Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
an idea.
Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through the.
Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I
tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because.
Speaker 3: I put my hand on a book and made a wish.
Speaker 1: And working together for a more rational world.
Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.
Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
Speaker 2: So I was trying to figure out how to mark
this late milestone podcast number eight hundred. This broadcast had
been on the air off and on for fifteen years sixteen.
We started in twenty ten, so that's almost fifteen years.
And I went on Facebook and I made an informal
poll who would you like to hear or who should
I invite as a guest, And a surprising number of
people said, grab your wife because we want to ask
your questions. Okay, fine, that's what we did. FYI. About
five minutes into our discussion, we were talking about Linus
going to the vet, and we found out after the fact,
so I just want you to know. The doc said
it was arthritis, probably rooted to the injury that he
had when he broke his paw in a door a
couple of years ago, and so he is on medication
for that paw and he seems to be doing better.
So just havey I if you would like to watch
the interview instead of just listen. There was a YouTube
link in the description box of the show. Today's broadcast
is going to be really about what do you want
to ask? You can ask me, You can ask Natalie.
I throw myself at her disposal and the title I said,
ask Natalie almost anything. So there will be a boundary, right,
I mean if somebody gets inappropriate, right, Yeah? I mean
I trust you with that. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Do I mean to be honest or you want me
to know what you'd be honest?
Speaker 2: But I mean if somebody asked something that's kind of
you know, private or too private. We need a safe word.
What's the safe word?
Speaker 4: Do you want to say? Our real safe work? It's pineapple?
Speaker 2: Pineapple. We saw this on a show somewhere where when
somebody had a safe word. What was it? It was
Steve Irwin and there was a guy who was on
his show and he was handling an animal. He said,
how do I know you're genuinely afraid or when you're
just acting? We need a safe word, and the guy
I said, my safe word is pineapple, and so ever since,
our safe word is pineapple. So if anything happens, you
got to say the word pineapple. Okay, all right? So anyway,
I had a few questions on the Facebook page, and
they were, as I'm waiting for the switchboard to populate,
when Seth turned this is Daria. When Seth turns his
radio voice in your direction, what's he usually begging for?
All right? Hear me? Love me?
Speaker 4: So we call this it is his radio voice, but
I also call it his working voice, his work in
it voice, And it's usually when he's trying to convince
me of his idea. He wants me to see the
things the way that he sees it, so he'll turn
on his work in a.
Speaker 2: Voice, change my voice when I'm trying to be convincing.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm, it goes a little bit lower, a little
bit softer, a little bit slower. They know what I'm
talking about, yet.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not that I'm being disingenuous, am I.
I mean, I'm speaking from a point of sincerity.
Speaker 4: I think you're just trying to convince.
Speaker 2: Well, that's true. Who wouldn't want to convince somebody else
at their point of view? But you're saying that I
go into performance some kind of a.
Speaker 4: Mm hmmm, Yeah, there's a performance a little bit.
Speaker 2: I'm all self conscious. I'm all self conscious. I'm having
to lean into the frame. We don't have a whole
lot of room in our chairs are bumping, so she
and I are getting a shoulder to shoulder. Let's see
how is Linus doing? Laurie, thank you for the question.
You want to tell the story. Linus started to act
really funny a couple of days ago. He's a little
seven eight pound multi Pooh rescue and he is our world,
Linus and Gracie, and he all of a sudden started
to just glaze over. His eyes looked not right. I
don't know how would you describe his expression.
Speaker 4: He looked like he was in pain. He was he
was standing on all four limbs, but he was kind
of hunched over, kind of like he had abdominal pain.
He just he's just not quite right.
Speaker 2: He was he looked stiff, like he was using economy
with his movement. And when we were walking, he normally
he's bouncing around the neighborhood and he's sort of cock
of the walk and he's the biggest dog on the street,
even though he's a tiny little hairdresser dog. And this
time he was more. He was sort of one and done,
and you could tell he wasn't quite himself. We took
him to the vet. He's not quite back, but he's better.
I mean, that's fair right to me. He's but we're
still watching him really closely.
Speaker 4: But okay, these questions are cracking me up. You got
to go back up to Colorado Biker. Yes, he is
trying to smooth talk.
Speaker 2: I think you're going to be blushing in a few minutes.
Speaker 4: Some of look pale. Pineapple on pizza for sure.
Speaker 2: Does Natalie like pineapple on pizza?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't it be a legitimatey? A it is A
it is, Katie says, manipulative Yello, Well, I'm not manipult
Well I'm not manipulating. I'm convincing, and I think there's
a difference. But thank you, kind of like begging smooth
talk smooth talking, says Colorado biker. Oh, there's a super chat,
and thank you for the support of this channel. With
your super chats, I will make sure and read all
of those. For that gorgeous wife of yours. She has
the better hair dye.
Speaker 4: So I'll tell you something about Seth that he does
not understand. He does not understand the prices of women's hair,
expensive handbags, perfume, the girly things, the things that we like.
So I keep trying to tell them you need to
go get your hair colored. If you don't like the gray.
I like the gray. I think it looks smart.
Speaker 2: People try to make you feel better because they say silver. Right,
it's silver, the silverfox.
Speaker 4: You know it looks good. But he won't go get
it done.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a slippery slope. First of all, once you
dye it, then you're dying it forever, and everybody knows
you dyet because all of a sudden your gray hair disappeared.
They're like, oh, yes, that dyed his hair. It's like
when somebody walks into a room with a bad two pay.
Who's that comedian Chris Porter who said, if you're wearing
a two pay, just know that no one has heard
a word you've said ever right, because they're looking at
your head. And I've always thought, well, I'm not that
self conscious. And secondly, what happens if you get the
color on? Because an unnatural color is just just a
big flashing no no, So how do I prevent that?
Because I'm not going to do the mail order.
Speaker 4: No, I think you have to go to the salon.
I think you have to get it done professionally by
somebody who understands gray and his hair. It's going to
cost you more than ten dollars for the haircut.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm seth. I'm in a midlife crisis. Can you
make me look like Hugh Jackman? Here is my money?
Is that what you're saying.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to say thank you, doctor Andy for
the kind compliment. Oh, it's really good, it's really nice.
Speaker 2: He does give bored a lot.
Speaker 4: I think he is somebody who is always has to
have input, so his brain is always kind of going,
and I'm in the exact opposite. I need a lot
of downtime. So I think I bore him sometimes when I, oh.
Speaker 2: No, you don't bore me. It's not that I have
to be out and active you know those sanguine temperaments,
who are They have to always be in the company people,
and they have to have activities twenty four to seven,
and they're restless all the time. For me, it's more
like I kind of bounce in my chair. Even when
I'm all by myself in the house, I can keep
my own company. But mill of the night, right one
thirty two o'clock, he's up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he'll get up, he'll me and er. He thinks
he's being really quiet. But Seth is a very loud person,
just by default. He breathes loud, he walks loud, cleans
the kitchen, he does clean the kitchen a lot. But
it's loud, so loud that the dogs will retreat because
they get scared of the noises. But really so he'll so,
he'll think he's being really quiet, and he'll try to
tiptoe out one thirty two o'clock in the morning and
he'll shut the door. Or maybe I'm just a really
light sleeper. Maybe that's gaybe that could be it.
Speaker 2: It's me. I'm trying to be gentle. I'm trying to
close doors softly. I'm trying to tiptoe I lay the coffee.
I mean, I get up pre dawn often and I'll
lay the coffee cup just, you know, lightly on the countertop,
but very thoughtful sound carries. I'm not trying to be
loud or noisy. What she really hates is when I
eat tortilla chips, because apparently my head is like a
conk shell.
Speaker 4: It's the loudest thing you will ever hear, Like, I
don't know. It has to be intentional or eating a banana,
like I'm one of those people. And it's not just
seth anybody eating a banana. Really, there's a word for that,
like noises, like chewing noises. I forget what it's called.
Speaker 2: There's a it's not a disorder, it's a condition. I
have that condition characteristic. But yeah, it's true. I can
be in the kitchen, she's on the other side of
the house, and I'm just hungry for tortilla.
Speaker 4: Chips, and I try not to even keep them in
the house.
Speaker 2: After the third one, I just hear in the background,
Oh my god, I get no grace. I get no grace.
Let's see Bobby in Mississippi. We don't safe say Natalie,
it's net Lee. What do you cook when you want
something from.
Speaker 4: Seth oh, not cake?
Speaker 2: Tell them?
Speaker 4: Okay. So yesterday was SE's birthday and we had this
plan we were going to go to it. I was
going to take him to a sushi dinner. I was
going to cook him at a three tier birthday cake.
I'm not a baker. I can cook very well, but
I cannot bake. I don't know why. It's an art form.
So I had this great white cake recipe and we
took all day to make it because you have to
cool the layers before you make the icing. And then
we're going to go to this dog show maybe that
we started talking about at the very beginning of the show.
So the cake turned out really bad. It was like
very very dense. The buttercream icing had split, and I
made like a strawberry preserve and it was too runny.
So as I'm layering the cake, I've got the red,
you know, strawberry in the middle, and I've got the
broken icing in the middle. I was making a naked cake,
if you guys know what that is. It's like where
it's just very limited icing on the outside, only on
the top. And so when I was finished, it looked
like the icing looked like vomit because it had split,
and then the red cherry looked like blood and it
was dribbling all over the side. It was like a
horrific cake.
Speaker 2: It wasn't horrific, it just you know, some time.
Speaker 4: It was really cood.
Speaker 2: The science of baking his heart. I think it's hard
to put stuff agein. But we made it together. And
so it was time in the kitchen and we hung
out and we got to spend the day, and then
we went to the Movi. I mean, it was a
good day, but she beat herself off all freaking day
because of the case.
Speaker 4: It was a bad cake. It was a sad movie.
Speaker 2: It was It was not a sad movie.
Speaker 4: He didn't make it to sushi. I made him a sandwich.
Speaker 2: It was a melancholy movie.
Speaker 4: He had a sandwich birthday.
Speaker 2: Saying with themes about life and love and memory and
regret and see. I go to the movies and I
don't mind leaving a little melancholy as long as the
movie grabbed me by the heart. I want to take
a journey. I want to care, and so I don't.
But she's not that way. I think she wants to
leave more. You want to go and feel better.
Speaker 4: It was a story about an owner's dog who had
passed away and he got rehomed and it's like this
one hundred and fifty pound dollar day and she didn't
know what to do with a dog, and it was just, yeah,
it was a little bit true real, like you think
about what would happen to Linus and Gracie if we died,
and how would they feel like waiting for us by
the door and we never came home, Like it was
that kind of.
Speaker 2: Movie, or the fact that they won't live forever. I
had a moment there where I was like, oh my god,
Linus isn't feeling well, or or.
Speaker 4: If you rescue a dog when they're four or five
years old, then you're looking at them once you fall
in love, like who is your friend when you were
a puppy? Who did you play with? Yeah, and we
have those conversations like I wonder what Gracie was like
as a puppy or yeah, yeah, the mortality of it
and then the price you pay a heavy price for
love and is it worth it?
Speaker 2: And then we came home, we hugged our dogs.
Speaker 4: I love you so much.
Speaker 2: Uh. Miss Aphonia is the word when sounds drive you crazy,
Janet said, I'm a woman and don't understand all that
crap either. If you need it to feel like a
woman or feel good about yourself, you have deeper problem us. Janet. Probably,
so thanks for the kind words, Macho appreciate.
Speaker 4: Blame it on my father.
Speaker 2: Do either of you play musical instruments? Old uncle Bob says,
are you musical? Used to sing?
Speaker 4: So, used to sing in a church choir. I was
back up. I sing just good. I probably couldn't carry
a tune on my own very well, but I can
do some harmony. Seth, and I was a drummer in
the Pride of Broken Ero.
Speaker 2: I thought you were a eighty eight. I thought you
did the rifle.
Speaker 4: I did, so I got bored with drums because I
was the only girl. I was first chair, so that
was cool. I come from a long line of drummers
in my family, so I didn't really read the music well,
but I could remember the you know, the rhythms pretty well,
so that whenever I had to go to try out,
I could, you know, my mom would teach me a
little bit of piano. I could play the chopsticks on
the piano. But Seth, you guys might already know he
plays the piano very beautifully. He can sing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I'm not a singer. I'm a speaker.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I tried to sing a long time ago, but I
just don't have that ability. I played a little bit
by ear. I didn't have the patience for music lessons.
I used to go to piano lessons and we were
looking at I was looking at the chords and you know,
the trouble cleft and the bass cleft and all of this,
and I didn't have patience. And again, I'm vibrating in
my chair, and I just wanted to play what I
wanted to play, freestyle, and I had not much discipline.
I do regret that. I do wish I could go
back and be, you know, a kid again and pay
more attention. Does that make sense? I probably like how
you would approach college if you blew off college when
you were nineteen, but then you were twenty nine and
you thought, wow, you know, I would do it differently now.
I mean that's fair, isn't it. Colorado Biker said, I
used to be a professional chef. I could give you lessons.
Baking is an art and a science. Don't be sad.
It takes years to get good at So you.
Speaker 4: Know, when we were baking the cake, we were doing
the measurements. That's exact same that that we said. You know,
baking as a science, you had to get everything perfectly measured,
and it just felt like it was going so well.
The cake smelled amazing in the oven, and then when
it all came together, it was just I mean, the
cake went into the trash, that's how bad it was.
Wish I could share a picture.
Speaker 2: I've got an open switchboard and if anybody wants to
dial in, the phone number is in the show notes
or the description box. You can also do a web
call with that link. I'm going to try Nancy at
every coach seven zero two. Nancy, are you with us?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 6: Hi, Seth Hi Natalie.
Speaker 2: How are you both turned down your radio or whatever
it is? I'm hearing some delay there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, hang on one moment.
Speaker 2: You're fine, take your time?
Speaker 6: Is that better?
Speaker 2: It is better? Nancy? What's on your mind? What do
you want to talk about?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 6: I just wanted to say hi to Natalie. It's nice
to get the opportunity to speak with you, since we
don't get to hear from you. Too often.
Speaker 3: Hi, I'm answer my question for you. How are you.
Speaker 2: Every day's Christmas when you live with me? Nancy? I'm
just I just want to throw that out there.
Speaker 4: I did have that in my notes he gave me, So.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, what's your question?
Speaker 6: No, I just wanted to know. I wanted to know
what was the biggest surprise about getting to know Seth.
Speaker 2: I'm interested in this A good question.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to think about that for a minute.
The biggest surprise about getting to know him, So Seth
and I before we got married, we had lived together.
Can I say that, you guys aren't going to judge.
We live together for many many years because we had
the divide of belief systems and just making sure that
we could coexist and be respectful of each other's, you know,
life choices and thoughts and ideas. I think the biggest
thing that surprised me the most was so we played
tennis together, and when we first met, we met on
the tennis court. He was a pretty good tennis player,
still is. But I think the biggest thing that surprised
me was, you know, he had tennis elbow surgery and
then when he came back from that he wasn't very good.
Speaker 2: So and I'm a.
Speaker 4: Little bit competitive, like when it comes to board games
and cards and tennis un less so now because my name,
my game's not that very not good anymore either.
Speaker 2: But really, this is the thing. She's waiting for, some
deep relational revelation. And you're like, he sucked after he
had his elbow operated.
Speaker 4: At but I'm telling you it was it was like
a big it was a big change. And so he
he and I would play, you know, for for a
tennis team, for like a ust A tennis team together,
and he started out and like, you know how big
a tennis court is, Like all you have to hit
at the spot this big in the tennis court. Really
and kind of he would go through this we call
him Bunch, We would he would go through this thing
where every ball was out like and so finally I'd
be like, you just need to pick one little spot
in this big blue field. Like it's harder to hit
the ball out than it would be to hit So
that was kind of surprising.
Speaker 2: See, I was waiting for some that's some really rich insight.
And you're like, you're talking about my tennis game. I
just didn't expect that.
Speaker 4: So so honestly, when when Seth and I first met,
he did not he did not not disclose that he
was an atheist. And you have to remember back at
that time, I, you know, years before, I was at
a big megachurch in our local town and you know,
we taught there. We very very involved and you know,
we were taught atheist eight babies and like we didn't
know any I'm in the Bible belt of Oklahoma. There
are no atheists, right, and so he was. I remember
we were talking and he was telling me, you know,
and Seth to know him personally, he's very kind, very generous,
very thoughtful, very encouraging. He does not display the ideas
of what a lot of people think an atheist would be,
you know, the angry, the whatever stereotypes that somebody might
have until they know one. And so I think that
was that was the thing that I learned most because
twenty years ago I wouldn't have been a friend with
an atheist because it was scary. I was taught to
fear that didn't know anybody. And so I think the
thing that I was most surprised and the thing that
Seth honestly has taught me a lot about is that
atheists are good people, and they're people like me, and
sometimes have better morals and better people's skills and better
humanitarian ideas. So in truth, that's probably the thing that
has surprised me the most, or has made me grow
beyond where I was just by having met him. So
I would say, I would say that.
Speaker 2: All right, Nancy, did you have anything else for us?
Speaker 3: No, that's excellent. I like it.
Speaker 6: I got some of the humor I left the tennis,
and then I got the meat of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that's great.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much. This is okay, and I both
hope that both of you have a great team.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Nancy, much appreciated. Lots more to talk about
with your chats and your calls, comments, questions. It's Natalie
helping me Mark. Show number eight hundred will continue after this.
A lot of people have only recently discovered this broadcast,
and I've got some who've been with me since day
one in the summer of twenty ten, and they've been
partners of me in the show for eight hundred episodes.
So regardless of whether you are new or whether you
are a longtime veteran listener, thank you so much for
getting us to this point. The show is a conversation
between you and my wife, and already I hope, I
hope it has proven interesting for you. So this is related.
I'll let you go as deep as you want. From
former two free XJW. You've mentioned a mixed faith relationship.
How do you navigate belief versus non belief between you two?
You'd call yourself probably spiritual more than anything else.
Speaker 4: I would. I have definitely changed. I mean, I'm the girl.
I have a voodoo doll downstairs that I'm not afraid
to use. I have garlic, I have a Buddha in
the in the bathroom. I've got an atheist as a partner.
I mean, I feel like I'm just all encompassing. I'm inclusive. Yeah,
what about myself?
Speaker 2: Just throw the rock out and let it hit every
every possibility. And you know, she she believed like, I'm
going in a ghost time at the end of May
at a haunted hotel in Kansas, and I'm gonna take
video cameras and we're gonna you know, I've got the
instruments and I'm doing it. Natalie would say, my mind
is already closed, but I am doing it with some tools.
I've got the uh, the electrometer and the you know,
divining rod. I mean, I'm gonna the black light and
the temperature gauge.
Speaker 4: You know what you're gonna. You're gonna piss them off,
is what's going about.
Speaker 2: You're going to be mocking.
Speaker 4: You're going to piss off the spirits, and then you
are going to come after me.
Speaker 2: Do you think so?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 2: Anyway? But she would say, you've already made up your mind. Well,
I am conditioned from seeing a whole lit of ghost
claims totally unsubstantiated and or debunked. But if a ghostly
thing happened, I would want to know that. And I've
invited her to go on a ghost thing with me.
I want to stay at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado,
which is where Stephen King got inspiration for the Shining Honey,
would you like to stay at the Stanley? And she says,
I'm good, But I have.
Speaker 4: Been to the Saint Anthony Hotel and that's haunted.
Speaker 2: San Antonio, Texas. She's convinced it's It was where the
walls bleeding, they.
Speaker 4: Were weeping in the bathroom. They were not kidding, So
we so we went to. It was a work trip
to the Saint Anthony Hotel years and years ago, not
seth but yeah, how long. It's been a long time
ago before really cell phones had, you know, been a
big thing. Not everybody had them. This business meeting was
planned by other people. So I just went not knowing
where we were going or what it was about. And
I immediately walked in with my husband and my two
small children. I was like, this place is haunted. Because
I was very spiritual. I was like, I could feel it,
you know. And comes to find out, everybody thought I
was crazy, but they started digging, and yes, that hotel
is known for being haunted, and there were some weird
things that happened that we still talk about to this day.
Speaker 2: So I'm good.
Speaker 4: I think I've been there, done that.
Speaker 2: I wasn't even looking for it. I wasn't it marketed
as being haunted. It was, but it.
Speaker 4: Wasn't marketed that way to me because I didn't know
anything about it. So I walked in.
Speaker 2: You're intuition, said my women.
Speaker 4: Intuition said, you're about to die in this place.
Speaker 2: Did you piss off the spirits?
Speaker 4: I think we did piss off the spirits. I ended
up getting sick, like I never I'm a person that
never gets like food poisoning. I guess I got some
kind of food poisoning. I was up in the weeping
bathroom in the middle of the night, throwing up, got
freaked out on the and there they had a pole
on the tenth floor that my young daughter and I
went to and we were both like really really scared
that we to leave and we went home and looked
at there was a story of a haunting at that pool,
and yeah, so have fun with that.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I mean you can see I've probably
lost everybody. You can see.
Speaker 4: I'm a little bit woo. I like the wu. I
like the this, you know, I feel like watchmaker. I
think that's what I'm probably a watchmaker person.
Speaker 2: Like something set it all in motion, and there's the unexplained.
Maybe I just beyond the natural thing.
Speaker 4: Just just yeah, I just probably a higher power somewhere,
do you think, somewhere somewhere?
Speaker 2: But if a higher power is not involved in our
lives in a meaningful way, like then it's all academic, right,
because really mostly then we're we only have each other.
Like does a higher power jump in and I don't.
Speaker 4: Feel like the higher power is going to jump in.
I think the world is spinning. So you're still on it.
You haven't been flung off.
Speaker 2: There's probably there may be something out there.
Speaker 4: They've already done everything that they're going to do.
Speaker 2: We've got to solve each other's problems, right.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, sure, yeah, it's going to take it. But
who knows?
Speaker 2: I mean, And I think that's interesting for a lot
of people who are like, how does an atheist and
a spiritual person share the same space? And I think
it's because we share values and we have we have
had plenty of conversations over the many many years we've
been together about really and what do you think of that?
And I don't buy that? And these have been spirited exchanges.
Speaker 4: And this is when the work in a voice comes in.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not working it, but I am saying that
at the then when it's all over. We care about
the same things, and we want the same things. We
love people, we have the same we have shared interest
despite our very different personalities. And she's my person. I
know she's got my back, and she's the person that
I want to share my life with. And it's hard
for a lot of people to understand, and then other
people will say, well, I'm a non believer married to
a Buddhist or even a Christian or something else, and
somehow they're able to make it work.
Speaker 4: I have I have friends here.
Speaker 2: Hang on, I try. Hang on. I'm just gonna have
to go through some of these. If you're on the switchboard,
be patient with me. Sherry said, I'm all about the
wu as a psychic and medium. Sherry, you're killing me,
killing me, We've done. I wrote a book with a
chapter on psychics and who they are.
Speaker 4: So we went to We went to a psychic once
and I was really disappointed in Seth because he wouldn't
take the journey. This woman had a brand new crystal wall.
It was sitting She's like, look into.
Speaker 2: It, pat in the lobby in the gift shop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's awesome. And he just wouldn't go. He would
not take the journey. Oh wa payment reasons.
Speaker 2: It was from my birthday in twenty fifteen in San
Diego and Ocean Beach. I knew. I know, like I've
read enough James Randy and enough of the work of
the debunkers like Darren Brown to know what psychics do.
Hot reading, cold reading, shotgunning. There's so many tactics that
are used by mentalists and suppose it's psychic. So when
I was there, it's a forensic experiment. So she's totally
in shotgun mode. But bing ba boom up. And then
she realizes when I started to push back and ask questions, well,
wait a minute, you just reference this, is this a
druid thing from the Festival of Sowen, And how do
you relate that to so and so? And she just
totally blanked and she said, do you believe in you
don't believe in God? And I said no. So she
took the God card, the tearot card off the table
and stuck it over here, and then she continued without
it and kind of adjusted. And then she said, there
will be a woman that enters your professional life.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and now that's where we got a fight.
Speaker 2: What my fault? She said, there will be a woman
in your professional life and you will engage in a
romantic I don't know.
Speaker 4: If it was romantic. It just said that she would
be like, you're very.
Speaker 2: Like a confidante or something.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, who's so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's in the back and.
Speaker 4: A woman has a dream about their husband doing something
and you wake up and you're like, how could you
it was?
Speaker 2: I'm like, thank you very much for that. Well, it's
been ten years. I have no confidants who were coming
in here and snooping around, all right, But anyway, she
wishes I had just surrendered to the experience, and maybe
I could have. And I'm going to try to do
that a little more during the ghost hunt. I'm not
going to walk in and be a total asshole about it.
Speaker 4: You'll miss some of the fun that way. It's just
for entertainment.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad I buy that. If you're going to
be entertained, and I think people are really good at
scaring themselves. You throw me in a dark castle, dungeon,
you throw me in an abandoned hospital with the lights off,
and say spend the night here. I will. I can
freak myself out pretty easy, right, I don't need ghosts
to do it. I would hear every rustle, every sound,
every breath of wind, So I mean I can do that.
Would you stay the night in an abandoned hospital? Not me?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Twenty thousand dollars, no fifty thousand dollars, no.
Speaker 4: Keep going?
Speaker 2: Really, maybe is it Jerome or Jeremy at sixty zero?
Speaker 7: Hi?
Speaker 2: How do I pronounce your name? It is Jerome, Jerome. Welcome.
You're on with Natalie and her husband. That's what we
should call today's broadcast, Natalie and her husband.
Speaker 5: Hello, Natalie and Natalie's husband.
Speaker 2: What's up? What's on your mind? What do you want
to talk about?
Speaker 5: What you talked about Linus your dog? And I hear
the affection in your voice when you talk about Linus
all the time, and that's very sweet. Whenever I hear
the name Linus, I think of my childhood because I
grew up Catholic. And you may not know this, but
they have a Eucharistic prayers number one, two, three, and four.
In an Eucharistic prayer number one, they rattle off the
litany of saints. So they say Lionus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Carsogonist, John, Paul, Cosmos,
and Damien and we honor this that, And they go
through all these names, and but Linus heads up the names.
And it always makes me think of my childhood when
you mentioned Linus.
Speaker 2: So there's a saint Linus.
Speaker 5: Apparently interesting. You know he's going to the Catholics. They
know all these things.
Speaker 4: So Linus, if you ever watched like the Charlie Brown,
the Little Linus character that carried his blanket, Linus has
a blanket that he choose on.
Speaker 2: So that's what I think. We needed a different name
when we rescued him, because when we got him from
the Humane Society, he was named Santa. Yeah, they called
him Santa, And I get it. If you work for
a rescue, you're having to try to name thousands of dogs,
and I think they were just grasping. And it was
around the holidays when they rescued him, so he was
Santa and we're like, no, that's not going to work.
And so we went through a litany of names. I
think it was your daughter that came up with Linus
and we were like, yes, yes, and he totally looks
like a Linus and he's my son and I need
him to live forever. I'm going to look up Linus
the Saint Jerome and see what the Internet has to
say about that. Was there anything else?
Speaker 5: No, that's it. I just thought you might enjoy knowing
that Linus was the head of a long list of
saint names they get thrown out by then the Catholic
eucharistic prayer.
Speaker 2: Love it, love it. Thanks for the infol appreciate you.
Speaker 5: Take care.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll see Pope Linus. I found this. I
don't know if this is what they're talking about. I'm
guessing if it's a Catholic icon, it's gotta be. Pope
Linus was the Bishop of Rome. That would be what
sixty eight CE to EIGHTYCEE generally regarded as the second
Bishop of Rome after Saint Peter, and he was canonized
as a saint. According to Arenaeus, Linus is the same
person as the one mentioned in the New Testament, mentioned
in the Valediction and up the Second Epistle to Timothy
two Timothy four twenty one as being with Paul the
Apostle in Rome near the end of Paul's life. So
this family has more than one biblical name. I'll cover
the Old Testament, and apparently Linus covers the New I
just don't remember ever seeing the word Linus in the Bible.
Doesn't sound like a biblical name. Let's talk the wait
hang on. Drew Zilla said, there's a lot of Christians
that wouldn't be able to be together because they have
different views. I would guess a lot of those would
be in terms of their values, what they care about.
But I feel like you and I share values about
the world.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like when I'm allied with religious people who are
humanist activists on the front line against Christian nationalism. Some
people don't understand why I stand shoulder to shoulder with Christians, Jews, Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhist,
et cetera, and they stand shoulder to shoulder with me,
And I'm like, it's because they're wonderful people and because
we share values. We can discuss theology all day long,
but as long as underneath the more academic stuff, we
line up in terms of what's important and to tell
the truth and to be moral and how to treat
people and to build a better world, That's what I'm
interested in.
Speaker 4: I feel like there's a lot of different variations of
Christians right now, and I don't want to get too political,
because I know we're all just exhausted with it. But
all Christians are not equal anymore.
Speaker 2: They're not remotely And I.
Speaker 4: Feel like, you know, I was reading last night just
about somebody who would you know, claim to be a
Christian are now saying we're not Christians, we're followers of
Jesus because they want to separate themselves from what the
maga Christian, you know, that whole movement that's happening that's
bigoted and racist and judgmental. I think people, normal people.
I guess I'm hoping normal people are growing weary of
all of that hatred. And to me, it seems like
the Christian that we're talking about today is that narrow minded, hateful, judgmental,
you know, othering people who are not just like them.
Speaker 2: It's like the fundamentalist Christians who use the Bible to
preach hate against gay people, right, those fundamentalist preachers that
say the government should round them up and execute them,
or that God will send them to hell. And then
you've got another swath of people that are like, my
Jesus loves everybody. My Jesus made homosexuals the way they
are and would never judge them. Now, granted, I think
those Christians are unaware of the scriptures, but they are
practicing a version of Christianity. So when people talk about
Christians as any one thing, that's a problem, right, because
I mean there is varied often as the people who
believe what they believe. So are you looking something up?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I was gonna. I saw something the other day where
people are asking them to verify if you're like the
Maga Christian or if you're like the old gangs, old
the og Christian, Like, how do you identify? Because now
you're going to have to explain to yourself.
Speaker 2: No, well, if you identify as a Christian, I don't
think you how much latitude do we give?
Speaker 4: It was classic Jesus or Republican Jesus's that's what you
have to.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean the problem is And I narrated an
audiobook with doctor David Madison. He wrote the book. He's
an ex believer, next pastor in a theologian, and his
book is called ten Things Christians wish Jesus Hadn't taught.
And there's this thinking that everything that Jesus said and
did was light and love and come as you are
in Kumbai yah. And a more objective and honest examination
of Christ reveals some really problematic behaviors. Whorry, he likened
a woman to a dog and essentially said some very
racist things. We're talking about the same Jesus who was
one and the same with yahweh. We're talking about Jesus
who separated the sheep from the goats and sent the
unbelievers to burn, and hell depart from me, you who
are cursed into an everlasting fire, those types of things,
And so I think people then make a Jesus in
their own image, don't they. Like, there's the fire and brimstone.
Everybody I think is ick, he's going to hell Jesus
and those people hold onto that. And then the other
people that were like, well, I want to be a
Christian or I feel comfortable calling myself a Christian, but
I can't abide all the awfulness. So my Jesus is
going to love everybody unconditionally. That's fair, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to, like really, back me up,
just really.
Speaker 4: It just makes me angry. We are surrounded by people
who are are not I mean, go ahead, no, let's
just change it. Yes, because I know they all have
it too.
Speaker 2: So I think you're worried it's going to become a downer.
It might be in radio what we call or relate,
when you and I are speaking about something, even a
hard topic, and people are like, I feel that I
understand that frustration, and I think I'm going to start
and you don't have to finish, all right, So I'm
not making I'm not making the conversation go anywhere, but
I do want to speak to We are surrounded by
people who, it seems like most of the other aspects
of their lives would give you the shirt off their back,
and they love their families, and they work hard, and
they seem to be good people, and they have done
this weird game of twister in their brain where they
can turn around and support the current administration and the
assaults on decency and democracy. And I can't I go
back and is it because it's like I was in
It's tax season, right, So I'm in the accountant's office
and I'm like, you know, I'm that guy. Here's my papers,
just take it and fix it. And as Kathleen Madigan says,
I'm going to try not to break into tears whenever
you give me a number, right, So I give them.
But Fox News is on in one of the waiting
rooms in the lobby of the building, and I'm sitting
there for ten fifteen minutes waiting, and by the time
I left, I thought it is no wonder that the
people who are many of the people voting MAGA are
voting the way they are because we don't live in
a shared reality. The shit they were hearing on Fox
was this weird alternate universe. We don't exist in a
place where the facts are the same, the deeds and
the words spoken to the same, so we don't have
a Whenever you and I bring things up, they look
at us like, oh, I've never heard that. I've never
I don't know what you're talking about. So we then
we have to provide sourcing, chapter and verse. We have
to show them you're not going to go there, are you? Okay,
I won't make you. That's okay, Okay, but I know
she feels me. Yeah, And I've been trying to engage
a little more with people out there.
Speaker 4: I will say Heather had posted what Heather Richardson had posted.
I'm sure a lot of your friends follow her. She's
a historian of politics, and she had posted about I
guess this. People that work for the state have a
notification to tattle on non Christian workers within the state,
and to the point where you know she's fearful and
she's put on a list as a professor, which oftentimes
professors are the first ones on the watch list because
she's posting, you know, chronicles about what is going on
on a day to day basis within this administration. But that,
you know, on a more serious note, whenever you think
about the atheist community, what you're doing in a public forum,
what's to say that, you know, you guys aren't next
on the list? So I think, you know, this, this community,
this website, what you're doing is probably going to be
even more important going forward.
Speaker 2: To you think, So, I mean I do.
Speaker 4: I do because I feel like, you know, as people
start being fearful that their coworkers are going to tattle
on them for you know, simply living their truth. I mean,
I think that would be normal for people to want
to retreat just a little bit, don't you.
Speaker 2: Well. I think people will go, People will people will
rally to a point of community, and there will be
solidarity among those who are being marginalized. Atheists have been
a pretty easy target for a long time, and then
it became more and more normalized, and then Project twenty
twenty five ers got in there, and now they're looking
for quote unquote anti Christian bias in the halls of power,
and they're supposed to report that in the government. What's
that even freaking look like. Somebody says, I don't believe it.
I think it's horseshit. Oh he's got anti Christian bias.
Now he's on the list, Maybe loses his job.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's where we are, that's where we're going,
that's where we're heading. If something doesn't change.
Speaker 2: I wonder if some of my stuff and other things
in the atheist space are being shadow band the algorithms
are just starting to push that content down or back
a little bit. I don't know, but I don't think
it's unreasonable to worry about it. One last break stand by.
We'll do our last section of the broadcast with comments, questions,
and your calls as my wife Natalie helps us mark
show eight hundred. Thanks for supporting me and the Thinking
Atheist podcast through all these years, and if you would
like to be a part of supporting me and the
show in the future, become a patron at patreon dot
com slash seth Andrews. You can decide how much you
want to support, how many episodes, how often, you set
all the rules, all the amounts, and it really does
make a difference. Patreon dot com slash Seth Andrews continuing
show number eight hundred. My special guest is my life partner,
my bride, and my love Natalie as she feels your questions,
comments and whatever you want to say. The super chat
in from Troy. Like all news broadcasters, we must know,
does Seth wear pants during broadcast?
Speaker 4: He says, skivs right now, I.
Speaker 2: Am not wearing underwear, or I'm not just in underwear.
I am, but I am wearing shorts. I'm wearing my
tennis shorts. So I've got a collar dress shirt and
I am in great tennis shorts. So there's a glimpse
behind the scenes. Gimpi Gaming ghosts aren't real. My proof
when you're a quadriplegic at the plint removes on the
Ouiji board coincidence, So I don't think so now. Gimpi
Gaming is hysterical. Is kind of a comedian who calls
in with some amazing one liners and has a tremendous
sense of humor. I've got a web call without a name.
Oh wait a minute, I think I see it at
the beginning? Is it? Aj Hi? Are you with me?
Speaker 7: Hey?
Speaker 2: Yes? I am welcome. AJ. Let's talk. What's on your mind?
Speaker 4: How you doing well?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I know you, AJ. I think I saw you an
attendance at Objectively Dan's wedding in San Antonio, Texas a
few weeks ago. I was, yeah, yeah, it's good to
see you. Go for it.
Speaker 7: What wat conversation? Not only is so nice to meet you,
do you have.
Speaker 2: A commoner question?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 7: Firstly, I wanted to say that I think that even
though you both have a different God belief, it's amazing
to see that you both share so many, amazing more
of the values. I think that's that's something inspiring and
to look look up to, especially like in this environment
that we're on living in right now, that is really
really scary. You know. I recently went to my citizenship interview,
and after that, I was I was really scared to
even go to protest because I was like, what if
they find something to like, you know, did I before
or to be like say, you know, like we're gonna
think you want to tell over something like that. So yeah,
I appreciate you both standing up for things that are right.
But anyways, let's get to it. To lighten up the mood.
I have a quick question. I almost broke set with
this question in the past. Okay, so I wanted to
ask natally the same question and know if Seth has
asked it to you. Okay, but how do you think?
How do you think like in your head? Like, let's say,
if you ask what you want for dinner? Does the
thinking process in your head go just words like you
hear yourself think, oh I want to have this or
is it a visual thing like you suddenly imagine like
see what you want to eat for dinners? Like I
s Are you a visual thinker? Are you a verbal thinker?
Just people that don't have any It's kind of it's
called a fantasia. What they don't see or hear anything
in their in their mind. It just kind of like
I suppose they use like feelings.
Speaker 4: That's a really interesting question. I've never I've never thought
about that. I don't think I'm a visual thinker because
I don't really see the dinner. I think I'm more
practical minded. It's like, what do I have in the
kitchen that I can throw together that everybody wants? We
cook most of our food at home. So yeah, when
he says what's for dinner? Unless I'm like craving something
like if I think about, you know, this is what
sounds good. But if there's nothing that sounds good, I
think I'll go back to just being more practical minded
of what can I throw together without having to go
to the grocery store or your dash.
Speaker 2: And spend twenty five dollars for a hamburger because we're
desperately minded good. But I mean, as far as do
you do you like? Is it words? Do you see
pictures when you go through a process? Do you hear sounds?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: Are you cognizant of any of that?
Speaker 4: No, I'm not. I don't. I don't feel like I
hear sounds, I don't see pictures. I think I'm just
more analytical of what is true that I can put
my hands on and then try to, you know, solve
whatever the problem is. Now, if it's something that's difficult,
like feelings, you know, something that maybe makes you feel emotional,
I will just block it off. I'll just wall it down.
So obviously I have things to work through, but ill
it down.
Speaker 2: You know what happens then is that pressure bills.
Speaker 4: I honestly think like if I don't have the power,
if I don't feel like I have the power to
fix it, then then I'm going to spin my wills
and work myself up. Really, don't you feel like that?
Like I can work myself up pretty Like when you
feel helpless and you feel overwhelming, sometimes you have to
go back and focus on the things that you can control.
And you know, going back to politics, in a sea
of maga people, the only thing I can control are
the people that will engage in conversation and try to
get them, which I know such things is they're incapable of.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know if that's fair, but I
I have fought, I do fight cynicism when I see
what I what I consider to be a cult.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just want people to go on their Like,
if they make a claim, I want them to go
on their cell phone and search for proof so they
can back it up and send it to me. And
nine times out of ten they can't. They're like, well,
I can't find proof, but I know the algorithms on
their phone are going to change when they when they
google things like that, and so I'm just trying to
engage in conversation, you know, at a friend level. These
are people that I know in the tennis community and
try to get them to mindfully think about some of
the things that are happening. For example, Fox News is
telling you all these people that they're rounding up and
you know, shipping off shore are hardened criminals, but nobody
has had due process, so we really don't know if
that's the case. And so they I think they're hearing
the one liners and they take it as truth instead
of really kind of critically thinking about, you know, what
are the odds that all of these people are hardened criminals?
Speaker 2: Well some of that too, doesn't it speak too kind
of an embedded xenophobia with some people. I mean they
hear the immigrant, the foreigner, maybe the brown person, and
that speaks to something that was already there inside them,
so they need jerk and say aha. They're may be
more prone to believe that. I think there's some white
privilege in play. I think there's some tribalism and othering
in play. I think a lot of people it's funny.
The Trump phenomenon has in some ways been a black
light at the crime scene. It's revealed things about people
that we did not realize were there, and it hurts
the heart. She and I've been like, I don't even
think I can answer the phone with this person, or
I don't want to spend time over the dinner table
with this person. I feel like they are maybe we
didn't really know them, or we didn't know them in
the way, and I don't know. I wrestle with it too.
Speaker 4: I don't understand it.
Speaker 2: And then you're like, well, maybe there's a way to
create the crack that lets in the light. And I
go back. I tend to go a little harder. So
she's being really diplomatic, and I will jump in and
post a link to Donald Trump's five hundred dollars tennis
shoes and say, hey, check this out, and then I'll
have something's narky to say. And I've been trying to
work on it, but it's hard. It's hard. It's hard
for people to tell me we need austerity, we must
trim the fat, and then they're like, yay, an eight
hundred dollars Trump inauguration watch, and let's pay one hundred
million for a military parade for the five time draft dodger. Yeah.
I tend to get a little snarky, and then she
has to talk me off. The ledge couple more Darcy
calling in at six point nine.
Speaker 3: Hi, Hi by Natalie.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, I didn't say goodbye to aj Aj. I'm
so sorry. I saw the next call forgive my rudeness.
I throw myself at your mercy. I will now segue
to Darcy. Thanks for your patience. You're on with Seth
and Natalie. What do you want to talk about?
Speaker 5: Hi?
Speaker 3: Guys, good to see you Natalie for the first time. Hello.
You're lovely and Seth is very lucky to have you.
Speaker 2: People always look at her. They look at her and
they look at me, and they look at her and
they look at me, and they're like, Natalie, did you
lose a bad like? What happened? Did he follow you
home and you fed him? Did you feel sorry? What happened?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 2: No, I know what I got. I know what I got. Darcy,
go ahead, what was your question?
Speaker 5: Good for you?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 3: I wanted to bring up Fox News I had. I
have an uncle who's Republican Christian and we were never
close until after my mom died. He lives He's East coast,
I'm West coast, but we could reconnected a bit, but
he kept sending me this stuff and I would spend
we would have mail exchanges. He's hard of hearing, so
we don't talk much on the phone, but we would
have these linkedy email exchanges. I would spend hours going
and searching these claims that he was making in these emails,
so that he was forwarding me clearly from the right
wing news media. And it got to the point where
I just said, you got to stop sending me this
stuff because it's garbage. And I don't think I ever
convinced him of anything, but it was exhausting for me
to try to have to go through this stuff, and
it was bonkers.
Speaker 4: Fell you.
Speaker 2: Did you ever have some people send you Did you
have people sending you Fox News type stuff?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: I had people sending me TikTok clips, and I'm just.
Speaker 2: Like TikTok clips proving why Trump's awesome and why the
Libs are all Yeah, And so it wasn't even a
news source. It was some dude with a cell phone
camera on TikTok.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that worked for the administration.
Speaker 2: Darcy, I cut you off, so you are feeling the frustration.
Did you have anything else? You have a question or
further comment, take your time.
Speaker 3: No, just that I read recently that when Rupert Murdoch
finally dies that his heirs will probably not continue Fox News,
which hallelujah now.
Speaker 2: If I may, for those who may not be aware,
especially my international listeners, Rupert Murdoch is the owner of NewsCorp,
which owns Fox News and a bunch of other media outlets. Personally,
I think Fox News is an oxymoron, and so do
squillions of other people out there. Essentially right now, Fox
News is dear leader state run television. But Rupert Murdoch
is like nine thousand years old, and in his offspring
who will inherit NewsCorp. Some have been openly critical and
about this hyper right, sycophantic, fake news kind of propaganda
network that Fox has become. And so the speculation is
once the old man kicks off, and there will be
celebrations by many of us when it happens. What's that
line by Mark Twain? I have never wished a man dead,
but I have read many obituaries with great satisfaction. This
is true with Rupert Murdoch and a few others. When
he goes. Some are saying that the newer, the offspring,
the children and grandchildren whoever inherits NewsCorp will defoxify Fox
News and it may become something else. Is that what
you've heard, Darcy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the fear is that there may be
something else that comes in.
Speaker 4: To fill that void.
Speaker 5: But boy, if it goes away, I will be happy.
Speaker 2: Well, we did see any of the times that Fox
News reported something that was less than you know, adoration
for Tangerine Palpatine that the Fox News audience turned on
the network and they said, I'm done with you. It's
like when one of the anchors on Fox News validated
the Biden win back in twenty twenty, and Fox News
has flipped out and said, screw you, guys, this network
is not news. And then they spun off into Newsmax
and OA and who knows what they'll do, but I
would love to see a management change and maybe a
direction change. We'll watch and see what happens, Darcy. So
thanks for colin us today. Much appreciated.
Speaker 5: All right, guys, all right, you guys be good.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: A couple more minutes, real fast. I know NAT's got
a she's playing tennis twice today. We're going to play together.
Some married couples cannot play tennis together because you you
might say things to a life partner on the tennis
court that you wouldn't say to somebody else. So when
when I miss a shot, what do you do?
Speaker 4: Nothing, harder, harder?
Speaker 2: What did you use it?
Speaker 4: I think I like, take my rod. I don't realize
that I'm doing it, but I'm like, and it's.
Speaker 2: Not the first It's like, here we go, but I've
done the same thing. Robbie, like one thing, step four,
step into your shop and before you know we're driving
home and there's black smoke coming out of our We're
going to do really good and then we you know,
and then we're like, we're not going to play with
each other anymore. And then the next day somebody's like, hey,
you guys want to play, and we're like, we'll be
right there. We just immediately reset. But but we've actually
worked that out. Lucas asked the question, Natalie, how much
time do you spend waiting on Seth when a fan
recognizes him in the real world.
Speaker 4: Not a lot. I mean, they're pretty respectful of the time,
and it's always good to see people who appreciate the
hard work that he puts into everything. So I think
you know, some of Seth's people come from you know,
families or places where they feel alone and they feel
judged and they feel ostracized, and they find Seth's website
and then they feel, you know that it's okay, I'm
not broken, and I think he you know, genuinely gives that.
You know in his podcast, you guys know it too,
and so when they see him, you know, they're thankful,
and it lets Seth know. You know, sometimes he works
from home, he's not around a lot of people unless
he's traveling, and just that feedback to know that what
he's doing in the time and effort that he puts
into his podcast and his shows, you know, it matters
to somebody. And so I we're grateful when somebody comes up,
I think.
Speaker 2: And that's you know, she's She's had to sacrifice a
lot of time of my time. You know, when I'm
one of the worst things is honey, this will just
take another half.
Speaker 4: Hour, right football minute.
Speaker 2: It's football minutes, and it just takes longer and longer
and longer. And you know, she has occasionally been it's
not easy being the partner of an activist. I think
even this coming weekend, you know, being gone for four
days and you know, I'm facetiming her as much as
I can and keeping her in the loop. But it's
a long time to be apart, and she's she's made
a lot of sacrifices. But she's also my number one cheerleader,
and she keeps me centered and grounded. You know when
people send me a message or an email that talk
about their journey, and it's amazing how heartfelt those emails are.
I came out of this. My family's rejected me. My
spouse said they're going to take the kids. I've been
in tears all night. I don't know what I'm going
to do. I feel lost, or maybe I did feel lost,
and now I found a community online, whether it's yours
or another. I know they're sharing a story. So we'll
be seeing on the bed and I'll pull it up
on my phone and I'll just read them aloud, and
I'll say, hey, check this out, and I'll read the
letters to her, and that gives use radio. I don't.
I don't use my radio voice. It's my real voice,
but I will give you want to. I want you
to hear yeah. And then she's good at saying because
it burnout's a thing for activists and it's also hard.
After sixteen years and seeing the insanity of the world,
sometimes you've become a little maybe even self pity or whatever.
You lose perspective and you say, fuck, it doesn't matter.
Is it making a difference? Am I just in an
echo chamber? Am I just talking to myself? You know,
of all the thousands of hours, what's really coming? You
start to really spin into oblivion, especially when you're physically tired.
And she literally will take me and go literally and say, hey,
you know.
Speaker 4: Time to hit the road, time to go see some people.
Speaker 2: You need to get out of your office and you
need to socialize with people, and you need to remember that.
It kind she kind of sets me up. Michael from
Scotland has sent the super chat. I don't know what
denomination that is. I don't know how to say seek,
but one hundred sounds like a lot, and I am.
I'm so grateful for you. I think we'll probably go
ahead and call it. Oh, I've got a super chat
from s caval Chuck, Canada. Two dollars. We're going to
ban in Canada in a few days. We get to
travel together, which is rare. So I'm speaking at the
weekend Reason event in Calgary, Alberta, and I was told
that there was a lovely national park, a mountainous range, rivers, trees, wildlife,
and so I googled it. Holy Nikes, it's gorgeous. So
I go downstairs and I'm like, honey, look at this,
Look at where I'm going. Maybe we can tack on
a few days together. And so I got his tickets
and we're going to go and we're gonna I don't know,
frolic with the creatures and I'm guessing the water's too
cold to kayak or canoe or I don't know. We're
going to go be together and enjoy some Canada, and
I think we shouldn't have too much trouble getting back
over the border. I was talking to Bob Barnes at
the Baja Con event and he said that there are
a lot of Canadians who were showing solidarity with Americans.
They understand that many of us are trapped on here
at their southern border on the other side, and we're
just as traumatized or more than anybody, and they stand
with us. And we look at Canadians and say, you
know what if you pull our ship from your shelves
and you want nothing to do with America's business partners Partners,
we kind of understand, like we can't blame you, but
we do know that we have friends and family up north,
and so we're going to come up north and spend
a few days up in It is pronounced bamf right
b a nff bam fans.
Speaker 4: Sounds good to me.
Speaker 2: I just like saying. So we'll be out there in
just a few Thank you so much to my lovely
bride for a spending show number eight hundred.
Speaker 4: Hey, congratulations you. That's a lot of a lot of
hot air coming out of you.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of hot air coming out of me.
And we'll continue maybe head to ward nine hundred. Thanks
again for being part of this community in this show.
I'll see you next time.
Speaker 4: Heybye.
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