1. Carpool, Conferences, and Cults of Personality

This week on Premeditated Opinions:

Pamela and Josh unpack the chaos of modern life — from the battlefield that is the school carpool line to the heartbreaking reality of lockdown drills.

Pamela shares highlights from the Witness Success Conference in Louisville, including a wild session on laughter yoga (yes, fake-laughing until it becomes real). They swap stories about parenting meltdowns, cultural absurdities, and why laughter might be the most underrated coping mechanism we have.

Other highlights:

• Carpool drama: entitled parents, clueless merging, and near altercations with school security.
• Lockdown drills: how kids process them vs. how parents struggle with the weight of it all.
• Conference inspo: women in tech, powerful speakers, and laughter as medicine.
• Taylor Swift appreciation: her business brilliance, generosity, and yes — Pamela was an extra in a music video.
• Karaoke as world-saving strategy: what songs would actually save humanity?
  
  

If you’ve ever sat in a carpool line ready to lose your religion, wondered how to cope with the absurdity of school lockdown drills, or needed a reminder that humor still matters — this episode is for you.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
I grew up in gun culture.

(00:01):
I I my family, they're nothunters.

SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Um they're gatherers.

SPEAKER_03 (00:07):
Gatherers.
We like berries and whatever wecan get out of the tree.

SPEAKER_02 (00:21):
You're listening to premeditated opinions.
Because yes, we thought aboutit, and then we said it anyway.
I'm Pamela.

SPEAKER_03 (00:28):
And I'm Josh, and we are just two people who somehow
share a brain and decided toweaponize our brains with
microphones.

SPEAKER_02 (00:35):
Each week we unpack the chaos from politics and
religion to petty internetfights and existential dread,
like it's our unpaid job.

SPEAKER_03 (00:43):
We are not experts, we are just way too confident.
So, with all that being said,let's get started.
So you texted me this morning.
Um in a group thread that we'rea part of.
And you had uh you had quite theexperience um in the carpool
line this morning.

(01:04):
Why don't you share with theladies and gentlemen what what
what situation you were inspecifically?

SPEAKER_02 (01:10):
All right.
Look, I try not to complainabout carpool line.
I try not to complain at all.
I am failing at thatwonderfully.
Um, but carpool this year, I'mlike, what has happened to
y'all?
I mean, I know some of y'alldone this before.

SPEAKER_04 (01:30):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
I I'm willing to give grace to the kindergarten
moms and dads.

SPEAKER_04 (01:37):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:38):
This was this year's on another level.
I'm like, y'all even know how todrive.
Like, have we just lost allhope?

SPEAKER_03 (01:48):
Right.
Well, and the the and you'veheard me say this before.
There's absolutely nothing thatbrings out the worst in me quite
like a carpool line.
I don't know.
It just it seems to bring outthe worst in everybody.
And then it creates a situationwhere all of us are on a
deadline.
So we're all just trying to getour freaking kids to school,
like responsible adults.

SPEAKER_02 (02:08):
Well, and some people have deadlines, they
gotta get to work.

SPEAKER_03 (02:10):
Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (02:11):
And they they don't have leisure time to wait for 40
minutes in the carpool line.
And it should not like our kidshave 30 minutes from the day the
time that the doors open to thetime the bell rings.

SPEAKER_03 (02:25):
Same.

SPEAKER_02 (02:26):
And I got my daughter in school right before.
But if I had waited like I wassupposed to, listen, I cut some
corners because I wasfrustrated.
But um if I had gotten her, if Ihad waited in that line, she'd
have been late.

SPEAKER_04 (02:43):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (02:44):
And I because when I pulled back out, there was still
a line of cars, and I'm like,what are we doing?
Right.
What are we doing here?
So what had happened was so I goto drop my son off first.
So his school starts at like7:50.
My daughters doesn't start till8.30.
So uh we get there, we're inline, and it's let's see, we

(03:05):
left at he we were running latebecause of course it's a week
and a half.
We've already lost our hoodie,our water bottle, and our lunch
box.

SPEAKER_03 (03:15):
The new Converse one.
The new Converse hoodie.
Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 (03:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I he's crying, and I have nomercy.
I'm I'm like, listen, you've gotto learn some responsibility.
So we're already running behind.

unknown (03:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (03:31):
So it's raining.
So that automatically justscrews everything up.
And so I expected a little bitof things were gonna be moving a
little bit slower.

SPEAKER_04 (03:40):
Sure.

SPEAKER_02 (03:40):
This was ridiculous.
So our school has two lanes topull in, and everybody likes to
pull into the right lane becauseI get you closer to the door.
The left lane, though, will alsoget you close to the door.
You just have to merge into theright lane.

SPEAKER_04 (03:58):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (03:59):
And people just don't want to pull into this
lane and have to merge and andall, and I'm like, I ain't got
time.
So I pull into the left lane andas I'm getting closer, I'm
seeing people are only going,they're not even pulling all the
way up.
They're only pulling up likethree car links.
They are then like turning.

(04:20):
There's a little bit of a likean emergency lane there.

SPEAKER_04 (04:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (04:23):
And you've got like three people just kind of
pulling off into this lane,getting out of their car, turn,
getting around, take, you know,helping their kids out with
umbrellas, walking them to thedoor.
I'm like, we ain't got time forthis.

SPEAKER_03 (04:35):
Right.
Yeah.
So I and also they're 10.
They'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 (04:39):
Well, yeah.
You know, I'm like, yeah, it'sraining.
It's mostly covered.

SPEAKER_04 (04:44):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
Okay, come on.
Your kids ain't that precious.
So I, instead of merging intothe lane, I just go straight
because there is technicallyanother lane.
I just go straight and pull inwhere I'm supposed to go.

SPEAKER_04 (05:00):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (05:01):
And tell my son, sorry about your luck.

unknown (05:04):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (05:04):
Maybe you'll remember your hoodie.
Um, and he got out.
And then finally, people behindme started following suit.
Yeah.
Because I'm like, I am notwaiting for these three precious
children to get out, and thenthe next three precious children
to get out.
Like, we ain't precious in thisfamily.
So um, so I had that.
Well, by the time I finally gotthrough that lane and back home,

(05:28):
I was already late to pick up mydaughter to take her to school,
which I knew again, raining,right?
All that, like we're gonna bedealing with something similar.
And it was the same damn thing.
Again, two lanes to pull in.
Everybody's trying to get intothe right lane.
So I literally I'm in the turnlane to turn left into the

(05:49):
school, and I look and just pullinto oncoming traffic.
Luckily, nobody's coming becauseI'm like, I ain't got time.
I ain't got time, I ain't gotpatience.
This is dumb.

SPEAKER_04 (06:00):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (06:00):
So we finally get into the parking lot.
I'm the first one in this lane.

SPEAKER_04 (06:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:07):
No, I'm like, she had five extra steps to take
from the second lane from thefirst lane.
I and and I dropped her off andI was in and out both times.
And I'm like, what are we doinghere?
Right.
Why am I the only one doingthis?
Right.
And I wasn't doing anything Iwasn't supposed to be doing
either.

SPEAKER_03 (06:27):
It's just every I'm well and like for me in our with
our setup, we do only have asingle lane, and because of
where the crosswalks happen, thethe the whole carpool line ends
up getting stopped.

SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
Don't get me started on crosswalks.

SPEAKER_03 (06:43):
Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 (06:43):
But go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 (06:44):
We so the crossing guard lady is sweet enough, and
I know she's got a tough job,and she's trying to wrangle a
lot of things.
She is, and because of just thesetup within the neighborhood
and all this, she's kind of outthere just doing her best to not
get kids killed.
And she's doing it well.
Yeah.
Um, and well, actually, one ofmy favorite things is when she

(07:05):
is signaling stop and someonetries to pass her, she will go
up and like bang on your car.
She will hit your car with herstop sign.
It's hilarious.
When you're in the carpool line,it we're basically in a
neighborhood, and it's an olderneighborhood where the streets
aren't very wide at all.
And so if you're in the carpoolline, you have to pull right up
next to the curb and kind ofinch along the curb until you
get up to the area where you cansort of pull in the driveway and

(07:28):
drop off.
And there's only one lane to doall of this.
We do not have a second laneoption.

SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Well, that's that's fair.

SPEAKER_03 (07:33):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (07:34):
That my thing is we have an unutilized second lane
for no reason.

SPEAKER_03 (07:38):
Yes.
Well, I try and be aresponsible, reasonable adult.
And as we are making our waythrough the neighborhood,
there's several houses andstreets that you kind of pass as
you're inching your way throughthe carpool line.
And I try to not block people'sdriveways.

SPEAKER_04 (07:56):
I try to not block streets because I'm not a jerk.

SPEAKER_03 (08:00):
And so as a result, every now and again, there is a
gap between me and the person infront of me.
And I swear to God, 80% of thetime, someone will just swoop in
where I have left a gap, so I'mnot blocking a street.
Someone will just jump right inthat gap.
And so this was happening likethe last two years constantly.

(08:23):
Well, so our kids meet theteacher night was a couple weeks
ago.
It was a few days before schoolstarted.
And so I get there plenty early,and I got a real parking spot.
There's not a lot of them, butthere are real parking spots at
this elementary school.
And so I managed to snag one,and this woman pulls in and
literally parks right behind me.

(08:43):
She blocks me in.
And I don't know if it was themood I was in.
I don't know if it was just therepetitiveness of this kind of
problem over the last couple ofyears.

SPEAKER_02 (08:54):
The entitlement?

SPEAKER_03 (08:55):
The entitlement.
Like I walked up to this car andwas just like, do you think
you're more important than allthe other people who are parked
here?
And she's like, Well, I don'twant to park way back on the
street.
I couldn't get here any earlier.
I was like, Well, sorry aboutyour luck.
Tough luck, man.
Like all these people got hereearly, and now you're just

(09:17):
jumping in to a space that isblocking in not just my truck,
but like two other cars.
And I was like, Why do you feellike this is something that you
can do?
Why why do you and so I havethis whole like altercation with
this woman who is still sittingin her car, and and so I I get
pretty fussy, but also it'smeeting the teacher, and it's
hot outside, and I want to goinside.

(09:38):
And so I just start walkingaway.

SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
If you're like me, and I know you are, you don't
even want to be in there in thefirst place.

SPEAKER_03 (09:43):
I really don't.
Um, but I'm trying to do theresponsible grown-up parent
thing.
And so my kids are with me andare are witness to all of this.

SPEAKER_00 (09:52):
So I get they just slowly start getting back in the
car.
They're just like, oh god.

SPEAKER_03 (09:57):
Yeah, we don't know this man.
But uh we we we get inside theschool and you know, I'm doing
the meet the teacher thing andwalking around and finding their
classes, blah, blah, blah.
And honestly, it's going well.
Like I'm meeting teachers, I'mactually I'm really enjoying
these people I'm meeting, and itis it the vibes were good.
Well, this parent pulls me asideuh as we're walking out of one

(10:19):
of uh my son's classrooms, andhe goes, Man, thank you so much
for talking to that lady.
He goes, I see that same ladydoing that all the time, and
she's always cutting in line andblah, blah, blah.
And and I was like, I promiseI'm a nice guy.
But but I've just had enough ofthat garbage.
And I don't know what it isabout carpool lines, especially

(10:41):
this season of the year.
They're so bad right when schoolstarts.
And we have these 10 weeks ofsummer, and everyone forgets
entirely how to do this.

SPEAKER_02 (10:51):
And they all it's it's not just some, it's like
all.

SPEAKER_03 (10:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (10:55):
I'm like, there's only X percent of kindergartners
or new students to this school.
Like the rest of y'all done thisbefore.
Right.
Like it ain't it ain't changed.
I don't know what's going on.
So funny enough that you saythat.

SPEAKER_01 (11:09):
So I have, and I try, I try.

SPEAKER_02 (11:13):
We have a group of teachers or faculty that wait by
the carpool line to kind of helpfacilitate.
My problem with that is in myson's school, it's social hour
for the teachers.
And I'm like, look, I'm tryingto keep in mind they got a
million things that they'reresponsible for, that they

(11:34):
shouldn't be responsible for,they're underpaid, yada yada
yada.

SPEAKER_04 (11:37):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (11:38):
But I'm like, don't be out there if you're not gonna
help.
Like, like we have studentshaving trouble opening the doors
or closing the doors or gettingin, like if they would just
focus on helping kids in and outof the car, like back home,
teachers did that.
Like they would open the doorsfor the kids, like that's and

(12:01):
helped them, you know, get intothe building and and keep the
line moving.
And these teachers, I'm like,this is not your social hour,
like be out here or don't,because you're just pissing me
off at this point, like justhanging out.
Um, but you you mentioned uhaltercation.
I almost had one with the new umsecurity officer.

SPEAKER_03 (12:21):
Oh, fun.
That's yes, let's hear aboutthat.

SPEAKER_02 (12:26):
So last week, let me think about this.
Last week I was picking up myson.
So the first week of school,I've gotten in this real bad
habit.
I drop both kids off in themorning and I pick both kids up
in the afternoon.
I will never do that again.
So uh it was Friday, and uh wehad split the responsibility.

(12:50):
So I was picking up my son, andthen my husband was supposed to
be picking up my daughter.
My my kids go to differentschools, if I have if that
hasn't been clear yet.
Um and I had called my husbandto make sure he was gonna be
able to get off work and pickher up on time and all of that.
He didn't answer.

(13:12):
He was at work.
Okay.
It just so happens that when hecalled me back, I was pulling
into the left lane of theentrance, doing things
correctly.
Um, actually, it's a little bitdifferent in the afternoon, but
I digress.
So but he called me as I waspulling into the drive and I'm

(13:33):
on speaker phone, holding, yeah,I'm holding it up, I'm on
speakerphone, I'm payingattention, and the SEO officer
like calls me out for being onmy phone.
Uh and I rolled my window downand I was like, Are you gonna go
pick up my daughter?
I said, Because I'm on the phoneright now making sure she's
gonna get picked up.
And he's like, We need to be offour cell phones in the line.
And I'm like, listen, yeah, Iain't sitting here scrolling

(13:56):
social media, I ain't in herenot paying attention.
I ain't one of these parentsthat ain't paying a lick of
attention and not doing what I'mdoing what I'm supposed to be
doing.

SPEAKER_04 (14:04):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
Um, no, I wouldn't have been on my phone.
I know you're not supposed to beon your phones in in the school
zones or whatever, but I'm like,I'm literally just making sure
because again, it's timesensitive.
You know, I don't we only haveso much time to pick her up.
Um, and it's not my fault thathe just happened to call at an

(14:25):
inconvenient time.

SPEAKER_03 (14:26):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (14:27):
I'm like, next time I'll text.

SPEAKER_03 (14:29):
Right, exactly.
I'll stare at my phone and notlook up at all and take out a
couple second graders.
We have plenty of them.

SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
Yeah, so pick your battles, sir.
I'm like, it's been a week and ahalf, and I'm already probably
on somebody's list.

SPEAKER_03 (14:43):
I I have cars that I have memorized.
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (14:46):
Yeah, that I have literally asked before.
There was some some lady, Iremember it was a Kia Telluride.
I don't know what it is aboutKia Tellurides.
Y'all love just riding uppeople's butts every day.
She would, and then I found outthat she worked at the
elementary school.
Oh, and so one day I dropped myson off and I rolled the window
down.

(15:06):
I'm like, who drives that car?
And they're like, uh, iseverything okay?
And I'm like, who drives thatcar?
Yeah.
And they would not tell me.

SPEAKER_04 (15:13):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (15:14):
But later on, I managed to get it out of my son.
I was like, hey, do you know whodrive do you know who that lady
is?
Do you know?
He's like, Oh yeah, I thinkshe's the art teacher or
something.
I was like, mm.
So the next um, the nextwhatever event we had to to be
at the school, you best believeI walk past her door.

SPEAKER_03 (15:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (15:36):
Like, ma'am.

SPEAKER_03 (15:38):
Throw in shade.

SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 (15:39):
My kids uh are in the same building.
I don't have to deal with themultiple pickup and drop-off
like Pamela does, but that'sonly for this year, and it's
going to change after this year.
Um, so I actually feel liketheir school right now does a
pretty great job of managing allof the logistics of getting kids
in and out of the building.

(16:00):
Uh, I don't know that they havean opportunity to do it much
better because of the locationof the school and things like
that.
And the faculty is staff isactually helpful, which is good.
But when you're dealing withother parents who are convinced
of their own importance, there'sjust there's going to be anger
and weeping and gnashing ofteeth.
Like it's it just it goesbiblical every time because you

(16:23):
we have gotten in our heads thatuh our children are the most
precious, that uh everythingthat they do is perfect and uh
blessed.
So I understand that the worldha has been very uh cruel to
students with school violenceand things like that.

(16:44):
It it's just a different placethan it was even when you and I
were in school.
And I'm I'm ready to acknowledgethat.
That's fine.
My kids had their firstscheduled lockdown drill a
couple days ago.
For this year or this year.

SPEAKER_02 (17:01):
And the fact that I even have to ask that question
is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 (17:05):
Right, right.
Well, and and the fact thatlockdown drills have to exist at
all is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 (17:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (17:11):
But when I was hearing about it after they got
in the car, I got an email fromthe school ahead of time and
they told all the parents, like,just FYI, we had a scheduled
lockdown drill today.
If you're if your students talkabout it, you know, it was not a
real threat, you know, this wasjust a drill.
And they were very clear intheir communication, which I
appreciated.

(17:31):
Then we got in the car and mydaughter starts talking about
how fun she thought it was andhow they kind of gamified a lot
of it.
And I'm I just can't decidewhere I stand on this, to be
perfectly honest.
Like, I I don't I don't wantthem to exist in the first place
because we can't get our stufftogether enough from a

(17:53):
legislation standpoint toactually pass meaningful gun
control.
Instead of doing that and makingthis the grown-ups problem,
we've decided to make itelementary school kids' problem.
Like we're we're gonna we'regonna put the burden of response
on my nine and eleven-year-old.
Are you out of your mind?

SPEAKER_02 (18:09):
Like Oh, we have so many opinions on this.

SPEAKER_03 (18:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and and I'm not even I Igrew up in gun culture.
I I my family, they're nothunters.

SPEAKER_02 (18:19):
Um they're gatherers.
Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
We're more gatherers.
We like berries and you know,whatever we can get off of
trees.
But the um yeah, my family wouldhave not made it in the
hunter-gatherer scene, by theway.
Like we it's really a good thingthat we were born in the eras
that we were born.
Um my dad is a brilliant,brilliant, brilliant man, and I
am I have zero confidence in hisability to feed himself.

(18:45):
But um, so we I've grew uparound gun culture.
I grew up around, you know, thesafe handling of firearms.
I've been to gun ranges.
I I like I get that culture, Iget this Second Amendment appeal
and all of this.
But at the same time, we havejust lost the plot entirely as

(19:06):
far as how we're letting allthese things trickle into our
school systems, and now it's inthe faces of our kids.
So my daughter was talking abouthow she thought it was so fun
and it was this game and blah,blah, blah.
Whereas my son was way moreaware of what was going on, took
it really seriously, and um Ifound out actually that his

(19:26):
sixth grade teacher uh hadactually been on campus during a
real lockdown a few years ago,not at the school that he
currently attends.
Um but he had been like actuallyon site when someone armed was
in the building and and therewere no casualties, but like it
was a real situation.
I have so much uh uhdisappointment in how we have

(19:49):
approached a lot of theseschool-centered problems.
And at the same time, I feellike it's sort of fallen out of
our conversations.
Like it's not it's not alegislative priority anymore.
We're too concerned about it.

SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
Oh yeah, we're too distracted.
Right.
We're distracted by literallyeverything else.

SPEAKER_03 (20:12):
Yeah.
And I I've gotten this placewhere I just I really hate it.
I I I hate that we're puttingthis burden of responsibility on
you know, kids who haven't evenhit puberty yet.
And we've just lost so much ofuh the plot around whose

(20:33):
responsibility this is, and I'mjust desperately ready for that
to change.
And so I I I'm not trying totake us on a dark turn or
anything like that.
I just I couldn't uh that that'sactually been on my mind for a
few days, and I really I justhate the existence of all of
that, and I don't know exactlyhow to change it other than

(20:53):
voting, but but even then in thestate of Texas, that just feels
like you know, it's notpointless, but it sure feels
that way.
It feels fruitless, yeah.
It's just yeah, you know, butbut in the meantime, we're doing
a great job of of gerrymanderingthe crap out of our legislative
districts and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 (21:10):
But well, now that you bring this up, I just
realized that my daughter is nowthe age I was when I went
through my first bomb threat.

SPEAKER_04 (21:19):
Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 (21:20):
Um, so I remember in middle school, so my daughter's
in seventh grade, and this wasprior to Columbine.

SPEAKER_03 (21:32):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (21:33):
But we there were still like bomb threats being
called in at that time.
Because I remember my middleschool received a bomb threat,
and we started having drillswhere we they would actually
evacuate the school and we wouldhave to walk down the street to
this nearby church.

(21:54):
Now we got to a point, almostlike with your daughter, where
when we had these drills or eventhreats, we'd kind of get
excited about it because thatmeant we got to go down to the
church gym and that we playedgames.

SPEAKER_04 (22:08):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (22:09):
Like originally they would they would like evacuate
us into our own gym.

SPEAKER_03 (22:13):
And then I guess they realized um we're still in
the building.

SPEAKER_02 (22:19):
Like, okay, the the bomb must be anywhere but the
gym.

SPEAKER_03 (22:22):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (22:23):
Um, so anyway, um, but yeah, we would go and like
we'd spend hours, I mean,playing all kinds of games in
the gym at the church, and yeah,now my daughter's that age.
Um, and she has to deal with alot more serious acute threat, I
feel.

SPEAKER_03 (22:43):
There's a lot of uh fear and mistrust around w what
would happen legislatively, andI just I refuse to believe that
we're incapable of finding somesort of solution.
But anyhow.
So I don't want to talk aboutthat anymore because it's dark
and it's weird.
Um and and uh but I I but that'swhat we do best.
Right, yeah.

(23:04):
But I appreciate you allowing meto vent about back to school
things and carpool lines, butyou had an interesting week this
week.
You actually went back toLouisville for a few days, yeah,
your hometown, but for a workthing.
So, what took you out there?

SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
I was thinking about this this morning.
Um, I am a serial conferenceattendee.
If there's a conference, I'mgonna be there.
Yeah, um, particularly in theSalesforce space.
So I've been attending, soSalesforce is is really known
for like they've got very largecorporate events, they have
community events, they havecommunity group events.

(23:38):
Um, so this particular one wasback home in Louisville.
It's called Witness Success.
It's a women in tech conference,Salesforce conference, and it
was in my hometown.
So I'm like, win-win, like awomen, a conference, a women in
tech conference, and it's backhome.
So um I had a great time.

(23:59):
Great.
Uh got to catch up with some ofmy my I call my call them my
Salesforce fangirl squad.

SPEAKER_04 (24:07):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (24:08):
So some of them were there.
Um, some of them were speaking.
It was a really good time.
Uh it was a two-day conference.
Um, and then I had some dramatrying to get back home.
But uh yeah, it was a good, itwas, it was a really good time.
I I attended one session um thatI talked to you briefly about,

(24:28):
um, called Laughter Yoga.

SPEAKER_03 (24:31):
Yes.
Which I've been so excited tohear more about and have on
purpose not looked it up.

SPEAKER_02 (24:37):
Yeah.
So it is um, first of all, thelady that presented it, um
Andrea Stratton, I believe itwas her name, she was hilarious.
So that just immediately I waslike, okay, this is gonna be a
good time.

SPEAKER_04 (24:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (24:51):
Uh but And this was a session?
It was a session.
Okay, so this particularconference, while it is a
technology conference, is ismore soft skills, more kind of
thought leadership and kind ofmotivating and ex and inspiring.
Um, you know, has a lean towardwomen in tech and the struggles
that we have um as females inthe you know technical space.

(25:16):
And uh, but we do also get intomore technical conversations,
um, particularly right now.
The buzz is AI, even though wereally tried to avoid a lot of
the AI talk, which I have awhole Substack paper about.
But this session was aboutlaughter yoga.

(25:36):
And so, you know, you have allkinds of yoga.
You've got vinyasa, you've gothot yoga, you've got meditative
yoga, you've got all thesedifferent kinds.
And so I and listen, I don'tknow all the ins and outs.
She talked through it.
I didn't do a whole lot ofresearch on it um just yet, but
there is this thing calledlaughter yoga.

(25:59):
And I knew going into it, I waslike, this is gonna be awkward.
Like, this is gonna be awkward.
We're gonna have to participate.
This is gonna be reallyuncomfortable.
Um, but you basically she kindof goes into a little bit of the
science of it.
So you have two types oflaughter.
You have cognitive laughter andyou have spontaneous laughter.
I could be getting these termswrong, but cognitive laughter is

(26:20):
when you know you know you'relaughing or you make yourself
laugh, like something'suncomfortable, you know, or um,
or you just, you know, justmaking yourself haha.
That's cognitive laughter.
Spontaneous laughter is whensomebody says something funny
that catches you off guard andyou you laugh like it's

(26:43):
involuntary, you know.
So you start off with cognitivelaughter, and and you have a
couple of prompts and they'reactually they're pretty cute.
One of them was um imagine yougot your uh your electric bill
and it was some ridiculousamount.
And so you okay, and all you cando is laugh.

SPEAKER_04 (27:05):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (27:06):
Because it's so ridiculous.
Like it's like an$800 electricbill.
You're just like like like that,that almost uh, what do you call
it?
That um maniacal you know, orjust like the anger laughter,
yeah.
You're like, ha ha, that'sthat's cute.
Like this is this is cute, G Eor L G N E that's back home.

(27:27):
I don't know what it is here.
Um but uh and you're just andthen but once you start doing
this in a group and everyone'sthen it turns into spontaneous
laughter.
And that's essentially whatyou're kind of going for.
You're going for this cognitiveto spontaneous laughter.
And there were so many timesthat I was getting into
spontaneous laughter, justhearing like the speaker was

(27:52):
kind of being funny about it,you know, like so she would just
have these like reallyoutlandish laughs that would
then just create spontaneouslaughter.

SPEAKER_03 (28:00):
And um well, there's so many people there's so many
different laughs that make melaugh.
Like just hearing, like evenyou, like you, yeah, kind of
that one, that one, that's theone.

SPEAKER_02 (28:13):
I'm not like cognitive slash spontaneous
laughter.
Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 (28:17):
But I call it your hoot laugh because it starts off
with sort of this outburst, butit's when I know I've really
caught you off guard.
And and that's that's alwayswhat I'm going for with humor
with anybody.
Is like I want to try and catchpeople off guard and get really
organic laughs.
But at the same time, there'stimes where you know you're just
around other people whose laughall by itself just makes you

(28:40):
laugh.
Like I'm not laughing at thething they're laughing at.
I'm just laughing at themlaughing.

SPEAKER_02 (28:45):
And so she did talk about she's like, you know,
yawns are contagious.
She's like, laughter'scontagious.

SPEAKER_03 (28:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (28:49):
And uh so in this session, it was very quick.
It was like maybe 15 minutes.
Um, and she had like fivedifferent prompts, and you know,
everybody in the room is justlaughing, and and I'm sure we
were very loud.
And I'm sure people like in theroom next to us were like, the
hell is going on over there?
Um, which made us laugh evenmore.
Sure.
Um, but it at the end of thesession, you know, we kind of

(29:13):
sit down and she's just likedebriefing, like, how are you
feeling?
What are you feeling?
And like a lot of people werelike, I feel reset.

SPEAKER_04 (29:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (29:21):
I feel kind of like I feel like I just did a
workout, you know, like my absare hurting and my my cheeks,
you know, and um they've butthey experienced a very almost
cathartic moment.
And if you think about it, Iknow there are a lot of times
when I turn to humor.
Um, I used to do this a lot whenI was younger.
I used to watch horror films,and if I was freaked out, I

(29:45):
would watch stand up.

SPEAKER_04 (29:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (29:47):
Just to kind of like break that up and really like
and just kind of laugh again.
Um, or you know, if I'm reallylike just kind of moody or blah,
like I'll watch some stand upcomedy or I'll watch.
A funny movie.
One of my favorites isStepbrothers or Bridesmaids,
like, and I'll just perk rightup.
So there is a lot of there'sbeen a lot of research done.

(30:08):
I suggest you, you know, I thinklaughteryoga.org is the official
website.

SPEAKER_04 (30:13):
Cool.

SPEAKER_02 (30:14):
Um, but there's been research done on it.
And and at first I was like,okay, when I first saw the
session, I was like, this islike it it can't at first it
felt culty.
It felt very culty.
It was very, I'm like, I don'tknow about this.
But there were benefits.
There's benefits to laughter,there's benefits to humor.

(30:35):
And and honestly, it kind of gotme thinking about the fact that
we need to get back to that.
We need to get back to having asense of humor.
Um one of my favorite things,one thing I'm living for right
now is the Gavin Newsom tweets.

SPEAKER_03 (30:50):
Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 (30:51):
And just that that is what I live for.
I live for humor, I live forsatire, parody, um, being able
to laugh at yourself.

SPEAKER_00 (31:02):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 (31:02):
Um, to me, when you're able to like
self-deprecate or laugh atyourself, or it's just it's a
it's a great way to deal with alot of stressful situations.
Um, you know, it's for me, theGavin Newsom tweets are just
helping me deal with everythinggoing on in the world.
Sure.
And realizing that there's stillsome people in power who have a

(31:24):
sense of humor and a sense ofhumanity.
Yeah.
Um, you know, I feel like I'vealways kind of taught my kids.
Um, sometimes my son likes tofeel cool.
And so if you tease him or makefun of him, he gets very much in
his feels.
And so I've tried to teach himto laugh at himself.
Stop taking yourself soseriously.

(31:45):
Like, have fun with life.
Like, you don't have to be emo.
You know, like, like, and it's agreat way to honestly deal with
bullies.

SPEAKER_03 (31:56):
Oh, absolutely.
Like, I feel like it reallypulls our power.

SPEAKER_02 (31:58):
It does.
And so I think we do need to getback to it.
It it was a very fun session.
Uh, definitely had me thinking.

SPEAKER_03 (32:05):
Sure, there's science to support all of that,
and there's studies and allsorts of things that you can
point to as to how medicinallaughter really is.
But then there's really nosubstitute for like being in
that kind of group environmentand experiencing something that
is sort of universally funny.
And on a much smaller scale,like our families have spent a

(32:25):
lot of time together thissummer.
And two things that have beenvery uh ubiquitous throughout
the whole summer are Jackbox,which, if you don't know what
that is, it's a Nintendo Switchgame that's meant to be played
in groups, and you actually thegame is hosted by the Switch,
but everyone plays on their ownphones or iPads or whatever
connected devices.

(32:45):
And then we have played so muchcards against humanity this
summer.
And it's fantastic.
And and part of why we keepreaching for it is because of
how funny it is.
Like we that I don't know if itwas the first night that we
played.
We there have been many cardsagainst humanity nights between
the grown-ups.
Let me be very clear.

(33:05):
Our children have notparticipated in in Cards Against
Humanity.
Um, we're better parents thanthat for now.
I I don't remember if it's afirst or second night, it might
have been both for that matter.
I remember literally going tobed that night and my stomach
hurt.
Like we had laughed so hard forso long that my muscles
literally ached.
And what a great freaking night.

(33:28):
I mean, it was it's justimpossible to be in a bad mood.
It's impossible to um like not,it's impossible to continue to
take things too seriously.
It really is medicinal in a lotof really cool ways.
And even the Gavin Newsom tweetsthat you brought up, it what
he's really doing in that ishe's making something that can

(33:52):
feel really serious and even alittle scary.
He's he's making it silly.
And I'm encouraged by the factthat something like Laughter
Yoga wasn't an extracurricular,it was an available session.
I love that because that's sortof centering like our own
experience and you know, our ownapproach to hard things and our

(34:14):
even to some degree an approachto community.
Like you guys had a communityexperience within this session
that I'm sure is getting talkedabout in other places other than
this podcast.
And what a brilliant move on thepart of the organizers to be
like, no, this is gonna bereally helpful to the people who
are here.
And you know, maybe it'ssomething that people will take

(34:35):
home and benefit from and talkabout more and think about more,
and like all that's prettypowerful.
Yeah, and so yeah, I I lovethat.
So, any other highlights fromfrom that few days?
Um, other than getting delayedcoming home, right?

SPEAKER_02 (34:48):
Pretty crazy.
Um, for sure.
So a close friend of mine,Alison Roscoe, she presented for
the first time.
So that was exciting.
Um, she has an organizationcalled Data and Donuts.

SPEAKER_03 (35:00):
Uh coined name.

SPEAKER_02 (35:02):
Coined by her neurospicy son, who's 15.
Um, when she wanted to kind ofuh she was in a similar similar
situation to me.
She'd been laid off.
She's a data enthusiast.
She wanted to kind of branch outon her own.
So um she created anorganization, asked her son,
hey, what do I call it?
He's like, Well, you like dataand you like donuts.

(35:22):
So there you go.
Um, she wore this really cute umdonut shirt, and she had a
presentation on um healthy,healthy mind, healthy data,
essentially.
Um so really excited for her,for her, you know, um journey
into public speaking.
Um, yeah, I mean, honestly,every session I went to was

(35:45):
really great.
We had we had guys there, so wehave allies that go.
Um, there was a a good number ofof male allies there.
Um, so that was encouraging.

SPEAKER_03 (35:55):
Are you a hundred percent sure they're not just
single guys looking for nerdywomen?

SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
So I mean, a hundred percent, I don't know, yeah, but
no.
Uh several of them werespeakers.
Um there were some vendors.
Um most of the people, honestly,I love that when I go to these
events, um, I know a goodmajority of the people.
Yeah.
Um it's kind of like it's almostlike a reunion for me.
It's almost like, hey, let's gohang out and like learn some

(36:23):
cool stuff and nerd out onSalesforce.

SPEAKER_04 (36:26):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (36:26):
Um, we had a really good, so one person I really
looked up, really look up to inuh in the Salesforce community
is Leah McGowan Hare.
She is, I believe, the SVP ofthe Trailblazer community.

SPEAKER_04 (36:40):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (36:41):
Um, so she's she's pretty high up there.
I met her uh officially at TexasStreaming earlier this year.
Okay.
Um, we talked about I have mycowgirl boots on.
So she was like, oh my gosh, Ilove those boots.
Um and she actually rememberedme this time.
I I didn't expect it.
I didn't have my boots on at thetime, but um, it was so this the

(37:03):
first night, which was Tuesday,uh, that evening they did a
celebration.
They always do so Salesforcealways does um with these like
uh conference events, have somesort of fun evening planned.
And so this one, they planned aprom night.
And it was it was very like youcan go all out or you can wear

(37:26):
what you wore that day, or youknow, they wanted people to be
comfortable, but it was it wasprom themed.
And um one of my favoritestories, Leah got up there.
She's one of my favoritespeakers.
This woman, I think I said on myLinkedIn, like she needs a Nobel
Peace Prize and and motivationalspeaking.
Um, but she got up there and shetold us the story of her prom

(37:49):
dress.

SPEAKER_04 (37:50):
Oh.

SPEAKER_02 (37:50):
So she wore a prom dress, she had a tiara, she had
her prom dress.
I mean, she was dressed as thenines, and her dress was her
original prom dress.

SPEAKER_04 (38:01):
Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 (38:01):
So kudos to fit back in that, first of all.
Like, I don't even think I havemine anymore, and there ain't no
way.
Uh, but her brother had made herdress.

SPEAKER_03 (38:14):
Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 (38:15):
So she's like in typical Curtis fashion, he was
still like sewing up like thefinal things as I'm walking out
the door.
And um she said that he ended uppassing away nine years later
from HIV.
And so that dress really meantsomething to her and for her to

(38:36):
be able to wear that dressagain.
I mean, it was just like I'mlike, I'm done.
Like I can go home now.

SPEAKER_03 (38:43):
Like this, this is just no one's topping that.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (38:46):
But I went up to her after and just wanted to say hi
and she remembered me.
And I was like, oh, I was like,I didn't think you'd remember me
because I didn't have my bootson.
And she remembered my tattoo.

SPEAKER_04 (38:54):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (38:55):
She's like, oh yeah, I remember, I remember you.
She's like in those boots, andand she's just she's fabulous.
So that was that was a reallygreat experience.
And then um, yeah, day two, moresessions, more great talks, met
some really great people.
Um, one lady there gave a talk.
I felt really bad for herbecause there was only like four

(39:18):
of us in the room because theyhad a another Salesforce um lady
there, Gilda.
Um, she was giving a talk at thesame time.
So I think a lot of people werein that session.
But I had uh I talked to hername is Kalia.
And um when I was going throughthe vendors, um, she and I met,

(39:42):
um, she had just written a book.

SPEAKER_04 (39:43):
Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02 (39:44):
And so she had them available, and and she's like,
Oh, yeah, I'm giving them awayin my session.
But she went ahead and gave meone.
I was like, ma'am, I I need youto sign this.
So it's called The Well Within.
Um, and her talk was kind of thehigh level of her book, yeah,
which was really great.
Her session was basically how tothrive in crazy times and

(40:07):
talking a lot about the currentlandscape and um I would like to
hear her talk.
Yes, yes.
Um, maybe we can get her on thepodcast.
Yeah, that'd be fun.
Yeah, but definitely, you know,recommend the book.
But uh her session was reallygreat, and she's just a cool
person to get to know.
And what else?

(40:28):
Um, oh, the so I was originally,I'm not gonna go into the whole
story of like my flight delay,but I was originally supposed to
leave early on the second day.
My flight got delayed, um, whichkind of was a little bit of a
blessing in disguise becausethen I got to stay through the
rest of the conference.
Um, and so at the end of theconference, uh, we had a really

(40:49):
great closing keynote byStephanie Herrera.
She is prominent in theSalesforce community.
She started what are calledSalesforce Saturdays.
Uh Stephanie's based in Austin,Texas.

SPEAKER_03 (41:01):
Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 (41:01):
And so she started these Salesforce Saturdays.
It's like a group event, andthey these caught on and went
international.

SPEAKER_03 (41:09):
Oh, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 (41:09):
Yeah.
But she told her backstory ofyou know growing up in Texas and
kind of moving around and someof the struggles that she dealt
with.
Um, it was very moving.
Um, but it was also the end verymotivating.
Um, she she she did a reallyamazing job kind of closing out
the conference.
And then they did um anotherkind of celebration with

(41:31):
karaoke.

SPEAKER_03 (41:32):
Oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (41:34):
Yeah.
So um I kind of hung out uh withGilda and Allison and Andrea,
um, and the one of the CTOs ofSalesforce was there doing
karaoke of Sweet Caroline, whichI managed to record and put on
my LinkedIn as well.
Um as you should.

(41:54):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (41:55):
Did you sing anything?

SPEAKER_02 (41:56):
I sang along, but I did not go up with a mic.
Uh why not?
Listen.
Listen.
I couldn't even do listen.
Okay, I'm gonna be honest.
I was the only one in the roomwho couldn't do the laughter
yoga.
And I should have.
But she gave us permission toopt out, and I was just like, I

(42:17):
don't know.
I don't know if I can do this.
But I ended up kind of doing itanyway when I was sitting down
because you can't not laugh in aroom full of people laughing.

SPEAKER_03 (42:24):
Right, very true.

SPEAKER_02 (42:25):
So anyway, um, I don't know.
I was just kind of feeling Idon't know, some type of way.

SPEAKER_03 (42:32):
Well, and the day had shifted on you, and and the
you know, the plans that you hadcounted on that were changing in
real time, and flight delays area pain.

SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
And you know, and it just and it created a stressful
situation at home.
So I was just my head justwasn't really in it.
But we I still had a great time.
Yeah, I got home, I got homelate, which was fine, but I got
home, yeah, and then um, yeah,and then just kind of reflected
a lot.
There's there there was a lot ofgood nuggets, a lot of good
stuff I want to uh write someSubstack posts about.

(43:03):
Uh I got some stuff out on myLinkedIn, I got a lot of work
done yesterday, which was whichwas good.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (43:09):
Um so if you if you had one chance to save the world
and your only path to saving allof humanity was an epic karaoke
performance.
What are you picking?

SPEAKER_02 (43:25):
Well, that's a good question.
Um, I think because she's on mymind, I'm gonna have to go with
Shake It Off by Taylor Swift.

SPEAKER_03 (43:32):
Okay.
Would there be choreography?

SPEAKER_02 (43:36):
Not any that anybody would want to see.
But there could be.
There could be.

SPEAKER_03 (43:43):
Mine, uh, I have a few, but if if I'm if I'm
singing to save the world, I'mgoing with Creep by Radiohead.

SPEAKER_01 (43:52):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (43:53):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (43:53):
Because Well, that got dark.

SPEAKER_03 (43:55):
Well, everyone knows the bridge, and it's impossible.
I can usually get whatever roomI'm in to scream sing the bridge
with me.
And it's it'll heal you.
Like you're you'll never be thesame.
So just recently, you and I weretalking about Taylor Swift being
on Jason and Travis Kelsey'spodcast, and I haven't had a
chance to listen to it yet.

(44:15):
I do intend to.
Um, but one of the things thatI've said about her for forever
is I just think she's so muchsmarter than people give her
credit for.
I I think she's an incrediblebusinesswoman.
And and she has surroundedherself with other very
intelligent people.
And like she has done so manythings, you know, basically from

(44:36):
the start of the Eras tour,which is basically the start of
her world takeover, up untilnow, where she's announced
another album, like she's justkind of done brilliant move
after brilliant move afterbrilliant move.
And to be perfectly honest,there's plenty of her music that
I'm kind of indifferent about.
Like, it's fine.
But and there's some of it thatI actually think is good, and
there's plenty that I think isnot not for me.

(44:59):
But you can't take away herbusiness prowess from her.
Like, she is brilliant at whatshe does, and for better or
worse, she seems to actually bein a healthy, happy relationship
with listen to the wholepodcast, but she's just down to

(45:20):
earth.

SPEAKER_02 (45:21):
I mean, she probably goes on for about 10 minutes
talking about how she makessourdough bread.
Like, I'm like, you are abillion-dollar superstar, but
you're just like us, you know,and and she she talks about some
family health struggles, and butthen they banter and they're
funny.
And I I think the appeal ofTaylor Swift is she's one of

(45:44):
those people like you want to befriends with, like you want to
hang out with her because she'sjust so authentic and
down-to-earth.
And yeah, I mean, she is thispowerhouse, but she doesn't act
like it.

SPEAKER_03 (45:58):
She doesn't, and so I'm gonna tell a story that it's
not my story.
So I'm a huge Stephen Colbertfan, and um, we can get into him
his contract not being renewedlater, but he tells this story
about the first time that he metTaylor Swift and he was there,
uh he was at an event and hisdaughter was with him, and at

(46:20):
the time his daughter was 15.
And this is before the Eras tourby a handful of years.
I uh, you know, this is I don'tknow, I'd guess eight to ten
years ago.
I'm not sure on the timeline,but but I know that Steven was
at an event with his 15-year-olddaughter and he literally passed
Taylor Swift in a hallway.
And uh he greeted Taylor as theywere passing each other, and

(46:46):
Taylor stops and looking at hisdaughter, she goes, You look so
gorgeous in that dress.
And he talks about how Taylortook his daughter's hand and
like twirled her around and justwas admonishing her with all of
these compliments and callingout specific details and things.
And Colbert was like, I'll be afan of hers till the day I die.

(47:08):
If you're gonna treat mydaughter that way, then I'm a
fan for life.

SPEAKER_00 (47:12):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (47:12):
And to me, like, so there was that instance, and
then there was a a huge articlethat came out.
So I'm in the productionindustry, I've done a lot of uh
live event work and and videoaudio work and um done some
concert work and things likethat.
Nothing nowhere near uh on astadium level, but I I
understand how these thingswork.

(47:34):
And there was an article thatcame out after the Eras tour was
over where it came out thatTaylor Swift basically provided
bonuses for her entire stafffrom her truck drivers to her
audio video lighting techniciansto her assistants to her roadies
to if you were on that tourconsistently, you received a

(47:58):
substantial bonus.
And I don't know what all ofthem were, but what was
published in the article was hertruck drivers, there were six of
them because when you have atour that size, you have massive
amounts of things to movearound.
Every single one of them got acheck for a hundred thousand
dollars.
And I don't know how the rest ofit broke down.
It's life-changing.

(48:19):
I don't know how the rest of itall broke down, but in that same
article, the figure I read wasshe bonused out over a hundred
million dollars to her staffthat was with her that whole
time.

SPEAKER_02 (48:29):
That's so amazing.

SPEAKER_03 (48:30):
And I'm sorry.
You're gonna treat your peoplethat well?
Yeah, I'm I'm a fan.
Uh there are all these reportsum from when she went to the
Super Bowl about how she um wasshe gave these wads of cash to
her assistants and basicallysaid every server, every
security person, every usher,you're to tip them out because

(48:52):
she knew that her presence atthe Super Bowl was creating more
work for all of these people.
And so she wanted to make surethat those people were taken
care of.
That's awesome.
And I just if that's how you'regonna move through life, then
yeah, um that's that's just aquality move.
Like you're I'm a fan of you asa human being, kind of

(49:14):
regardless of your music,because you're treating people
well.
And look, there's plenty ofpeople in my life who have no
love for her at all, and that'sfine.
And if you're listening, I don'treally care what you think.
But I I I just I really respectthat kind of approach and and it
makes me want her to besuccessful.
Will I listen to her new albumthat's coming out in October?

(49:35):
Probably not.
Yeah, you know, like I'm justI'm not that kind of fan, but I
love kind of how she's movingthrough the world.

SPEAKER_02 (49:43):
Exactly.
Like I call myself a Swiftybecause I am a fan of hers.
It doesn't mean I've heard everyalbum, every song, every, you
know, I've never I didn't go tothe ears tour, I didn't go to
the movies to watch it, like,but I'm still a fan.
And I was just sitting herethinking, when you're telling
these stories of these amazingthings that she's done, and then

(50:05):
we've got Dump over heretweeting, I hate Taylor Swift,
right?
To which Gavin Newsom says Ihate kid rock, which yeah.
So uh I feel like that just kindof tells you what kind of person
we're dealing with.
Um is the most powerful personin America.

(50:26):
Right.
Um why like why it's kind oflike people who say they they
don't like dogs.

SPEAKER_03 (50:35):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (50:35):
They're or they're not dog people.

SPEAKER_03 (50:36):
I'm like immediately skeptical.

SPEAKER_02 (50:38):
Immediately, immediately.
It's like, how do you like howdo you not like I understand if
like you're more of a cat personthan a dog person, but like to
say you're not a dog person,right?

SPEAKER_03 (50:51):
So you you're not a fan of something that's gonna
love you unconditionally everysingle day.
Um you need therapy, like that'sthe only possible response.
Yeah, but no, for for for theleader of the free world to have
such big opinions on uhessentially capitalized
opinions, right?
Yes, yeah, not just bigopinions, but shouty, all caps

(51:12):
opinions.
Like it's it's just a shockingwaste of his time.
Uh, but at the same time, likethat's the pettiness that we're
dealing with in uh in our OvalOffice at this point.
And to get into a lot of his uhpop culture hot takes would it
requires many, many episodes ofthis podcast.

(51:33):
But at the same time, the factthat he has any of those hot
takes at all means that, youknow, maybe you don't have your
eye on the ball there, buddy.
Um, like maybe maybe you'rebarking up all the wrong trees.
Um, and also you're never gonnabe more popular than Taylor
Swift.
Ever, ever, ever.
Ever, ever.

SPEAKER_02 (51:48):
Um oh, so fun fact uh I have been in a Taylor Swift
music video.

SPEAKER_03 (51:54):
Oh, that's right.
All right, tell the ladies andgentlemen how this happened.

SPEAKER_02 (51:59):
So uh, first of all, don't go look at the video
because you're not gonna see me.
Um, but I was there and I gotpicture-proof.
I it was when her video for hersong You Belong With Me was was
out.
Uh, so we're talking like2020-ish.

(52:21):
Um you know, she lived inNashville, or she lived in
Henderson, Tennessee, which isjust north of Nashville.
And her brother went to highschool with my cousin, and they
were filming her video for YouBelong With Me.
It was uh uh like a teenageconcept, like high school

(52:46):
concept, and it was at the endof the year, the school year,
and their um gym was set up forprom.
And so she basically went to theschool and filmed a large
portion of the video using theirprom setup and uh their football

(53:10):
field.
So there's a scene in the videowhere she's dressed in a
brunette wig, she's her alterego, and she's she comes out on
the football field.
There's an actor there who's thequarterback.
Listen, I cannot tell you howlong we sat there waiting for

(53:33):
this man to catch a ball and howmany times they had to reset the
set because this child, I'mlike, can you go practice?
Like, can we not figure this outfor this this kid um to to catch
this ball?
But she was dressed like acheerleader, and and I'm
basically in the the bleachersuh as part of the crowd.

(53:56):
And and it's so funny toobecause uh, and I know you know
this, but we only took up like asection of the bleachers, but
they made it look like a wholefull stadium.

SPEAKER_04 (54:09):
Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 (54:10):
Um, but yeah, we basically just had to keep
yelling and yelling and and allof this.
But nope, I was there.

SPEAKER_04 (54:17):
Nice.

SPEAKER_02 (54:18):
So you are in the presence of greatness.
I've been within 50 feet ofTaylor Swift.

SPEAKER_04 (54:23):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (54:24):
Honestly, probably people in the front row of her
concerts have been closer, but Iwas there.
Yeah.
Um, and so that was fun.

SPEAKER_03 (54:30):
Yeah, that's a fun highlight.
It's fun to be an extra.

SPEAKER_02 (54:33):
Like there, there's because I'm so extra.

SPEAKER_03 (54:37):
I mean, I'm just saying they recruited the right
person, but the it's fun to bethere and to kind of witness all
of that and to see how long allthat stuff takes.
Because that wasn't even herentire video.
Oh, that was a scene in a muchlonger video.
Hours.

SPEAKER_02 (54:51):
And then she had to change in because she was part
of the band.

SPEAKER_03 (54:55):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (54:55):
The marching band.
There's a marching band scene.
Well, it's it's in thebleachers, but um yeah, I mean,
it was it was hours because theywere filming the prom set first,
and then she came out and didthe cheerleader scene, and then
she had to come back out and dothe band scene.
So it's a lot, it was a lot, andI almost didn't go because my

(55:16):
cousin at the time was like, Oh,yeah, like we're we were all
invited to be extras, but shewasn't really into Taylor Swift.
And um, I was like, Well, I'mgoing, right?
Like, like so I almost didn't gobecause she was kind of talking
me out of it, and I was like,No, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna go.
So that was uh that was prettycool.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (55:36):
Well, I fully endorse it for anyone listening.
If you have a chance to be anextra literally on anything, go
do it.
It's really interesting, it'sreally fun, and who knows, man?
You know, you might wind up insomething really cool.
Um, so there's a lot of uh inthe Fort Worth area, there's
some new energy around the TVand the film scene.

(55:56):
Yeah, when the stockyards havebeen a shoot location for uh a
show called Landman, which isone of Tyler Sheridan shows.
He's a guy who produced umYellowstone and the prequel for
Yellowstone, and now Landman,which stars Billy Bob Thornton.
And so, yeah, I mean there'sthere's opportunities even in
Texas now to kind of be involvedin some cool things.
But anyway, yeah, if you have achance to go be an extra, go do

(56:16):
it.
It's a lot of fun.
You'll see some really coolthings.
Don't try and talk to the majorfamous people.
It's not gonna happen.
But but go and just see, like goand learn and be a part of it
because it's really fun.
And so, yeah, we are uh we'reexcited to get this thing off
the ground.
Thank you for joining us on thisjourney.
And uh yeah, we're gonna beright back in your ear holes uh
around the same time next week.

SPEAKER_02 (56:37):
Yep.
Well, that's it for premeditatedopinions where the thoughts were
fully baked and only mildlyregrettable.

SPEAKER_03 (56:43):
And if you enjoyed today's episode, congrats on
having truly excellent taste inpodcasts and also opinions.

SPEAKER_02 (56:49):
Send this to someone who needs to feel seen, dragged,
or both.
We'll be back next week withmore unsolicited insight, an
emotionally responsible spiral.

SPEAKER_03 (56:58):
And until then, please stay hydrated and behave
yourself in the comments.

SPEAKER_02 (57:04):
But if you don't share the photo.