Richmond Bones, Artifacts & Dead Malls (VCU/MCV graverobbers, stolen artifacts, Chesterfield Town Center, insurance scams, etc) — Unscripted #029

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We cover a wild spread this week. From Richmond’s documented “Night Doctor” era—when grave robbing supplied cadavers to the Medical College of Virginia—to Chesterfield Town Center’s sale and what it signals for malls. 

We break down the scam of hospital pricing and insurance, a local USPS fiasco, and the VMFA’s return of Turkish antiquities. We also reflect on a year of hard lessons: paying down debt, leaving the 9-to-5, and treating entrepreneurship like personal development.

Hosted by Myke Metzger & Perri Young:
https://instagram.com/mykemetzger
https://instagram.com/planetperri

Learn more about our studio:
https://verahouse.co

This podcast is produced by ⁠Vera House⁠ — a creative club and media studio based in Richmond, Virginia. Our studio exists to champion creative expression, elevate culture, and produce high-impact content for founders, makers, and modern brands in Richmond.

Quick interjection to invite you to Vera House Studios. If you are a local Richmond business, entrepreneur, brand owner, or service provider—and you know you need to create better content to get your products and services in front of the right people—we can help.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to the Vera House Podcast. We've got another fun episode for you today. We talked about some crazy stuff this one. One story that actually came from a listener of ours, so thank you for that. A couple of the things that we actually really enjoy talking about were healthcare and how it's kind of a scam. The potential that there will be no more shopping malls in Richmond, which is kind of feel mixed feelings about and how there may have been stolen artifacts right here, stolen ancient and very valuable artifacts right here in Richmond. What else do we talk about? Yeah, we continued the theme of the government is not your friend, allegedly, you know. We talked about some Richmonders who haven't received their mail in six months and they're waiting on new mailboxes, I guess. We talked about one of the craziest stories we've covered on this show, which is the night doctor that lived underneath VCU that was robbing graves. Yeah, I don't want to give it away. It's a crazy one. It's truly unbelievable. So, yeah. Tune into this episode. We hope you enjoy it. Yeah. So, I've decided I'm not paying taxes anymore and you've decided you're not paying medical insurance anymore. Yeah. And we're going to wing it and see what happens. I mean, what are they going to do? Kill us? I mean. No, I think the nature is trying really hard to do that all by itself. So, I'm going to do my best to stay healthy, steer clear of any unnecessary dangerous situations. And because I've been talking to you for the last couple of months about this, I've been convinced now that I'm going to live on a commune and just pool all my money with my best friends and that'll be our insurance. Yeah. I mean, it's the same thing, right? That's all they're doing. And yeah, they have entire departments dedicated to making sure that they don't have to pay you out. So, you can't rely on them to help you. Yeah. And they're not there to help you. They don't like you and they want your money. You know, it's a business with 90% profit margins and private algorithms and no sort of guidelines or process to say, oh, here's how we give you your money. Their entire job is to take your money and then figure out how to not give it back to you. It's a mafia. Yeah. It's a mind trip for sure. And the best description that I saw recently that kind of made it click for me, among other things, I've been kind of navigating the healthcare system more regularly the later half of this year, but I saw an Instagram reel where somebody is playing both characters of a scenario and he's talking to the insurance adjuster, basically saying, so I gave you money for my premium, but I didn't get sick and I didn't use my insurance. Where's that money? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, well, I paid you every month. I paid you lots of money for this policy and I haven't used it. So, what happened to the money I gave you? He's like, well, that's our money now. He's like, well, so what am I paying you for? You're paying us for insurance. I don't understand what's happening. He's like, good. Yeah. It's just, it's all just made up. And the more and more I look into it and I'm dealing with the insurance company on my end, I came across another thing because I'm trying to be better about my finances, trying to learn about my money. Imagine if instead, and this is definitely because I've been talking to you. It's like imagine- Sorry in advance. Imagine if I took all the money that I would spend on my insurance policy and I just saved it. I'd have $6,000 or $10,000 at the end of the year, which could potentially just be what I used to spend on health insurance or healthcare. If I need to go to urgent care or to the emergency room, you pay out of pocket, so to speak. But God forbid that doesn't happen. To take that another step further, what if I took all the money that I didn't, that I spent on health insurance premium, just a premium, not like bills or anything like that. So the monthly payment and I invested it, I'd have more than if I saved it in a year. Yeah. You know, and this isn't financial advice or medical advice. Yeah. Please don't take our word for it. Right. But you can set up a high yield savings account, which, you know, you used to be able to get like 6% on it. Now it's like four. But yeah, at the very least you could just put that money in a savings account where it's out of reach. You can't touch it. But yeah, if something happens or you need a checkup or, you know, you need a small whatever operation or something like, yeah, you have money set aside. It's growing a little bit. Yeah. And even more so if you did have an arrangement with family or friends or something where it's like, look, let's all put money into here while the money sits here, it grows. And when someone needs something, yeah, we've all contributed to a group account. And as long as it's, you know, agreed upon or whatever, and it's clearly not egregious because you trust everybody that's involved. It's like, yeah, if you get sick or you need something or your kid needs something, then yeah, you pull from the group account. Yeah. And that's what it is, you know, and you don't need to worry about some dude being like, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you can't get funds out of this account. You know, it's like, yeah, the whole thing's a scam. It's a scam. And I'm pretty sure, correct me if I'm wrong, that's what private banks used to be before the financing aspect of banking came into place years and years ago. It was a small group of people that would put their money in one place so that they could then use it later. Again, that sounds like the simple, most simplified version, but that makes complete sense to me. And the other side of like, the other side of this is, you know, when you're thinking about the healthcare situation, it's like, okay, what if you really just need ongoing care? Like you have a chronic illness, you have an injury that's going to take years to recover from, so on and so forth. You just need, you know, consistent tests done and, you know, prescription drugs. You do need assistance for that because they're going to charge you, I think it was 700 to 600, 600 to 700% markup. And this is coming from a friend who works in healthcare. She said she found out that procedures and medicine was being marked up 600% in the hospital, not from the person that was providing the product. The hospital was marking it up. So you do need assistance so that somebody pays them so that they're not asking you for the money. So then you think about like state government assistance. So Medicaid, Medicare, things like that. I don't know anything about this, but my sister has some experience with it. She actually needed assistance with, had like medical bills earlier this year. And because she got laid off, she qualified for Medicare or Medicaid. I think that's what it is. And she was telling me about this and it sounds unbelievable. All your medical expenses are free and they will take care or cover any medical expenses that you incurred for up to a year prior to getting Medicaid. So if you have outstanding medical bills from the year prior, they will pay those bills. And then all of your coverage during your time being covered under Medicaid is free. Wow. Now you only qualify for that if you make under, I believe it's $20,000 a year. So if you're unemployed or if you make less than $20,000, then you qualify for Medicaid. Interesting. But of course, nobody's going to tell you that. Yeah. Well, and then when you do, they probably like harvest your blood or try to like sell your organs or something. Right. Again, they're not going to make it easy for you to get it. So there's these stipulations and the qualifying parameters and whatnot. So it's still some hurdles you got to get through, but it's just, it makes you rethink all of those posts that maybe you've seen, articles that you maybe you've seen, or the tales in the wind, if you whisper, if you listen to the wind as it whispers in the night, free healthcare, free healthcare. It's out there somewhere. A lot of places have universal healthcare or like countrywide or nationwide healthcare and they're doing just fine. They made it work. I mean, it's a racket dude. Like, especially with these hospitals, most hospitals are private hospitals. So people forget it's a business, right? So there are absolutely, there's a board of the hospital and there are basically shareholders. And you bet they're having meetings talking about, oh, we need to increase margins. We need to increase efficiency. They have a turnover rate of hospital beds and we need to get more. It's a business, man. And they're thinking, oh, well, we need to jack the price up on this and jack price up on that. And there's a whole documentary that dives into this. The prices are just made up. And it's exactly that where the margins are crazy. And it's like, well, hey, can you, like, where'd you get this number from? It's just totally made up. It has nothing to do with how a real business comes up with its numbers, right? Normally you have multipliers based on your cost of goods and stuff like that. They are not looking at their cost of goods sold and the labor cost of their doctor, and then coming up with a reasonable multiplier of what they charge the customer. They're just thinking, oh, we're just going to crank this up because they have a monopoly on it, you know? And even when it comes to like dentistry and stuff, right? It's literally a self-fulfilling system where you need insurance to go do this thing. And then, of course, you need a separate policy for dental because dentistry is not health, right? That's a whole separate health. So, now you need a different health insurance policy. You need a dental policy. So, then you're paying every month for that. The policy doesn't even cover what you need, right? Like, it covers your basic cleaning, sort of, and then like an x-ray once a year, and that's it. This is the kicker, and I think I told you this a while back. So, I recently, in the middle of this year, so summertime, I had to get a new health care policy, which included dental. What I didn't know is that most dental coverage has a 12-month waiting period. Yeah. What is a 12-month waiting period? No one told me. It's made up. And I didn't know. So, I went to get a dental procedure that was beyond just a regular cleaning, and then, you know, typically, it's just like, hey, guys, we do the thing, and then I'm out the door. See you next year, or see you in six or eight months, or whatever. This time, they were like, hold up. Here's your bill. I mean, what do you mean bill? It's like, you have a 12-month waiting period, which means your health care or your dental insurance isn't going to cover this procedure. You have to pay us today, all of it. No payment plans, none of that. Here, $1,600. That's your bill. On a Tuesday afternoon, when I didn't expect it, I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, tell me, tell me again what's happening. So, when you get a new health care plan that comes with a dental plan, they don't cover anything except for cleanings and your visits for 12 months, which means you are paying every month for a year for no help. Yeah, yeah. Tell me, tell me where the math, math's like, because I'm not seeing it. Yeah, the math is that they know that they lose the most money in the first year. So, then they say, oh, well, your first X amount of months are not valid, right? Because maybe you're already developing a cavity or something, right? So, they say, oh, well, that's omitted, and you have to wait, but you still have to pay your bill. You still have to pay your bill every month. It blew my mind. It blew my mind. Pay your bill. You get no service. Now, I do know, and I don't want to say it's normal, because the whole thing is not normal. It's all a scam, but it is normal in dental policies where there's like a waiting period, and I think that might even be true for health insurance anyway, but I don't really know. 2025 will go down as the year where we all realized, oh, all these big corporations and the government hate the people that they say that they serve. It's like, they don't care about us. They're not here to help us. They are here to take all of your money and assist in helping you lose all of your limbs and your teeth. This is a PSA. Break free from the matrix. If we can do it, so can you. Yeah. Godspeed. It's not easy, because you've been conditioned, and we have been educated, and it's been generationally passed down that these are things that we absolutely have to do. No questions asked. Well, let's start asking some questions. I think we deserve a few answers. You know, in Latin, the word government, right? The word govern in Latin is to restrict or control, and the word ment, M-E-N-T, is the Latin root for the word mind. So, the word government in Latin literally is like restrict your mind or control your mind. It's the government. Look it up. Yeah, look it up. Hashtag look it up. And at least over these episodes, we get to document the process of me converting you into a conspiracy theorist. I think every episode, there's a slight nudge in that direction, especially with the real world stuff that I'm personally being affected by. The more high-brained, high-minded stuff like the moon is hollow and the other conspiracies that we have talked about might take a little bit more time, but I'm open to it. My mind is ready to receive the new version of reality. Yeah. Planet Perry. Planet Perry. Yeah. Yeah, I know, dude. The moon's hollow. Isn't that crazy? So, it is the week before Christmas, as of this recording. This will come out, I believe, after Christmas. So, if we're thinking about this period of time at the end of the year, middle to the end of December, it's holidays, it's Christmas, New Year's coming up. A lot of people like to do an audit or even if they're not intentionally writing things down and doing a spreadsheet or a breakdown, they'll do a quick recap, like, what was my year like? What are some of the high points? And I don't typically do it, but I think it's a healthy practice from time to time, just kind of see what happened and take stock. Is there anything that comes to mind from the last 12 months that stand out amongst everything that has been going on? Yeah, definitely. Sometimes I try not to, but I mean, I treat my life sort of as a business, as well. And I do try to do an annual review and a quarterly review. And I do my weekly accountability meetings and all that stuff. And the end of the year one is the one that you always procrastinate on because it's like, there's a lot to think about. It's like a whole day thing. I have a huge roll of brown construction paper. And I try to have fun with it, man. I just roll it out across the living room and get a Sharpie and I'll just put on some music and just kind of write down like, all right, Q1, what were my big wins? Q2, what were my big wins? What would I change? A lot of people probably, I would imagine, don't know this, but in 2023, I racked up or leading up to 2023, I racked up a huge amount of tax debt, over a quarter million dollars in tax debt, which is insane. So I knew- It blows my mind. Yeah. And yeah, it's pretty much behind me now, which is great. But 2023, I mean, sorry, 2024 and 2025, so this year, I knew for me was going to be like head down, blinders on and not to sound dramatic, but it's like, yeah, I'm fighting for my survival in a way, not like life or death, but I mean, yeah, my home and my shelter and the ability to buy groceries and take care of myself and pay my bills and have transportation and all that type of stuff, which those are all luxuries of life, right? But it was not something that I was used to having on the chopping block. And racking up all that tax debt, it very quickly became like the one and only priority in my entire life. So I'm very much looking forward to like turning the page and moving into 2026 because last year and this year for me have been like just ruthlessly full of work, just constant work. And this year that has softened a little bit, right? We have the opportunity to do this podcast and open up this studio, which has been a lot of fun. And my finances are somewhat back to normal or what I'm used to or in a better place. And yeah, now I can start building my doomsday bunker and start doing some social stuff and yeah, maybe like- Come out from under the rock. Yeah. Maybe I'll join a Pilates class or something. It's like- There you go. Yeah. The world's my oyster now. So yeah, but I'm looking forward to end of year, do a little review and head into 2026 like charged up, ready to go. Love it, man. How about you? Same but different. I would say I don't typically do an end of year audit, but I am motivated to do it this year. This year has been a year of firsts, a lot of firsts and a lot of change, which I lean towards consistent change or at least embracing consistent change, because that's the norm. At least it has been in my world. I never really liked being stagnant or feeling like I was stagnant, but this year there have been some of the biggest changes. And I think looking back this year and over the last, really the last two and a half years up until this point, I spent the last two and a half years in what I had thought was the ideal scenario, a nine to five, good pay, consistent increases in income, learning a new skillset every quarter or so, travel, exposure to different industries and different types of people. And in that world, that reality, for the first time in maybe 20 years, I could see what the future looked like far enough in advance that it felt comforting. My background has been as a DJ, as someone who worked in the service industry as a bartender for years, I had some jobs here and there, but my main focus was, how do I go from a bartender to the typical kind of structured work-life balance, future planning type of scenario? That- Career. The career, right? And making that jump without a formal education, a lot of technical skills and experience is very, very hard. Now, looking back at it, I can draw a lot of, I would say some of the inspiration for taking another leap from the middle of COVID. For a lot of people, it was the worst time in their lives. For some people, it was a blip on the radar. For others, it had different impacts. The spectrum is broad. For me, it was the one opportunity that I had in years, yeah, before years prior to not think about anything else except for what I was interested in and to check some things off the list. Do I want to be a sketch artist? No, I'm bad at drawing. Do I want to be a 3D designer? No, I can't understand the program. Do I want to be a music producer? Yeah, kind of, but it stresses me out, so maybe not. Do I want to be a videographer and a film creator? Yes. Let me pull on that thread a little bit. And having that time and getting into it and digging into it, it starts to snowball of maybe the confidence without having the experience, kind of like the Dunning-Kruger effect where you have some wins and that makes you extremely confident even though you have no idea what you're doing. But it gave me the confidence to try it and to see what it really took. And that led me along a path to the job that I was in over the last two years. And within a very short period of time, I learned all of the skills that someone who's doing what we're doing in this studio need to make this happen. So in a meandering way, I did find that kind of structure and that reality, but being in it for two years was another light bulb moment. It's like, this isn't what I wanted either. The entire time doing that, I kept seeing myself somewhere else, but doing what I was doing. Not at the company, and maybe not even really in another company, but definitely not there and definitely not doing it in that capacity for those types of people. And I think I made my mind up at the beginning of this year that I was going to start my own business. And it would be in the media recording and filming industry in some capacity. And I remember distinctly sitting down with friends at the end of lockdown and just having another light bulb moment. It's like, I'm going to open a studio. This is maybe the middle of 2021, 2022. I'm going to open a studio. I had no idea if or how I was going to. Sure enough, things kind of fell into place. This year, there were some firsts. I turned 40 in June. So I had my 40th birthday in June. I quit drinking in May. So I haven't had a drink since May. I quit that comfy, steadily paying nine to five career to dive headfirst into both entrepreneurship in this podcast studio and into freelancing as a videographer with really no security in the way that I had been used to. And every day from this point or from that point on has been a first. Yeah. Dude, you're getting pumped. Yeah. Verdict? The verdict is I'm living two worlds at the same time. With the success of the podcast, I feel super proud of us, of what we built, of myself for taking the leap and having the opportunity, but also literally taking the leap and every day making the decision to do this. And at the same time, really feeling to my core what it means to do everything for yourself. For yourself in a good way, meaning all of your efforts are returned to you in tenfolds or however many folds, but also nothing happens if you don't do it. Yeah. So if I don't do something, then I'm not going out to eat this week or this month or the end of this year, or maybe you have to put some things on the credit card that I didn't want to put on the credit card. I'm essentially financing this part of my life, but it's a good thing. Yeah. And I think the tug of war is because if you'd listen to the traditional way of thinking, this isn't the way to do it. Right. This is not the way to go about having a good life. Get a job, get a career, get career advancement, maybe some stock options, find a wife, get married, and then retire when you're 90 or when you're, you know, 67 or whatever. No one ever tells you to quit your job to try and be an entrepreneur, put all of your money into a business you're not even sure is going to work, partner up with someone you've only really known for a year and dive into an industry you've never worked in. But here we are. Yeah. And that's because we refuse the boomer way of thinking, you know, because that's the boomer ways. Like, yeah, get you a, you know, get you a little Buick and get you a white fence and a dog and, you know, call it a day, man. That's all you need. That's all you need, man. False. I needed more than that. I know you needed to. And I think there's a lot of people our age or in our age group that are on both sides of this. I think there's way more people that are leaving like the traditional path and look at us as like, whoa, I would never do that. How are you going to pay for this? How are you going to, what are you going to do for the future? And it's like, well, I'm going to figure that out too. And I think that's, for me, that's the most exciting part. It's like, I get to choose. Yeah. I mean, some people love it, dude, you know, and like not everybody's built for it, you know, it's cause it's not easy. And the quote of, I quit my nine to five to start a 24 seven is true. It's real. And in the beginning, dude, like, it's not fun, you know, like it's exciting. But once that excitement wears off, it's like, oh, okay, I'm starting a business and yeah, I'm reliable to, you know, I'm responsible and reliable on myself to like create some sort of result. And it's like, yeah, if I don't show up, nobody's going to do it for me. And nobody's going to care about your thing the way that you do, you know, and it makes it tough. Whereas the job is not like that, right? Like if I'm the, if I work at the photo department at Walgreens, I'm going to develop the photo just as good as the guy that clocks in right behind me. You know, it's like, there's no difference. Yeah. Cause I don't care and neither does that guy. Right. It's just a repeatable thing. And I'm just pressing a button and then checking people out. Right. It's like, I don't care. I'm just there for a paycheck. But yeah, you can't just be there. You know, when you run a business, it's like, I'm not here for a paycheck. I'm here for my future. I'm here for my freedom. Yeah. And yeah, not everybody's built for that. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure we could have a segment on entrepreneurship all on its own. For sure. But I think the biggest takeaway in the short period of time that I've been, you know, an entrepreneur with you with Fairhouse. So, I mean, it essentially has been the last almost 12 months. You know, we're at about a year since you and I sat down and talk about starting this business. And since the middle of this year, I've fully taken the dive and I've learned a lot about myself. And I think you've even said it like entrepreneurship is a personal development project because you might not think you can do it. You might have too much confidence, but you'll never know until you're bang in the middle of crisis mode for days on end, dealing with what you, some people would say, consider just putting a fire out here and there. Everything is on fire all the time. Essentially, because everything is a priority. Nothing has the, you don't have the flexibility to just say, oh, I can't do that today. I can't, I gotta put this on. You have to do all of it and you have to do it in a reasonable amount of time. Yeah. But I think for me, it's been a big part of the change turning the quarter, turning, what is it, like half a century, almost half a century, quarter century. No, what's fourth of a century? I don't know. 40, bad at math. Turning 40 and quitting drinking within the same, like two month period. And then making a decision to prioritize my health, which is where all the health bills and whatnot come from. And then also starting this business. Those are all personal development projects that take years and years and years. And I started them all at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. It's, well, it's been super cool, you know, as your friend to just be a part of it and to observe it, obviously, you know, and, um, it's all, I know it's worth it, you know, it's worth it. And there's no going back. It was like, once you, yeah, once you experience it and it's like, oh, I can do this, you can't go back. It'll never happen. Like, like when I, I mentioned the tax thing, right? So, I rack up like quarter million dollars in tax debt. And it's like, oh, wow. I basically just imploded my entire life. And then it's like, well, what should I do? And like for a split second, it's like, well, what would anybody else do? And it's like, well, I could go get a job. And I thought about it for like a millisecond. I was like, yeah, right, dude. It's like, I'm not doing that. And, uh, and then it's like, all right, onto the next thing. I'll figure it out. Yeah. And I look back at the videos that I was making from that time. And it's exactly, I was like, I will figure it out. And that's all entrepreneurship is, is the endless pursuit of figuring it out. And it never stops. It never turns off and there's no turning back. And, uh, yeah, anybody who doesn't have the capability of figuring things out, uh, generally doesn't choose entrepreneurship. You know, they want other people to figure things out for them, which has taught, you know, there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, it's the, the safe thing to do is that, you know, the safe, smart thing to do is like, yeah, get a career where it's very stable and predictable and you know, what, you know, what to expect and everybody's lifestyle is different, you know? Um, especially for these people that live in these Richmond townhomes that haven't gotten their mail in six months. Nail the segue. That's so good. Dude, have you heard about this? No, no. Enlighten me. These people that live in these Richmond townhomes, uh, have not received their mail for six months. Okay. A car backed into their mail house, their mail box. So, you know, Oh, so yeah. In a townhome, it's not like everyone has a personal like mail slot or a box. It's a big, it's like one of these things. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, these Richmond townhomes, these people have this big outdoor mailbox that has like a hundred little mail slots in it. And I guess a truck backed up into it and just ran the whole thing over. And that happened six months ago and none of them have received their mail. So like their bills, their health insurance, like everything, dude, like their license renewal, their personal property tax, like all these things that are getting mailed to them, they're not receiving. And they are expected to go drive to the local post office and pick their mail up every day or every other day or every week because the manufacturer of the mailbox doesn't have the parts to like send the mailbox. Oh, no. So, the residents are like calling the city and the city's like, yeah, where do, you know, there's nowhere to deliver your mail. So, we don't know what to do. You don't have a mailbox. So, then they have to turn and go to like the real estate company that developed the townhomes. And they're like, yeah, well, we ordered the mailbox, but it's not here. So, then they have to reach out to the manufacturer. They're like, well, the mailbox ready, but we have to have like a hundred different locks for the mailboxes and those aren't ready. And those come from a special manufacturer in Denmark and we don't have those yet. And the people are like, okay, dude, I don't care. I just, it's like, I just need you to fix this. I'm not getting my mail. Insane. Isn't it? It's the dumbest, one of the, I mean, it's probably not the dumbest, one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Yeah. So, imagine being an entrepreneur and you're not getting your mail. Right. Because somebody backed into a, literally a mailbox. Yeah. A box full of different mailboxes. And I guess, you know, I never considered where these things come from, but that's not the first thing that I would think of. Like looking at those mailboxes, those giant metal mail containers, like you could just buy one from Harbor Freight. Like what, why does the lock have to come from Denmark? What is the deal? They're not, they don't have to be that nice. And the crazy thing is the mail, they're no longer sorting it. So, what they do is they just take all the mail that generally goes to that mailbox and they just dump it in this huge bin. Like imagine like a laundry bin. So, imagine you have to go to the post office and then you have to dig through a huge pile of mail just to find your mail specifically. Okay. And then what happened is they're going, so the neighbors are like, fine, I'll stop by the post office every day before work or whatever. And then the post office says, you guys have to quit coming here because you're coming here every day. And like, yeah, they say the neighbors have been told not to come every day to try to give the staff time because they're crowding the post office. It's like, man, this is what I'm saying about the government, dude. It's like, I'm not paying taxes. I'm done. I'm out. I'm checked out, dude. I'm not signed. I'm canceling my subscription to the federal whatever. It's like what, the question when it comes to things like this, the question is always, well, what am I paying taxes for if not for things like this? Now, there's going to be a lot of back and forth about, well, this is a private company. The landowner or the property owner or the company that owns multiple properties, they're responsible for making sure that the mailbox is there and functional, not the state. That's a non-issue. That's not the renters or the tenants of the property. It's not their problem. Now, because it's not their problem, it's also not in their purview. They don't have any way to change any of it. They're kind of at the will of both of these entities, the post office and the property owner, which it's like, what am I paying you for if not to take care of problems just like this? If I wanted a problem like this, I would have bought my own mailbox, put it out in front of my own house and run it over myself. Yeah. Well, and then the post office tells them, well, you could purchase a P.O. box. It's like, no. So, I'm going to have to come down here anyway is what you're saying. Yeah. And I'm going to have to pay for this. And there are people here, there's somebody who like, they got a summons because they missed jury duty. So, it's like, imagine you're supposed to go to jury duty, but it's like, yeah, sorry, I didn't show up. Then they send you a summons and a fine because you didn't go to jury duty. And it's like, well, look, dude, you're the city using your entity, which is the United States Postal Service to send me mail, but then you keep the mail. And it's what my responsibility to come get it from you. It's like, I don't. Yeah. There's got to be a lawsuit in there somewhere because this is going to cost people lots of money and time. And what's the law speak, lawyers speak, mental anguish that you can sue someone over. Yeah. Yeah. So, emotional, what's the term where it's like emotional damage or. Yeah. Emotional damage. Yeah. So, the manufacturer says, it's been nearly six months, but I'm afraid we're definitely going to come up on eight months, maybe nine months, the way things are looking. That's how long it's going to take for them to get a new mailbox. Yeah. To get the locks for the mailbox. And that means going down to the post office every other day to see if you got a bill or a court summons. So, imagine you're doing your end of year review and you're like, well, six months of my life was spent waiting at the post office to get my mail. That's bananas. Yeah. Crazy. I can't imagine. I mean, I'm curious knowing you and how you would handle a situation like this. Let's hear the Mike Metzger approach to dealing with government issues like this. Yeah. I would sell my townhome and then send all of the closing costs directly to city hall and say, yeah, this is not my problem. And not only that, but you're paying for my moving van and the purchase of my new home, at least 20% of it. Right. It's like, you've caused me emotional distress. I've now missed jury duty. I missed my dental care premium. So, now I've lost all my teeth. And so, you're going to need to pay to replace all those. So, I'll forward you the receipts. My new house needs a new roof on it. So, I'll be forwarding you the invoice for that as well. Yeah. That's how I'd go about it. And then I would download a spreadsheet of all of the Richmond City employees that work for the entire city. And I would set up an automated schedule to email them every three days and also every morning of every holiday to follow up on my inquiry. So, that way, Christmas morning, email from Mike. New Year's at midnight, email from Mike. Yeah. And I would do that for eternity. Incredible. Yeah. So, that's how I would approach it. I couldn't think of a better way to do that because it's both aggressive and passive. Yeah. Passive-aggressive. I know that that's how you're supposed to say it. But it's a different type of aggressive. Yeah. It's very analytical, borderline psychotic. Yeah. But with strategic approach. I think it's appropriate because here's the thing, right? I've paid an exorbitant amount of money for these services, right? So, I need to make sure these services get done, right? And we are the people. The government is our employee, right? Yeah. We are no longer the slaves. The government is the slaves. And we pay them fairly, right? So, they're not even slaves. They just work for us. But they're not doing their job. Yeah. So, if we gotta follow up several dozen times a week to make sure that they do their job... And on holidays. Yeah. Then I'm happy to do that. I love it. I love it. I'm definitely going to adopt a version of this approach when I'm dealing with certain government entities. Because we all know, if you live in Richmond, if you live in Virginia, that the government IT infrastructure is... It's old as dirt, for lack of a better way of saying it. We don't understand. I can attest that I will speak for lots of people. We don't understand. If we're paying you all this money in taxes and the taxes go up every year, why is the website still trash? Why do the automated phone services not work? Why is it always impossible to get someone on the phone that can solve your problem without being transferred to someone else? Why is it when I go to City Hall, I have to have the statement? If I don't have the statement, I go across the hall to a person, literally 30 feet from the desk where I need to do my business to get a piece of paper that they could easily print on the other side of the building. Why? Because they hate you and they don't want to help you. I have a feeling that after they hang up the phone or we do your business at City Hall and you leave, they're just laughing and playing ping pong in the back. They don't care. Dude, I have intel. I have friends that work at City Hall, that work for the city, and they take your tax money and they buy donuts every single morning. And I'm not talking about a dozen donuts. I'm talking about like a 48 case of donuts, four liters of coffee. And it's like, look, I don't want to pay for that. I'm not interested in that. Nah, man. I just want you to put a lock on my mailbox and fix the gravel issue in my alleyway. It's not that hard. Yeah. And it's not a request. It's a service that I hired you to do and you're just not doing it. You know? And I think there's no better way to get back at them than the endless inconvenience. The minor inconvenience, but the perpetual minor inconvenience of an email. Because that's exactly how City Hall treats your issues. It's like, oh, we're going to give you a tiny morsel of help every so often for weeks at a time so that you feel like we're actually doing something, but we're not really trying to solve your problem. Yeah. Yeah. Big fan of that. Me too, man. You know, like, bureaucracy is the detriment of mankind. I would agree. There's a movie, a reference you may not get, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I think was actually a book. In the movie, someone gets abducted by aliens and then they go on tour of the universe. It's hilarious. Most def is in it. You should check it out. I like the name of it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's pretty great. That's awesome. It's about a book that tells you how to hitchhike in the galaxy. I like it. It's pretty sweet. In this story, this book, and in the movie, there is a race and a planet of aliens and their entire religion, their language, how they interact with each other is overindulging in bureaucracy. So it's endless, perpetual, thick with just hypocritical BS bureaucracy. And that's how they function as a society. So it's like, you go to visit them on their planet and you have to wait in line to go and see someone. And you wait in line, you get to the counter and you have to sign a form. But then you have to take that form to the counter next to them and gets that person to stamp it. And they take it back to the place where you just got it to get another form. And then you go down the hall to see someone and they check your form and they say, you need to go to the fifth floor to get them to notarize it. And then you bring it back. It's so funny because it's literally describing our country. It is insane. Yeah, dude, we're not far off. It's like, we're going to just want to get on the GRTC bus and they're going to be like, all right, take a moment. You're gonna have to stick your head in this biometric scanner before you can get on the thing. So that way we can send your identity to Palantir or whatever. It's like, I'm just trying to ride the bus to the park, man. Yeah, dude. Well, speaking of business and bureaucracy, there's some updates in Chesterfield. Okay. Chesterfield Town Center is closed and has just been purchased by a outside entity. And will be eventually remodeled and destroyed and turned into apartments. I would assume. I saw that, yeah. There's no specific plans on what they're going to do with the space just yet. But the 80 acre property site in the middle of the pocket of greater Richmond primed for growth, Chesterfield Town Center, one of the region's largest indoor malls, has been sold to an out of town, to two out of town companies that are considering redeveloping the site. The New York-based JRE Partners and Switzerland-based Anastasia AG teamed up to purchase the 1 million square foot mall in a deal that closed last Friday. The one-story mall at the intersection of Middle Eastern Turnpike and Huguenot Road opened in 1975 and was assessed for more than 70 million this year, according to county records. There's more than 100 tenants, including a home, JC Penney's, Macy's and TJ Maxx and Home Goods. And a Sears that closed in 2020. So I remember, I have very fond memories of going to Chesterfield Town Center. I don't know if you used to frequent that mall when you were younger. I used to work at the Journeys when I was like. Really? Yeah, 17. That's crazy. I lived in Henrico, so I would go, I actually worked at Virginia Center Commons out like off of Brook Road. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I remember I would visit family out of Chesterfield and that's where we'd go. We'd go to the movie store where you can go and get like DVDs and VHS. And it was one of my favorite stores because it was like going to a big cinema, the big neons out front. Yeah. And you'd go in there and you see all the memorabilia, like lightsabers and a Terminator poster. You can get a bunch of posters, you can get records. And food courts, man, food courts were the place where you used to hang out. Yeah. That was the jam back in the day. And it's kind of inevitable. I think we all knew that big box or large indoor malls were kind of going by the wayside. Yeah. At least the beginning of this decade, it's like the last 10 years. And Chesterfield is just the latest on a long trend of malls being demolished because they're not being used. It's a ghost town. There's a mall, a Regency Mall on Cuyakasan Road. It is uncomfortably dead in there. Yeah. It is very off-putting to go to a mall nowadays. But it was interesting. I was out, I think I was out in South Carolina earlier this year for some work. And there's a mall there and we didn't know where to go and get food. And that was the closest place to go and get food, was the food court. And me and my buddy were sitting there. We're about the same age. We're just kind of looking around. I was like, all right, this is actually busier than we thought. And we used to talk about this theory called reverse innovation. And it's the idea that innovation kind of flows in loops depending on how long one of them sticks. So the theory is, say for instance, you take note of a lot of new cars. Almost all new cars have a touchscreen in them. But that wasn't a thing until Tesla came along. Pretty much every car had buttons and a little dial for your radio and a screen on it and like a regular dash. When Tesla came along and put a giant iPad in cars, every car now has a touchscreen in it. But in the last three or four years, buttons are coming back. Because the idea of reverse innovation is like, we're going to do a new thing, which is put buttons in the car, but buttons are an old invention. Yeah. Because people are tired of the new technology. So the new innovation is an old innovation. Right. So you feel like malls are going to make a comeback. I feel like there is space for places that resemble malls. Chesterfield Town Center has been around for 50 something years, 60 years at this point. There isn't a world where a mall just like that could exist nowadays. It's too big. It's too much empty space. It's mostly unusable for the way that people shop and do business now. But there's definitely space in the future for a big gathering place for people to meet, mingle and shop. Yeah. It won't look like that, but it'll be something similar. And we've talked about AI, the rise of AI and the adoption of AI largely in mostly all infrastructures and all entities and all industries, I should say. There's also a camp of people that are seeing the adoption of AI and obviously the rising use of technology, which is separating people, making it harder to connect with individuals. There's also a huge push against that for real connection, for person to person interaction, for real life meetups. Get off your phone when you go to the club. Put your phone in a box when you're having dinner. Turn off your cell phones when you're on the plane so you can talk to your person sitting next to you or whatever the example would be. There's a person here in Richmond. Her name is Margarita. She's running a business called The Pair Club. And she's taking it on as her responsibility to force people, not force people, but encourage people to meet each other in the real world. Yeah. Get off the apps, get off the platforms, show up at a place, talk to a stranger. There's always going to be a space and a want for that. I think the removal of a big mall like, you know, Chesterfield Town Center is just the first wave into like these new spaces popping up after. Yeah. You know what they use it for, which is kind of weird, is like law enforcement training. What's that? The malls? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So did you already know that or did you just look that up? I happened to see it like last week. And then you mentioned Chesterfield Town Center and it reminded me of this. Okay. Where somebody posted on Reddit, they said, I went to Barnes and Noble today at Chesterfield Town Center. A blonde woman in her in maybe her 50s was shopping with a group of six bodyguards following her. All the cars had government plates as well. I'm curious and wanted to know if anybody saw or knew who this was. And then they said the Secret Service does training for escorting high profile people. It could have been an exercise there. They use Chesterfield Town Center for law enforcement training quite often. And then somebody posted, they said, you should have went and shown her how fast you can pull your phone out of your pocket. That's Reddit. Yeah. So make sure to also shout, hey, remember me? So she knows to jog her memory in case she remembers meeting you before. Wow. Someone says, actually, maybe sprinted her as fast as you can saying, I've got something for you and pull out a Werther's original hard candy out of your hoodie pocket with relentless speed and force. It's incredible. Yeah, make sure you tape 150 extra AA batteries for your laser level to your chest and conceal them with a trench coat until you get up close. Some real comedians on there. I love it. Dude, Reddit is like undefeated. Seriously is. But yeah, apparently that's what they use some of the stores in the mall for because malls resemble spaces where there are lots of places to hide. Yeah. And lots of different like angles of approach. Think like an arena backstage. Exactly. So they actually use malls because they're busy, but not that busy. And they're perfect like staging grounds for, you know, escorting high profile people or members of the government or whatever, you know. It's interesting that they do that during business hours. Yeah. Like, hey, I need a new pair of vans, but I had to wait for 30 secret servicemen to finish performing an exercise. Yeah. Yeah. No big deal. Yeah. I did see that the mall got sold. We'll see, you know, see what it turns into. Yeah, man. Let's take a moment to thank our sponsor. Yes, let's definitely do that. And I've got this little athletic spritz here from Athletic Brewing. So today's episode is sponsored by Point 5, which is Richmond's first standalone alcohol-free beverage shop right here in Carytown. Point 5 is not just for those who are sober or sober curious. It's also for all of us who just want something different to sip on. They carry everything from non-alcoholic beers and wines to nootropic drinks built for focus and creativity, along with functional beverages like THC, CBD, and kava, as well as other plant-based options for mood, relaxation, and energy. They also offer gluten-free and dairy-free options, including NA beers like this one, wines, and functional spirits that work for a variety of dietary preferences. You can visit verahouse.co.5 for a 10% off voucher and be sure to visit them right here in Carytown. That's verahouse.co.5. Simply screenshot the voucher and use it at your next visit. That'll give you 10% off. So. Love it. Yeah, man. So, you've got an athletic brewer. I always I like the athletic beers. Yeah. That's kind of like a good go-to. They have them at a lot of the local bars and stuff around here too. I've got a, it's a Breeze or, it's Breeze, right? Probably. Yeah, it's Breeze. This is just a canned, it says uplifting tonic, strawberry mango flavor. It's got some juices, strawberry juice, organic mango juice, lemon juice, cordyceps extract, maca extract, taurine, and natural flavors, some ginseng extract. Yeah, it's pretty tasty. Yeah. So, that's what I had earlier. Yeah, adaptogens and botanicals in a can. It's definitely got like a nice like earthy taste to it. Yeah, earthy taste to it. And it's supposed to be a little uplifting. So, you have a little bit of like the natural energy boost. So, there's no caffeine, there's no inorganic energy boosting elements. It's just like natural. Yeah, and adaptogens and stuff. It explains the flavor because it's got like the mushrooms in it and the mango. It grew on me. Yeah. It was a little interesting at first. And a lot of these are kind of, I kind of like that. It makes it feel, it does make it feel earthy and organic, but it's very different than drinking something like a cirrus or not a cirrus. What's the canned energy drink that everyone's really hyped on nowadays that's not a Red Bull? Yeah, what is that? I don't know. I used to drink them all the time, but... Celsius. Celsius. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Celsius tastes like a Red Bull, but with a better flavor. This doesn't taste anything like that. Yeah. It's very different, but it is earthy and organic, and I like that. Yeah, I try to stay away from the synthetic energy drinks. Yeah. They make one called Guru. That's like in a red can. That's pretty good. It's like mostly all natural, but even those, I don't really drink them too much. I just stick to have a coffee once a day, maybe twice, just depending on the day. I'm a green tea guy. I had my green tea today when I went over to Fuel Pump. Have you used your mug yet? Your Christmas mug? I haven't. I was going to today, but I didn't because I was going to the coffee shop. Yeah. So, it's on the list, or it's in my cabinet. It's cleaned. I've got my tea, ready to go. Nice. Dude, it's perfect for herbal teas and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. That was a great gift. Thank you for that. Yeah, man, of course. So, you've had a couple of DJ gigs at the new place called K'nex. I have. Right? Cool place. It is, man. I don't think I knew, I mean, I obviously didn't know what to expect, but after being there a couple of times, it's pretty cool. It's a new place. So, they have some, like, really, you know, some small kinks to work out. But by and large, it is, it's a nice addition, especially to that part of town. Yeah. Like the Carver area. It feels like you're in Scott's edition. It does. Because it's got that vibe, but it's down the street from Hot for Pizza. Yeah. Like, that's a great location for something like that, just to kind of mix up the locations. And it's really cool. Like, you think about a container bar. Like, how did they set this up? They literally built it into, like, a hill. Yeah. So, you park on the street level, and you walk down into, like, a parking area. And then you walk in the long end of a container. And then you walk down steps, like a half a flight a step, or a flight and a half of steps. Yeah. And then you're on the ground floor down there. So, it's pretty cool. And there's a lot of space, plenty of space to mingle, to sit down. You can sit upstairs and have, like, this cool balcony lounger that looks down into, like, the general, like, seating and standing area. And then out in, like, their, like, open lot, they have an ice skating rink now. Hot tip, not ice. It's, like, a plastic substance. But after Christmas, they're going to remove the ice rink. Their plans are to build out some containers out there and put a stage out there for a lot of music performances. That'll be super cool. Yeah. As you know, because we've been out to the bars many times over the years, I'm a bit of, like, a wanderer adventurer, right? Like, I can only sit still for so long. And then I'm like, all right, dude, I gotta go. Yeah. And then I just drift off into the clouds and wander around and stumble around and beebop around and do whatever I'm doing. And I like places like K'Nex because I'm like, oh, there's all kinds of, like, activities I can do. Yeah. And that's why I like the Hoff. And that's why even Loso, I'm like, I'll just disappear into the mist somewhere. Yeah. I like places where there's lots of activities. Yeah. Because if I just go to, like, a regular old neighborhood bar, within a half hour, I'm like, I gotta do something. You know, I start getting, like, anxious. I'm like, all right, I don't know about this. It's like, what are we doing here? Yeah. Like, I need, you know, I need something going on. Yeah. I get bored easily. Yeah, same. Yeah. And that place is pretty cool. I mean, a lot of these bigger event spaces are like adult playgrounds. It's kid family friendly, but they're adult playgrounds. Let's be real. That's a great phrase for it, adult playgrounds. That's what it is. Especially that place. You can think about places like Brambley Park, which is like a, it's more of a music venue and a wine bar than it is an adult playground. K'nex is more of an adult playground because it's, it's like Lincoln Logs, man. Like, you just, these stacked giant containers on each other. They put a roof over it. They put a bar on one end and a TV on the other. It's an adult playground. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. And we talk about this all the time, but it's, we're having all these new concepts kind of introduced to Richmond. And it does. It makes you, it starts to remind you of other places that you've been, you know? And I went to a place out in Austin in 2022. That kind of reminds me of that place. And it's like, man, I had a blast out in Austin at that place. And so, yeah, it's cool to see people trying different things in different areas, doing new stuff. While we were there, I met this young couple. Their names were Evan and Kai. And they came up and recognized the podcast. And they were like, dude, I love the podcast. You have to talk about this story about the grave robbers at VCU. Like when it, when, like, like basically how VCU got its start. No shit. And I talked to them for a few minutes. Great people. So, shout out to them. Shout out Evan and Kai for this story. And it goes a little something like this. MCV, which is the Medical College of Virginia, many, many years ago in the late, like, 1800s, and I have this pulled up. They not only employed, but hired people to rob the graves of deceased Black people to steal their cadavers to be used at MCV for operations and school. Yeah. And studies. Wow. Really interesting, okay? Not only just staff, but they provided housing to a particular guy, his name was Chris Bakers, like old Black guy that lived underneath the Egyptian building at VCU. And MCV employed him and gave him housing to live there so that at night he could sneak out and go dig up dead bodies. What the fuck? Yes. And there's a book on this. There's a documentary on this. He was known as the Boogeyman. He was also known as the Night Doctor of Richmond. This is a picture of the guy with skull and bones on the cover of this book, okay? Wow. It's insane. It's probably one of the craziest things I've looked into. I would love to, like, get somebody who really knows about this to really talk about this, okay? Yeah. So, the Medical College of Virginia, now part of VCU, because VCU owns MCV. It was originally a totally separate school. Was historically involved in the illegal acquisition and trade of cadavers, primarily through grave robbing in the 19th century. The victims were overwhelmingly enslaved African Americans whose burial grounds were targeted to supply bodies for medical dissection and research. And in, I think, about 30 years ago or so, this story kind of was, like, revived and started being spoken about again because construction that was happening on the medical center's campus 25 years ago, they accidentally unearthed a well that was full of skeletons. What? Like, to the top. Like, so, an underground well that was full of body parts. And they pulled in the Smithsonian Museum and the institution to come do testing, and all the testing showed that it was all, like, African Americans, okay? So, they were discarding- Wow. They were discarding all these bodies in the unused well at MCV. And, like, it's insane. Like, and this was really common back then. So, many medical colleges hired grave robbers who primarily targeted black cemeteries. The bodies would be used by medical students who needed dissection material. Man. Is that not the craziest thing? That is insane. What? I mean, I- Like, dude. This is the thing. We both know that Richmond has a pretty colorful history as it stands. And this is just one of, I'm sure, hundreds of stories that, I mean, it's not like this was hidden from anything. You said it was covered. There's a book about it. It's just stories like this get lost to time for a lot of people, especially in the places that they live. It's not widely broadcast. It's not widely illuminated. That is, the well full of skeletons and bones is straight out of, like, a scary movie. It's crazy. It says, yeah, the remains were often discarded disrespectfully. The well was discovered to contain the skeletal remains of at least 53 individuals, including children, most of whom were of African descent and had surgical incisions. So, yeah, stealing the cadaver from a local grave, bringing it into MCV, using it for the benefit of the students to do dissections and whatever, and then tossing the body in a well underneath the building that's not being used. That's crazy. Man, that is- That's crazy. Now, for context, this was going on in the 1860s. Right. So, long time ago. 270 years ago. Long time ago. Yeah. You know, it doesn't make it any better, but it's just a crazy thing to think about. Yeah. And, you know, the argument is that MCV had a huge competitive head start compared to other medical colleges because of this, because they had such easy access to all these local graveyards. So, some of these graveyards include, like, the Shaco Hill African Burying Ground, the Oakwood Cemetery. Yeah, and, like, it's not like the schools were not aware of this. This was part of their- It's part of their process. Yeah. It's part of what they did. You know, they gave this guy an apartment, basically, you know, and gave him all the resources he needs. So, this is documented in various university initiatives and documentaries. So, there's a documentary called Until the Well Runs Dry, The Medicine and Exploitation of Black Bodies, and there's a lot of other, like, historical reports that dive into this stuff. But I think the person who created the documentary was a VCU professor. So, I think that VCU students, many of them have maybe heard of this story in passing. Yeah. And, of course, the people that brought this story up to us and asked us to talk about this are VCU students. And for anybody listening, if you know of any stories that you would like for us to cover, please reach out and let us know. There's a link below this episode where you can send us a text. And if you click on that link, it will open up a text on your phone. And when the text opens, there's going to be a number inside of the text. Do not delete that number. Leave it in the text because that is how we make sure we receive the text. So, click on the link. It's going to open up the text app on your phone. Don't delete what is pre-populated in the text field. And then just text us anything that you want us to look into, anything that you think is crazy that we should cover, because that is how this story made it to today's podcast. And we might even have another one for you by the end of this episode. But that's crazy, man. I thought so, too. Well, my story is in the spirit of story time. Yeah. My story is not quite as juicy, for lack of a better word. That was the wildest. Yeah, that was the wildest one we've heard in a long time. Yeah. I came across a story about the VMFA and some stolen artifacts. Whoa. So, this was posted on Reddit six days ago. VMFA reached out to the Antiques Task Force at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office after seeing other repatriations, which is returning of stolen goods, probably of similar objects, they returned 41 pieces to be repatriated to Turkey immediately and voluntarily. So, I read into this further, and it appears that there were 41 artifacts at the VMFA that belonged, there were stolen goods from Turkey, from the country of Turkey. Whoa. So, I looked into this. And this is actually the Manhattan District Attorney's Office website. And they have a write-up about it. It's a long bit, but I'm not going to get too far into it. It said, Manhattan District Attorney's Office Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. today announced the return of 43 antiquities collectively valued at more than $2.5 million to the people of Turkey. These objects were recovered pursuant to multiple criminal investigations into Antiques trafficking network, including, and among others, the global smuggling network that allegedly systematically plundered the ancient city of Budan or Buban, if I'm saying that right, in South Central Turkey. And it goes on to say... Turkey can't make its mind up on what it wants to be called. You know, it used to have like an E at the end, and then they got rid of it and was just Turkey, and now they're bringing it back. So, now it's like, Turkey. Yeah, the spelling is very strange. They're changing it up, man. Turkey is like the, you know, geographically, it's basically where civilization was born, pretty much. Yeah, we talked about that. So, the remaining objects being returned in the ceremony are an exceptional group of 41 terracotta plaques that were looted from the 6th century BCE, five, five grand temple, I'm definitely saying that wrong, in Duver, a site in South Central Turkey. Their return represents an immersive or impressive collaboration. The ATU had previously seized and repatriated to Turkey a plaque stolen from Duver in 2022 as a result of the ATU's actions and the other investigations. Michael Taylor, the Chief Curator of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, contacted the ATU after identifying potentially looted objects in the VMFA's collection. The continuing investigation proved the terracotta plates had been looted, and the VMFA immediately and voluntarily surrendered them to the Office of Repatriation. Wow. So, who knows how long they were in there? Yeah. It's kind of fishy that they immediately gave them up, huh? They're like, oh, we take them. Digs up, digs up. It is crazy though, right? Because obviously the museum, I'm sure, keeps track of, you know, where they got all these items from. So, it's like, huh, who donated these or who gave us these? And that's, I'm sure there's lots of questions around it, but the beginning of this, this write-up on the district attorney's website, it says that this was a pursuant to multiple criminal investigations into antiques trafficking networks. So, where did they get them from? Yeah. Because if this was the part of antique trafficking, it didn't just come from, it may have come from what seemed like a reputable collector for the VMFA to get their hands on. I'm sure that there's processes for them to get their hands on antiques, and they do their checks and balances. Right. So, that makes me think that whoever is the purveyor or the liaison for these items works for somebody who worked for somebody else who was in touch with these networks. Interesting, man. Yeah. The world of artifacts is weird. I love going down the rabbit hole of like all the Egyptian artifacts and like the vases that were found like underneath the step pyramid in Egypt. Like these things are symmetrically perfect, like more perfect than a CNC machine. And it's not like it's just one. There's like thousands of them. Inexplainable. When I do the let's look it up or like hashtag look it up, I do a little digging into it. And I like documentaries about ancient technology because the overwhelming consensus is growing every year so often that ancient technology doesn't predate industrial age as we know it. There was an entirely different and undocumented industrial revolution thousands of years ago. So, there was non-industrial construction and milling and farming and things like that. And then there was an industrial boom and technology peaked and they were able to carve laser straight cuts into 15 ton boulders and move them with no more than what seemed like wooden construction equipment. Stack them on top of each other. Use aqueducts and gravity and sunlight to illuminate and heat and grow things. And we look at it like, oh yeah, these are just sticks and bricks. And how did they do that without any technologies? Like they had technology. And we're only just figuring out that that was the case. Yeah. What we know for sure is it wasn't just a bunch of guys in flip-flops and diapers pulling thousands of tons of bricks across wet sand. Yeah. That's fake. Tell me how you really feel. Dude, look it up. It's official hashtag of the Vera House podcast. Hashtag look it up. Dude, I mean, listen to any interview with Zahi Hawass and it'll become very clear that everything about Egypt is just totally made up. Yeah, man. And I have always been fascinated by the Egyptian lore, so to speak. Definitely. Because it's changed over the last 30, 40 years, 50 years. And I grew up in the mid to late 90s and went to school in the mid to late 90s. And that was when it was very Hollywoodized and the Tut movements and the Snake Charmer music and that whole aesthetic around Egyptian culture, which was weird back then, but it was otherworldly to most Americans, right? Because no one really had any insight into it. But as time has gone on and it's been documented, well documented, that that was never really the case. Yeah, never happened. Like you were taught that pharaohs were buried in the pyramids, right? I was taught that the tomb of King Tut housed a sarcophagus with the body of King Tut. Yeah. And I don't know a bunch about Tutankhamen specifically, but yeah, we're taught like that the pyramids were for the pharaohs. And yeah, turns out no, inaccurate, false, fake, not true. It's never been a single pharaoh discovered in the pyramids. Yeah. Now, there have been newer pyramids from the newer dynasties where there have been people buried in them, but they're not the same. They're not the same type of pyramids. Like you can tell that these are clearly replicas basically that later dynasties made. And then yes, they were attributed to certain pharaohs and stuff like that, but I digress. Yeah, we could go on and on about that, but I found that story in particular fascinating because, you know, I look at the VMFA as the building down the street. Yeah. In the world of art, it's among the top most revered museums in the world. Definitely. And it houses some of the world's most valuable art consistently throughout the year. And, you know, I've played, I've DJed some events there and I've been there as a guest. Security's tight. Yeah. You can't get in and out without seeing an armed guard. Yep. They have to escort that. When you go as a DJ or you go as a performer, you go up to the back gate. And if you've seen the back gate on, I think it's Grace Street or Grove or one of those side streets where the back gate is half a block long. Yeah. And you have to wait for the security guard to open that slow, giant lumbering gate. When you walk in, he has to escort you and your car to the loading dock. Yeah. And then you unload your gear and then he escorts you into the elevator that's like 10 feet tall for all the exhibits. And then you go up to your floor and he has to walk you back there. When you go to the bathroom, he has to walk you to the bathroom. When you go back to your gate, he walks you back there. Security's tight. Like it's serious business there. But if you're a local, you probably don't think about it like that. Yeah. But this being on the desk of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office means it's serious business and $2.5 million is no chump change. Well, dude, it sounds, I'm not putting words in your mouth, but it sounds like you have insider knowledge on how to smuggle things in and out of the museum. So are you saying that you're involved? Huh? What was the question? Are you involved in smuggling? Is it getting hot in here or is it just me? It's getting hot in here. Okay. Topic change. Easter egg about the VMFA. Easter egg. All right. The pizza is slept on in the cafe. The pizza is actually really good. All right. So for a long time, I never went to the cafe. And I think one of the first, like the first time I had the pizza was our meeting back last year about starting Vera House. The pizza slept on the lawn at the VMFA with the cafe right there is one of the best. It's not a secret, but it's probably not on the top of your list of things to do. Spring and summer. Best outdoor, indoor activity spot any day of the week. You can roll up 10 a.m. in the morning. You can roll up in there and hang out on the lawn. Lunchtime, you can go there and get a snack and sit outside. For dinnertime, you can get a glass of wine and sit on the lawn. It is the best. It is. And I mean, you already mentioned it, right? As far as it being at the top of the list for museums and really just a gem in Richmond in general. But it is. It's beautiful. Like it's beautiful. Like I think we're grateful to have it here. And it is a cool place to just like chill and hang out. And the outside is beautiful. It's well taken care of. And yeah, there's always something to observe, right? It's a great place to go sit, lay, read a book or have a meal or whatever. It's definitely cool. And when we were talking about the malls and people leaning towards being attracted to more like connected spaces and more, what do you call them? Third spaces. The VMFA, the lawn of the VMFA has been a third space for years. And I think we never, I know I personally never really looked at it as like, oh, this is a place where you can just go and be. But it is. It's a park, but it's a museum, but it's also a social gathering place. It's also a place where people work out. It's also a place where people do yoga. It's also a music venue. It's all of these things. But on any given day, this is the beautiful part about it. We're right here in Carytown, but on any given day, you can walk out there if the weather's nice, even if the weather's not, you can walk out there, you can sit on the lawn, you can mind your business, you can read a book, listen to some music and just be. But during the spring and summer, it is packed. Yeah. It's full of people. It's lively. It's energetic. If you feel immersed in your community, and that's something that I really enjoyed about the busier seasons of outdoor spaces is everyone, I'm not going to say the sweeping statement, but a lot of people feel isolated more often than not. Right. A lot of people feel like they're stuck at home. They're stuck behind the desk. They're stuck at work. They're stuck at the corner of the bar with them, and they just feel like they're not connected to the people around them. Yeah. And physically, there is no barrier. In reality, the only barrier between you and another person is a conversation. Yeah. And the proximity. The VMFA is a great place where none of that is there, and you can just be connected. Yeah. And there's a legitimate restaurant upstairs too. Yeah. La Mer. Not La Mer. La Mer is at the Jefferson. Yeah. What's it called? I'm forgetting the name as well, but it's like a high-end- Amuse. Amuse. Yeah, that's right. That's what it is. It's like a high-end seafood restaurant, basically. Yeah. Really cool. And I totally agree. I think I used to go there every day for lunch because my office building was right across the street, and every day I would walk over there and have lunch, and I loved it. It's one of the only things I miss from being right on Boulevard because traffic isn't the most fun when you're working and stuff, and it's just constant stuff going on outside. But walking over to the VMFA every day was always great. It's a nice break from work. So I always loved having an office over there. Yeah. Well, we'll definitely have to hit the VMFA in 2026. But speaking of 2026, what are we looking forward to? Yeah. I mean, the whole year, I mentioned it earlier. I mean, for me personally, it's kind of the closing of a chapter and the opening of a new one. You and I have become much closer friends over the past several months. This has been awesome. It's been a lot of fun. It's been super creative. I think it checks a lot of the boxes that you and I have both probably been trying to accomplish or work on in our lives. Connecting with people in person who have heard the podcast or have recognized our videos has been awesome, and we are really grateful for it, really appreciate it. And I think that will continue as we roll into next year. We're not slowing down. If anything, we're speeding up. For anyone listening to this, it's right at the end of the year, and we do have special pricing available for our studio. But you have to reach out right now. So as soon as January 1st rolls around, that deal is off the table. But if you're a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur that can relate to what Perry and I have talked to today, talked about on the episode today, and you want to find a way to create better content with your brand, you want to find a way to explore maybe launching a podcast, and even if not, and you just want to create better content, all you got to do is click on the link in the description of this video that says verahouse.co. Click on the Work With Us button and fill out the form, and we'll point you in the right direction. And if we can help you, great. If not, no big deal. But I'm looking forward to helping a lot more people in 2026 and helping people in Richmond actually get to know us beyond just this podcast and see the other things that we're doing and that we can help with. Yeah, man. How about you? Yeah. I would say a lot of the same. I'm definitely looking forward to, you know, kind of wrapping up this year, nice, tidy little bow, and starting with a bang in 2026. You know, I know it's a little cliche that, you know, new year, new you, but that's kind of the case. Like the 2026, beginning of a new chapter. I know you're not into astrology too, too big, but from what I know of it, it's the end of the year of the snake and the beginning of the year of the horse. And the end of the year of the snake represents the shedding of the skin, relieving yourself of all prior obligations and response, not responsibilities, but prior forms, and the year of the horse is the year of beginnings, the year of charge and momentum and forward movement, which I'm very excited about, especially when it comes to this place. We have a lot of really big things planned for 2026. And yes, to mention again, if you want to get in and you want to do some work with us by the end of the year, or before the end of the year, we are doing that special pricing that will change in January 2026. And, you know, I'm looking forward to sharing more of what we do outside the podcast as well. You know, both of us have, I would like to say a pretty rich, colorful life outside of the studio here. You know, we've done a really good job of highlighting Richmond. We are going to do a better job of telling you more about our stories and who we are individually. So you can get to know us a little better. But to echo Mike again, you know, we've been really, really fortunate and it's been super exciting to talk to a lot of people that we have come across in public about the podcast. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. All the feedback that we get online is great. Continue to reach out. We love talking to people. We love meeting everybody. Love the new stories. Every so often we get a new little story nugget. So definitely keep coming to us with all of that. And, you know, we're really looking forward to finishing with a bang and starting with a bang. Absolutely. Yeah, so if you're listening to this, keep an eye out for our next episode, which will be our New Year's special episodes. That'll be a good one. We'll talk a lot more about what Perry just mentioned and what what's to come for 2026. And then in January, possibly late February at the earliest, we will have dedicated episodes specifically on Perry and on myself to give you some more background on us. And yeah, just to put that out there so that you can get to know us better. And if that's interesting, great. If not, no big deal. We got more Richmond stuff on the way. Yeah, man. Looking forward to it. Likewise. This podcast was recorded at Vera House Studios in Richmond, Virginia, and produced by Perry Young and Mike Metzger.