#113. Two Degrees in Humboldt: Toby Tullis on Radio, Recovery, and Belonging

Toby Tullis talks through the winding path that brought him to Humboldt, from Bay Area roots and restaurant work to radio, digital marketing, and a life built around community. He gets into sobriety, parenting, spirituality, and the way this place changed how he things about work and home. It's a conversation about starting over, staying busy, and trying to keep a little room for what matters.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Toby

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors and those out at sea, it's Scott Hammond and the 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend, Toby Tullis. What's happening, Scott? How are you, sir? Do you want Toby or Tobin?

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Toby, please. Tobin's for if I'm in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Okay. Yeah. That's your your mom's.

SPEAKER_04 0:14

Or or if I'm new a new client until I get to know him a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

So who are you? What do you do? Why are you here?

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Oh my gosh, right off the bat.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

Who am I? What do you want? I was born a poor black. No. I like to start all that off with the jerk, the beginning of the jerk. Born a poor black child. That's the greatest intro seeing that. Steve Martin. Wonderful. And still holds water. What am I? I'll let you know when I figure it out. I can tell you what I do. What's your day job? Got two of them. I am currently the assistant program director and morning drive DJ of uh K Hum, uh 104.3 or 104.7. Right. Yeah, I'm Toby in the morning. Right. I am also the owner operator of Sixth Street Marketing, S-I-X-S-T-R, not sixth with a TH. Sixth Street Marketing is a digital marketing firm that I founded in 2020.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Right, right. Yeah. Tell me about that. A little bit of something.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Started a digital marketing company in 2012 in the Bay with a good friend of mine. Um let me re-recant. The brother of a good friend of mine. I figured it was far enough away that if things went south, it wouldn't ruin Thanksgiving. Right. You know, and that's exactly what happened. But uh and then we caught fire and it was wonderful. I learned a lot um trial by fire and then moved up here in 2018. He stayed in the bay and was never gonna really understand commerce and humble. You can't unless you're kind of here, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

You gotta be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

You it's a it is a bubble. Um, the two degrees of separation where there's seven in the rest of the world, that's all a real thing, especially when it comes to business. And so we weren't seeing eye to eye on everything. I sold it out um to him, my half of it, no strings, just like, hey, you go do your thing and I'll do mine.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah. The seven degrees of uh Kevin Bacon, right? That's really good stuff. Is that a actually a movie or what? It's a board game. It's a board game. Yeah, that's what I hear.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Yeah, I say it's also a drinking game, I think. I think that yeah, if you could figure it out. But it's a board game.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

But here it's two degrees.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

So you know Patrick Cleary, so you therefore you're my own. I was just telling Nick about that before we started. Yeah, that that's how the radio thing came out.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

You know Pat. I know Pat.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

We're now sort of Humboldt friends. We are. Yeah. We you and I have known each other for a little while because we're on that same trajectory where our paths crisscross and intertwine. You gave me your book on parenthood many, many years ago. I think I was here by like four months. Do you mean? That's the one. This one. Oh, that's right. We're on camera. I almost forgot we're on camera. I'm so used to being in a radio booth. Your fifth wall is right there, bro. Oh my gosh, I shouldn't have maybe have never known that. Uh yeah, that's a wonderful read. And at a time where my family was budding, I think that we had the fourth one almost on the way when I first got that book and read it right away.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Cool. Hopefully there's two ideas. Yeah. Yeah, that's great.

Two Jobs And A Local Network

SPEAKER_01 2:50

There are a couple of them. So my last week's guest was Solomon uh Averta from uh Eureka Books. I was just there this afternoon. He'll be in my show on my show next week. Super sweet. Great guy. Amazing, smart guy. And so he um I saw him today, he goes, Bring some books in. I go, Well, there's they're they're all Amazon uh Create Space, which is a defunct company.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

But Oh, is it really? Yeah, I've got I've got a book. It's on Amazon as well. But um yeah, it's just normal. I gotta get it on Kindle though, I think.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

I'd love a copy of your book. I would get one for you. So you grew up at the Bay Area. Tell us about growing up school, Humboldt, how'd you get here? And what's what's that? So your East or Eastpace, your Ace? East Bay.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

Uh yeah, absolutely. Die Hard Oakland A's field. Oh, the Sacramento A's.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Having a really hard time letting it go.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

The Las Vegas A's? I am actually excited that they're wearing a Sacramento jersey this year. Oh, they are they are the Rivercats? Yeah, they're finally wearing it. Um River they you know, they sold the Rivercats to the Giants about 10 years ago or so. More than that. Was that the A's team? Yeah, it was. Oh, okay. It was. I've heard that.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

I heard it's a fun game to go to, though.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

It is because it's uh it's a minor league ballpark. It's sad. It's sad from an MLB perspective. But I went and watched them play the Yankees, so I got that close to Aaron Judge. You know, it was really fun to see Aaron Judge rip Homers on us. Oh, I bet. Uh in a tiny little ballpark. Just to rip rip them out. Oh yeah. It was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

But they beat them two out two at two out of three, right? Two out of three this week. Shoot.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

And they and it turns out the Yankees swept the Giants. Well uh I I've been seeing some stuff because I don't go near the National League until, you know, playoff time and or interleague games. But I've been here Giants are fans are having a hard time right now. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's bad news. Padres are like five hundred balls, so whatever. Yeah, that's take or leave it. Yeah. They got our Bob Melvin.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah. Right. But then gave it away. So what part of the Bay Area and where'd you go to school?

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Uh Danville, California. Uh-huh. So East Bay are just right. We border up next to Walnut Creek, basically. Sure. Born and raised, great place. Um really developed, became a town I didn't recognize. Became a town that didn't, you know, it used to be that place that you got caught drinking with your buddies, you know, the cop would drive you home and knock on your door and say, Sam, keep an eye on your kid, kind of thing. And then it just became a place that didn't care if I was there or not. If the checkbook didn't match, then you know, say la vie.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Huge growth.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

Yeah. And then, you know, the family started getting bigger and I started entrepreneurship. So at the beginning, you know, you don't have two wooden nickels to rub together. And so we ended up in the Central Valley where it's a lot more affordable. Little little place called Patterson. Next to Patterson. It's uh Newman was the actual city. Is that Air Force Base? No, it all agricultural, uh, in between the Amazon Fulfillment Center and one of the other big way out there, right? Way I like I tell people it's right about the time on I5 on your way to Disneyland that you stop paying attention. You're just like, there's nothing to look at. I know where that is. Yeah, so I'm just not gonna look anymore. Yeah. That's Newman. Wow, way out there. And then and we do the just the Jerry Seinfeld every time we go out the freeway. Nah, Newman. Newman. You know, because that's how it was. Love it. 119 degrees, dusty and dry. Ugh. So we uh started coming here in 2012.

Bay Area Roots And Moving North

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Um, had our my first son, my son, my firstborn is uh born in 2012. And my wife's ex-wife now, but my wife's best friend moved up here a while quite some time ago in high school. And so they had babies at the same exact time. So you met her down there? Uh no, my wife was Dublin, we in the Bay Area, but her friend had moved away before I even knew who she was.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

Um, and then they had their first babies at the same exact time. And so we were motoring up here to visit them um and quickly, quickly fell in love with Humboldt.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Uh, what's to like about Humboldt?

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Well, first of all, her husband um taught me how to crab fish. Oh, cool. Yeah. So we go out and kayaks in Trinidad every November. Pull up those pots. Sometimes November.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

Yeah, one pot, one net when we can. Wow. Um, still very, very passionate about it. Then he taught me how to forage mushrooms, and that was the next level of forestry. I mean, I'm wow. I really wanted, we're Alex said our family was kind of growing and budding. Um, I got four kids that are two years apart and fee feeble attempt, but we wanted to raise them as best we could outside as opposed to behind a screen. Sure. And it's not possible 100%. It's just not. But this is at least gives a fighting chance here in Hubble.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Taught them how to shroom, taught, taught them how to crab.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. It's your own food. First thing I did when they're, what, three or four years old, write a passage to teach them how to clean. Yeah. You know, here's how you cook and clean a crab. That's the most important thing. You know, you can't go out and catch them yet because there's not room on the kayak. It's so disgusting. It's so disgusting. What do they call it? Kids love it. They call it the butter.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

The butter, and it's anything but it might look a little like it, but it's there's people that eat that stuff, right? Or meet it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:33

No, they spread it on bread. I'm not one of them. I'm not one of them. Yeah, I love seafood. I give away more crab than I eat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Love crab, man.

SPEAKER_04 7:40

It's just versatile. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

And it's so abundant. And it and it really got me in touch with the environment up here and out there, of which there wasn't any more in the Bay. So I mean, it's still home. Mom's still in the Bay Area. Um, we go back every now and then, but this is this is where the roots are. Well, hey, welcome home. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Glad to have you. That's exactly I appreciate that too. Welcome to humble. Yeah, it's a good stuff. We're two degrees from knowing each other. Yeah, we sure are. We're getting closer.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

You and I are one and a half. We don't have to play the game very long before we're like, oh, that's my aunt.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Oh, yeah. No, he's my buddy.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

He's oh, we're like brothers. He's like, do you know? It's like, oh yeah, we lived together for seven years.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

So what did you do? So when you got here, what did you do for work? You were a bartender for a minute.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

Yeah. So I was my first life is uh fine dining restaurant management. Um I wrote myself a book and got myself out of that industry by writing. The Bourdain book. Yeah, it the Bourdain-esque kind of tell all.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Is it the one book you just mentioned earlier, or do you have a second?

SPEAKER_04 8:32

Nope, that's it. Okay. That's it. Um I I'm one of those authors that have been working on their novel for the last 10 years. Of course.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

I don't even say that out loud because it's so cliche.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

Yeah. Yeah, I'm writing it right now. Yeah. Yeah. I've got the idea. I've got the framework. Uh but yeah, uh, what seems to be the problem, it was a restaurant manager's tale. I was I was venting everything that was driving me crazy every day about my my job because I wanted out. I didn't want to be in the restaurant business anymore. Up here or down there? Down there. And I was upper echelons. I was fine dining restaurants. I was a three-piece suit every day. Where was that? Danville? Yeah. Four different places are outlined in the book. I had a um private golf and country club in Livermore in the wine wine country. I co-owned a bar and grill in San Francisco. Wow. Yeah, in the financial district. That was really cool. Then I went over to a Kobe beef steakhouse in Danville. Sweet. So that was really cool. And then I finally ended up at a Michelin star um rest seafood restaurant in Walnut Creek. Michelin. Michelin. Michlin. I don't like to equate it to the tire. Even though it's the same people, it's like I can't.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

It's funny. It's so weird. Yeah, there's a two-star Mexican restaurant down in Bonita we were talking about today on the phone. Oh, is it really? It's Micha two Star Michel. Michelin. Yeah. You're gonna say it now. They have a chain now. They have two or three down there. So it's pretty good, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

Yeah, I just I just can't stand the thought of a ti a guy made out of tires bump bumping out from the behind.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Doesn't it make any sense? It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it is the same name. So do you came up here and then worked for a Carter House and then uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

So at the time I was keeping one hand or one foot behind the bar as a networking um opportunity. I knew that that was a great place to be social. I wasn't getting that kind of social feed at home and so and a great money as a employee, not a manager. Could you drink for free? Or had you already No, I was already sober by then. You were sober. Yeah. I got sober in 2009. We moved up here in 2018. So I would have met you, I think, after that. Yes. Well, I mean, I met a lot of people at Carter House. I think I think I might have crossed paths with you at Carter just because there are so many movers and shakers over there. And what a great place to accidentally kind of get a a a job at because it opened me up to uh Chuck Leachman over at North Coast Journal. Um it got me to know a lot of people. Um Brett Watson, um, ex-mayor of Arcada, you know, all of these people that were in the game at the time moving and shaking. And so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

It was good. And then you met Chris and Bill at the Bertie.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Yeah. Then that, God, how'd that go? Oh, that was right after. Yeah, I had left Carter House and Bill Chino, I had applied for a job with Bill Chino and he had called me. Hey Bill, what's up? Such a good dude.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

He's on next week. Is he really? He's got a lot to talk about. I think it's next week or two. But yeah, he's he's he's scheduled. The Plaza's back, baby. The Plaza Grill. That's awesome. That's gonna be fun. I'm pretty excited about that for him, too. I looked at the menu. I'm going, oh, it's not a thousand dollars to eat here.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

The other thing, too, that I just read ten minutes ago, waiting in the pickup line for the kids. Um, he's got open table as a reservation service, and he was dragging his feet across not doing that for so long, so long. That's pretty big deal, right? Yeah, it's a big deal. Yeah. So he gets to automate all of his stuff. Well, it makes it so easy. Yeah. So he had called me up and said, listen, you know, we met and he said my idea for a brutes, you know, Chris was not doing well. He was kind of removed from service. And then um his idea was the basement and would turn it into a jazz club, which it should have been from the get-go. That place is custom made to be a jazz club.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

He wanted it to be the stand-up basement. So base B-A-S-S. And I said, We're a fishing community. It's gonna look like the bass mint no matter what you do. So call it what it is. So I created fish. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we strum a fish, right? It's it's yeah, it's got Disney ramifications all over it. Uh so I built him a website, built him a logo, um, and then

Food Culture Crab And Foraging

SPEAKER_04 12:10

got behind the bar and staffed it. And that that opened up a ton of doors here. Still rolling. Yeah, that's how I met Patrick Cleary. And I knew Patrick from being a folk artist, him and his wife Kat. I got to know them on a on a personal level. A pet, a cat.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Good people. Hey, so if you're just joining us, which you're not, you've joined us already. But if you're just joining us, uh my new best friend Toby Tullis from uh K Hum Radio and uh and other things. Other things. So what what did you do after the basement?

SPEAKER_04 12:39

So did the basement and then COVID shut us down. Right. You know, that we before COVID even knew what the rules were, they came in and said, We know you need to shut. You've got one window that opens, you've got no food, you know, you're a bar only. So you close down while we figure out what what this is. Yeah. So that then that was fine. You know, that was always a side hustle. I've always had my um my digital marketing. That's that's what I fall back on. That's my thing. So your account's mostly Bay Area? Uh no, great question. I brought six clients with me, but yeah, I was really interested in trying to get embedded into the community and into the commerce community here in Humboldt. And that worked out really well by meeting some people. So it has since since flip-flopped. I've got a couple um national clients that I handle, but mostly it's local stuff. Nice. Yeah. So I just build and maintain online presences for them. But um get to use that in ventures like basement where I get to build them a website and their social media and all that.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

So you're kind of a renaissance man. I'll do whatever you need me to do. And now you're I'm a hustler. That's a grinder.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

I'm a grinder. I am a grinder. And the grinding hustle. Four kids. Dude, that's what you have to do in Humboldt. Yeah. I still am uncomfortable about what to call her. X is way too harsh.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

This is just a movie line from last night. We were watching uh Steve Carell's in a in a really good series on HBO called The Rooster.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Oh, I've heard about another.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

Or that woman. So there's got to be a name. And then the mother of my children makes it sound like we had a one-night stand and she gave me four kids. Right. So it's gonna be a better thing. There's gotta be some. It's gonna be a better way. I could do the whole like baby mama. No, I don't know, whatever. And we're very good co-parents, and so I respect her very much as a mother. She's a great, great, great mother. Is she in McKinleville too? She is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

We won't be very far apart from each other until these kids are. Have I shown you where McKinleyville is on my prop map? I know. It's right up there north of uh the bay, the other bay. And it's you go to Arcata, then McKinleyville, California, named after uh I don't I don't I can't think Nick, who do you think they named it after? Oh, we're not supposed to go there. You said we weren't gonna do politics. Oh, well, it was President McKinley. He's not political anymore.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Well, I maybe he made the spotlight when they took his statue down in Arcata. I appreciate you showing me how to get home.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, just come up to 101, you'll be fine. The the funny story is um did I read that he was in the statue was in storage for quite a long time. Oh, no kidding. You know what?

SPEAKER_04 15:00

You'll never hear about that. What do they do with that?

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Maybe Nick would know that. Somebody's got to know that. So it was it was like they they bought it, they hauled it, they I think they stored it if I memory.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

See if they can figure out somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

I would have to do my homework.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

It's up somewhere in Arkansas.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yeah. It's in uh Ohio. Oh, is it really Ohio? Oh he's from. Oh wow. McKenleville, Ohio. No, he's not wherever. I think he's Ohio. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Where do most of those guys came out of that?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

If you if you say it with confidence. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Oh, I believe you 100%.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

He's in Columbus, Ohio.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

It's probably in a U-Haul storage set down the street. They thought they got it, but they didn't. So uh so bartending and now DJing and now uh let's go back. So you got sober. Let's let's talk about sobriety. Yeah. And the and the 12 steps and the program and the whole deal. I am into it. I'm really into it. I know you know most alcoholics or I don't know if you'd consider yourself that much. Oh, I most certainly will. Would say, hey, uh, this is me and this is my confession and this is how I got out.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

Yeah, I fall into the camp of I don't believe that you can truly help somebody else that's struggling by being anonymous at the same time, especially in a small community. So I I don't try to hide the fact that I'm sober. I'm also not in a place necessarily to be able to help the way that I want. I can connect people. I'm just not in the program as much anymore because I'm so busy doing other stuff. Yeah. Which arguably might have been the thing that took me out. So I got sober in 2009. Die hard program guy. I mean, I I found I was alone. I was a drinker that was alone. Wow. And I could not get out of my own way to see the forest through the trees, all of the cliches. So diehard party or prior to that. Just long term.

Restaurants Writing And Bartending Connections

SPEAKER_04 16:40

It's how I was raised. It's how I came up. Uh dealt with the pain, with whatever. I'm a 1970s-born kid, so I was 80s. I was, you know, I'm the stranger's things guy. I was riding around the neighborhood on the bike, and when the the lights came home, it was time to go home. That was it. Mom and dad were a couple of martinis in at that point, also. So there was no checking to see if I was okay. Are you smoking weed now? Oh yeah. Well, maybe. Yeah, you smell fun. You don't smell like your usual paps blue ribbon. Is that a tomato plant plant in your bedroom? Yeah, they knew better. I didn't even know that one. I then my parents had to have been creative because they named my brothers Andy. I'm Tobin, and then Joe and Carrie. So it's like, where'd they get the creative Tobin? I think it was a special brownie night for them. Could have been. Yeah. So yeah, so I I I found my tribe in AA. Yeah. I had four DUIs. Whoa. I had been sent to AA plenty. I have sat in a lot of meetings. Never heard a thing except for how to get out of there. Uh-huh. And then yeah, when I bottomed out, I mean, and it was a dark bottom as it was. I don't want to scare you guys. Those good ones are. Yeah. No, it was it was movie worthy. Yeah. Uh it it wasn't. It was it was mental. But um, when I got through the crying part, my dad was the one that was like, Well, you went to AA for the judge. Why don't you call some of those people back up? Wow. For a different reason. Went in and heard a completely different thing, but knew immediately that I was home and that I was around a lot of people that were going to love me until I could love myself because I didn't love myself. Boom. And they did.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Wow. They did. Pretty honest. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 18:11

It was epic.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

So uh my my journey parallels yours differently, kind of vicariously with my dad. So my dad drank till I was uh thirteen. He got arrested, went down and hit very the very bottom of the downtown jail in San Diego.

SPEAKER_04 18:25

Oh, there yeah, that was a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

They took him to the bottom floor, metaphorically, and maybe later. Oh, that's kind of cool that he can say that. Arrested through his S and Physically went to the bottom. Yeah. Sort of go to meetings and uh went to meetings till he died at 83 years old.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Yeah, and I go when I can. I still I'm very I'm active in the community from the sense of uh I've got a text message thread with the seven guys that were sponsored by the same individual. Um I brought a couple of newcomers in last week. I brought a good friend in that's been dying to get help, and I just couldn't wait to get him in there. Um so yeah, I I talked the talk. But uh I was introduced to a spiritual way there, not religious, yeah, uh, but spiritual. I found I found

Sobriety AA And Resetting The Clock

SPEAKER_04 19:05

Buddhism, I found meditation, I found mindfulness, and that's something that I've I've woven into my life because my divorce was tumultuous.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

It was traumatic, I didn't really see it coming. Um, and it took me out for four months.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

So I medicated for four months. My disease, I was not plugged into the program. I came up to here, I came up here and was like next chapter, right? I don't need to go to AA anymore. Right. And and I don't blame it on not being plugged in, but it certainly didn't help. It didn't help. So you were four months backslide sliding into the muck in the monkey muck. So I slap I reset the clock two and a half years ago, October 10th, 2000 Oh gosh, what it 26 now, so 23.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, yeah. No, my dad loved uh AA more than church because they're freaking way more real. And he loved church. He loved his Baptist church at Oceanside.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

No, I sit in those meetings all the time and I'm like, I don't care if you have a drinking problem or not, everyone could use this. Absolutely. Oh, 12 steps are for everybody. It's it's a dollar. If and if you don't have it, that's fine. You know, it's like so much cheaper than real therapy. And everyone knows your struggles.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

You've been there. So when I was 17, I had beautiful long locks with blonde streaks. I was all I was that guy. Voted my surfer, dude? Surfer dude, most beautiful hair in all of Sweetwater Huntsville. Get out of here. Oh, voted. Oh, uh Nick, I was one gorgeous mofo. Is that you're still gorgeous, by the way. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

I appreciate that. Isn't that God's satire to take the one thing that got you on the mop?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

The kids go, what happened to you? What happened used to be cool. I go, you guys, and then drugs. 100%. Yeah. What'd you do? My forehead grew. Yeah, so I had this beautiful long hair. And he would drag me, Dad, Bob, would take me to all these meetings, North County, San Diego. Oh, so you you saw it at all. I saw it up close. Yeah. My kids see it. I saw his spiritual transformation. Sure. And see, spiritual, and saw him just become this new dude and this beautiful man. And uh concurred to that, I I was having my own up here at Humboldt. And where do you go to get sober? Well, Humboldt.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

Yeah. And the Emerald Triangle.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Home of the Emerald Triangle and Sobriety. And California sobriety. I found uh Bet Joni met Jesus, met sobriety, and met a degree at Humboldt, and went back and presented my dad with this beautiful, you know, a whole month's worth of groceries, brand new Ryrie study Bible. I'd like you to have this. He goes, Well, you know, I've uh I only read the King James. I go, let's cut the BS here. You don't own a Bible, bro.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

And just keep it. And so he goes, okay. And so um I gave him my gift and he went back on Camp Pendleton where he's an insurance salesman. Oh, did you see Good Neighbor? He wasn't that, but he sold insurance to life uh to Marines. And uh and here's where my story's going. So this uh Chaplin goes, hey Bob, I heard you you're really cussing that stupid Bible your son gave you, huh? This Ryrie he goes, I studied with Charles Ryrie at Dallas Theological. You would do well in reading that, Bobby. So a Marine needs to hear it from another Marine. Yeah. Not from the kid. Yeah. But the beautiful lot. That makes sense. And uh it transformed when that plus AA and Jesus was a spiritual uh spiritual transformation, bro.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

Yeah. No, it's it's and it's neat to have that awakening. And I find that you just like anything else, you gotta cultivate it. You gotta, you know, and it's it's layers. You're never gonna get to the end of you're never gonna figure it all out. You're not gonna be a professional.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

No. There's perfection is not part of this. And you know, the 12 steps are really I I'm as I re-examine that and how Bill put that together, it's you know, it it's it it's transformation.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

It is divine intervention. It's the most purest form of divine inter intervention. Yeah. The fact that those came out of him in the 50s and they still stand true and as meaningful today as they are without ever being changed.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

So truth does, it sticks around. It does. Yeah. I'm broken, I need help. Start there.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

You got 12 steps to put yourself back together and they work. Yeah. And all you really have to do is surrender. It is most certainly the hardest part.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

A go control freak. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

That's odd. We want to we wanna be in control of everything.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Are you a control freak? Yeah, maybe 12 steps could, you know. So I I follow a guy named John Ortberg that I watch every morning. He's uh a pastor in Santa Barbara, and he he just wrote a book on the 12 steps.

SPEAKER_04 23:29

No, did he really? Just how they apply to life and people. They do. That's what I'm saying. Everyone could go for it. Yeah. You don't have to have drinking problems, go in and catch the meeting.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

As long as this is difficult, let's talk about divorce. Yeah. Oh boy. Um so so your divorce is is continued to to to introduce brokenness in your life. Sure. That you have uh rebounded and had spiritual transformation from, which is kind of I'm getting a theme here, by the way. Oh, yeah. I'm getting it right. I I think I'm tracking it. No, I'm excited. Yeah. So how did um how did that that division work? How how how is that day and how has that worked for you?

Divorce Relapse And Finding Spiritual Tools

SPEAKER_01 24:05

What have you learned?

SPEAKER_04 24:06

So I realized that I had put my spirituality on the shelf, that my my spirituality came from AA, even though it was separate from AA. When I was back then, I was I was a part of um a Buddhist um Sangha. You know, I had gone and done all of the things. I was studying meditation on the side. I had traveled the world in 2012. I went to seven different countries and lived there for the better part of the year, installing cloud-based technologies in developing countries, and Buddhism was a lot more readily available than Christianity. Where was this at Asia? Uh I was started in Kenya, you know, and I did Vietnam, Pakistan, India, um, back to Africa. Far out. Pakistan. Oh, I said Pakistan. Anyhow, yeah, I went to a bunch of different places. And I and there were always there was always temples. There was always Buddhist temples. And so I was turned onto it by then. Moved here in 2018, stopped going to meetings, kind of stopped spiritually exploring. I became a dad and a business owner. Yeah. And that's what got my attention. Yeah. And then on the upon the relapse, uh, well, no, upon the divorce, upon finding out that it wasn't gonna work. Um, I knew exactly where to go. And it wasn't necessarily AA right away, it was spirituality. And so I got busy on clearing chakras. I got c busy reading. I I'm a study. I'm a big voracious reader. And so I started studying and documenting it on social media to kind of it was called um F therapy. Um F therapy. Because it's like I didn't need it. I didn't want I was gonna be my own therapist, and here's how. Wow. And I did. Um until I realized that it could have been hurtful to her and ended up taking it down. Yeah. But it got me to where I needed to be. Um, and then took that on into put myself back together enough to be able to have what I would consider a viable product for the community where I could go out and start being the person that I wanted to be. That's cool. Yeah. And then AA helped put me back together from that. But community, was that part of that? Other people? Here it was. Um it was, it was and beyond the beyond AAA. It was uh knowing and understanding by the time that I fell off that this community was special, that this community really did and does look after each other. I knew that before the divorce. I knew that kind of this is a special place. Kind of rare, right? Very rare. Very rare. We are definitely in a bubble here. And then it's a bubble that looks after their own. And in the name of the zombie apocalypse, all we have to really do is fortify over by the the avenue of the giants and uh up on your way to Crescent City. Two posts, we're good.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

$2.99.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

Oh, that's right. They can slip in two nine. Thank you. We'll kill three bridges.

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Three bridges, we're good. Yeah, we're okay. That's it. Now we're good. They'll have to eat each other and the crab. And then on the work I'm doing, I'm right now I'm doing some work with Humboldt Maid, and it's like, we're gonna be fine. Cool. You know, we're gonna be okay. So I I used spirituality to do that, and then the radio came along and really kind of serendipitously offered um a really, really cool platform to explore spirituality to the end.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

And I have found, and I was always so worried, I'm like, I've got five days a week. I've got this feature every morning at 7 30, and I was worried I'm gonna run out of things to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

What are we gonna talk about?

SPEAKER_04 27:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

And I I never have. Spiritual transformation. Let's start there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

Right. Yeah, we could go for that for a few months. Are you growing? Are you are you are you moving on? Are you gonna do that? Well, today was a big question. Today I asked the question

Becoming A Voice On K-HUM

SPEAKER_04 27:25

is is happiness a choice?

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Ooh. Yeah, that was the one I explored today. I think of joy the word joy. Is joy a choice? I think joy happens.

SPEAKER_04 27:34

Yeah, sure. I believe that. I'm a firm believer that happiness is a choice in the sense that you can do some very purposeful things to bring yourself closer to happiness regardless of your circumstance.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Amen. I think it's yeah, it's a yes and question. Yeah, I think so. It's both.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Yeah, absolutely. There's there's science on the side of no. Yeah. You know, environmental, all of that stuff. So chemical.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

What do you want to talk about? What'd you come in? Anything that you wanted to like uh uh you want to promote the station? I can do that. Shout outs.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

I mean, well, I'm excited about the radio. I mean, I was telling Nick beforehand, I was 15 years old when I realized I wanted to be a DJ. Little show called Northern Exposure. You remember it? Yeah. I don't think I watched. I know uh it's the best.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

So you know, so is that the one in this it's it's kind of a satire. It's up in the Sicily, Alaska. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

Satire. It's actually filmed in Roslyn, Washington. Yeah. So they didn't change the mural on the side of the cafe that says Rosalind. They just named the founder of Sicily Rosalind and Sicily. They were the first ever lesbians in in, you know, whatever. On TV. There was a DJ right on the main street. His booth looked out on this little tiny main street, and he would, you know, pontificate about life and ruminate about the people that he saw. He was an observationist, and he was put a a flawed human being that was put back together again. He had done jail time, but he was reformed as an intellect. He got into philosophy, got into spirituality. So everything that fell out of his mouth was worth listening to. His name was Chris. He was played by oh gosh. Uh he's he's made famous on S in the City. He'll tell us in a second. Yeah, Nick, if you could find out what oh I'm Josh Corb Corbin. Josh Corbin? Corbin, Steve Corbin Della. Steve Corbin. Is it Corbin? It's Corbin. Anyway, how many seasons was Northern Exposure? Got a lot. They just released it on Amazon. I'm so excited. I think they had like 15 seasons or something like that. Man, that's it. It was on for a long time. I used to carry the paper route the paperback book in my pocket, like my copy of Catcher in the Rye of a book written in Chris in the morning. His show was Chris in the morning, um, written in his character's voice. So that kind of started your vision to be. And there there you are, Cam. When I was at 20, when I was 20 years old, I I heard the song Um Rusted Roots Send Me on My Way. My very first thought of that was if I ever do become a DJ, that's gonna be the first song that I play. I knew very well I could not walk into a radio station in the Bay Area and be like, Have I ever told you I'd want to be a DJ? You know folks security, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Quickly. Go over here, get him out of here.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Who is this homeless man?

SPEAKER_03 30:13

But Humboldt, you know, is someone who you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Yeah. So I was sitting at a the next booth over from um Kat and Patrick there having their dinner over at M the Mazzis at the time. Right. And um, and I stopped by his table to say hello, as as you would do in Humboldt often. You don't get out of the any restaurant here without saying hello or goodbye to six people. And I said, How's the the the uh move going? It was only a year and a half ago. He was just moving up from Ferndale. Right. So you're that fresh at this. Oh, very yeah, yeah. So the uh Lost Coast Outpost, which is also Lost Coast Communications, that was in Old Town, and all four radio stations were in Ferndale. Still in Ferndale in the barn, yeah. So they brought them together for the first time in 11 years in Old Town.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

So did you ever work in Ferndale?

SPEAKER_04 30:58

No, at that point I went there when I was running the basement. Um, Larry of 94.1, also the program director for Kahum. Right. Um, he had a cocktail hour, still does. And so I was his guest every Friday. I would he kept saying, You can call in. And I'm like, oh no, I'm driving. I drive over. This is as close to radio as I've ever gotten. Yeah. Which isn't entirely true. I sold radio in Reno for a little bit, but that's completely So did I.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Arcada. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:26

I went to Arcana KFM. Followed a girl up to Reno and ended up selling. They wouldn't let me in. It was funny too. I was telling Larry the other day, I was a sales executive. We weren't allowed to go anywhere near the talent. We weren't allowed to go in the radio booth. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Yeah. Peter look at him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

Yeah. It was weird. Like my my booth's open all the time. That's weird. Yeah. So I stopped by Patrick's table and I said, Did I ever tell you I've always wanted to be in radio? And he's like, call my guy. So I got the uh got to meet Roger. Yeah. So me and Roger sat down and and and the just putting being put together studios.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Your facility's magnificent.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

Oh, it's so beautiful. You guys are rocking. State of the art. So nice. And getting better as soon as we get that band room up and running. Oh, it's gonna be fun. Unbelievable. You're gonna do like tiny desk concerts? Yeah, but it's bigger. I mean, it's a big spot. So you could do a little show. Yeah, we need to wire it. Um, we've done plenty of live performances in there. We've had 12 people bands in there. Really? Okay. And then put them live to the radio. There's enough guys that come to Troubadour people that are amazing. Oh, we that's what we need. We need the people that are on their way from the Bay to Oregon to start.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

See that Frank Zappa band? They were great. I did not. Oh, they were they played complex music.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

Really?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Oh, Frank would have been proud.

SPEAKER_04 32:33

Yeah, we had the music scene up here, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Oh, there's so many guys. I mean, my friend Dave Turner, he calls them out and he goes, Oh, you know, this next week at the steeple in Ferndale. Uh this is a great venue. Uh oh, really great. Yeah. Had Paul, hey Paul. Um yeah, you guys did a color job there.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I met with Roger, ran into Larry about two months later. Uh, he was doing a live um show from Eureka Natural Foods for the Food for People week. And I said, You know, I never heard from Roger. And he said, Did you ever do a air check? I had no idea what that was. So I was like, look at him. He's like, Sure. Play 20 seconds of a song, uh-huh, talk your way out of it, talk your way into the 20 seconds of a next song. Send send the recording in. So I did that, got an interview. Cool. Happened to be with Larry, who the the one person I had history with, because I was down in Ferndale every Friday doing my cocktail hour. And uh, the rest is history. They brought three of us on right away. They're rebranding K Hum at the time. So it was myself, Jordan, and um Kiana, who goes by the lizard queen. Um she left in pretty rapid succession. So it was 6 a.m. to 10 and then a 10 to 2 and a 2 to 6 for the three of us. She left to go run KM hot air. Oh. Or not K Hum hot Air. Humble Hot Air. Humble Hot Air. Yeah. Great outfit. What's that up in Arcata? Arcata just got accredited by the RCC. Okay. Yeah. Awesome in outfit. She got an uh uh an opportunity to be a program director. So instead of replacing her, Jordan and I were like, we'll take we'll split it right down the middle. I'm so now I'm six to noon and he's noon to six. So you're morning drive. I am morning drive. And then a couple of months ago, um, Larry has been the program director for both 94.1 and and K Hum. They were tiring of it, so they put it out the feelers to try to start hiring for a program director. And I they knew not better than to ask me. I'm single father of four kids. I own my own digital marketing company and I'm already here six hours a day. Right. Don't don't go near near Toby. Whatever you do, he's busy. He's fine. And I made the conversation conversational comment. I bet I could make it work, and that was it. I got approached by like four people that were like, hey, you should apply. Hey. And so I did. I did. I'm the assistant program director. I'm learning from Larry right now because I'm so fresh. I shouldn't be So you're an apprentice. I'm an apprentice. I'm Larry's apprentice. Oh, that makes I love that. It's a Star Wars reference.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

You are an apprentice. Uh we we're all apprenticing under something. Yeah, we are someone. Amen. You gotta serve somebody, Bob Dylan. You gotta serve somebody. Bob said it well. Bob Zimmerman. So let's make segue because I want to come back to three things that are really key for that are about you. Yeah. Single dad stuff. Yep. Uh the spirituality show on Friday. And a third thing that that'll surprise you with. But before we do that, it's the quiz. Oh. I don't know enough about the quiz. Or you could win fabulous prizes. If you're just joining us, it's my friend Toby Tullis from K Hum and the Bay, and he's an A's fan. And uh well, just stick around and you'll find more. Um

The Quiz Hard Lessons And Joy

SPEAKER_01 35:41

question number one. Yeah. What's the toughest thing that you ever had to go through and what'd you learn from it?

SPEAKER_04 35:47

I mean, I would alcoholism is probably the toughest thing, big picture that I've ever had to go through. Um because we've touched base on that, a very, very close second would be losing my father at an early age. He died when he was 63. Absolutely the patriarch of the family. Wow. Held uh held us all together. It was a big loss.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

That's tough.

SPEAKER_04 36:05

Yeah. So that one was that was a doozy. What'd you what'd you gain from those experiences? My father didn't have much to give us in the way of monetary gains uh when he left, but he left uh left us with two things that are much more valuable. He left me with my my quick wit. I have utilized that every chance that I possibly could. And he left me with the um a playbook on how to be a dad. Nice. And I use that every single day. That's huge, dude. Huge. Uh yeah. I would rather have that than any monetary gain whatsoever. Um and that's what he left us. That was his legacy. And and because of that, I I do believe um in that he's got the best seat in the house to watch it all.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah. You know, you and I are in a similar path, yeah. My dad he died fairly broke, but that he was very rich. Yeah, yeah. He's an extremely wealthy man.

SPEAKER_04 36:51

Yeah, they had to set up fold out fold up chairs outside the the church to get the the the overflow.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Oh, that's that's that's all that's what matters. Life life well lived. Question number two. What's uh what's life-giving for you? What fills up your bucket?

SPEAKER_04 37:05

The radio really does fill up my bucket. I I I I tongue in cheek say that the digital marketing keeps the lights on in the house and the radio keeps the lights on in my soul. Like it's something that I've wanted to do for so long. And to be able to be a voice in the community that I've come to love so very much, yeah, uh, that is not wasted on me. So currently, as it stands, I mean, who else jumps out of bed at 4 30 in the morning? No, no one should.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

You know, and I I literally am like, woo-hoo! Like, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Let's do this thing. Yeah. You and Ferndale Farmers.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

Actually, they're up at three. The four people that I talk to at six in the morning.

unknown 37:43

Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Hey, yeah. I could probably call them off and just be like, what's going on, Ethan? How are you, Joe O'Connell? What's for breakfast today? All the early guys. Yeah, that's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 37:53

But no, the the radio is definitely keeping the lights on for me, man. Uh internally. I mean, I'm I'm excited about it still. It's been over a year and a half and I haven't waned at all. Find something you love, you'll never have to work another day. It's true. Damn it. They've been saying that for so long. Yeah. No, I've just been I've heard that forever and I've never understood it until now you don't have to work. It's great. Yeah. Well, it's a good thing that I, you know, the radio radio doesn't you don't get wealthy doing it.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

No. As my dad said, if you're in it for the money, you're only half paid.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

Yeah. I'm I figure I'm gonna follow you what you had said and just go to my grave with a whole bunch of friends. So my friends, my pick my kids one day could say he wasn't broke. He wasn't broke.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

He had a lot of friends.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Where is it? What movie is that? He was a wealthy man that dies with a bunch of friends. We'll come back to that one. That's a killer killer line in the movie. Hey, question number three. Yeah. I gotta get my bell to work. Question number three, Toby, for all the money. Ooh. Actually, for a book that you're gonna, it's gonna blow your mind. Oh, yeah? Oh, I got some special prizes. I I would I rounded up the most killer group of prizes for you today. Usually be a Dick Taylor chocolate bar, but and we love those guys, but good people.

SPEAKER_04 39:01

Well, I can see I you're you're you're lit up right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

You haven't won

Ideal Day Meditation Golf And Family

SPEAKER_01 39:05

a recipient. You haven't won this yet. I know, you're right. You're right. No close. No counting chickens. It could go either way. Um what's your ideal day? If you had if so uh you got 12 hours to do whatever, no money, no money, no money's not the object. What would you do with your day if you could just get up and go and hey, Pat calls it, calls it in when you're done here? Yeah. Hey, take tomorrow off, and here's the checkbook. That's super rad. Here's the card.

SPEAKER_04 39:31

That's super rad. And I think that I think about this every now and then. And I think that I've always come back to um I would meditate in the morning. I would absolutely that's a way to every day. Do you have a hot tub? Do you sit out inside? You know what's crazy is I've got one of those Shakti mats. That's where clothing involved?

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Yeah. It's optional on a Shakti. I mean, yeah, shirtless. I'm shirtless, and I'm sorry for anyone that has to even envision that. What's up?

SPEAKER_04 39:56

I've got us radio guys like to admit that we've got a face for radio.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Yeah, you have a great face for radio.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

Perfect face for radio.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

My wife says everybody's naked under their clothes, so whatever. They sure are.

SPEAKER_04 40:05

Picture everyone in an urgent nudity in America? So a Shakti mat is about a three-foot by two-foot rectangle mat that is full of what are essentially golf spikes, the plastic round golf space. I love that. So it emulator has sleeping on a bed of nails, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:21

Oh, that thing hurts like a mo fruit.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

For the first couple of minutes, it sure does. Oh, it's circulation then. And then I mean, what happens is your back says we're under attack. It sends every part of your red blood blood cells to the injury site and they're looking around like there's nothing wrong here. Have you ever gotten a cut from it? No, no, no. It doesn't puncture skin at all. Ever. Ever. Not once. Just because the engineer is my kids are actually into it. Oh, do you stand on it too? I have. That's hard because that's a whole bunch of weight on top of it.

unknown 40:49

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 40:49

You're dispersed when you're on your back. But I have found that that is my that's my gateway to talk to my higher power. My higher power is So you lay on your back on this? Yeah. And then I've got a pillow, a neck pillow of the same material. So I'm poking the back of my neck and my bald head with these things. You're bald? Indeed. Yes, you are. And then um that allows me to put myself on this quite literal meditative path. I've I'm a visual meditator. And so I go down this path. It's a path in Africa, runs alongside of a creek. I've got binaural music going on. I love it. And eventually when it the calling comes, I go to an open field where I connect with an energy that is faceless, nameless. Um she has a matronly, motherly voice. Nice. And I'm able to ask anything that I need to ask. You know, the Holy Spirit, she's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

She knows me. And it does God, does the higher power does God, does the creator have a gender? I don't think so. We're all about gender.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

So I meditate first. Coffee's definitely part of the thing. I think I'd go golfing. Say coffee? Coffee's a part of the thing. It is part of that. Okay. Oh, absolutely. Coffee's a part of everything. Have you ever had Phil's Coffee from the Bay Area? P-H-I-L-Z. My man. Yeah. I was uh worked in Cupertino for a while. Now that's I've been drinking that for a week. I go I would go as far as to say that Cupertino was run by Phil's Coffee on Phil's Coffee. The whole town? Oh God, that's where the best ideas come from.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

They're like, I got an idea. It's called Apple.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Google, Google.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

Phil's fills, fills, fills.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Oh my gosh. Good stuff. Very nice. Amazing. Every cup made like a pour over. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so sorry.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

Back to the blue blue bottle. If you ever get a chance to, that's another really, really good coffee. That's out of Oakland.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Do they serve that at Brio?

SPEAKER_04 42:36

They might. I don't know. I've never seen it up here, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

Um sorry. I'm I'm in the middle of your great day.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

That's right. I uh I would golf. Uh golf has always been I don't do it enough anymore, but it's always been a part of my my piece and my zen. I love it. I love misplacing four hours on a golf course. It's good. It's what time's for. Yeah, it's good stuff. Where do you play? Well, up here I do Beaupre.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

I I think it's a great course. I bet Patrick could get us on Baywood. I've never played Baywood. Dang, son. You gotta go.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

I think about it all the time. I'll get you on. Please. Please. I that that would be epic. Um I would barbecue something myself at night with dinner. Uh ribs are probably my favorite thing to cook, although they're labor-intensive. That's why they've got the biggest reward, but I think I'd do that. The burgers always go over well with the kids. Yeah. You know, but I think I'd do a big old plate of ribs. Sounds good. And then some outdoor dining if the weather appreciates. The five nights a week, a year weekend.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

If it happens on last Saturday. Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

If it happens on last Saturday, then I'm good to go. Otherwise. We just went to Sacramento and every night was just 70 and perfect and outside.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

My my my friend, my childhood friend, came here to see it, kicked the kind of kick the tires on Humboldt to see if it's a place to put down roots last weekend. Last weekend, you know, where Humboldt truly showed off. We were at the beach both days.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Oh yeah. And I'm telling them the whole time, I'm like, it's not usually like this.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

Don't buy yet. Don't do this. Come back another weekend so you can see what it's like. And time with my kids. I would absolutely spend time with my children. And in fact, I would love to be out on the golf course with them. That would be fine. Kids love golf courses. I'm a big time camper. I love to be outside. Nice. And so I'd probably take I've got a pop-up that fits all of it. It would never fit the X. So it worked out perfect. So I've got a little pop-up trailer that I take the kids on.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Alright, bonus question. Yeah. Are you ready? I think. Where do you go to eat? So Pat gives you the credit card and says he just anywhere you want to go.

SPEAKER_04 44:38

Well, I mean within the county. County. You gotta be well, you gotta stay in the map. This one's easy.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

I I've got this one in spades. Papa Papa

Best Local Meal And A Book Gift

SPEAKER_04 44:45

Wheelies. Papa Wheelie's Papa Wheelie's boy. Scotty is my man. And I and I will do anything and everything to support him. I hope he's around until my kids can understand exactly. They know. They've all been. I try to go. Did you go to his big anniversary where it was out of the house? I didn't. I was I had the kids that weekend and and no, I can't just kind of keep them out of it. His burgers are outstanding. They're unbelievable. Really? They're unbelievable. Everything's locally sourced. Does he coat cook? Yeah. He does. He's got a guy there, Justice, that does a lot of the cooking during the week. But you know, Friday, Saturday, he's kind of a price point too. He's not crazy money, right? No, it's it's it's on the higher end, but not not too too expensive at all. But you get what you pay for. You're getting a wholesome ingredient, you're getting locally sourced, you're getting, you know, all the personality that TGA Fridays wants to be. Right. You know, but it's real there. You know, the abnormal angles and shit all over the wall. And yeah. Everything. Yeah. Kids asking, can I get some of these jelly beans? I'm like, no, they've been in that thing since 1960. I doubt very highly. Anything that's a dime is worth eating. And no, you can't. Let's get some projects.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

Remember the movie house that had the hot dogs or the rolling machine? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's been there since 1912. No, you don't want to do that. No, it's it's something else now, it's living.

SPEAKER_04 45:55

Yeah, pop Papa Wheelies is something that I throw out often on the radio show. I I it's like that double-edged sword. I don't want him to become so busy that I get squeezed out, but I I want him to be there forever.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Yeah, he's a good dude.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

It's funny how how um different things come along your path, and and Scott's come along our path many times, including this time. So, hey, because you're amazing, uh, a can of really nasty zero sugar seven up cherry soda. Oh, because seven up needs zero sugar. It does. Yeah. I want you to have that. Well, thank you, sir. But the real gift is um Andrew Murray was a uh was a Scotsman that was educated in uh Edinburgh, Scotland, and wrote 200 books. And this is super spiritual. Biden Christ, it's his classic. He was a teacher, he wrote 200 books, and this one uh you might get a chapter a week. It's that deep. It's just wonderful.

SPEAKER_04 46:47

Fantastic. It's a thinking book for your meditation time. Fantastic. I appreciate you. Anytime anyone hands you literature, it's the same thing as good friends show you new music.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

I'm gonna sh I'm gonna sign it when we're done. I didn't I didn't I didn't author it, but it's killer. I appreciate this very much. I'm gonna give it out dozens of these, they're great.

SPEAKER_04 47:03

I'll be sure and do these at separate times so that I don't I don't equate one with the other.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Come. It's it's it's so it's it's all about John 15.

Five S Practices And The Control Bucket

SPEAKER_01 47:10

Abide in the vine. Come come and now rest. Yeah. And that's where we don't get it. We want to come, but we want to get active and be under control and control, and we don't we don't rest. You're no good to anybody if you don't take a step back. And you just said it when you do the meditation. That's you're resting. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Cease.

SPEAKER_04 47:26

Just yeah, and that's what that that's what morning mindfulness is for me every day. Every day I get to talk to people about what it is that I've got going on in my own. Sweet. I don't do it as n uh as well as I feel like I should sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

It's a process. It is. Yeah, it's a J curve. So I'm reading a guy named John Mark Comer. John Mark is an amazing guy. He left two mega churches and young guy in Portland. Oh, okay. And he resigned to do the five S's. We talked about pre-show. What are the five S's?

SPEAKER_04 47:54

I get to finally ask. I was looking for my my opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Simplicity. Mm-hmm. Simplify your life. Silence. Practicing silence. Very important. Because wait, I gotta check my phone. Wait, no, I uh uh oh wait, Papa Murphy's what's for dinner? Yeah, the iron on. The ADD tripping, you know, I'm tripping again. And uh bottom line is um my son is calling from Korea right now. Korea. Korea. I would normally take this, but I'll call him back. Wow, that's tremendous. He's in Seoul South Korea. That's exciting. Yeah, so silence. Um what was my first one?

SPEAKER_04 48:29

Your s the silence was the second one. Your first one was Simplicity. Simplicity, simplify your life.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

Simplify silence, solitude, be alone. Good. Don't be afraid to be alone. Uh Sabbath. So I've I was uh baptized as an Adventist with long, beautiful hair. Yeah. And this guy showed up, we're smoking weed, and he goes, Hey, I got your Bible. And I go, Hey, uh, can you come back next Tuesday when it's not cheech and chong?

SPEAKER_04 48:52

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

You know, like the smoke coming out.

SPEAKER_04 48:54

Yeah, I'll hold on to this, but yeah, he goes, I'll be back.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

So for 13 uh Tuesdays, I studied Adventistism, which was very akin to it's very Christian, but they have a Sabbath, they do a Saturday Sabbath, yeah, which is where I'm getting to in a second here. And they do vegetarianism. Hey, not two two good programs.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

And so at uh 14 I got baptized to my Lutheran mother's chagrin, but she came on a Saturday.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

Oh, that's good, good on her for the year.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

And they oh, she was great. You know, how could you lose, Scott? Because you were going to some other direction.

SPEAKER_04 49:24

Yeah, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

And so quite quite the story, and you know, a year later, I'm you know, I discovered that I'm kind of with I'm a fish out of water with a bunch of really clean-cut, very wealthy Adventist people who are lovely, but I'm just and then I meant maybe it was the Greek girl at 16. Oh, that'll do it.

SPEAKER_04 49:41

I'm pretty sure that was that probably has a lot more to do with it than we admit. Who doesn't? Yeah. Anyway, so I had to make choices. I've got that. I've got one.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

Yeah, we fall art at Arena. Yeah, yeah, we do. And so we came back to Humboldt and things changed. But uh Sabbath, the idea of uh Friday night, shut it all down. Yeah, take the toys. That's a big one right now. Take the toy, put that turd in the closet until Saturday night. Could you do it? I haven't done it successfully yet because the J curve says when you learn stuff, you're over here and you actually suck at golf.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

Or at Sabbath or whatever, and then you get better. Okay. So the J curve is all about hey, you're gonna start here, you're gonna actually get worse before you get better.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

Yeah, I I can adhere to that. That makes sense to me. That's soundtracks.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

I've been for Saturday's my favorite day. Jesus sleeping, Jesus nap, Jesus walk, Jesus bottle of wine, Jesus we're having a good time with Jesus. And it's I don't have to.

unknown 50:35

I get to.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Yeah, that's exactly right. And Jody and I just have a ball and we just pay Mela and and I get the Sabbath hangover on Sunday. And everybody reaps the benefits of of following that that program. The rest of the week. And it's not a everyone that comes into your orbit, though, yeah gets to the benefit of that. It's not restrictive. It's like, oh let's open, let's kick the door open. It's the fourth commandment. It never got re dis you know, it never got omitted.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

Yeah. He didn't cancel it. Yeah, I'm a big fan of saying that you got to get off the treadmill.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

You know, it's easy to stay on.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:04

It's difficult to get off. But once you get off, you're like, okay, fine, I'm in control again.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Yeah. Shabbat, shalom. The last one is S's. You didn't ask me yet. Go ahead. Was it we're only at four? Yeah. What's the last S? Shalom. Shalom. Shalom, shalom. Double, double peace, man. Just can you be peaceful?

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Can you be present with people?

SPEAKER_04 51:22

You're gonna get that from all the other four S's.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

Correct. Yeah. And you all we got is you and me now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:27

You know, and that's that's that's Buddhism. Like living in the present moment.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

You know?

SPEAKER_01 51:32

Hey, maybe it's not that far akin.

SPEAKER_04 51:34

Yeah. Yeah. You think? You l you live in the present, then, then that's what you have control over. I love it. Yeah, I I just recently did a morning mindfulness that kind of blew my mind from my research. And it was the bucket, the two bucket theory that a bucket for what you can control and what you can't control. Oh, cool. And 99% of our problems come from putting our things that happen to us in the wrong bucket. Right.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

I'm gonna freak out and watch the news tonight.

SPEAKER_04 52:00

What?

SPEAKER_01 52:00

Yeah. What why would you do that to yourself?

SPEAKER_04 52:02

I stopped. Yeah. I did it the first term.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

But I want to be I want but I want to be well informed. Well, of what? Of a FedEx driver killing a seven-year-old girl.

SPEAKER_04 52:13

Oh, don't.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

Oh my God. I I watched that yesterday at the gym and I'm going, and my heart sunk. I haven't heard about this. My heart's sunk. It's like this hurts the entire team. This hurts the world team. The US team.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

I'll tell you right now, I can no longer watch movies where kids are in peril, even knowing it's a movie. It's good. Yeah, I can't. Like take taken. I love it. You know, like the immovable. Yeah, what yeah, what's his what's his line?

SPEAKER_01 52:38

You don't know who I'm I have a certain set of skills.

SPEAKER_04 52:40

Yeah. I can't as as awesome as that is, I can't. I can't, I cannot get out of the empathetic freeway that is knowing that as teenagers in Europe by yourself in peril.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

And why would we continue to watch crap like like that or the news or Fox News or CNN?

SPEAKER_04 53:00

Yeah, because all those faceless children have my kids' faces.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:03

That's all that that's all there is to it.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Yeah. And I and it I think it's good to have a brokenness and a sensitivity and to be a prayerful person and hold people close to your heart. But I don't I why am I looking this up? Why am I watching horror movies? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 53:17

Doom scrolling. Or doom scrolling. Oh my gosh. That's the, you know, it's what it's what's so easy to get in. I riddle my I'm gonna be on my phone before I go to bed. You know, I read every night before bed, but I always grab my phone, either before or after. When I do, I make it a purpose to riddle and litter my stories with the funny algorithmic stuff that comes and finds me. The stuff that absolutely makes me chuckle out loud. I've got to share that out. That goes out.

SPEAKER_01 53:42

Yeah, everything. Why not? Yeah. Hey, I got a phone practice that you like. Yeah. I have two other spiritual practices. Can I share this? Of course, please. So this baby goes to bed. I put the kids to bed early. This goes out of charger and it goes away. And I don't touch that. I let I let that the kids sleep in in the morning too. So I used to wake up and go, Well, I better check my my ugh. And it's like, what are you doing to yourself? Yeah. What are you doing to your brain? And so I won't touch it till after 7 30, 8 o'clock when I've listened done my yoga, listened to Ortberg, taken the prayer walk in the morning. So I I've always heard that. I've always heard uh one and a half to two hours. Put it to bed.

unknown 54:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

Why am I killing myself on my phone? Yeah, don't even look at an email. What are you getting from it? Nothing. Endorphin hit. Yeah, that's it. Here's the truth. The truth is you're we're all endorphin addicts. Uh-huh. Oh, look, oh, they liked it. Oh, oh, and oh, another hit.

SPEAKER_04 54:32

Which is which is uh also a benefit of recovery in the sense that I know a little bit about that stuff. You know, where the dangers that that stuff can get you into. Oh my gosh. You know, and it's good. It's good to have that that do I act on it all the time? Absolutely not. Yeah. You know, I mean I'm I'm in a radio booth by you know five o'clock every morning.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Oh, we all have endorphin well, and you have to have something to talk about. I

Condemnation Perspective And Listening Better

SPEAKER_01 54:55

mean, there's some currency to what you have to say. I I get that. The um So for Lent, which I've never really practiced and I've never fasted, uh I fasted condemnation this year. Interesting. What an condemnation is a dirty word.

SPEAKER_04 55:10

And it's Did you find yourself condemning a lot of pe things, people, whatever came in your purview?

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Not before Lent.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

Right, right. I never I never condemned ever. Ever.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

And then all of a sudden you put the the can the the Lent glasses on and you're like, Well it turns out that when you're sensitive to something, like you you know um you're trying to quit smoking, you're trying to quit drinking, you're trying to look for a white Mustang that's killer car.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

And you s and then it starts to highlight called a reticular activator.

SPEAKER_04 55:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

Because your main your mind starts to look for that stuff it's almost a form of manifestation. Correct. Yeah, and you're manifest and so I and and some of my condemnation was even about other people. Oh, sure. Most of it was on this guy.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

Which is when you look deeper, when you can scratch back the surface, you find out that there's mirrors involved. Oh, it's so hard on ourselves. It's so crazy. I go I go by the principle of there's at least two, but always two, but at least two perspectives in which to look at anything. And if you can get out of your own shoes for a minute to just look at the perspective, I'm reminded of the image of two people sitting there looking at a six or a nine on the floor. Oh, right. And they're both yelling their truths. Yeah. And they're both right. And they're both correct. Yeah. But if they just swap spots, they would know. I love it. So just do that. Guess che take, understand that there is a a different perspective out there that's probably just as truthful as yours. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

And try to listen to it. It helps. I try to listen to it. You don't have to get any on you. You don't have to adapt it, exactly. What what about respect and connection and relationship? And that's all we're all talking about. Hey, uh, we're almost done. So guess what? What shout out? How do we get to your station?

SPEAKER_04 56:48

What do we do? You know what I can do? I can do my uh to to qualify that I am who I say I am. I should probably just do my top of the hour that I do. Go. I did this at uh uh Arcada Rising when I took the microphone. I was a host over there. Plus, you can see me hosting Canafest this year. That's kind of cool. I'll be up on stage for that.

How To Listen Legacy And Goodbye

SPEAKER_04 57:05

I will. We have less than three minutes, go. You're listening to 104.3 or 104.7 K-H-U-M-K-Hum out of Cut and McKillyville, Arcado Portuna, all over Humboldt County, streaming live on Khum.com. My name is Toby. This is Toby in the morning, and everything I just said is a lie. Good one. Okay. That's me. I love it. So 104.3, 104.7, 6 a.m. till noon.

SPEAKER_01 57:27

Gotcha. Every day. And you're live with me, and now we're gonna go. You know how we know a great show with you and I? It went quick.

SPEAKER_04 57:34

It did go quick. I can't believe you said there's three minutes. I couldn't. That's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Now I'm gonna uh round it. So, real quick, what's your legacy? What do you what do you what are we gonna say at your funeral? There'll be extra chairs.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

That he was an approachable person that was trustworthy and he was a good friend to have. That's beautiful. I love it. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me, Scott. I appreciate this.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

Yeah, and thanks for joining us. 100% Humboldt. Uh like us, love us, send us money, gold bullion, yeah, jaguars. We'll take it all. Nothing will be turned away. And you could do comments, right?

SPEAKER_02 58:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:03

And we're on uh Access Humboldt TV. Yeah. And we're on all the podcast platforms. Like and follow. We're on.

SPEAKER_04 58:09

If the kids say, smash that like and follow button.

SPEAKER_01 58:11

Like and follow like and follow. We would love that. Hey, thanks. Thanks, Toby. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_04 58:15

Thanks, Scott. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 58:16

All right. Have a good day. You too.