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You know what we should do at some point? We should do like an ad libs episode where we just do- We should... a live ad libs. That'd be funny. Dude, uh- Yeah... let's do one right now. All right.

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You wa- Ad- You wanna pull it up? [laughs] Yeah. Make a 500-word ad lib with- Dude... adjectives- Nouns... and nouns- Whatever... for me and my co-host to fill in live on camera. And what's up, everybody?

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Welcome back to Two Dads and Tech. Dude, I tried to cut my own hair, and look at how bad this line is right here. I need to, I need to fade that in- I can't tell... a little more. No, I can't tell. It- This side's good.

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That side's real good. Yeah. Okay, now I can tell. The difference- Now, yeah, yeah. [laughs]... the difference is I, I couldn't, I couldn't pick up on it. All right.

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Troy and I woke up this morning feeling extremely emotion. Here, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm gonna share my screen. Wait, wait.

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I'm supposed to give you the, I'm supposed to give you the adjectives and, like, the pronouns, right? Like, you asked me- No... give me... Okay. It sounded like- Yeah... you're about to read the story already pre-filled.

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Well, no, there's an... We... Okay, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. I'm gonna just do a sh- a share. We'll take turns, okay? Share my screen so we can take turns here. I have no idea how- Let me share my screen...

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this is. I have no idea how this is gonna- I don't know... show up on... I think you should- Dude, Riverside, Riverside is as... Riverside's the worst, man...

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I will say, hey, Riverside, if you're listening, you've been giving us some massive issues, but it sucks 'cause you're like the only one- It's so annoying... in the market for the price. Okay, here we go.

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So- [laughs] All right. I'm gonna take the first one. You take the second one, so all right? So every time we have one, we're just gonna take turns, all right? Wait, wait. I don't even know what- Okay...

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the story's about. Wait. Just say, um, ask it to, like, give us... Because we don't wanna read it as we're filling it out, right? No, that's how it is. We want it... No.

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No, no, no, 'cause don't you wanna be like, "Hey, give me the..." Like, I shouldn't, we shouldn't know what the sentence is. It should be like, "Give me an emotion. Give me a..." Oh. You see what I'm saying?

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So say, say, um, essentially you want it, you want it to tell us to just give us the blank words, like what we should fill out, and then it should automatically create it. Does that make sense? [laughs] Yep. Let's see.

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Two Dads and Tech, Google search. All right, reverse engineer a story where you ask us for a bunch of keywords, and then you automatically create the story. Perfect. Here's a reversible AI-powered improv story.

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All right. Ah, here we go. [laughs] All right, all right. Celebrity name. Give us a celebrity name. Ooh. Um, let's go The Rock. Channing Tatum. Channing... [laughs] All right.

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All right, I'll go, we'll, so we'll go back and forth or else we'll have two different answers for each one. Here we go. I'm making this a little bigger. Channing Tatum. A weird, a weird job title. Um,

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uh, forklift maintenance operator. Forklift maintenance operator. All right. Three is a made-up product or brand. Uh, Poo Poo- Two Dads and Tech. [laughs] Oh.

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Poo Poo Daddy Wipe Robots. Ooh, that's a good brand, though. A place you wouldn't- All right, a place you wouldn't expect to go viral My bathroom. My bathroom. Nice. All right, five, an emotion. Rage.

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[laughs] I love rage, such a good emotion. A ridiculous object. Um, uh, soft-served dog poop. Soft-served dog poop. Seven, a pop culture reference.

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I don't know. Like a, like a, like a- Like the Golden Globes? I don't know. What is it, a reference? I don't know. I, like- Six, seven... I don't know. I would- [laughs] Six, seven. Six, seven. Eight,

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uh, a scandalous verb, past tense. Scandalous verb? Scandalous? Okay, let's... I wanna make sure, um- Let's be PG, PG. I know, I know PG. I know. Um, um, past tense. Wiped. Come on, give the people what they want. Wiped.

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Wiped. Wiped. Nine, a conspiracy theory. UFOs are among us, and everyone in power knows and are keeping it a secret.

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All right. [laughs] 10, a random animal. Oh, dude, I have a great one if you don't. I'll, I'll let you do this 'cause the one on my mind is not fun. Blue-footed platypus. Oh, that's a good one.

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I actually was just looking up the, uh- All right, step two... thing You drop the inputs to me, and I drop the story. Once you collect the words, just hand them off. I'll instantly generate a story. All right, ready?

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Here you go. Let's do it. Let's read this story. I love how it hypes you up. A world where- It goes, it goes, "Yes, these are amazing." Look at the scroll bar. I know. Look at what it says. Yes.

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This is chaotic perfection. It is chaotic perfection. [laughs] You gave me gold. Here's your AI-generated fully unhinged... All right, let's see it.

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In a world where everything we thought was normal was just corporate gaslighting, one man, one bathroom, one mission that reeks of destiny.

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Channing Tatum thought he retired from the spotlight until a malfunctioning Poo Poo Daddy Wipeoo robot [laughs] TM wiped the wrong cheeks. Yeah. And now he's... I don't even wanna say that.

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He's upset, rage-level upset, the kind of rage you only feel after seeing soft-served dog poop on your Crocs at 7:12 AM.

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Enter Glinda, a forklift maintenance operator with a past darker than your browser history and a wrench sharper than your uncle's political takes.

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Together, they uncover a secret hiding in one place that no one would ever check, my bathroom. All right, you take the rest.

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Beneath the titles, surveillance footage, alien residue, and a tiny note written in Comic Sans, "UFOs are among us, and everyone in power knows they are keeping a s- and everyone in power knows and are keeping a secret."

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Now, Channing must race against time, plumbing, and emotional, and emotional instability, armed only with a 6.7 Rotten Tomatoes score [laughs] and a blue-footed platypus who speaks fluent sarcasm.

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But when the final flush happens, will truth go down the drain, or will they finally understand what it means to be wiped?Is that... You finish that one I guess so.

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This fall, from the creators of absolutely not FDA approved, comes a film critics are calling disturbing- Nice... revolutionary. Oh, wait. He created multiple.

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The next one's Rage in the Bathroom: The Poo-Poo Daddy- Oh, never mind, it's called Rage. Rage in the Bathroom: The Poo-Poo Daddy- Rage in the Bathroom: The Poo-Poo Daddy Protocol. We should call [laughs]

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we should call this episode Rage. Rage in the Bathroom: The Poo-Poo Daddy Protocol. We should, actually. Oh, that is so dumb. Episode 55, The Poo-Poo Daddy Protocol.

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Speaking of Poo-Poo Daddy, um- Oh, that is so stupid... have your kids ever just, like, pooped out, out of their pants? Like, has there ever been a turd? Someone I was with this last week- Oh, dude...

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was like, dude- Ever? Yes... there's been a nugget that I just... Like, out, like a nugget out of a three-year-old. Oh. Uh... Like- I don't know, actually. That's a good question... just fall out of their pants. Yeah.

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I mean- They're like-... blowouts, like, is like- Yeah, yeah... the first 12 months of their lives. It's just constant. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know if there's been, like, a turd. It's a great question. When...

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Yeah, yeah. There's been a turd in this guy's, this, not this guy's pants, but his son's pants. He was like, it just fell right out. All right. So- What's up? I, I brought up Ready Player One last, last episode. You did.

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Yeah. And I had only watched the first half of it. I've seen the whole thing, but I was rewatching it. I watched the first half of it, which is why it was, like, top of mind last episode.

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I, I've watched the second half since then, and this movie really was before its time. Ready Player One, uh, what, what, what year was Ready Player One? Ready Player One was- 2007... released- I have no idea... in 2018.

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So, uh, not as old as I thought it was. Told you. I thought it was a lot older. I thought it was, like, 2010.

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In either case, it's pretty spot on, almost, like, Black Mirror-y with what we're dealing with in today's AI kind of driven world, where people are just leaning so far into the relationships in AI, the even relationship building with AI tools.

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So you think of, like, all the different dating apps that are gonna come out with AI.

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Then what, what's crazy is the end of the movie, uh, spoiler alert, what happens is this guy wins the game, he gets full sole proprietorship that he chooses to share with his friends, and then at the very end, like, the last line, he says, "You know, and what we did when we got ownership is we chose to shut the game completely down on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

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And so this was their push to... He said, what, I can't remember the exact words, but he said, "What matters real, what really matters is what's real."

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And it stuck with me, because I saw this other, not in the movie, but this tweet from this guy who said his, his son, I don't know, probably seven or eight-year-old if I had to guess, was drawing or was coloring this drawing.

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It was a drawing of a, like, a cartoon animal, and he got tired of the drawing, and he got tired of coloring it, so he uploaded his half-finished color, like, you know, art, to ChatGPT or Gemini or something and said, "Finish this."

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And it did. Yeah. And it looked- Yeah... exactly like the way, the kind of style he was already coloring it.

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And it's that idea that is both groundbreaking, what children are going to be able to do with AI, and also a little bit scary. Yeah.

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Like how lazy kids might become because how early on in just every developmental part of their lives they can start to lean on AI. Yeah.

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So I don't, I don't even have really a conversation starter here other than just that blew my mind. It was very, very close to home, this idea that you gotta shut down...

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You know, this, this movie is like they're, they're living in the fake reality more than the real reality. Yeah. It's almost- Yeah, yeah, for sure...

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like when they lose their possessions in the game, people would, like, go take their lives 'cause it was like that... It was like losing everything in real life. Real life didn't even matter anymore.

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Most people would just live their entire day in the game. That's insane. Are we far from that? Like, I feel like we're...

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Like, that, that, 10 years ago, that would've been like, whoa, that's crazy sci-fi, like, a really cool idea, concept. Now I'm like, that doesn't even sound like a concept.

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It sounds more like just a, a couple steps further in our current reality. Like, legitimately- Yeah... just a couple steps more. Yeah, it... So the metaverse was hot for a sec, and then it dropped off.

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If- And it almost sounds like- Mm-hmm... if they can perfect that, where people become so obsessed with being in the metaverse, we would be, we would be in that movie. Like, that would be our life, right?

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Like, people just get home from work. But I can't imagine- Yeah... people just wearing big goggles, but I don't think we're far from it. I don't think we're far from it whatsoever. Because if we're living in an,

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a- that's kinda what you do, right? To my understanding, the metaverse is you throw on some goggles, and you're in this different universe. And- Yep... so I don't think we're far from it at all.

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And then I can imagine people building such strong connections with other people in the metaverse to where it's almost like a game, right? Like, you're playing, uh, RuneScape- Yep... or some MMORPG. Yep.

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And, like, you meet friends from it, and then it's like, dang, like, I, you're, you're a friend, but you're just an online friend. Um. Yep. So I, I don't think we're far from it at all, which is, it's so weird.

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It's so weird. [laughs] There's another movie, Free Guy. Have you seen that one with Ryan Reynolds? No. No, no, no. So, uh, here's the TLDR.

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A background character, NPC, in a video game played by Ryan Reynolds becomes self-aware and realizes he's living in a virtual world.

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As he breaks free from his programming, he starts making his own choices and becoming a hero inside the game.

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Meanwhile, in the real world, the game's creators are fighting to save their stolen code and expose a greedy tech CEO behind it all. Yeah. And so it's, it's kinda like The Truman Show with Jim Carrey- Yeah...

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meets- Yep... Ready Player One. It's like this Truman Show type of reality, but it's a video game. It's like the exact opposite of Truman Show being in the real world and then realizing he's in a fake reality.

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The other, you know, this movie, he's in a totally fake reality, and he's waking up and becoming sentient. These crazy concepts are not far from what we're building in the real world.

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Like, it's like that, that's gonna happen. There's gonna be- Yeah... a video game character.

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I don't even know if we wanna call it the metaverse because it's got such a terrible connotation now with especially Mark Zuckerberg, like, kind of backing out of it.But like, there's gonna be a video game, I don't even know if you'd call it a video game, a virtual reality where those programmed NPCs become,

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for lack of a better word, sentient, like self-aware. Yeah. They start learning and operating- Oh, sure...on their own. You already have the ping pong.

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You know the Pong game, like the- Yeah...the Atari like, you know, '70s game.

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There's already a self-learning Atari type of video game where you just press play, and the machine learning starts to operate and beat the computer on its own after who knows how many thousands of failures. Really?

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And, and there's that at scale. Surely there's that at scale. I just haven't heard about it or seen it, but- Yeah...I mean, robots will become self-aware i- if they aren't already. Oh, for sure. For sure.

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And speaking of robots, we, maybe 10 episodes ago, seven episodes ago, that one robot came out. What was it? It was viral, the- Yeah...launch. I know exactly what you're talking about. Neo? Neo sounds familiar. O- Oslo?

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Neo, Neo. You're right. Neo Robot, yep. Haven't heard anything about it since, but I do believe... Did you tell me- You can still buy one. Did you tell me that- Fully refundable. Delivery starting 2026. $499 a month.

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Did you... Wow. Did you tell me that they actually have humans in the background to learn, watching everything that's going on inside of your house, or did someone else tell me that? No, I, I probably told you that.

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The first version of this- That's-...is tele- That's crazy...operated. So who knows where these people are, but it's remote controlled with, like, a HQ somewhere else where they're all...

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I don't even, I, I, I can't even pretend to understand how this works. Yeah, I don't know. But there's teleoperated robots.

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And so there's, like, a robot living in your house, and someone like you or me somewhere else is seeing the eyes of the robot and operating it in first person and- Yeah.

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Dude- Again, there's like- Yeah...a ve- very, like, Ready, Ready Player One-esque, you know? Yeah. Like- I mean, you're, you're spot on with we're not far off. It's gonna be somewhat scary.

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Do you think there- No...there will also be, there will, there... I can't talk right now. There will ever be, there we go, regulations around robots? Well, there's already- Or maybe... Is there?

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There's already so many regulations. Yeah, I'm sure there are, like FSD with Tesla and stuff. Oh. Like, uh, surely like that.

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I don't know where the guardrails are, but like- Yeah, yeah, yeah...you can't just have a, an- Yeah, like [laughs]...90 mile an hour vehicle driving down the freeway without a driver, without regulation.

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So like- Yes, yes, yes...I don't know. Yes. Couldn't even pretend to speak to that topic. I don't know anything about it. Yeah. I saw an argument on LinkedIn the other day about... [sighs] I haven't posted a new...

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Actually, I posted once in the last eight days. I'm gonna go the entire year without posting anymore. Nice. But I saw this argument a- about... I'm scrolling a little bit, but not much. I've been off of it.

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It was about Elon Musk and about how he's, like, the first person to reach $600 billion or something like that. And people were arguing, "Why don't you give that money to this person or that person?

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Why don't you help out the less fortunate?" Things like that. And a lot of his money actually is, like, not liquid whatsoever. I don't even think that he has much cash on him at all, as to what I understand.

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I don't know his personal life. But someone made the argument of why, with all this money and everything you want to accomplish and how powerful you wanna be, why are you trying to essentially civilize Mars?

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Like, do you think- [laughs] Do you think it's too early to try to create life on Mars, or do you think it's almost like we should have that as a backup plan just in case? What are your thoughts there?

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I think the amount of time and the generations of development it's gonna take to do it i- is almost, like, a pretty good argument for, like, it's never too soon to try.

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I mean, you look at how many tests that have been failed before the tests are consistently well done with rockets going up and getting caught back down and- This sponsor is one that is near and dear to my heart, and that is Zapier.

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The amount of money that pours into these tests, I mean, rockets that cost millions or billions to build that just explode when the test goes wrong.

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Like, there's so much money spent and wasted, and I don't know, wasted is not the right word, but spent and used for these tests. I, I think we're... Like, if you don't start now, when are people even gonna get to Mars?

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'Cause, like, the first part of civilizing Mars is, like, a human being getting there. That still hasn't happened. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, like, we don't even send humans to the moon anymore. That hasn't happened in, in decades.

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So, like, the amount of time it's gonna take to send an actual person to Mars just in any capacity, and then that person stepping foot on Mars, and then, who knows, probably decades if not generations of research required to understand how life should even exist there.

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And then you get people who volunteer to go and never return. Yep. And then they have to s- like, start life.

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Um, assuming you're not gonna get hundreds of people to go, you might get a few, and they have to be trained, and it's crazy what goes into this. So I think there's, there's two, there's two routes.

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Is it either takes forever and trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars spent to get someone or a civilized, uh, you know, a group of people there, or it just people stop tryingBut I think there's a good argument that if it doesn't happen in this lifetime, like in Elon's lifetime, who's gonna do it?

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Like, there's no one in the history of humanity has ever been so single-minded, in my opinion- Yeah. Yeah... toward this specific goal as he is, and he's putting his- Yeah... money where his mouth is.

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Y- love him or hate him. I know people- Yeah... have a lot of opinions about Elon Musk. Love him or hate him, like, this guy is a...

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It's funny, this, he's a rocket ship, and it's like, pun intended, like, he's, he's worth $700 billion now, as of yesterday. Crazy. Yeah. Uh- It, it, it, that must mean- Insane amount of money...

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that went up 100 billion over the last X amount of weeks. That's crazy. It did, and as soon as SpaceX IPOs, like, he's gonna be- He's-... the first trillionaire next year, without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

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The first trillionaire. And I don't think people comprehend how much a trillion dollars is. He could go- Or even a billion... buy, in cash, countries. Yeah. Like, he is worth more than many countries are. Yeah.

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That's crazy. [laughs] That's insane. There's an argument he's worth more than the United States is, 'cause we're in about $33 trillion of debt. [laughs] Like, how much is our GDP? He's 33 times richer than us.

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[laughs] Yeah, it's like, it's ridiculous. Oh, dude. So, you know, there's- Yeah... I don't think it's beyond us. I think the world might end before we see people populate Mars, but I don't know.

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It's like all these, all these doomsdayers are like, "Oh, you know, global warming is, the world's gonna end." They're like, "Oh, how, how far? Like, soon?"

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They're like, "Yeah, 180 million years from now, the sun will swallow the Earth if we don't pick up after ourselves." I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's a freak amount of time. Like, that's ridiculous. Yeah.

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Yeah, yeah. Like, I'm not concerned about my ecological footprint in the grand scheme of things if you're talking about 180, 200, 500 million years. Yeah. Like, give me something digestible. Because- [laughs]...

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my children's children, children's children's children's children are not affected by my decisions if you're talking- Yeah... millions of years. Yeah. Obviously, that's a little bit facetious, but I think we need to,

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I don't know. Yeah. I think someone needs to try. Speaking- Why not?

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Yeah, speaking of, uh, of global warming and stuff like that, Charleston is known to be one of the first cities that will be completely underwater when- Oh, really? Not surprised. Yeah.

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They're, I think it was El-, uh, what is it? New Orleans. Even think Chicago, New York. Um, I was, I was reading this thing, like, if global warming continues to happen, here are the cities that are gonna be underwater.

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Charleston was like, the number one. Do you... When I went out there, I think I said this on a, an episode. I have no idea.

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When I went out there, I went out to dinner, and I came back, and it was high tide, and my car was- Yeah... flooded. Like, and people- Yeah. I didn't know that... the, the parking lot was full, right?

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So we go to this restaurant, and you know, like, in Charleston, I don't know exactly where it was, but there's kinda like- Shem Creek probably. Maybe. There's, like, a, a...

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You can walk along this walkway that's above the water. Yeah. And then there's, like, restaurants. It's Shem Creek. Okay. Yeah. So I'm there, and I pull up to this parking lot. Parking lot's full. Yeah.

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And so we go get dinner, and then we come back out, and y'all are nuts. Y'all are psycho. Yeah. Because everyone there, I assume, is probably from there or around there.

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They've been there many times, and they're all hiking up their pants so they can walk in this almost knee-deep water to get to their car- Yeah... that's in this flooded parking lot. Like, I'm- Yeah...

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sure they knew that it was high tide. I don't know. I thought it was the most absurd thing I've ever seen in my life. [laughs] That's uncommon. Yeah.

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High tide every day doesn't just flood that parking lot, but that has happened, and, and, you know, you, you, if you live here, you know there's a chance. It, that may have been around some storm or something.

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Like, high tide- I don't know... is not typically flooding that parking lot. I've, we've, we've been there- Shem Creek, you said?... 40 times, 50 times. Shem Creek. S-H-E-M Creek. It's in Mount Pleasant.

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Very popular place to go. Exactly what you're describing. But, um, yeah, I mean... Yeah. Shem Creek. Dude. Yeah. It was, it was crazy. Yeah, yeah. It was absolutely absurd.

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When there's a hurricane here, you can kayak in downtown Charleston. Um, it is at or below sea level, like a lot of Charleston is. Yeah. So if you're, like, if you're there during a hurricane, like, you cannot drive.

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It's, you know, one to several feet of water in the streets that people literally are kayaking in the streets. It happens- Yeah... like, every time there's a hurricane. Yeah. So it's, it's wild.

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Yeah, I think- That's, that's nuts... I don't know whether global warming... I don't know. I, I have a lot of opinions about global warming.

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I'm like, at the end of the day, like, I feel like it is getting warmer [laughs] in the cold seasons, uh, and hotter in the hot seasons.

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Whether or not that's subjective or not, four seasons is hard to find in, in the South, but maybe it's always been that way. I don't know. Okay. We're about to hit 2026. What are you leaving behind in 2025?

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That's a great question. Uh, I don't know. I've thought about pulling the plug on social media the last couple weeks. You're not gonna do it. Completely. You're too viral. I'm not gonna do it. You're too viral.

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You're a viral sensation, bro. [laughs] So I'm not, I'm not, honestly, I'm not gonna do it because I, I rely on it for money. Like, I make money from social media. I know. I know.

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That's literally the only reason I'm not doing it. But I tell you what, I've deeply considered it, and it would be, it would be cold turkey. That's, that's, I'm, I'm a cold turkey type of guy. Me too.

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Like, I would not leave room to come back. It would be a permanent delete, boom, done, can't reverse it, can't undo it. What am I leaving behind, though? I think, um,

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I think there's, I need to create space without technology- Yeah... consistently. You know, Opal, we've talked about it. It's been good, but it's, like, I need to, like, leave technology.

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I need to go on walks with my family without technology. I need to go for a backpacking trip.

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My friend and I are talking about doing, like, a fly fishing trip sometime in May or something, maybe June, up in the mountains. Like, zero connection. Like, one- Yeah... with the nature type of stuff. And so

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I think I'm leaving behind the, the need, maybe it's a personal need, maybe it's a misconception, but the need to stay always connected. Yeah. And I am always connected, and it's, it's unhealthy. Unhealthy.

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I want to- Yeah... read real books that are on paper. [laughs] I want to- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm... like, look at grass and walk in nature and not feel like I have to stinking- Yeah...

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know what is viral or, or, or post about it even. Like, the, the need-To post about stuff. Like, bump, bump all of the internet. That's how I feel. Like, I'm so tired. I'm so exhausted- Yeah... from the internet. Yeah.

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So here's, uh, i- it's less of what I'm leaving behind in 2025 and more of what I'm leaning into in 2026 is IRL stuff. Palmetto Parents, we're, we're already in early stages of planning, like, our big IRL event.

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It'll probably be in March. We've been around a year and a half. March will be our two-year anniversary of our first newsletter sent, but this will be, like, our kind of foot in the ground, flag in the sand.

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Like, we exist, we're here.

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You know us from what we've done, but this is actually who we are, and this is who we're, who we're for and really just shake hands, meet local businesses, meet the people that we've been writing to.

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We're coming up on 20,000 total audience, and so it's- Holy cow. Really? Yeah, we're- Dude. Yeah, we're growing fast. Three newsletters, fourth will launch in Q1.

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Um, it's exciting, uh, and people know about us, and we, we've had little micro events where we've latched onto other people's event. And people will say, you know, "Hey, how'd you find it?"

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"Oh, I've heard about it from, uh, this newsletter, Palmetto Parents." "Oh, cool." Like, that's us. You know? It's very cool to meet you in real life. So like, we know- Wow...

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we've proven, like, it's, it's there, it's valuable. The concept exists. So a- that, LinkedIn, you know, I think I'll, I'll probably try to find people who are local.

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I've already started doing that a little bit for Palmetto Parents and of course, for work, for, like, my real job. I'm, like, using LinkedIn a lot for when I'm traveling for work. Like, hey, I'll be in New York.

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You know- Yeah... who's gonna be there? Hey, I'll be in Vegas. Who's gonna be there? Hey, I'll, you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. But like, that seems like the exception. I want that to be the norm, you know.

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And, uh, I have a friend who has a, a local tech community he started. There's a few hundred people, but it's like, uh, really niche, but also really engaged.

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People show up, they go to Topgolf, they go to, you know, coffee. Like, whatever they're doing, they-- it's like a very, like, vibey group. Yeah. I'm, I'm gonna try to lean into some of those things as well.

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Like- Nice... I don't, I don't do that enough in tech in my local community. Like, I have my tech stuff. It's always online- Yeah... remote. Yep.

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And then I have my community stuff, and it's always community and that's-- it's somewhat separate. Like Palmetto Parents- Yeah... isn't tech heavy. It doesn't need to be. So anyways- Nice... long-winded answer.

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I want, I want IRL to, to be what drives me in 2026. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny, we've gone through this episode for 55 weeks in a row now, and- It's crazy... it's a common theme with you. Technology, man.

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Technology consumes you. It consumes- It does... your little life, my friend, and it consumes ours too, and it's, I feel, I feel like it's always a contention point that we never discuss for the most part.

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Like we're mentally thinking like, oh, we should be off our phones, but we always grab it, and it's just comfortable. It's what we know. It's easy. Um, I, I don't, I don't think we use it to avoid

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having conversation or like- Yeah... you know, being intentional, but it's definitely not a, it's, there's definitely not enough intentional time. Um, let's see. What am I? I, I was talking, I'm tired, man.

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I'm not tired, actually. I feel good. I've been really tired lately, and I've been trying to sleep better. [laughs] I'm not tired. Shut up, shut up. Um- Shut up. Shut up, exhaustion. Uh, let's see. I think that I want to

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leave behind comfort, and what I mean by that is I don't think I get uncomfortable enough with just things that I do. I think, think jumping in the demo was comfortable.

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Or sorry, it was uncomfortable and- Okay, I was gonna say- It, it became-... I would expect the opposite. Yeah... that was very uncomfortable actually, and I don't know.

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I, I s- I think still to this day, I don't focus on being uncomfortable enough. I kind of avoid it. Most people do. Most people don't want to be uncomfortable.

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So I think I wanna lean into that and lean away from just living a life of comfort, I think. Um, so I don't know, pushing myself, but in a way where it's healthy. I think that's one thing. Whatever that means.

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Don't know what that means. Kinda gotta, gotta let the world bring it to me. Yeah. Um, like, I, I, like right now in my mind, what I'd love to do is like some sort of

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gnarly kind of solo hike and just go and, and- Dude... see like how can I push myself for three, four days? No technology, no nothing. Just disconnect and be like, "Wow." Like this is, that was hard.

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That was not fun at all, but that was- Yeah... you know, beautiful, amazing, et cetera. That's something that's been on my mind lately. Probably won't do it- Yeah...

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unless somebody messages me and like, they're like, "Troy, you need to do this." Yeah. Um, so yeah. Yeah.

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I've thought about, even since college, it's been like 15 years, I've always wanted to do a backpacking trip in Banff National Park. Mm. Uh- That's on the bucket list...

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it just, it, uh, I would love to, like, take six or seven days, camp a couple times along the way, hike 50 miles or something over the course of a week and just, like, take it in, man. Like I, I think

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too many people, myself included, think that that's just this u- unachievable thing. I'm like, well, obviously it's complicated with kids, but, like, it, you can, you can create a, a life where that's possible.

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So I don't know. That's exciting, man. I, I, I have, I have a very ethereal bucket list where I don't literally have a list, but I feel like, I feel like I should literally write a list.

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Hey, here's the 10 things- Yeah... I wanna do before I die. Yeah. And maybe it turns into 20 things, and maybe it turns into 30 things, but, like, I don't have enough of those goals long-term. Yeah.

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I don't, I don't either. I don't know. Yeah. I should write a list down too. Um- Let's write a list... I feel like, I feel like when I first got into sales, [laughs] I went through a, I believe it was Sandler.

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I went through a Sandler sales training when I first got into sales about eight years ago, and they forced us- Nice... to, was it Sandler or was it something before that?

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But then essentially, I was forced to build a vision board. What do you want in life? I'm pretty sure- Classic... it was Sandler. I know, right? And I was like, "Ferrari." [laughs] This. I'm like, "Yeah."

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Uh, completely different now. I don't care at all about ever owning a Ferrari in my life.

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But yeah, I, I should do a vision board, and I s- those, those people that sell courses on TikTok and stuff, like how to justBe a BA, like how to just do everything in the world.

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I feel like they always talk about vision boards and stuff. [laughs] Like, I don't know, it's a corny, it's a corny thing, but maybe it works. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Who knows, dude? What do we know?

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I don't- We're just parents. I don't know. We're just two dads in tech- We're just-... talking about things- We're just two dads in tech... we think about but don't talk about.

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[laughs] Dude, we should bring that, that long- I think-... title back from episode one. Speaking of, we-- you mentioned 55 episodes. To those still listening, we're gonna take a little bit of a break. Oh.

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It's not gonna be long. It's not gonna be long. It's gonna be a couple weeks. Uh, w- we are going to shift a little bit in 2026 and lean more from tech,

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which we're, we're still two dads who are in tech, but we're gonna lean more toward people and bring on guests and ask them what their lives look like and what makes them unique.

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You know, it'll be a lot of dads primarily, but some of them maybe won't be dads. Like, we're not gonna exclusively bring on dads. Um, but what makes people tick?

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I think that's what Troy and I in the last 55 weeks have realized is what we find most engaging is when people tell us about themselves and kind of pour out their own vulnerability and their hearts about the struggles, the triumphs, and all that exists between those two things as dads, but also as people, as people who work in tech in general, but maybe people who just blue-collar workers.

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Like, we don't... We- there's, there's gonna be less guardrails. Yeah. We're still two dads in tech, but I think we're interested in exploring more about who else is out there. Yeah, yeah.

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The world is big and complicated and unique, and people have stories to s- to tell, and so we're gonna ask those, those people to tell their stories. Yeah.

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Yeah, we notice every episode where anything gets deep, anything gets vulnerable, when we bring people on, people reach out to us, like, "Thank you so much for that episode. It resonated because of X, Y, Z."

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And there's a lot of people out there that just don't talk enough, and I think it's time. Yep. So, uh, I do. If we're gonna do that, I'm excited, man. I'm excited. Me too.

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Y'all, y'all should be excited as well if you listen. I think it's gonna be refreshing. I think it's gonna be refreshing. I think it's gonna be refreshing.

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Not only do people resonate with those episodes more, but, like, those impact us more. I remember Anthony Natoli's episode, like, that was just... If you haven't listened to it- That was a good one...

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go back on YouTube, find Anthony Natoli's episode. He talks about a long journey of going from addicted to gambling to highly successful, now married, works at LinkedIn.

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Like, he's, he's just a great guy, very vulnerable episode, our highest performing episode as well coincidentally. Um, N- Nir Eyal, his episode about being indistractable and, like, parenting- Yeah...

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with technology constantly screaming in your face. Like, that, to me, that was, like, one of the most life-changing episodes ever. That was good. And there's...

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I'm surprised it wasn't our highest performing episode- Same. It was so good... because of how impacted I was. [laughs] Yeah. Go listen to it.

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If you're, especially if you're a parent listening to this, go back to our YouTube channel, listen to the episode where Nir Eyal guests. I think it's called How to Become Indistractable, something...

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The word indistractable is in it. Go, go watch it. It, it really was one of the most impactful... Uh, it was, like, I felt like I was listening to a podcast, and then- Yeah...

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you know, most times during the c- I was like, "Wait a second. I'm, I'm, I'm Mike on." That's, that's me. [laughs] Like, I'm interviewing this guy.

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I forgot I'm supposed to ask another question 'cause I was just so engaged. Yeah. So we're gonna do more of that, and I think it's gonna be a real difference maker. Like, I know Two Dads in Tech has made a difference.

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We love it. It's made a difference for us. I know it's made a difference for many people who reach out to us and say, "Oh, this is a great episode." But, like, I think now we, we have a phase one of a platform.

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People expect the episode. People know who we are. They kinda know about us, kinda how we tick, how we, how we vibe together on mic. Now it's, it's time to bring real difference.

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I think there's, there's an actual difference we can make in people's lives, and I'm excited to do that. I think that's what this is all about. Like, what are we doing?

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What are we doing if not trying to make the world a little bit of a better place in our tiny slice of the world? I think we can do that. One episode at a time, baby. One episode at a time. One episode at a time.

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So I guess with that... [laughs] Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Oh, yeah. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. I know. Wow. It's crazy. 2025 is, uh, about to be in our rear views.

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Thank you for joining us on this crazy year. That flew by. Yeah, it did. Merry Christmas, everyone. We will see you on, uh, New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve. Yeah. Next episode- It's coming...

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will be New Year's Eve, so merry Christmas. Have a little special episode then. We will. And then January- We'll have a special one... we'll take some time off. Come back- Bye... hot and heavy in February.

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All right, we'll see y'all next week. All right, bye-bye.