Andrew (3:24)

Lying is like 95% of what I do.

Luke (3:28)

I'm. I mean, I'm. I'm quite seriously. I'm not just doing this for effect. I'm pretty shocked about what AI tried to do this morning. So we'll get into that and we'll get into this guy's life. He's the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ship. He's a prisoner of his own grievances.

Andrew (3:44)

He.

Luke (3:44)

He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Andrew (3:47)

Good morning, Luke. So you just assumed I would be here today, huh? You just assumed I would be here. I tell you on Friday that I'm going into an escape room and it never even occurs to you that I might not have escaped. Like, we were even texting on.

Luke (4:02)

I had a lot of faith in

Andrew (4:02)

you, and your text didn't start like, hey, man, hope you're okay. Hope this text is reaching you since you might still be trying to escape from. From a room. But no, you just. I guess. I guess you did. I guess I should look at it.

Luke (4:15)

Yeah. Just interpret it as a huge compliment that I figured could. Could God create an escape room that even Andrew couldn't, I don't know, barrel his way out of? I, I did figure that. Be honest with you. I. I did figure you were going to be okay, but I am actually kind of dying to know how it all went because I've never been to an escape room myself. We were talking off air about this last week where I said, my, my guess my hypothetical relationship with escape rooms is kind of weird because I kind of think of it as being something I wouldn't like. But then if I break down the components of it, it is things I like. I like hanging out with friends. I like solving a puzzle. I'm not as good at it as a lot of you and a lot of our listeners, but, you know, it's. Do they have alcohol at the escape room?

Andrew (5:00)

No.

Luke (5:01)

Interesting.

Andrew (5:03)

No, it's not like that. In fact, you can't bring. You can't really bring stuff in either. Like, they take it pretty seriously as far as, like, not wanting anybody to, like, potentially spoil the experience for other people who will go, so you're not.

Luke (5:16)

What if one of the puzzle pieces is throw up on this thing?

Andrew (5:19)

I mean, I guess what you do before you show up at the escape

Luke (5:22)

Room is your own business between you and your God.

Andrew (5:24)

And then. Yeah. Whether or not you're ever invited back to the escape room, I guess is another. Is another consideration. But yeah, yeah, I don't know if you would like it or not. And frankly, like I've now gone to two of these.

Luke (5:37)

You don't know. Do you like it or not?

Andrew (5:38)

Well, I think I. I mean, I do. I know I do. So let's. Can we back up and go over my experience with escape rooms because it has the tiniest bit of a TBTL angle. I don't know if you recall this. You probably do. I probably raised it recently, but the first time I went to an escape room and the only time before this was way back. And I want to say early 2015. I'm a younger man living in Los Angeles and notably I had just quit my full time job at American Public Media. No, I'm sorry, at kcrw because you. And I had just been hired to do this podcast for American Public Media. This was a big deal. TBTL became my full time job probably a week before. My friend called me and asked me, hey, a buddy of mine is starting a new escape room or like kind of a new adventure in his existing escape room or something and wanted to see if we wanted to come with a group of friends and sort of kick the tires on it, be one of the earlier groups to go through it, beta test it, the tbtl.

Luke (6:43)

You need a beta to beta test this?

Andrew (6:45)

Yes, exactly. It was somewhat humiliating, but also I understood my role. But anyway, I do think that's kind of. That plays into this too. But I remember thinking, I don't. I had never heard of an escape room at that point. I don't think. I think they were pretty new, at least as a kind of phenomenon, as a cultural phenomenon. And I remember thinking, I don't know if this is my kind of thing, but my job now is tbtl. I need to have stories to tell. So I remember even telling you specifically, I'm going to try to be more. Yes. And that lasted for one thing, and it was this escape room. And then I just went back to my usual Minecraft ways. But. And so I went. And I remember going. It was also interesting the first time I went because I didn't know anybody else except for my friend who invited me. So it was like her and. And a group of friends that I think mostly knew each other. And so I already felt a little. Not because of anything they did. They were all very warm and inviting to me. But you know me, I'm a little bit shy. I have some social anxiety. I'm trying a new experience I've never tried before called an escape room. And I don't really know any of these people. We don't have like a bond already. So I was like, I don't know how this is gonna go. But I was surprised at kind of how quickly. Cause I remember walking into the room the first time and feeling self conscious. You know, I'm not somebody who goes in for any kind of performative thing. And the storyline is going to be a little bit corny, right? It's like the one we did this weekend was the Great Nox. A Million magician is famous, but his. His assistants keep going missing on the 13th day of their employ. And today is the 13th day of his current assistance.

Luke (8:19)

I take people's dreams and turn them into nightmares.

Andrew (8:22)

And the first one I think I did was maybe more noir esque. There were like damsels in distress who were going missing. That was the one in LA again, I think you could really.

Luke (8:30)

I think you're thinking dames in distress, not damsels. Wouldn't the damsel be more of like a castle?

Andrew (8:35)

Yeah, yeah, I suppose so. Yeah.

Luke (8:37)

But I'm just trying to picture it if it was. It was all kind of like, you know, it was a cold night and whatever as like, you know, she came in the room. It was kind of that era.

Andrew (8:47)

I think it was 1940s era.

Luke (8:50)

I would like that one. That would be a theme I was more into, I think, than the one you just described.

Andrew (8:54)

But there is a sense of, again, kind of you have to throw yourself into the story a little bit. Like, okay, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to act. You don't have to put on a accent or anything.

Luke (9:04)

You can't spend the whole time kind of just being like, oh, this is corny, or it's gonna be no fun. You have to just like, commit to it, even if just in your own mind.

Andrew (9:11)

And also, the story setup is only really important for the very beginning to get you to understand what you're up against. After that, you're just figuring things out. You're just gathering a bunch of clues in the room and trying to figure out how things, you know, kind of how you can unlock certain locks. But these locks, you can't unlock them until you kind of figure out the clues. And the clues are hidden. And I don't want to say too much in case anybody goes to this particular escape room and it Would kind of ruin it if you talk too much about it. But, like, it's fun to kind of just stare at something that you don't think is a clue for a long time. And you're like, oh, wait. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. If you take this mirror and, you know, look over there, you'll see a clue in the room or something like that. It's kind of fun. And at that point, you're not even thinking anymore about, like, the story. Nobody's doing acting. It's just the very beginning that your

Luke (10:00)

name is Benjamin T. Peabody or something, your character's name.

Andrew (10:03)

And you don't have to play characters or anything. The only thing is, at the very beginning, they'll play a character. Somebody will come running in and be like, I. You know, in this one we did, it was like, I'm the. I'm the newest assistant and it's my 13th day. And you're a little bit like, I'm so Gen X Y that, like, that kind of any kind of over the top performance for a very small room of people, like, always makes me cringe a little bit. But that's more on me. And also, like, I was ready for it. So I was like, just don't be that guy. Like, just go in. You know, accept that. And these are like, also, I'm so old now that everybody I deal with, like, the people running this place seem like children to me in a certain way. And it's early 30s. Yeah, exactly. And I'm just like, listen, they're doing this. They're loving this. This is. You don't fall backwards. I was talking with somebody afterwards. I'm like, you don't fall backwards into getting a job at the Escape Room. Like, how did you. You must have some passion for it, right? It wasn't like, the only job you

Luke (10:56)

could get was playing to acting and performing and getting to be that character. By the way, just very quick aside, just when you said that thing about mirrors, which I hope is not spoiling anything about this one, but that actually lit up part of my brain because it feels to me like in a way, kind of Encyclopedia Brown related. I loved that sense of figuring it out. So to the degree that that's part of this, I'm actually kind of. I'm actually more interested in this than maybe I thought I would be.

Andrew (11:25)

Yeah. And again, I kind of don't want to. I mean, I'm not even telling you the details of which one I went to or what, but I will say that, like, when we went into the. The first room. I think. I think both of my experiences were, you go into a room and you think you have to escape it, and then you end up in a second room as well. I think that's kind of standard. And in any way. We walked in the first room, and I remember spotting a mirror and thinking, oh, this is. So the first room we went into was supposed to be like the dressing room of the. Of the magician. Right. The problematic magician. And. And I saw one mirror, and I'm like, that mirror is gonna. Nothing is in here. Just because it should be. Like, there's a reason. Everything is a clue. And in a couple of different cases, mirrors did play a role, but not the first mirror I identified. At the very end, the person came back in. And, you know, we did solve it, by the way. I guess I kind of didn't realize some people don't solve it. You're on a timer. You're on a 75 minute timer. And we did solve it. And afterwards, I was like, does that mirror. Did that have anything to do with anything? She was like, no, that had nothing to do with anything. I was like, damn. I started.

Luke (12:34)

It's actually kind of smart.

Andrew (12:35)

Yeah.

Luke (12:35)

Exactly one thing in there that says, no, it's just a mirror. It's like.

Andrew (12:38)

They're like, it's a dressing room. I'm like, okay, all right. Yeah. But it's also an escape room. But we did get through it, and it was fun. This is the other thing that I kind of like, now, if I were the smartest person in the room when it comes to this stuff, we would be in trouble. You know, like, both times I've done this in the group, there are people of varying levels of puzzle leanness, I guess, like, people who enjoy puzzles and are really good at them. Two of the people, a couple that we were in this room with, who are friends of ours, have done a bunch of these things. It was sort of even their idea to get together and do this at one point. And they are actually game makers. They do that for a living. And so. Yeah. And so this is their world, and so they were excellent at it. And that was great. And then I was probably near the bottom of the list of helpfulness. And then our friend Andy kind of kept saying, I'm no help, but that's fine. But, like, he did help some.

Luke (13:39)

I mean, Ders.

Andrew (13:39)

Yeah, Ders. And he was like, yeah, you know, he's like, I don't know, man.

Luke (13:42)

Now, did he. This is an important question. Does Ders respond to an escape room scenario. The way he responds to, let's say a Seahawks game was.

Andrew (13:50)

It was.

Luke (13:51)

Did he say end of an era at any time about getting out of the escape room?

Andrew (13:54)

He's like, we're never out of here.

Luke (13:56)

No, not over Genev's problem solving skills overrated.

Andrew (14:02)

I. No, I. I found my job to be. To keep Ders laughing if possible. I was making some jokes, but, like, everybody can discover something. And I will say that, like, my skill wasn't necessarily putting the final touches on solving problems, but uncovering things in the room. Like, for example, there was like this. There was some sort of painting or something on the wall that had fake blood print hands on it. And Genevieve pointed out that there were fake blood prints hands on. And I'm like, that isn't a coincidence that there is blood prints on there. I don't think that's just a design choice. But it didn't seem to really open up in anything. And they say specifically, like, listen, we have things that are. You see that everything in the room that shouldn't move is very well bolted or screwed to the floor or wall.

Luke (14:51)

You can just have people just trying to pull every painting off the wall. Yeah.

Andrew (14:54)

Ex. Any painting or any framed posters or whatever they are on the wall securely. And they say, please don't be ripping our rooms apart. And so there is this one thing where I was kind of like, it seems like this should open. It can't be a coincidence. But I'm pulling on it. But I'm pulling. And also, of course, there are cameras on you at all times. The puzzle master, the person who's sort of running the game, is spying on you through these cameras and then can text you via the timer. The timer that they gave us is basically just a smartphone. And so they would send in these clues if we were sort of getting close to something, but maybe not quite. Not quite doing something fast enough or in the right order sometimes that you would get a text from the game master saying, the great Noximillion likes to do this. And you're like, oh, we're doing it wrong. So anyway, all of that actually sounds

Luke (15:46)

to me like way more fun than I thought.

Andrew (15:48)

It's fun going to be.

Luke (15:49)

Yeah.

Andrew (15:49)

And then so I discovered. So I was looking at this painting, I was like, I don't want to. Want to rip it off the wall, but I swear. And then I realize, oh, it's a slider. It's a slider. I guess I am kind of spoiling it for. I've. I'VE given the name of the magician and. But I mean, the. The number of people who are going to go to this specific room based on me telling this story, hopefully is nil or very low, very close to nil. But I guess that's one little clue that I just gave away there. If you find yourself in that room. But it is fun.

Luke (16:19)

Yeah, it sounds like, again, I didn't know any of that stuff about that. You know what I just imagined, for some reason, because I knew you have to solve. I'd heard you have to solve a puzzle to get out of the room. And for some reason, I just imagined a bunch of people sitting around a crossword puzzle, which would be pretty boring, actually, and also something I'm just personally very bad at. So now that you've actually described it with a little bit more detail, that idea that, like, yeah, it's kind of three dimensional. It's kind of like there's a storyline. There is, you know, there's like the room, whoever, whatever you call them, the puzzle master, who's kind of sitting back and watching it and deploying clues when needed. Like, all of that just sounds actually kind of super fun to me. And literally in my mind, I was making a little mental inventory of, like, people that I should invite to go do an escape room in Portland. Literally. Like, you've. Now you've done a solid for the escape room industry, at least as it pertains to me.

Andrew (17:12)

I will say I want to correct you on one thing regarding jigsaw puzzles. Really good at puzzles.

Luke (17:19)

I did them all the time as a kid. As my mom used to say, when you're doing a puzzle, it's like having a thousand friends.

Andrew (17:24)

So all puzzles are fun is my point there, but definitely no good. I could see you enjoying it. But again, people of our age and disposition saying, like, you know, you and I very much grew up in a generation where we rolled our eyes at everything. Right. I think that you need to maybe just be prepared to check that.

Luke (17:43)

I think I'm. The older I get and honestly, the, like, more my testosterone levels dip, I feel the more that I'm okay with scenarios that I would have found maybe a little corny in, in. In times past. I think I'm a. I just think I'm. I just don't have the energy to be as judgy as I used to be. And I think that's really better for the world.

Andrew (18:02)

Yeah, it's not a good look. And I, I say that as a guy who is. Yeah, exactly. A guy. Who is very much like that. I feel like that defined me for a big chunk of my life, so. But I still do have a little bit of. When somebody comes, like, rushing in the room. And like, I.

Luke (18:16)

The assistant.

Andrew (18:16)

And he was like, okay.

Luke (18:18)

Like, I was trying to.

Andrew (18:19)

On a card, and we could read it.

Luke (18:22)

This could have been an email.

Andrew (18:23)

This could have been an email. This could have been a magical card.

Luke (18:26)

I was trying to make my way out of the escape room that was o' Hare Airport on Friday. Man, it was an absolute. It was a literal disaster. I would say the three worst airport experiences I've ever had in my life have all happened at o' Hare Airport in Chicago. One was a couple of years ago when they loaded, like, I checked my luggage at the. You know, where you check in your luggage. They put it on the airplane. Then they wouldn't let anyone take off from the airport because. So I was. I was well before my flight. It was a couple of hours before my flight check in my luggage. They take my luggage to somewhere in the airport where it's due to go on the airplane. Then between when I check my luggage in and when I'm actually trying to go through security, they cancel all the flights because of a thunderstorm, and they won't give me back my luggage. My luggage is in, like, some sort of purgatory of o' Hare where they won't send anyone to get it because they say it's unsafe for the ground crew to go out on the tarmac. But. But they also won't let me through security to try to, like, I don't know, retrieve it myself or to get it back from some. It was a whole disaster. I ended up having to stay the night in Chicago. Friday was kind of a similar event. By the time I got to the airport at around 11 in the morning, there had been something called a ground hold because of some, by the way, blue skies. Like, it was a nice day in Chicago at o' Hare Airport, but apparently there were some sort of thunderstorms in the periphery of the airport, such that they had canceled or they had stopped all inbound flights and grounded all outbound flights. So by the time I got there, that was no longer the case, but the entire, you know, entire sort of, like, sort of system, the flowchart, if you will, of everything happening at o' Hare was just absolutely and totally just forked. It was like. It was like something out of a movie where you walk in and everyone's just staring at that big, you know, the big departures kind of like digital screen and it's just. Every flight is just canceled or it's in red. It has a new time. And the thing was I was flying to Indianapolis because I was going to be filming at this thing called Bingo Loco.

Andrew (20:37)

Oh yeah.

Luke (20:37)

Just like you know, Bingo but with a lot of 90s music and a lot of butt shaking and a lot of white claw drinking. Actually a pretty fun night.

Andrew (20:45)

Are there a lot of like kind of supportive services around it for. Because of the mental health aspects of the Loco, huh?

Luke (20:52)

Yeah, definitely. There are, there's. They have a prominently displayed phone numbers to call if you're experiencing loco.

Andrew (20:59)

Know when to stop.

Luke (21:00)

Yeah, exactly. When the fun stops.

Andrew (21:02)

When the fun. When the Locos. When the logo starts. When the fun stops and the Loco starts.

Luke (21:06)

But so we were supposed to film at like I think maybe 4 o' clock indie time. And. And so I'm. And I had plenty of time originally. But then it's just. I already knew this was going to be a problem. It was like my flight now is first it's like delayed by an hour, then it's delayed by two hours. And I went and I talked to the, the, the person at the like help desk and I was like this was an American flight by the way. It wasn't my beloved Alaska Airlines. And I was like, I go listen, this keeps, this is just going to keep delaying. Is this flight ever going to happen? She goes, oh yeah, yeah, it'll happen. It'll definitely happen. I was like, okay. Because I really have to be in Indiana for like. And by the way it's a 39 minute flight.

Andrew (21:45)

Oh.

Luke (21:46)

Which is insane making. It's like could I walk there? I tried to rent a car. There were no. Andrew, I've never seen this before. There were no rental cars.

Andrew (21:53)

Oh, that remind that something similar to that happened years and years and years ago for me. But it was we for a business trip, for a work trip for my radio station had flown to Canada, to Ottawa I want to say. And a big snowstorm came in and grounded all the flights or it was coming in, it was rolling in. So we all scrambled to get cars and I feel like we might have gotten one of the last rental cars to make the drive instead of the flight.

Luke (22:20)

Yeah. Every. Because by the time I realized that I needed to take evasive action now it's like maybe 2 o' clock in Chicago and like the, you know, everybody from the morning who had had their flight canceled had already rented the cars. There were just. I was on the phone with CBS Travel. And I was like, how about a rental car? And they were like, there are no rental cars. It was totally nuts. And so I had CBS book me on like, another flight, like a United flight. So now I have, I'm holding. Not really it's digital, but I'm digitally holding two airplane tickets from o' Hare to Indy to just see if one of them leaves on time or not even on time, but in time. And so the, the, the, the.

Andrew (23:03)

The.

Luke (23:03)

The United flight was now supposed to be before my American flight. So I run. It's like three terminals over. So I'm running to the United terminal, and I get to the gate where the. Because that flight was supposed to be leaving in like 10 minutes. I get there, it's delayed until 5:30. By the time I get there, it was now later than the. So now I run back to the American terminal and like, you know, the whole time I'm on the phone with the producer. I'm like, okay, what is the. What's the plan if I don't get there? How do we cover this? You know, et cetera. And so finally, that we do, we board. The American flight boards and we're taxiing, and we're just taxing. This is something that now I have an internal. If ever we're in an escape room. And the, the question has to do with somebody understanding at what point you're truly in trouble on an airplane that is taxiing for too long, I'm your guy. I will solve. I will. My, My internal clock for that is like a. It's like a Swiss time mechanism. At this point, I'm just like, we're on. We're on the tar. We're on the Runway, we're going around. But I'm like, even for o', Hare, this is too long. Something's wrong. Something's very wrong. And then you sure enough brung the captain comes on. Ladies and gentlemen, we are being told that there are thunderstorms moving back in and we are being held until we can find a new path out past those thunderstorms. So, so we then are now trapped on the plane for another, like, hour plus, just on the ground as time is continuing to tick. And then I see the flight attendant talking to the other flight attendant via that phone that goes from the front of the plane to the back of the plane. And she is saying something that I'm also worried about, which is we're now at some point about to time out. We are. There is a, like, there's a law about how long they can have you in the plane, but not flying, which is a good law, I think, generally speaking. But, like, if. If that happens, then we're just going back to the gate and I'm probably just not getting to Indiana that night. And like, two minutes before that time limit hit, the pilot comes back on and goes, all right, we have a new flight path out. We're getting back in line. And so I ended up rolling into Indianapolis and getting to the place we were filming at like 8pm which the good news was this event went from 7:30 to 10:30. So the event was happening. But when we show up, I noticed the camera guy, who I know a little bit, I filmed with him before. He was just like. Didn't say hi to me. Didn't like. He was kind of. Kind of being a little. It felt a little taciturn. I thought, that's kind of weird. You know, I'm just like, you know. You know, I know these guys. The sound guy was being cool and everything, but then later on, I'm talking to our producer and he goes, yeah, yeah. You know, we had this whole. We had an entire setup lit in front of the Bingo Loco stage. And this is something that camera guys, to their credit at cbs, they get really into. They like setting up a cool scene. We've got the two chairs. This is for what we call the sit down. Something interesting in the background, which is. This is before the thing had started. This was supposed to all be happening before anybody was in the room. So they had. And this takes hours. I mean, literally a minimum of two, maybe three hours to set up one of these shoots. Because again, there's all this equipment. There's two big cameras, if not three. There's lights. It's just. It's a whole situation. And then there's all the angles and the backdrop and stuff. And apparently our camera guy had built this beautiful and elaborate set that then he had to just break down at about 6:30pm when it was. When it was confirmed that I was not going to get there in time. By the way, this wasn't my fault, but it was still, like. I could tell that it had been very, very annoying to some of the crew.

Andrew (26:31)

Were you going to do interviews in those chairs?

Luke (26:33)

Yeah, I was going to interview the. One of the. So this Bingo Loco thing is kind of interesting. Like, it was started by three Irish dudes in Dublin and almost reminds me a little bit of the escape.

Andrew (26:43)

Oh, yeah, Loco Ireland, right. Yeah. Okay.

Luke (26:47)

But so the. The. This idea of, like, competitive socializing, I think is the term for it or socialized competition? I think it's competitive socializing. The idea is that you're hanging out with your friends, but you're doing something that's a competition, Whether it's some kind of a exciting mini golf or whatever it might be. It's like. It's like, yeah, we're hanging out, but we're also doing an activity.

Andrew (27:07)

I feel like Escape Room fits that totally.

Luke (27:10)

And so these were guys who had tried different things, you know, to sort of create these events and stuff, and they landed on this idea of, like, this bingo thing with, like, a lot of confetti and a lot of, like, you know, I mean, when I tell you, Andrew, that there is nowhere I could see you enjoying less than a night of bingo, loco. It is. I mean, I put it at the top of the list. It's a lot of not obligatory, but heavily influenced rump shaking and things that the folks in this room were really enjoying. But it didn't seem to me to be like, your favorite place on earth wouldn't be the happiest place on earth for you.

Andrew (27:45)

I'd like to hear more about this because, as you know, I sometimes play bingo at our own Eagles club. And even that sometimes it's kind of like everybody gets excited when the number 69 comes up. And I'm just like, how many times?

Luke (28:00)

What if.

Andrew (28:01)

Do we.

Luke (28:01)

What if there was also an entire song and dance associated with that number?

Andrew (28:06)

So that's what. So, yeah, so when they do it at our club, like, the bingo caller will go. It's in the show. Like, draw it out, 69. And everybody hoops and hollers. Hoops, hoops and hollers. THEY hoots.

Luke (28:19)

I've heard hooping and hollering too, by the way.

Andrew (28:21)

Whooping and hollering. Maybe there's also the. Usually a pickup game of basketball breaks out. Yeah, so it's hooping and hollering, too. But anyway, and even that, I'm always like, all right, guys, come on. Like, we're all adults. Like, we've heard the word 69.

Luke (28:34)

It's that on steroids.

Andrew (28:36)

But everybody is compelled. In this case, like, not compelled. Okay, so what happens? So, like, just like, what are the moments where people start booty shaking and to what degree? I want to hear all about this. I'm serious.

Luke (28:48)

Well, okay, so for instance, there. I think there's maybe a total of nine actual bingo games in the three hours. So that leaves a lot of time for, like, dance offs or, like, so if you win, so for instance, if you win and you yell bingo. And let's say there's two people that win at the bingo, they'll both be called up to the stage and then the, the guy, the bingo host who's like, like throughout the night, just like dancing around in the crowd playing. And they. Here's what I think is actually really fascinating about it. They have obviously, very carefully over trial and error, figured out the exact mix of music and songs that is going to get the crowd hyped. And I mean it's working like. And it's a blend. It's a lot of 90s stuff. I mean, I would say that the demo that attended this was. It was probably 70% women. And it was. I would say the whole crowd was mostly people that might be a little bit younger than me. So maybe people in their late 30s through mid-40s. But then, you know, there's outliers to that. So a lot of the music was just very familiar. 90s hip hop or country, but then throwing in some like, you know, Mr. Bright side, some killers, some things like that. And I was interviewing the, the host of the show after the show, which I was supposed to do before, but I didn't get there. And he was saying, oh yeah, like we have these, like, we keep all these notes and we like what's the. The. The. The whole stage presentation is extremely sort of like intentional. There's a lot of like trial and error that goes into it. And then noting.

Andrew (30:14)

Did that work?

Luke (30:14)

Did that not work? Because what you've got to do is get this room of like a thousand people just like super excited the whole night. And that's through the comp. A series of different competitions. And like they did this one, it's

Andrew (30:25)

like the Duck Boats of bingo or, or the, or the Savannah Bananas of Bingo. Although that sounds like they actually play real bingo though, so I guess that's a little insulting to Bingo Loco.

Luke (30:36)

They should let the Savannah Bananas enter the world baseball class. You were talking about Chaos Ball. Yeah, but, but anyway, so like one of the things they did I thought was kind of clever actually was they had this sing off. They brought two people up and it was these two women. I think that maybe they'd both won like at the same time. They both hit bingo at the same time and then they get. They do a song. So they're playing a song. There's also a DJ on stage at all times. He's on roller skates. I found out later because he grew up really into skating. But it's Kind of funny because he'd like, like during a song, you'd like start a song playing, then he'd roller skate out onto the stage and he'd be kind of hyping the crowd. It actually was a very cool, it was a cool effect. And I was like afterwards, I wasn't even interviewing for the show. I was just curious. I was like, are you like nervous on those skates? He goes, I just been. Have been really into roller skating my whole life. So I'm like pretty comfortable. I was like, it's looks like you're floating up there.

Andrew (31:22)

Yeah, I'm envious of that. As somebody who tried rollerblading earnestly and just could not, could not ever make it feel natural. And did I tell you that I actually gave away my rollerblades the other day. It was a really, it was a really weird feeling, to be honest with you. It was like one of the only times in my life I was like, I tried this and I failed and I'm now just giving up on the dream. Well, I just didn't.

Luke (31:42)

You just stopped doing it.

Andrew (31:43)

But I'm sincerely envious of people who just sort of have that relationship with wheels on their feet that it's just kind of like, oh yeah, this is like second nature to me. And it's such a cool effect. I'm not joking.

Luke (31:55)

Yeah, it was, you know, I really was. Again, is this something that I would probably go to myself? I don't know. Probably not. But what I could not deny was that the people in the room were having an absolute blast and that the people putting this on really, really knew what they were doing. Like, it was a very, very. Like I was fascinated at the sort of strategic, how much strategery there was around just keeping this party going and keeping it so the whole night felt. Cause three hours, you're filling three hours of time and so you've got to just have all these different things going on. Oh, the competition they had was like, it was sort of a sing off. So they'd play a song and again, they are very smart in the songs they pick. They're like super. It's like Kelly Clarkson since we've been. Since you've been gone or something like that. So they'll start playing the song and the DJs got the microphone and there's like these two women, you know, on either side of him and everyone. And the other thing too is all these songs, everyone's just, just screaming along in the audience because everybody loves these songs. And so then it's like, the song's going, song's going. And then the song cuts out and the mic goes in front of one of them. Then the woman has to finish the line, and then it's like, okay, okay, okay. And then keep going with the song. And then it stops again, and the other woman has to finish that line. And then they go through a few different songs. And then it's like, by crowd approval. Who do we think won this competition, you know, of whatever. Just a lot of stuff like that. Which, again, it had. It absolutely had the desired effect that night in Indianapolis, which was. Was a delirious thousand or so people who had a really. Most of them, I could tell, anyway, had a really, really fun night, were super psyched about it, you know, and so I got there and. And. And got the whole thing done. But, man, I'm telling you, like, o' Hare Airport. I don't know what it is about that place. Has something to do with literally where it is and the possibility of thunderstorms or snowstorms. It seems like it's in, like. I know we need an airport in Chicago. I know that has to be a thing, but it also seems like a uniquely bad place to have an airport for some reason and to have an airport that is totally central to all the other airports in America. It's like one of the biggest airports in America, and it's in a place that seems to suffer uniquely from, like, weird weather. I'm sure somebody has done the research on this. Somebody can probably send me some kind of a breakdown of this, but it just seems like things go squirrely at o' Hare Airport more than anywhere else I've ever been. It.

Andrew (34:16)

They should have put a dome on it, is what I'm thinking. They should have put a roof on it. I.

Luke (34:21)

Even a retractable roof.

Andrew (34:23)

Even a retractable roof. I. I was having a thought, a sort of. Sorry. I don't. That was.

Luke (34:29)

Were you itching your foot?

Andrew (34:30)

No. That's very unprofessional of me. I found something under my desk. I was. Had my. My ice. My frozen bottle of water I was using last night. Every now and then. I. I still have to.

Luke (34:41)

Is your plantar still.

Andrew (34:42)

No, it's not. It's really, really not bad. That's why I almost wonder if maybe I misdiagnosed because. Because I saw predictions that stuff like this lasts a really long time. Whatever was going on with me a couple of weeks ago is in much better shape. But I still use that bottle sometimes. I did not realize I was using it last night. So the frozen bottle of water has now become a. A bottle of actual unfrozen water, which is. That's how things work. And it's a little bit leaky, and I just found it on the floor of my. Of my studio, and I didn't like that. So what I was going to say, though, and this actually ties into the unprofessionalism that I just put on display for everybody, is as you were describing these guys sort of meticulously thinking, okay, this song works. This song doesn't. And, like, actually, like, really thinking, okay, these are. These are the things that. The pleasure points for people. This is how we can. Yes, we can keep track of this, keep notes of this, and then keep on improving on the experience, knowing what we're learning about human nature, etc. And I thought, oh, that's kind of like a standup working on their material, right? And this works and this doesn't. And I'm just sort of, like, thinking about this in the back of my head while you're talking. And then I think, oh, that would be interesting to sort of have a job like that where you could. Like where. If you were supposed to be entertaining people, like, sort of, like keeping track of what works and what doesn't, it would be interesting to have a job like that. And then I realized I should say that on the podcast I'm hosting right now. And also, it's so insulting to the listeners that that is not something. How many years into. When did I start? The 2012? 17 years in, or whatever the math is. I'm just now thinking, oh, that would be interesting to actually think about what works and what doesn't when you're trying to entertain people. Boy. Sure.

Luke (36:22)

Yeah. The scientific method. You test something, then you look at the results, and then you retest it again based on what you learned from the results, and then you continue to refine the process until you end up at something that's reliably entertaining.

Andrew (36:36)

And then, as I wanted to express that to you, I quickly took a moment to go off my retrieval water bottle and got my leaky foot bottle off the floor.

Luke (36:47)

We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle. On your mark. On your mark.

Andrew (36:53)

Get set, get set now. Ready?

Luke (36:56)

Ready? Go, everybody. Razzle dazzle. All right, let's thank some dazzling donors. These folks are donating a dazzling amount of dough, and this is how TBTL works. We do the show. We hope that despite our Lack of the scientific method of figuring out what is. And it's not entertaining. We hope that you like it and then we hope that if you are able to, you could support us with some financial help so that this can be my job and Andrew's job and John Sklaroff's job and. And somehow, amazingly, that has been working now for however many years it's been. So thanks to folks like Rachel Beck, who's in Lakewood, Colorado. Rachel says it's Rachel like Luke's little sister or Jennifer Aniston's character on Friends, or the wife of Jacob in the Bible.

Andrew (37:42)

They are all pronounced the same way.

Luke (37:44)

Well, because Rachel has an E at the end of her name that is on the more unique side.

Andrew (37:49)

So that is a good point. Yeah, I appreciate the clarification. I thought she was just spoofing until I took a closer look. I think you and I would have been tempted to do a. Oh yeah, Raquel or a Rachelle there.

Luke (37:59)

Rochelle maybe or something. So thanks, Rachel. Appreciate it.

Andrew (38:01)

It.

Luke (38:02)

Rachel says, hi, friendos. I found TBTL at some point in the months immediately after the death of my three day old son Ira in 2023. Oh, Rachel, I'm so, so, so sorry. Rachel says during that incredibly difficult time, I needed distraction and something to listen to other than the voices in my head. Listening to Andrew, Luke, various guests and employee numero uno was too loosely quote Joan Didion. Like being kept company by a good friend during the worst time of my life. Some of the first times that I laughed after Ira died were while listening to tbtl. And I still ugly cry when I think about how not alone, how very kept company that I felt. Being a small part of the TENS community has been a highlight of these last few years. I love the holiday card exchange and I look forward to sending out my Valentine cards later this month. That's a good reminder that we are, you know, we're always, you know, on our way to one or another of the TBTL card exchanges. So now we got the. The Valentins are now on the horizon.

Andrew (39:07)

No, no, the Valentins are done. We're in March. Yeah.

Luke (39:10)

Well, if you think about 2027.

Andrew (39:12)

Okay. If you're thinking it's on the horizon. Yeah, I think Rachel sent this in before. Oh yeah, before that. But no, that is done. By the way, we got a lot of wonderful cards. Can I actually say one little thing on that? Because I don't know if, I don't know if this is insulting to the listeners or not who send us holiday cards. And the Valentine's cards. I opened all of the Valentine's cards

Luke (39:33)

that we got and ate all the candy.

Andrew (39:35)

Hand ate all the candy. And I hid some of it for later while I was at the post office the other day because I told you there was a super long line. And actually, those cards got me through the wait nicely. But also, when we do the holiday card exchange, we get so many cards, hundreds of holiday cards, right? And I open them, you know, I open a bunch when I get them.

Luke (39:57)

I just opened a bunch that you sent me.

Andrew (39:59)

Yeah, I sent you some. I sent the ones to you that were sent directly with your name on them and then a few other ones that were sent to TBTL just so you could open some as well. But the point is, I end up with this huge stack of cards. And what I've been doing is I opened a whole bunch at first, but I. I kept a whole bunch, too, and I'm down to maybe 10 or something. And what I've been doing throughout the winter is opening one a day. And it's almost like a little pull tab. It's like a pull tab of happiness, basically. You know, when I need a little boost, I go over to my card pile and I open one up. So if you're somebody who is wondering, why haven't I talked about the wonderful holiday card you sent me way back in December, in December, and it's already March 9th, it's because I'm saving them. I'm saving them for little endorphin boosts.

Luke (40:47)

And I just got like, you know, I just hit. I just got a shipment from the plug of my cards, and now I've been opening them here, and they're amazing. So thank you to all of the really thoughtful people who send stuff to us and know that we do open it, and we do really, really appreciate it. Rachel says, I hope that my contribution as a dazzling donor helps the guys keep someone else company when they really need it. If there's a time today, if there is time today, I would love to hear my favorite TBTL moment again. This is from the late summer or early fall of 2024 pet songs competition. Doggy Butt. Now, Andrew, I'm hoping, because I know I hear that I hear doggy butt sometimes in an intro package. So I'm hoping that with your careful, you know, file management on this, you're able to find or locate doggy butt. Rachel says, I can't remember which 10 wrote doggy butt, but I do remember laughing through tears on that particular afternoon. Well, I thank you.

Andrew (41:45)

I could be wrong, but I think we heard that in today's intro, and I think.

Luke (41:50)

Did I warg out?

Andrew (41:52)

I could be wrong. It might have been. We heard that recently, and I think we just heard that this morning.

Luke (41:59)

This morning. My mind said it was last week, but I'm absolutely terrible with this. And I'm usually wrong, too.

Andrew (42:03)

I know it was very recently because I think we just heard it this morning. Because then there was a drop after, I think, as it led in with Hank Hill saying, do we have to debase ourselves? And then somebody singing Doggie Butt. And that person singing it, by the way, is Selena. So I do want to say that I was grabbing Rachel's dazzling donor message. It was kind of the next one on the sheet. It is a coincidence that Doggy butt. And more than a coincidence, I would say divine intervention that Doggy butt played coincidentally in the intro today. But here it is. Is isolated. This is listener Selena.

Luke (42:36)

Doggy butt. Doggy butt. Doggy, Doggy, doggy butt. Doggy butt. Doggy butt. Doggy, doggy Doggy butt.

Andrew (42:45)

Now, that was part of our competition of the songs that people sing to their pets. Was that the winner? I don't recall that. And I'm asking somebody who probably. Why would you. And I know that we don't take notes as to what works well on the show and what doesn't. But.

Luke (43:01)

So that was. Yeah, right. That was. That was a song that listener Selena.

Andrew (43:06)

Yeah. Do you remember that? We did that. We did a whole thing of people calling in with the songs they sing to their pets. So, yeah, that was Selena's.

Luke (43:13)

Nice. I was just laying the absolute crazy on Bubbles yesterday because we were listening to some kind of. I think it was a playlist. It was at Becca's house. It was started by the Sundays. Was like. It was like Sundays Radio or something.

Andrew (43:27)

That's good.

Luke (43:28)

Love the Sundays. And I mean, you know, a little on the nose for a Sunday. I told Becca. I was like, come on.

Andrew (43:32)

On.

Luke (43:33)

Let's, you know, let's not be so obvious with this. But then every song that was coming up, it would go into my brain and I, you know, I recognized most of them. They're from an era when I was really into that kind of music. And then, like, for no reason, 20 minutes later, for no reason that I remembered, I would just start singing an insane song to Bubbles where I was just changing the lyrics to be about bubbles. And she looked at me with confusion, which is love. The typical, really. It's a thin line between love and Confusion.

Andrew (44:02)

Let me ask you a question. Not to get too heavy here, but I found myself singing a song to Bingo yesterday that I realized was a song I used to sing to Bananas, but I was adjusting it to his name, and I didn't even realize I was doing it. But then when I realized I was doing it, I was like, I hope Genevieve didn't hear that, because it seemed disrespectful to Bananas, who passed away. Because the song is. Is what I was singing to Bingo, and it actually works better with Bingo. I mean, rest in peace, Bananas. But I was singing, my Bingo has a first name. He's bi N G O. You know, I was singing that is.

Luke (44:34)

It's a Meyer song.

Andrew (44:36)

Yeah. There are already songs about Bingo, by the way, that are more obvious. But I realized I used to sing that to Bananas all the time, and it didn't fit, which was what made it funny. I'd say my Bananas has a first name. It's B, A, N, A, S, which is not how you spell bananas.

Luke (44:49)

That's Bannis.

Andrew (44:50)

But I did have a weird. I had this weird moment of singing this song to Bingo and then feeling like I betrayed Professor Bananas.

Luke (44:58)

I could totally understand that. But I choose to embrace an expansive idea about love, which is that loving Bingo doesn't diminish the love for Bananas. And sharing that song with both Bingo and Bananas only increases the love in the world. It does not. It's not a zero sum game. Game.

Andrew (45:18)

That's what I like.

Luke (45:18)

That's how I choose to interpret it. And whatever Genevieve says about it, send her my way, because I'll, I'll give her. I'll give her my speech on the matter. Anyway, Rachel, thank you so much. And. And we're thinking about you, because I know grief is not a straight line either. So even though more time has passed since your loss, I, I, I wouldn't imagine for a moment that. That. That every day is. Is easy for you now. So glad to be here for you, and thanks for supporting the show for other people that kind of need it as well. Maestro, on your mark. On your mark.

Andrew (45:46)

Get set. Get set now. Ready?

Eric (45:49)

Ready.

Luke (45:49)

Go. Everybody rattle. Settle. It's Sarah Settlemeyer in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Andrew (45:57)

Hey, wait. A Sarah to Rachel. Those are two of your sisters.

Luke (46:01)

We do if tomorrow. If we can get a Liz and a Hannah, then we've pretty much covered all of our bases. I had to, for a moment, remember how many sisters I have.

Andrew (46:10)

Yeah, and we need a Sammy and a Dave in there as well, I think.

Luke (46:13)

You know, I heard Sam and Dave

Andrew (46:14)

on the radio yesterday and I thought of, I actually didn't think of your brothers. I thought of your mom because I thought, oh, Sam and Dave, this is Luke's mom's favorite act. Right. Isn't that, aren't your brother sort of inspired by that? Oh, that.

Luke (46:26)

No, it's the crazy part.

Andrew (46:28)

I'm sorry, I thought you told me that.

Luke (46:30)

I mean, not that I know of. I do not think there was any, I do not think that those are connected ideas. What I know is that when my brother Sam was in utero, I was obsessed with Michael Jordan. And I was very, very, very insistent that I was like, can we please name him Jordan Michael? I wanted his name to be Jordan Michael. I was probably 15 or 16 at the time. And they, my parents said no, but they did, they did relent on the middle name. So his name is Samuel Jordan.

Andrew (47:03)

Oh really? You got that yours?

Luke (47:06)

That's me. That's me.

Andrew (47:07)

Really? Does he ever thank you?

Luke (47:09)

No, not enough. Well, of course there's not any amount of thanks he could offer me that would be sufficient in my mind for that gift. And then years later my mom gets pregnant. By the way, I'll just mention in an amazing generational class move, that is to say, really classy on the generational sense, after my daughter was born, my mother became pregnant again, this time with my brother David. And, and at that time I was not living at home and I had no thoughts about the, the naming of David. And so my mom, I think my mom and dad just liked the name David. I do not.

Andrew (47:44)

His middle name is Pippin though, right?

Luke (47:46)

Uh huh. That's a great joke. It took me a second. You know what, for some messed up reason my brain went to the musical Pippen. I was like, wait, where's. Oh yeah, Scottie Pippen. Right, Scottie Pippen. But that was a really good joke, Andrew.

Andrew (48:01)

Well, I'm sort of stealing an Ian Carmel joke. One of my literal, one of my favorite jokes of all time was Ian posted something on Blue sky like a year ago and I'm going to mess it up. But like, imagine if there was a slightly less good director named. It was a joke about Michael B. Jordan, but it was like Scotty B. Pippin or something like that. I remember exactly how it was and I, I destroyed that joke. But I wanted to give a little bit of credit because however he put it was inspired by it was, was so good. Like it was literally the type of post that I would go back to and reread just to laugh and cry.

Luke (48:34)

Inspired by Ian Carmel, the great Ian Carmel, who's one of the members of the All Fantasy Everywhere podcast, which is great, that features my pal Sean Jordan. Everybody, after you've eaten your tb, check that out. Yeah, right. What are the chances? Sarah says hi, Luke and Andrew. I'm very excited to bring you some positive Carlisle Indian Industrial School related news. Of course, the Carlisle School was one of the places where Native American children were sent and unfortunately victimized in many ways. I believe Jim Thorpe, the great athlete, went to the Carlisle School. And oftentimes when Carlisle, Pennsylvania comes up, I will reference that Sarah says an alumni of Dickinson College made a truly phenomenal donation to fund the construction of the Jim Thorpe center for the Future of Native People. Construction starts this summer. The building will hold classrooms, an art gallery and an area for ceremonial gatherings. Dickinson is only a few miles away from the site of the original Carlisle Indian Industrial School and was unfortunately involved in the operation of the school. The alumni, Sam Rose, made the donation to do something good for the Native American people in recognition of their years of mistreatment. And a special shout out to our fellow 10, Darren Lone Feit, the founder of the center for the Futures of Native People. Dang, we got some like cool ass listeners to this show. I don't know if probably I knew at one point and then forgot that Darren was associated with that stuff but like that's really cool. And what a, like what a positive outcome to take a physical location where so much harm was done and then to reimagine it and repurpose it as a place where. Where there some good can happen and, and people can be honored in a way that, that is long overdue. So that is very cool.

Andrew (50:19)

Absolutely. And thanks for the shout out, Sarah.

Luke (50:22)

Yeah, absolutely. Sarah, thank you for the support. We really do appreciate you. We, as I say, but only because it's true. We couldn't do this without you.

Eric (50:34)

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

Luke (50:37)

All right, Top Story today, Andrew actually was from earlier this morning when I was. As I don't, as I don't do nearly enough as I was checking my TBTL email, that would be lukebtl.net and while checking my email I got. I'm not going to say the person's name only because I don't know if this is a surprise like for their spouse or whatever. That's this trip that they were talking about going on. So I want to be a little on the, on the vague side here sort of intentionally, but I got a nice little message from somebody who was planning a trip to Italy and they said, hey, hey Luke, I've been listening since the good old radio days. I just had a quick question. I'm planning a 25th anniversary trip with my wife and I wanted to find out where you stayed on the Amalfi coast. I think that was the episode where you mentioned that you stayed in a place where the hotelier had some dogs and you regretted driving a large car there. Lol. Thanks from this listener. Then this listener went on to cite some other childhood overlaps that we had and other stuff about TBTL that they enjoy. And so by the way, you got that exactly right, listener. I did regret driving a large car to this place. It was a terrible, terrible idea. When we arrived at the rental place in Sorrento, the, the people at the rental car place were like, oh, we're going to give you this beautiful car. Which I thought was like, okay, they know that they're, they know they're rolling with an Avis wizard type, even though this wasn't Avis. So there would be no reason for them to know or care about.

Andrew (52:05)

But you just had that stank on you.

Luke (52:06)

That's what I thought. I was like, yeah, they know that the big dog has shown up. They're going to treat him with the respect that he deserves. Only to learn that that was the absolute worst thing that could have happened to me because the years it took off my life of trying to operate this full size sedan in the hills of Sorrento where everything is like a one lane road with giant tour buses constantly zooming by you and then going down to where the Airbnb was, where there was literal, with the mirrors pulled in literal inches of room on either side of these like stone walls that were just like kind of, you know, you, that were about maybe 6ft high on either side of you. It was just. I get, honestly. And you know, I, I don't get, I'm not, I, I feel like I don't get super rattled, super easy in like life with stuff like this because, you know, I've been around the block, but I, I honestly fills me with anxiety thinking about it. So for anybody that's visiting any of these places, like, I don't know a lot about like Europe and stuff, but let me just tell you, I know a little bit about Italy and this part of Italy. Do not under any circumstances get the large rental car.

Andrew (53:14)

Don't, don't get the Canyonero.

Luke (53:16)

Do not get the Canyon. I mean, get a scooter if you can, or, or just Get a ride. Do not mess with a large rental car.

Andrew (53:23)

Get a ride. Yeah.

Luke (53:24)

Okay, so that's the email. And I'm like, okay, let me. Let me help this person out. I'm gonna go. I'm going into my Airbnb history. I'm finding this place that I stayed. There was a dog named Winston there that I. I still think about Winston to this day. There was also a cat that I very much considered trying to kidnap and bring back to the States because there was just. There was just like wild cats that lived all over this because it was a vineyard, right? It had grapes growing on it and tomatoes and vegetables. And was this beautiful estate that had all kinds of animals, including this kitten that became obsessed with us and that just, like, was kind of hanging out in our Airbnb would sleep on the bed with me and was, like, so friendly and cuddly, even though it was like an outdoor cat. But it didn't. Like, I could tell that it wasn't like the pet of the owner of the estate, who, by the way, wasn't even there. They were out of town or something. So all that is to say, it was a wonderful place. I went in to find the. The. Find the details to send along to this listener. And as I have the email open, Andrew, the AI and I don't know if you have this turned off now or maybe, I mean, this is our.

Andrew (54:28)

Yes, I do have this turned off. I know what you're going to say. It shocked me the first time I saw it.

Luke (54:33)

The AI decided to compose a complete response to this person. But guess what, Andrew, it made up the details. I'll just read it to you.

Andrew (54:44)

You.

Luke (54:45)

Hi, name redacted. This is what AI wanted me to send. And had I just, like, not looked at it more carefully, I don't know if I would have just for some reason or under different scenario, just hit like, okay, I mean, I trust the AI on this. Hi, so and so. That sounds like a great trip you're planning. We stayed in Praiano, which is right between Positano and El Malfi. The hotelier did have dogs. And yes, driving anything bigger than a smart car there is pure madness. I think the place was called Hotel Margarita or something similar. Your pal, which, by the way, is how I sign my emails to listeners. Your pal, Luke.

Andrew (55:21)

Now, if I don't, details are just made up.

Luke (55:24)

Absolutely. Stone Cold made up guesses. That is not where we stayed. That is not the name of the place we stayed at. I don't know where Priyano is. We were not between Positano and Amalfi. Like, none of those details are related to anything that I would have told this person. Maybe that's a real place, but it's not a real place I've been to, and it's not where the Airbnb was.

Andrew (55:50)

That's such a more extreme example of what I saw the one time I encountered this. But also, Gmail wanted to send an incorrect email response that was fully, you know, written for me.

Luke (56:03)

And.

Andrew (56:04)

And so, you know, I have, like, a whole bunch of different. I probably have logins for about five or six maybe different Gmail accounts for various podcasts. I do, and I do think that Gmail is good. It makes it pretty easy to, like, kind of flip between them pretty easily in Chrome. And so it's a pretty good system for me. But every now and then I go into one of these accounts I haven't opened in a while or that somebody else is managing. And in this case, I think it was maybe the. Whatever. It was a different podcast than tbtl. And somebody had said, hey, I heard you were describing these Christmas ornaments that used to put on your tree when you were a kid. I think I have the same ones. Here are some photos of them and whatever. And maybe this person right now is learning that they weren't the right ones, the same ones that I grew up with. But when I opened up that email account, I read this email and then I saw that all I had to do was hit send on a fully composed email that was totally wrong. They said, yes, these are the ones that I had as a kid. Thank you so much for the fond memories. Or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, no, those aren't the ones I had as a kid. And I. Instead of responding to the person, I think I just spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how to turn that damn function off, which I did.

Luke (57:17)

Well, yeah, I mean, I guess I could just. I've never used it. For some reason, turning it off feels extreme, but I guess the fact that I've never used it tells me how much I need it there in my thing. And again, I just can't believe I. I would understand if this thing was just generating overly general responses to people, just like, hey, you know, thanks so much for reaching out. I understand. Thank you. Thanks, man. Thanks for coming. Like, I could understand it just. It just, like, trying to just, like, save me. Hey, thanks so much. Got your note. And I'll definitely think about that.

Andrew (57:50)

Whatever.

Luke (57:51)

Like, I can see it generating a totally Non specific kind of soulless response. But for it to get into details of cities and just making up and, you know, I don't know what the realistic chances of me hitting send on that would have been, I guess, but like there's a universe in which I could have hit send on that. And then this listener is like just looking around for this mythical hotel. Margarita.

Andrew (58:17)

Yeah.

Luke (58:18)

You know, in this place which may or may not exist, which is not the place that I was talking about. Like, I mean, that is a big swing for AI.

Andrew (58:25)

It is, but I mean, that is what AI does, right? It swings big and it gets it wrong. Here I go once again with the email.

Luke (58:33)

Every week I hope that it's from a female.

Andrew (58:36)

Oh, man, it's not from a female.

Luke (58:40)

All right. Emails or vmails, sir?

Andrew (58:42)

Yeah. Do you remember a few weeks ago we played a voicemail from. From Eric in Stockholm and he was talking about. It's actually a very interesting story about a friend of his who had a special skill where he could remember dates

Luke (58:54)

really well, which became relevant in a crime that occurred in a bar.

Andrew (58:59)

Exactly. And it was a great story. But also we just loved hearing the sounds of Eric walking around

Luke (59:07)

in Sweden.

Andrew (59:08)

Right, In Stockholm. Yeah. And so we said, Eric, just call in more and we'll. I think these are voice memos. If anybody wants to send us a voice memo me memo, you can email me andrewbtl.net and attach your voice memo there. Anyway, so this one came in. I haven't even listened to it yet. Luke. I'm just totally trusting that Eric has more good stories and more good sound as he tells them.

Luke (59:32)

On the subject of AI, is there. Because I don't have eyes on this system. Is there something that summarizes the voicemails for you? Is there a feature?

Andrew (59:42)

No, not that I know of. Well, first of all, I turn off any summarizing things on my Gmail as much as possible possible.

Luke (59:49)

I bet you there would be.

Andrew (59:51)

It might listen to it. I'm not sure. But yeah, in this case the email is long gone. I just have the audio sitting in my audio player here. So let's take a listen to this.

Eric (60:02)

Hi, this is Eric from Stockholm and I'm walking in the snow Saturday morning and I got a story about Stockholm syndrome and it's got the dazzling deep that is really only interesting to me. And I think that you might also find it curious. Anyway, so the Stockholm syndrome, the sort of set of events that gave birth to this idea was this bank robber, he took some hostages in a bank in Stockholm. And he demanded that another famous bank robber called Clark Oluson was to be brought from jail to the bank to join the heist. And the authorities they.

Luke (60:41)

Yeah, Clark Olufsen sounds like a very Swedish bank robber. Yeah, that's, that's a really, that's, that's a really, that's. If you said name a Swedish make up a name for a Swedish bank robber, I think I'd go with Clark Olafson.

Andrew (60:56)

This is an escape room story. I think this has escape room written all over it. These are made up characters.

Luke (61:03)

No, I was just, I was, I was ruminating on that and, and, and waiting for more. Awaiting the, the restart of the message

Eric (61:11)

from jail to the bank to join the heist. And the authorities, they conceded to this demand and they brought Clark Olufsen to the bank. And at the same time my actual father Jan, he was a psychologist, a soon to be psychologist in Stockholm with a hippie dippy look. I had a huge brown beard and long brown hair, sort of curly. And he was driving around Stockholm in his beat up Volvo. And at that time he was the spitting image of this Clark Olufsen guy that was in the bank with the hostages and the other robber. And within a couple of hours my father was twice stopped by cops and dragged out of the car and slammed on the hood of the car and searched. And the police, they found his driver's license and they said, oh shit, this is not the famous bank robber Clark Olufsen that's escaped from the bank. This is actually Jan, a psychologist or soon to be psychologist, driving around peacefully in Stockholm. And this as I said, happened twice. And at the same time in the bank the hostages were developing feelings and loyalty towards the robbers which was soon to be known as the Stockholm Syndicate syndrome. Oh, so that's it. That was the dazzling detail at the end of this sort of pointless story. Anyway, I find it interesting and I hope you do too. Power out. Love the show.

Andrew (62:43)

Bye. I don't even care if Eric is making stuff up anymore, to be honest with you. I'm not saying he is. I'm just saying I don't care if he is.

Luke (62:52)

That was a phenomenal message, Eric. I love again, I love the snow trumping. I love the dazzle. I love that he threw in that his dad was driving a Volvo again. It's just like my dad was assembling a piece of IKEA furniture in the back of the Volvo while eating Swedish meatballs. Like everyone is doing what I think of as the most Swedish thing of all. Time and that there must have been a, like a fax memo put out or whatever. Not an Interpol, because I think that's like, international, but like, somehow the cops in Stockholm had some sort of a printout of like, bolo. Be on the lookout for like, this guy who happened to look like. It's Eric, right? Eric's dad. That's amazing. I thought they were gonna say that they sent Eric's dad into deprogram.

Andrew (63:41)

Oh, wow. The people at the bank excuse the situation.

Luke (63:44)

There you go. Like, okay, I know that you're overly identifying with your kidnapper, but now we're gonna put a twin in. And now you overly identify with him, and now he slowly leads you out of the bank.

Andrew (63:54)

How's Punch the monkey doing, by the way? Speaking of.

Luke (63:58)

He's doing a lot. I'm glad you asked. Andrew. He's doing a lot better. He is starting to make friends. He is speaking of ikea, by the way, because I think that his monkey, his, his orangutan monkey is, was an IKEA special. I think he's, the reports are he's making friends and is relying less and less on his kind of like emotional support stuffed animal.

Andrew (64:19)

So now I had seen. It must have been Photoshopped. Right. I'm just realizing now, I, I. You scroll so quickly through things online, then you're just like, oh, I didn't even realize that. That was like sort of inputting into my brain, you know what I mean? And I'm just now remembering I thought I saw a photo of that monkey holding like some sort of a Seahawks plushie. But that must have been a Photoshop.

Luke (64:40)

That's, that's probably a Photoshop.

Andrew (64:41)

Gotta be like, how would.

Luke (64:42)

I would love it if.

Andrew (64:44)

Yeah, I mean, they were this. They. I mean, they were the same.

Luke (64:46)

I mean, they're world champs. Yeah, it'd be more like, like, really. It'd be more like he's holding a New England Patriots. Like a New England super bowl champ. New England Patriots thing.

Andrew (64:58)

Yeah, right. Or a ra. More like Rams.

Luke (65:02)

Something that they made in expectation of winning and didn't. But hey, also, Eric, the ASMR of, of these things, as I've already mentioned, is just please keep them coming. I really, I really. We love these messages and we love the dazzling details about Sweden. We love your delivery. We love everything about these. Eric, we can make this a series. I'm thinking, though, Andrew, as I listen to Eric's recording of this thing that I was going to tell you about that you might be kind of interested in when we're done here today, I've got a, I've got a, A CBS TV interview that I'm going to do from the studio. So the person I'm interviewing is in upstate New York. They're being filmed there. I'm supposed to self tape here, as it were. And because I don't, I wanted to throw off the story for me to be in these studio headphones and this, this kind of studio microphone. This isn't what I look like in the other elements of the TV story.

Andrew (65:53)

You look like a podcaster, not a tv.

Luke (65:55)

I look like a podcaster right now, which I'm not a podcaster in the. This is the bingo story. I'm interviewing someone who's a bingo historian. I'll ask them about your cat too, just to see if that's been an area of research. Yeah, it should be, but so I got. And I spent the morning trial and erroring. I got one of these, one of these deals. Can you see that?

Andrew (66:14)

Oh yeah, one of those little.

Luke (66:15)

The, like millennial. The millennial microphone. Yeah, that I'm. I should clip it to my shirt. But the problem is I don't like the audio quality when it's there. And I understand why everyone's always in the videos now. They're always holding them like this. Because if you hold this like this,

Andrew (66:28)

it's a little like lavalier microphone, very small. You've seen them on TikTok all over the place. And usually people are holding them up to their mouth, which I had a theory about on that, which was that I think a lot of people like to show off their nails.

Luke (66:41)

Well, that's an interesting theory and it might be true for some people. But what I've learned, because I spent, like I said, I spent this morning trying all different combinations of this microphone and getting it to talk to my computer and everything, which was its own little journey, which was like, it's funny because they make this thing and you're like, it's got a magnet on it. So you can easily, you know, clip it to your shirt or whatever. But it sounded to me now that's for broadcast quality. Far too echoey. When it was on my shirt, I

Andrew (67:05)

can totally see that.

Luke (67:06)

And then when you're holding it here, it's great. Like it sounds. It would be totally passable for anything that we've done and probably passable for cbs. Well, I hope it is because it's what I'm going to use. But instead of having this whole studio mic set up, I'm Going to be doing the ultimate like Gen Z move of holding this microphone up when I'm talking to the guy. So.

Andrew (67:23)

And then, and then earbuds.

Luke (67:26)

I'm going to, I'm going to use earbuds as my, as my return audio again, if it all works, which, who knows. But I thought you'd be kind of interested in that because, like, that's not the way that we normally do the thing. And I'm going to be trying to get Zoom to like, like talk to me through my earbuds, but then like make this my audio source and like this to talk to.

Andrew (67:45)

How are they recording your end? Because it has to be broadcast quality.

Luke (67:49)

I'm going to be recording myself on. No, I'm record. I'm trying to record myself on GarageBand here for audio. I'm recording myself locally for audio. I think they're going to use the Zoom footage really for video. Huh? I don't know. Yeah, apparently I'm getting emails from the producers even as we speak.

Andrew (68:05)

I mean, they used to do that all the time during the pandemic. I shouldn't be so surprised, but I do. Just because it's cbs, you just sort of think that they would have like, oh, well, we'll use Riverside or something even.

Luke (68:14)

Yeah, we probably should have sent a tech out like a. Last time I did one of these, they sent a camera person out here to film it. But I think, let's just say I think belts have been tightening around old, the old Columbia Broadcasting System. And maybe they didn't want to pay for sending a camera crew out here. So it's going to be. It's going to be LB as the cameraman and sound recorder and whatever. So we'll see.

Andrew (68:37)

Well, it's whiskey, if I understand it correctly.

Luke (68:39)

Yeah, I'll give you a, A report tomorrow, maybe off air. I don't know if the listeners care, but I'll give you a report tomorrow on how it all worked out because it's very, very question mark around all of it. Because also I've got to like you've got. So this is the, like now I'm just going into the weeds. This is the receiver. This is what has to be. This is what my computer has to be talking to.

Andrew (68:59)

Right.

Luke (69:00)

And it's supposed to work on Bluetooth, but it seemed dodgy. So you can actually hardline it into the computer through a USB C. It has a USB C dongle that you click on here. So I've been using that and plugging that into the computer directly, which seems to make it recognize.

Andrew (69:14)

That's what connects your microphone to.

Luke (69:16)

That's what this microphone talks to, this receiver, which I'm plugging into my computer. But again, we shall see if, if, if this all comes together and sounds okay. And then we'll watch together with great interest on national television in a few weeks. That's the plan for the rest of today.

Andrew (69:32)

All right. Well, good luck with that.

Luke (69:33)

Thanks, buddy. I'll need it. That's going to do it. It for today's edition of the program. But we'll be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. So check on in for that if you can. In the meantime, everybody, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall.

Andrew (69:49)

And good luck to all.

Luke (69:59)

Power out.