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- [00:01]
Lyle
At Ameca Insurance, we know it's more than just a car. It's the two door coupe that was there for your first drive, the hatchback that took you cross country and back, and the minivan that tackles the weekly carpool for the cars you couldn't live without. Trust Ameca Auto Insurance Amica. Empathy is our best policy.
- [00:30]
Dr. Josie
Hey guys, it's Dr. Josie from in the vet's office. Loving a pet often means wondering if you're providing the care they need. Is there a health issue lurking around the corner? Does the pet need something or feel something but can't say it? Petivity Health kits and smart products use data and best in class technology to learn your pet's behaviors and alert you to key changes that you can act on. Petivity is reimagining pet care with a family of products designed to help give your pet a voice and empower you to provide the best care possible. Visit P-E-T-I-V-I-T-Y.com to learn more.
- [01:01]
Unknown Comedian
Hey, comedy fans. The funniest comedians in the world are on tour and you can get tickets to see them live near you. Laugh at the biggest names in comedy like Atsuko Okotzuka, Chelsea Handler, Jimmy Carr, Kathy Griffin, Matt Matthews, Matt Rife, Sarah Silverman, Sebastian Maniscalco, Stavros Helkias, Wanda Sykes, and so many more. All kinds of shows, all kinds of venues, all kinds of funny. Head to livenation.comcomedy to get your tickets today. That's livenation.comcomedy.
- [01:31]
Lyle
Hello, how is everyone doing today? Thank you for tuning in to this podcast. Thank you for being alive and not dead. You chose to wake up again for another morning of life and I hope you're happy with that decision. I know I am. I know it's a good day to be alive. I hope that you all had a good holiday season and blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. Listen, okay, I'm gonna cut to the chase here. I am here today to read viewer emails. This is a new thing that I've been doing recently where normally I have a two way conversation with someone where I talk to them and then they talk to me. But I decided, you know what? This is my goddamn podcast and I'm gonna put out an episode sometimes where only I talk. It is a lonesome, brutal endeavor. But I can think of about 25,000 more brutal and more lonesome endeavors than reading emails, which I guess is most people's jobs in 2024 is reading emails. Um, sorry, that was inappropriate. Um, okay, I. In the past. For those of you who've listened to these episodes before, I think I get a little self conscious. You probably know I get a little self conscious when it comes to talking to. When it comes to talking about these emails. I think I get a little self conscious about giving my opinion, which is I think a bad thing for a podcaster to do. I think part of having a podcast is you say opinions, but maybe not necessarily that's. I kind of think that's why I like the podcast that I do is that I get to just kind of learn from other people's lived experiences and let them talk and I don't have to give my opinion. But you know what? I've decided. I'm making a firm decision. I am going to give my opinion on all of these emails. I'm going. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna hold back. I'm gonna give my real opinion on these emails. Cuz I just, I don't know what the fucking point is of doing this show or of doing any of this if I'm not gonna really say how I feel about things. So I'm gonna try my best to, to not hold back and, but also be fair to. About. About these emails. You know, I want to be fair. That's why the main reason I don't let you know, the diarrhea of my own opinions flow out of my mouth or whatever is that I don't know, I'm trying to be fair and you know, I might say a bunch of stuff and then someone's like, well, what about this? And I'm like, ah, you're probably right. But anyway, let's just, let's just read some Geck mail, shall we? Let's read some Geck mail. All right. This is from Grim subject line situation happening in real time. Hey Geck, you said you were gonna read some of these emails tomorrow. If that's the case at this time that you are reading them, I'll probably be going through some shit emotionally while trying my best to hide it. Basically, I've come to realize within the last month that I've grown feelings for a close friend who earlier this week told me they started seeing someone. I'm supposed to go hang out with them all day tomorrow and we were both looking forward to this. I want to show up and just be business as usual, but I've been dealing with this lump in my chest for the last couple of days and it's not getting easier past me. Would have done my best to swallow these feelings Immediately. Part of me now is wanting to say something just because we've grown to be more open to talking about certain stuff lately. And we talk on the phone all the time. They don't know. I feel this way, and I feel I'm gonna need to step back for a bit. But I'm also worried about what I might say in the spur of the moment and how I will make them feel. I don't want this friendship to end. And despite everything, I still care for them. So, yeah, that's where I'm at. Would love to hear your thoughts on what I should be doing right now. Whether you read this or not, this is my attempt at therapy and thinking it through. Wish me luck. Garm. Parentheses. Yeah, let's go with that name. Well, here's the thing. I think if your friends started seeing it sounds like you want to stay friends with this person, but it's hard to just be friends with them because you have, you know, you got romantic feelings for them. And I think. I think in a situation like that, if you have to take a step away from a person because it's too painful to be around them with these unrequited romantic feelings, I think that's okay. I'm a little bit confused at what you mean by. You're worried about what you might say in the spur of the moment and how that might make them feel. I mean, you sound like you like this part. I don't think that. You don't sound like you're about to be like, you know, you're a fucking piece of shit for not liking me back and fuck your, you know, boyfriend or whatever. You don't sound like you're about to go, don't do that. Don't go off on them. But you don't. There's not a word in this email that makes me think you're gonna do that. So I'm not particularly worried about what you might say in the spur of the moment. Maybe what you mean by that is you're gonna, like, express your feelings and they won't be requited and you'll be sad, but that's okay. There's. There's. That's a. That's a normal human experience to have. So I don't know. I think. I think you're actually handling this pretty maturely, to be honest with you, Garm. So I don't know how old you are or where you are in your life, but I think you're handling this pretty maturely. And, look, I don't know Everyone, to each their own. I think that if you need to take some time away from the friendship to kind of let yourself be detached romantically so that you can actually genuinely be friends. And don't. Here's another thing is like, don't try, don't like. I think people will sometimes like force themselves to be friends with someone even though they like. It's just hurting them deeply because they are like attracted to them or like romantically feel a certain way about them. And I think that's like worse for both people. Right. Because no one wants to like. Because that's what. Because that's bad for this person. Because then they feel bad that you like them and they don't. You know, it's just not a good dynamic for friendship. I think if you want to have a friendship, like, I think similarly in the way that like, if you feel romantically about someone, you should like, be honest about those feelings and come at it from an honest place. I think if you want to be friends with this person, you have to come at that from a very honest place. And right now, if you're like, oh, I want to be friends just because, you know, I don't want this person to leave, that feels, I think, a little dishonest. But I don't know, you seem like you're going about this in a good way. Yeah. Good luck. I don't know. Navigating relationships and dealing with other people is. It's kind of, kind of, kind of crazy. What's the chat say? Thalia88 says you should express your feelings regardless, cuz no matter what. Sadly, even though you might not like it, you have to be okay with their decisions and able I this. There's a lot of spelling errors in this comment from the chat. But you know what? There's actually an appropriate amount of spelling errors in this message in the Twitch chat. I feel like. I feel like. To express. I feel like thinking about perfect. I feel like perfect grammar is not to be expected in the Twitch chat. So that's okay. All right, let's take another email. Okay. This is from William. Subject line talk to the hand. Hey Lyle, big fan. I wanted to get your opinion and assistance on a live stream podcast I'm trying to make. The show is called Talk to the Hand where I dress in a full body hand costume and talk to people like you do that. I just want you to know that I like this idea is about 20 times better than therapy Gecko. I really, I really like this. I love psychology and allowing people to be Listened to this gives me great joy and it's something I do in my everyday life. What platform do you recommend I stream on to get started? Do you have any tips, advice? P.S. i came and saw you in Perth, Australia. My girlfriend and I had an excellent time and we have one of your plush toys. Kick ass. What platform do I recommend you get started on? I mean, look, here's the thing and, and I could. I enjoy getting in depth on like the business of like trying to turn a live stream or a podcast into a job. I think it's fun to talk about especially when people are still getting started. But for right now, if you've never even streamed before, if you've never taken a phone call and put on the costume at all and you're just starting out, that what platform you stream on doesn't really matter that much because are you asking for tips or advice on how to like grow your stream or just about like the general journey of doing something like this? I mean, okay, to actually to give a non bullshit answer to question. I mean like for discoverability, YouTube is best. But I. Dude, like here's the thing. If you can like make a living doing some shit like this, then that's awesome. But if you can't and you're just like talking to who and you and you're just like talking to whoever. Not if you can't. But let me rephrase this. The most important thing is that you're actually doing it and you're enjoying doing it. That's what I've learned. That's not what I would have told you. I think like three years ago when I was like in the middle of really, really, really trying to grow this thing, I would have gone on a rant to you about short form content where versus long form content. And I, we could have, we could go deep on platforms and whatever, whatever. But now that I've been doing this for a little while, I. All of that stuff is like the, the number one thing that really honest to God will fucking matter is that you really, truly, honestly enjoy doing this and are having fun with it. And from the way you're talking in this email, it says that this gives you great joy. Uh, so you know, you could stream on fucking up RN to zero people and you're gonna have a good life because you actually like what you're doing. So this is from Crisp Rat. I really hate texting and it affects my relationships. Hello, Green man. I have been getting frustrated at my own inability to text and I have come to you to rant. I am a really bad texter. I often overthink my responses, say things that come off in the wrong tone, or honestly just forget to reply to people mid conversation. Since my mind wanders easily, most of my issue lies in how it has made online dating a lot harder. I feel like once I'm in person having a conversation or even just on the phone with someone, I can keep a conversation flowing pretty easily. But I can't, for the love of God, hold a conversation over text. It's gotten to the point where I'm intentionally delaying even opening someone's message because I dread having to respond to it. I'm almost 21 years old, Gekko. This shit is embarrassing. I just started talking to this one girl who seems pretty cool, and I'm afraid my brain's self sabotage is gonna blow it for me. I know this is a dumb problem, uh, but I still can't get over it. Idk if you have any advice I haven't heard already, but you seem to have a nice way with words. Um, P.S. here's a picture of a cool frog I found. Oh, that is a cool frog. Okay. Um, I. You know what? This is? I think this is good. Let me tell you something, Chris Brat. Uh, I am so happy to hear that you have this problem and not the opposite problem, because I feel like not. I'm gonna cut. I'm gonna sound like I grew up in the 60s or something, but, like, I think most people have the opposite problem, right? Most people are like, oh, text is great because I can. I mean, we're getting into it. We're getting into a dangerous universe where, like, you know, you're gonna be talking to somebody on a. On a dating app or something, and you're gonna be able to tell that they're just asking an AI to fucking respond to every one of their messages and stuff. But yeah, this is not a. This is way, way better than the opposite problem of like, oh, I. I'm good at texting because I, you know, am able to send the fucking text to my group chat and get 50 different messages and, you know, take the time to overthink it and stuff. But I can't talk to people in real life or on the phone. I mean, this is easy, man. Why don't you just, like, if you're talking to a lady on a dating app or something, why don't you just like, after. After a couple of messages, you know, be. Be honest about it and be like, hey, listen, I'm more of a phone Call kind of a guy. Because I think a lot of people. I think, you know, women on the dating apps are probably not going to want to, like, meet up with you immediately after, like, a couple of messages. But if after a couple messages, you're like, hey, let's do a FaceTime, like, do a phone call. And, you know, I think. I actually think people will be refreshed by that because I think most. Again, you have what I think is the opposite problem of most people. So, I mean, that's what I would do, man. Just, like, be, you know, be fresh with it. Just be like, hey, I'm not much of a texter. I'm a phone call guy. I think. I think people will be into that. So I just started talking to this one girl who seems super cool, is what you wrote in this email. Have you. I. Why don't you call her? Just be like, hey, you seem cool. Let's talk on the phone and get coffee and. And fall in love. Crisp rat. Okay, let's take another sick. Another thing. Hey. Okay. Okay. The subject line is worried if I can't wipe my ass after surgery. Hey, you can call me Beck. I'm planning on getting top surgery in the summer so I can get rid of some boobs that I don't want. I'm not nervous about the end result of the surgery, but I'm nervous about recovering and how bad I will smell. When you are recovering, you cannot shower for, like, 10 days, at least six days. And your arms are basically stuck to your sides. So I'm gonna be smelly. Other trans folks have said that they smelled bad, too, during that time. My biggest fear is that if my arms are stuck by my sides, how am I going to wipe my ass? I don't want my parents to wipe my ass. I'm 22. That's supposed to happen when you're 80. They're writing this in all caps, by the way. Can you give me hacks on how to wipe my ass or comfort me because I'm scared? Look, let me talk. Look, Beck, here's the thing. Let me tell you something. I really. I. Can I. Can I say. Can I. Can I. This is. This actually is my real opinion. This is my real opinion on this. And not to be like, if I were you, genuinely. If your parents. Like, there's so many people whose, like, parents would be, like, like, pissed off at them for getting top surgery or, like, just in general, like, don't support them or not. Like, not even, like, with. With trans issues or just, like, life in general, like, here's the thing. If your parents are willing to wipe your ass to help you with your top surgery, that should be an excite. That should be. That's a good thing. That's a good development in your life. I think so. Like, the fact that you have parents who are so supportive of you that they're willing to wipe your ass is a good thing. So this, this is a reframing of perspective. Okay? Now if your parents, if your parents seem, like, excited to wipe your ass, then that's, there's something maybe that's not good. But if they're willing to wipe your ass for you instead of, instead of thinking like, oh, I'm 22, I don't want my parents to wipe my ass, think, oh, I have such wonderful parents that they are willing to get within centimeters of my diarrhea because they love me so much. So that's, that's, that's how I would think about this. All right. Someone in the chat said, lyle, do you paint your face green or is this a filter? I paint my face green. I've got it, by the way. I've got it down. I haven't timed myself yet, but I've got it pretty down to where I think I can do it in under a minute. I think I, I haven't timed myself, but I think I can get it in under a minute. All right, let's keep going. This is from Van. Subject line that one time my mom went to prison. Hey, Geck, this is Van, longtime listener, first time contributor. I saw you recently in Houston. Shout out to the secret group in Houston. What a kick ass venue. Thank you so much for everything. You do really love the Geck mail segment. All right, let's take it back to my senior year of high school. My mother was a long time addict. To spare details and make this haste, I get called to the principal's office to be told my mother had been arrested. To my shock, I do get home. You guessed it, my house is empty. Mother nowhere to be found. Turns out she had stabbed her boyfriend's sister, parentheses, her drug dealer, in the neck, chest and arms. Jesus. It was a drug deal gone wrong. Uh, I think my mom was just super broke and thought she could rob this woman. My mom was also wearing my clothes and I never got them back. Well, you know, I'm sorry that you were victimized in all of this. The lady did survive. They both got arrested and they both went to the same jail. Present day ME is very okay and doing well and has moved Far from where this happened, my mother served seven years in prison, and she's actually doing surprisingly well with sobriety. I am proud of her changing your ways. I'm proud of her changing her ways. Thanks, Gex. Stay cool. My mom served eight years in prison. She's doing well. Okay, well, that's good. That's good. She's doing well. Is this a happy story? I mean, I went not happy in the moments, but is. I think it's happy. Like, it ended well. No one died. I mean, you guys, she got stabbed. You know, your mom stabbed this lady in the neck, and she didn't die. That's a happy ending. That's pretty good. And then your mom is out of prison. Sounds like you guys are hanging out. She's sober. This is. I actually kind of like the story because life is just so insane. And so I like that. Think sometimes, like, in a situation like, your mom, like, stabs a fucking guy and goes to prison, and you're like, all right, well, that's. That's it for mom. And then she comes back, and it's like, no, that's not it for mom. We get a second act. She also attached a picture of a dog. So this. This lady's hanging out with a dog and her mom. So that's good. This is. That's a nice story. Thank you for sharing. Okay, let's see here. I was struggling for the past year and a half, two years with trying to lose weight.
- [22:43]
Dr. Josie
I just can't get rid of the.
- [22:44]
Lyle
Stubborn weight in my legs and in my belly.
- [22:46]
Unknown Comedian
While everyone is unique and will have varied results, here are extraordinary experiences from independent body affiliates and actual Belvital users.
- [22:53]
Lyle
There's nothing more frustrating than knowing that you're eating well. But it's not working.
- [22:58]
Unknown Comedian
Hormone imbalances were preventing these women from losing weight. Now there's a comprehensive plan to help.
- [23:03]
Lyle
With Belvital. I just noticed changes immediately. That stubborn scale finally moved in. This first week, I lost five pounds. Just after one week, I'm down six pounds, and all of my bloating is gone. I just finished the Belvatel program. I have lost 15 pounds, and I.
- [23:21]
Unknown Comedian
Have never felt better.
- [23:22]
Lyle
I've noticed inches just shed every week that I go through.
- [23:26]
Dr. Josie
I've lost 13 pounds in 16 inches. From all around my body, I feel.
- [23:30]
Lyle
Like an entirely different person.
- [23:32]
Unknown Comedian
I don't know if I've ever felt this good. Get hormone health for women@belvatel.com. this will change everything.
- [23:38]
Dr. Josie
Hey, guys, it's Dr. Josie from in the vet's office. Loving a pet often means wondering if you're providing the care they need. Is there a health issue lurking around the corner? Does a pet need something or feel something but can't say it? Petivity Health kits and smart products use data and best in class technology to learn your pet's behaviors and alert you to key changes that you can act on. Petivity is reimagining pet care with a family of products designed to help give your pet a voice and empower you to provide the best care possible. Visit P-E-T-I-V-I-T-Y.com to learn more.
- [24:09]
Unknown Comedian
Hey comedy fans. The funniest comedians in the world are on tour and you can get tickets to see them live near you. Laugh at the biggest names in comedy like Atsuko Okotuka, Chelsea Handler, Jimmy Carr, Kathy Griffin, Matt Matthews, Matt Rife, Sarah Silverman, Sebastian Maniscalco, Stavros Helkias, Wanda Sykes, and so many more. All kinds of shows, all kinds of venues, all kinds of funny. Head to livenation.comcomedy to get your tickets today. That's livenation.comcomedy.
- [24:40]
Lyle
This is from Daniel Subject Line I Saved My Dad's Life by Breaking his back hey Mr. Geck, I have a long story about how I broke my father's back and saved his life. First, I want to say how your podcast helped me figure out something I needed to restart. Let's dive into it. So back when I was in first or second grade, I used to do some wrestling and gymnastics that my parents put me in. My dad and brother always helped me train for wrestling at home and we always did it with no issues. One week, I remember we were going at it in the living room and me and my brother and my dad were all grappling each other and jumping around. Okay, like 15 minutes in, I jump on my dad's back and he yells out in pain. He gets up, walks into the kitchen, sits down and they call 91 1. The ambulance comes and takes him away. You guys were doing like fucking WWE in the house. The kicker is this part later at the hospital with me and my mom and my brother, the doctor comes out with a somber face and pulls my mom aside. She starts crying. Then the doctor tells us to come over and looks at me and points at me and says, you saved your father's life by jumping on my dad's back. I broke it. But when they took X rays where I jumped and broke his back, they found cancer. They said if I hadn't jumped on his back he would have died within a couple of years because of the size of the mass. He. He passed away back in 2016, but he had more life thanks to me. Wow. Pretty crazy. I mean, okay, not to discount the story, but like, couldn't your dad have just gotten a checkup once a year? Did you have to break his back for him to figure this out? I don't. Oh, you know what? Never. Sorry. Never mind. Yes. Yes. You saved your dad's life. He always called me his guardian angel. I'll end it here. I tried to call. I, I tried to call and tell the story because it has way more to it, but I can never get through. Love your show. Love you all. Stay safe and healthy. I, I, you know why I. This, hopefully this conversation. I feel like now that I like reading this, I'm like, I should get an X ray once, once a year. Just do a physical once a year. That should be enough, right? Like, I guess do. Why, why did he have to be in severe injury for them to get an X ray? I said at the beginning of this I was gonna give my real opinion on all this stuff, and I have to hold myself to that. But I hope you're doing better, Daniel. I hope you're still, I was gonna say I hope you're still wrestling, but I don't know. Wrestling is kind of dangerous. But I don't know, maybe you like it. Maybe you like wrestling. That's good. Okay, well, let's move on. Alright. This is from Nick. Subject line. I am a corporate drone. Hello, Senior Geck. I work as an engineer at a good company with great benefits and one that cares for its employees. I studied and worked really hard to be in this position, but I fucking hate it. I don't necessarily hate what I do, but I'm pretty sure the career path I've chosen will never allow me to achieve my goals. I've always wanted to race cars, not even professionally, just for fun, but I want to be able to do it consistently, which takes money and time. I work eight to five every day, not including the commute, and I make about $75,000 a year. I'm grateful for that. But those hours and that salary are not anywhere near enough to support racing consistently. And I really struggle with waking up every day to work a job that restricts me from doing what I love. Thanks, Nick. Interesting. Hmm. Interesting. Hmm. Okay. I feel like that, well, you, you, you fucked up a little bit because you picked a really expensive hobby and I'm not, I don't even blame you. For it. Because I think our hobbies pick us more than we pick them. And you happen to fall in love with a really. You happen to fall in love with race car driving, which is objectively, logistically a horrible hobby to have. You picked a very logistically bad goal. But I only say that because it's the truth. But what is also but. But. Okay, don't. Let's. Don't, don't. Nick, if you're listening, don't pause and throw your phone away. Okay? That is the truth. What I also believe to be the truth, Nick, is if you. Is that there probably exists a path for you, a plan for you to work less and race cars or at least like get another job or a different job that allows you some more, some more benefits. What is, what is it that you work as an engineer? Is there any way that you can, I don't know, can you get a job or like, what. Can you get a job in race cars? I feel like that's a, that's a question that a seven year old asks. Can you get a job in a race cars? But seriously, can you get a job in race cars? Does that exist? I don't know. This is like, I don't, I, I genuine here. If I had to give like what my gut is telling me about this, my gut is telling me that neither I nor you have really done enough research and thought into what a plan to allow yourself to race cars and not be homeless might look like. And I guess I encourage you to kind of like, like, like be a little insane and decide for yourself that it is possible and then see if a path, if a career path exists where you can do something like this. Because I, you said here you're like, I make $75,000 a year and I'm grateful for it. I think, you know, gratefulness is an interesting little bug because if you don't have enough of it, I think there's like an optimal amount of gratefulness to have in life. Because I think if you don't have enough of it, you will literally never, ever, ever, ever, ever be fucking happy with anything you ever do. Ever. But if you're like too grateful, then, like, life walks all over you. You know what I mean? If you're just sitting there like, I'm just glad I have arms and you know, every other, every waking moment of your life is hell and you hate where you live and you hate your job and you hate your family and you hate your. You hate yourself and just like, well, at least I'm Grateful I'm not dead. You know, I think there's something good to that. But you, but also I think the optimal thing is like, you know, okay, I'm grateful for what I have, I'm grateful for where I am, but I want more out of my life. I want to do this thing. Pretty soon I'm gonna be dead forever and I'm not gonna be able to walk, let alone race a car. So let's figure out something. I feel like I'm, I really, I feel like, I feel like I'm saying a ton of fluff right now, but all of, everything I'm saying makes some sense in my head because we could sit here and get logistical about how you could do this. And I'm actually trying to think about how you could do it. I mean, like, could you, could you work? Could you look for different jobs that allow you to have more time? Could you go into business for yourself, which, you know, over the course of a few years, maybe get whatever business to a point where you could have more time? I don't know. I'm like, I'm optimist again. I, I, you picked a hard thing because I think if you were like, I want to play Frisbee golf, I'd be like, you can do that tomorrow. But racing cars, I have no idea how that works, but I'm kind of guessing that you don't either. And I'm kind of guessing that if we, instead of fully denying that this was ever possible from the jump, we went into it and we were like, you know what, what could that look like? We did some more research. Maybe options would open up. I hope any of what I just said was, was remotely helpful. Let me, you know what? I have Google. Let me Google, Let me Google how to become a race car driver. Okay. How to become a race car. Crap. I just, Alright, I googled how to become a race car. That would require some biological engineering. Okay. How to become a race car driver. Okay. To become a race car driver, you have to attend a racing school. Yo, are there race. Hold on. What? Hold on. Race car driver school? Can you, can you fucking major in race car driving? Yo, they have race car driving school. It's probably, it's okay. They have race car driving school. It is almost certainly really fucking expensive, but I don't know, maybe you could work at one of these tracks. Okay, I'm just, okay, the, the gist of what I said in my whole rant is like, look, do a Google look at shit. See what, See what's Out there. Maybe it'll spark some ideas. What is in it? What is it? What does the chat have to say? Does the chat know anything about race cars? Lots of people I know share cars. They kind of just have their cars sitting around as a project. What does that mean? All right, all right, let's keep going. All right. This is from G. Subject line, am I still a monkey? Hey Geck, how are ya? I'm G. I'm gonna be 25 in five days and not gonna lie, I'm terrified. I finished my bachelor's degree last year and now I'm doing all sorts of things to fill my resume and go abroad. I like none of the things I do. I like no profession or jobs. I have no passion in my life rather than being comfortable and eating great food. On the other hand, being unemployed and useless makes me terribly depressed. So I tempt myself to do something money wise just to decrease the pressure. But then again, I am always annoyed and want to go back to bed. Am I a pathetic lazy animal or idk, what am I? Will I ever feel satisfied and happy with anything? You know G, genuinely I, I, I really, I empathize with the plight of like being depressed and being like oh, I don't, I don't want to do anything. Like, like somebody asks you like well what are your goals and what do you want to do? And you're just like I don't want to fucking do anything. I kind of feel like this is like, kind of like classic motivational bullshit, but it makes a lot of sense and I hope it like speaks to ya in some way because I, I've actually the, the problem that you're talking about in this email, I have a very similar problem where I'm just like, well I don't know what the fuck. I don't know if anything is like worth doing. I've learned this like so when you're like in bed and you're at home and you're not doing anything and you're depressed, the I and you're thinking in your head about the idea of doing anything. You're whatever, like whatever you're imagining you're going to feel like in your head when you're thinking about doing something is always going to be like 97% different than how you're going to feel when you're actually fucking there. So you can't really make any kind of honest judgment call on any experience or anything at all unless if you're actually there because you're just making the judgment call on how you think you're going to feel. And you know, you can make judgment calls on how you think you're going to feel all fucking day long, but they're. They're wrong because. Because you won't know any of this shit until you're actually there. So, like, if I were you, if I were gonna give you advice, I would say to just like, try your best to think of, like, a couple things that could maybe. And I. I'm not even, by the way. I'm not even talking about, like, big things. I'm not talking about, like, you know, I'm not saying write down, like, be a doctor. I'm talking about, like, go on a walk or fucking volunteer or something. Like, just like, what's something you can just fucking do to just get out of the house? Because once you're actually. I. There's a chance that once you've tried something and you're like, actually fucking there, you. You. Your brain chemistry just changes. But when you're not doing anything and you're just, like, imagining what doing things is going to be like, then, yeah, you're gonna fucking hate it because you're. It's. There's a lot of this. There's. You gotta physically be there. I think that made sense. I'm gonna try doing this too. Again, I empathize strongly with this email because I'll get depressed all the time and be like, I don't know if is it worth it to pursue or do anything? There's a lot of times when I'm recording this podcast where I'm like, oh, man, I don't know if I really want to do this right now. And then I show up and I'm here and I'm doing it, and now that I'm actually sitting in this fucking chair right now talking to this microphone, I feel great. So, I don't know, you have to kind of get yourself to that point where you're in the fucking chair on the street doing whatever. The thing is, you're not crazy, though, and you're not pathetic because these are. These are legitimate feelings that I've had before. So I get you. Let's see. Huh. Okay. This is from Lily. The subject line is kind of weird. Tmi, but not horrible. Hey, Geck, my boyfriend wants to go sleep with other women with his best friend. Like, he, like, he wants to, like, okay, let me read the whole email. I told him I would be okay with that if I could go sleep with other people. And then he got mad at me and said, That I could only sleep with women. I don't know if this is fair or not. Idk why I'm asking a gecko for advice about this, but here I am. Happy New Year's. Don't drink too many Diet Mountain Dews. And don't you tell me what to do. This is not related to the like crux of what this email is about. But when your boyfriend says he wants to go sleep with other women with his best friend, does he mean like he wants to go with his best friend like out to the bar and like look for women? Or does he mean like that he wants to have threesomes with his best friend? Either way, whatever. That's not important. Look, Lily, at the end of the day, you know, relation, relationships and these boundaries and stuff, it's, it's whatever you're down with. You know, if you're down with your boyfriend going out and doing whatever he wants, but the parameter of that is that you could do whatever you want, then great. And if he's not on board with that, then an agreement has not been come to. The. The. You said, I don't know if this is fair or not. I kind of. Look, when two people in a relationship are like deciding some shit, the idea of like fairness is completely, utterly subjective. So it. You don't, you don't not know if it's fair or not. You get to decide for yourself if it's fair or not. So ask yourself, if it feels fair to you, if it feels like it's what you want to do, and if it is, then great. And if it's not, then it's not. But if you're looking for some kind of like objective measuring stick of fear fairness, you will not find it. Because this is the question of whether or not this is fair is up to you. So that's how I would reframe thinking about this. This is from Mr. V. Subject line Motown Blues Tales from the Assembly Line. Hey Geck. My name is Mr. V. And we spoke three years ago where we discussed how I quit my teaching job and took a job on the assembly line in Detroit. I actually genuinely do remember you, Mr. V. I don't remember a lot of details about our conversation, but I remember talking to a teacher named Mr. V. I felt my brain was turning into mush, similar to the FedEx man. My union gave me a great raise and I'm enjoying a great standard of living. Fortunately, my brain is no longer turning into mush as I've rediscovered my passion for reading and writing. Here's the thing. My job seems to interfere with my dating life. I'm drawn to intelligent, independent women and the feelings are mutual at first. Things start fiery and passionate but eventually fizzle out when they grow resentful of my blue collar life. Wow. You're like Johnny Cash or something. You're like Hank Williams Jr. No, not Hank Williams Jr. Like Hank Williams. I can clock in and clock out, enjoy great books, good food and a comfortable lifestyle and be an attentive lover. Ooh, but TikTok slash Instagram Hustle culture seems to make them want to want to partner with a cool job like teaching or getting a PhD. Paths I see as financial suicide at 29. Maybe I'll revisit those at 40, but not now. Okay, I have thoughts, but I'll read the end of this email. I have a love hate relationship with Detroit. At my job, the cost of living and benefits are great, but the city's environment is not exactly ideal. I'm torn. Should I stay or should I go? I'm tired of replaying this goodwill hunting scene over and over again. I would like your thoughts as you have spent time in the Midwest and know how mid it is. P.S. last year when you came to Detroit, I wanted to go to the show in the Rave, but I was dating a psychologist at the time who didn't believe in your art and banned me from going. That's really funny. Safe to say we split up. Hope you can come back to the 313 as I will be attending. Thank you for generously calling this art. Are you. Are you. I'm confused at what this email is asking because you're asking. This is. Okay, this is a two part email. One is about if you should leave Detroit or not. I'm not. I don't know man. I don't know if you should leave Detroit. Wherever you go. Okay, let me. I'm gonna answer. I'm gonna speak to the thing you said about like, you know, women wanting a guy with a cool job or whatever, but about like moving places. Here's the thing I really truly, genuinely believe when it comes to like moving the actual location in which you live, like where on the earth you are set. There's elements of it that are. I would be lying if I said that I don't think about the place itself. Like I like a walkable city. You know, I like a major city. But other than that, once you get like a few key things going where the quality of where you live is going to be dependent upon how much you've Actually invested in being there. So if you're. If you stay in Detroit and you're like, oh, I want to get involved in the. You know, I want to start a fucking book club in Detroit, right? You start your little book club because you love reading and writing. You start your little poetry club, and then you have all these poetry friends in Detroit, right? Whatever it is, you're gonna like Detroit because you have a whole community, you have a whole scene that you like. Places, okay? There's a difference between a place and your life in that place. Your life in that place is way more important than the place itself. Places are just. Everywhere you go, there'll be food and people and you can walk around and stuff, and you can probably get some fucking job doing something. You can do that anywhere on the planet. Well, not anywhere on the planet, but some places do. Some places do suck a lot. Some places are horrible. Everyone there wants to leave. But in most. In a lot of places, doesn't matter. So whether you stay in Detroit or you go to Tampa, you just have to invest in your life as it is. So that doesn't really matter, right? Because if you wanted to do that, your little poetry club and, you know, book club or whatever the fuck it is, like, you could move to, you know, Tampa and do it, or you could move to California and do it. You could move to fucking Texas and do it, or you could stay in Detroit and do it. Doesn't really matter. You should think more about, you know, how you actually want to invest in wherever you are. And then this thing of. Let me read this part again. Women are resentful of my blue collar life. Do me a favor. Just look, do me a favor. I don't know how many women it took for you to grow this heuristic. Is that the word I'm gonna Google? I'm gonna. If I. Am I using this word, right? Heuristic. What is a heuristic? I think I'm using the word heuristic, right? I'm. I'm. I'm mainly. I think I'm using the word heuristic to just mean belief. Okay? I don't know how many women it took for you to develop this storyline that you have that women are resentful of your blue collar life, but if I were you, I would ditch that storyline. I would really, like, kind of try to. I would try your best to examine all the storylines that you have about what. What you think women are attracted to. And I would ditch a lot of them because, like, what, you know, maybe you met a couple people who were like, oh, I don't like that you work in a factory. But that, that doesn't mean that every woman you meet is gonna care that you work in a factory. And if you go into your dating universe thinking that everyone is gonna be resentful of your blue collar life, that's probably gonna come off. And I don't think it would be good for you. So I would. I would try to challenge that belief. God, I need to think of something funny to say. I've just been saying, and I've just. I gotta think of something funny to say. No, that's stupid. All right, let's move. Let's move on. Let's talk to. Let's read more emails, shall we? Okay. Okay. Okay. This is from Khalil. Subject line, University struggles. Hey, Geck. My name's Khalil. I'm from Morocco and my first semester of uni just ended. I moved about 700 miles from my hometown to pursue my higher education. I'm very introverted and quiet and don't speak unless spoken to. I started feeling the effects of this much worse since I live alone now and almost have zero human contact. Needless to say, that took a huge toll on me and I want to do a lot better in the second semester. I guess I just need someone telling me to stop the BS and go talk to people, but that just feels so agonizing. It makes me so anxious. I've basically had the same group of friends back home my whole life, so I never develop social skills. Maybe I just need one of those goals that are like, go out and say hello to 20 people today or something. I think I have a very deep fear of rejection, especially social rejection. So I just need some way to face it. P.S. you have fans all over the world, Mr. Geck. The amount of places you can actually sell out a show will surprise you. Especially here in North Africa. Much love, Geck. Bless. There's. There's. There's no what? I could. Maybe I could sell if, If. If I could find a one seat venue and you come, I could sell out a show in North Africa. I don't know. Maybe. Yeah, if. If I can find a one seater venue in North Africa, I'll do a show if you come. All right. I mean, Kia, listen, man, everything. I don't have much for you except the Nike. Just do it. Right, because this whole email is you. This whole email is you came up with the answers to all of your problems. While you were writing this email, you were like, I need to stop the bs. Maybe I need one of those goals that are like, stay hello to 20 people. You know, I'm trying to develop so, like, you. You have all the answers that through in this email. You just have to do them. You're only, you know, you're only in your. What? So you probably. Your first semester uni just ended, so you're probably like, what, 19? Yeah. Now's the time to try to develop some social skills. Yeah, I have a deep fear of rejection. I don't know. I really. I really don't have anything for you, Khalil, except to just go and do it. Try to talk to people. Also. Nobody gives a fuck about it. Also, just. Khalil, just. Khalil, just remember that. Nobody gives a fuck about anything. Nobody gives a fuck about anyone except for, like, themselves. So nobody, like, nobody cares if you come up and say hi to them. And I don't. I mean that in a good way. Like, I mean that in, like, you think that people are gonna think something about you, but they're not. Either they're not gonna want to talk to you, or they will want to talk to you. And them not wanting to talk to you is literally nothing. It's. It's not. I'm not gonna say it's not the worst thing in the world, because it's not even anything. It's like a nothing. It's nothing. And it affects your life in no way, shape, or form. Whereas the best case scenario, they do want to talk to you. You make a friend or. Or. Or a romantic friend or something like that. And so I just give it a shot, man. I don't know. I wish I had something better for you than just give it a shot, man. But that's. That's. That's really what it is. All right. Okay. This is from Cole. Subject line, the color brown. Cole says, did you know that the color brown is just dark orange? There's no way that's true. I'm gonna type the. Hold on. Let me Google this. Wait. Is the color brown orange? Brown is a dark orange color made by combine. Combining red, yellow, and black. Yo, I never knew that. Damn. The more. You know. That's cool. I mean, all colors are just combinations of other colors, right? Except the primary ones. What are the primary colors? Red, yellow, and blue. Right. Everything else is just a fake. What's green? Green is yellow and blue. Yo, colors are crazy, man. All right, that's it. That's all I have to say about that. Right? Let's see here. All right, this is from Jeremy. Subject line, I want to be on Survivor. Jeremy says, hey, Geck, I'm Jeremy and I listen to your podcast frequently. I also went to your live show in Los Angeles. Hell yeah. Thank you, Jeremy. I really want to be on the reality TV show Survivor. I have yet to submit an audition tape to the casting team but I'm not sure what I want the audition tape to be or really how I want to express myself as a would be character on Survivor. What are your thoughts? I don't know. I, I'll read the rest of this email, but I don't know fucking anything about Survivor. I don't know anything about the show Survivor so I'm not going to be helpful to you, but I'll read the rest of this email. My concern is that the show has been going on since like 2001. I can imagine that thousands of people have applied to be on the show and with that, almost every way the game can be played by a person has been done before. So how do I stand out among other contestants? Here's a few things about me. 25 year old white. Thank you for including that. Jewish LA born and raised. I am a very analytical person but very sociable. I have a pet cat. I'm not very athletic, but in the moment I can rise to the occasion. I'm a Virgo. I work in music. Thanks for your help, Geck. Can't wait to hear this on the pod. Do you want to know my. Okay, here's my actual. I said, I said I was gonna tell the truth on this fucking thing, so I'm gonna do it. Hold on. Take a sip of my energy drink, Jeremy. Here's what I would actually do. You know, I'm gonna be very honest with you, Jeremy. Thousands of people apply to be on Survivor and you have like a. You, you pretty much have no chance of being on the show. That's the truth. But I'm gonna tell you why that's not depressing. If I, if you, if we were on the phone right now, I would be like, well, what do you want to get out of being on Survivor? Right? And then ask yourself that, what do you want to get out of being on Survivor? Did you, you mention that in this email? No, not really. You didn't really mention what you want to get out of being a Survivor, but so I would take whatever it is you want to get out of. I hate things. I hate things that involve like applying. You know what I mean? I hate things that involve like, oh, I need to ask for permission from this amorphous entity. And the amorphous entity sits in a throne above me and goes, hmm, are you worthy of being on my show? I just think it's lame, you know? Whereas, like, Jeremy, I'm dead serious. If you want to. If you want to just make a YouTube channel where you fly to a deserted island and try to survive, just do that. That's way, first of all, way more interesting than being on Survivor. Second of all, you know, it's your choice. Like, if what you really want is to see if you can survive on a desert island, just go do it. You know, you don't need to add. You don't need to fucking send an email to someone to do that. You don't need. You don't need permission to go be stranded on a dead or on a desert island. Jeremy, just go do it. I'm gonna get this guy killed by doing that. I'm gonna get this guy killed. But I do mean what I'm saying, though. Like, whatever it is you're hoping to get, just do something that doesn't involve having to ask someone to let you be on their stupid TV show. Like, fucking go make your own. Go make your own. Go make your own fucking reality show on YouTube. You have a phone. Just make your own fucking Survivor. Like, what? You're gonna put together an audition tape, right? Instead of putting together an audition tape, why don't you just make a fucking thing and put it on the Internet? And that way you did it. You didn't have to ask anyone for permission, and you got whatever it is you wanted out of it. So that. That's. That's my. That's my true recommendation. Having never, ever seen the show Survivor, someone in the chat said he probably wants money and fame. You can get money and fame by going on the Internet instead of. You don't have to ask. You don't have to send an email to some motherfucker to get money and fame. All right, let's keep going. Pretty sure someone said he. Pretty sure he wants to win a million dollars. If. If, If. If you. If. Jeremy, if we had a conversation and you were like, genuinely, honest to God, the one thing I really want, the main reason I want to go on Survivor, is to win a million dollars. I would go, that's one of the stupidest ways to achieve that goal. And then I would say, let's set you up with a Roth IRA at Vanguard, and you're gonna contribute a hundred dollars a month to it until you're 60. Years old and by the time you retire you'll have a million dollars. I don't actually know if that math is true, but that was. I'm so lame now. I'm the lame. I'm the fucking lamest guy of all time. I'm so fucking lame now. Fucking. Oh God, I'm so fucking lame. Why am someone asked why I'm naked? I'm not naked, but I am shirtless while I'm recording this because. Because I can do whatever I want. Duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh. Okay, this is from Diego. Subject line, serious discussion about the best flavor of Twix. And then in the body he wrote another subject and he wrote outdoor pooping and other trail running adventures. And then he wrote. Dear Geck, I lied. We're not here to discuss Twix or what the plural of Twix is even. Instead, I'm writing to seek your opinion on a more pressing matter. You know what? Fuck. No, I'm not reading this. I'm not. No, I'm not reading this email. I thought I was clicking on an email to talk about Twix and you did it to trick me and lie to me. How dare you. No, I'm not reading your email. Maybe send me if. Send. Send whatever you were going to send to me again with the honest subject line and maybe I'll read it. But I'm not. I'm not putting up with this fake out subject line that you're trying to pull. I don't know how you thought you were going to get away with that. The best flavor of Twix is. Is. I don't. Twix is actually not that good of a candy. All right, let's see here. Okay, hold on. Sorry, I'm looking for. I'm sorry, I was a little rattled by this guy. Alright, this is from Jim. Subject line, the stop and chat. Hey Geck, Jim from Syracuse here. Hope all is well. Just wanted to ask if I'm wrong for feeling some sort of way when I encounter a group of people stopped dead in their tracks at the grocery store during peak shopping hours to talk about whatever it is they want to talk about. For curb your enthusiasm fans, it's better known as the stop and chat. For example, Wegmans in Syracuse on a Sunday is the most anxiety filled store with shitloads of people flying past each other to get their overpriced groceries for a week or even just the day. But for you to get your pasta noodles or cured meats and cheese. You have to say, excuse me, and reach around people that are posted up talking about how their son is mediocre at basketball or daughter had a dance recital or some other bullshit. Like, get the fuck out of my way and don't even think about giving me a side eye, like I'm being the rude one. Get your shit and tell your friends that Brayden and Kaden are fine. And keep it moving. Not gonna lie, it makes steam come out of my ears like some old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Let me know if you have encountered a similar situation. Have a good holiday. Go, Bills. Come to Syracuse for a show soon, please. I was actually in Syracuse earlier this year, back in April. That was a good time. That was a good time. Okay. Jim from Syracuse. Yeah. No, people are. People have. Look, look, people have very low situational awareness. I think the way that you are handling this is perfect. Unapologetically being like, hey, you know, you're not being rude about it. You're not like, well, I mean, look, you could, like, you know, stab these people to death. That'd be very rude, but you're not doing that. You're a decent enough guy to not do that. You. You're understanding the social contract. You're doing your best, Jim, to abide by the social contract of society. And I want you to know that me and the other listeners of the Therapy Gecko podcast stand by you in your efforts to abide by that social contract. But. But alas, you live in a world inhabited by other human bodies and brains that are not cognizant of the space that they take up or give a. You know, just don't let it. Don't stab these people to death, because that'll affect your life negatively. It's like that. Like who. There's a guy who, like, there was some, like, protesters blocking road and he pulled out a gun and he killed them. Don't do that. But you can ask him to move. And if they give you the side eye, you could, don't you? I mean, if. You know what? If they give you the side eye and you want. And it makes you feel good to yell at them, and you really feel like they deserve it. I'm trying to think if I would do that. Like, if I, like, I'm going into the Wegmans and I'm trying to get some shit, and these two people are, like, talking about their son, and I'm like, hey, can you guys have. I'm just like, hey, excuse me. And they're like, ugh, no, I'D probably yell at them. It depends on. It depends on how aggressively they were appalled by me asking them to move. If it was just a side eye, I'd let it go. But if they made some kind of noise when I moved past them, I would go off. What do you get at Wegmans? Wegmans is sick. All right, let's do a couple. Let's do a couple more right here.
- [65:29]
Dr. Josie
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- [67:31]
Lyle
This is from Stephen. Subject line. I'm sleeping with a guy 40 years older than me. Hey Lyle. I was shown your podcast at a very uncertain time in my life a few years ago. It was one of the main things that helped me shift my mindset on not only my own problems, but the problems of others around me as well. I've always known I was gay and had to come to terms with it a long time ago. What I struggled to accept was that I'm attracted to older men. Overwhelming guilt and fear clouded every thought I had about finding a partner or even just a hookup. I was hard on myself and shut down any and all feelings I had of love. It's like there was a second closet to come out from. A friend of mine shout out to Cam showed me your podcast and I started listening at work. Hearing all the amazing stories from your listeners as well as your outlook on most things helped me take a step back from it all. I found a real therapist and it's changed my life. Okay, so now I'm sleeping with a guy 40 years my senior. I'm 26. He's 66. It's cool. Sorry, there's not a whole lot to the story, but I just wanted to say thanks for all you do. Am I, are you implying that I somehow led to you sleeping with this 66 year old guy? I don't think you are. I don't even know why I said that because I really don't think you are. But let's see, we saw your show in Melbourne and it was awesome. Okay, so you live in Australia and you've been sleeping with a 66 year. 26. I mean, I mean, at 26, fucking go crazy. Sleep with a. Go to a. If, if you're 26 years old. I mean, by then, you know, if, if they're. I, I. If you're 26 and you're horny and you go to a nursing home and that you meet like a 79 year old man and he's horny and you guys want to have sex with each other. I. That's fair game. Entirely fair game. That's a, that's a beneficial, that seems to be a beneficial transaction for both parties. I mean, yeah, whatever. You seem like you like this guy or at least you like having sex with him and he probably likes having sex with you, so whatever. I mean, don't let him like kill you. I don't know why you said that. Maybe are you trying to get money from him? 66 is not that old. He's. You got a long. If you're trying to get money, if. I will say, if you're trying to get money from him, you're probably in it for another. They have pretty good health care in Australia, I think. So you're in it for another. If this is a money ploy, you're in it for at least another 20 years. I'm gonna say. Yeah, I'm gonna say at least another 20 years. That's cool. Does he have an Australian accent? I don't have a. I don't have a good bit. I'm not good at bits. Well, good. I'm glad that you. You seem happy about this. This is good. Okay, let's. Let's do. Let's see. What. How long have we been going. What do you. What do you. What do you. What do you guys think? What does the chat think about this? I'll ask the chat. Oh, someone said, does he spank you with his cane? That's good. Someone said, seniors are dangerous. That also might be kind of true. All right, let me read one or two more. This is from Missy. Subject line. Hi, Lyle, with four exclamation points. I listen to your podcast a lot at work while I am beautifying the produce department at my co op. Sometimes I fantasize about calling in and it's thrilling to just imagine maybe someday. I have been enjoying the email episodes as well. Here's my contribution. I loved to read when I was younger, but fell out of the habit and just recently picked it up again. I'm now 31. I'm trying to detox my screen addicted brain. I agree that reading is generally no more virtuous than playing video games or watching movies. I did say, just for context, I. On an earlier podcast, I went on a rant about how I don't think that reading is inherently more virtuous than playing video games or watching movies because they kind of have the same result. But anyway. But there is something incredibly satisfying about finishing a good book that I don't feel with other media. It's a uniquely calming experience to sit in silence and read. I think there's something special that happens in your brain while you let the words wash over you would recommend to anyone feeling overwhelmed by this increasingly overstimulated life. We all suffer. Your fan, Missy. Yeah, I don't. I. I mean, I'll go on my rant again. I don't think ver. I think that if in general, whether it's a video game or a movie or a book or whatever, if you can do something that's not that, like without where you're going long periods of time without being on your phone, that's great. It's. I. This is a bad way to end the show, but we live in a horrifying world. Like, if you're listening to this, when, if, if the people listening to this. When's the last time you went a full day, morning till bed without looking at your phone or the Internet? For me, it was probably, probably 2002, I would say. Is the last time I did that probably around 2002 for most of the. Like, when you think about all the time that human beings have been alive, they were doing that for virtually a hundred percent. A hundred percent of the time. Human beings with your same biology were just going about life without the Internet. And now we're on the Internet like all the time for like 24 hours, except when we're sleeping and it's scary. So if you can do anything to detox yourself from it, that's a good thing. Even if it's just playing video games or watching a movies. This. I'm not the screen part of it. I'm not so obsessed with as much as I am, like the constant checking and like ADHD crap. I feel less bad about what I do because it's a podcast and, you know, it feels, it feels less ADHD to listen to a podcast than, you know, I don't know, like a Mr. Beast video, whatever. But even, even a Mr. Beast video is good. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why I said that. I don't know why that came into this rant. But yeah, whatever. All right, you know, all right, all right, all right, you know what, missy? Fine, I'll read a book. I'll read a fucking book. I'll buy a book and I'll read it. Okay, let's do one more email. Okay. Yeah, we can't end like that. We gotta do one more. We gotta do. We do one more. All right, great. All right. This is from Robert. Subject line, help, I'm becoming a nerd. Hey, Lyle, this is Robert from the Netherlands. I'm pretty sure that this is like an all time thing that artists struggle with all over the world all the time. When I was little, I went out to play with my friends and brought a small ipod with me and I'd record everything and make small scenes where we would pretend like we were cops catching a drug cartel and shit like that. I kept making videos, showing it to my Family. I knew I had some sort of talent when I made a World War video project for a middle school assignment. In this video, there was this scene where someone threw a grenade and it actually had an explosion. The faces that my classmates had were priceless. Anyhow, four years later, I am studying at uni for being a director. And I am getting into it big time. Making movies is all I think about. I have this class called film history. And bro, I have been extremely invested. Like, I go to museums and go to every film exposition there is. I feel ashamed to go out and tell people this because it makes me feel like a nerd. Dude. What? Like, I think I'm driving my family and friends nuts with my bullshit. Do you have any advice on this? Like, how I deal with this? Also, do you think directors are artists or just bossy cunts? I'd like to know what your favorite movie is. Mine is Fallen Angels, 1995, directed by Wong Kar Wai. I don't really watch movies. No, you're not a nerd. Why do you feel as I. Robert? Why do you feel ashamed? You should be proud of this. Do you know how many people, like, don't have just don't care about fucking anything? I don't know, Robert. I don't know why I feel bad that you live still in a world. I mean, you, you're at. You, I. How old are you? You probably, like, let's see. All right, so you were in like, high school. You're probably like 18, 19, something like that. Okay, so you probably, you're, you are old enough at 18 or 19 to realize that caring about things is, is. It is no longer cool to not care about things or have interests. It is not lame to give a fuck about things in life. It's actually kind of sick. It's actually not even kind of sick. It's sick. You know, so many people. I just. Robert, I just want you to be proud of this. So many people are just fucking depressed because they don't care about anything. And I just think having this thing that you have. I'm not even. I honest. I, I. Robert, I'm gonna. I mean this. I think what you have right now, where you are so passionate and you give a fuck so much and you're extremely invested in what you are doing is more valuable than, than like being a majorly successful filmmaker. I really believe that because you, that the. What you have right now, having a thing that you love and that you care about and that you can reasonably do for the rest of your life. Until you don't want to do it anymore is like a valuable, beautiful, amazing thing and you should feel really proud to have it. You know, you said I'm driving my friends and family nuts with my bs. Mean, you should learn how to talk about things that aren't just making movies. Maybe. Maybe that's it. I. I think it's beautiful that you have. You should develop, though. You should develop well rounded social skills, if that's kind of what you're talking about. But no, you should be happy that you have. That you care about something, especially at 18. It's harder as you get older, I think, to care about shit. So just be. Be excited and grateful and immersed in. In not only what you care about, but be excited at the pure fact that you care. Don't. Don't let anyone tell you it's lame. Do you think directors are artists or just bossy cunts? It depends on the person. Also, I don't really know many directors. I don't. I never met Alfred Hitchcock, but he's probably a cunt. Yeah. Anyway. Okay, fallen angels, 1995. I'm gonna go watch that. I wish I had something funny to say about any of these emails. Instead, I just gave advice based on what I feel in my gut, which is fine too. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. This can be a part of the podcast too. I'm gonna. Does the chat have any questions that they want to say before we go? Someone says we love a good wonk. Our Y movie. Okay. Someone said, I like boats. That's cool. I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait two more seconds if there's any more chats. Am I gonna go see Nostafaru Nosferatu? No. I don't really like making. I don't really like watching movies. I get too bored. I love playing video games. I'm playing. A little update on the video games I'm playing. I'm getting into. I'm a little late on it, but I'm getting into Little Nightmares. If I think I might start. I'm gonna start casually reviewing video games on this podcast. A lot. I highly recommend Little Nightmares. I have it on the switch and it definitely looks better on, like, you know, PlayStation or ever the fuck. But it's a sick game. It's a pretty stealthy, pretty. I don't like video. I hate, like, so many video games. Just waste your fucking time. And they're just like, go here, do this. And they don't. And this. This video game really, like, creates a awesome Atmosphere and it's linear and it's rewarding and it's immersive and it's. It's great. Yeah. So Little Nightmares 1 and 2, highly recommend. I just beat one, so I'm gonna play Little Nightmares 2. Okay. Anything else? Well, thank you guys for listening to this podcast. This is I am Lyle. I am a gecko. And do I have anything else to say? No, not really. Enjoy life. It's the end of the year. Happy New Year next soon. And thank you guys for listening to my podcast. Here's to. Let's see. I'm doing this twice a week. In 2025, I'll probably put out a hundred and four of these podcasts. So if you have. If we have not talked on the phone yet or have not read your email yet, I'm gonna need enough phone calls and I'm gonna need enough phone calls and emails to complete at least 104 more podcasts in 2025. So if you want to be a part of Geck mail, send an email to therapygeckomailmail.com I just kind of keep a rolling. I just kind of sort by unread and I just kind of keep a rolling whatever of emails. So if you're listening to this and you want to submit an email, send it to therapy gecko. Mailmail.com I have a my streaming. I know a lot of people want to call in to the show. My streaming schedule is random. I kind of just do it when I feel like it. Well, not really when I feel like I do it like twice a week. Usually like Mondays and Fridays. But the best way to to get on the phone is if you go to Twitch tv Lyle Forever and you subscribe. You can get a notification for when I'm going live or if you follow me on Instagram. Instagram.com lyle the number four ever. I usually post on Instagram when I'm live and taking calls. Thank you guys for listening. Geck. Bless you all and have a great rest of your life. Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human.
- [83:55]
Unknown Comedian
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