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Hitchhiking Across the USA with Jonathan Wiest · onefjef

• 0:01
  If you do it again, you should wear L- you should play up the German
• 0:03
  thing, like wear lederhosen and shit
• 0:07
  or whatever.
• 0:07
  Or dress in a Nazi outfit, either one.
• 0:09
  Either one.
• 0:09
  Yeah, yeah.
• 0:09
  And both would work probably.
• 0:11
  Yeah.
• 0:11
  One of the- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:13
  I hitchhiked across the US in a Nazi outfit.
• 0:15
  Oh.
• 0:15
  That'd be a story right
• 0:17
  there.
• 0:17
  In six days.
• 0:18
  Right, right,
• 0:19
  right,
• 0:19
  right.
• 0:20
  Would've been quicker, but yeah, I don't know.
• 0:21
  Uh.
• 0:24
  This is episode 58 of onefjef.
• 0:27
  onefjef
• 0:29
  to podcast.
• 0:32
  Hello, my friends.
• 0:34
  Hola, mis amigos.
• 0:35
  How are you?
• 0:36
  ¿Qué onda?
• 0:39
  The word onda in Spanish means wave or vibe, and I like that.
• 0:48
  Me gusta la buena onda.
• 0:52
  As always, I hope you're thriving, and I think you are.
• 0:55
  I do.
• 0:56
  I am, too.
• 0:58
  Now that the oral surgery is over or, uh, mostly over, I have to go
• 1:04
  tomorrow to get the stitches out, which also sounds horrible, but after
• 1:08
  what I've been through, it's not.
• 1:10
  Hopefully.
• 1:11
  Hopefully.
• 1:13
  I've started eating some solid foods again, which is exciting
• 1:16
  because I have been hungry.
• 1:20
  Hungry
• 1:24
  I did have a Dairy Queen Blizzard for the first time, uh, since
• 1:28
  I was a kid a few days ago, and it honestly wasn't that good.
• 1:33
  All the toppings were, like, on the top, and I thought the whole Blizzard
• 1:38
  thing was that it was blended up, right?
• 1:41
  Like a blizzard.
• 1:42
  Was that me?
• 1:44
  Maybe I misremembered it, or maybe it's just not in Mexico
• 1:50
  Anyway, I ate it all because I was hungry, remember?
• 1:56
  But I digress.
• 1:59
  I have a guest on the podcast today, and that guest is Jonathan Wiest.
• 2:04
  Oh, Jonathan Wiest.
• 2:06
  What a wonderful quest.
• 2:07
  A German on wheels heading straight to the West.
• 2:09
  He hitchhiked up
• 2:18
  You might remember Jonathan from the voice messages he sent earlier this summer as
• 2:23
  he hitchhiked across the United States.
• 2:26
  I played them on the podcast here.
• 2:29
  And today, Jonathan is on the podcast to talk about this hitchhiking adventure of
• 2:33
  his, which is quite a ride, pun intended.
• 2:39
  So buckle up.
• 2:40
  Hmm, not that one.
• 2:43
  He had some truly incredible interactions with Americans of all sorts on his
• 2:48
  journey, and I think you're gonna enjoy hearing about it, whether
• 2:52
  you're from the United States or not.
• 2:57
  Before we get to that, might I take a moment to politely ask
• 3:02
  you to please support the podcast by joining the Patreon page?
• 3:06
  Yes, I might.
• 3:08
  Please go to patreon.com/onefjef and sign up either as a paid member or as a free
• 3:12
  member, and I will be eternally grateful.
• 3:16
  I'll be more grateful for the paid member, obviously, but, you know.
• 3:20
  Patreon.com/onefjef.
• 3:22
  Muchas gracias.
• 3:26
  As always, thank you for listening.
• 3:29
  Thank you for being here.
• 3:31
  Here's Jonathan Wiest talking about going back to his homeland
• 3:40
  I touched European soil again in Paris on the 25th.
• 3:46
  I started in Paris and I will end in Paris again, which is nice
• 3:50
  September?
• 3:50
  Yeah.
• 3:51
  And then I will hitchhike or take the bus to Berlin Which is like 16
• 3:58
  hours by bus, hitchhiking, but I have family on my way there, so let's see.
• 4:02
  But I'm, I, I, I don't know about hitchhiking.
• 4:04
  I have too much luggage.
• 4:05
  I bought so many, so much stuff, stuff here in thrifts,
• 4:08
  in thrift stores in Canada.
• 4:10
  Right, moderately more difficult to hitchhike when you have all that luggage.
• 4:13
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:14
  Well, thanks for coming on the old podcast.
• 4:16
  Yeah, cheers.
• 4:17
  I'm very excited, actually.
• 4:18
  It's my first interview or ish thing, iffy thing I ever had in my life.
• 4:23
  Oh, really?
• 4:23
  Not even a job interview.
• 4:25
  Oh.
• 4:26
  But…
• 4:28
  Well, don't, um, don't fuck it up, man.
• 4:31
  No, I, I, I, I won't.
• 4:32
  You can count on me.
• 4:34
  So Jonathan Wiest, uh, we met in Spanish class in one of the most unhinged
• 4:39
  Spanish classes I think either one of us has taken- Yeah … in our lives.
• 4:43
  With Andrea.
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  Um, with Andrea, the crazy woman from Austin, and then there was
• 4:48
  an autistic chi- man in there who, uh, held up the works.
• 4:52
  And then there was, uh, yeah, it was a whole cavalcade, and I remember,
• 4:56
  um, I think it was the day we became friends, y- we were both laughing
• 5:00
  hysterically at whatever was going on in the fucking class at the time.
• 5:03
  Who knows what?
• 5:04
  I f- it was one day that was particularly unhinged, and you just looked at me.
• 5:08
  You just looked.
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  You just, like, looked over at me.
• 5:10
  Help me.
• 5:10
  Yeah, yeah,
• 5:12
  yeah.
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  And then afterwards you were like, "I think we're the only two
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  sane people in that whole class."
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  Yeah, kind of.
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  Anyway, that's how we met, and then, like about a week later, you got
• 5:23
  on a bus from Mexico City, and, uh, was it 24 hours, 25 hours to- Yeah
• 5:27
  Laredo?
• 5:28
  Yeah.
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  Yeah, 24, 20 f- I don't know, but more than 20.
• 5:32
  And I think it, I don't know, almost 30.
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  I, it took me a long time to, the bus finally crossed the border.
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  So then you get to Laredo, Texas, and you, well, you're, you decided to, what,
• 5:42
  hitchhike from, uh… I mean, tell me.
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  Tell me what your, what your plan was here.
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  Well, I never actually intended to go up north.
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  I wanted to travel through South America, but halfway through I realized,
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  actually in Bolivia, uh, one of the only places who, which isn't super
• 5:59
  Americanized, but I think the US never really got a hood, a foothold in Bolivia.
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  I realized if I want to understand South America, the current state of
• 6:09
  South America, I need to go up and cross the border into the US eventually.
• 6:13
  And then from there on, my plans evolved and I figured… And I also
• 6:17
  knew I have family in Vancouver, and I could technically earn money here
• 6:22
  in Vancouver and extend my trip.
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  Um, and I had no apartment back home.
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  It kinda all s- it was a good fit, and then I decided, yeah, okay, fuck
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  it, I'm gonna hitchhike through the US because I thought, well, I knew…
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  Well, the US is a pretty car-centered place, and I wanted to get a snapshot
• 6:41
  of the US, and I figured every person has to- go through a gas truck from
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  every social background, from every socioeconomic background you can imagine.
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  Right.
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  For
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  sure.
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  And therefore I decided, okay, fuck it, I will hitchhike through the US.
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  No money on accommodation, transportation, so I get… I wanted it all.
• 7:03
  Yeah.
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  And then why my plan was originally, what I figured is I, I had two options.
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  I could take a bus from Mexico City to California and then go up the West Coast.
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  Straight shot, that would've been the obvious from, like, would've been, I
• 7:17
  don't know, only three states, though.
• 7:19
  Yeah,
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  but that's not the Unit- that's not the United States, though.
• 7:21
  Yeah, exactly.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  That would've been, like, the quickest route.
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  I thought of that for a second, but actually I'd never really thought of that.
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  And after, after I… Well, I decided, okay, I want to, I
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  wanted to see Bible Belt America.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  The real America, they say.
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  The
• 7:38
  real America, they say, yeah.
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  I, but I honestly, I didn't really plan anything.
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  I had, um, a mattress, a, like a sleeping mattress I bought for two US
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  dollars in Bolivia, a sleeping bag.
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  That was, that was about it.
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  I had 500 euros in my bank account.
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  Um, I couldn't, even if I wanted to, I couldn't have, I didn't have the
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  ability to afford places to stay.
• 8:02
  Right.
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  Well, a fucking motel in the US is $100, so.
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  No, it's crazy.
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  Yeah,
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  yeah,
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  yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  You had been, have you been to the States before?
• 8:09
  I've been once.
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  I've been, my m- um, four years ago I did an, well, I visited my family in Vancouver
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  for, uh, a couple months, and my aunt took me to a wedding of far away descendants
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  of mine to Temecula, California.
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  But that wasn't- Oh, right … that was short in and out.
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  But even- Right … back then I was really, really happy when I was in
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  my plane on my way back to Vancouver.
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  Really happy.
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  So what did you, what were your, uh, what were you expecting?
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  Like, what were, what was your, I guess, expectation before you went,
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  before you started hitchhiking?
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  Were there any preconceived ideas that you had in your head about how this is
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  gonna be, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?
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  Um.
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  Were you scared?
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  Were you worried?
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  No.
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  Yeah.
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  Good, it's a good question, actually.
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  What, like, I knew that the USA is gonna be a fucking … Everybody warned me.
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  W- the e- everybody thought I'm naive.
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  Everybody said, "Don't do that."
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  Yeah.
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  And when I did- I
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  didn't say don't do that.
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  I just said
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  be careful.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  So I, I, I had to … I wouldn't say that I was anxious.
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  I had respect.
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  I had respect of what was going on in the US.
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  Yes.
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  I was assuming something really bad.
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  And in the end it turned out to be even worse.
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  But I was expecting confused people.
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  I was expecting a, a country … I wasn't expecting the best, honestly.
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  Right.
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  Which probably was for my own good.
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  Sure.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  Honestly, I had no clue.
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  I had no clue where I was going, so I couldn't really … I didn't
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  s- I didn't spend much time.
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  I wanted, I wanted to understand where I'm going.
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  Though I was biased, I was biased.
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  I, I really- Of course.
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  Of course.
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  Yeah.
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  Everybody's biased, right.
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  But yeah.
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  So you get to Laredo.
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  Mm. You get to Laredo, Texas.
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  And, uh, g- walk me through it.
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  What, uh … Where do you stay your first night when you,
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  when you get to Laredo, Texas?
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  Uh, well, I went across the border and then into Laredo.
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  Um, found myself a guest, guest stop.
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  I actually, the beginning was fairly good, honestly.
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  Like, I had, people were surprised.
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  Most of, most of them never saw a hitchhiker-
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  Uh-huh
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  … down in Laredo in their life, especially a person who's trying to
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  go all the way to fucking Vancouver.
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  Right.
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  People paid for drinks.
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  I earned some money that day.
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  Didn't really got a ride, and then I had my first ride in the US.
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  With, uh, you know, it was a construction guy who actually…
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  It was a crazy first ride.
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  It was, like, a, a Texan guy who off- even offered me to work at his
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  farm for a couple- … uh, days.
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  He eventually never did.
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  He just pulled over to a gas station and kicked me out because he called
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  his wife and his wife said no.
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  His wife got scared.
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  So I ended up sleeping in the back of a gas station the f- uh, on my first night.
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  Oh, Jesus
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  Christ.
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  Um, around about, I don't know, 60 miles from, away from the border, so I made,
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  I made some miles only with one ride.
• 11:16
  Right.
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  I had my first beer in the US, which that guy offered me.
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  He just, we just threw it out of the window.
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  Was kinda, uh, cowboy style- Yeah
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  … I
• 11:26
  would say.
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  Does
• 11:26
  he?
• 11:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:27
  Yeah, no, but that was my first day.
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  Wow, just drinking and driving.
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  Drinking and-
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  First day in America
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  … drinking and driving in a broken truck, riding, riding,
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  and listening to country music.
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  I, I- Of course.
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  Of course … I, I got, I got, I got the real America my first ride, I guess.
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  I don't know.
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  You, you really did get a certain part- … of America on that first ride right there.
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  You got- Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So I, I don't know if we want to go through, like, it, like, moment by moment,
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  but do you want to tell me, like, just a, I guess, a general kind of highlights
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  from the trip as you went through it?
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  Or, like, lowlights even, the worst parts, the best parts,
• 12:00
  whatever it was as you went along?
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  N- I, I, I would start with lowlights.
• 12:05
  There have been- Okay.
• 12:06
  … highlights.
• 12:06
  There have been highlights for sure, but mainly this was, uh, the entire
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  trip basically was a long realization of that, that the US is more of a
• 12:18
  shithole than I even thought it is.
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  So my, my, my lowlights, I, on multiple occasions I had goosebumps because people,
• 12:29
  uh, w- I remember one, one time actually, I tried to remember the details of it the
• 12:36
  other day and write it down even because it was such a impactful moment I had.
• 12:41
  I got dropped off in Oklahoma at a gas station, at a Valerio gas
• 12:45
  station, in the middle of litt- literally, literally bumshit nowhere.
• 12:50
  It was the woods.
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  There was nothing besides this gas station.
• 12:54
  Right.
• 12:54
  And it was a rundown place run by an Indian guy, and I ended up talking to him.
• 13:00
  A- and he was super surprised with me being there and with me actually…
• 13:06
  I don't know, we had a chat, but what stuck, stuck, stuck with me, he, he
• 13:10
  was explaining how he experiences the B- Bible Belt America daily.
• 13:15
  I was just passing by.
• 13:17
  Yeah.
• 13:18
  And he said, he literally said to me, I still get, I, I have goosebumps right now.
• 13:23
  It was, I don't know if I can express the intensity of the sentence.
• 13:28
  Mm. But he was, he was saying to me, "You know, this is like fascism.
• 13:34
  You know you are German." And while I was standing there with him, we had multiple
• 13:40
  racist encounters towards him, and I was st- I was, the entire setting, this gas
• 13:47
  station in nowhere, an Indian guy working there, coming over from India, hoping for
• 13:53
  a better future And he obviously, like he w- he, he was obviously fooled by, um-
• 14:01
  Right,
• 14:01
  right
• 14:01
  and, and, i- like it was, it was a, I don't, I, I don't know if I can … It,
• 14:06
  it was sup- it was a very, I don't know-
• 14:09
  I get the gist.
• 14:11
  It was … Yeah.
• 14:11
  I get the gist.
• 14:11
  Yeah.
• 14:11
  He was, he was from India, though.
• 14:12
  He wasn't like Native American.
• 14:13
  No, yeah.
• 14:14
  He was from India.
• 14:15
  Yeah.
• 14:15
  He was from India.
• 14:16
  Yeah.
• 14:16
  It was very, yeah.
• 14:19
  That was a low light.
• 14:20
  What was another low light?
• 14:21
  But
• 14:22
  you liked the Indian guy.
• 14:23
  Like you, you seemed to connect with the guy at least,
• 14:24
  with the people- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:25
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:25
  Yeah, we had a nice cha- chat-
• 14:26
  Right
• 14:27
  … be- before the on- like the two days before that, I only spoke to
• 14:31
  people who believe in conspiracies, conspiracies theories and didn't
• 14:35
  really had a clue what was going on.
• 14:37
  He actually had.
• 14:39
  I, I wanna know how many people believe in, in conspiracy theories and it
• 14:42
  just- What kind of conspiracy theories did you hear when you were on the,
• 14:45
  like what were the craziest ones?
• 14:48
  Oh, everything.
• 14:49
  P- I, I, I realized something.
• 14:51
  People tend to actually have knowledge, but they can't connect the dots.
• 14:54
  They lack, uh, they lack critical thinking to a huge extent, and that just fill the
• 14:59
  voids with s- stories which are- Yeah, yeah, yeah … which never have really
• 15:04
  have been que- questioned or fact checked.
• 15:07
  I don't know.
• 15:08
  There have been, I heard conspiracy theories about 9/11- Sure,
• 15:14
  yeah … that this was a planned event.
• 15:14
  Yeah.
• 15:14
  Pretty classical stuff.
• 15:16
  Yeah.
• 15:16
  The aliens.
• 15:18
  But people just literally lost touch to reality to some extent.
• 15:23
  Like they literally- For sure … did.
• 15:25
  For sure.
• 15:25
  I would say if you are educated to some extent, it takes s- some time to acquire
• 15:30
  this much knowledge and, but, but history is just n- numbers and there's, it's more.
• 15:35
  You need to be able to wrap your mi- mind around it to actually understand the
• 15:41
  influence, influence those events have.
• 15:44
  I
• 15:44
  don't know.
• 15:44
  I think that s- I think that some people like have a certain amount of knowledge
• 15:48
  and then find the conspiracy theory more comforting than perhaps something else.
• 15:52
  Because if it's all a conspiracy, then the reason they're getting
• 15:55
  fucked is a conspiracy, right?
• 15:57
  Yeah.
• 15:57
  The reason their life sucks is a conspiracy.
• 15:59
  So it's much easier to lean into these things than it is to actually deal
• 16:02
  with the reality of maybe it's you.
• 16:04
  No, that's true.
• 16:05
  People also lack a huge, like they lack structural understanding of things,
• 16:11
  and that they, that this may is the cause for their hardship and not- Yeah
• 16:14
  the fact that they, that they ain't working hard enough.
• 16:18
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 16:19
  Why did you get dropped off … Were you, so you're just in a, you're like
• 16:22
  getting a ride from somebody, and you, he was just like, "I'm gonna drop you off
• 16:25
  in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma"?
• 16:26
  Yeah.
• 16:27
  No, yeah.
• 16:27
  Wow.
• 16:28
  It was, it was a truck driver, one of the only trucks I took.
• 16:31
  He actually- He believed in hella conspiracies as well.
• 16:36
  I can't remember the details, but-
• 16:38
  Sure,
• 16:39
  sure, sure … I, I got in his truck, I said I'm German, and straight to Hitler.
• 16:43
  That was kinda the vibe.
• 16:45
  Well, you know, welcome to-
• 16:50
  Um … welcome to the United States of America.
• 16:50
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:50
  And he eventually, halfway through, figured, uh, he needs to turn right,
• 16:55
  and then I said, "Drop me off wherever."
• 16:57
  And he did.
• 16:58
  Ah, I see.
• 16:58
  Yeah, yeah.
• 16:58
  He literally did drop me off wherever.
• 17:01
  Yeah.
• 17:01
  It's in the woods in Oklahoma on Highway, on, on I-35.
• 17:08
  No
• 17:08
  idea.
• 17:08
  Um, close to the border to T- Texas.
• 17:12
  Okay.
• 17:12
  It was, uh, um… No, it wasn't.
• 17:15
  The, bad vibes, this place.
• 17:17
  Y- yeah, yeah.
• 17:18
  So how did you go about trying to get rides?
• 17:20
  You just walk up to people at a gas station and say- Uh,
• 17:22
  well, I, I had, I had different strategies.
• 17:25
  So in, in the beginning I thought, talking about what I n- how I perceived
• 17:30
  the US beforehand, I was, I was already aware that people probably are afraid
• 17:35
  of me, considering that everybody carries a gun and they haven't seen
• 17:39
  a hitchhiker in years, and, you know.
• 17:42
  So I- Mm-hmm … I figured I go to gas stations, give people a minute, and try
• 17:47
  to talk them into taking me somewhere.
• 17:50
  Um, worked fine in Texas.
• 17:52
  I did that basically all the way through, but, uh, through Texas,
• 17:57
  but past Texas I realized actually letting people decide on their own
• 18:02
  whether they want to stop or whether they don't, I have a more, a bigger
• 18:06
  chance, and also it's very exhausting.
• 18:09
  Right.
• 18:09
  Talking to people, you get d- you get, I don't know, you get very weird comments
• 18:14
  and stop, you stop believing in, in, in, in, in, I don't know, humanity.
• 18:19
  I don't fucking know.
• 18:20
  Uh-huh.
• 18:20
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:21
  You get, it's a very, it's a, it's like literally rejection therapy
• 18:24
  for hours if you get unlucky.
• 18:26
  For sure.
• 18:27
  For sure.
• 18:28
  S- but it also worked better, and after a while figured the best
• 18:32
  thing, so if anybody ever wants to go hitchhiking, go somewhere where there's
• 18:37
  a streetlight and put a, make up a sign with just an approximate direction.
• 18:44
  People within that minute saying, like, the, the human curiosity will win.
• 18:49
  They will roll down their window and at least ask you Or have a chat with you.
• 18:54
  Doesn't mean that they pick you up, but- Right … I had the best, it w- w- worked
• 18:57
  the best after I discovered that the street lights, they have the power to stop
• 19:04
  or don't or to roll down their window.
• 19:06
  Right.
• 19:06
  And you just try to look nice and presentable.
• 19:09
  Yeah.
• 19:10
  I, I- And y- … I paid a good amount of time in the US, and
• 19:13
  money too, to look presentable.
• 19:15
  I washed my clothes, cleaned my teeth, dressed up as good as I can
• 19:20
  because I didn't want to, to get mis- mistaken for a homeless person.
• 19:24
  Right, right, right.
• 19:25
  Yeah.
• 19:25
  So y- you just held a sign up?
• 19:27
  It was just a sign?
• 19:27
  Yeah.
• 19:28
  I, I still have it in my diary.
• 19:29
  I, I basically all I did, I have two words in my diary.
• 19:36
  It's north and west.
• 19:38
  That's all I did.
• 19:40
  North and west, and I think once I did a certain city because
• 19:46
  I needed to go somewhere.
• 19:48
  But besides I, north and west, that's what… But I only
• 19:52
  went north and west highways.
• 19:55
  It's e- ev- everything, like, I don't know, the entire fucking
• 19:58
  w- USA is designed in squares, so north and west works everywhere.
• 20:02
  In that area for sure, essentially,
• 20:03
  yeah.
• 20:03
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:04
  W- um, d- you said most people gave you money and didn't actually give you a ride.
• 20:09
  Yeah, most people … Well, as I said, I entered the US with 500 U- Yeah
• 20:15
  U- like, I don't know, in US, maybe 600 US dollars.
• 20:18
  Right, must've
• 20:18
  been.
• 20:18
  I left, I left the USA with more than I started.
• 20:24
  Like, I, I did the math.
• 20:25
  People must have spent- Total in America … more than $2,500
• 20:30
  on me.
• 20:30
  In cash alone I got 700.
• 20:33
  Wow.
• 20:33
  600. Well,
• 20:35
  well
• 20:35
  done.
• 20:35
  Like, some t- like, some days I earned, like, I think on average
• 20:38
  I earned, like, 70 bucks a day.
• 20:40
  Wow, well done.
• 20:41
  Some days … Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:42
  Maybe you can do, I mean, you're making more money maybe doing that than doing,
• 20:45
  uh- My, my- … at the restaurant … my dishwasher shift.
• 20:47
  Yeah.
• 20:47
  Right, right,
• 20:48
  right.
• 20:48
  Actually, I thought about this a couple of times.
• 20:50
  Maybe I should quit and go back.
• 20:52
  Professional hitchhiker, right.
• 20:53
  Just, just go all around the country pretending to hitchhike
• 20:55
  and keep getting money.
• 20:56
  And presenting a good story.
• 20:58
  Right, right.
• 20:59
  Be like, "I got, I got a million dollars."
• 21:01
  I got a mil- yeah.
• 21:03
  Put it on
• 21:04
  Instagram
• 21:04
  or
• 21:04
  TikTok.
• 21:04
  From dishwasher, from dishwasher to trumper, yeah, hitchhiker.
• 21:07
  Yeah, put a TikTok or something.
• 21:09
  Mm. Um, was anybody mean to you?
• 21:10
  Or people, like, yelling at you or no?
• 21:12
  Yes?
• 21:12
  Yeah.
• 21:13
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:14
  More passive aggressive.
• 21:16
  The other day I asked somebody, "Yo," talking somebody into
• 21:18
  taking me, "Yo," um, whatever.
• 21:20
  Yeah.
• 21:21
  Told him a quick story, give him a quick, "Yo, I'm a bl- a little,"
• 21:23
  I usually just said, "Yo, I'm a little German kiddo trying to go
• 21:26
  from blah, blah, blah to Vancouver."
• 21:29
  Right.
• 21:29
  Uh, and I've, I'm coming from Sao Paulo.
• 21:31
  I try to b- uh, exaggerate a bit in a short amount of time and present
• 21:35
  them, I don't know, try to make it interesting- Yeah, yeah … that they
• 21:37
  get a, that, that they benefit from taking me eventually as well, too.
• 21:42
  Right, to get a story.
• 21:43
  Yeah, and this guy was like, "Yeah, well, give me a second.
• 21:45
  I go and buy something and think about it." And then he went out, walked
• 21:48
  past me, and just looked back to me and was like, "Nah, you may murder
• 21:53
  me." He, but, but this also sums up, the people were generally scared.
• 21:59
  Yeah.
• 21:59
  People insulted me sometimes.
• 22:02
  They didn't really know what was going on.
• 22:04
  But in general, I got w- or to, to be honest, I don't
• 22:08
  wanna only shit talk the USA.
• 22:10
  Right.
• 22:10
  I had worse experiences here in Canada and in Germany.
• 22:16
  Like, I, I, I, like, in, like, the middle finger I got more often in Germany
• 22:22
  and in Italy than I got in the USA.
• 22:26
  Interesting.
• 22:26
  So people ignored me.
• 22:27
  People were scared.
• 22:29
  People were, but not mean, but al- also- I wouldn't, uh … It was,
• 22:37
  um, I made it through the years in 18 days because I'm a white man.
• 22:41
  Right, right.
• 22:42
  And that, like, people picked me up because of that.
• 22:44
  If I would've been anything else- Right, right … I would've had a
• 22:47
  very, very different story to tell.
• 22:49
  Yes, absolutely.
• 22:50
  So- Yeah … people, people … Actually, I … People
• 22:53
  pulled over and prayed for me.
• 22:57
  People-
• 22:57
  Did they, like, lay hands on you?
• 22:59
  Yeah.
• 22:59
  They, they laid- One, one day a kid in Ok- in Oklahoma, that was a thing.
• 23:03
  Multiple people said, like, "Yo, can I pray for you?" I was like, "Oh, yeah,"
• 23:07
  and they probably went home and did so.
• 23:09
  But one time, like, the, uh, the kid actually pulled over, put
• 23:12
  his hand, hand on my shoulder and went on for a good minutes.
• 23:16
  Like, he was asking to send good Christians my way, and actually five
• 23:21
  minutes later, two people pulled over and I earned 40 bucks each.
• 23:26
  Or th- Wow … I don't know, let it be 20, but it was a good amount of money I
• 23:28
  earned th- through him praying for me.
• 23:31
  And other people- It was Jesus, yeah … seeing it.
• 23:32
  Yeah.
• 23:33
  Yeah.
• 23:33
  Praise the Lord.
• 23:35
  Huh.
• 23:36
  Yeah.
• 23:36
  Wow.
• 23:37
  Yeah.
• 23:37
  Yeah.
• 23:38
  What, what was the longest ride somebody gave you?
• 23:40
  Oh, Kim.
• 23:41
  Well, Kim was awesome.
• 23:43
  Kim was so awesome.
• 23:45
  Um, um, I think she picked, might have picked me up shortly, like
• 23:49
  6- 60 miles, like in the Dakotas- Mm-hmm … by, by Sioux Falls.
• 23:55
  Okay.
• 23:55
  And she took me all the way to Idaho.
• 23:58
  That's
• 23:58
  a long way.
• 23:59
  All the way to Idaho, yeah.
• 24:00
  I, I, yeah.
• 24:03
  To d- Devil's Dunes, Idaho, where she … I spent the f- I
• 24:09
  spent the 4th of July with her.
• 24:10
  She took me, she invited me For the 4th of July riding her side-by-sides
• 24:16
  in the biggest dunes you can legally ride with a side-by-side.
• 24:21
  In the USA.
• 24:22
  That's some shit you ca- definitely can't do in Euro- we don't got the space.
• 24:26
  We don't got space like that.
• 24:27
  Well,
• 24:27
  like a dune buggy.
• 24:28
  That's right.
• 24:28
  You're talking about.
• 24:29
  Yeah, a dune buggy.
• 24:29
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:32
  A dune buggy.
• 24:32
  A, a 120,000 US dollar toy.
• 24:34
  Well, that's fun.
• 24:35
  Yeah, that's, that was fun.
• 24:36
  She was- Well- And she, we had a very, very interesting, interesting time.
• 24:42
  I spent four days with her, I think.
• 24:44
  Wow.
• 24:45
  And she picked me up.
• 24:47
  I fall asleep in her truck right away because I was super tired.
• 24:51
  I often I didn't really slept sometimes.
• 24:53
  Right.
• 24:53
  Not for like for, I didn't sleep for two days because it was either too dangerous,
• 24:57
  or I didn't find a spot, or it was, there was a thunderstorm or whatever.
• 25:01
  Right.
• 25:01
  But I was super tired at that, that day.
• 25:03
  I don't remember why.
• 25:05
  I think I saw some thunderstorm in the night before.
• 25:08
  And I just fall asleep.
• 25:10
  We didn't really had a talk.
• 25:11
  She pick… Oh, this, ha, ha, it, it makes it even better.
• 25:16
  You know, I was sitting at the entrance to I-90, which is the highway which
• 25:23
  goes from New York up until Seattle.
• 25:26
  Mm-hmm.
• 25:26
  And somewhere in no man's land, there was only a gas station relatively
• 25:30
  close by, but I didn't want to talk.
• 25:32
  I was too tired, so I just- Mm … sat at this entrance.
• 25:36
  And then she pulled up in a Ford F-350- … with the biggest wheels you can get.
• 25:43
  I think this car is illegal in Germany.
• 25:46
  I- I've never saw that in Germany.
• 25:48
  With a, with a trailer.
• 25:49
  Yeah.
• 25:50
  And in that trailer was, like, a, a full-on apartment, plus
• 25:53
  her fucking side-by-side.
• 25:55
  It was huge.
• 25:57
  Yeah.
• 25:57
  And the license plate says, said, "Murdered," and she had a cat and
• 26:02
  Brody, uh, her little dog in the front.
• 26:06
  Everything had a name.
• 26:07
  The car was obviously called Murdered.
• 26:10
  The trailer had a name.
• 26:11
  The buggy had a name.
• 26:12
  It was a crazy lady, but she brought me all the way to Idaho, all the way.
• 26:17
  How old?
• 26:17
  How old was she?
• 26:17
  70, 70 something.
• 26:20
  Wow.
• 26:21
  70 something, and she was, she was going, like, apparently
• 26:25
  she goes there f- quite often.
• 26:28
  Her husband died recently, and she just wanted to get a day off
• 26:32
  of her kids who basically live off her credit card, she told me.
• 26:37
  Um, yeah.
• 26:39
  She, she's an, she was annoyed by her kids.
• 26:42
  But I don't know.
• 26:42
  I, I had an, I had a blast with Kim.
• 26:44
  It was, it was very interesting.
• 26:46
  It was, I don't know.
• 26:49
  And she let you stay at her house?
• 26:50
  In her c- trailer, yeah.
• 26:53
  Like always, I had the best chance in the US with middle-aged woman- Yeah,
• 26:56
  yeah,
• 26:57
  yeah … who took me under the, her wing, and she did so.
• 27:00
  Well, well, I, I d- don't say no.
• 27:03
  She paid for everything.
• 27:04
  She even p- offered me to pay for a flight from Idaho to Vancouver.
• 27:09
  Wow.
• 27:10
  But I think she was touched by me.
• 27:13
  We were talking a lot about the, the world, what I think about
• 27:17
  the world, how I view the world.
• 27:19
  And for her, I think that was interesting because her world
• 27:22
  seemed to be kind of small, like-
• 27:24
  I'm sure
• 27:24
  it is
• 27:24
  for most, for most Americans.
• 27:27
  And I st- told her stuff she never heard before.
• 27:31
  Mm.
• 27:31
  When I left, she told me, "Yo…" I actually wrote her a letter when I left.
• 27:35
  I forgot to ask for her contact.
• 27:37
  I will never see this lady again probably.
• 27:39
  Huh.
• 27:39
  Yeah.
• 27:40
  Um, and I have, I don't know, maybe I find the letter somewhere.
• 27:45
  I, I think I copied it- Yeah
• 27:47
  because I found it funny that I'm writing a 70-year-old a letter.
• 27:51
  Yeah.
• 27:51
  But I wanted to give her something back for paying.
• 27:53
  She paid for everything for four days.
• 27:57
  But she, she, she said, "Yo, you're such a, one of the most neat," I think
• 28:01
  you say neat, "kids I ever met in my life." And then she started to cry.
• 28:06
  Oh, my.
• 28:06
  We said goodbye, and then I hit the road again.
• 28:10
  But it was very, very intense.
• 28:13
  Very intense, loads of-
• 28:15
  Well, that, well, that's- Yeah … a positive experience-
• 28:17
  Yeah, that's-
• 28:18
  … in the United States of America … yeah.
• 28:18
  Yeah.
• 28:19
  Period.
• 28:19
  That was, yeah, period.
• 28:23
  Yeah, I, you know, I, what I think what she saw in me, she saw in me
• 28:26
  the independent, or I don't know.
• 28:29
  I don't wanna- Yeah, yeah … talk about me- You're probably right, yeah
• 28:32
  … about me like that, but she saw in me something her kids definitely were not,
• 28:36
  and for that she admired me, or f- or something she was not even, I think.
• 28:41
  Or maybe she was just a, you know, a lonely person and wanted
• 28:44
  to hang out with somebody-
• 28:44
  Yeah
• 28:45
  and thought, you know.
• 28:45
  I mean, maybe it's just as simple as that.
• 28:47
  Yeah.
• 28:47
  Who knows?
• 28:48
  Yeah.
• 28:49
  Uh.
• 28:49
  No, but w- what- whatever it was, it was a very… I won't forget her, and
• 28:53
  I think she won't forget me either.
• 28:55
  It was a very interesting four days.
• 28:58
  It was
• 28:59
  very- That's like a- Yeah … it's like a mo- it's like a
• 29:00
  movie in itself right there.
• 29:01
  Yeah.
• 29:02
  No.
• 29:02
  Yeah.
• 29:04
  Well- Was that the high- was that the highlight?
• 29:05
  Was that, like, one of
• 29:06
  the- Yeah.
• 29:06
  I, I think that was the highlight.
• 29:08
  I, well, I got super lucky in, on my last week.
• 29:13
  I stayed with Kim for four days.
• 29:17
  Uh-huh.
• 29:18
  And then f- after Kim, I got a, uh, a ride, I don't know, to Bozeman,
• 29:24
  Montana, or close by, then another one.
• 29:27
  Oh, that was, that was … I, there were a lot of the p- uh, you know what
• 29:32
  were highlights were people, as always.
• 29:35
  Sure.
• 29:35
  People, they w- p- I don't only want to, like, maybe I started this off false,
• 29:42
  but- … but p- like, g- generally speaking, people in the US are so
• 29:47
  nice, but- Mm-hmm … they're, they, they only, like, they just g- they
• 29:51
  just tend to be confused quite often.
• 29:54
  But I don't, I don't even, I don't even, I don't even wanna judge sometimes
• 29:58
  because they have no point of reference.
• 29:59
  They have no, there's so little being offered to, to them.
• 30:04
  I don't know.
• 30:05
  Did you find out what Kim's politics were?
• 30:07
  Did you talk about politics while you were-
• 30:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 30:09
  We did.
• 30:10
  We did.
• 30:11
  We, in the beginning, that was basically all we talked about, to be honest.
• 30:15
  She was saying weird stuff about masculinity and, uh, the
• 30:23
  relationship between man and woman.
• 30:26
  Um-
• 30:29
  She w- like stuff, like the entertain stuff, men becoming weak- Yeah,
• 30:32
  yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah … and- Right … all Donald Trump man-
• 30:35
  manosphere bullshit, Donald Trump stuff.
• 30:37
  Right, right,
• 30:37
  right.
• 30:38
  Donald Trump stuff, like they have to be tough again and where are
• 30:41
  the muscles- Mm-hmm … and I don't know, just a very, I don't know.
• 30:45
  Right.
• 30:45
  As if there's not more to masculinity than that.
• 30:48
  Right.
• 30:49
  But, and also when we went through, like, native land, um- Mm-hmm … she also made
• 30:55
  comments where I definitely got the ick.
• 30:58
  She, she was able to have a conversation, was able to be
• 31:01
  convinced by the stronger argument.
• 31:04
  Right.
• 31:04
  Most people probably never have offered her- For sure.
• 31:07
  For
• 31:07
  sure … and yeah, no.
• 31:09
  At least she was open to listening, right?
• 31:11
  Yeah.
• 31:11
  That's one of the most important stuff.
• 31:12
  Yeah, she was, yeah.
• 31:13
  Yeah, she was v- she was very open.
• 31:15
  She was very open.
• 31:17
  And then where did you go after Kim?
• 31:18
  After Kim, huh, I stayed close to the, the Kardashians.
• 31:24
  The fuck.
• 31:24
  That was also crazy.
• 31:25
  Also middle-aged woman.
• 31:27
  So American.
• 31:28
  So American.
• 31:29
  Yeah.
• 31:29
  In, in Coeur d'Alene Lake, Idaho.
• 31:32
  Um, I went back into Montana to get back to I-90 because I figured that's
• 31:37
  my best and quickest chance, and I- Yeah
• 31:39
  at this point I was like, "Yo, I, I'm done. I want to go to Vancouver."
• 31:42
  My sister was waiting for me.
• 31:44
  Right.
• 31:44
  Right, right, right.
• 31:45
  And then another woman picked me up, also middle-aged, in her 50s.
• 31:49
  She said she never picked up a hitchhiker in her life before, and
• 31:53
  she was like, after n- like it was an hour and a half the way she was about
• 31:58
  to take me, um, towards, uh, Seattle.
• 32:01
  Uh, not Seattle.
• 32:02
  Uh, Washington.
• 32:03
  And halfway through she invited me to stay at her place, and it ended
• 32:07
  up being a four-story building.
• 32:10
  I had an entire floor for myself.
• 32:12
  Jesus Christ.
• 32:14
  Uh, w- uh, with her binoculars I was able to look in the Kardashians' backyard.
• 32:18
  She, but she lived there on her own.
• 32:19
  She was definitely, uh, lonely.
• 32:23
  And rich and lonely.
• 32:23
  Yeah.
• 32:23
  Rich
• 32:23
  and
• 32:24
  lonely.
• 32:24
  Rich and, rich and lonely.
• 32:27
  She s- she said, uh, she's, since she's 50 she's trying to do stuff differently.
• 32:34
  The next day I also got a place to stay, which was my last day
• 32:40
  in the US, which also sums up, I think, my entire experience.
• 32:45
  Like, it sums up the state of the US, USA- Ah
• 32:49
  currently right now quite well, and it also draws an interesting line between
• 32:55
  the US and Canada also, considering the trade war which just broke out, and
• 32:59
  where Canada and the US kinda stand.
• 33:02
  I, I, I tr- I told this story to people who were asking what's the
• 33:05
  difference or wh- how was the USA like.
• 33:08
  So, so my last night in the USA I spent
• 33:13
  I got picked up by a man in North Bend, Washington, who was drunk.
• 33:19
  The first thing he did, he offered me a Jäger shot, and we had a chat.
• 33:23
  In
• 33:23
  the car.
• 33:23
  And he was … In the car.
• 33:24
  In the car.
• 33:24
  Yeah, yeah.
• 33:24
  In the car, in his pickup truck.
• 33:26
  Also I think a Ford F350.
• 33:28
  I had luck with those.
• 33:29
  Well, that's nice.
• 33:29
  He's Germ- a German liquor or
• 33:31
  Jäger,
• 33:31
  I suppose.
• 33:32
  Yeah, German liquor.
• 33:32
  It's very considered, yeah I was like, "Ha ha, German kiddo." Funny.
• 33:34
  Right, right.
• 33:35
  And we had a chat.
• 33:35
  We had a blast.
• 33:36
  He was on his way to pick, uh, to help his son out who locked himself out of the
• 33:40
  car, and then we went, we went to his son.
• 33:44
  We had a chat.
• 33:45
  I just stayed, sticked with him.
• 33:47
  I kinda got along with his son and his friends as well.
• 33:51
  Um, it was kinda funny.
• 33:52
  We had another couple drinks, and then this guy was like, "Yo." It was about
• 33:56
  to … The sun was about to go down, and I was, "Yo, I'm probably gonna just gonna
• 34:01
  sleep here in the woods." And then he was like, "No, you can come to my place.
• 34:04
  I'm just gonna text my wife that we are coming, no problem at all." Ah.
• 34:07
  He took me to his place.
• 34:09
  His wife never saw the message And was very surprised when
• 34:13
  I walked through the door.
• 34:14
  They had three kids.
• 34:16
  Right.
• 34:16
  Kids between 15 and I think 18.
• 34:19
  Yeah.
• 34:20
  And his wife was an illegal alien.
• 34:25
  You say alien?
• 34:26
  Yeah, whatever.
• 34:27
  Yeah, illegal immigrant,
• 34:28
  whatever, yeah.
• 34:28
  Illegal immigrant.
• 34:29
  She was definitely illegal in the US.
• 34:32
  Uh, it was a very s- we had a chat, we talked about a lot of things.
• 34:36
  It was a very surreal setting in general.
• 34:40
  All, all her three kids has had both passports.
• 34:43
  Um, in the, in the … You have to imagine on their TVs there were videos of a
• 34:49
  person walking through Mexico City 24/7.
• 34:54
  This woman hasn't been, haven't been back to, to Mexico in years, and years.
• 34:59
  She can't, if she ever goes, goes back.
• 35:02
  She has a Mex- Like the thing is she appl- she, when she applied for her American
• 35:09
  citizenship or some paper, she made a minor mistake on accident, typed in
• 35:12
  something wrong, therefore she can never get a permit or whatever in the US ever.
• 35:18
  She had three immigration lawyers.
• 35:20
  They said no chance.
• 35:21
  F- Some, uh, some, some weird s- bureaucratic shit, but she, she's
• 35:26
  screwed and, and considering she has a life, she has three kids in the USA.
• 35:30
  They were super fun.
• 35:31
  They were super nice.
• 35:33
  Super nice.
• 35:34
  They, I skated with, with, uh, their, with her son in the garage at night, took
• 35:40
  him to the skate park the next morning.
• 35:42
  Um, to his, her daughter and her other daughter interrogated me till like 2:00.
• 35:49
  Uh, they were like literally standing in the doorframe and we were up till
• 35:53
  like 3:00 and they've been asking about, I don't know, how is Germany like?
• 35:57
  How do the houses look like?
• 35:58
  Right.
• 35:58
  Right.
• 35:59
  How was your trip?
• 35:59
  They were just super curious and- One of the nicest people I met in the US.
• 36:06
  Huh.
• 36:06
  Uh, a- um, and the next morning, um, I was about to hit the road again,
• 36:12
  and then they said, "We, oh, you know what? We were gonna drive you up." And
• 36:16
  I was like … And they told me this night before, she never went further
• 36:20
  than Bellingham because she's afraid of border patrol, of ICE, et cetera.
• 36:24
  Right, right.
• 36:25
  We, we understand, and-
• 36:26
  For sure
• 36:27
  I was like, "No, you don't.
• 36:29
  You just don't." And they were like, "Yes, we will.
• 36:31
  We need to because her mom is about to die in Mexico, and she wants to
• 36:39
  say goodbye." And they took me up to Peace Arch to afterwards go check out
• 36:46
  the area whether she can go back to Mexico, fly back up to Canada, cross
• 36:51
  back into the USA through the woods.
• 36:54
  They had m- multiple guns in their car as well.
• 36:57
  They're both trained to, in case … Not in case, because ICE sometimes-
• 37:02
  Right … walks down highways.
• 37:04
  Right.
• 37:05
  They, they … Her husband said, "I, she ain't going nowhere." A family
• 37:09
  member of her has been detained a cou- like seven, eight months ago, and they
• 37:13
  never heard from her again in her life.
• 37:15
  And her, her brother apparently did already From California, went to Mexico,
• 37:21
  said goodbye, and then crossed back into the USA from through the Canadian border.
• 37:26
  Because they, she has a Mex- a Mexican passport.
• 37:28
  If she would live in Mexico, they can go, she can go wherever.
• 37:32
  She can visit every country on planet Earth, but not-
• 37:34
  Yeah
• 37:35
  the USA.
• 37:35
  Not the
• 37:35
  US, yeah.
• 37:36
  And maybe this is a little detour here, but also I just want to add now, I, I
• 37:42
  say this after, but yeah, they drove me up there, and then I walked across
• 37:47
  the border into Canada, and the first person who says hi to me in Canada,
• 37:53
  the border officer, was a cute little gay guy with an LGBTQ patch on his arm.
• 37:58
  And that was for me like, "Yo, okay.
• 38:02
  I made it.
• 38:03
  I'm safe now.
• 38:06
  This is…" Yeah.
• 38:07
  Yeah,
• 38:07
  I get
• 38:08
  it.
• 38:08
  And, yeah.
• 38:08
  I get
• 38:08
  it.
• 38:09
  No, and I, I don't know.
• 38:11
  She can go everywhere with her Mexican passport besides the fucking USA.
• 38:16
  And the USA, this is what, what annoys me so much, and they, like, the US
• 38:21
  thinks of themselves as the center of the world, but if you actually
• 38:25
  travel through it, you realize they're the most alienated country on Earth.
• 38:30
  I'm closer to everyone than a US American citizen is, is to anyone.
• 38:38
  They… You, it's, it's, it's so, it's, it's the, the lifestyle, the way of
• 38:43
  living, the, the fact that everything that the people take so many things for granted
• 38:51
  and believe in things and have no point of reference is so unique to the USA.
• 38:57
  It's, it's, it's, I don't know, it's so alienated to, to the rest.
• 39:01
  Right.
• 39:01
  Well, to be fair though, I would say that you experienced a part of America
• 39:05
  that is definitely that vibe, right?
• 39:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 39:07
  Like, if you, had you, had you gone to big cities, you'd have
• 39:09
  an entirely different experience,
• 39:11
  because I think- Yeah, if I would have went- Yeah … to West
• 39:12
  Coast, I would, I would have told a very different story, yeah.
• 39:15
  Right, or just even big cities, 'cause I think- Yeah … big cities, it's like two
• 39:18
  different Americas at this point, right?
• 39:20
  Yeah.
• 39:20
  We've got the big cities, and we've got the, you know.
• 39:22
  Um, yeah, but interesting.
• 39:24
  I mean, I think that the choice to not go through the big cities was probably
• 39:27
  a good choice in the end, because you really got to see a side of America that
• 39:31
  I think that many people never get to see, 'cause I think 90% of the people in the
• 39:35
  United States live in the coasts, right?
• 39:37
  No.
• 39:37
  Um, so yeah, yeah.
• 39:40
  Interesting.
• 39:41
  No, but definitely this part is very alienated.
• 39:44
  That was a real, a crazy realization.
• 39:46
  Yeah, for sure.
• 39:48
  But nice, again, though, very nice people.
• 39:50
  Yeah, yeah.
• 39:50
  Right, right.
• 39:52
  It's like the outsiders were the people that were the nicest, you know?
• 39:55
  Um, what about the, you told me there was a Native Americans you
• 39:59
  met and went to, like, a Native American ceremony at one point.
• 40:01
  What was that?
• 40:02
  Uh, no, that was, that was… Oh, actually, I don't know why I
• 40:06
  started off with, with the downside.
• 40:08
  I had so many highlights.
• 40:09
  That was a- I, I was gonna
• 40:10
  say
• 40:10
  … that was a huge highlight, actually.
• 40:12
  Um, so I was stuck in, in, uh, uh, Oklahoma City- uh, on
• 40:18
  I-90, and a woman picked me up from the Muscogee Creek Nation.
• 40:23
  Mm-hmm.
• 40:23
  And she was just driving me up the road to the next more fortunate gas station.
• 40:27
  She was cool as fuck.
• 40:29
  I think her name was Ashley.
• 40:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 40:31
  Ashley, if you hear this, you're a queen.
• 40:33
  Queen.
• 40:34
  Um- Um, she just drove me up the road and was like, "Yo, I'm going
• 40:39
  to, um, Musco- like a nation festival or whatever, uh, in a couple hours.
• 40:46
  I'm just gonna need to pick up my kids, and if you're still here, you
• 40:49
  can come with, with, with us." And a couple hours I was still there.
• 40:53
  I didn't go to ride.
• 40:55
  Honestly, I didn't even try it.
• 40:56
  I wanted to go with her.
• 40:57
  Right.
• 40:58
  Um, it w- it was northwest, was the only time I went west.
• 41:03
  I did a detour for that.
• 41:05
  I went west from, like I left I-90 for the first time on that day.
• 41:08
  Uh-huh.
• 41:09
  In the direction of Missis- Miss- Springfield.
• 41:14
  Springfield, where The Simpsons are.
• 41:15
  Missouri.
• 41:16
  Missouri, yeah, Missouri.
• 41:17
  Yeah.
• 41:17
  Springfield, Missouri, where The Simpsons are from.
• 41:20
  Eh, there's arguments about where they're actually.
• 41:22
  Ah.
• 41:22
  So it's like, there's like, there's like 20 Springfields in the United States.
• 41:25
  Ah, shit.
• 41:25
  So nobody actually knows.
• 41:26
  That's why they picked the name, because it's a very generic American city name.
• 41:29
  Oh, smart.
• 41:30
  Little trivia for you there.
• 41:31
  Ah, I didn't know that.
• 41:32
  Interesting.
• 41:33
  Yeah.
• 41:33
  So yeah, she picked me up, uh, with her four, or no, three crazy daughters.
• 41:40
  Like, the entire girls gang pulled up, also a cousin of theirs, and
• 41:44
  then we went to another house and picked up another cousin in the
• 41:47
  huge G- in her huge G- GMC truck.
• 41:50
  And I was expecting, like in my mind considering I, I never encountered, I
• 41:58
  never was on a reservation before, a US reservation in my life before that point.
• 42:02
  Mm-hmm.
• 42:02
  I was expecting something, something else.
• 42:04
  But we ended up on, on Muscogee land, and this festival ended up being a
• 42:09
  very typical American fair, like one of those you imagine, like I imagine
• 42:14
  from the kids movies I used to see or like Stranger Things or whatever.
• 42:17
  Like with roller coasters, a rodeo.
• 42:21
  Right.
• 42:21
  A baseball match, a football game.
• 42:24
  Like
• 42:24
  a, like a fair.
• 42:26
  Like a fair, yeah.
• 42:26
  Yeah.
• 42:27
  And it was, it was, it was… I rode the rollercoaster.
• 42:30
  I don't, I don't know, it was super fun.
• 42:32
  It was, I was just part of the family for the day with her daughters.
• 42:38
  I don't know, they were like between like 6 and 14 I think.
• 42:44
  Mm. It was super fun.
• 42:45
  It was super fun.
• 42:46
  She just- Invited me to her life for a day, and then she dropped me off at a
• 42:51
  gas station in the middle of nowhere.
• 42:53
  And, but for a day I was part of… It was super fun.
• 42:56
  It was-
• 42:57
  That's fun.
• 42:57
  Yeah, it was nice.
• 42:58
  You get, like, these
• 42:58
  little glimpses of people's lives, and then you just
• 43:01
  kind of- Yeah
• 43:01
  yeah, yeah.
• 43:01
  Yeah.
• 43:02
  No, it was, it was… I was very surprised that she took me.
• 43:06
  Um, like, she was so chill.
• 43:09
  Like, with her daughters, I'm like a young man.
• 43:11
  It's kind of, you know, you don't expect.
• 43:13
  Sure,
• 43:13
  sure, sure.
• 43:14
  But she was like, "Hell yeah, you cool. I'm cool. You can come." And then it
• 43:19
  was, it was… I, I felt like if those…
• 43:22
  At the end of the days, her kids felt like my cousins, and she like my aunt.
• 43:26
  Oh.
• 43:27
  Oh, that's wonderful.
• 43:29
  It was super cute.
• 43:29
  It's, again, the, like, outsiders that are the most welcoming it seems like
• 43:33
  to me.
• 43:34
  Yeah.
• 43:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 43:34
  Yeah.
• 43:34
  Were, were, did you ever feel like you were in danger at any point?
• 43:37
  Honestly?
• 43:38
  Yeah.
• 43:39
  No, not really
• 43:41
  See, that's good
• 43:42
  Like, not a thing, like, no.
• 43:44
  Uh-uh.
• 43:45
  Like, you never got in, you're never in a car and you're like, "Oh, boy.
• 43:48
  I should not be in this car
• 43:48
  right now." No, no.
• 43:50
  I was c- careful, but I wasn't particular.
• 43:53
  Like, I … There's a couple of times actually secretly
• 43:56
  put my knife in my pocket.
• 43:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 43:58
  I did that because I was like- Yep … yo.
• 44:01
  Yeah,
• 44:01
  yeah, yeah.
• 44:01
  But, but no matter how sketchy the person looked, in the
• 44:04
  end of the day it was a nice
• 44:06
  person.
• 44:06
  Sure.
• 44:07
  But also, I'm a young white man.
• 44:10
  Right.
• 44:11
  Right.
• 44:11
  Yeah.
• 44:11
  And you're German.
• 44:12
  I feel like people- I
• 44:12
  am … probably treated you differently
• 44:14
  because
• 44:14
  you're German.
• 44:14
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:16
  That was … I got that.
• 44:17
  But at, at least for me, it was … I haven't encountered
• 44:23
  anything super sketchy, no.
• 44:26
  Well, see, that's nice.
• 44:27
  Mm-hmm.
• 44:27
  If you do it again you should wear, you should play up the German thing, like
• 44:30
  wear lederhosen and shit or whatever.
• 44:34
  Like sausages in your hands and shit.
• 44:35
  You'd probably make tons of money.
• 44:38
  No.
• 44:39
  Or dress in a Nazi outfit.
• 44:40
  Either one.
• 44:41
  Either one.
• 44:41
  Yeah, yeah.
• 44:41
  Both
• 44:42
  would work probably.
• 44:43
  Yeah.
• 44:43
  One of the- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:45
  You get different, you get different rides, but yeah.
• 44:48
  Uh-huh.
• 44:48
  Yeah.
• 44:48
  Yeah, you could change clothes every other day and see what you got.
• 44:51
  There's a book in there for that one.
• 44:52
  Yeah.
• 44:52
  I hitchhiked across the US in a Nazi outfit.
• 44:55
  Oh.
• 44:55
  That'd be a story right there.
• 44:56
  In six days.
• 44:57
  Right, right, right, right.
• 44:59
  Would have been quicker than, yeah.
• 45:01
  Uh, I feel like you might not have gotten quite as many rides
• 45:05
  in the Nazi outfit, but you know.
• 45:06
  Yeah.
• 45:06
  Who knows?
• 45:07
  You never know.
• 45:08
  What was the, if you can remember, what was the … Was there anything
• 45:11
  that was like the, the weirdest, the most memorable shit that happened?
• 45:15
  Or y- or was it already one of, like, was it Kim, the sand dunes?
• 45:17
  Was it something else?
• 45:20
  What you got there?
• 45:20
  You eating some Cheetos?
• 45:22
  Mm. I need to eat one thing.
• 45:23
  I just found chips, very old chips, two months old.
• 45:26
  No.
• 45:26
  No, you're good.
• 45:27
  I'm just curious.
• 45:27
  Yeah.
• 45:28
  Mm.
• 45:28
  It's good for audio.
• 45:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 45:31
  Some ASMR.
• 45:32
  Gives it,
• 45:32
  gives it a li- lift- Sometimes … yeah, lift and lift and, yeah.
• 45:34
  Well, you sing in your podcast sometimes.
• 45:37
  I, I have sung in my podcast, yeah.
• 45:38
  It, it's not all the time.
• 45:40
  And I like the effect.
• 45:42
  No, and what was my … Oh, I saw the weirdest shit.
• 45:47
  Like, I didn't only spend time with close to the Kardashians, I also slept like
• 45:51
  in the woods of Missouri with, and had breakfast with a- Ex-fentanyl junkie.
• 45:58
  That was very interesting.
• 45:59
  Ah.
• 45:59
  But that was also a highlight for me.
• 46:00
  That was one of the biggest highlights, this guy.
• 46:03
  Huh.
• 46:04
  He was… I, I, I slept on, like, some abandoned train tracks in the
• 46:08
  woods, and in the morning I woke up and there was, like, thick black smoke
• 46:11
  coming out of the wood- woods next to me, and I was like Yo, and before the
• 46:16
  day, the evening before when I entered the woods, I already saw that some
• 46:19
  people apparently burned stuff there.
• 46:22
  Right.
• 46:22
  I figured copper to get money and to, like… Yeah, yeah.
• 46:26
  And I was right about my assumption because I went there.
• 46:29
  On my way I found, like, a foot, like, a foot-long knife, picked it up.
• 46:33
  First I thought for my security . Yeah.
• 46:35
  But, uh, I ended up seeing, like, a man burning old mattresses in the woods
• 46:42
  to get copper out of it, and I figured it was probably his knife, offered
• 46:45
  him his knife, and we had a chat.
• 46:49
  I gave him a joint I got the day before.
• 46:52
  Mm-hmm.
• 46:52
  And we literally sat down in the woods, smoked.
• 46:55
  He smoked a joint, I smoked a cigarette, and we had a chat
• 46:59
  about life, and then we went on.
• 47:00
  I invited him for breakfast.
• 47:02
  We had a sandwich.
• 47:04
  He had crazy stories to tell, but not particularly crazy.
• 47:10
  For a Midwest comparison, he was an ex-
• 47:13
  Somebody's coughing some up behind you there.
• 47:14
  Yeah, like my uncle.
• 47:16
  Yeah.
• 47:16
  Um.
• 47:17
  Um, um-
• 47:19
  Was he homeless, the guy?
• 47:20
  Yeah, he, he was.
• 47:22
  He, he- Wow … left Colorado to get as far as away from the place.
• 47:28
  He got addicted to, to, for- Ah, I see … to, on synthetic opioids.
• 47:33
  Yeah.
• 47:33
  He actually, he went to jail multiple times.
• 47:35
  He got addicted to fentanyl, or, like, to severe strong
• 47:39
  opioids in jail because- Mm-hmm
• 47:40
  they sedated him, and he left prison with a prescription for opioids.
• 47:45
  Mm.
• 47:45
  And it fucked over his life.
• 47:46
  He almost died a couple of times.
• 47:48
  He has kids.
• 47:48
  C- He isn't allowed to see them.
• 47:51
  Um, his wife is on drugs, too, and they left together for Missouri, and they're
• 47:56
  trying to… They, I think they, they leveled up from streets to a, to, like,
• 48:00
  an old camper, like a trailer, a thing.
• 48:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 48:04
  I think they bought o- off the money they, they earned burning
• 48:08
  copper, and she is a prostitute.
• 48:11
  Wow.
• 48:11
  Um-
• 48:13
  Wow.
• 48:14
  He was super honest.
• 48:15
  His name… I don't know.
• 48:16
  I… Jef was his name.
• 48:19
  I think.
• 48:19
  Was it really?
• 48:20
  Yeah.
• 48:20
  With
• 48:20
  two F?
• 48:21
  Yeah.
• 48:21
  Two Fs,
• 48:21
  though.
• 48:21
  Yeah.
• 48:21
  Not
• 48:21
  the Y. I don't, I don't know.
• 48:22
  Yeah.
• 48:23
  Yeah.
• 48:23
  Probably, I think, two Fs.
• 48:24
  For sure.
• 48:25
  Yeah, yeah.
• 48:25
  And no, that was, that was very touching.
• 48:28
  He's been clean for two years.
• 48:31
  Pray, pray that- Wow … he's gonna stay clean for longer.
• 48:34
  But what, what stuck with me was the fact that he, like most of the
• 48:39
  people in the US, still thought that it's his fault, and if he works
• 48:44
  hard enough, he can make it one day.
• 48:46
  Hmm.
• 48:47
  It's probably the best, it's for the best for him that he
• 48:50
  thinks that way, but he- Sure.
• 48:51
  For sure … but just the fact that he left prison with
• 48:54
  a prescription for opioids.
• 48:57
  Yeah.
• 48:57
  It's like they want him to go back to prison.
• 48:59
  Yeah.
• 48:59
  I
• 48:59
  was like- Yeah, yeah, yeah … "Yo, yo, okay." But no, but I don't know.
• 49:04
  It was just the fact I s- that, that we sat there, smoked a joint and a cigarette,
• 49:10
  and were just talking about life, and we ended up talking about those things
• 49:14
  because they were part of his life.
• 49:15
  Sure.
• 49:16
  Um, and that was a reality I got that was very Yeah, no.
• 49:21
  Well, you, you find the people who have been through the most shit are usually
• 49:24
  the most honest and open with other-
• 49:25
  Yeah
• 49:26
  … with their
• 49:26
  story.
• 49:26
  Yeah.
• 49:26
  He was, he was, yeah.
• 49:29
  Yeah.
• 49:29
  It kinda pisses me off though.
• 49:30
  Awesome.
• 49:30
  I just had a fucking tooth extracted from my mouth, and they didn't
• 49:34
  even give me op- opioids here.
• 49:36
  But that guy… I got ibuprofen for Christ sake.
• 49:40
  What am I- Shit.
• 49:42
  Yeah.
• 49:42
  At the very-
• 49:43
  Hey, shit,
• 49:44
  you would
• 49:44
  have done it in the US … very
• 49:45
  prison, right.
• 49:45
  In prison, yeah, yeah.
• 49:46
  Yeah, yeah.
• 49:47
  Yeah, shit.
• 49:48
  Well, I'm gonna say this, Jonathan.
• 49:50
  Um, at the beginning of this, you started off by saying that you fucking
• 49:54
  hated America and the whole trip, like you had negatives, very negative,
• 49:57
  but then every story you've kind of told since then has been, like,
• 50:01
  heartwarming, lo- lovely stories about experiences interacting with Americans.
• 50:05
  So it's, I would say it's a mix- it's a mixed bag.
• 50:08
  I'm sure there were bad parts, but, you know.
• 50:11
  Yeah.
• 50:12
  You see what I'm saying?
• 50:13
  Yeah.
• 50:13
  Thank you for the, the, I, I realized going through this too,
• 50:18
  maybe it wasn't too bad, and I'm-
• 50:20
  It's very easy to hate on America
• 50:21
  right now.
• 50:21
  Yeah.
• 50:22
  Very easy.
• 50:22
  And, and, and, um, yeah, no, but, but you're right.
• 50:26
  Yeah.
• 50:26
  You're right.
• 50:27
  The stories in itself, you know, the, the, no, yeah, you're right.
• 50:31
  Period.
• 50:32
  Thank you.
• 50:32
  I think America as an idea is a really unfortunate thing right now.
• 50:36
  It's not going well, but I think the individual people are actually,
• 50:40
  in general, fairly good, right?
• 50:42
  They're, they're wonderful people.
• 50:43
  You've experienced this yourself.
• 50:45
  Yeah.
• 50:46
  Right.
• 50:46
  Yeah.
• 50:47
  So there's a lesson- There is … of some sort in there.
• 50:49
  I don't know.
• 50:49
  Yeah, there is.
• 50:50
  There, there definitely is.
• 50:52
  Yeah.
• 50:52
  It's if you, yeah, no, I also, I think that was my biggest takeaway from this.
• 50:58
  I don't know, life is outside of your comfort zone.
• 51:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 51:03
  Because if you only live in your comfort zones, zones, you fill those
• 51:04
  voids uninevitably with hate and with conspiracy theories or whatnot, and if
• 51:10
  you actually go out and talk to people, you realize, yo- I ain't that bad
• 51:16
  Yep.
• 51:17
  Yep
• 51:17
  And- You're
• 51:17
  speaking my language, my friend
• 51:18
  … yeah, and you realize, and everybody, I think, I, I not, I only realize,
• 51:23
  I think the people I met through this sometimes we realize this
• 51:28
  together and we're like, crazy.
• 51:30
  Yeah.
• 51:31
  Yeah.
• 51:31
  Crazy.
• 51:32
  We're both not that bad.
• 51:33
  The guy with the purse hitchhiking through the US and
• 51:36
  the redneck We actually get along.
• 51:39
  Right, the German with the purse
• 51:40
  . Yeah.
• 51:41
  We actually, we actually get along.
• 51:43
  I wonder if that's why Kim started bringing up masculinity to you because
• 51:46
  you're like- … carrying a purse
• 51:48
  . No, no.
• 51:48
  She was, no, no, no.
• 51:50
  She was, she, she, she thought, she commented my, my c- my body quite often.
• 51:55
  I'm happy that I'm not her kid.
• 51:57
  But it's like, but po- positively in this case, but it's like, yeah, but yeah.
• 52:02
  You know what I mean.
• 52:04
  So would you do it again?
• 52:06
  Mm.
• 52:07
  Mm.
• 52:08
  I will definitely hitchhike wherever I can in the near future.
• 52:13
  I don't, uh, if I would do it again through the US you mean in particular?
• 52:17
  Sure, yeah.
• 52:21
  I don't know.
• 52:23
  Maybe.
• 52:23
  Mm. Mm. Maybe West Coast, on the West Coast when I'm over in Vancouver
• 52:26
  the next time, down to California.
• 52:28
  Great weather.
• 52:29
  But I, I, I got super hooked on whatever I did.
• 52:31
  Like, I think four days after I came to Vancouver I was off to
• 52:35
  my next- … hitchhiking trip.
• 52:36
  I know, you texted
• 52:37
  me.
• 52:37
  Yeah, yeah.
• 52:37
  I was with…
• 52:38
  I took my, like, my sister and I went to hitchhike across, or
• 52:42
  a bit across Vancouver Island.
• 52:44
  I was off to the next.
• 52:46
  It was like I'm, I'm h- I'm hooked.
• 52:48
  I even thought of, I even thought of hitchhiking from here back east
• 52:53
  to then take a flight to Europe, because I figured it's cheaper.
• 52:56
  It's actually not, so I didn't, and I have too much luggage now.
• 53:00
  Um-
• 53:00
  Yeah, it's hard to hitchhike with a lot of luggage.
• 53:01
  Yeah
• 53:01
  … I have a job and I consume a lot now.
• 53:03
  Here we go.
• 53:04
  Yep.
• 53:04
  Yeah.
• 53:05
  There we go.
• 53:06
  Um-
• 53:06
  Um.
• 53:07
  Well, what was the prettiest part?
• 53:08
  I mean, America's a pretty country- Oh … a lot of places.
• 53:10
  What was the prettiest place you got to?
• 53:12
  Oh.
• 53:12
  The prettiest town I've been to, North Bend.
• 53:17
  Oh.
• 53:17
  Washington.
• 53:18
  The teeny, tiny town before, um, before Seattle, but I'm d-
• 53:25
  it's… Yeah, no, Washington.
• 53:29
  Washington was super pretty.
• 53:30
  Montana.
• 53:32
  Uh-huh, Montana's
• 53:32
  crazy.
• 53:32
  Montana, Wyoming.
• 53:34
  I went, actually been… I've been here.
• 53:35
  Wyoming is
• 53:36
  incredible.
• 53:36
  Kim, Kim took me to Yellowstone.
• 53:38
  Yellowstone was obviously- Oh, wow.
• 53:40
  Yeah, yeah,
• 53:40
  yeah
• 53:41
  amazing.
• 53:42
  But I'm, I just love Northwest, like, America, like Oregon,
• 53:48
  Washington, British Columbia climate.
• 53:50
  It's the, those, like British Columbia in particular and Washington is very similar.
• 53:54
  Right.
• 53:55
  Right.
• 53:55
  Are like in my opinion the prettiest places I've been to in my life.
• 53:59
  Not the jungle in Colombia and Brazil can take that away.
• 54:02
  I don't know, it's the, I find peace in this kind of environment.
• 54:05
  Yeah.
• 54:06
  Yeah.
• 54:07
  Yeah.
• 54:08
  Well, the last question I ask my, ask people, um, on my podcast, which
• 54:11
  is moderately unrelated to what we've talked about here, but also
• 54:14
  kind of related, is, uh, what do you think happens when we die, John?
• 54:18
  Honestly, turn to sh- turn, turn back to dirt
• 54:22
  Do you think nothing?
• 54:23
  Just this is it?
• 54:24
  Yeah.
• 54:25
  Interesting.
• 54:25
  I, I, I, I, I see the… I wish.
• 54:29
  I, I'm, I'm still discovering my spiritual side.
• 54:32
  Maybe-
• 54:33
  Ah, yeah.
• 54:33
  All right … but for, for now on I, I, uh… But honestly it's not that bad.
• 54:39
  We get back to hummus and then a tree can live off of our, uh, nutrients.
• 54:46
  So we-
• 54:46
  Sure, yeah.
• 54:47
  No
• 54:47
  … so the cycle continues, you know?
• 54:50
  And a- actually, uh, the other day somebody died at work in front of my eyes.
• 54:54
  Wow.
• 54:55
  Well, I made a joke a couple of weeks ago.
• 54:57
  The place I'm working at is a private tennis club.
• 54:59
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:00
  I
• 55:00
  don't, um… And people basically it's, like, mainly seniors who-
• 55:06
  Sure
• 55:07
  … die while playing tennis, and I made this joke, and actually a senior, rest
• 55:11
  in peace though, um, but, uh, yeah, he just ate a f- I went out of the
• 55:17
  kitchen ha- to get a drink from the bar.
• 55:19
  He had a burger.
• 55:22
  The next time I went out he was passed out, and I just heard the guy
• 55:25
  say, "He has no pulse no more." So I don't know what he's gonna turn into.
• 55:30
  Maybe more- Maybe he's a
• 55:31
  cat now.
• 55:31
  Maybe he's a cat.
• 55:32
  Maybe, maybe he's… I wish, I wish more a bird would be amazing.
• 55:37
  I like, I like, I like, I like the thought of being reborn, but I, I just
• 55:41
  don't trust, trust, trust those stories.
• 55:45
  I feel like the closer you get to the, uh, to the end of your life, the easier
• 55:48
  it is to embrace stories like that.
• 55:51
  You know what I mean?
• 55:52
  What… Can I ask you what do you think?
• 55:54
  I don't know, but I, uh, you know, I'm not a religious person.
• 55:59
  I'm more spiritual than anything else, and I don't really have a good answer
• 56:02
  for this 'cause I don't honestly know.
• 56:03
  But I, I, I have trouble believing that it's just nothing, because
• 56:07
  they're learning so many things about consciousness and things like that now.
• 56:10
  Like, that consciousness may exist outside of ourselves, you know?
• 56:14
  And then you hear these stories about people who have, you know,
• 56:17
  died in hospitals- Mm … and then they wake up, and they've, like, were
• 56:20
  outside the hospital floating around.
• 56:22
  There's a lot of stories that give you, that give me pause, right?
• 56:25
  Maybe if it isn't… If this is, if this is, if this is
• 56:27
  it, then that's fine, right?
• 56:28
  That's fine in a way.
• 56:29
  It's not fine, but it's fine.
• 56:31
  Mm. But, you know, who knows?
• 56:34
  With all- Mm … there's so much we don't know about the nature of consciousness
• 56:37
  and the nature of even existence that it wouldn't surprise me if there
• 56:40
  was, you know, something beyond this.
• 56:43
  But maybe that's just my brain rejecting the idea of death, you know?
• 56:46
  No, no, I, I understa- I, I think what I, what I thought after
• 56:50
  I saw this person death, dead-
• 56:54
  Right
• 56:54
  … um, was I, I thought this just for myself, for me to accept my death
• 57:00
  eventually because I was like, "Yo, what if I get a stroke now?"
• 57:04
  Right.
• 57:04
  Right.
• 57:05
  Right.
• 57:05
  But, um, I was like, whatever happens after, I actually thought that whatever
• 57:10
  happens after, I don't believe that much happens, but I'm happy that I, that I
• 57:13
  die because I, it, I… The thought of being a, a, alive, like, just clinging to
• 57:20
  life forever, maybe it's nice to accept those stages, even the last stage where
• 57:24
  you come closer to death and- For sure
• 57:27
  just embrace it for yourself and whatever you do.
• 57:29
  Your consciousness, it stays, I believe that, with the people
• 57:33
  you impacted in your life.
• 57:34
  Go out and talk to as many as you can.
• 57:36
  They aren't that dangerous and aren't that scary, and they
• 57:39
  will carry your consciousness- … consciousness, uh, further.
• 57:44
  Uh, well that's a solid way to end right there.
• 57:46
  You nailed it.
• 57:47
  Yeah.
• 57:48
  Uh, Jonathan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, bro.
• 57:51
  Yeah, thank you, bro.
• 57:52
  Yeah, thanks for telling your story.
• 57:54
  Thank you for helping me to realize that it maybe wasn't that bad.
• 57:59
  See?
• 58:00
  Yeah.
• 58:00
  We all, we all learned a valuable lesson.
• 58:01
  Yeah.
• 58:01
  No.
• 58:02
  Uh, and thanks for- I was like- … sending the voice
• 58:03
  memos too from your- Yeah
• 58:04
  from the road.
• 58:05
  Those were great.
• 58:06
  Yeah, no, I have to do something with them.
• 58:08
  I don't know yet.
• 58:09
  I'm, I'm about to forget.
• 58:10
  I got sc- scared when you asked me for the podcast.
• 58:12
  I was like, "Fuck." I mute- You warned me You warned me that I didn't put down
• 58:17
  enough, that I had to- No … write more.
• 58:19
  Eh.
• 58:19
  I, I realized that-
• 58:20
  I did, I do the same thing
• 58:21
  myself, so I understand the tendency.
• 58:23
  Yeah.
• 58:23
  But maybe- Um- Yeah.
• 58:25
  No, it was nice, kind of, uh, a flashback.
• 58:28
  Thank you.
• 58:32
  And that was Jonathan Wiest talking about his hitchhiking trip and
• 58:39
  the nature of our own existence.
• 58:42
  Jonathan, thank you again for coming on the podcast.
• 58:46
  I'm truly grateful that we met a few months ago in that Spanish class.
• 58:53
  It's weird how that happens sometimes.
• 58:55
  Anyway, you can follow Jonathan on Instagram at Jonath…
• 59:00
  Oh, Jonathan, I forgot.
• 59:04
  J-O-N-A-T-H-Q-N period W. I don't know how to pronounce that.
• 59:14
  JonathQNW.
• 59:15
  J-O-N-A-T-H-Q-N dot W. And you can follow the podcast on Instagram at onefjefpod.
• 59:23
  That's O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D.
• 59:29
  I have no real evidence, like direct evidence to suggest that, like
• 59:33
  rating, subscribing and reviewing, subscribing clearly, but that it helps.
• 59:37
  But I, I, I can only assume.
• 59:40
  I can only assume.
• 59:42
  And based on this assumption of mine, you should do these things.
• 59:46
  God, these fucking mosquitoes in here.
• 59:49
  I'm gonna lose my mind with these
• 59:56
  I'm gonna end with a quote that I may have ended another episode with at some
• 1:00:00
  point, but I don't think that I have.
• 1:00:02
  I've certainly mentioned it but I don't think I've ended an episode with it.
• 1:00:06
  And even if I had, it would be okay, 'cause it's worthwhile to end more
• 1:00:10
  than one episode with this quote
• 1:00:14
  How strange it is to be anything at all
• 1:00:20
  I'll see you next week
• 1:00:25
  Very good, Jeffrey