Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - QQ ep 12 - Quick Question with Soren and Daniel

Episode Date: August 21, 2019

Hello again and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, a podcast where life's least essential, non-political, unimportant questions get answered by two former co-workers, current best friends, and, I'm gonna take a shot, future disgraced senators. Before my senatorial tenure was brought down by a scandal involving, what's a good guess, spending taxpayer money on cheap scotch and luxury candles. I was a writer for Last Week Tonight and co-host of this podcast, Daniel O'Brien. My co-host, as always, is the former senator from Colorado, Soren Bui. Hello. Hello. Yeah, I think I'm trying to think of how I get disgraced. I think it's during my death.

I've already called my shot on this before that I'm going to be a senator and have sex so good that I catch on fire and die. But I'm assuming that has to be with somebody scandalous. Okay, so, but it's still... So in that way, you're not really, like, brought down. No. You die on top. Yeah.

That was not the premise. Why does Soren get to be the hero in his bad premise? That's a very Michael Scott, would you rather be feared or loved? I want them to love how much they fear me, or is it the other way around? Something like that. Fear how much they love me. Fear how much they love me, thank you.

Who just corrected me? Who was that sweet voice? Hey, Dan. It's Michael. It's Michael. It's like you're getting called by your the boy that you like from school no i just don't want to say bacon but when you make me introduce myself i know you guys are gonna

you're gonna correct me i do i just don't want to acknowledge it myself i want people to know that we're going to so for everyone's vacation, Bacon, who sometimes thinks his name is Michael, is our CFO and the architect of this entire podcast. And we're actually going to be missing him for a couple of episodes because he's going to be traveling. So this is the last you'll hear from him

until he comes back from Europe and is insufferable. It's an accent all of a sudden. Yeah, I'm playing. Where's Beret? I'm learning how to drink wine, play classical guitar. Where are you going, by the way?

All the mainstays know how to play classical guitar. All the mainstays. Yeah, dude. Sorry, what, Dan? Where are you going? Do you mind telling the audience where you're going? Oh, no, I don't mind at all. I'm going to the Florence part of Tuscany,

and then I'm going to Barcelona for a few days and I've never been to either one of them. So I'm really excited. Oh, that's fun. Do you have any like excursions planned or anything? Yeah, we do.

There's a lot of like wine tasting. Um, and then I've always really wanted to see, um, the Gaudi architecture. Cause it always looked real. I believe it's pronounced Gaudi. The John, the John Gaudi architecture because it always looked real neat. I believe it's pronounced Gaudi.

The John Gaudi fan. Bacon, I think you should know before you go. You're going to embarrass yourself if you say Barcelona. And then when you go to Florence, you're going to embarrass yourself if you say Florence. It's Ferenzi! Like that. I went to Florence a while ago. I never went to the tuscany part but i went to florence

like 15 years ago and i had a very embarrassing moment because i was traveling with someone and i spent like probably two quiet hours where i didn't bring it up but i was like in full panic mode because i had been tasked with like finding the train finding the train times to florence and i spent like two hours panicking because you couldn't find florence in the fucking book and uh and then like finally i gave up i was like i i don't think i was like i don't think the trains go to florence like you have to fly there from like rome or something and it was embarrassing for me that's yeah i found that in in italy that they're the trains are they're pretty relaxed about whether or not those trains run or not yeah um say what you will about mussolini he did one thing right

those trains ran on time uh they i was sitting i'd be because i didn't plan out my trip very well when i was there and i was just sort of like I spent so much of it just sitting in train stations waiting on trains and occasionally you'd be waiting on a train and then they had the old clacker boards like and they flipped to something else and like your train wouldn't show up it'd be 10 minutes late 20 minutes late and then just go

to a new train just going somewhere go to like Milan and you're like oh fuck that was just a ghost train like it didn't exist they just cancel a train don't tell anyone Soren didn't you sleep in like a bush yeah I dream that whole story nah that didn't really happen

what do you think Dan should we get into this now yeah why not I mean it seems like this is the most natural segue we'll have into it so I ran out of money when I was traveling around europe i was in college and i had a year real pass so i had like this pass that could get me anywhere i wanted to go and i had a channel pass that was gonna bring me back to england from paris i said to be back at a

certain date and during that time i can't i can take money out of an atm stuff but the trans the the currency exchange and stuff you can't really see how much money you have in the account so I was just taking money out and thinking I was being very prudent and and good with it and it turned out I wasn't I was I ran out of money four days before I was supposed to leave and I was like fuck uh well I have a jar of peanut butter I have that to last me this this over the four days. I have some bread. And then for sleeping, what I'll do is I'll just ride the train from Rome to Milan and back every single night and sleep on the train. And the very first night I did that, it became clear that that was untenable. Like it was all. No.

Yeah. I mean, it's very clear when you look at those options. You don't sleep on the train. You marry the train. You marry the train. You fuck the peanut butter. You kill the brain. So then one night I got really romantic with the idea of being in Europe. And I was like, fuck it.

I'm a camper. I'll just sleep outside. And so in Rome, during the day, while everyone else was out looking at the tourist sites, I was scouting for a place to sleep and went to the forum above, kind of like above the Coliseum a little bit. The forum is like this ancient part of, of Roman history where all democracy was born basically. And,

uh, I found some great bushes there and I was like, this is where it's going to be. Uh, there's not a lot of people around. They won't see me go in. So I went in there with just a tiny little blanket and my bag and thought I was completely covered and no one could see me. And then the middle of night, I heard people whispering around me. And that area is not super great in Rome.

And I hear these guys whispering in Italian and I don't understand Italian. And I don't know if they know that I'm there and if they're conspiring something, but they're kind of like circling me and still whispering. And I was like, fuck, what am I going to do here? And so my plan was,

I just got up and ran out at them and yelled and just screamed. I just went, and like ran arms flailing and everything, not like punching, just like I'm a crazy person. And they just sort of'm a crazy person. And they just sort of uninterestingly left. There was no altercation.

They just saw that. Were not startled by it at all. And then just went. What did you think you were doing when you did that? Is that like, this is what works with bears. So I'm going to try it with local Italians as well. You were trying to look like a crazy person? Yeah, I was just trying to do something that changed the footing a little.

They had all the power in that situation and I was like, how do I get some of this back? I'll be unpredictable and if you're dangerously unpredictable sometimes people will just think that's not worth it. Once again, the show is quick question. And we'd like to start off by thanking our listeners who prefer to be

called scenes from a quick Italian quest. Let me tell you what happened there. I think the trail is pretty clear. I'm not sure it is because I feel like I've been front-loading our nicknames for our fans with focus on the quick part, like Quickless Cage and Quick Nolte and Quick Hole Quidman and whatnot, and not focusing on the quest part. And so I wanted to, like like what are words that contain est so I can give that some play and I got rest and I got restaurant and I thought oh my god

Quictalian quest-er-ant that's perfect but let me make sure that's the actual title of the Billy Joel song but it's much longer than that it's scenes from an Italian restaurant so that's why it's scenes from a Quictalian questian quest around i it's really lucky that we were talking about italy today the that really that was great i didn't even realize that we were teeing you up like that yeah also you know people are familiar with the idea of an italian restaurant

outside of the billy joel i don't think they are. I feel like really he brought that to the mainstream. But anyway, we ask a lot of our listeners. We ask that you obviously listen. We ask that you subscribe and we ask that you support

our Patreon if you feel like it. Seems like a waste of time and money to me, but we also ask you to rate and review us and we like to call out one of those reviews

every week to read on air. I have printed the reviews out on index cards. I have pinned them to my wall. And now I'm going to throw a dart at the wall. And wherever the dart lands, that is the review I will read. So here I go. There goes your deposit.

Dart in hand. Dart throw. Whoa! Landed on a five-star review. Written by someone named Crazy Lou. Isn't that nuts? And they wrote, I have enjoyed this podcast much more than I thought I would.

If you're looking for a podcast about two friends who discuss random things in an incredibly earnest and entertaining way, give it a listen. If not, move right along and find something else. Yeah. No, I like the and find something else. Yeah. I love a review that takes a turn. I love that it's like, if it's not for you, then fuck you.

Go do your own thing. What do I care? What are you doing? Get out of here. I got no dog in this fight. Do what makes you happy, man. I also obviously love, I've enjoyed this podcast more than I thought I would. Just went into it with very low expectations. I do like that a lot too. Usually you guys get the praise and the reviews

and they don't talk about me. And this one, it was like, they had a feeling about your past performances and interactions. Right. And they did not think highly of you. The bar was low already. I was spared that one. Whatever previous experience they've had with us.

It was a C at best. Should we get into the show? Yeah, let's do it. Soren, I got a quick question yeah how do you feel about endings in pop culture franchises we've had a few recently marvel's endgame is now on streaming and a lot of people have seen that and that's the culmination of i don't know 20 years and 27 movies or something absurd like that. We've also, we're seeing the end of Veep and Game of Thrones.

And I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts about endings of these big zeitgeisty properties in pop culture broadly. I do. I don't know if this is what you, I don't want to step on your toes here i my feelings on it are that a show runner or a creator gets to decide how how it fucking ends and i think that there's like been this weird turn in culturally where people are like no

we as the audience get to decide if you did it wrong we're going to start a petition and and turn it the other way we're going to we're going to start a petition and turn it the other way. We're going to figure out a way to make the ending different. That's one of my favorite incredibly stupid things that has been happening lately. When Game of Thrones ended and there was this petition that was going around that was asking to redo the final season of Game of Thrones with better writers that would be more satisfying to the fans and every step of the way fans were like we're up to 118,000 signatures we're up to

200,000 signatures we're up to 8 million signatures like as if there's going to be a fucking number that's going to matter you goons you idiots like who would that petition possibly be for that HBO is like well well, there's. I hope no 200,000 people are listening.

But that HBO would suddenly be like, oh, wow. 700,000 people didn't like the finale. Well, then for heaven's sakes, let's spend another 400 million dollars making this show again to appease this small group of people. I don't know. Like, I just don't understand the thought process of an audience member that is that entitled that they think like, like I understand being let down by a finale. You can be let down and you can voice those concerns and you can even write an article or a book about how you think it should have ended.

even write an article or a book about how you think it should have ended. But the idea that if you rally enough support, you will convince the creators of the show to do it differently is insane to me. Yeah. That you're going to change history somehow. It's the same thing's happening with star Wars. Even though I guess last Jedi doesn't really qualify as a finale. It's still the people are like,

they see something in a piece of pop culture that they they don't they don't like for whatever reason and they're like no well we're the audience we're the ones that matter the the customer is always right and we say change yeah and like that sort of entitlement is brand new i would say of like the last 10 years and i it's possible i'm trying to like think of where it was born from i I think it's when you start giving an audience, any power over the story, the guy who wrote the Martian, which is a book that then became a movie with Matt Damon. He's a guy who released that chapter by chapter online. And he would do it very openly saying, if I get anything wrong here, I want to know and I'll fix it. And so there were a lot of scientists reading it. There were

physicists reading it and people were physicists reading it. And people were like, oh yeah, this doesn't really, this wouldn't actually happen on Mars. And he'd be like, okay. So he'd change it. And he gave them a lot of power with that. I think something like Firefly, when Firefly was canceled and then the fans all rallied and made it become a real thing again,

made it become a movie. That was suddenly you're giving fans a lot of power. And that felt really good in the moment. And everyone's like, yes, this is a good direction we're headed. And now I think we're seeing the pendulum sort of swing in the other direction where it's like, no, these people don't deserve a lot of this power. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's a, a lot of this is internet and these fan campaigns. And like you're, like you said, we're going to get Firefly. We're going to make that Serenity, or you're going to, uh, have a Kickstarter that's going to make this movie. And I think a side effect of that is fans donate money for this

Kickstarter. And then the people who make the movie are like, now I want to hear from the fans and I want to incorporate that. And that inflates fan sense of responsibility or influence on a property where just the fact that they like it means that they're in charge of shaping it, which isn't necessarily true and it can't be true. And I think it's not actually what fans want if they dig deep down inside, but it's all just symptomatic of the internet where you get a little bit of access and a little bit of influence. And now it's like, no, it's not enough that I brought back Firefly and Serenity now I want

it to be the story that I want it to be and I want to decide how Game of Thrones ends and I deserve that because I like this thing yeah it was I don't there's some weird mergence with slash fiction maybe it's like being Twilight

Twilight was slash i'm saying that right you are yeah yes sometimes i'm really focusing on sometimes you say it toilet but but you did it right yeah oh my god it's like don't get in your head or anything as a quick side note i use my son goes the sun going down and i said yeah it's toilet and uh and and he goes toilet and i was like oh fuck i do say it weird uh and uh so i it may have been that where there was like this uh marrying of slash fiction with an original property where like slash fish fiction gained some credibility and everyone was like no there you can tell a really good story in this sort of expanded universe designed by the fans.

And, or maybe it was shades of gray. I can't remember which one started as slash fiction, but, um, 50 shades of gray. Yeah. I guess that's right.

It wasn't twilight. 50 shades of gray started as toilet fan fiction. And then they, they changed a couple of names and made it not vampires. Got it. Okay, yeah. So that slash fiction can gain some power and some recognition as a real art form in the world. Felt like it jumpstarted a lot of this where people start to think, yeah, the fans should get to decide what direction this goes.

And it's like, no no i mean you you like this property originally because somebody was telling a good story let them tell that story like you're once you want to tell a good story maybe people will pay to see that right it's it's this will feel like i'm this is probably an unpopular opinion of our audience why which i imagine is mostly just like the very, well-meaning fan folks. But I strongly resent the idea of like the democratization of script writing, the idea that like, well, we got enough signatures. We've got a lot of people that agree that this is where the story should go. And it's like, that's not how stories should be written i'm really sorry i i agree with

democracy in most cases but not in the case where where you're saying this property that already existed that you liked you are now deciding you're in control of i i i i don't buy that like like and what are you getting out of it where's's the surprise in that? Part of the appeal of reading or watching a piece of media or a story or narrative is that you're going to get something new out of it as opposed to something you already created. The artist isn't reading their own work and being like, fuck yeah. I don't know what an audience expects from that. If they're telling the story themselves. Right. I would never write anything that was.

Who's that for was i i i'm at chapter eight of a 10 chapter novel that i planned and then i'm like all right now what do you guys think i don't know i got us here what do you guys how should i wrap this up i would never do that uh that said i think uh last season of Game of Thrones sucked fucking ass. I guess there's a, yeah, it did. They just sort of checked out. They did. And because, so scripts that are nominated for Emmys become like public domain. So you can like see, they put the Iron Throne, which the finale of Game of Thrones.

They put that script on the Internet. You could just like find it right now. You can go and read the entire script. And I feel like you can see from reading it how checked out the writers were. And the ringer dot com has an article that did a good job digging into it. That is just a close reading of the game of thrones series finale script and there are parts where they just write in like the stage directions like brand says something brand uh says something strange and then stage direction is like tyrian thought that was a weird thing to say but the new king is weird anyway like they just like there's no movement to explain anything

there's like they they were admitting this thing that they wrote makes no sense but that's okay they've just decided it's all right that it makes no sense because it's bran and who cares yeah the characters are the characters are built let them story now. And, and maybe we don't understand it all. I, I mean, that's fine. There's, and I think criticism of that is great and healthy and good.

Like everyone can do that, but the, the effort to rewrite it as something else. Certainly. So baffling to me. There was a, I can't remember what show it was, but there was a,

someone was talking about one of the creators was talking about because they release it in like a non-binge mode so they release it weekly that a lot of the like crazy reddit and subreddit fan theories were like really good ideas and they were like yeah we were like these these ideas are pretty good like these are better than some more ideas i hate that so much because i think that like you're not gonna that you're not getting like whatever the vision of the person who wrote it in the first place is yeah you're getting like someone else's take on it yeah you're through the looking glass at that point as soon as you start writing for an audience an audience that's going to be critical

of whatever you do you're fucked like you i don't know if you do this dan but when you write are you writing to somebody individually who you respect are you writing something like i think they would like this or are you writing to like cover your ass against people who might take shots at or try and poke holes in it oh of those choices certainly the former yeah i'm yeah me too and you can see how damaging it is from people and we we've known people who have written to what they think might be the hypothetical straw man audience who is like, ready to hate them. And it's like, it just ruins a piece. I was writing an article about presidents. It was the five most baddest presidents of all time. It was a big article for me and for the site at the time. And I was taking a very long time to write it. I was still new for writing for an audience.

And Jack was like, hey, where's this article? What's going on? And I was explaining to him. I was like, well, I'm worried they're going to say, I'm worried commenters are going to say this. So I'm trying to preempt that argument. And I'm trying to do this. I'm trying to do that. And he was like, well, I'm worried they're going to say, I'm worried commenters are going to say this. So I'm trying to preempt that argument and I'm trying to do this. I'm trying to do that. And it's like, it's like, ignore them. Don't, don't, don't write for the people who are going to poke holes in it right now. Don't write for the people

who are going to find something wrong with it. Just write the thing that you want and give it to me tonight. And so I did that. And then it became a very huge article because Jack is very bright. And I've sort of used that to guide a lot of my writing since then yeah that's that's really good I always yeah I think on writing Stephen King said like yeah you write for somebody that you respect write for one person and if that one person likes it then it's a success I try to write for for either someone in my family or if I'm not thinking of a specific person, like a hypothetical person who is slightly smarter than me. Someone who is exactly as smart as me but a little bit more and I'm trying to impress them with writing.

That's my brother. I write for my brother. I'm like, I know he's a better writer than me. I know he's funnier than me. I'm going to write something that I think is going to impress him. That's what I aim for. I also, it goes against the crack disease that you and I both have, which is you watch something. No, it's our bones. Our bones are full of cracks. Our crack disease, yeah. These wandering bones.

the the disease that you'll never get rid of which is you watch something or you read a book and you see it in a weird element something that stands out as seems seemingly very wrong and your first instinct is to try and figure out why that was included just assume it's intentional and how does it make the story better and then you do do the work of figuring out how that's actually better for the story. Yeah. And it just feels like it's so much lazier to just see something weird, and instead of trying to do that work and trying to treat it like a college essay,

instead they're being like, I don't like it, get rid of it. That element sucks. Yeah. I mean, I'm agreeing with you. You're 100% right. Do you have any questions for me while we're doing this podcast? Yes, I do.

I have a quick question for you, Dan. Do you give your dog pep talks when no one else is around? I do. I absolutely do. Well, what do you mean pep talks? I think it's pretty common for pet owners and also i would do this with my child when he was just a baby and couldn't possibly understand like it's rare that i need to hype him up for anything he doesn't he doesn't have a lot of events but i just mean like you let that like you're trying to build your dog's confidence up.

Yeah. And you're just like, you're going to tell him how handsome he is. I will do. You're going to tell him. So what I do, uh, and I do it in public too,

cause I have, I have no shame about talking to either myself or my dog in public. Uh, and we do it on walks a lot where they're very long. Are you familiar, uh, with shaggy Dog Stories? Is that scanned for you? No.

No? Oh, so it's like, it's interesting. It's like a literary thing. It's sort of a commentary on jokes and comedy. It plays with the expectations that the audience will have on what a joke is going to be. It's very often, the hall will have on what a joke is going to be. It's very often the hallmarks are, it's a long story with a lot of details and it usually culminates with, um, like an anti-climax. And, uh, let's watch an example. Like, so the reason that it's called

Shaggy Dog, uh, apocryphally is that there's a story, this, this boy in this town. So he's got this dog, right? And it's very, very shaggy. It's, uh, probably the shaggiest dog I've ever seen. It's got like really shaggy hair. Uh, its name is Steven, which is a fun name for a dog. And the boy thinks he's alone and noticing how shaggy it is. And then someone else in the town was like, that's a pretty shaggy dog. And the boy's like, right. Oh my God, you're right. That is a shaggy dog. So the boy decides to, uh, enter it in a competition, like a local, just like a town competition for the shaggiest dog. He reads in the newspaper that there's a shaggy dog competition. So he goes and he enters his dog in this shaggy dog competition. He enters Steven in the shaggy dog competition.

And he comes in first place. And it's like not even fucking close. He runs away with it. And then he goes to the mayor and he was like, did you see my dog in the paper? It's pretty cool. He won this competition. And the mayor was like, yeah, you should enter him in a few more competitions. And so he enters in, I believe it's regionals next.

And so he enters in, I believe it's regionals next. And then it's like the whole of the northeast corridor. He enters and he wins all those times. And there's like fucking stories about this dog. It's so shaggy. Steve and the Shaggy Dog and all these papers. And then the boy enters him. There's like the world competition for the shaggiest dog. And the boy, I remember i told you the boy's name the boy's name is byron it's not important but his

name is byron he's eight years old he's got a shaggy dog steven steven's such a good boy enters him in the world competition goes to the judge and the judge says it's not that shaggy those are shaggy dog stories very long stories with lots of detail and the end is is no payoff whatsoever yeah okay so that's the kind of thing that i do with jackson like the end is always the same and they're and they're more pleasant than that but it's always i'll be walking him and be like listen jackson i just got off the phone with with this newspaper. They wanted a comment from me. They did this study. It was born out of, I mean, originally they're trying to match a study that they did in England. There's this study in Oxford about Britain's best little boys.

And we wanted to recreate that study in America. And so they talked to some folks at Harvard, and they talked to some folks at Princeton, and they talked to some folks at Rutgers, which is sort of like the Princeton of New Jersey. And we gathered all of this information. And we talked to scientists and doctors and astronauts, and they just found out it's you, you're the best boy, jackson you're the best boy in the world that's wonderful i did that with uh my nephew and godson murphy when i live with my brother and sister-in-law too that i would see him every morning for breakfast and we and this wasn't telling him he was the best boy but it was still like a very long story that was like

murphy i got god listen i got some terrible news I went to my doctor yesterday on the way home from work and he said that like everything's everything can be fine it's bad right now it's it's rough I'm just like my teeth are loose and some of my hair is falling out and like my my eyes are different color than they're supposed to be because it turns out I, my, my doctor, uh, who's a woman by the way, she said that, uh, I'm not getting enough toes in my diet. And then I pretend to eat his toes. Yeah. Every morning was a different long walk to get to. I eat his toes.

It's just another shaggy dog yeah those are i think those are wonderful do you do you say anything to your dog before you leave the apartment each day like do you tell him what's happening that day i tell him i love him and to let me know if there are any phone calls yeah it's pretty good pretty good what one of my favorite bits was uh do you even have a landline wait do you have a landline? I do, yes. Okay. And when I come home at the end of the day, I ask him, what did you do today?

Or tell me about your day. But she can't because he's a dog. Yeah, no, I get it. Another one of my favorite bits, we talked about this off mic that I had a friend from Brazil who was staying with me for a while and she exclusively talks to him in Portuguese. And it's one of my favorite bits and I love it so much.

He's just been waiting all this time to have somebody he could communicate with. That's great. Yeah, when my son was a baby, I would have like long heart to hearts with him. Like sincere ones or bit ones? Bit ones. was a baby i would have like long heart-to-hearts with him like since things he can't possibly understand bit ones but but they're like partially bit and also partially like look these are these are like words you could live by where i would be i would go on walks with him all the time where he'd be on my chest because when you're with a baby that's like three months old you're kind of cooped up in your house there's not a lot of places you can go. And so we go on lots and lots of walks.

And so I would take him on a walk every once in a while. And so when you say you do walks and he's on your chest, you're doing a crab walk and he's just sitting on your chest, right? Is that correct? Sitting upright. Yeah, he could sit upright at a very early age and balance very well. And I walk around like the exorcist girl. Yes, good.

While we're walking, I would tell him, Ronan, the only things you have to worry about in the world is that you have to be brave and smart and kind. And that's it. And I'd be like, if you can be all those things, you will be successful in your entire life. And if you're ever in a situation where you don't know what to do and you have two different directions you could go, choose whichever one will force you to be brave and smart and kind. And like that kind of stuff that he couldn't possibly understand. The one that he picked up on, though, was over time, because now he can talk, is he picked up on brave. He liked the idea of that. And so now when he's like he goes to swim class sometimes at daycare at tuesdays and thursdays in the summer they go to swim class and he's very nervous about

getting his head in the water and just that he's a little smaller than some of the other kids and so i'll like i'll pull him aside before school and i'll i'll be like just if you're ever nervous while you're there just remember you're the bravest boy on the block. Oh, and the block, that's like, that's the only region that's as big as the universe is. So he has an idea of your block as the end all be all of existence. That's what I, I mean, surely he knows there's bigger things than that, but I think it's, I've always thought it was really fun to just have it be that. Like I'll tell him that he's my favorite boy on the block or yeah he's the bet that i love him more than any other kid on the block right just so he knows that when you travel

as a family he's got to step his game up a little bit yeah um just because it's it's fun for me and uh and so yeah i'll tell him he's the bravest boy on the block. And I'm like, and if you're scared, you tell yourself, I'm brave. Say it right now with me. And he'll be like, I'm brave. And I'll be like, no, yell it. And now when he, if there's ever a circumstance, sometimes I'll like be around him where I can tell that he's anxious. And I'll see him to himself go, I'm brave. And I love it. And I'll get him to shout it sometimes and it really doesn't

help him i you'll see him like i'll be like are you ready to go to school now he's like yeah like he's on board with it he's ready to do it he's gonna like terrify uh other kids when they start playing sports you're lining up against him he just stares at you and yells I'm brave. Just getting in someone's face. I'm the bravest boy on the block, motherfucker. Who are you? Who am I? I'm the bravest boy on the block. You don't know who you're messing with.

There's nobody on the block braver than me. House is 1755 down to 1647. I'm the bravest of all of them. Yeah, and then I'll also occasionally tell him I'm down to 1647. I'm the bravest of all of them. Yeah. And then I'll also occasionally tell him if he seems anxious about something, I'll tell him that he can do anything because he's a buoy, which is something that my dad used to tell me. And it's nonsense. But when I was young, it felt really it's felt like that.

That worked for you when you were young. Yeah. Yeah, it did. That somehow that we were different. Yeah. Yeah, it did. That somehow that we were different. And I think that that's like a, it seems sort of elitist, but I think it's really important in a family that like you establish that your family is different.

Like your family is, what you guys have is better or you're, you're, you're better. I don't want to say you're better than other people, but like that you're, you're doing it right. And that your family is, you have a lot of responsibility in that, but you're doing it right and that your family is you have a lot of responsibility in that but you're just better you're better we did that too like it was never articulated as better and like same as yours you didn't your father didn't articulate it as you're you're better but it was a certain different distinction with us it was whenever my brothers and i would fight or argue my dad would very clearly set us

aside and be like we don't fight your best friends we don't fight and it was like there was something that was uh subliminally subconsciously put in our brains it was like oh yes we are the family that doesn't fight we are the we are the brothers that stick together and look after each other. Yeah. They're like the we're doing it right idea. There's the book by Coren McCarthy called On the Road. Nope. That's Kerouac. There's a book called The Road by Coren McCarthy

and in that the kid keeps asking his dad like we're the good guys? He's like yeah we're the good guys. And that's kind of how it feels. The sentiment that I'm trying to give to my child is like no we're the good guys and he's like yeah we're the good guys and that's kind of how it feels the sentiment that i'm trying to give to my child it's like no we're we're the good guys we're doing it right we're gonna do it right you can follow my lead it's fine we're you're not lost out here like there is this beacon ahead of you that's like this will be your guiding light as long as you're brave and smart and kind or like you live your life in this particular way like you're going to be okay.

Hey Soren, quick question. Go ahead. Do you have any positive stereotypes? Completely rooted in... No, they're all bad. Rooted in nothing. I

take you for some time. My illustrative example, I have not looked into this. I don't know why I think this, I could make up an excuse if I wanted to, but I don't feel like it is that if I come across someone who, uh, is not hearing impaired and is not related to someone hearing impaired and is not in the field of dealing with people who are hearing impaired, but they know sign language, I broadly assume that they are a better kind of person, better than people who don't. Like if I saw someone who just independently decided I'm going to learn sign language because, uh, it doesn't come up too often. It's not as common as like knowing Spanish in New York as a second language,

but it's something that might come up. And if it does, I want to, I want to learn this so I can make someone who needs it feel like they have more connection. I would think that person also fucking recycles and remembers birthdays and tips well, and all the other things that I have decided to make a good person. Like I, I, if I see someone doing sign language, I'm like, here are the keys to my apartment. You seem trustworthy. Yeah. Will you be my emergency contact?

No, I feel that. I feel, because what it says about you, it does feel like it does a lot of, it's a shorthand for another long walk, which is, this is a good person, I think yeah if they're willing to do that i don't think there's anyone who would learn sign languages like to turn it into a a scheme or a con of some kind yeah or even to pick up right i can't possibly foresee a circumstance in which that would work unless like that's who you're aiming for you're really into siren from gladiators in the 1990s uh yeah i've got i've got i definitely

have one that i can think of off the top of my head at um fly fishermen i assume that they are as wise as owls okay no i i assume that they are these like stoic rocks of wisdom that the water just parts around like they're there's something maybe it's from uh the river what's that river runs through yeah river runs through it with the idea and i didn't even watch that whole fucking movie or read the book but just like the sentiment that flavor has stuck with me which is like these these sage men connected to the other end of a line with this with an animal and like what that means and the patience that it takes to be out there and you're out there on like this peaceful river you you've made this choice you're either there in the evening at dusk or in the morning so like it's a real endeavor to to do it and the the craftsmanship

that goes into tying the flies and getting the the motion right and everything it's this hobby that feels so sageful to me yeah yeah they all seem like they're the smartest people like whenever there's my my instincts i have two instincts whenever something terrible terrible happens in society the first one is where is, where are the police? The police should handle this. The police are the good guys, which is leftover from my childhood. And then the other one is, well, why don't we ask fly fishermen what they think? Let them make the decisions.

That's right. We haven't had a good president fly fisherman in a very long time. And I think we're due for one. Who's like, oh, I'm going to just go out in the river and wait for one fish, hopefully. And I might spend eight hours and catch nothing. They bring their vests or their little tiny fanny packs. There's not enough room in there to catch a bunch. They're catching one thing. A lot of times they're just releasing them anyway but there's something about the polished craftman

craftsmanship of like the polished work of the hand motion getting the fly just right and coming home fruitless so frequently i feel like that would just make you wise just careful diligent work for work's sake. Yeah. And I, yeah, I, you know, I kind of feel the same way about climbers too, but that's actually, I mean, that's born in something. I used to rock climb a lot. I'm planning on talking to you about climbing for a future episode.

Oh, you are? Okay, we'll save it then. Bacon, do you have any positive stereotypes? Putting you right on the spot. I can't also say fly fisherman. I do think I want to, I can't think of one right now, but I do think, Dan, yours is, I think, a very good one because I feel the same way about it.

And I think it's because there's not much to gain by learning sign language if you don't know someone that that needs to know sign language there's not a way to like monetize it no and you won't be stuck in another country where it will suddenly become useful yeah it's a very it's like only meant to help people and it and also it's like a different um you're not easily learning sign language because you know like you can can learn Italian and because you know Spanish. So it shows like a lot of effort to do something that's very considerate that you're not going to gain, take personal gain from. Yeah.

That's, I mean, I'll tell you one more, Dan, that's completely irrational. People who can sing, like really sing really well I feel like are touched by providence like they were chosen and that they're just like they're the elves of our of our middle earth like they're better people there's a lot because there's a lot in that as far as I don't sing I'm not a I, it, it looks like magic to me. And some people are born with it. Like there's just a raw talent in them. I guess training also goes a long way with it as well.

You could probably train your way into being a good singer, but the fact that there are some people who are just, it's innate in them. Like the music and rhythm is innate in them. I'm like, that person is magic. There's a magic to it. And way that I can carry a tune, but I'm not a great singer.

I don't have a pleasant sounding voice. It's much like what I'm doing right now, but at more assaulting pitches. But I have friends that are singer singers with pleasant voices, like the magic that you're talking about. My friend Susan is such a person and she is a teacher and she just like doesn't sing in class and doesn't sing in front of her coworkers. And to me, that's like, it's like a crime. Like she's,

it's like she has this superpower that, that no one around her knows that she has. And I feel like I wouldn't be a strong enough or big enough person if I had a voice as good as she did. Everyone would fucking know it. Everyone on the planet. Yeah. And she just walks around the street and no one knows that she has this gift inside of her that she can just do whenever she wants. Yeah, there's this humbleness to it that I don't possess.

If I had a superpower i would not choose to do that they're that it's true and they can but they're capable of creating these really magical moments like you hear somebody who's a really good singer singing to a child and you're like holy shit why aren't you doing that all the time yeah why i get to have this i get to be part i didn't even buy tickets for this. Does the governor know you can do that? And I just

assume that they're good people. The people who can sing, I'm like, what? They can do no wrong. If they're humble enough to keep that under wraps. Alright. Well, I think we've covered a lot today. This is a pretty wholesome sweet episode right yeah i think we can have these every once in a while i think yeah there's one for us one for them you know uh i need to forgive me i need to to

track i i wrote the the social accounts down on this piece of paper i sealed it up in an envelope and i i i put it in my lockbox, but the combination to open the lockbox I have to go into my old Game Boy and see what I used to put my high score saved in a game in this Game Boy so I can get the password from there to open the lockbox to get the social accounts. And in the meantime, while I'm doing all that on the subject of the terror attacks of September 11th, Mark Wahlberg quite famously said in a 2012 Men's Journal interview promoting his new movie Contraband, quote, if I was on the plane with my

kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first class cabin. And then me saying, okay, we're going to land somewhere safely don't worry, end quote. Dude, that's such a good Wolverine. That's like being able to sing. That was magic. I know that you, Sorin, you also went on record as to what you would do

were you on one of those planes but I can't for the life of me find out, find where that quote was. If you happen to remember what you said, please tell us. Remember, in this situation, it's 9-11 and you're on a plane with Mark Wahlberg and you said you would do what? Yeah. I'm glad you asked because this was on, I put this up on JibJab and it's since disappeared. I don't know why. If I was on that plane with Mark Wahlberg,

I mean, first things first, he and I are making eye contact because we both were on the same page on a lot of things. And he and I, we have these conversations with each other just through our eyes. And I would be like looking at him, but at the same time, I'm slowly moving one of his kids

over out of the seat next to me by the way his kid's sitting next to me because he trusts me to sit next to his other kid just like keep him in line and uh I'd be like moving that kid's head off my shoulder because he's asleep during this and uh getting it over to the side and then slowly pulling out my sunglasses. And I'm going to put those on. Then it's important that I log into the Wi-Fi through the plane. The Boingo hotspot? Yeah. Yep.

Famously reliable Boingo hotspot. Yes. yeah yep famously reliable boingo hotspot yes i'm going to go into spotify and i'm going to play hip to be square by huey lewis in the news i'm going to wait through the commercial that starts out before it you don't pay for that then as soon as hip to be square those first guitarists come in i'm jumping out of my seat the the seat belt light's still on i don't give give a shit. I'm undoing my seatbelt. I'm jumping out of my seat. I'm going over first things first, high-fiving Mark Wahlberg.

Then he and I are running both hands together into the first terrorist. Now we're going at such a high speed that we're cutting him directly in half. We're not just knocking him down. Mid-torso just torn directly in half. And we're just dangling this spine between our hands. At this point, we've developed sort of a gallop together.

And I fall into line behind him. We morph into what is more or less a human horse. And we trample the next guy. Are you still hands together at this point? No, no, no. But there was an energy there that we're going to talk about later.

So you trample the next guy. We trample him, yeah. We've been lifting weights so much together that our hands are like these calloused hooves and we're just trampling the next guy we make our way through, ah fuck are there nine guys eleven, I can't remember how many guys

you can't remember if it's nine or eleven the next thing I'm doing I'm taking the box cutter off the ground from this terrorist that we just trampled and I'm waiting until the terrorists all kind of line up and then I'm throwing it through them. Through like something soft, like their skulls.

Sure. It's just going through each one of their skulls and doing the most damage. And like sticking in a wall going. And then from that point, you see the window start to crack below it. Oh no. And the window breaks open, but everybody is already in their seat belts except marky and i and uh and so they're all

being they're they're not getting sucked out but the terrorists have been standing up this whole time and so they all of them get sucked out of this window this tiny little window and you can just see like guts coming out of their mouths and stuff. And it's real cool. And hit to be square comes to a finale comes to an end. I jump at the window and with just one mass, massive muscular thigh, I block the suction out of the plane and everybody's saved standing ovations around.

I pull the rest of my sunglasses out, throw them onto the faces of everyone in the audience. Cause at this point it's an audience. And then, uh, he and I do a rendition of fuck. Good vibrations.

There it is. Soren. I gotta be honest. Yeah. No notes. Sorin I gotta be honest no notes you can find Sorin at Sorin underscore LTD on Twitter

you can find me on Twitter at DOB underscore INC you can find Bacon at MakeMeBaconPlease that's exactly as you'd expect it to be spelled except please is PLS and it's all one word you can email us at QQ withinanddaniel at gmail.com. You can find the show on Twitter at twitter.com slash qq underscore Sorin and Dan.

You can find us on Instagram at qq underscore with underscore Sorin underscore and underscore Daniel. You can reach out to Vincent, who records and edits and engineers all of our podcasts. You really, you can't know just how many things I get wrong that Vincent corrects at the beginning of every single episode starts with me being like, I put the microphone in my mouth,

I swallowed it accidentally, and then I FaceTime Vincent and he fixes everything for me. So really, he deserves a lot of credit. You can get him at SiliconBeachPodcasts.com and we also have a Patreon that you can find probably by just Googling Patreon, quick question, Soren Daniel. Unless there's a more efficient way, Bacon.

No, that's the best way. That's the best way. No mistakes. Namaste. No mistakes. And namaste no mistakes and namaste to you Bacon okay Bacon do you want to

do you want to do you want to say our closing word because you're going to be gone for the next couple of weeks no you guys are going to do a great job

and I'm sad that I'm going to miss hearing you guys chat and being buds for a couple of weeks. Okay. Very sweet. Do you want to say our closing word? Because you're going to be gone for the next couple of weeks. Like the last,

the word that we say that ends the show. Uh, yeah. Quack, quack. Fuck. Bye. Bye.

Oh, bye.