21. Cosmic Wanderlust

Even space travelers dream of traveling, and after two flights apart, commanders G + E have a lot to say.  We chat about that one time Em was in a free-falling plane, that other time Gem confronted gypsies, the disguise of modern day colonialism, the joy of streaking, and why all roads do, in fact, lead to Rome. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The captain, I have you the same. Let's go to
the Mission one, ready for a theme launch. Greetings Earth

(00:28):
Lean's welcome to today's flight. This is your captain speaking
M and your other captain, Jim. That's right. We have
just reached cruising altitude, so you can unfasten your harnesses
and ball guys at this moment. Thank you so much.
What I mean? Okay, look, welcome guys, Welcome back to

(00:48):
in our in world. Have you missed us? Baby? We're
back baby. Jim got the crystals, I got the award.
Mission successful you so, speaking of your award, I personally
I want to hear all about it, do you? Yeah?
I really do so. I was getting the HRC Visibility Award.

(01:11):
Shout out HRC, Shout out HRC, Hveen Rights Camp, Human
Rights Campaign, and I was so honored to do so
because any queer individual and really any human should know
about this organization because they protect people when they have
no protection, When you feel like you can't talk to
your family member and they don't vouch for you and

(01:32):
you have no where to turn. These are the people
that fight for us. People that don't know you, don't
know your name, but they care about you and they
love you. And after being there and meeting a lot
of those people, I really feel that way. Yeah, I'm
happy to hear that, and I missed you. But also
it was upon my reflection of receiving the award that

(01:55):
I realized I kind of was feeling like I don't
deserve it, Like why, I mean, I don't know, you know,
like why me? Like what have I done? You know,
all I've done is fight my own personal battle and
you know, try to be my most authentic self and
that's courageous. Well, in my journey in my self reflection,

(02:16):
I kind of realized one of the big things that
we hear as queers here, as queers here, is oh,
but it's so hard being gay. It's so much harder
being gay. It's a harder life, you know, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
And at first I feel like you reflect on that

(02:39):
and you're like, well, my mama, the world that this that,
But it's not about being gay. It's harder to be
fucking brave, That's what it is. Because it's harder to
be yourself, to be courageous, to be authentic, so to
honor that part of yourself exactly. That is what's hard.
It has nothing to do with your sexuality. It is
those people that put ows you, that fuel that energy

(03:05):
that are actually cowards themselves. They don't have the bravery,
you know, to rise to the occasion and question their
beliefs and look beyond. That's what it takes to be
brave to lead with love. So anyway, that's that's kind
of what I took away. At first felt like I
didn't deserve it, and then I realized that we just
being yourself is enough. Guys, beat yourself, it's hard enough.

(03:30):
So it was awesome. Thank you, HRC. I missed you,
and there's more that happened on that trip. But also
I just want to say, we're talking about traveling today,
and you've been traveling for weeks with us. Now I've
learned a lot with you about the experiences that you've
had because you've traveled. I've spent my entire life traveling,
you know, my mom my first tour around the world.

(03:50):
I was two years old. Nuts, right, But then I
remembered there's one thing about traveling, and there's one thing
about experiencing and so in and really like, you know,
because I spent my life, you know, going around the world,
but if you're working, you're not exploring, You're focused in
another direction, you know. So being with you and learning

(04:13):
how to really travel and and and get to know
a place as like you say, as a local, that's
my favorite part. And I really appreciate that because I
noticed that when you and I first started dating that,
I mean, you were so seasoned. You've been to a
million places that like are still on my list to go,
but you were on tour and your mom, being the

(04:36):
main event, didn't get to enjoy the places that she
was at. I mean, I know that your family has
traveled a million places, you know, on vacation, but um,
I didn't really get to enjoy it so personally. And
you know this. When I travel, I like to go
everywhere on foot. I like to really take my time
to take in the spaces around me. I don't really
care to hit up the super touristic spot. I want

(04:58):
to spend my time the getting to know the energy
of the place, asking people who are there where I
should go. You know, I've I've ended up in some
really interesting situations because of that. One time I was
in Barcelona and being the person we were with. We
ended up in a speakeasy that you're supposed to have
a membership card for, but somebody there knew somebody and
got us in and it was like in this like

(05:18):
four story town house situation. You know that you don't
read about that. I don't Trip Advisor. Well, like in
San Antonio after the HRC dinner, right everybody, which again listen,
we the gays, We the gays. We're awesome people. We are.
We're just bursting with because we had to work so

(05:40):
hard to be able to burst with uh, you know,
but also we I don't know if that we like
to create and we're just free, not that not that
I think that we're just it took us so long. No,
you know, like probably probably gen Z feels differently about this,
but I would say our generation and everything before, you know,
we saw gay marriage become legalized in our generation. You know,

(06:04):
I was watching I was watching that Instagram story with
Glenn and Doyle and I be Wane back and she
was like, it's just so crazy. We're two girls that
get to get married, Like it's real. There's so many
parts in the world where that's not possible anywhere. But
we had to really work, and we're still working every day.
There's so much that we have to go as a
community in order to secure our rights and secure protections

(06:26):
everywhere globally. But I feel like once you have to
earn just the right to like say hey i'm here,
you want to celebrate it daily. Absolutely, it's delicious. Yeah,
it's great. I love being gay for the gays. So
it was really incredible because the president of the HRC,

(06:47):
she reminded me what we were just speaking about, which
is that when she was years and years or years ago,
she goes, I was at my first HRC dinner and
I was so inspired and so excited it and I
thought I was making this big change. And you know what.
The message that came through was what this is the
beginning of the change. This is the beginning of the revolution.

(07:10):
You don't celebrate winds, you continue to fight for them.
We're not there yet. Our rights are at risk. You
know what she said, This is a code read wake up.
Our rights are at risk. The same way that you said,
oh how amazing Glenn and Doyle. Look at them. We're
so happy to be married to each other. Tomorrow that
could be gone. And I don't think that people realize that,

(07:33):
and that's what I walked away with from that. So
I had this incredible experience of inspiration and you know, poisonous.
And I didn't say funk one time, not even oh,
I did say fun. Do you want to get it
out here? So I'm like, oh, look at me, I'm
my best behavior. And then I start hearing people say,
are you going on to to the after party? You're going
to the afterparty. And I'm like, after party? How did

(07:56):
you as an honoree? Not didn't get the invite? The shade.
So I'm like, excuse me. So then they go, okay,
we're gonna change. We'll meet you in the bus. I'm like, wait,
first of all, why are we changing bus? I'm like,
first of all, why are we changing? Second of all
a bus. I'm like, here comes the gays, the gates.

(08:16):
We can only restrain ourselves for oh my god, Oh
my god. So but you know what, it was incredible.
You walked in and it was just huge, exactly how
I described. Looked like a mansion, but every room was
a different genre of music and different style, and there's
people on stilts naked with black paint across their eyes

(08:39):
and glitter all over their hair. Like I'm like, I
could have come in my tights and my bro nobody
would have said anything. So Georgie and I were like
arm in arm, just like taking it in. And then
we looked at each other and we're like, you want
to notice something. Nobody's on their phone, nobody is documenting
the moment. There in the moment that's it's rare. And

(09:01):
you know, we weren't there that long and we know
when to call it tonight. But it was cool, you know.
And so that's what I love about traveling, Like you
never know where you're going to end up, the people
you're going to meet, the situations are going to be in,
Like put your phone down and so get in. Man,
have you had experiences like that? Of course, of course,
like the one that I'm telling you about the speakeasy,

(09:23):
Um gosh, I've ended up in so many interesting places.
It was like the most interesting place you ended up in.
Traveling wise, I don't know. I think all of all
of my travel has been super interesting, Like I've done
actually a lot of interesting travel with you. A lot
of my recent experiences I've all been with you, obviously
off the top of my head, right now skiing. You

(09:47):
know what that did to me when you met me?
What did I say? It was the first thing I said?
I don't know. Well, you said a lot. You said
you're beautiful? You actually said that you are though you too? Okay?
What else did you said? You want to come over
tomorrow and the next day, the next day and the
next day? Okay? Um? What else did you say? Date two?

(10:10):
You smell like home? The date one? Eight hours later?
Are you sure you want to leave? But why are
you making me look like a funk boy. You didn't
look like a footboy at all. I don't know. It
was actually sweet and very romantic, exactly. No, no, what
What is the thing that you really don't remember? Babe?

(10:30):
I mliss I've listed a million. I always create things
in my head, okay. And from the moment I met
you and I fell in love with you, there was
somewhere that I wanted us to exist Colorado boom. Yeah.
I told you I want to take you to a
cabin and the snow and by the way, like. But
when you said that to me, it's not how I

(10:53):
how I envisioned it, not how it was when you
said it to me. I imagined it like just us too,
by a fire a glass of wine. What we did
instead six days of like intense workouts from like ten
am to like four pm, skiing down amountain And let
me tell you something. You know, this the least predictable

(11:15):
thing that could have happened me being sedentary my whole life.
My middle school and high school had no pe because
I was in magnet art school, so I only had
orchestra and music theory. I didn't have the choice to
learn a sport. I think I could have used some athleticism. Um,
I sat down as a sport. I fucking loved by

(11:38):
the way a luxury. A lot of people are never
even able to do that. It's a blessing, which is
why I feel so grateful about it. Yeah, no, I'm
so greatful, And I just want to say this. I've
been on skis since I'm four years old. That's crazy,
and I have never met a person in the amount
of time that you did that from the beginning of
the ski trip is falling on your ass and the

(12:00):
last day you're doing three sixties down a blue run. Dude,
I loved it. It unlocked something in my soul. Okay,
so I don't think I answered your question most interesting travel?
I feel like you know this is crazy. Okay, Look,

(12:23):
here's one thing. Would this be me if I didn't
prepare some facts? I learned so many interesting things. Oh,
I learned so many interesting things when I was researching
these things to tell you? Uh, Like, did you know
that on commercial flights the pilot and the co pilot

(12:45):
eat different meals to protect against food poison What do
you mean different meals? So like, the pilot has the
first class meal and then the co pilot has the
economy meal because in case there's food poisoning, they're not
both sick from the same food. That's pretty crazy. Isn't
that crazy? Pretty cool? Did you know that I did? Not?
To be honest, if I was a pilot, I would

(13:07):
not be eating airplane food. I would bring chipo, Oh, Chipotle.
As of all, the best thing that I think travel
can bring you is exposure not only to what exists
outside of your bubble and what you were raised around,
but just exposure to other cultures, other forms of thought,
other foods, other people, other customs. When you and I travel,

(13:32):
we want out on that food. Girl, girl, no regrets.
We don't even need to trouble. We bile out on
food on the regular. Emily and I eat like if
we're traveling. That is one thing that me and Emily
will always do. We go out to eat and it's like, oh,
time to order the home menu. Yeah, but then guess
what we take it home. That's right, we take those

(13:53):
lovet tords. Be good as health, waste, no waste, no waste,
and we're proud of it. Okay, did you know that
Russia is bigger than Pluto? Yes, Russia is bigger than
the planet Pluto. Canada has over three million lakes and
that's sixty of the world's total. What YEPA hold, I

(14:15):
can't I got of the world's total? Are the lakes
in Canada? It's my friend from Canada. Shall you for
call me? What is going on? Okay? Australia has over
ten thousand beaches and if you went to one new
beach every day, that would take you twenty seven years,
more than twenty seven technically. Yeah, there's so much to

(14:39):
see in the world that we just don't. Antarctica, although
it's a rare place for people to travel to, has
over of the meteorites in the world. Well, they went
to Alaska and I packed like if I was going
to the top of Everest and it was hotter than Miami.
That sucks. That's the worst. Um. Do you know that

(14:59):
there's a city named Rona Rome on every continent, so
technically all roads do travel to Rome? Wait? Wait wait,
wait wait wait wait wait? Is that where that's saying
comes from? I have chills? What are you doing to me? Okay? Wait?
Every continent has a city named Rome. Don't be ashamed
out there. You didn't know that. Neither did Die. I

(15:20):
didn't know what I before before I read this. Does
anybody know what a continent is? Out there? Did you
know that in Austria there it was a town, well,
I guess now it was, but up until one it
was named fucking yep, and about January one they changed
it to fugging a fu gig I n G. Wait,

(15:40):
so there was a town called f U c K
I n G in Austria. I don't believe you, Okay,
look it up. I do believe you. Okay, good because
I looked it up. Are you looking it up out there?
I swear to you it's there. Okay. There's an island
in Micronesia. Named yap. This is really interesting. They the
number one form of currency is the U. S. Dollar,

(16:01):
but they still use these like human sized stones as
a form of currency for things like land. What Yeah,
it's like it's still a form of currency. You can
read articles and the people there will be like, my
family owns four stones. Yeah, like this is they're like
valued like Michelin stars. No, they're physical stones. These massive

(16:24):
stones like that are what is the value of them?
What the same value as a piece of paper, which
is what money is. It's given to it. It's the
currency is given by the people. They value the stone.
But what happens when you leave the stone land and
you go to Italy and then you don't have stones
or your stones loser value where I guess you sell
them for something else and then in trade have all

(16:45):
the people of yep okay. So in Ethiopia they observe
a different calendar than the Gregorian calendar, and the Ethiopia
their calendar has thirteen months and they're about eight years behind.
So for us it's two. But in Ethiopia is actually
what also not a lie? Like everywhere in Ethiopia, I

(17:10):
don't know, I imagine so I imagine so and their
New Year's is like I think in late August or
early September. Mm hmm. Yeah, alright. So China, despite the
fact that it's the country of China, spans five geographical
time zones, they only have one time zone. So time

(17:32):
is a construct, of course. Yeah, oh yeah, of course
for sure. But like we at least pretend to agree
on like certain principles as a globe, and like China
was like nah at the same time here all over
the week were good, okay, ah, well this is actually

(18:07):
pretty cool. So the longest commercial flight, like I'm talking,
no stops, is from Singapore to New York and that's
an average of seventeen hours and fifty minutes. Seventeen hours
and fifteen minutes. I don't know, that's too many movies.
It sounds like a lot of sleeping to me. Yeah,
take a Beta Droom knockout. Um. The shortest commercial flight

(18:30):
is in Scotland and it's from West Tray to Papa
West Tray. And guess how long it takes. The shortest
commercial flight, I mean when you're flying, like half of
it is ascending and descending. Okay, but you know, the
bottom flight time in flight time minutes one point five
one minute, one point five minutes, and their record for

(18:52):
that flight it's fifty seconds one point five minutes. Is
that like the shortest flight, it's the shortest commercial flight. Yeah, yeah,
they really that's exactly what it is. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
Um yeah, this has been gems facts effects, gems, stems, gems, gems,

(19:14):
I get my own deep song, Yeah, gems gems theme Songles,
I guess gems on gems, gems got the gems gems
tumple gems. You don't know what you're thinking, but she's
got something to put it in. Hey, your mind, giving
you that knowledge, giving you that insight that you didn't
know you wanted. Welcome to gems and gems on gems. Baby,

(19:35):
you know you've been schooled, and hey, I'm bad. Pretty good.
There are a lot of There are a lot of
good things when it comes to traveling, not just for
obviously us as the travelers. The things that we gain, um,
for our souls, for our minds, just I think opening
of our perspectives, the mere lesson that life is not

(19:56):
as you know it to be, and that there's so
much more are out there that we've yet to even discover,
forget individually as a species, like how much of the
ocean is undiscovered. There's so much about this planet. There's
a lot of benefits to a country when travel takes
place to the country. There's, you know, obviously the generation

(20:16):
of wealth. There's money going into that country, so a
country tends to progress when there's travel going to it.
There's also the creation of jobs within those touristic locations,
and in a lot of places that means conservation, you know,
they that means more money to national parks where they're
able to take care of places. But in a lot

(20:37):
of places there's exactly there's also the negative side of travel,
which is a lot of those times those jobs that
are created are low income jobs in serving positions, um,
where people tend to be mistreated and aren't making much
money to begin with. There's a lot of environmental damage
that comes with an increase in tourism, depending on where

(20:58):
it is that you're traveling to, because tourism really care
for the places that they're going to. They're just there
to have fun. Um. There's cultural exploitation that takes place.
You know, people that don't really understand the history of
a place, and go that, you know, go there just
to enjoy and reap the benefits of a culture that
they could not begin to understand. The absolutely no respect

(21:20):
for UM. It's also unequal infrastructure a development because a
lot of the times what happens is those nations were
to develop those areas that are touristic and the resources
aren't dispersed evenly to the rest of the places. And
one of the great examples of that that's pretty close
to home for us UM is Hawaii. I was about
to say that, UM, I was doing some research and

(21:43):
M and M knows this and we can talk about
it more. But I was doing some research on Hawaii
because during the pandemic, I had an interest in traveling
there because I've never been um and of course from
movies and television, it looks like such a beautiful place.
But basically what's happening in Hawaii is modern day colonialism

(22:03):
because of tourism, the amount of advertisements that people are
receiving with positive information about a certain situation, and then
the concealing of the truth of what is actually happening
with the people that live and breathe there every day.
So I'm happy that you brought it up, Yeah, because
they really impacted me. And they don't operate as a nation.
They operate as one of the fifty states of of America.

(22:25):
But they have their own culture, they have their own traditions.
They are not American by any in any way, shape
or form, and I think that's something to be very
proud of. And Hawaiians, for a hundred years plus, we're punished,
um for celebrating their culture. They weren't able to speak
their own language. So many parts of Hawaiian history is

(22:47):
absolutely lost because the way that we have passed down
traditions is through generations of teaching, and they were not
able to do that. They're history was whitewashed. And now
because it's always been a touristic hotspot, but even more
so now. Um, you know, I think as people have

(23:08):
begun to enjoy the outdoors more from being indoors for
the pandemic, what's happening is that the entire island, which
is quite small, is being overrun by tourism and people
are wanting to move there. And right now, the average
single family home, which is nothing to write home about
two or three bedrooms, is a million dollars and Hawaiians

(23:32):
are being kicked out. No, they have no choice. They
this is the option. You're in Hawaii. You either work
for a resort and you put on the little skirt
and you do a little thing and you feed the system,
or you don't get money. They built a target parking
lot over a burial site. Listen, you want to know something.
I've been to Why a couple of times, and I've
told you how beautiful it is. And I was completely

(23:54):
unaware of this situation, which we have to There's no
shame in being like, oh it didn't know this. Now
I know it, and I'm going to adjust my behavior
exactly because I went to Hawaii enjoyed it. Oh my god,
the food, this, that, And then you start to think
about it. And you know what my first experience was
when I was older. I was like fourteen, and I
had a conversation with somebody that was working there and

(24:16):
they were like, if I wouldn't work here, I'd be
dead or And the thing is they don't have a choice. Yeah,
you don't have a choice. And it's not like, Okay,
we'll stop au tourism to Hawaii, No, but like how
about travel responsibly? You know, there's this amazing company called
Airbnb where you can put dollars directly into Hawaiians locals

(24:37):
pockets and eat at locals restaurants sandals not sandals run
by an entire corporation that doesn't need your money anyway.
You know, you can go there and and help with
some conservation efforts because pollution is what's happening there, and
it's a beautiful, beautiful place. Hawaiians culturally have always been
one with nature, and they're having their sacred sites, trash,

(24:59):
eat at local places, go off the grid, and it's
it's hard because you also, you know, trust is a
big thing, you know, when you're traveling, that's another thing.
You feel like, I don't know this place, I don't
know anybody, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but
you do your research, like responsible traveling. That's a really
big thing, you know. It's another place that I have

(25:19):
completely reframed my thinking, UM in regards to traveling there.
What's Cuba? Oh? I feel like us as first second
generation Americans, UM, especially you know Cuban refugees, we hear
so much about you know, the motherland, the places where

(25:42):
the place where our families are from and I'm sure
you feel the same way. But growing up, I was
so curious about Cuba. I was dying to go there.
I was dying to see, you know, the place that
made my grandmother my grandmother and my mom where she
was born, and um, it felt like a place that
I knew culturally, because Miami is like mini Cuba in

(26:05):
so many ways, at least in terms of like traditions
and you know, yeah, of course the food that we consume,
but just like even the language. You can go pretty
much anywhere in Miami and they're like, oh, lata song,
you know, like you it's it's incredible. But I feel

(26:30):
differently about that now. I don't think I would go
to Cuba, or if I were going to go to Cuba,
it would be under very specific terms. You know, I
wouldn't be staying in any touristic place, you know, not
giving money to the bigger name establishments, because unfortunately, most
of the money that you put anywhere in Cuba goes

(26:52):
directly to the Cuban regime and you have to follow
your dollar and the impact that it has. Not only that.
The same way we talk about Hawaii, we aren't from Hawaii,
so we don't have that cultural responsibility. In Cuba, for example,
I'll tell you my experience. You know, I grew up
with my grandma being my writer or die, my confidence

(27:13):
say the reason for my freedom, which I value highly,
and I was born here when my family was not.
Because of that, I feel an immense gratefulness and responsibility
towards the steps that the family before me had to
take for me to be able to be here. You know,
because of that, people would always be like, how are

(27:35):
you not going to go to Cuba. That's where you're from,
that's whatever. And It's like, no, it's not. The Cuba
where I'm from has been gone for years. You know.
That's why my family is not there anymore. That's why
they ripped up my grandma's diploma in her face and
she had to start over. And I'm able to go
to college and drive a car and do whatever the
hell I want to do. You salt Jesus Christ um.

(27:59):
But anyway, so you know, I made a promise just
for myself, you know, I I I respect whatever you
want to do in your lifetime because at the end
of the day, it is your money. However, I think
that you should have a responsibility to use your dollar
wisely and think about it, not only in in tourism
and travel, and in the environment the planet. You know,
every day you make decisions that can make the world

(28:21):
a better or worst place. So you know, it's it's
up to you. How many talks and money talks about
it's up to those how many of you as you
truly want to Hey like you and ideas said the
shopping cart theory. But anyway, so I will not be
going to Cuba so as long as it as it
is under this dictatorship exactly. And if you're doing to
go to Cuba, we just ask that you recognize that

(28:45):
money in the touristic places, establishments that aren't owned by locals, um,
where at least they can make most of the money
to themselves, um. Eating get restaurants owned by locals. You're
you're you're essentially provide eating fuel for a vicious government
that represses its people, the government that has pushed, pushed

(29:10):
until you can't go back, pushed unto the limit where
you have no choice but to leave your life and
just kind of like fight. Yeah. Yeah, So if you
have the money, I'm not saying don't spend it. If
you've worked your ass off and you want to travel
the world. That's where the intrinsic value of life is.
But I'm saying travel responsibly, be adventurous. You don't have

(29:34):
to go to Europe to travel, you know, buy a
bus ticket in city, in your city, goes somewhere new.
Oh my gosh, I love being a tourists made my
own city. Even that is fun. Just put yourself out there,
go to the places that you wouldn't normally go to,
have the experiences that you wouldn't normally have. You know,
I mean, we only have one life guaranteed to us.

(29:56):
We might as well live as much of it as possible.
And I didn't have the upbringing that you had, But
my mom always always valued travel because my grandparents, I mean, hello,
they were refugees and they were focused on building a
life here so she could have a better life. So
they were traveling when she was young, and I think
that that was something that became really important to her

(30:18):
and she passed that down to us. That's what I'm
saying about responsible traveling. Like I'm not saying get the
five star hotel and this is that you know what. Actually,
I think that that's a waste of money. Not only
that you don't that's not how you travel. You want
to get to know the place, people, the culture, eating
the foods that the people that live there every day

(30:38):
are cooking and cultivating. That's what you want to have,
at least for me for sure. For sure, you know.
And I'm I'm so, I'm so blessed by your family
because they've shown me a different side of traveling that
I definitely, at least so far in my life, would
never have been able to do on my own, um
in a much more luxurious way. And I'm and I

(31:01):
love all of the experiences that we've had, but I
still value doing it, I don't know, doing it like
a local, you know. Like like recently when we went
to Disney, it was so amazing to skip all of
the lines and to be able to go on all
of the rides as often as we could because we
were able to get a guide for Disney for Sasha's

(31:22):
birthday and that was a blast. But like, honestly, I
missed I missed part of the experience because we spent
the whole time behind the scenes. I'm like, part of
Disney is like just walking through Disney and being in
the air of it and the smell of it and
listening to the music, and you know, I just I
value that so much. And what's And you can ask

(31:44):
me this if you want, but what's What are your
favorite travel memories? I have so many travel memories. My
favorite travel memory? Oh man, I know how much you
love New York, but we had a little too much funny.
I love New York. I lived there for little second.
Al Right, Well, whether or not you're from New York,
there's something called sleep No More, which is talking about

(32:05):
travel feels like you are traveling to another dimension. Imagine
a warehouse five stories six stories tall. You enter, and
when you enter, you can't see anything. It's black curtains,
and you're going left and right and left and right.
You have no idea where you are, and all of
a sudden it spits you out and you're in the speakeasy,
a bar, and there's a nine twenties bill and clarinet,

(32:26):
incredible singer, actors walking around dressed like they just walked
out a Great Gatsby's house. He interactive theater exactly. So basically,
it's like if you are living inside of the play. Yeah,
it's just so cool. It is one of those things
that Hello, it just gives you, invigorates you, It gives
you a different perspective on just I don't know how

(32:48):
people create, how people exist, and think you know, it
expands you. So I have been talking to Jam about
Sleep No More for every Oh my god, have been
eight times like I got we gotta go, you don't understand.
Finally the stars aligned and then we were able to
go to Sleep No More. And there's another little fun
thing about sleep No More. If you don't know what
absence is, it's not the real absence is not technically

(33:09):
legal anymore, and not in the States at least, But
it's this kind of alcohol that will send you to
the drink kikicking, kicking kicky. So we're going, we're having
this great time and when you let your guard down
and you're exploring, and so we start drinking this absent
and Jim keeps getting refills. Jim had a couple of

(33:29):
absent refills. So we Sleep No More and we have
this incredible experience and we're just on cloud nine. Like
New York kind of felt foreign. When you kind of
leave that space, it's like where are we? Everything is
a playhouse. Your mind is just melded. You're like thinking,
and it's like you're a kid when you I'm not.

(33:49):
I'm not pretending to be a dinosaur. I'm a dinosaur.
That's what sleeping, remember, makes you feel like like you're
just in it, you know. And so at alcohol to that,
and it was a very fun con auction. So somehow
we found our way back to the hotel, and it
was not easy. I do remember that it took us
a minute to get back there in the taxi and
we were at to Marryott Marquis and I've never ever

(34:12):
seen like this. She was like, so we're in the
hotel and it's like three in the morning, everyone's asleep,
and she's like, I'm gonna run down the Marquis and
she starts like a child. Literally, it wasn't it wasn't sexual.
It was playful. She was running down the giant hotel
halls of the Marquis, okay, slowly, not so slowly, removing

(34:37):
items of her clothing pulling them back up. Is so bad.
I hope they can't sue me for that. It's been enough.
But also literally, the laughing, like laughing with someone like that,
you're not where you live fading. No, No, Oh my god, Jim,
I could literally picture you. I see your smile by

(34:57):
the door, like is this our room? I go to
get in like how naked? Like, oh my god. I
will never forget that moment. It literally not to be cliche,
but it really does live rent free in my head. Yeah,
I know it is. You share that story all the time. Okay,

(35:31):
what's the scariest travel experience you've ever I've had some
scary moments on planes. On a plane, yeah, I've I've
been in a plane where we only had one pilot
and the autopilot turned off and we were in a
free fall. Shut up. It was a small plane. We

(35:52):
were going from one place in Colorado to another. It
was me and Lily and my mom and Lena Frenzo,
And again we're very privileged we were able to have
these opportunities. But you take a risk, of course, you know.
And it was really bad weather. There was a storm.
We had one pilot and he chose to fly without
his copilot, which really you should never do. And midway

(36:14):
through the fight, we started free falling and we held
hands and we said goodbye. We said we're gonna die.
We were holding each other because in the moment, like
if you count to tend right now, it doesn't seem
like a lot, but when you're in a plane and
you're free falling, it feels like an eternity, can imagine.
And then all of a sudden we leveled down. He goes,
I'm so sorry. I switched off the autopilot and couldn't

(36:35):
control the free fall. We're good to go, and we
literally were shaking the rest of the fight until one
time something We were in a commercial flight and this
the fight attendant put a towel in the microwave and
it lit on fire, and there was a fire on
the plane and that's like a really no, no, no no,
and we had to make an emergency landing and there

(36:56):
was smoke everywhere and the masts fell down. I've had
some carry moments. It's not like in the locations I've been.
It's more been like in transiting. Theres been on a
train where somebody had a psychotic break and the train
couldn't stop and they had to sedate him and tie
him to the Yeah, yeah, yeah, just like you know,
in transit. Most my scariest things have been in transit.

(37:18):
For sure, but it's happened. I feel like when you
have a high volume of travel, you're sube again. Helicopters.
I mean, I was six planes dangerous. Everything is dangerous,
you know. I was sixteen and I was in Paris
and I was traveling with the jazz band as the
jazz violinist, which was so cool. I don't know. I

(37:39):
don't know how I convinced my principle to let me
go because we didn't even have a violin if he
had to get one. So you don't have a violin
for the band, but what if you did? And um, yeah,
he bought it and when I was there, and thank
you you make it happen. I've told I've told you this, rocketship. No,
I've told you this always since you've own me. There's

(38:01):
one thing that I've learned in my life is that
you lose nothing by asking, but you lose everything by
not asking. And you never know what you can get
by asking. So look here I am in Paris with
the jazz ban sorry, the Paris in the jazz band.
But before you move on to the person the jazz band,
I just want to say two more of gems. Gems.
Let's stick with me forever that I share with people

(38:22):
and they're like and maybe they're not from you, but
the past the fact that you impart them. Number One,
you can't buy something until you can afford it twice.
That is, you don't you can't really afford it. You
can buy it, but you can't really afford it if
you can't pay for it twice. And the second one,
all right, now that we're on a spaceship, you said,
if you ask me how to build a rocket ship

(38:44):
and I don't know, I'm going to find you someone
who does. And if I can't find you somebody who does,
I'm gonna figure it out. And I'm going to figure
it out. There's always a road to get where you
want to go. You just have to be vulnerable enough
to understand that if you can't make it happen, you're
going to find the person that camp. Get creative anyway, gemps, gemps.
You reach a wall, you can't get around the wall,

(39:07):
climate get through it, break it down, make a hole,
build a bomb on it, go under it. But don't
just stop at the wall. Whatever. You just don't stimb Yeah, okay, okay,
so um so yeah, I was. I was sixteen, and

(39:28):
I was on this trip and uh my mom had
given me cash because we had one we had one
meal voucher a day, but we were responsible for the
rest of our meals. And we were traveling from location
to locations. So we were in camp and we can't
can't see a I n which is a beautiful place.

(39:49):
Uh No, we were in on fly. We were on
fl We were going to Paris. And because of that,
I didn't rust that an own fluid because it's a
much smaller city. Um that I could leave all this
cash at the hotel, I was afraid to leave there.

(40:09):
There was no safe so I had it with me. Well,
I'm literally walking down the street and I uh finished eating,
I pay for my food, I put my purse, my
wallet back in my purse, and I walk out of
the restaurant. And as I'm walking around the streets, I'm

(40:30):
about to stop at another little store and I go
to reach into my purse, which has a little zipper
at the top, and I noticed that the zippers open
and absolutely undetected. Somehow, in a group of other people,
I was pickpocket and I was literally like day three,

(40:53):
oh attend a trip and I had no money, no money,
no dep card for my mom to send me more money.
Off to be aware of that complacely alone, completely alone
in another country with no money. Watch your bags, watch
your things, be safe with your items, your I d s,
your passports. You don't know how much that happens. My

(41:15):
mom was so anxious. Oh my gosh, it happens all
the time. That's what they do. Yeah, I know, no hate,
no heat, but you've got to protect yourself. Be ready,
be prepared, put your satchel in front of you and
split your money for the lord. I've never never, never
walk anywhere when you're traveling with all your money, and
if you don't have a safe then hide it somewhere good,

(41:37):
take a picture, I don't know, put some in your sock,
sock and your bra or like I always say, the
best way to do it. You have a bag that's
your person, like, don't put it behind you. Not a backpack. No,
you get what's that called them on your chest? Madrid Ones.

(41:58):
I was with somebody who it was just literally me
and her and she had a backpack on and they
took the wallet out of her, which I was kind
of wild for this. I think I was like sixteen seventeen,
then two, and they took her wallet and I noticed,
and you know, it's so weird because we were crossing
the street and there were these two girls around us,
and I got a feeling, a weird feeling. Yeah. I
was like, they're a little sketchy, you know. And I'm

(42:20):
not a judgmental person. I've just been talking on and
I follow my intuition. It's never led me astray. And
at some point we you know, we are not in
walking in a line, and I guess I walked ahead
of her and at that moment they take her wallet.
And I noticed it within two minutes, and I'm like,
oh my god, they took your wallet. I literally turned
around and I booked it to the end of the

(42:42):
street and somehow I found these girls, and yes, I
confronted them. I confronted them. I was baldy as hell,
and they gave me they gave me back the wallet.
Later I realized, however responsible that was, because they were gypsies,
they were Romanian, and usually those people tend to travel
in groups. And somebody got to pull that knife or
killed your take. But you don't mess with me, don't

(43:03):
you know what mess with me. You can't mess with
my people, the lions when me comes out, and that's it. Geminy,
you got the wallet back. I got the wallet back
at sixteen. I was like, I know you took it,
give it back. It was a badass move out the
wallet at sixteen. Don't do that again. Please. If they

(43:25):
did it to you, I would oh, oh my gosh.
One thing that I think we have to talk about
before finishing today is space travel. Oh, we are commercial
space travel. We are officially entering the phase where human
beings will eventually regularly be flying up into Earth orbit.

(43:49):
And that's there's a lot of misconceptions about that. You
know that I've been super you know, fixated on space
travel and critical at the same time. For sure, you
know you have to be fair watching on the launches, yes,
but also realizing, wow, that's a lot of money, that's
a lot of research, or so many problems on this planet. However,
there are a couple of misconceptions because the way that

(44:11):
we're moving in the future. You know, we haven't been
able to reuse shuttles. You know, you have this rocket,
you launch into orbit and then usually you're losing millions
of dollars just because coming back into the Earth's atmosphere,
a lot of this gear was burning up. Right. We
have companies now, Yeah, Virgin Galactic see that. It's not

(44:32):
that we're trying to go to the Moon per se,
but maybe we can get you to China in two
hours and that's a that's a game changer in a
lot of ways. Yeah, but you know, like you mentioned,
there's a high cost that that this is this involved,
and you have to ask yourself, why are the billionaires
of the world focusing on us leaving our planet rather
than fixing this one? You know, I'm gonna be honest

(44:53):
with you. I don't think humans have passed the test.
I don't think humans have proven that we can leave
the planet that we live in, because right now, as
a majority, we have killed the planet that we currently
reside in. And who's to say what's going to happen
outside of it. I bet we're just gonna see a mirror,
a mirror of what's happened now because we've yet to

(45:15):
fix the problem on the damn Earth that we live on,
have always lived on. I don't think we should be
allowed to be humans. I don't think we should be
allowed to be in space. Yeah, you're just gonna see
more space trash. You're just gonna see the continue to
depletion of our ozone layer because just imagine the amount
of fuel that it takes to launch one rocket. It

(45:35):
is a responsibility and it is funny because it's kind
of like chicken and egg, right, Like they're like, oh,
we'll get into space, We'll figure out what's really going
on with the Earth. It's like, no, we know, Well, um,
how good is trying to fix the problem with your
body if you're eating Burger King every day? You know
what I'm saying, You have to start from the inside out.
So I'm totally with you. I think that it would

(45:55):
be there was that early you know, twenty something year
old kid who invested his time and built a ocean
cleaner upper and you know things like this that it
just takes the right people focusing the attention in the
right places that can actually guide us into a better
tomorrow where when we go to space, we are actually

(46:19):
prepared to handle that responsibility because we're not. No, but
guess what it's happening. And it's freaking because when we
were Jem was preparing for the episode today and I
was meandering about and she's like, oh my god, and
we both kind of like huddled behind the computer and
it was one of those moments because we were on

(46:39):
the Virgin Galactic and Space X website and have full
blown sign up today. You can be in a pod,
this pod or that pot. It's like it's real, it's not.
It's not like a thing of the past anymore. But
I hope that we can kind of like send off
that alarm because we have to do this responsibly. We've
definitely been in responsible with with with what we have,

(47:02):
so you know, you don't you don't give a kid
who has learned the responsibility of a jacket a cell phone.
That's why we just trust the aliens to abduct us
and do what they do best. Look, I've always believed
that the aliens are here, but you know, at this point,
I'm pretty certain in my lifetime in hours that they're
going to reveal themselves as such, and I'm prepared. So

(47:23):
consider this a hello alien, they are here? What do
you mean? It's literally you know, I know they're everything
that's being proven, but we don't talk about it. Everyone
more or less has heard the headlines, has seen the
o UFO sightings, But I don't think that we've like
consciously we're like no, no, no, no, no no, no, no,
no no. There was a newspaper article in the fifties

(47:43):
or sixties, I'm not sure the exact year, but Roswell
that was where it happened, and they reported an actual
UFO crash. They reported, you know that they recovered a
body and this and that, and then um, after the
fact they redact did it because they We're like, oh,
it's a weather balloon. It wasn't that. But the reality

(48:05):
is that now if you know, with the Internet and everything,
if you have social media, or even if you've watched
the news. This year they released a report of people
in our armed forces that have had encounters with unidentified
flying objects and submerge flying objects underwater and just traveling

(48:26):
at speeds that don't make sense, disappearing in ways and
patterns that don't make sense. And I think that the
information is there, it's just harder for people to believe
because if you do believe it, then your reality kind
of shatters. But from where I'm standing, what is reality?
That's what we're kind of trying to figure out. So
I keep an open mind. I don't look at it.

(48:47):
Is it here and look at it as well? We
we have this information, and why wouldn't you believe you know,
why do you believe everything else on the news, but
you don't believe that. I mean, you know, imagine traveling
the speed of light. Time itself would ceased to be
because it's as we know it. That's what happens. When
I get scared, I travel the speed of right into

(49:08):
the floor in front of you. Also, this is how
I'm going to leave this episode, and then we're gonna
say goodbye. It's actually my real favorite travel story about you.
You know why, because it happens every time and it
never gets old. If you've ever seen friends out there,
there's a certain characteristic about Ross that my god, Jem says, well,

(49:31):
I'm traveling. If you go to a hotel with Jem,
just know that she's not only paying for the night's stay.
I have a ritual. We get to the hotel and
by the way, it's not for her, it's for everybody
that stays at her house. She will call and go, Hi, shimpoo,
condition do you have a shaver? Do you have a
waxing kid? Really, I'll be like Hi, I'm so sorry.

(49:53):
I just caught to the room and it doesn't appear
to that there's any toiletries here. Can you send me
like two of everything? Yes, thank you. Well, by the
end of the trip you will have an entire luggage.
I think she will walk by a housekeeping cart and
not look at it like I don't know what I
was gonna say, a piece of meat, but no, I
gotta like a gorgeous woman. I don't know what the

(50:17):
spark and the excitement of having ten shampoos, two conditioners,
salt writing, but you know what. You come to my
house and it's set up so cute, like a little
hotel for you. So even if you don't want to travel,
just come to gemin Ms and you'll feel like your
own vacation. Because of everything she's thieved from all of
our trips, I didn't see it. I paid for it.
It's at least they could do. Well. There you go. Well,

(50:41):
I'll be honest with you. I missed you these past
two episodes, and it's nice to have you back. I'm
glad to be back. It's nice to be here in
our mothership together, in our own world. One of my
favorite places to be. That's right, baby, and I'm happy
that you guys are back listening to us once again.
We really could and be doing this without you, and

(51:02):
you are as much as part of these journeys as
we are. And even though you might not be here physically,
we are thinking about you and we feel you here
with us. So thank you for sticking around for episode
twenty one. Wow, oh my god, twenty one. Let's go
get a drink. Also, you guys, speaking of travel, go
on our instagrams, okay, because when I was in San Antonio,

(51:25):
the Texas bush Man, who literally is my hero and
my enemy. He's my enemy and he hides inside of
a potted plant and scares people and he got me.
So if you want to see some journeys of our
trankster got pring, the prankster got pranks. And also we're
always posting stuff about traveling, so go check it out.
We're gonna send some videos. You send us some videos

(51:47):
of your travels. You know that you can reach us
on Instagram. I'm Emily Underscores, Stefan and gems longevity. That's right,
And if you ever feel so inclined, you can call
us call us on a line. Thanks, for flying with
us today. We love you. You can take your seatbelts
off now, bye bye. This is a Moonflower production in

(52:10):
partnership with I Hearts Michael Do That podcast Network. For
more podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio app or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.