Episode 8 Brothers and Sisters Recorded April 19, 2026

Deconstructing leaving Mormonism. All issues fair game for discussion.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It on my camera. Okay. So I decided. So I try to But you're in V you're in Vietnam, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Yes. So here is and uh so I try to learn to say hello and thank you in every language, and that gets me away with a a multitude of sins. It really does. It helps people be really nice to you. That and the fact that I really don't try and like talk people down too much on their prices because I think their prices are so cheap.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

It's like, why am I arguing for a dollar? It's okay to pay a foreigner tax.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Yeah, it really and it we should because we make it more expensive for the people who live here to live here.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

And even though we're contributing to the economy, we're also kind of, you know, it's it's tough on it when it gets raised so much that they the people who work here can't afford to live here.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

They get priced down. Yeah. I hear that um rent really gone up in Ho Chi Minh City.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah, here it's gone up. And um in South Korea where we just left, I've I got a message on my uh on my social media about an app that they have now that helps people find meals that are affordable now. Because what happens here is there's not a lot of kitchens. So a lot of people don't do their own cooking. They have these really big places where there's just big, almost like picnic tables and benches, and then you eat out of these big pots, and they prepare these big pots, I don't know, in the morning, and then they eat out of it all day. Um, but that's where you go and get your meals. You don't actually cook at home here. So the our first night here, we went to one of these places, and it's not just one vendor, it's multiple vendors, and it gave me anxiety because I could not like what you choose. Like, there's five million things. I don't know how to pronounce one one of them. I mean, I know I like a lot of the stuff, but I don't know what I love yet. You know, it's it's been challenging. The biggest challenge is trying to find snack food that isn't squid flavored or crickets or you know, like it's just it's not the same. The chocolate here is not the same, like everything here is just not quite the same. And most days I do really well. Some days I have a little minor, like, I just want a 7-Eleven Slurpee or a Coke with some ice in it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah. Have you discovered the Bon Mi?

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Oh, I love Bon Mi. Yeah. Today we went to a place. What we've discovered is there's a lot of Michelin uh starred places here, and they're kind of monoc, you know, so that you can go and have an affordable meal and that it's actually a really, really tasty meal. We had tacos tonight. I had birria tacos, believe it or not. Oh yeah, lovely. With rice and beans, but uh they are not Tex-Mex rice and beans here, it's Chinese beans with your with your Mexican tacos.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Katie and I were just talking last night. We went out to a little restaurant called Paya Thai, it's Bangkok Street food-themed Thai restaurant. And she was actually, oh, remember when we were in Fiji and I ordered the quesadilla at the resort, and they corrected me. You mean quetadilla? The way the real Texas pronounce it. Yeah, and um it doesn't come on a tortilla.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

No, what did it come on?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Uh Indian roadie bread.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Oh, that's hilarious. It's like pizza here. You get pizza here, and it's really just tomato sauce on some piece of cracker bread. It's it's not it's not the same. The food is not the same. And some of it's much better. Some of it's just weird. And what you find is you you crave the home cook, like you really want a piece of meatloaf and some mashed potatoes sometimes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh yeah. Um, I was just I get this little daily theme, Thailand, it and it highlights this that other part of the country, and they advertise restaurants as part of it. You froze up, Paula. Are you okay?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

No, I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Oh, you're here. Okay. And it talked about this restaurant that served authentic Scandinavian food like lasagna.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

The Scandinavians and the lasagna. That's hysterical. That's really funny. So it's been interesting this trip because we've done three countries kind of right all in a row, and they've been very different. Can we just talk a little bit about Korea?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Korea.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Okay, we did South Korea. We went up to the DMZ. That was very sobering. You know, I've seen some sad things in my time from Oklahoma City, you know, the building there. I'm from LA, the earthquakes and the riots that were there and the fires. Like I've seen some stuff. But to feel what it must have felt like and still feel like to lose your family and to have them just over some stupid border. And what I didn't realize is that the North Koreans are still building tunnels, still trying to infiltrate into South Korea. They're still very much actively acting like an enemy of South Korea. And what was so impressive to me is how the South Koreans have just picked themselves up and dusted themselves off and have a society and have a culture and have, you know, have all this freedom compared to the folks in the north. And then for the audacity of our president to go and visit the guy in the north and shake his hand. I just do not understand. When you have people who are being shot, hello. When you have people who are being killed, hello.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Because he's the priesthood owner of the house, I have to serve him hand in foot.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I have to bring the priest holder his copy.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

As as the penis owner of the house.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Well, you've got some dogs in there too. So you're not the only one. So as the male I love you, Paula.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I can't hear anything you're saying. I love you. Bye. Hey, Paula. Hello, how are you? Pretty good. Now we can talk about him. He has no idea what we're saying. I can read context.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

He can tell when I throw my head back and laugh.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

So we've been shopping since we've been here. We've just been talking about the three different countries we've been in and how kind of different they are. Um, today we went and got very three new shirts and he he picked them up. And so they're three custom shirts for him. They're $30 a piece and they're completely made to order. He picks out the fabric. I know it's so, and I was telling Thane, that's the one thing I refuse to do here is I refuse to like tell people, okay, $25, you know. Like I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna rip somebody off five dollars because it makes a world of difference to them. And to me, it's five dollars in my bank account, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, only if we had oligarchs who believe the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

I know it's it's always the people who are poor who are it's always people like me who are the generous ones, and I can be generous a taller at a time, but hey, I'm generous where I can be. Yeah, it's um this has been a a really uh interesting uh departure because this city is more uh advanced than the other cities. A lot of motorcycles, a lot of personal transportation. Um, in Korea, they all lined up for the subway and they stood in line and they waited for their turn in line, and there's like a lane to get on the subway and a lane to get off the subway, and everyone obeyed it. And it was just like it ran like clockwork, like those people cooperate with each other like nobody's business. And then you get the Saigon, and there are 1 million and one motorbikes, and they're all in the lane and all where you want to be at this time. It's like mayhem here. It's just interesting that they can all be so close and culturally kind of so different. Yeah, I think the the Koreans kept a lot of the Japanese influence that they had foisted upon them for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah. How are you? I'm doing okay. I go in sabbatical a week from tomorrow. I still have grading and end-of-the-year stuff, but um, I don't have to teach any more classes till January. It's a nice break. I'm gonna do a lot of research and but it's um I'm not gonna have to work full time, which is nice. Are they leaving you alone at work? Or are they yeah, yeah, I don't have to go to a meeting, you know, I don't have to they they leave you alone. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

But Katie, for who don't know who you are, you've never been introduced, is um Richard's wife. She's our favorite in the family. We've already told Richard we pick her over him in divorce. It's you guys um got married later in life like I did, and I think those are the best marriages. I really do. I think yeah, because you really learn to appreciate one another. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Well, and and you and you don't marry it for idiot reasons. You marry because you really want to be with a person.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Yeah. And it's more of a it's more of a relationship to begin with, I think.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Right reasons.

unknown 10:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Well, I'll let you get back to your cop podcast. Love you. Love you too.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Well, you're part of the podcast now.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah, really. You got your hair cut.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah, yeah. Katie made me start going to the salon across the street and forbid me from going to Great Cuts.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

To what's her name at Great Club, Great Clips. That was in my dating profile when I met Larry. I said, I'm really close to what's her name at Great Clips, who cuts my hair every six months. I'm the worst at being a girl. Like today I got my my toenails done, but it like I'm in the town where being having a pedicure was invented, right? Like Tippy Hedron, did you know that that after the war here, she um sponsored a lot of the women to come to LA and become nail technicians, and so she's really the reason that um there's so many Vietnamese nail slans in America. She really helped industrialize that for them, and they still benefit from it today. But like for $3.50, you can go get a pedicure. So why am I like we I'm so reluctant, and and I can't figure that out. I can't figure out why I am reluctant to do nice things like that for myself, the feminine things, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

It's forbidden forever, really. I mean, to fully embrace that feel your femininity, your sexuality with all tied together, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Yeah, we went at the place where we got the clothes, it's a big, huge market, and there's just one stall after another, and just bolts and bolts of fabric and all kinds of spices. It's just this really cool market. They had underwear, and I bought new underwear. And it was really funny because there was everyone was staring. I don't know, there was like 12 little 12 people like watching me buy these underwear, and they're Calvin Klein, bright pink, like kind of men's underwear. Um, and the one guy was like, I don't know, I think you need a bigger size. I said, dude, I go, I'm talking about my underwear to complete strangers. I I'm used to this. I was raised Mormon, but it's still weird. It's still weird to talk about my underwear.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

So now I'm wearing I'm wearing uh neon pink Calvin Klein underwear, and I'm gonna go buy some new ones because here's what I found about that market. You can find something and you think you love it, and then you bring it home and it's not exactly the quality or you know the fit that you so I always buy one and then I go back the next day if I like it and and buy more. So I've for instance I bought this dress and I like the dress, so I went back today and bought two more, and I'm gonna have them tailored so they're shorter for me.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Oh, that's a place to get your stuff tailored.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I know it's so it's so the dress is seven dollars and it's like three dollars to have it tailored. So for ten bucks you have a dress that looks like it was made for you. It's it's nuts to come here and not do all your shopping. So I'm doing a complete suitcase refresh. It's been two years, and I just have stuff that I've worn the crap out of, you know, and washed the crap out of because we've been everywhere, we've washed it against stones and in and in weird places and have had people do the laundry, and you know, it's just been it's time, it's time to do a refresh. Time to feel better about myself.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Absolutely. So you've been to South Korea, Vietnam, what's the other thing?

SPEAKER_02 13:44

South Korea was first, and then we went to Cambodia.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Oh, that's right, Cambodia, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

And I really like Cambodia, big French influence there because the French had it for a while. So the like Vietnam. The food's a little better because of the French influence, I would say. Um the sad part is they're having that conflict now with Thailand, and so their tourism is way down because they don't get buses across the border anymore because it's a land war. And so now there's no there's no tourism buses that are coming. So Cambodia is really suffering. So we had one private tour, and the guy said, You'll probably be my only work this week. And I have every reason to believe that that was true because you could you could see it. But we did um an early morning um sunrise at Ankhor Wat, which is really beautiful, and you really feel like you're connected to something there. It was really amazing. Cambodia was absolutely beautiful, and spiritually, it reminded me not as much as, but a lot like Bali. It was very, very uh, it wasn't cartoonish, it felt like these people really felt this way. It it started out there um not Buddhist. All those temples, Ankhurwa started out as a not Muslim, but as a Hamayan Hindu. Yeah, a Hindu temple, yeah. So they have a lot of Vishnu, they have a lot of the Hindu gods still there, and they kick some of them out, and then there's been wars and stuff has gotten stolen and stolen between the countries. It's it's just also sad because they have such huge ability, uh, they have such good resources here that if if we could learn to get along, if they could learn to get along, if we could just all learn to get along as people, and so then it's sad for me to be here. You know, everyone's looking at gas prices, it's incredibly expensive here. We haven't run across any shortages yet, you know, like it hasn't affected our travel yet, but I'm not sure if this doesn't continue. And it looks like it's, you know, more uh things that we're being told that aren't exactly true, you know, that that are happening there. I think that I'm glad that we have the flights that we have already scheduled, but I don't know if we're gonna be able to afford to travel anymore. It it may just become too inexp too expensive, just gas wise to get around. It's it's pretty crazy. So that was Cambodia. I really like Cambodia. We took a bus from Cambodia here to Saigon. It was a six-hour bus ride. So we've had two six-hour bus rides. We've had some plane rides, some um boat rides. It's like all kinds of all manner of transportation, and it's what's gonna keep me young and hopefully my legs unbroken until I turn 65 and get health insurance again. That's the scary part. But I loved Cambodia. If I were to have to pick a place to go and live right now, I would probably be Cambodia. Um, there's a few reasons for that. I liked the food. Um, Anthony Bourdain was in love with Cambodia. It's just a more humble place. It's I really, really liked it. And and then Saigon, you know, um, for the shopping, really fun and for the people.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

And why do you say why do you say Saigon and not Ho Chi Minh City?

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Um I I think Ho Chi Minh City is new, right? Or is it Saigon that's new?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah, it's after the war. It's after the war.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Yeah. I don't know. It's just the way I but I I do know that here they call it Ho Chi Minh City, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah, yeah, because they they they kicked the Americans and the French out fair and square.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Yeah, and so it's Ho Chi Minh then.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

And we we we we lost the war. They took up arms to reunite their country, and they earned the right to call it Ho Chi Minh City. That's how I see it. Yeah, I and I and I acknowledge you won, we lost, and good for you, motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, seriously. And and I think that there I there's going to have to be things, some kind of accountability, especially when AI is online and we have a complete redo of our economy and all of the things that have propped our economy up for all of these years. We're looking at a at a huge societal change. And it's just been really interesting to see it from this side and and not the scary parts that they teach you in America, like, oh, it's so scary outside of America, and why would you go anywhere? And don't you feel nervous? And I have to tell you, I do not feel one ounce nervous here. I was I can be out on the out on the street all by myself at two o'clock in the morning, which I'm I, you know, maybe once I was out at midnight by myself, but it's just not scary here. You you don't feel threatened, you don't, men are not bears. There's there's no claws out to get you. Um, they may uh, you know, want to charge you too much for a tuk-tuck ride, but that's about, you know, that's about the amount of uh of problem that you're gonna run into here. It's it's just been a beautiful experience. So I'm I'm looking at everything that's going on in the world. I'm looking at what's coming up, and it's it's gonna be a conversion of uh we're mixing some major oceans. You know, we're mixing, we're gonna have to mix some waters, and we're gonna have to mix some cultures, and we're gonna have to we're gonna have to make some real huge societal changes. It cannot remain the same way that it is. It just it it won't there will not be enough jobs and enough uh economy to support everyone if we get rid of all of that whole worker class.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Well the the yeah the requirement for physical labor is gonna go away uh uh to a great extent. And especially knowledge especially knowledge work, the physical labor of knowledge work is gonna be diminished. The white collar class is is gonna be decimated. Um so you have to replace it. It's like all the rewards for that can't just go to the top one percent. Oligarch, right. It's it's it's gotta be distributed among a wide swath of people.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

So that we can prop up an economy. So we can prop up a world economy.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

So you can continue to have an economy.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's it's been it's been interesting. We're getting a little bit of pushback um from some of the people back home about why are you doing this? Why aren't you probably the big question in their mind is why aren't we on a Mormon mission? But that question has been for me has been answered because I have been able to tell my mother what my status is, and I sent in my paperwork and I heard back from them. I heard back from them that I hadn't had it notarized, and I had, and so then I looked again and they said, Oh yeah, we found it, it was notarized, and we've officially sent it into the church. But Larry still has not heard back on his, and it has been months, and I'm wondering if I I I just wonder if I'll call shenanigans. Do you he had a dream the other night, just not last night, but the night before, and he woke up in a cold sweat. He dreamt that he was in a court, a church court, and I said I said, dude, it's time for you to get your paperwork back and and like get rid of the whole college I had a test thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Did you did it go through the lawyer? Yeah, he went through the lawyer. Have him contact a have him contact the lawyer.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Yeah, and just say he's a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah. And and said in my own shenanigans and you can sue him.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Well, and and they're just taking their time and they're they're they're taking Their time on purpose because they can't, you know. But with him, it's been enough months, it's been too long.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, it it's they really hate giving up control. They want you to crawl to them and be dependent on them, and it's their decision. And if you're taking control and making the decision, it drives them freaking nuts.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

There's nothing they can what can they say? What can they do? They've lost the battle.

unknown 22:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

It's interesting because I really, you know, uh church conference was just a while ago. I try really hard not to listen to it. I remember one time um Sarah had said we were listening to conferences, she said, These old men, they just drone on and on and on. And I I took it as offensive, and then I started to listen, and she was absolutely right. Like, I'm sorry that I ever doubted you there, Sarah, because they do drone on and on.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

My kid's mom, Sarah.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

What?

SPEAKER_00 22:58

My kid's mom, Sarah. Yeah. Yes, your ex. Don't call her that. Just call her my kid's mom.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Yeah, okay. Your kid's mom. Um, the what I was looking for in conference was was something that was going to acknowledge that God was still caring for the Mormon people and and for our situation in America, and for I'm I'm looking for the constitutional expert, Dallas, to say something about the shithole that America is in, the war that we're in, the the things that are going on that are just complete malfeasance and and really saying if you There's nothing there.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

There's nothing there. There's no there there.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yeah, and I don't think there's gonna be. I don't do you think that any of this there never there never was, and there never will be.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

There was an illusion of caring, there was love bombing, but it was all to control you. And if you really need ministry or support or emotional help, binding up of your wounds, I'm sorry we can't help you with that. That's always been the case. You just didn't see it until you really needed it, or at least I didn't see that until I really needed them to help me. Like with my first divorce with Jennifer, and I I needed ministry, I needed religious ministry to save my soul. And like, sorry, we can't help you with that. We can only criticize you.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

The part that worries me the most about that right now is just how terrible the Epstein files are, how terrible that whole mess is thing. It's incredibly, incredibly disturbing. And if at the top we are allowing women to be as intentionally ignorant while the patriarchy runs around acting as the patriarchy and supporting child sex abuse on our end of the religious piece of this, what's happening on the other side of it? We're being completely sold down the river. Our soul, this is a moral imperative that we look at this and we fix it, and no one is talking about it. No one has clarity on it.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Yeah, yeah. I I was listening to this mom tough love southern thing, and it's like you don't have the right to complain about something you continue to allow to happen.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah, and and I feel like by keeping the women in the church dumb, right? By keeping the us innocent, by keeping us sweet, by keeping us uh really uh um separated from our own sexuality, it keeps us from really having to look at this honestly and look at what really is going on, not only at the highest levels of our government, but at the highest levels of our church, it goes on. And we just look the other way, or we use a thought-stopping, you know, monster in our heads.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

And and we see ourselves as the faulty ones.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Right. And somehow it's my fault, somehow it's my it's mine to fix, or it's mine to to point out, or it's mine that's guilt-I'm I'm the guilty one that belongs in court. Yeah. It's just it's mind-blowingly terrible. And and to get it to the point where you start a war and kill a schoolroom full of children over hiding your three children, three schoolrooms full of children?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Three schools, three schools now.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

See, I I don't watch very much of it because what I do watch just affects me so badly. It's it's terrible. We're doing this to mask and to cover up so we don't, so we can clutch our pearls and act holy and act like we don't we're we're above thinking these things while men are doing these things.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Yeah, it is no coincidence that Epstein was a Israeli intelligence agent, an asset.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

And he was an asset, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, and and the American Israel war against Iran to deflect from the Epstein scandal.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

It's an Israeli scandal.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

It's all working, it's all working according to plan, and it's working fantastically well. It's like how happy the Russians were when Trump got elected. You know, it's like that is a long game that's really paying huge dividends. And and now we're easing sanctions on oil of Russian oil because it's just too expensive, because we shut down the streets of Hormuz. So we need to let Russia come to the rescue so they get more money to continue the war in Ukraine. Da-da-da-da-da. That's part of the problem with Cambodia, is they listened to Russian and Russian influence too much and geopolitically aligned themselves, and they were doing little knotty things that they thought they could get away because the Russians said you can get away with these naughty things at the border, and the Titans weren't having it.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Yeah, and the Titans won't have it either, and they never have.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

No, and and and instead of working this out diplomatically, like could have happened, they fired their female prime minister who wanted to work this out diplomatically. And they skipped the diplomatic step, fired the female prime minister and went to war. And I understand there's a time and a place to go to war, but it's after diplomatic efforts have failed, not in place of trying diplomatic efforts. That's my criticism of the Thai, is they skipped the diplomacy that really could have worked with the people they have so much in common with. The Cambodians should have told the Russians to go all the way off, leave. You know, it's a very evil, corrupt.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Very cooperative between the Cambodians and the Thai and the Thailand people. The people are the same. Yes, they are the exact same. And they're family. Yes, they're and culturally, they're very similar.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

They're economically in every other way interdependent on each other. And for these big international powers to play these cynical games is just heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah, because all it does is hurt the people on the ground.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Yeah, and and and and the I it ain't my me to fix Thai politics, and it ain't perfect. You know, the the the military is too strong politically. The royalty has too much power politically, and you can't even say anything critical. And so there's when when things start getting rot, instead of fixing the little rot, you just have to let it fester. And that's not that's not going to be good in the long term. But that's not mine to fix, and it's not even mine to say anything about.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Or do you think truth is just so subjective and everyone has their own.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

I I feel like I'm in a really privileged place with my statistical education. Because you can look at things numerically and say I can look at the data and I can look at is this independent or not independent, or these events related or not related, and feel like I can make some pretty rational conclusions. And that type of critical thinking is purposely and and cynically being avoided for for the masses.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

But it's being dismantled in America. Look at the CDC, look at the NHI, look at Well now.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Can I say something on some CDC news? Yes. One of the um our board members who is actually competent, uh, a retired admiral from the public health force and the Coast Guard, uh, public health trained and practiced, has just been appointed uh head of the CDC.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

A black a black woman, Erica Schwartz, and she's actually competent. And it's like things have gotten so bad for Trump.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

And she's a woman and she's black. So hallelujah.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Things have gotten so bad they've had to appoint somebody competent to the CDC. That's how bad it's gotten for them and how unpopular they are. If they didn't they didn't want to appoint somebody competent, but they're they're realizing they are sucking so bad they had to appoint somebody competent uh because they just couldn't, you know, end of end vaccines, end the world. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Yeah, yeah, and and you can just look at what it's doing to Utah right now. They've got measles like up the wazoo. It's so ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

And if you think measles are bad, if you think measles are bad, wait for polio to pop up. Yeah. It's coming. It'll be next. And then polio, and then and then yeah. Meningitis, pneumonia. I mean there's vaccines hold society together.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

There's there's first of all, there's sanitation and getting waste getting the waste away from people, getting fresh water in, and then the the medicine. Wash your hands, wash your shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

And we're not even don't drink the shit water.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Can't drink the water here. You can't even use it to irrigate your mouth.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Well yeah, well, like in Thailand, it's not because the water's not treated, but the pipes are so corroded and contaminated.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Yeah, yeah. It's just safer. And just from my own body, like going from because we're going from place to place, you know, just to get used to new water is really tough on me, on my system.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Whatever. Yeah, yeah. Did I tell you that Katie and I, well, I I bought his tickets to Thailand.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

When are you coming?

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Um, we're we're flying out November 17th. We get in November 19th into Bangkok at five in the morning, then at 8 at night, we're taking an overnight train first class up to Chiang Mai. Uh, a sleeper train first class. We wake up and then we're gonna be in Chiang Mai for two weeks. We'll be there. I love Cheng Mai. We're gonna go to Pai for for a couple nights. You know, my Thai teacher warned me, that's where the dirty hippies are.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

You're like, that's where we're going to be.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Let's see at this resort because it's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Like, really rare.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Remember mom being called the dirty hippie because she had a paper route in a Volkswagen bus and in uh rural Texas?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

And she threw that woman's trash back in her car at the the line. Do you remember that? We were we were in line, we had our popcorn bag, our grocery sack full of greasy popcorn. We were going to the drive-in movies, and the woman in front of us threw some trash out. So mom got out of the car and threw it back in her car, and then the woman like started everything out that she could find, okay, throwing it back in back in the days before you could probably legally conceal and carry. Thank goodness for mom. She was done.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Mom's a California eco girl, you know, you don't do that to the environment.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Yeah, yeah. She didn't need the the PSA with the Indian that was crying looking at the trash on the ground.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

She did not need it it it came natural to her. You don't do that to the world. You don't treat the that's not how you treat the earth.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Well, and I have to say that that's the one thing, too, that I found very different about Korea. Very clean, no trash. Like they even in public, they had smoking areas, like you couldn't just smoke anywhere. It was it was very regulated, but I didn't mind it. Like I was thinking, like, would do people care that they're this regulated? I think that the it's such a big population, and they have to move so many bodies, you know, they have so so much to get done every day that they just cooperate.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Yeah, we have to do something about our plastics problem in the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Yeah, it's bad. And and what's getting inside our bodies too. I feel bad for our nieces and nephews were born. We were probably born, well, we were kind of tough war kids, but we weren't Tupperware and microwave kids as much as our nieces and nephews are. You know, we did not do as many microwave dinners and things where all those plastics get in, yeah. I I don't know, it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna do a live aboard uh for five days and scuba dive in Southern Thailand.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Live aboard the boat?

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Yeah, for scuba diving, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Oh my gosh, you're gonna have a blast.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

I'm so excited for you. Taking four weeks off. Oh, you're gonna be able to do it. I told my wife I'm doing it. I I said I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

And what'd they say?

SPEAKER_00 36:23

I I guess you are. They don't want to lose me. I only get three weeks of vacation a year. I'm taking four weeks.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

What are you gonna do about it? We don't get nearly enough time off in America.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

You can you can replace me if you want.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Yeah, go ahead. I'm marketable.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Yeah, yeah, put put put an ad out, replace me. Try and find somebody. My my my particular set of skills is easy to replace.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Not at all.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Not how is work going? What are you working on? I've been a little bored because my boss is traveling too much, and I need someone to pester me to get me to work. Because I I I feel like the statistician's job, it's different than a data scientist. A data scientist goes off on their own, comes up with their own hypothesis, and explores and finds and discovers things. And that's how they want me to act. But I was educated as a statistician, and I give researchers answers. Answers they don't, they may not want, but I give them answers. This is what the data shows. Um and so I'm used to that paradigm. And they want me to be more independent, develop my own hypotheses, and be more curious, and and it's like I I haven't made that shift yet.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

You'll get there.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

I do it sometimes, but I don't always do it. Yeah, that there really is a difference between a data scientist and a statistician, they need each other. And data scientists could use a lot more statistical education than they have. Um, and they need to understand a lot of their regressions are sloppy, but at the same time, the statisticians need to get over needing to have perfect regressions too.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

So there's some It's that way in in my old career in technology because there were the people who were product marketing, and then there were the product people. And the product people thought just because they were in their cubicle and they could make something cool, that people would like it, that the market would like it. And my job was to say, no, this is what the market is looking for. This is what will sell.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

This is the demand. Yeah, here's the demand. This is what actual people without autism. But the one the ones without autism, you were the autism whisperer. I don't know if you knew that or not, but you were you called yourself the sex lube of of technology.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

I did I do call myself that, but you're right. I was the autism whisperer with the sex lube.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

You were the autism whisperer because all these developers encoders have a good healthy dose of autism, which makes them kind of divorced from what the public really wants demand-wise.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

And they're they're plenty smart. It's not that they're ideas, yeah. It wasn't that it couldn't do their idea. It was just, was there a market for their idea?

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Yeah, but yeah, but and the truth of the matter is we need both sides. And we need each other. We need that on geopolitical, international scales, we need that on thinking differences scales. It's not that we tolerate differences, we need differences.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

And we need to balance that.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

We need to work together, balance that, and and and extract what's useful from both sides, and we're all better off.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Yep, and our customers are better off, the economy is better off, our healthcare would be better off, everything we don't.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Leaving people behind is an economically asinine decision.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

What I see is a lot of uh cost-cutting measures that they don't take into consideration what that cost-cutting measure really would do to the customer relationship.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

You know, customer relationship and to their own bottom line. Yeah. Because once you cut costs to where you don't have a product or a soul anymore and you're not distinct, what do you have? Just ask to pull it way. Yeah, you've got you you you commoditized yourself where commodities aren't appreciated. You you weren't didn't have a successful business because you had a commodity, because you did something with that that was unique. You brought your three skills to that.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

And some MBA came in and said, but we could save 25 cents a plate if we didn't use real meat, if we used MBAs ruin every restaurant they touch.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

They do if they're consultants and they tell you something useful. That's one thing. If they're calling the shots on the menu, you're hosed. You're hosed. You're hosed. I agree with that completely. Okay, Paula, I have to cut off this podcast a little early.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

All right, it's more often, but I have to do um I'm actually in a stable situation here for the next few weeks. And um, we're gonna be we're gonna be um in at least the same country for at least the next four or five weeks. Okay. So I'm in a good place. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Well, can you do this time next Sunday? Absolutely. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

Absolutely. And it it really helps me and it helps me stay connected. It helps me, it helps, it helps keep me thinking about about home too. Because I don't want to just vacation and like like go to the drinks and and to hell with what happens to in America. I care what happens in America.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

Yeah, this helps me process a lot of what's going on. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. All right. I love you. I love you too.

SPEAKER_02 41:47

Sincho.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Hi.