Richmond Bears, Belle Isle & Burnout (Oregon Hill, sinkholes, Southside Speedway, etc) — Unscripted #049

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In this episode of Vera House Unscripted, we discuss a range of Richmond topics including the black bear spotted near Oregon Hill, Belle Isle’s new Nature Zone, Richmond parks and public spaces, Southside Speedway, local motorsports culture, sinkholes, social media, and how technology is changing the way people connect. 

We start with the recent Richmond bear sighting and how quickly local chaos spreads across the city, before moving into a larger conversation around Belle Isle, outdoor culture, public gathering spaces, and Richmond’s relationship with nature and community. We also discuss Oregon Hill, changing neighborhoods, and the balance between preserving Richmond’s character while the city continues to grow. 

Later in the episode, we get into Instagram’s new “Blend” feature, algorithm-driven social behavior, content burnout, and the shift away from overly polished internet culture. We also talk about Apple’s ecosystem, AI workflows, MacBooks, and the increasing overlap between technology and everyday life. 

The second half of the episode focuses on Richmond and Virginia motorsports culture, including Destiny Spurlock, NASCAR, Southside Speedway reopening, and the history of racing culture around Richmond. We also touch on local infrastructure issues including the recent Henrico sinkhole and water main break.

 Topics include Richmond black bear sightings, Belle Isle, Oregon Hill, Carytown Run Club, Southside Speedway, NASCAR, Destiny Spurlock, Richmond parks, Instagram Blend, social media algorithms, Apple technology, Henrico sinkholes, and Richmond community culture.

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

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Vera House podcast. There's a bear. Uh-oh. Look out. Uh-oh. There's a bear nipping at our heels. And uh yeah, black bear in the city of Richmond. Kind of it's beyond crazy. It's nuts, man. It's nuts. But uh yeah, so look out. If you see a bear, don't pet that dog. Definitely don't pet that dog. No, don't do that. Don't do that. Uh stay clear. We also talk about the brand new Belle Isle Nature Zone. So for anyone who's familiar with the space under the uh or at the end of the Belle Isle suspension bridge, that it's been sitting there forever. Very exciting things happening there. And we also talk about the renovation and the reopening of Southside Speedway. So we hope you can Yeah, I'm excited, man. Yeah. I'll see you there. This episode is sponsored by Carrytown Run Club. And this is something where if you're looking for something to do in the community, you want to be a part of something from the ground up. It's a simple, no pressure run club. Everybody is involved. We would love to see you there. The very first run is on May 30th at 9 a.m. And you can learn everything about it at Carrytown Run Club on Instagram. What else did we dive into today?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

We got into a couple more things, man. We actually talked about a Richmonder, a black woman who is breaking motorsports history. It's awesome. It's actually somebody you think, or you said you know personally, which is super cool. Uh, we're both big motorsports fans, so it was really cool to find out about this. Um there was a sinkhole. Who who would have thought Richmond? Sinkholes, definitely not me. There's one on the roads. We'll tell you where to be on the lookout for so that you can avoid falling in. And then we talked about social media and more specifically a new feature on Instagram called instance and how we feel about that. A little bit of conflicting feelings and not really sure where it's gonna go, but it's interesting and we kind of get into it. So stay tuned. It's a great episode.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah. Well, uh, luckily we didn't have a bear nipping at our heels on the way to the studio today.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Or did we?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

And we just didn't see it. That's a good point. I didn't see it. It was early this morning, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah. Sneaky bear loose in the city, which is I thought it was a joke. But no, there was a bear in like Oregon Hill.

SPEAKER_04 2:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And then in the Caroline area.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So bear on the loose in Richmond. It started in Maymont and then made its way over to Oregon Hill throughout the morning. So the story goes a bear was spotted in Richmond neighbor in a Richmond neighborhood Thursday morning. VCU police said they were called to the Oregon Hill area around 7 a.m. on Thursday. Officers contained the bear in a few backyards until Richmond Animal Control and the Virginia Department of Wildlife resources arrived. The Richmond DWR secured the bear at 11 a.m. Once it wakes up from a brief nap, it will be relocated to a wildlife management area. The bear will be observed overnight to ensure it does not have any health issues. So that's pretty much it. But apparently, this started like the night before. I was looking on Reddit. The situation unfolded yesterday. So, did you see the picture of the bear like crossing the highway? Yeah, you sent me that. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess that was like the first sighting is that the bear was like crossing the downtown expressway. And then it ended up in the like Maymont, Caroline neighborhood, and somebody took a video of it like climbing on somebody's roof. And then I guess it made it maybe through like down the river through Hollywood Cemetery over into Oregon Hill, would be my guess. Yeah. And um yeah, pretty nuts, dude. Like a bear, like a black bear just chilling in the city.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

You forget the ballot, the like the black bears are inside of the Maymont Park enclosure. I mean, I definitely did. I was like, wait a minute, where did a bear come from? That would be the only place that it would come from. Like it wouldn't just come from anywhere else. But I saw the pictures and I can't help like some of the sometimes like I picture a bear, and maybe it's just a different type of bear, but picture a bear like kind of thick, yeah, kind of chubby. Yeah. Right? And like maybe like, you know, not stumpy arms, like kind of shorter arms, like walking on all fours. But like a trimmed, kind of a smaller black bear, it straight up looks like a dude in a bear suit. Right. It's that's what it looks like. I was like, yep, guide a bear suit.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah. It's it well, here's what this says it says spring months are busy for black bears as they emerge from their winter dens, hungry and in search of easy meals. Items like garbage, compost piles, barbecue grills, um, and pet food fit the bill. While bears are naturally cautious of humans, food is a bigger reward. The bear was a young male, and as it is typical in spring, young male black bears leave the den in search of their own territory. As these bears travel, they sometimes find food and shelters in areas that aren't suitable. When this bat when this happens, best practices to observe the bear, keep the public away, remove food items from the area, and let the bear find its own way. Sometimes the department needs to remove the bear when this can't happen safely. And that's basically what happened. Yeah, they put him to sleep. Yeah, yeah, sure did. Trank Dart. Yep. I mean, you know, what else are they gonna do? It's like it's a at the end of the day, it's a bear, dude. Yeah. I have a close friend, or not a close friend, but like a friend that I was very close with in high school, and his mom got attacked by a bear. What? And she survived and she was okay, but it's like, bro, I could not imagine being attacked by a bear.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

The revenant. Yeah. It's the only thing I think about just you become Leonardo DiCaprio playing dead, yeah, getting your back ripped open.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Insane. Yeah. Insane. Says police warn residents to never attempt to capture a black bear on their own, and noted that residents did the right thing by not trying to lure the bear with food. And I guess we forget that like some people would do that. That's a big dog. Yeah. Come here, little pup. You want a treat?

SPEAKER_00 6:19

You want a little treat? Yeah. What is um oh I mean, I'm going to room the movie references. Rick Moranis in The Ghostbusters 2, when he's getting chased by the gargoyle wolf dog thing that got possessed. And he's like outside of the restaurant, he's like, Come here, little pooch. I think I got a milk bone.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

That's crazy. Well, in typical fashion, I've never seen that.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Typical. We'll get you, we'll get you on the Ghostbusters train.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

I know, dude. I mean, I think I saw the OG Ghostbusters. Yeah. But maybe it wasn't that.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

That's number two is the best one.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah, I believe it. I mean, often, well, maybe not often. The sequels uh can be good, yeah, right? Like we were talking about Mortal Kombat, right? And so that's the second one is anticipated to be better than the first one, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

So the first one came out in the 90s, and it was the 90s, so looking back, it's pretty rough, but it was awesome because it was the first movie of one of the first movies to from a video game to be like Hollywood produced and with a big budget and all this kind of stuff. There was another movie, I don't know if it was called Mortal Kombat 2, I can't remember. Came out maybe 10 years ago. It was awful. Objectively, it looked cool, but it just the acting was bad and the storyline was all weird. I didn't think it was very good. This one is supposed to be a redemption.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Gotcha. Okay, so this is the third one? I guess. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

I don't really know what the story is behind this one.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

It just looks better. Yeah, I thought so. And I've I don't even think I've seen any of them. And I played Mortal Kombat as a kid. I mean, who what young boy that grew up in the 90s didn't play Mortal Kombat? Seriously, everyone was doing it. Yeah, Mortal Kombat, yeah, great game. Yeah. Um, but I never did watch the movies. And I don't think I really knew a lot of the lore behind Mortal Kombat. I just played it because, you know, everyone did it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

It wasn't it was Nintendo. It wasn't like a story-riched game.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yeah, where you maybe like it wasn't a comic book originally or anything.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I don't think so. Yeah. Um, I mean, I could be wrong. Like I just played the game. I didn't really get into the lore either until the movie came out, and then you find out there's this big story, and Mortal Kombat is like this game, and there's like this guy, and he's running the whole show, and everyone's the powers and all that kind of stuff, which is awesome. Yeah, cool story. But uh yeah, I definitely didn't know that playing the game in like 1995. Yeah, yeah, same, same.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Dude, check out this video though of the of the bear. So this is like dude in a bear suit, see? It does look like that. And so this is, I think, what was captured in Maymont.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

And you can see in Maymont area, like the neighborhood. Right, right, right. Literally just like on someone's roof.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

On top of somebody's roof, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

It's like, yeah, what do you do? And it's hard in that situation too, because how do you you know shoot it with a dart in that situation? Because it's like, you know, all over it, you don't want to make a snack or something. Yeah, you don't want to kill the thing. Yeah. Um, and then there's the picture of it on crossing the highway on somebody's dash.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, that's wild. That's nice. You imagine me and that guy or whoever was driving that car, you're driving down the uh the highway, and you're like, what? What's this going on over here? And like you're coming up to it. So from a distance, you kind of see some weird and you know, fuzzy. Maybe you think it's a person, and then they like it's crawling over the thing. It's like, well, that's definitely not a dog. I don't know what that was. Yeah, you have to go and revisit the camera footage. That's crazy though.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I know. And Reddit, man, Reddit is so funny, like is undefeated. The comment sections about this bear is just so ridiculous. Like, I can't, I can't even read half of this because it's just people take everything to like just the depths of craziness on Reddit. It's so funny. But of course, one of the best comments is, Can I pet that dog?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah, that's exactly what I like 90% of the Richmonders are saying.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

It's like, I want to pet it.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Someone said, Oh, it ended up in Oregon Hill. Bro was just touring touring the city. Yeah. Someone said, Well, it's not the first young lad to go out partying and pass out in a random backyard in Oregon Hill. Isn't that the truth?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

That's so good.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

I mean, yeah, accurate. I went to many parties in Oregon Hill. I did too. Yeah. Oregon Hill had a different vibe for parties, man. It did. It really did. It's definitely different now. I will say, like, I mean, it's very much the same, and it always kind of will be because of the student vibe. But of course, like VCU has changed over the years, the student body has changed over the years. That whole area around Oregon Hill has changed a lot. And now it's like basically just secret parking for the amphitheater.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah, I I always had a weird fascination with Oregon Hill because it didn't make sense to me. And it's probably just because I was young and naive. But when I was younger, I remember hanging out in the fan. I didn't go to VCU, but I was always on campus hanging out with friends that did. So I'd be in the fan, be on campus, be, you know, kind of wherever, maybe downtown. But I would never go to Oregon Hill for anything. Not even to go to like Edo's, or not Eto's, but what was over there? Well, there was Mama Zoo's, yeah. Yeah, not even to go there. So I had no reason to ever go to Oregon Hill, but whenever I would go through there, maybe to Hollywood Cemetery or like going towards the water, it was so bizarre because it was way different than any of the other neighborhoods. All the homes are like they don't have big giant front porches, they're really they're rather narrow, like they're all two stories at least. But they're all really old. And all have like kind of a very different construction style than or building style than the the homes and the fans, like the Victorian homes and whatnot. And I would see students that live there, you know, I'd see kids walking around, but I'd also see like really old, kind of just like rough looking families. Yeah. I was like, it just reminded me of like the ghetto, but if the ghetto had like VCU students, yeah. It was very strange.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I think it's because you got like the OG Oregon Hill is very like OG Richmond. Yeah. I think you've got people and families and generational families that like, yeah, live in Oregon Hill and they're not gonna give it up, dude. They're like, I'm not moving, you know? And so yeah, you've got that mixed in with a lot of a lot of rentals, like it's all student, it's not even student housing, it's just like student rentals. And those landlords have probably owned those properties for years. It's probably I mean, I don't know what the rent is like in that neighborhood, but yeah, Oregon Hill's changed a lot throughout the years, and obviously there's the Oregon Hill lookout there, which is pretty cool. Yeah, that even that whole area has changed quite a bit. And even when I was running the trail um the other day, I was running North Bank and they put a whole new section of trail in right at the bottom of the neighborhood right there, which is super cool. And yeah, with the Browns Island rehab and the amphitheater, and did you see the that Belle Isle is put in putting in like a whole new uh nature exploration area? I think the grand opening was literally today. Yeah, didn't hear about it. So it's pretty sweet. Like, and I ride my bike around there and I run all over the place down there. You know, if you walk across the Belle Isle suspension bridge and you get to the other side, you know, you basically just have like the whole loop around Belle Isle and how everybody would go down to the rocks there and hang out. Like, you know, when I was young, like everybody went to the rocks and like got drunk and you know, went down there and partied and whatever.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Act like you didn't do that last weekend.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

It's a same thing though. Bell Isle's a different vibe now, too. You know, it used to be it used to have like a very grateful deadhead type vibe, you know? Yeah, like that's kind of what was going on, and now it's it's quite different. It feels a bit more touristy and it's like it's it's just a different vibe. But I actually don't mind it. I like it. They have the like the the skills park down there for like the bike riders, and there's trails around there and stuff, and very, very cool. I like Belle Isle more than I used to, and I think a lot of people would probably disagree with that statement, but I stand by it because I I like the nature stuff, I like the trails and the mountain bike trails, and even when we went on a bike ride, that was where we rode through, like about halfway through. We were like on the trail around Belle Isle. And so they put in this whole like nature exploration area, which I think it's mostly for like families and young kids. Yeah, but I think it's a great use of the space because it was just a big empty dirt field.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah, and like people saying that they're maybe not like maybe not like that's pretty sweet, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

I mean it's basically like a natural playground, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

That's a great way to use the like the surrounding nature to turn it into something that can be like fun for families, a cool place to meet. It just takes what was essentially just a dirt lot and makes it like it makes it look nice, right? So it makes people want to go there. But I mean, I think the the sentiment, which we if we were maybe like eight, six, seven, eight years younger, we'd probably share in the sentiment of like, don't change it, it's perfect, it's ugly and it's dirty, and we like it that way. Yeah. But we're older now and we can appreciate things that have gotten rehabbed and like not completely changed, which means like they just bulldozed something and it lost its spirit and it's being taken over by like a giant corporation. This is not that. This is this is just a revert like revitalizing something that was already there.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

And I think this has been a theme throughout this entire podcast where we talk about community spaces, and this is that. And yes, maybe this is geared more towards like family and kids and stuff, but it's gonna fit in alignment with Browns Island. And yeah, and I do think that Richmond is finally, I don't know if it's like recognizing, but it's finally like putting effort and money into building these big open communal spaces. Yeah, and it is something that these other big cities have. And coincidentally, last night when we were at the um Big Dipper Summit after party, right? Sponsored by RVA Mag. So they were kind enough to invite us. Um, your friend Tony. Yeah, Tony Harris. Yeah, so he invited us and we went. And the first couple guys that I met there, just networking, people I didn't know that weren't from here, they asked, Hey, are you here for the the conference or the after party? And we're like, Yeah, we're here. The very first thing the guy says to me, he's like, I was like, are you from here? He's like, No. He was from maybe like California or something. I forget where he was from. But very first thing the guy says to me is he says, Yeah, why is Richmond so like click-ish? It's like really hard to make friends. Right. And I was like, Oh, yeah. And yeah, and of course, you know, we stood there and talked to him for a little bit, but I actually connected it back to this, to the com not Belle Isle specifically, but like we don't have these communal spaces. So there's sort of this undertone of like, hey, we are we are friends, but in small groups here in Richmond. We're not friends as a whole. And like Richmond's sort of standoffish because it's like, we're hipster, we're punk, we're cool, we have an attitude, we have an identity and we're mad because we don't know what it is anymore. And it's like, and we don't know what it is, but you can't be a part of it. We don't want you to sit at our table. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

You can't eat lunch with us.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yeah. And it's like, I don't, I mean, you know, I don't speak for Richmond, but as somebody who lives here, it's like, I don't want people to feel that way. I don't want that to be the case. Yeah. And I think as we start to have these bigger spaces where we start to get more familiar with being around thousands of other Richmonders at a time that are hanging out with their family and walking their dogs and doing cool outdoor stuff and just being outside hanging out together, I think that will maybe start to shift a little bit. Yeah. You know, and it's something where you and this also doesn't solve the problem, but we talk about things to do. And stuff like this makes it to where it's like, yeah, I'm just going down to Belle Isle for the day. And don't get me wrong, people do that now. Like it's like, oh, I'm going to the river and I'm going to spend the day on the river or whatever. But I feel like a lot of that stuff revolves around like drinking or getting a 40 and going down there, and maybe not so much anymore, but it does kind of carry that vibe. But I think stuff like this will get a lot more people together in bigger spaces with bigger sums of people at a time. And it'll become more common to just be like, yeah, I'm gonna grab my like hammock or my yoga mat and just go down and be around other people and other energy and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

That part right there, going to a place and just being around other people, is a part of like the other side of why like that guy says that Richmond might feel clickish. It's it feels clickish because it kind of is. Not necessarily like an intentional thing, like, hey, you're we're cooler than you, or we don't want to hang out with you. I feel like most people would say the opposite. They would say, Yeah, we would like to meet new people, we like to go to places and like mingle and like be around other people and be around the public and then you know that kind of a thing. But I think those people are it's easy for them, it's easy for us to say that because we know where to go. Yeah, we know how to get that. We know when we want to do the group activities, we know which ones to go to and which ones not to go to based on our preferences and based on the type of people that will be there. But that comes with like being in the know and like being engaged in the community itself. If you're new here, you have no there's no guide, right? There's no like, I mean, yes, there are guides. There are people and places that make it their business to show you what's going on, but you still have to make a choice and you still have to go there and you have to try and start from scratch. And that's intimidating. It is, it's very intimidating, especially when you get to the place and let's say it's being hosted by someone and there's an organization that's putting on a thing, and there's people that are providing a service, and you walk in cold with no knowledge of it, except that you knew it was happening, you have to start from scratch with everybody. Yeah. It's intimidating. If you're not an outgoing person, it can be very difficult. Versus a public space with no uh existing agenda, it's just open, like a park, and you can just be there as long as you want. You don't have to go with anybody. You can go with just a bag or your phone or a snack or whatever, and then you'll meet other people that are doing the same thing. Or you'll see other people that are doing the same thing. Right. People like to connect, so there is an opportunity inherently just by being there. Yeah. Kind of breaks down the uh the cool kids barrier.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

It does. It does. So I mean, this this whole thing with Belle Isle has been in the works for a while. I think they started planning this back in 2022, so it's cool to kind of see it come together. This says over 300,000 people visit Belle Isle just, you know, per year. And I think that number is gonna go up significantly, and it I'm sure it has already. Um, but what they said is we're not trying to overdesign it. You know, it's not some big metal plastic playground. Yeah, I think it's cool because it fits the like the nature-inspired theme of this city, like we're the river city, right? Um, so yeah, really cool. It's like cool to see this thing come together. So it says a new nature exploration area is taking shape on Belle Isle. It'll offer Richmonders an early glimpse of how the city's most visited park could evolve while staying rooted in the natural character that defines it. This is not just a playground. The playground does come with other notions about what the space should offer. This is something more to emphasize the context of where it is, the rapids, the log jams, all of the wonderful things that wash up on the shore from the James. That is the feeling we're going for with the design of this space. And I think they nailed it. So it's underneath like the 100 foot tall Lee Bridge. And there's actually like a big um, what do you call that? Um Not a gondola. Like there's burgola? Yeah. Like that big, that big structure. Yes, that thing. So that actually used to be like an uh artillery and ammunitions storage thing. The shed? Yeah. Yeah. That big metal contraption. That's where uh was it uh Best Friends Day was? Yeah. And they do like shows and like you know all kinds of stuff, like bike polo and all kinds of stuff there. Um but I think they're gonna turn that into like a little bit of an outdoor like community center at some point. I'm with it. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

I know the punks will probably hate that, but it's about time.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

It's been sitting there for a long time. Yeah, yeah. And it, you know, that that whole structure could use some love. I think it's been there since um, I don't want to not the Civil War, but it's been there, it's been there a long time. It's been there a long time.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

It's really old. Well, speaking of connections and connecting with people, how do you feel about this new instance thing on Instagram?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Yeah. Um it's weird, dude. It's weird. If anybody doesn't know what Perry's talking about, it's a new feature on Instagram. I posted to it right before we started recording, just like playing around with it. It is essentially like posting a story to your Instagram, but it's not that, right? So when you post a story to your Instagram, you can add text to it, you can add music to it, you can kind of curate it and make it your own thing, right? You can even do video as well. Yeah. The instance is like a very small momentary snapshot of what's happening around you. Yeah. And at first glance you might be like, well, what's the difference, right? It's hard to say what the difference is, but the difference is you can't curate anything. Like you take a little snapshot, you can't take you can't add text to it, you're not adding music, you're not doing anything. So for example, I just took one, it's just a quick it almost kind of reminds me of Snapchat. Like I haven't used Snapchat in forever, but yeah, it kind of reminds me of that. We can do one right now, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Where it's just like, Yep. It's just a picture frame.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

I'm gonna snap a picture. Oh, I'm gonna actually press the button. And then that's it.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Like it doesn't it doesn't do anything. You can't edit it. And you go to uh you go to your instance and you've like hit the thing, and then it's just it just goes out to everyone you follow. Yeah, or everyone who follows you rather. And that's the that's the interesting thing is that it goes out to everyone that follows you. Yeah. Because well you think about a s well, yeah, you think about a story, your Instagram story, you hope that people that are following you are watching your stories. With instance, it's the it's the opposite effect. Like everyone, yes, will potentially see your instant, but then you can see everyone else's instance. And I thought that was kind of an interesting thing. It's like you pop the they populate inside of your messages, like your DMs, and then you click on it and you just kind of tap them through. Yep. It reminds me of Snapchat, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

It's just like that.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

And you just kind of swipe through them or you know, get rid of them, or you look at them, or whatever, and they disappear and they're gone after that. You can't you can't refer back to them. But I'm seeing them from people that I haven't that I'm not really friends with, that I maybe I just don't follow the account and I don't really engage with their content, so to speak. It's it's it's an interesting one.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

It is. So a couple things are happening. So as you saw when you just took that, it's not like you have to click post. It just goes. You just click it and it goes straight out. Yeah. And there's no editing, there's no anything. Oh, it says download the instance app now. Okay. So here's my thought on it. People may not know this, but Instagram has experienced like a massive decline in people publishing content to the platform. Right. So you have all this demand, which is people using the app and Doom Scrolling and swiping through reels and sending it and DMing with their friends. The majority of engagement and activity on Instagram happens in the DMs and on stories, right? That is the majority of engagement and action on the platform. It used to not be that way. If you remember back when we were, you know, in our early 20s, Instagram was this place where you posted your photos of your life and stuff, and it wasn't all about like likes and virality and all that stuff. When you posted something, your friends would see it. One of the biggest complaints that people have had for years about Instagram is they're like, dude, just show the posts from the people that we follow and show it in chronological order, like it used to be. Yeah. Instagram refuses to do that. And I think for good reason, because at the end of the day, like they're a software platform. They see millions of metrics on how people use these platforms. So there are a lot of people that are outspoken about one thing, but clearly what they see is the opposite. Right. And what drives ad revenue is eyeballs and views and all the videos that go viral, right? And that's what they need to push in order for their business model to work, right? Because they make a huge portion of their revenue through ad, you know, advertisements. I think that instance is a way to try to encourage somebody who's not a content creator to start using the app again and actually post stuff and kind of share little snippets of their life. Right. Without this pressure of it being like curated and stuff. Yeah. Removes all the barriers. 100%. And the threshold to or like the barrier to entry to posting on content on social media, posting content on Instagram is quite high. It's not as high as it was a few years ago. Like in 2024, we probably saw like the height of this highly polished, highly curated content, highly like over-edited, very, very fast paced. The audio is perfect. Everything is scripted, and people got burnt out on that super quick. You know? And now we've kind of entered this era of like yap content, right? And look at us. I mean, we started this podcast right during the beginning of that kind of shift and that change, getting into the spoken word and content that revolves around narratives and storytelling. Yeah. But in short form content, what tends to work now is the more like authentic style of content. People are burnt out on like, hey, here's three ways to get rich, or like whatever this shit is that people. Whatever the spiel is. This this yes, it was like the era of the liver king and Andrew Tate and Dan Belzirian and like, you know, Iman Godzi and all these other creators. And if you go look at their social media channels, like they hardly do anything anymore because they're basically just like either celebrities or they've kind of just given up in in one way or another. Or they've been kind of exposed as frauds and bullshitters, right? Yeah. So now you've got people recognizing that what people want is just someone being genuine. They want authenticity. They want like someone to just speak to them like a real person. And I watched the video where Adam Masari, the CEO of Instagram, talked about releasing this feature. He didn't really like explain what it is, but I have a I mean, he didn't explain like why they did it. He said that they tested it in a bunch of other countries and that it performed well and now they're rolling it out. The fact that they created a whole separate app for it makes me think that there maybe is like a little trick up their sleeve. Of course there is. Where like maybe they're kind of soft launching a more like Vine style app.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

That's been on the horizon in whispers for a while now. Because people are kind of you know burnt out on the platform and the way that it delivers content. And if you're not using it like a tool, it is very entertaining. That's kind of the end of it. It's just something you watch, you don't really engage with it. Yeah. Especially if you're not a content creator and you're not someone that's like growing a brand or you know, you have a reason to post a lot of content. You don't. Right. You since you post a this is what I did today, and then you DM your friends. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Then you watch other people's reels. Yeah. Vine's was a really good way to encourage people to post content because the barrier of entry was pretty low. Now, just like any other piece of software, people will always up the ante on what it's capable of doing or what they're capable of like using it for. I remember at the very end, like the peak, and then the very end of Vine, there was a guy named Will Sassa, who's a comedian. And Vines were what, seven seconds or ten seconds? Eight, I think. Something like that. Yeah. And you could post maybe even six seconds. Yeah, six seconds were really short. You know, you could use the front-facing camera. And back then, iPhones didn't have very good cameras. So like the quality of the video was poor. Yeah. But the content that people were putting out was getting more and more clever because they were understanding how to use the platform to deliver quality content. Someone like a comedian is pretty quick with the draw when it comes to putting himself on camera, being funny, and delivering it using the app's limitations. Yeah. He would do a series of vines all in a row, and he'd probably just either like, I don't know if you could upload them post, like you could record the video and then upload it after. I don't remember if you could do that with Vine. I don't either. But he would post videos of him, and I will never forget this because it was so clever. He would post like the selfie cam of him like seeing a lemon and then that would be it. And then him just looking back away from the camera, and that that would be the end of that video. The next one would be like him looking at the table and the lemons gone, and he'd be confused. And then the next one would be him like having pain in his chest, and then it that one would be over. And the next one would be like him like choking a little bit, and then the next one would be like the lemon's coming out of his mouth, and then the last one, he's like the lemon explodes from his face, and like he just he told a story with the six-second video program or six-second video platform. Clever, like extremely clever, and that's what's happening with Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Yeah, yeah. I feel the same way. Like, I have a hunch that the instance app is a soft launch of the new Vine, especially because it's in a square format and it doesn't currently have video. And I think the fact that it doesn't have video is a big indicator. Because if they released instance and you could make little videos just like stories, it would be a little too confusing. Yeah. So I think just doing these square videos with no editing is a way to just pique curiosity and get people interested. And if I had to guess, they'll eventually release video and it'll only be available on the instance app, and that's their way of like separating that feature.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

It's clever. Yeah. And I think they'll have a lot of initial success with it. I'm definitely going to be interested in seeing, you know, what people do with it. Because I know that there's a soft spot for anyone that's like our age for Vine. Be like, that was the first platform of its kind. It gave you the ability to tell stories with social media. Right. Because before that, Instagram was just you post a clip or you post a picture, and that was kind of it. Yep. You know, there wasn't a reels feature, there wasn't a scrolling, let me see all tons of creators and sift through all of their content. It was just, I'm going to watch the people that I follow in order, in chronological order, whether they posted a picture or whether they posted a video that would just kind of be in my feed. And if they're doing that or planning on doing that with the instance app, I think it's cool. Yeah. You know, it's another way for people to be creative, stay connected, maybe remove some of what is deterring people from using Instagram right now. Yeah. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah, we will see. You know, and I think the name is another clue as well. Like, oh, I posted an instant. You know, it's like clever branding. Yeah. You know, they put thought into this. And Instagram is a creator forward like brand and platform. You know, it's like they've got threads, which which is basically a ripoff of Twitter, and then they've got instant, which is potentially a rip-off of Vine. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

I even saw a story post from a friend of mine who is participating in instants because I saw a bunch of pictures from her. Okay. Um, instance came out yesterday.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

And I'm already getting like dozens of instants from people that I follow. Yeah. But I'm not in communication with on a regular basis, which was kind of like the bizarre thing. It's like, I don't know. I haven't I don't even talk to this person, but I'm getting the message. But she says, not gonna lie, no clue who some of these people are popping up on my instant photo, or what's it called? But you all look very cool and fun. That's funny. So it's bizarre and confusing, but the curiosity has been spiked.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

It is, yeah. And I think to clarify, I think the people who see it are only the people you follow back. Right. So even if they follow you, I don't think they see it. It's only if you follow them back. And you can choose. You can either choose to show it to your close friends list if people use that, or it's just the people you follow back.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Yeah. Did you see?

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Um, did you see I picked this thing up?

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Oh yeah. Your your 1996 MacBook not Pro. Right.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

So this is the MacBook Neo.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Yeah. It's an iPad with a keyboard. Wait, no, it's not. It's actually an iPhone with a keyboard.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Yeah, we talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

So it's a MacBook. It's a $500 MacBook. Yeah. Easily the best part about anything that Apple has produced in decades is that it's cheap. Yeah. It's it's the same price as like an entry-level Dell computer, which that's always been kind of the question is like, why doesn't Mac or Apple produce something that you just it's a word processor? Yeah. Right? That that's all people needed it for.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

Yep. That's very true. And I have a feeling that maybe in the beginning it was because they had overproduced the chips for the iPhone, and then maybe the new iPhone undersold. So then they basically they just put an iPhone chip in there. Yeah, they just repurposed it, and this MacBook runs on an iPhone chip.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_01 36:24

So this laptop is running on the same thing as this.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

It's crazy. It is crazy. So when you think about what you're doing with your phone, and this is no shade to anybody because I'm guilty of it too, playing games, surfing the web, downloading music, playing on Spotify, Instagram. It could be doing anything you could do on a laptop.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. I think people greatly under underutilize their phone.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Um, for better or for worse, right? It's like, you know, I mean, bro, I'm sitting here with an iPhone, a MacBook, and an iPad Pro.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

It's like you're Apple Kidd out.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

I know. It's kind of ridiculous. But the reason that I liked this is because I'm not spending thousands of dollars on a MacBook Pro, right? I have my main Mac Studio at home, right? So I have like my big gangster computer at the house in my in my office. Yeah. But this is perfect for on the go because, dude, really, all I need it for is web browsing and stuff like you mentioned, like, yeah, the occasional document or Canva design or whatever, but also so that I can quickly edit on the go. Yeah. And surprisingly, dude, this thing is a beast. And I've seen videos where people pull up, you know, like 30 different simultaneous browser tabs of running like cloud cowork. Yeah. And then also like editing a video in Premiere Pro. And dude, it handles it somehow.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

You know, and um, I thought it was pretty cool. You know, now you can tell that it's a cheaper MacBook, but I was still pretty impressed with like how it's built. And take a look at it.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Yeah. It's pretty sweet. And I think I said before we started that it definitely reminds me of like the old school MacBooks. Yeah, MacBooks. And I think that's because of the color I chose too. Yeah, the well, the color and the shape. Yeah. Like just it's super rounded on the edges. Yeah. I mean, it it's it's a MacBook. Yeah. You know, it's it's not anything fancy, but the the coolest part I think was like finding out that it was an iPhone chip.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

And finding out that it has all of that processing power. And that it's cheap. And I'll say that again, it is cheap. $500 is cheap for anything that Apple has ever made. I don't even think you could buy an Apple Watch for less than $500. No. You know what I mean? Like you not a not a good one. Not a good one. This one gives you word processor, internet access. Now you have access to all of the AI who have a desktop app. You have access to CapCut desktop. You can use Premiere Pro. It does everything that a MacBook can do within the limits of the chipset and the graphics card. It's a deal, it's an incredible deal.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Yeah. Yeah. It's the perfect like remote work computer. Yeah. You know, essentially the way that I approach this is there's not a ton of memory on it. There's not a ton of storage. So it's the perfect like iCloud remote access desktop. And you can download, you know, I've got Claude, Chat GPT, all of my built-in Apple ecosystem, and then like my video editors. And that's it. And that's all I need, you know, and this thing, and I can access everything from this and do what I need to do. Now, you know, the keyboard doesn't light up and you know, there's not like a 4K webcam on it and all that stuff. I'm like, dude, I don't need that. So, oh, and if you have the the one other reason I got this too is because I have the Apple card. And if you have the Apple card, you can just buy one of these for 50 bucks a month and there's no you know interest or anything like that. So you're just paying the regular retail price and you don't have to buy it all up front.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

I mean, I was already a fan of Apple products because clearly iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro at home, Apple Watch, all that good stuff. And I was willing, like just about everyone else, to pay the Apple tax because we know, yes, their products are very good in a lot of ways they are better, but they are arguably better products out there. There always have been. They have a hold on the market because of the way that people engage with their products and the way that they design them for those people. We like the way they work, that's why we're willing to buy it. Making one that's less than a thousand dollars is a genius move.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

You know, I think that it'll engage with people who have maybe wanted to get into the Apple world, but didn't want to pay the Apple tax. Yeah. And this is a new one off the shelf, in the box, brand new. 500 bucks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Uh it's pretty sick, man. I mean, I can say, like, yes, I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy, but I think that's mainly because I like the ecosystem, right? It's like, and I think people overlook the importance of choosing an ecosystem, right? So whether it's Apple or whatever else, like it could be Google, it could be the Samsung thing or whatever. And I I know Android has its own apps, but dude, the Apple ecosystem and the way that it all works together is like pretty damn good.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

It's beyond good. Yeah. If you use it the way that it is designed to be used, and here's the caveat they don't even tell you how to do that. Yeah. So they don't make it easy for you to just plug and they it is designed to be plug and play, like user-friendly. It's pretty brainless to just turn it on and do the things you need to do. But then there's a layer above that, and then another layer beyond that. If you were willing to take the time to investigate it, blow your mind. Exactly. The way that it's connected, I was I think I called you or told you about it afterwards. I have my MacBook Pro on a stand to the right of my desk at home on the right hand side, and I have a monitor in the center of the desk. I had my iPad on the left of me, and I would just happen to have it open. I was using my trackpad on the screen on my MacBook, and then I like I have it set up. I swipe over to the main screen because you can, you know, have an extra external monitor on your MacBook. And then I just happened to swipe a little bit more, and the mouse jumps from the main screen on my monitor to my iPad. Yeah. I didn't, I thought it was broken. I didn't know it could do that. Yeah, it blew my freaking mind because here I am using my MacBook Pro trackpad to control my iPad, and I swipe back right and it's back on my main screen monitor, and then it's back on my MacBook. And I'm like, what the hell is happening? Yeah. I looked it up and I didn't even know what to look up. And you told me that is it's an existing Apple it feature that they don't tell you about. You just have to kind of investigate.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Yeah. And so essentially what you're talking about is this right here.

unknown 42:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

So I could take my MacBook Neo.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

This is not sponsored by Apple by the. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

It's not. I'm just going to do it. But look, dude, I've got a double monitored MacBook right here. This is a whole workstation. So I could literally take this to the coffee shop and I have a dual monitored workstation right here. You know, and this is basically the extended monitor display.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Plugged in, dude.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Yeah. I mean, it is. And exactly like you mentioned, you got to learn this stuff. You know, it's like everything that somebody wants to do. Editing video, you got iMovie, and then of course, if you're serious about it, you would do Final Cut if you're an Apple fanboy. Yeah. Um, you've got Apple Reminders, which manages all your to-dos, Apple Notes, which manages all your notes and documents and projects and all that other stuff. You've got Apple Freeform, which is basically like Figma, or even like Canva whiteboards, right? All this stuff is built in and free to use. Um, not Final Cut Pro, but like, you know, iMovie and GarageBand and all this, like, dude, you can make music, you can make video, you can do whatever. Yeah. I personally, and you know, I can't say with certainty because I've never really spent much time using an Android, but I would say it's safe to assume that like there's not very many other ecosystems that could hold a flame to like the Apple one. I would agree. And I also see this through the work that I do. Because I'll work with other creators and I see this huge roadblock that they run into, which is they'll have an iPhone because like they love the iPhone, but then they have like a Windows computer. Right. And they're like, well, how do I get this file onto the computer? And I'm like, bro, it's 2026. You should not even be having to ask that question. Like, you don't know how to get a file from your phone onto your computer and vice versa.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

Wait, I can solve this problem for you. Buy a MacBook and then you can airdrop everything. Yeah. Literally, it's like magic. It's like, I want this from my phone to my computer. Swipe, done.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

And if you're really sharp, you don't even have to do that because everything on your phone is on your computer and vice versa. It's all seamless together. Like these three devices, I can access the same thing across all these devices.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Well, you have to show me how to do that.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Yeah. Because I'm, yeah, I don't know if that's a good one. And I can talk about mine set up like that. Dude, and I can tap in, I have a Mac Mini and a Mac Studio at home. The Mac, the Mac Mini is its own remote AI agent that can do anything. And then my Mac Studio, I can tap into it straight from that computer and say, hey, like I need you to do this or clean up all my screenshots on my Mac Studio. And I don't even have to be there.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

We're going to talk about this afterwards because I definitely already want to do that. Yeah. So that's great.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

For sure. For sure. Um, well, we should take a quick moment to talk about today's sponsor, which is sort of us, sort of Blackbird, but we want to invite everybody to the brand new Carrytown Run Club. Let's go. Let's do it. And so I'm sure everybody is familiar with the idea of a run club, but this ties into what we were talking about today about the community thing. Right. It's like, okay, I don't want to have to go to the bar or like try to find something to do. And you specifically mentioned people who moved here and maybe they're not familiar with, like, oh, where do I go or where is my community or whatever? Yeah. If you've never been to Carrytown, it's it's a gem, right? It's like a staple of Richmond. It's such a cool little, like quaint neighborhood and shopping district. And it's where we're located. So this studio that we're sitting in right now is located in Carytown. Many of the guests, the partners, the friends, the collaborators that you may have heard about and seen on this show, many of them are guests on this show. They are based in Carytown. Many of the sponsors of our episodes, such as Point Five, are based in Carytown. And uh our friends over at Blackbird, so Patrick and Blake, and there's other people involved as well, some of the people over at TBT El Gaio. We've also talked to our friends at Pyre Sauna about being involved in this. And we decided to just do a free community run club. And so what we're gonna do is throughout the late spring and early summer, and really throughout the whole year, every Saturday morning at 9 a.m., we're just gonna do a group run. And this is for people of all types, all sizes, all parts of Richmond, every experience level of running or walking. You, you know, you don't have to be a serious runner. I'm not a serious runner, you're not a serious runner. I'm definitely not. Yeah, but I like to be outside and get active and move and meet new people and force myself to be social and just do cool community stuff.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

I'll go for a stroll first thing in the morning, man. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

Exactly. So that's what Carrytown Run Club is all about. It's just a free group. The very first run is going to be on May 30th. We're gonna be doing giveaways, we're gonna do a little after get together thing. There's gonna be music, there's gonna be food, there's gonna be prizes, there's gonna be some cool stuff that we're doing. We would love to invite you. So if you're interested in that, we'd love to have you come join us. It's a short run. We're just gonna have fun with it. It's a great excuse to get outside, get some sun, have some fun, meet new people. So all of the details for that will be included in the description below. And again, it's called Carrytown Run Club. So you can just look that up on Instagram at Carrytown Run Club. Follow that page because what we're gonna do is we're gonna have a broadcast channel on that Instagram where all of the updates for the runs and everything are just gonna be in there. Very simple, very easy to know what's going on. Yeah, just come hang out, come check it out. We think you'd like it, and we hope to see you there. Um, so yeah, so I know that you had brought up um a couple things like before the show. You got some some good stuff. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Well, first of all, and in addition to weird stuff that's just happening in the city like a bear kind of running through Oregon Hill, there was a water main burst and then a sinkhole formed. Really?

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Dang, I feel like I haven't heard about a sinkhole in Central Virginia in a while.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

I don't think I've ever heard about a sinkhole in central Virginia, which is kind of why it was like a weird thing. And I'll send you I'll share the Instagram that I saw. It was like making fun of the entire scenario, and it's kind of hilarious, so I'll share that with you. Um But yeah, uh, in Rico County, a water main break has shut down multiple lanes. The in the 1800 block of Stables Mill Road earlier Thursday, police share photos that appeared to show water flooding on a section of the road, and Rico public utilities updated with more photos Thursday afternoon showing a large hole in the road. Drivers should avoid this area or allow for extra time, travel time when in that area. Westbound traffic is more likely to be impacted. And you look at the picture here, it's like it's not like I would picture a sinkhole in my mind, like a giant gaping hole. It's just kind of like crusty, dusty, watery sand off to the side.

SPEAKER_03 49:16

But I mean there's a video here that shows a little bit more of it. That's so weird. I'm actually looking at it right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

Yeah, just kind of a big mud puddle that they mean is hiding the hole, I guess. So yeah, I mean, I it's it's in typical Richmond fashion, the sinkhole kind of loses its gusto because we have small town problems instead of big city problems, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 49:49

I feel like I remember that there was like a crazy sinkhole on like Strawberry Street, like way back in the day. Oh no. I know there's definitely like been one, but uh yeah, it's so weird. It's like I I don't know enough about sinkholes to know like what even causes that.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

I mean, they said a water main burst and then a sinkhole formed. I'd imagine, yeah, pipe under the road. Okay. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, no, no, yeah, you go for it. What'd you find? Found in the water uh the the sinkhole on strawberry, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

So, bro, I said uh back in the day, this was actually two years ago, did a car was swallowed by a massive sinkhole on Strawberry Street.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

I knew I was like, dude, I swear I did I not even know about that, dude.

SPEAKER_01 50:31

I mean, I just vaguely remembered it in the back of my mind. Look at that. What? Yeah. And it it swallowed like an entire car. What's that symbol?

SPEAKER_00 50:40

I don't know. That's like some graffiti in the background. That's some crazy stuff right there. How did I not look at that? Maybe I saw this and just forgot about it. That's insane. That's a sinkhole. That is a sinkhole. This sinkhole needs to take notes from that sinkhole.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Bro, could you imagine just driving down Strawberry Street and all of a sudden your car, like all of a sudden you're just being engulfed underground? That no, I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

That's bananas, dude. Let me see that picture again.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Yeah, he's like, is he still in the car? No, there's nobody in there. No, but it does say it came up to the driver's door window.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

Crazy. It says the car was stuck in the sinkhole for an hour, but nobody was hurt. They live be uh these people they live nearby and said they could not believe what they saw. It would make me really cautious on roads that do have potholes because you never know. One of those things might open up, I guess. And I mean, you know, the potholes in Richmond are crazy. But I will say I give the city a little bit of grace because the ice storm just like wrecked everything. It did, it did. And I feel like we've still like this the roads have still not recovered from from this year's winter.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

Well, yeah, that's some goofy little news that I found, but I did actually come across something a little cooler. You know, both you and I are motorsports fans and we like racing, we like cars. Oh, yeah. Uh, I actually do like NASCAR. I don't follow the sport a whole lot, but I do like I like the cars, I like the raceway. I haven't been to a race in a couple years, but I never want to go back this season. Um, I came across an article that talks about the first black African American. I mean, maybe you shouldn't say it that way, but the first African American female to race in a NASCAR Cup series is from Richmond, Virginia.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Dude, I think I know her. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 52:26

Wait, you what do you mean you know her?

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Yeah, yeah. Her name's Destiny, right? Destiny's homie Spurlock. Yeah, I've worked with her before.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

Get out of here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

That's crazy. Dude, that is super cool because she races like motorcycles. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

Yes. I and I haven't gone too much further than like the article that's written up about her to like really know her history. That's so cool that you know her. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what I found was basically Destiny Spurlock is set to make NASCAR history during the truck series race at Dover Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon. Spurlock will become the first black woman to compete in one of NASCAR's three national touring series. The 34 34-year-old driver will pilot number 69 truck for MBM Motorsport at Dover. Spurlock began in motorcycle drag racing, where she established herself as a standout in the 4.6 index class, setting the record and taking a home, taking home a class victory. In 2024, she made history as the first woman to win a DME racing real street class in the XDA motorcycle drag racing series with a 7.32 ET run at 178 miles per hour. A year later, she would be she would debut at the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycling, Pro Stock Motorcycle, becoming just the second black woman to compete in the category. Most recently, Spurlack made her national ARCA Menard series debut with an excellent 10th place finish at Kansas Speedway. That's sick. So her angle, she's on track to race in an in the NASCAR Cup series. She's right now, she's racing the trucks. I believe before the race at Dover, she raced at Watkins Glen, which is the road course instead of the Oval Track. And then the neck, the next one coming up is Dover. That's badass. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Yeah. She, I mean, she deserves it, dude, because like I've you know witnessed her journey from afar, and I've known her for probably 10 years at this point. And she's a hard worker, dude. And she has been racing motorcycles for, you know, drag racing motorcycles for a long time. Yeah. So she's worked very hard to get up to this point. And I did see her post about racing in the NASCAR trucks. Yeah. But I didn't know all the details and stuff. But that is cool. Like it's yeah, that's insane.

SPEAKER_00 54:45

I think I saw an interview with her where she said that she was on motorcycles since she was 13 years old. Yeah. So she's been doing this for a long time. And you know, to be the first black woman in a NASCAR truck or the NASCAR Cup series. So the there's the NASCARs is the NASCAR Cup series, I believe. And then the trucks are a series, and then there are different tiers in addition to that. Right. And it's it's a huge moment for her career, but it's just a huge moment in general, right? Yeah, it's awesome. There's been female drivers in NASCAR, and there's been black drivers in NASCAR, but she's the first black woman to do it.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

Yeah. Pretty amazing. I mean, you know, and it's a tough, it's a tough gig, man. Like women have a hard, like they have a hard job in motorsports. You know, like they get a lot of flack, and uh it's you know, it's an uphill battle regardless to try to make it to like the echelon of motorsport and like get to like the pinnacle of racing and like be involved in NASCAR and stuff. Uh, but yeah, it's like you're you're walking the steps that not many people have taken before. You're opening yourself up to criticism. People who think like, oh, this isn't a sport for you and whatever. And I'm also not that versed like in the difficulties that someone like Destiny would face, like doing that. But dude, she's fierce, man. Like she's badass, and like, yeah, she deserves it. So that's super cool to see that.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

I saw that. I was like, we have to make a mention someone who's a Richmonder at heart leading the charge for uh something that you and I are personally interested in, but a sport that has been predominantly uh male and white male dominated, just to see her doing it and to be the face of this new path, like you're saying, charting a course that not many people or no one has charted before. And even in the interview, I think the the the hosts were asking, you know, how does she feel like carrying the torch or you know, being that person that's leading the charge? And she said that she's honored to do it, but that her focus is also ultimately to be good at racing the race and like to be a competitive driver in the in the series. Uh but to also, you know, know that she's got little girls that are looking up to her, and you know, maybe they never thought that they could be a race car driver, be in the sport in any capacity, whether that's in the pick crew or you know, involved in the tech and engineering with the car. You can do it, and this is your sign that there is somebody out there doing it. So if she can do it, so can you.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

100%. You know, and somebody who makes a somewhat infrequent appearance on the show that we just bring up in casual conversation is Lewis Hamilton. Yeah. And he's somebody who's like obviously a huge advocate of that. Uh, you know, he grew up doing RC car racing and then getting into go-kart racing and then eventually made it to Formula One. And he experienced an insane amount of racism and stuff towards him where people didn't want him in the sport. And and he's a guy, you know, like he's a male that came up, and now he's statistically the greatest that's ever done it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Um, and even still to this day, as the best, like still faces that he is at the top, he's driving for the most high profile team, arguably, yeah, in F1 history, yeah, Ferrari. Yeah. He's at the pinnacle, he's made it to a a point in in that career and in the sport that only a handful of people have ever made it to. And he's still relatively young. He's not an old man, he's got a lot of driving left to do, but he did it. Yeah. Even with all of that. Yeah. And someone like Destiny is leading the charge in her own way from Virginia in NASCAR. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

Very cool. I wonder if she's familiar with Lewis. He does this thing called like Mission 44, which is kind of all about that like diversity and inclusion and stuff in motorsports, which I'm sure she's familiar with it. She may be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

We should have the we should uh we should get her on the show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:29

Next time she's in town, we'll get her in here. Yeah, yeah, she's great. Did you see that um Southside Speedway is being like rehabbed and renovated to re to like come back open again?

SPEAKER_00 58:38

I didn't, but I saw your your your note about that. Southside Speedway, I think I've been to like twice. Yeah. It's a short track, right? Yep. And it's not a dirt track. Or is it a dirt track?

SPEAKER_01 58:50

So I guess it was. I guess it is. I don't know if it was originally, but I think late, like over the decline of the facility, it was basically a dirt track. Yeah. But yeah, it's it's a smaller oval track. And like, yeah, it's cool. And it's kind of been sitting idle for quite some time. Uh, but Southside Speedway and county officials have finally revealed a master plan for the former Speedway, which currently has a 20-year lease-to-own agreement in place, setting the stage for the reopening of the track. That's pretty cool. It's all this stuff, right? It's like the new amphitheater, the new um uh baseball stadium and stuff. It's like, all right, let's get our mojo back. Yeah, for real. You know, we even talked about like professional hockey and stuff like that. Yeah, getting that type of stuff back.

SPEAKER_00 59:34

I kept seeing, I see a lot of posts about people wanting the uh the Richmond renegades to come back.

SPEAKER_01 59:39

That would be, I mean, I would love to see that. But yeah, so this is sort of just the mock-up. It, you know, it's not all that different from what already exists there, but it's just the beginning of a plan to like clean up the property, get it like set back up to be a functioning facility. Um, and I think that would be super cool. You know, we even talked about the Richmond Parallel Parking Championships and having NASCAR get involved and be involved in that. So that would be a good idea. Yeah, maybe we can do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

We'll do it at Southside Speedway when they open up.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

Yeah, yeah. So I think um like there's limited information on what the plan really is. Um, but I think like there's a pretty strong effort to like really get it revived and and going again. Um, so it'd be cool to like see it reopen and have a place where it's like, oh yeah, you go into the race this weekend, you know, like yeah, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

Like I remember I remember growing up and and and you know, I think as a as a Richmonder, you m and yet if you lived in Richmond for a long time and you do pretty much all of your your life activities in Richmond, you know, you go to work, school, social life, family life, you do it all within the city limits, you forget about the counties. Yeah. And I grew up in Richmond City, but I spent a lot of time in the counties. Yeah. Goochlin and Tappahannock and Chesterfield and Mechanicsville and all of that. So I'm very familiar with like literally five minutes outside of the city limits, you're essentially in the country. Yep. Pretty much in any direction you go, yeah, you're in the country. Oh yeah. City life ends at the at the the the line on the map. That's when Richmond City life actually ends and it turns into a rural neighborhood. Yeah. You know, streets get bigger, there's way more trees, and you start to see, unfortunately, you do see a few more Confederate flags. But yeah, all things considered, it's it's nice. Virginia is is a beautiful state in that regard. But being able to like go out on the weekend to Southside Speedway, you know, call that a 25-minute ride out to where I think it's in Mechanicsville.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:47

So I'm pretty sure it's in Chesterfield. Chesterfield, yeah. So, you know, but similar vibe to you know, to some degree, specifically where that's at. I think it's like off Genitou. Um, and I remember going by there all the time as a kid and stuff. And yeah, it's a similar vibe. And it's not to overshadow because we have Richmond Raceway, which is like NASCAR, like that's true. That's the raceway, you know, and that's much closer to the city. It's over on the Burnham. Yeah. Right. So that's like the local raceway. Yeah. Southside Speedway is a little bit out in the cut. It's in Genito. It's in the country.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:16

It's for the country boys. Yeah. It's for it's for the the the down home short track. I just built this car in my grandpa's my grandfather's garage. Yes. We're gonna run run what's a brung type of thing. And you go out there, you get some, you know, you get some cheap hot dogs, bucket of fries, a Miller light or two, sit in the stands, cheer for your favorite. So I mean, I'm I think they actually used to do demolin, just demolition derbies out there. So it's it's one of those. Like if you live in Richmond, you still live in Virginia, it's a very Virginia thing to like go to a short track and be a little country.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:47

Yeah, yeah. And yeah, like tractor poles and even like the monster trucks, maybe a little bit, like that kind of stuff. That's definitely the Southside Speedway vibe. And it would be cool to bring that back. I'll throw on some overalls and head on out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:59

Let's go, man. I'm ready. This podcast was recorded at Vera House Studios in Richmond, Virginia, and produced by Perry Young and Mike Metzger.