Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Marriage 2.0 with kids…and all the side quests!
Super Familiar with the Wilsons is a weekly comedy podcast about second marriage blended family life, and the beautiful chaos of parenting, aging, and figuring it all out (again). Hosted by Amanda and Josh, partners in life, love, and side quests, each episode dives into real-life stories, quirky observations, listener emails, and spontaneous tangents that somehow always circle back to relationships, resilience, and the absurdity of modern life.
Whether you’re navigating your own second act, raising kids who don’t want your help, or just wondering why birds seem to aim for your head, you’ll find humor, honesty, and heart here. Expect: offbeat storytelling, second-marriage dynamics, parenting fails, philosophical detours, and new friends you didn’t know you needed.
Familiar Wilsons Media produces content to bring people together. We are curious, hopeful, and try not to take ourselves too seriously...admittedly, with varying degrees of success.
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Find us on instagram at instagram.com/superfamiliarwiththewilsons
and on Youtube
Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Wilsons' Poetry Corner
We're into poetry now!
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Find us on instagram at instagram.com/superfamiliarwitthewilsons
and on Youtube
Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Super Familiar with The Wilsons
Find us on instagram at instagram.com/superfamiliarwiththewilsons
and on Youtube
Contact us! familiarwilsons@gmail.com
Familiar Wilson's Media. Relationships are the story. You are made of meat, my friend, all the way down. The following podcast uses words like and and also If you're not into any of that shit, then now's your chance. 3, 2, 1, run.
SPEAKER_01:I'm super familiar
SPEAKER_00:with
SPEAKER_01:you.
UNKNOWN:Get it.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to Super Familiar with the Wilsons, I'm Amanda.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm Josh. Amanda, I write poetry now.
SPEAKER_00:I know, I really like it.
SPEAKER_02:And more than that, I'm recording it and I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do with these recordings.
SPEAKER_00:You should put them out on our socials so people can listen to them. See, I don't
SPEAKER_02:know, this is my thought. I feel like spoken word poetry is probably one of the most niche and least popular ways for people to receive any sort of literature. And maybe that's why I'm interested in
SPEAKER_00:it. Okay, well, maybe this is your pocket. Maybe this is where you belong.
SPEAKER_02:This is what I'd like to do. And I've never even been to a place where they've read poetry aloud before. Is
SPEAKER_00:it like a slam poetry? Is that what it's called? A
SPEAKER_02:poetry slam? See, that sounds a lot more like cultured and cool than what I would
SPEAKER_00:do. It also sounds aggressive.
SPEAKER_02:I would just do like a poetry plop, which is good because it's an alliteration as well. But no, I would like to get to the point where I'm comfortable getting up in front of a crowd, reciting my poetry and not caring how it's received.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I'm married to like a beatnik. Like we've gone backwards to like the sixties and like
SPEAKER_02:this is my point is you're not married to a beatnik you're married to a 50 plus year old dude who is like sitting here wondering if I can handle the rejection of getting up and reading my poetry and having people say well that was here's what I don't necessarily want to be known for not that I care about legacy but I don't want to be the person that's like the straw that broke the camel's back as far as someone receiving poetry it's like they hear me and they're like well shit okay I can forget that now I never want to be exposed to that art form again I
SPEAKER_00:think that You're really good and you need to give yourself some grace.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this is what I would like to do, though. I would like to practice reciting some of my poetry right now. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. This feels like, though, so much pressure on me, because I was telling you you were good, and now you're going to say some really silly, goofy things, and now I'm going to... How is
SPEAKER_02:this pressure on you? How is this about you all of a
SPEAKER_00:sudden? I'm centering myself. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:You are. You are. No, but this is, I kind of think, the point, because I think for the first time the other night, I read one of my poems to you, and to me, that was like a big... step
SPEAKER_00:as well. Was it? Well, but you sent me the recordings of them.
SPEAKER_02:They're separation. I record it.
SPEAKER_00:True.
SPEAKER_02:And then I send it, but I'm sitting in a little room. So here we go. All right, so this one is kind of owed to all of our wonderful billionaires. Oh, God. Who exist right now. I
SPEAKER_00:don't want to think about
SPEAKER_02:them. Well, okay, so ready? Yes. In my champagne penthouse, I recline, dripping in silk, looking so fine. The world outside is a turbulent quake. I say, how quaint with my artisan cake. The news is grim. The headlines scream, but I mute the din with artisanal cream. Earthquakes rattle. Wars explode. Hand me my Prosecco and avocado toast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I've got AC and low temps are the best. The planet's cooking. Oh, that's a shame. Have you tried this sparkling rosé? It's insane. I'm living large while the world implodes, picking cashmere lint off of my ethically sourced robes. Caring is fine, but only in tweets. Empathy's distracting when life is this sweet.
SPEAKER_00:That's really cutting and really good. and also just maddening.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this is the thing. Maybe this is my form of protest.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, but that's the point. From my
SPEAKER_02:bubble, from my privileged bubble.
SPEAKER_00:Your privileged bubble. But that's the point of an art form, right? Is to incite feelings one way or the other.
SPEAKER_02:Well, listeners out there, I want you to contact us at familiarwilsonsatgmail.com and tell me, you can be honest because there's the separation of email. You can even create a new email account if you want. If you don't want to, you can remain anonymous. And save me from myself if I need saving. Just kind of let me know. Is it worth for me to do this thing? And now it's time for our Saturday sports soccer update. It was a rough day. Why you got to spoil the
SPEAKER_00:punchline here? It's the teaser trailer.
SPEAKER_02:All right, here we go. It was a tough outing for the Mighty Wolves this week. At Diamond Sports Park as they faced off against an opponent led by a mysterious phenom named Simon. The result, a 2-0 loss that left the Wolves looking, well, a little less mighty. Winthrop Wilson, usually a fortress both on offense and in goal, had an uneven performance, struggling to find his rhythm. It wasn't entirely his fault, though, as the team as a whole seemed a step behind compared to last week's thrilling victory. Perhaps the absence of sideline coaching, particularly from that one soccer dad, may have left the Wolves rudderless, their strategy adrift in a sea of youthful confusion.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he was pretty quiet this week.
SPEAKER_02:He was.
SPEAKER_00:Moving on. Do you think he got talked to by someone?
SPEAKER_02:I really don't. I don't think that he is one to care about that sort of thing, but... He did have other little children that he had brought. But
SPEAKER_00:they've been there every week.
SPEAKER_02:I know, but also there was like a little soccer ball and he was playing with them.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, maybe he's decided to give up on the one on the field and start training up the other
SPEAKER_02:two. Which is weird because like we won last week. So I don't know. He got complacent. Anyway, Victoria was unusually quiet on the field while Gunter delivered a workmanlike performance. Solid, but not enough to tip the scales. The true spectacle came from the other side, as Simon, a child who some speculate might actually be a 34-year-old hairless undercover soccer pro, dominated the game.
SPEAKER_00:For real, though. That kid was intense.
SPEAKER_02:With precision footwork and uncanny awareness, Simon scored both goals, raising more than a few eyebrows and some conspiracy theories. Despite the loss, the Wolves... Maintained their resilience, spirits remained high, and the team seemed unfazed as they shifted focus to week number four. The season is halfway over, and this pack has plenty of time to regroup and find their Howl again.
SPEAKER_00:Howl! They were just happy for snacks. Here's what I think the problem was. Well, one, the other team, they had more players than us. By one. By two. They said all two. And... they all just, except for Simon, the rest of them just, they were not afraid of the ball. They didn't know what to do with it, but they created basically a wall around the ball. So our players couldn't get in there. They just like all like, You ever see like farm animals like baby goats when you toss food and they all just trying to go with the food? That's basically what they were all doing. They didn't know what to do with the ball except just be around it. And that created this wall that our kids just could not penetrate. And also we weren't playing golf. There was no one in the goal. The coach decided to play zones.
SPEAKER_02:No, there was. The coach did decide late in the first half. There was a goalie because... Gunter started in the goal, if you'll remember. It's interesting, I wonder if something was up with Gunter, because he asked to start in goal, right? And then they switched him out for, I don't remember, one of the other children. And then I heard Gunter say, A few minutes later, I want to go back and goal. So maybe Gunter was nursing a little injury or maybe just his enthusiasm on this team, kind of like Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat. Maybe Gunter is gunning for a trade.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, maybe. Maybe he wants to be traded to the team that we played. Anyway, I do think the biggest factor, though, was not on the field but in the air because it was colder here yesterday morning than it was in Alaska. I learned that when I was at the grocery store. Somebody was telling me, but it was 25 or 28 when we woke up. It felt like 25. And y'all don't understand Florida sports. I signed up for winter soccer so it wouldn't be 90 when we played the fall soccer. I didn't sign up for whatever this nonsense is. So I think they were just frozen.
SPEAKER_02:Well, then all the children would have been affected. It's not like they brought in this team from Alaska. Or maybe they did.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe Simon is from Alaska. You do not know.
SPEAKER_02:Perhaps. I don't know. But we're looking for a better week next week, so y'all stay tuned. What I want to talk about now, I just have a question for you. And no judgment. People need to feel free to be who they are. I was driving while I had already dropped Winthrop off at school, and... I drive through another school zone to get to work. There was a crossing guard that I noticed that's been there the whole time, but I kind of just noticed him this last time. He always wears a cowboy hat. And I'm like, whatever. But I'd never seen him in motion. There was a point where he had to stop the traffic and I was the car that he stopped. I was the first in line. And the Just everything about him screamed evil. cowboy cosplay to me.
SPEAKER_00:Did he do a line dance?
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no, no. Okay, first of all, I mean real cowboy, not line dancing cowboy. I mean, that also is cosplaying when you're line dancing and you have the boots and you are cosplaying. No, he swaggered up the street. I noticed that he was wearing leather gloves. Never seen those before. You know, like leather gloves, like I'm gonna...
SPEAKER_00:Like driving gloves?
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna get the doggies to go down the range or something. He swaggered up and everything about him in his boots and Cabo hat said that he was fulfilling some sort of fantasy with the cars being the heifers. And I'm just like, And he's moving the little baby calves across safely to Gainesville Middle School or wherever it was. And again, I'm not shaming this gentleman. I have no problem with anything that he's doing, but I have a burning desire, I have a need for him to admit that what he was doing was living out his cowboy fantasy.
SPEAKER_00:Did he have a giant belt buckle? He
SPEAKER_02:did.
SPEAKER_00:Did he have a lasso?
SPEAKER_02:I did not see that. It did not become necessary to grab a child wandering into the street quickly. So I didn't see the need for that. But what do you think about when folks are wearing these things that are clearly like... I mean, there's no need for cowboys in the world today, right? Except for, like, you do have farms where they legitimately wrestle the doggies, but...
SPEAKER_00:Maybe he came from the farm to do his stint as the crossing guard. So
SPEAKER_02:you think that when he was done, since I think it's a volunteer position, he was going to go straight to the cattle
SPEAKER_00:run? Yeah. Was he an older gentleman or a younger gentleman?
SPEAKER_02:Older. He was older. He was living out a fantasy. Come on.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe he's a retired cowboy and he feels sad that he doesn't get to dress up like that anymore. Maybe his wife finds it really hot or his husband or his partner. I
SPEAKER_02:don't need for him to be wearing something that makes his wife hot when he's within 200 yards of the school zone.
UNKNOWN:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know what to tell you.
SPEAKER_02:I need to understand. Any of you out there who dress up in gear, right? And I'm not even talking about... It'd be like me wearing a full soccer jersey, pads, cleats to go shopping at Publix. It's just I need to understand. I need to climb into this whole mentality. And I'm fine with it as long as you... kind of let me know what's going on I need to know how to react do I need to be worried if I see this guy out and he's dressed in the chaps and the boots and the hat and he has his his lasso on his hip am I about to get hogtied or is he just it's just just like an innocent the fantasy that he's living out that he just wants to wear the gear this is all I want to know
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, speaking of cosplay and people dressing up to live out fantasies, we are going to experience a lot of it this afternoon at the Medieval Fair. So are you going to feel unsafe with all of the wenches and kilts that you will be seeing?
SPEAKER_02:Wenches and kilts. This Ren Fair that we have is an absolute excuse for people to dress up however they want. So we're going to see Power Rangers. We're going to see lots of furries. This is a thing that I know for certain because we're such a small town. we have very few of these conventions that come through that people are emptying their you know the back of their closet where all the shit from Party City comes from they're gonna empty so no but again that it's it's this is the the contract that that we mentally sign when we go to one of these fairs people are gonna dress up I'm safe because I know that that's the thing in fact people everyone's gonna be dressed up there except me and people are gonna be like oh what's wrong with this guy you know do we need to keep an eye on him and I understand that and I'm okay with that but no again we're talking about just out in public where there is no agreement where, you know, if I show up and I'm going to my doctor appointment and I've got a tail sticking out of my britches, you know, like people are going to be called, right? Authorities are going to be called. That's what I'm saying to you.
SPEAKER_00:I'm so mad at you right now. Oh, God.
SPEAKER_02:That
SPEAKER_00:visual was so good.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, we'll see if it happens. If you find a tail hanging in the back of my closet, you'll know. Anyway, so, y'all, what do you think? People wearing costumes out... Again, I'm not shaming anyone. It's just understand the unexpected, especially in the climate in which we find ourselves. The unexpected can be worrisome sometime, and I don't want to be surprised when I'm out. I want to know what to expect. A symphony of colors unfolding the night. With the day's final breath, I'll take flight. Another thing that I noticed as I was in the school zone waiting for the dude to do whatever it is that he was doing. I will say that I think he's a good crossing guard, so I don't
SPEAKER_00:want to... He's keeping all the children safe.
SPEAKER_02:He's doing well. Is that I heard behind me someone having a phone conversation in their car, and I really don't think that people are aware how loud, like how you can hear... Every part of one side of the conversation.
SPEAKER_00:Well, or both sides, actually. If they're using their Bluetooth.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, does that go through the speakers
SPEAKER_00:as well? Oh my gosh, yes. And I was in the parking garage the other day, had taken Winthrop to his eight-year-old checkup, and somebody was parked in the parking garage, and you could hear the entire conversation because they were broadcasting it over their Bluetooth. And it's so loud. Do people, are they not aware? Do they not care? I...
SPEAKER_02:See, I don't know. I would tend to think that if they're older, like our age, that they're not aware. I'm not aware of how loud my music is when I play it until I'm in a situation now where I work in a place that it's very undesirable because there's people living all around on the campus where I am. It's very undesirable to roll into work and have your music at a level that other people can hear. So I've become ultra aware of the fact of, oh gosh, I'm blasting my music It's the same on the outside because these cars, especially you know as we go forward these cars have zero sort of sound insulation because they're little tiny you know cracker box cars and I'm very aware of it I don't think that a lot of people are aware of how loud whatever goes through your speaker in your car is to the outside world and of course you don't really care unless you get people stopping you or you get like if there's a noise ordinance or something which I'm not aware of but so I don't think this is like a public service announcement maybe to people we could hear everything that happens through the speaker's of your car, period. So keep that in mind. I do not want to hear the specifics, nor do I think that you want me to hear the specifics of your conversation with the nurse at the doctor office telling you how it is you're going to get the whatever finger up your bum or whatever else that needs to happen to check things or whatever. This is not something that you want people to hear. No. Speaking of the doctor's office, there's a segment that we used to do that a visit to the doctor's office has caused me to want to revisit. Okay. You took Winthrop to the doctor the other day. I did. And in the course of the conversations, you started to talk about how Winthrop should stay in his own bed.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:What happens usually is we will put Winthrop to bed. He is around eight years old now, and he's fine with being in his bed, but then in the middle of the night, he'll get scared or he'll just wake up, and then he'll come running and plop into our bed. Very disruptive.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and it should also be known that we do not have a king-size bed. Like most married couples, we have a queen bed, which is fine because we like each other and don't mind being in close proximity. But when you shove an eight-year-old between the two of us, somebody is inevitably getting kneed in the back.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, it's a discomfort sandwich. Now, I don't know, how did you get talking to the doctor about this issue?
SPEAKER_00:Because it was his annual checkup. So they asked things like, do you brush your teeth twice a day? Like they ask him to read things. And then she asked about his eating and asked about his sleep. And you know, what time does he go into bed? And I said, you know, he's usually asleep by eight. We start bedtime at seven, but he's still waking up in the middle of the night. So that was how that came about.
SPEAKER_02:And in the course of talking, she was talking to, she was addressing him or addressing you when she started to talk about what to do?
SPEAKER_00:She was talking to him. She was not talking to me.
SPEAKER_02:But you were in the room.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay. And she was explaining to him that it's really important for our bodies to have uninterrupted, or our bodies and our brains to have uninterrupted sleep, which she's not wrong.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:And she was saying that, you know, she said to him, did you know that humans really are not meant to sleep well? they're meant to sleep alone i guess is what she was saying which makes me wonder what her marriage setup is like but that um i might edit that out okay um she was saying i'm not gonna okay she was saying that i mean and i don't mean that in about i i know people who are married and do not sleep in the same room because they don't get that they don't get quality sleep so i'm not judging their relationship i'm just saying what that setup is like so she was saying that humans are not meant to sleep with other other humans because it breaks our our sleep cycle or you know it wakes us up and so that it really is better for him to sleep in his own room
SPEAKER_02:right i don't know i'd be interested in talking about that a little bit more at least researching it because it used to be that that when we're in caves we would all just kind of like sleep in one big one big person puddle so
SPEAKER_00:to keep each other warm and to protect you from the saber-toothed tigers yes
SPEAKER_02:yes so anyway not the point what is it that she said that got me all twisted up
SPEAKER_00:so she told him here's where it fell down because what she meant was a month, but what she said was a day. She told him, if you can go to bed in your room, go to sleep on your own, which we're still not there. We're still staying with him until he falls asleep. Um, but if you can go to bed on your own, go to sleep on your own and sleep all night and do that for one day, then you can have a scheduled cuddled night with mom and dad where you fall asleep in their bed and you wake up in their bed. Um, But then she said, so after a month, so what she meant was a month of that. But what she told him was a day. So then I had to disillusion him of that when he did it for one night. And it was a little bit unfair because he was right. The doctor did say that, but that's not what she meant. Now, I will say you're upset because she made this schedule for this expectation for us without talking to us. It does not bother me because if I'm gonna get a month of uninterrupted sleep, I'm happy to do a night of it.
SPEAKER_02:My point is very simply that she did not check with the main office before she promised this kid that he could have a night's sleep starting in our bed, ending in our bed. It's not her place to make that decision for us. Well-intentioned, sure, but a step too far, period. a step too far.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but it's working. He's only had... We now are... Six days in and five of the six days he has slept through the night in his bed. So, I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but I'm just happy that it's working.
SPEAKER_02:You know, as with most hills that we decide that this is gonna be the hill that we die on, it's the principle of the thing. Like, next she's gonna be like, okay, well, if you behave really well for the next month, mommy and daddy are gonna give you the keys to the car and you can drive wherever the fuck you wanna drive.
SPEAKER_00:I really do not think that that will happen. I think But you, friend, are escalating.
SPEAKER_02:The door is open. This is what I am telling you. So, friends, listeners, please get in touch. FamiliarWilsons at gmail.com and tell us whether the doctor overstepped a bounds by saying that he could stay in our bed for a night. Or if she should maybe have, like said... Amanda, can we huddle about this and come to some sort of agreement? This is the equivalent of the soccer team not planning, everyone gathering around the ball, and then it's just a big problem. So, you know, I'm prepared to be wrong. I'm not, but I'm prepared to be wrong.
SPEAKER_00:You sound like someone who's prepared to change his
SPEAKER_02:mind. So email us at familiarwilson.gmail.com. Speaking of sleep, I became aware of something this last week. And God bless, I don't remember where I became aware of it. So please, if you all have seen this out here on the socials, know that I've got so much information coming to me. I'm not trying to steal someone's idea or anything. I generally don't remember where I got this. That gunk that is in the corner of your eye. Yeah. What do you call that?
SPEAKER_00:We've always called it sleep.
SPEAKER_02:I have never called it sleep or had it referred to as sleep because sleep... is what happens and then you get that stuff as a result. I've never heard that stuff called sleep. And...
SPEAKER_00:What did you call it?
SPEAKER_02:Like either eye boogers. Have you never heard of eye boogers?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but that's gross. Why would you say that when the word sleep is available to you?
SPEAKER_02:Or schmutz.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, also schmutz. I mean, I'm not like an 80-year-old Jewish man from Brooklyn. Like I... This is not... It's called sleep. My mom would always say you have sleep in your eye. That's just a thing. I
SPEAKER_02:have never heard that. I became aware of it because... I heard some British folks using that term as sleep. You know, my child had sleep in his eyes. I was like, that is such to me a British way of talking about something that's unpleasant. Because to your point, gunk or gook or eye booger is gross. And so they've decided to just call it this magical term. If Winthrop came into our room and says, Daddy, I've got this stuff in my eyes, what is it called? And I would say, oh, buddy, you know, that's called sleep. I would instantly want to sit down and write, you know, the story about Peter Pan and the Lost Boys finding the cave with golden coins in it. You know, it would just make me feel so magical and so like of a different culture. And I just don't, I've never heard that. It just struck me in a way.
SPEAKER_00:That's so interesting because it's, yeah. So I'm curious though, because my family's very Southern. This is a term that my mom always used, super Southern from Alabama, but I've also heard, That the closest to, now I'm talking about accents for a second, but the closest to like the true, whatever English, Shakespearean language accent is kind of like the Southern dialect, but maybe phrasing too, I don't know. They
SPEAKER_02:also call vomit, they don't tend to call vomit
SPEAKER_00:vomit. They call it sick.
SPEAKER_02:They call it sick. I mean, that's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, because sick. You've been sick, it's sick.
SPEAKER_02:That'd be like, though, going to the bathroom and not referring to it as poop, but referring to it as lunch.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I'm done talking about bodily fluids and
SPEAKER_02:excretions. Oh, man, don't go into the toilet, man. I just had the worst lunch.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, but also that kind of works, though. You had the worst lunch and then it was a bad bathroom experience. Why? Why do we always come back to bathroom talk?
SPEAKER_02:Listen, it's the root. Just like Southern is the root of Shakespearean English, super familiar with the Wilsons, our root is, you know, bad lunch in the toilet. What can
SPEAKER_00:I say? Not mine.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you married into the name,
SPEAKER_00:baby.
SPEAKER_02:Moving on. We got a letter from our friend Leo. Leo, we're thinking about you. He says, hey, Wilsons, just wanted to catch up on a couple things. First, one of the latest things you talked about, food. I don't much have an aversion to many textures, but I do have an aversion to how foods look. We did talk about how for me growing up, food texture was just a really important thing. But for Leo, it's how it looks. One of my biggest aversions is in regard to fish. I love fish. In fact, I love most seafood, but what I cannot eat is a fish with the head still on it.
SPEAKER_00:You don't want the eyeballs looking at you, Leo?
SPEAKER_02:I simply can't eat my food if it's looking at me. So I agree with that. Nothing that has eyes do I want to know from. You know these people who like eat eyeballs?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Like not food shaming anyone. But I would not be able to look down at a soup and see it looking back at me. Like eye contact is very important in social situations, but not with your soup. So I'm with you, Leo. And he says something else. He says, I also want to touch on something you talked about a few episodes ago, sleeping with separate blankets.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_02:So he's been married 25 years. and we've had separate blankets for a long time. It started many years ago when I bought my wife a super soft throw blanket one Christmas. She loved it so much that she started using it as her primary blanket and so he purchased a blanket for his own and they've slept that way ever since. So Leo is on our side here where we've kind of got, we've got the situation now where we've got two separate blankets and then because it's cold we have a blanket So we're kind of like a Crunchwrap Supreme where we've got several coatings. That's right. Our own individual coating and then something just to keep us in the bed together. So thank you, Leo, for at least... Now, Leo, what do you think about this doctor overstepping her bounds? That's what I want to know. And now, Refine Gay Thoughts with Refine Gay Jeff. Happy post-snow days, Wilsons. I'm still a little giddy from the snow Houston received this week.
SPEAKER_00:You got so much snow, Jeff. It was beautiful.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, he says that it's the first significant snow that he's had since he moved there 24 years ago, took several photos and videos of which he shared one with me, and I swear it looked like a Christmas card. Yes. And interestingly, from... Our friend Chris, Chris McClellan, who I do the other podcasts with, he sent us a video that was sent to him from a family member from New Orleans, like snow-filled streets.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, I know. I have a colleague who lives in New Orleans and she was sharing things and it's just magical.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's magical. like I said, from the warmth of my room looking at a video. He says, it's never a good sign when Jim Cantore comes to town. And that happened to him.
SPEAKER_00:Do we need to explain to the listeners? For the listeners that are not from the United States or the Southern United States anyway, Jim Cantore is a weather personality on a cable news channel called The Weather Channel. And he is the person who goes where the worst of the storm is going to be. So when it's hurricane season, the joke is when Jim Cantore shows up in your town, you need to evacuate. That is going to be the center of the storm. And Jim Cantore showed up in Houston.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, for snow. And he was warning about, I guess... Stay off the roads. Whatever it is that he does, he did that. He says, Jeff says, people took the warnings to heart. I think that they just realized they'd never driven in snow and didn't want to risk it for the biscuit. And I would like to applaud the people in Houston for such self-awareness because that self-awareness does not live here in Florida. No, everybody would have been on the roads. Pretty much anything. As I was out walking in my neighborhood, taking it all in, all the families were outside having snowball fights and building snow people. But that's the other thing is like, It's like you're not going to go out in the hurricane and play water balloons, right?
SPEAKER_00:You get some velocity behind those water balloons. That's
SPEAKER_02:right, but only in one direction. He does say that this was the best snow possible because the three to four inches we received Monday night and through 10 a.m. Tuesday was very fluffy and virtually gone by Thursday morning. The sun came out, melted everything, dried it all up, and there was no slush. That's lovely. That is lovely and surprising because I feel like Houston... gets the worst of it whenever there's like with floods and stuff. So I'm glad to hear that. He said, absolutely 10 out of 10 would do this again. His two pups, Hazel and Johnny were kind of confused because they'd never seen it before. Hazel would walk in it, but Johnny stayed on the sidewalk and walkways. He barely even walks on grass when it's 90 degrees. What a diva.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, he needs little booties.
SPEAKER_02:So Jeff says something you did not know about me. Again, one of these segments that Jeff is doing a lot better keeping up with than we are. I think maybe because there's nothing left. that the people don't know
SPEAKER_00:about us. We've been doing this for four years. They know all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02:So things that we didn't know about Jeff. Many years ago, I was in Italy with my parents and spent several days in Rome. One of the days we spent at the Vatican doing and seeing all the things you do and see at the Vatican. I am none the wiser what that might be, friend.
SPEAKER_00:Did you see the Pope? That's all I got.
SPEAKER_02:One thing that made it interesting and special, though, was that on my dad's birthday, June 28th, the Catholic Church was celebrating the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. Now my family is not Catholic, but we did participate in this because it gave us a chance to take part in something that was kind of super cool. We all stood beneath the window and Pope John Paul II came to the window and bestowed a blessing on us. I can literally say I've been blessed by the Pope in person.
SPEAKER_00:So there you go. That's cool. So you did see the Pope and you got blessed. That's very cool. And you know what, Jeff? However many years later, that blessing came to you in the form of a beautiful snowfall in Houston.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you're giving that to Pope John Paul II? I am, yeah. He did that. Oh, he did that. He's not even like the good Pope. I feel like the one that we have now is supposed to be the good Pope and this guy was kind of a dick Pope, but I'm not certain that that's so.
SPEAKER_00:Warn a girl because I had a mouthful of coffee when you called him the dick
SPEAKER_02:Pope. Amanda, I've not seen Nobody Wants This simply because Kristen Bell's characters in her movies I've seen are not feel good characters to me. Thank you, Jeff. This is what I'm saying. Kristen Bell does not portray people that I want to see or know or know that live in this planet.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, but Adam Brody, y'all, that's all I need you to focus on, Jeff. Go
SPEAKER_02:ahead. He says, I did watch Veronica Mars back in the early 2000 and enjoyed it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Kristen Bell is in Veronica Mars. I didn't watch Veronica Mars, but I mean, just, she is a little bit obnoxious, but that is the character. That is the character. Let's just all get behind it. She's a woman in her late 30s, I guess, as she's supposed to be. She is single. She's got just a lot of stuff going on. She's a little bit abrasive, but Adam Brody is so lovely. And then in all the side characters, his brother is hysterical. If you enjoy an ensemble cast or character development, it's fun, too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm just saying that making that... That character type, the main character is where the problem lies because you can't help. It's like, you know, I'm going to go see the Mona Lisa, but that damn girl in the middle of the painting is really distracting to me and I don't like it. All right. Adam
SPEAKER_00:Brody not in the Mona Lisa.
SPEAKER_02:She is in one of my favorite movies, however, that I just watched again last week. And she plays a not very nice, full of herself, bitchy character. Burlesque. If you've not seen it, I highly recommend it. Christina Aguilera absolutely slays in it. And of course, Cher and Stanley Tucci are phenomenal as well.
SPEAKER_00:I have not. I will check it out.
SPEAKER_02:Technically, he says, I guess that's the sign of a great actor if they can engender feelings of animosity from you about their characters. But here's the thing. When it starts to be every character that they play, you start to ask yourself... who's reflecting whom
SPEAKER_00:here. All right, Dax Shepard is coming for you, Joshua.
SPEAKER_02:I can take him. He's, yeah, I'm all right with that. Let's see. He does talk about this idea of having shows that you both watch and then are there separate shows yeah
SPEAKER_00:we have separate shows
SPEAKER_02:we talked about that he says my parents have had their own favorite shows and after 64 years of marriage they figured out how much it makes sense to have two tvs if dad if dad wants to watch sports ball he goes to the bedroom if mom wants to watch hallmark she goes to the bedroom What? I think maybe living room. All are happy and Jeffrey's inheritance is still safe. So they have two separate TVs. I don't want to get to that. We did talk about TikTok because everyone's talking about TikTok, although I guess things are pretty much back the way they were from before. I don't know. I don't spend a big amount of time on TikTok. But he says this. The 18-year-old is completely right in her summation of what happened. My hope is that people with common sense... Have figured this out as well, but as we all know, common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden. He does admit ignorance to the following. I don't know how people make money from TikTok. Can you please explain it to me like I'm a kindergartner? Do you know the answer to that question?
SPEAKER_00:Revenue? They get views and then that has something to do with the ads that go on the algorithm and then they get paid. I don't know. I
SPEAKER_02:mean, basically that's it. They get paid because they are, by what they're doing, by what their content is, they're providing value to TikTok. People will engage with TikTok and... if they want to see the latest cat videos on TikTok. So they'll stay on the platform. We know that TikTok has advertisers. So people get exposed to the ads, both by the fact that they're on the platform and also that people who are influencers on TikTok get incentivized to run ads because then they'll also get paid for product placement and all this and that. So Jeff, that's how... That's why people get paid, if that's the question that you're asking, is that they keep people on the platform and so they don't go to YouTube or Instagram or whatever. But if you're asking how they get paid, There's a TikTok creator fund where to be eligible for that, you have to have at least 10,000 followers, at least 100,000 video views in the past month. You have to be 18 or older, and you have to have original high-quality content, right? That's directly from the TikTok thing. And then they get paid based on views, engagement, and their region. Interestingly, the pay rate is reportedly low, often around 2 to 4 cents per 1,000 views.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow. That is low.
SPEAKER_02:But then... If you're on live and people heart or diamond, I guess, your live feed, then you get paid extra for that. You get paid if you have a brand sponsorship or partnership. You get paid for selling merch. Listen, it's a big racket is all I'm trying to say here. And it's very complicated and people are doing it and making money.
SPEAKER_00:So like I said, revenue.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, you said it. I guess if you're explaining it to a kindergartner, you'd say they get money. Everyone gets money. TikTok certainly is getting money. Here's the thing. If you're on a social media site and it's free, then you are the product. Yep. So that means that the reason why TikTokers get paid is because schmucks like me go on and they watch the shit. That's why people get paid. Jeff goes on, he needs to know who named Winthrop's soccer team and why it's Wolves and not Wolves.
SPEAKER_00:Jeff, I have so many questions and I'm not happy about it. Yes, he
SPEAKER_02:agrees. He says, no wonder Education America is circling the toilet bowl. Yes, not because of that, but that's certainly a sign that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and I will say that the coach this week was saying Wolves, plural. and not wolf's possessive without the high comma, without the apostrophe. And so I didn't correct him that he was being incorrect about the grammatically incorrect name. So at least the coach knows how to pluralize the word wolf. But I don't know. There is now, though, a movie with its Brad Pitt and George Clooney, I believe, called Wolf's. So maybe it's an homage.
SPEAKER_02:Or product placement. Someone's making money. Who knows? We did talk about asparagus. So he said, concerning asparagus in scent or taste in bodily fluids, urine is not the only bodily fluid you can taste asparagus in.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, thank you. All done.
SPEAKER_02:He also says pineapple can be quite noticeable. James Buchanan is the only U.S. president bachelor, he tells us, because we did talk about that. He vowed never to marry after a misunderstanding with his fiancee, which caused her to take her life.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, no. Oh, that's
SPEAKER_02:sad. His niece, Harriet Lane, served as his acting first lady and is actually considered to be the first of the modern first ladies. Oh. There are several ships and yachts named in her honor. Interesting. He says the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Harriet Lane was involved in the 1996 search recovery of TW Flight 800 off Long Island in 2010. She was involved in the response efforts of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. And this past June, she embarked on a 68-day training mission to the South. Jeff, how do you know this stuff? That is amazing. Harriet Lane, the person, enjoyed a friendship with Queen Victoria and actually Queen Vic tried to get her married off to an Englishman so she would always be in England. What would that be like if the first lady of the United States got married to someone in England? That would be a heck of a thing to watch on the crown.
SPEAKER_00:Didn't we do that with Meghan Markle and Harry?
SPEAKER_02:I try not to dip my toe into the Meghan Markle and Harry puddle there. He says, LOL. Yes, Josh. A pearl necklace is quite different than a pearl earring. Yes, I know. He did. He did check out the website or the Instagram page that I suggested called Only in Dade. Hilarious. He says, I think my two favorites were the man that shaved a six pack onto his belly hair and the chicken in the baby stroller at the big box store.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to my childhood, friend. Oh,
SPEAKER_00:wow. I mean, I've seen the six-pack in the belly hair. I've seen that, but I've not seen the chicken in the baby stroller. Like around here, we have the dogs and the cats in the baby stroller, but I've not seen the chicken.
SPEAKER_02:Well, in Miami, if you see a chicken in the baby stroller and you see that the people are taking care of the chicken... so well. The assumption isn't that they are fattening it up for, you know, Sunday roast. The assumption is this is the chicken that they're eventually going to sacrifice to Django. So... Then there's that.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, that's now, we've gotten really dark during Jeff's letter.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, so he closes by talking about how he is recuperating from last night after they left the Ripcord, where I was still getting shots for free of Jameson whiskey for his birthday. We went to George, the gay bar directly beside the Ripcord, obviously owned and named after my friend, Frank. No, George. It was slam-packed, and I was more than a little occupied. There was a national meeting this weekend in Houston for the National Gay Softball League because the World Series of Gay Softball, yes, that's a real thing, will be in Houston this year in September. As a result of the meeting, each league participating from around the country has sent at least two guys from their teams. Ya boy had a really good time last night and will probably enjoy it all over again tonight. So he says, that's all for this week. I hope that things are well and I'll let you know if I find a part-time husband or at least a Mr. Right now.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, but so Jeff sent this letter yesterday and I got no pictures last night, Jeffrey.
SPEAKER_02:He's probably still asleep.
SPEAKER_00:No, I mean, usually he sends them from the events.
SPEAKER_02:I don't want a picture that are happening during certain events.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no. It's usually just of the drinks that he's getting for free at the ripcord.
SPEAKER_02:All right, so thanks, Jeff. We'll talk to you soon, bud.
SPEAKER_00:Have fun. No one likes to be told what to do.
SPEAKER_02:And now is the time of the program where we tell you what to do. Amanda, what should we do?
SPEAKER_00:I have recommended this before, but I'm going to circle back in light of the conversation about separate TV shows. I am going to recommend Shrinking on Apple TV if you have it. Jason Segel, Harrison Ford. I tried to recommend it about a year ago, and Josh was not interested in watching it. Kay our friend from F My Work Life wrote in and said Josh you gotta try shrinking so I would like to report that Josh is now five episodes in of shrinking with me I think that Brett Goldstein connection Brett Goldstein you'll know is Roy Kent from Ted Lasso who's an exec producer and is in the second season I've been holding off on the second season waiting for Josh to catch up with me but I think we might maybe have found a show that he will watch with me even even though it makes him uncomfortable. So I'm gonna say go watch Shrinking.
SPEAKER_02:My input on this show is that it's an enjoyable watch. There are rarely real stakes. And what I mean by that is the people are therapists, right? So they're talking about really heavy things like grief and family struggles. And so the problem is, is that no one's feelings truly ever get hurt for more than five minutes. No one is truly angry for more than 10 minutes. And so it's-
SPEAKER_00:That's the problem for you?
SPEAKER_02:It is because it's too pat. Now, it's written very well. My only other annoyance with it sometimes is that all the characters are at 11 of their character type at all times. And there is no place on this planet even amongst a bunch of therapists, where the people talk this much all the time. Now having said that, I'm very much enjoying Harrison Ford in it. exceptional actor and he's fun to watch and he does all the little things of acting that make his character very compelling and I'm enjoying the repartee just knowing that these conversations are interesting artistic constructs that would never happen in real life
SPEAKER_00:it's escapism then
SPEAKER_02:okay sure
SPEAKER_00:in a way of now it has brought up some conversations about grief because as we know I have tons of unprocessed grief and so it has brought up some conversations between us about grief so therefore I do think that even though it is as it can cause you to think more deeply about things that maybe you should be processing.
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, fine. Go watch Shrinking if you haven't. And don't talk to me about the new season because I know it came out a while ago. I'm just waiting on Josh to catch up.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right, Amanda, that's all there is. There is no more. What'd you think about that mess?
SPEAKER_00:I enjoyed that and I am ready to go get my corset on and head down to the Medieval Fair. And actually what I'm just really excited about is the food because I am doing this intermittent fasting, but you better believe during my window from 11... 30 to 6 tonight. I'm going to eat me some fried food from the medieval fair.
SPEAKER_02:It's funny that you say that, but you also say you're going to put on a corset because that's your prophylactic against filling up too
SPEAKER_00:much. Yeah, I don't own a corset. That was a joke.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Well, we can buy one there.
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_02:Interesting things that are on the horizon for us. We are going to interview a Capoeira master called Samurai.
SPEAKER_00:Just to let that
SPEAKER_02:sit.
SPEAKER_00:Samurai's a really nice guy. So maybe I'll save my Samurai story for when Samurai's on
SPEAKER_02:the show. Yeah, yeah. He'll enjoy that. We'll also have an update from Chicken Tom, who texted me yesterday telling me about this fire on his property that he had to call 911 for.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So we'll talk
SPEAKER_02:to Chicken Tom. Also going to catch back up with Chris Barron, see how he's doing. Spin Doctors are going to release a new album in April. And so we'll get him on to chat about that. and all other things as well. But in the meantime, be looking for the new budding performance poetry artist on the scene. And yeah.
SPEAKER_00:At a local coffee shop near you.
SPEAKER_02:At a local and lots of snapping. This is what we do in the scene now. If we like something, we don't clap. We just... We snap. So there you go, folks. So until next week, y'all keep smiling. I know sometimes that's not easy in this world of ours. But, you know, what else are you going to do? Smile. Your smile will maybe help someone next to you feel better. And then all of a sudden we live in a perfect world because everyone started smiling. There you
SPEAKER_00:go. All right. Go be kind. Bye.
UNKNOWN:Bye.
