I started crying.
Yeah, I get that.
I could not, I was just, it was as if the ghost of Merle
had come back.
It was, and you know what?
I was just blown away with the wave of emotion.
And I think I realized at that moment,
I don't think I ever fully mourned the loss of Merle.
Like when, like I didn't really sit down and listen
to the extent that I should have like just go through
the mourning of losing this guy.
Like I was telling Britton about it and he was like,
yeah, when Tom Petty died, I sat in my room
and bawled my eyes out.
I cried myself to sleep literally and he was like,
and it took a long time
because I was playing this one song on YouTube
and I had to press play, I had to replay
every time it stopped.
And that was also related to the fact
that he had never seen him live or something
or never met him or,
because Britton goes to a bunch of concerts
and so not having.
He had never gotten to see him.
Right.
And like Coach Brandl, my soccer coach in college,
I mean in high school, I did not play soccer in college.
College soccer, whoa.
News flash.
He talked about when,
what's his name from the Grateful Dead died,
like he was a dead.
Jerry Garcia. Jerry Garcia.
That like he lit candles and like listened to the music
and just bawled his eyes out.
And I thought that's sweet,
but I would never see myself doing that.
And I think.
Now you get it.
I was laid in bed listening to Ben sing Merle
and I just started crying.
And then I went on his YouTube page
and started looking at the comments
and I felt validated that a lot of people were commenting
that they were in tears like as a morning exercise.
But anyway, all that's backstory to,
I started listening to more Merle
because I realized that since his death,
I'd kind of been avoiding listening to him.
I think just not wanting to go there.
But I started listening to him and then Spotify
started recommending Merle and other country music people
as a certain playlist.
So I played that on my way into work yesterday morning.
And somehow it went from Merle to like some
Travis Tritt song.
It's a great day to be alive.
Talking about growing a Fu Manchu,
it's kind of a hokey song but I like Travis.
Good.
Shout out to Travis Tritt, happy song.
And then the next one it played, I looked over.
Intricacies.
Intricacies, that's what I've been saying the whole time.
We wanted some extra syllables in there.
Jen is afraid to say it but she spelled it out
so that we could read it.
You say it.
Intricacies.
Yeah.
Yeah, intricacies.
The freaking voice of the AI in Independence Day.
The orb.
You can't say, intricacies.
She's the voice of the orb.
Intricacies.
So then I look at the next song
and I see it pops up, Diamond Rio.
The song was One More Day. Oh. Do you remember this song was One More Day.
Do you remember this song?
One more day, one more night.
One more sunset, maybe I'd be satisfied,
but then again, I know what it would do,
leave me wishing still for one more day with you.
And I heard the first chord and I'm like,
I immediately reached for the skip.
I'm like, I am not doing this.
And I reached for it. Why?
And just as my finger touched the skip forward button,
because I wasn't gonna listen to the Travis Tritt song again,
I was gonna go forward.
I was like, you know what?
No.
I'm gonna do this.
I'm like, in all that bumper to bumper traffic in Glendale,
you know, 10 lane highway, listening to it.
And it's basically about like if I had one wish
granted to me, I would wish to have one more day
with the person who, this loved one
who had apparently passed away.
And let me tell you, I bawled my eyes out.
I've never done this.
To Diamond Rio?
Yes, like I was crying.
Like I was doing that ugly cry where like
your face shrivels up.
On the way to work?
And I had to prop my elbow up and like put my hand
over my face so it looked like, I mean, my face shriveled up
and tears rolling down both eyes, man.
I think there might be something else you're accessing.
Well, I mean, it made me think of loved ones I've lost
and I've thought about it specifically and like, you know.
So I listened to the whole song
and cried like a baby.
Well, ironically.
And I didn't even wipe the tears away.
It was one of those, you know what?
Let them fall.
Ironically and fittingly, I feel like there's two sides
of this coin, there's the leaning into it
and then there's the coming out of it
and I think that I've got something for coming out of it.
Okay, great.
You know a little bit about this.
So one thing I'll say, I think the first thing
that I thought when I looked at this question was,
I think that I, and again, I talk about this,
I feel like I'm talking about the fact that I go to therapy
every single podcast at this point,
so sorry if that's annoying to you.
But I think traditionally my answer to this would be like,
hmm, sad, what is that?
You know what I'm saying?
Because I know that I do get sad,
but I tend to be so in my head that I think that,
I transmute my emotion of sadness into other things
like anger probably or like yelling at the kids
or something because I don't process and actually,
like you said, lean into the sadness
and let it run its course because I do think
that sadness is a part of the human condition
and something that we should not run from.
But assuming that you've let it run its course,
music I think is a way to bring you out of it.
Now I wanna talk to you about a guy named Dr. Fun.
And there's probably a rapper out there named Dr. Fun
and other people named Dr. Fun,
so you may not get this guy if you just Google Dr. Fun.
So our good friends, Lance and Lacey,
who of Beard and Lady, if you're a real mythical beast,
you know about Lance and Lacey and Beard and Lady.
They make the lip balm and the beard oil and the pomade.
Great friends back in North Carolina.
And they're just both crazy in the best possible way.
Like Lance and Lacey are just,
they're into interesting stuff and they'll just start
telling you about something that happened to them
or somebody they know and it's gonna be interesting.
They're enthusiastically open and it's not,
it's always refreshing to have those people in your life.
Yeah and Lance will just text me out of the blue.
He texted me recently and he said,
I think that you're now ready for Dr. Fun.
Just like, okay and then he just sends me a.
Like he's been sitting on a Dr. Fun for a while?
He sends me a Facebook video of this guy.
His name is Tim McInnis, McGinnis.
And that's M-C-G-I-N-N-I-S, AKA Dr. Fun.
Now, Lance knows this guy.
Now when you say AKA Dr. Fun, I just wanna clarify
that his YouTube channel is Tim McInnis aka Dr. Fun.
Yes. All of that.
That's it.
And this guy, Lance knew him, Lance lived out here
in California for a while before we ever did.
In fact, when we met him in North Carolina,
he was moving back from Pasadena.
And he knew this guy in Pasadena.
I don't know exactly how they got to know each other,
but he said, I knew this guy when I lived in California
and he's just this super enthusiastic guy
who makes all this original music
that is designed to focus your mood in the right direction.
And he said, in one time he recorded my mouth trumpet
and incorporated it into a song.
Just to give you an idea, the kind of guy that Dr. Fun is,
he's like, he knows that you can do the mouth trumpet
and Lance can do a mean mouth trumpet.
I can do a mean mouth trumpet.
Yeah, you might need to be in a Dr. Fun song.
So anyway, he just sends me, so what Dr. Fun, Dr. Fun.
Now it sounds like you're saying two things
which I don't think are true and that's one,
that he is like some sort of therapist
that too is residing in Pasadena, California.
No, no, at this point, Dr. Fun,
Dr. Fun met a lady and they.
Mrs. Fun?
They moved to Cabo San Lucas where you know, we've been down to Cabo San Lucas,
where you know, we've been down to Cabo.
In fact, speaking of watermelons on shirts.
Yeah.
See what you're doing there.
Now Mythical Beast gave me this shirt on tour.
Might have given it to you but it's too small.
They moved to Cabo and I don't know what he does.
Besides, he has this thing on Facebook
that he calls the Dr. Fun Institute for Intentional Thought Transformation.
And as far as I can tell, one of the main tenants
of the Institute for Intentional Thought Transformation
is to sing these songs that are almost like mantras
to get you in the right mood.
And listen, he'll go on the rooftop of his home
in Cabo San Lucas and just, this is an 18 minute video
and he's just going through, he's just singing these songs,
making them up on the spot or accessing them
from his library, I don't know anything else
about Dr. Flanagan. What do you mean his library?
Like his brain library. His brain library.
So before you play it, I just wanna clarify
that this is just a dude with,
he looks like he could be ex-military.
He's got like close cropped hair,
he's wearing a black T-shirt, probably shorts,
probably barefoot, he's not in a clinical environment.
He's filming himself on an iPhone vertically
in like vlog format.
And I thought. And it's very extemporaneous.
And let me just tell you. It's not planned.
That these songs have been in my head
and I have found myself, I'm not kidding you,
when I start thinking things or whatever,
I'm like, I feel a little bit down.
A Dr. Fun song comes into my mind
and I just start singing it and it does the trick.
You're using his system?
Yeah.
Here's just.
Appreciation is my super power.
Appreciation gives me wings to fly.
One more time.
He'll look off into the distance
and then another one will come out.
Aren't these, look at all these aloes, it's true.
He finds joy in all the things around him.
Mexico, these are.
Here's another one.
Look at him, he's just thinking and then all of a sudden.
I focus, focus, focus on feeling good right now.
How about you?
Focus, focus, focus on feeling good right now.
I find the best feeling thought for feeling good right now.
One more time.
I find the best feeling thought
for feeling good right now.
I focus, focus, focus on feeling good right now.
Here's more.
Breathe, relax, and let the magic happen.
It's swirling all around you, just relax and let it flow.
I said breathe.
That one didn't rhyme and it didn't need to.
And I'm just gonna go to.
It's swirling all around you, just relax and let it flow.
I'm just going to a random spot.
18 minutes, and this is just,
he does this like every other day.
There's no need to wait or hesitate.
Got a drum.
I'm gonna feel good right now.
There's no need to wait or hesitate.
I'm gonna feel good right now.
You know I'm gonna feel good right now.
You know I'm feeling pretty god damn good right now.
Woo!
I mean.
And how many views does this have?
11.
11 views, guys. I think it's about to have more. 11 views. this have? 11. 11 views, guys.
I think it's about to have more.
11 views. That's my theory.
Dr. Fun is giving you the musical mantras
that you need on the backside of sadness.
There's another song where he's like,
he's walking down the streets in Cabo San Lucas
and he's doing this head thing and he's like,
shift, shift, shift my perspective till I'm feeling good.
I'm gonna shift, shift, shift my perspective till I'm feeling good. I'm gonna shift, shift, shift my perspective
till I'm feeling good.
I'm like, and then I find myself singing this song.
I'm gonna shift, shift, shift my perspective
till I'm feeling good.
I bet it works.
It does work, it's magic.
Dr. Fun is magic because there's just,
you know, it's scientifically proven that
just smiling makes you feel better, right?
Just the act of smiling, even if it's a forced smile,
your body begins to do the things emotionally
that is associated with the smile.
And Dr. Fun has got this institute, man.
I mean, again, it's the Dr. Fun Institute
for Intentional Thought Transformation.
He's intentional about his thought transformation.
He uses these songs.
What is the institute? It's him, he is intentional about his thought transformation, he uses these songs. What is the institute?
It's him, he is an institution, man.
Wow, but you're telling me that Lance knew this guy
in person, like in the flesh in Pasadena
and mouth trumpeted with him?
First of all, you know Lance and Lacey,
they meet a person like Dr. Funt, they're on it.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. there's a lot of people who might be like,
this guy, dude's a little nuts, man.
Keep a distance.
He's moving to Cabo, he's singing songs all the time.
But Lance and Lacey understand that
this guy figured something out.
Not only is he just interesting and entertaining,
but there's something going on there.
He's manifesting inner happiness through musical mantra.
Yes.
And anyway.
And occasionally a mouth trumpet apparently.
Yeah I think, I don't know, again I'm just scratching
the surface of the Dr. Fun world,
I don't know how far it goes.
A lot of videos?
Yeah he's been making videos for like seven years
on YouTube, he's got his Facebook deal and.
He's got a deal with Facebook?
He's got a deal, he's with Mark Zuckerberg himself.
Wow.
He's got a Facebook page where he does the same thing.
And he seems like he's got his audience,
which is not super large, but is what he needs
to keep going.
And anyway, Dr. Fun, there's a wreck.
Christian Drake asked, what did I see in the sky
yesterday morning, and then post a photo from the phone.
What you saw was three light sources.
Three sources of light connect the dots, form a triangle.
That's what you saw.
So you don't think it was anything suspicious or alien?
Well, we just don't have a lot to go on here.
It is just a still image for us
and if you're not watching this podcast,
you don't even see it.
So, probably nothing, Christian.
Christie Byers asks, what's something
that is popular right now but in five or 10 years,
everyone will look back on and be embarrassed about?
Five years is not a long time to be embarrassed
so I'm thinking more 10 years, like a full decade.
Do you have something?
I have something that's not a fashion.
That's good because you immediately think fashion.
I'm like, I mean, I think my kids will be embarrassed
wearing sweatpants everywhere.
Just like we were.
If you look at that picture of us at Pizza Inn
for my birthday party.
Why you wear sweatpants for a birthday party?
And not only did we have sweat, ew.
Are you sick?
It wasn't that we had sweatpants on.
We had on sweats, a sweatsuit that didn't have a name.
It was just like no logos.
Turns out we were ahead of our time.
It was like just a gray sweatshirt,
you had a gray sweatshirt and gray sweatpants on matching.
And like Brooks Lee had on like a,
it was all red or something.
And we didn't think it was cool, it was just comfortable.
Yeah, it worked.
Are you sick?
Yeah, I was thinking,
I honestly think that,
you know how you go into any social situation at this point, any public place and everyone's looking at their phone.
Yeah.
I choose to believe that it's a phase.
I like this.
I choose to believe that it is a phase
and I choose to believe that.
I didn't know you had faith in humanity like this though.
I don't have faith in humanity.
How on earth do you think we're gonna get out of our phones?
Because I think that first of all,
we're gonna continue to learn all that,
first of all, speaking of Dr. Fun and feeling happy
and shifting your perspective,
shifting your face down into your phone
and doing the thing that we all do,
which is you go from your favorite app
to your next favorite app to your next favorite app
and then rinse and repeat and you kinda just find yourself.
Sometimes I just find myself,
Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, whatever.
Yeah, just.
And I'm just like what?
I'm like standing at the bottom of my stairs in my house,
just standing there. In the dark, just like what? I'm like standing at the bottom of my stairs in my house, just standing there in the dark.
Just like.
And I know I'm not alone and it's just sad.
What, someone's standing there watching?
Yeah, there's a ghost.
It's sad, it's unnecessary, it's not good for you,
it's not good for your mind,
it's not good for your sleep patterns,
it's not good for your neck, it's not good for your eyes.
And I think eventually, but by the way,
I do think that when I die, I wanna see a highlight reel
of just all the times I just was standing in the stupor
looking at my phone, I think that's your point.
Yeah, and I think that we're going to,
I think a lot of people are realizing,
kinda waking up to the fact that this is all they do,
is stare at their hand, their handheld device.
But first of all, I think that some things
are gonna change, like, I mean, distant,
not so near future, but you know,
I think there'll be a, well, first of all,
the Google, the interesting thing is,
you know how AirPods were really dorky,
and now it's like a status symbol,
and like all the kids want them?
It was like, oh, it looks like cigarette buds coming out of your ear, but now it's like a status symbol and all the kids want them. It was like, oh it looks like cigarette buds
coming out of your ear.
But now it's like, no, Dad, I gotta get some AirPods.
The same thing will happen with displays in glasses.
Right.
It's gonna happen, it makes so much more sense.
There's gonna be a second wave of Google Glass
or something like that that doesn't make you look
like a dweeb
and then everybody's gonna have it.
And then people, there will be a period of time
where people are standing there in a daze
and they're not looking at anything
because they're looking in their frickin' display
in their eyes.
But I just feel like we're gonna get to a place where
we have to. A cultural renaissance
of wellness?
I think we have to, I know, and you know me,
I'm all about the future, futurology,
the technology and the fusion, the human,
the human, I was gonna say human animal hybrids.
Oh gosh.
The transhumanism, I think all that's coming
but I think that it can't come at the expense
of our own health and I think that somebody, somewhere along the line,
like our kids are gonna wake up at some point.
I think if you're saying that education,
there'll be like education for kids to protect them
and there'll be like an infrastructure
of societal positive pressure to towards wellness.
Not just wellness.
I mean that's a hopeful view.
I am hopeful.
But that does happen.
What happens is we replace our vices, V-I-C-E,
with other vices.
So there'll be something like everybody's staring into their phone and then we'll realize we shouldn't do that. Other vices. So,
there'll be something like everybody staring into their phone and then we'll realize
we shouldn't do that.
It's just like okay, back when we were in,
growing up, it's like kids smoked all the time.
Yeah.
Now kids vape all the time and they think,
in the same way that, not us, but like back in the 40s,
they thought that smoking was okay for you
and now all these people are like,
vaping's not bad, vaping is bad for you. It is bad for you and they're discovering more and more every day that it's okay for you and now all these people are like, vaping's not bad. Vaping is bad for you.
It is bad for you and they're discovering more and more
every day that it's bad for you
and you shouldn't be doing it.
It's not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
And then but something else, something else will replace it.
But so I'm just saying, we'll look back on this moment
in time in which we had these handheld,
this idea of a smartphone is so new culturally.
10 years ago, they were just being introduced, right?
And it was just becoming a part of everybody's life.
We're a decade into this experiment
and we're not doing well.
And I think that we're gonna,
it might take another 10 years,
but I think that we're gonna look back and be like,
man, in every picture, everybody's looking at their phones.
Not cool.
I hope.
I like leaving that hopeful note as our last answer
because I got a wreck to give.
Okay, all right, I'm down.
I got a couple more but I'll save them.
I thought that I would not give
a music related recommendation because you know I'm trying to. I'll save them. I thought that I would not give a music related recommendation because you know,
you kinda told me I was only giving music recommendations
and I'm like hey you know what,
I got other things I can recommend.
Like that Diamond Rio One More Day song.
If you wanna have a meditative sad experience
and you can handle that like mid 90s country.
That's a big hurdle for a lot of people to overcome though.
You might deem it schmaltzy.
That's not my Rex in effect.
Check baby, check baby, one, two, three, four.
I'm gonna give you a thread on Reddit to follow.
Oh nice.
Follow, from puppy to dog.
Oh yes.
You seen this?
No but I can imagine what it is.
You can imagine what it is?
Side by side right?
You got side by side photos.
Lots of times recreating the photo of when you got
your puppy, now you got the dog sitting in your lap.
And the bigger the breed, the better the change.
Yeah man.
And it's, I don't know, there's like this,
it's obviously very cute, it's very tender,
but there is a tinge of sadness
associated with it because it captures the passage of time
and how it's accelerated in the life of a dog.
You know, as much as I love Jade,
like I can't separate my love from Jade
with the knowledge that she's gonna pass
much more likely before I will. I hope so.
I hope she dies before me.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a weird thing to say.
But you should.
You should hope that.
Jade, I hope you die before me.
It seems like a sad thing to say.
It seems mean almost but.
So I'm making a recommendation that if you want,
I mean there's a tinge of sadness but there's so much
cute and happiness involved that it's worth it.
The funny thing is.
From puppy to dog.
The funny thing is is that Jade would not be
a very exciting puppy to dog because she looks like
the day that you adopted her.
She's a lot smaller, you know what,
I'll try to find and post a puppy to dog.
I'll try to do that on my, shout out on my Instagram.
She was like a third of that size?
Link Lamont.
She was really little, yeah.
She was almost like hand size, wasn't she?
Yeah, I mean, at least in this one picture.
The first picture we, I don't know if I,
I'll have to see if I can find a good picture that I'm in,
because you need to have a sense of scale.
The ones I'm thinking of don't have sense of scale,
it's just her.
Yeah, I remember, we took Barbara to a dog park
and she was tripping over the grass,
I do remember that, she was that little.
So, let's both try to recreate,
let's recreate a puppy to dog moment
and then we're gonna add it to the thread
or we're just gonna add it to the world of mythicality?
Well my account is like a.
You ever posted anything to Reddit?
My account's a secret account,
so I haven't created like a, I don't know,
I was like, I didn't know what Reddit was and I didn't know how I was gonna
interact with it, so I just made up an account
like on the spot.
So I haven't, it's not public and it's not findable,
I don't think.
And if you did find it, I don't think you'd be uninterested.
Okay, that's another Ear Biscuit.
Again, we don't always do the AMAs.
This is something that we've done
like every couple months or so.
Let us know what you think about the AMA format.
I have fun.
I feel like we go down a lot of different paths
and talk about a lot of different things
and never know what you're gonna get.
Yeah.
I'd like to do more, but only if you guys want more.
So let us know what you think about the AMA format
hashtag Ear Biscuits.
We do search that.
We search it up.
Yeah we do. We search it down.
All right thanks for hanging out with us.
Thanks for telling people about Ear Biscuits
and recommending this podcast as well as
reviewing it on iTunes.
Apparently that's still a thing.
Review it up.
Make some stars.
We'll talk at you next week
on the backside of our vacations.
Oh yeah.