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Premium: A First Date With Josh · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

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  G'day, this is an abridged version of the episode that you can hear in full by signing up
• 0:04
  at uncomfortableconversations.substac.com slash subscribe. Enjoy the freebie.
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  All right, so we just kick off. Yeah, go for it. All right, Josh. Well, thanks for joining in the studio today.
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  It's a great pleasure to have the mics turned. The tables turned round table.
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  Host becomes prey. So prey becomes what?
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  We've been working, we've been working together for over two years now.
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  It all well. Happy anniversary.
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  Happy anniversary. It was something like March 15th was the first episode I produced,
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  which was with Megan Downe. My name's Steph, by the way, listeners.
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  You might have heard me, mentioned you might have heard me in commercial such as
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  Dick Spray for men. That's right. Well, all time classic.
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  Yeah, everyone loves that one. We can't wait until we bring that one back.
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  Who was a, I'll try McClure in the Simpsons. Yes.
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  You may remember me from Phil Hartman's voice.
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  You're such educational videos as Alice's adventures through the windshield
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  and lead paint delicious, but deadly. So, um, can I plug something up front?
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  Yeah. Sydney listeners, I want you to go stay at my Airbnb and JavaScript.
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  Yeah, this is actually really good. He didn't ask me to do this,
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  but you should go and stay at his Airbnb and JavaScript because it's beautiful.
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  And I've been there with the kiddos. It's actually a really nice little spot.
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  It's amazing. Jervis Bay is a beautiful part of New South Wales, but that spot, in particular,
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  I hadn't been to before, despite having been to Jervis Bay a number of times,
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  because it's wedged between the Bay and the sea. Yeah, it's called Errol Bay.
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  It's called Errol Bay. It's a St George's Basin. Right.
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  The village is called Errol Bay. And it is, it's wedged in between Jervis Bay and St George's
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  Basin, which is a big saltwater estuary. Absolutely beautiful little spot. Anyway,
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  if you want to go stay there, it's beautiful. Me and my partner renovated it a couple of years ago,
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  and you can follow it on Instagram. It's called Kenny. The house is called Kenny,
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  so the Instagram handle is Kenny Jervis Bay. And if you want to go stay there,
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  hit me up because we can give you a better price than if you book it through your Airbnb.
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  So what you're saying is that it's a rip off if you buy it online?
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  Well, the Airbnb fee is just astronomical. If you have a booking for $1,000 on Airbnb,
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  you might pay $2.50 in fees that are completely avoidable. And do you do the
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  cleaning fee scam? You know, the cleaning fee scam. You get to the final page of the checkout.
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  You know, oh, this is great. It's not worth the $220 page. I've got this for $220. All of a sudden,
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  $180 bucks for cleaning. Well, you're talking about $180 bucks. It's $150 for cleaning. That's
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  bullshit. Well, do you just plan the place for $40? Do you just want it to be? No, because you can't
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  trust that guests will clean it well enough for the next guest. No, I mean, I do clean it when I
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  leave anyway for free. You welcome. And then if I was an old lady living down the street, I'd
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  clean it for $40. If I was the invented, fictitious human who I've just conjured up in my brain,
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  that person would do it probably for free because they're fictitious. But I reckon there'd be a real one,
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  flesh and blood who do it for $50. I think you're wrong. Because it's clean. It's already clean.
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  Can I tell you how it works? Can I tell you how it works? It's already clean. Right.
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  Cleaners, professional cleaners, and this is a professional cleaner. Maybe you don't need a professional
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  cleaner. Maybe Esme down the road to do it, but it doesn't have an Esme. So, professional cleaners,
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  A, they start on a two-hour minimum because they're not going to show up to your place with a bunch
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  of cleaning. This whole professional thing is whether you're getting yourself into trouble. This is
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  where you're getting your knickers and it's not. Right. Don't use professional cleaners for
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  the AirBnBs. This is the difference between Stefan and myself. He has runs a very professional
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  operation, very tight ship. This is the kind of excellence that you can expect if you go to his AirBnB,
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  which is what, as I should say, it's kind of decked out in like a cool, funky mid-century modern
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  aesthetic, right? Yeah, absolutely. So it's like a little old school home built in the 80s in
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  that old school mid-century style with some really interesting finishes like these crazy old
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  tiles and things like that. So we've kept a lot of the old mid-century aesthetic and added some
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  suitable furniture and carpet and finishes. You can walk to basically two bodies of water,
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  one which is very still that you can go kayaking on and then the other of which I didn't go to.
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  So I don't know, but Stefan will tell you about that another occasion. Anyway, I think it's a
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  scan, the whole cleaning thing's a scam. I don't need it that. I don't need the professional cleaning,
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  but I'm glad that your diligence enough to do it anyway. You do need it. Most people,
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  like most of the time, it's just a way for the people who post their places on AirBnB to avoid
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  their places showing up, like to have a more competitive price when they show up in the initial
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  listing and then to slug you at the back end. Yeah, I mean, that's true. It's more competitive,
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  but it is what it is. It's very, very difficult to plan. It's your cost. You should embed it in your
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  cost. Okay, well, you can tell that to every single person. I'm going to add your number one,
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  and I'm going to progressively go through the entire website. Speaking of dick sprays,
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  I want to put a call out to the audience there. If anyone wants to advertise with the podcast,
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  please do so. Get in touch with us because we can manage advertising. We've also got a network
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  who we work with and things like that, but it's better if we do it. So hit us up on ComfyConverse
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  at gmail.com. If you've got something or a product or a service or something like that,
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  you want us to plug on the show. I mean, it's not the most astronomically expensive thing,
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  but you can do it. So do it. Hit us up if you want. You mean you say it's not as
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  very expensive? What do you mean it's fantastic value? Yeah, it's great value. I mean,
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  you're a professional when it comes to cleaning, but when it comes to salesmanship,
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  awful. That was terrible. You know, you say it was not that expensive. You say it's great value.
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  You get all access to hundreds of thousands of downloads every month. All for a very reasonable
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  fee, probably less than a few Airbnb claims. Exactly. Yeah, less. Yeah, way less. Anyway,
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  you can do that. What we're doing today and possibly what we'll do further is just get to know
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  Josh a bit because I've realized over the two years that we've been working together, Josh,
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  that you talk a lot about subjects, you talk a lot about your opinions on culture and things
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  like that, but people don't necessarily get to know you. So we're going to try to get to know
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  how to like it. Yeah, exactly. Well, it is what it is in podcast world. Now, in the future,
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  we might do some, you know, some talking points, some subjects and things like that. I've got a baby
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  on the way in September. So we might sort of get Josh to give me some advice on parenting.
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  Yes, definitely want to talk about points hacking. Yeah, for example, and aviation,
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  things like that. And we might go to the sub stack audience to give us some suggestions for things
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  that I'd like to hear Josh and myself talk about. But for now, the easiest way to get to know Josh
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  is to do some first eight questions. Okay, I'm up for this. You're ready to get started. I'm ready
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  to get started. I should also also while we're doing all this house cleaning and your house
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  keeping rather and your pitch and all these housekeeping. You're pitching all these other
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  pitching all these other things. We should also say that if you're on the free tier of the of
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  sub stack, then your personal private podcast link is about to go dead. Unless you either
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  upgrade to the paid or if you don't want to then go and find the generic podcast link through
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  any podcast app. Yeah, we've done that. But what I do want to remind people is that if you're on
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  the free tier. You have to tell people seven times that's what the, you know, so I'm not everyone
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  listen to the Susan Sarandon episode. Not everyone read our newsletter. You've got to keep telling
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  them what they're what they're getting what they're going to keep ramming at home. Also, if you're
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  not, if you've never bought it to go onto the sub stack thing, it's obviously just because you
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  think that it's hard than it is. It's very easy. You go to uncomfortable conversations.substac.com
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  slash subscribe. Or if you go to slash listen, that's actually the easiest place isn't it Steph. You
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  go to slash listen. And then it generates your own private personal premium podcast feed that
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  has no ads on it that has has additional content on all of the regular episodes. And then also
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  extra episodes in full and things like ask me anything. And like when I was ranting about
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  going around Africa and like, you know, my experience and things like this, all this sort of stuff.
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  That's all for, you know, you get all of that. So if you go to link then it'll it'll talk you
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  through the the subscription process and how you pay 6699 a month. It's easy. It's also worth
• 8:17
  reminding people that if just because you're a free member and you might not want to pay for
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  the premium podcast feed, there's still plenty there for free subscribers. So there'll be a weekly
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  newsletter, things like suggesting topics for our conversations and things will be available to
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  free subscribers. There's also like forums. I mean, you can use on sub stack. You can talk about,
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  you know, people guests and you can shout at me and you can argue with each other and you can send
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  me messages and staff messages on the forums. So if you just want to be generally part of the
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  podcast community, but you don't want to pay anything, you can still just subscribe to the free
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  tier and you also get a heads up about live events, which will be happening at some point and
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  you'll get first dibs on being notified. Okay. Listen, as we promise you, we're not going to talk
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  about sub stack subscriptions anymore this episode. If you call within 24 hours. Sorry.
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  That's right. Sorry, everyone. Josh loves. Josh loves talking about that. That's all right.
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  I'll try to get him off the topic. All right. First eight questions. Where was your first
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  play? Where was your favorite place to visit as a kid? New Zealand. My mum is from New Zealand.
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  She was born and raised there. Came to Sydney, the big smoke when she was 19 to put on black
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  eyeshadow and black nail polish and become an actress and pretend to smoke cigarettes and drink
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  black coffee and get out of get out of dodge. But as a result, her parents and her siblings and
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  cousins and my cousins are all in the mostly Auckland area and regional parts of the country near
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  Auckland. And so I was able to spend long summer days fishing and outdoorsing and ealing.
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  Ealing. Ealing. In my uncle's catching eels. How do you catch eels?
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  Oh, it's great. You put a little float on a bit of fishing wire and you put it in my uncle's
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  river. And then you watch these euphemisms. You watch the float go tug, tug, tug.
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  And then at some point exploding, erupting out of the water surface is a riding,
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  thrashing, throwing, throbbing snake. And sometimes so large that it comes bouncing up the
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  the bank and you have to and tries to get and because it's hooked then you we would sometimes
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  unhook it and it would try to get to back to the river and you have to hit it or slap it or kick
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  it back away from the river and then grab it. And of course, it's sharp teeth, slimy little
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  fuckers and you grab them behind the head. Well, you watch your uncle grab them behind the head
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  if you're eight years old as I may have been at the time. And you've behead them. Actually,
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  no, the best way to do them, the best way to do them was on we would smoke them and show that
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  the skin isn't slimy. You wouldn't behead them yet. You throw them in a Hessian sack full of
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  salt, hang them in the in the garage overnight and the salt burns their skin. It's like
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  acid on their skin. So it's a torturous and painful death for poor little ealy. But in the
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  riding overnight, the salt scrapes all of the scum off their skin. And in the morning,
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  you come back and there's just coagulated clumps of salt of hardened salt goo.
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  I feel like we're in some sort of novel, some some of mycin men style buddy.
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  It is. It is. It's starting to fall away. Yeah. And you get out and then the the ealy is dead
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  or as good as and dry skinned. And look, you got your water. You can't go 10 minutes without
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  a hydrating. What the fuck? We've got fucking bottles of water all the time. Just calm down. It's
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  like popcorn at the movies. You're right. Chill out. Sorry. You can sit still. Okay.
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  Fucking ADHD generation. Sorry. It's 45 minutes. So anyway, those were my brightest memories and
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  my beautiful grandparents. Delicious eels. Smoked eels. Fantastic. Yep. All right. What's the best
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  vista you've seen? Switzerland. We also have some family there because my dad was born in a refugee
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  camp in Switzerland during the war during the Second World War. And so the family that fostered
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  him in, he was a little Jewish baby. And these staunch Lutheran highland Swiss people because
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  Switzerland was neutral obviously during the war, fostered him in and raised him. And so I still
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  we still keep in touch with their their brood. And so you know, sometimes when you go there,
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  there's there are some mountain passes that are only open like three months of the year because
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  they're snowed in for nine months. But in summer, you can take these switchback roads that go up
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  through the Swiss Alps. And it's comical. Mind boggling and pretty. Yeah. You just mentioned that
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  on the Michael Sharma podcast which dropped this week, but that's okay. We can double up on that.
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  No problem. I should have probably left that question out. I lived in Switzerland for three months.
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  Is that right? I did a snow season in Saint Merit. Oh wow. Fancy pants. It's pretty amazing.
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  Probably amazing stuff. Okay. What are we doing now that in a hundred years we'll laugh about
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  a question you ask frequently of your guests? A hundred years. No, I think I usually say like five
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  years or something. Don't I? Or 20 maybe or 10. Okay. Well, you are. I don't even know.
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  50 then 20. 20. I already know your answer. Do you? What is it? Eating meat. Oh yeah.
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  So do you want to articulate that because I've got some thoughts? Yes.
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  Yeah, I wouldn't say we're laugh about it. It's quite obvious to me that the current
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  the current system in which the only imperative really is to get a kilo or pound of animal flesh
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  to the you know, shaving as many cents off that as we possibly can. And that's the only incentive
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  that's really at play for the vast majority of meat that gets consumed, whereas we stroll through
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  supermarket aisles, looking at styrofoam containers of of cling film wrapped meat under fluorescent
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  lights. That the that will be looked back on by future generations with moral horror and
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  an obvious and it's obviously wrong to treat creatures that can feel pain and have some level
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  of aspirations and some level of and have things that they like and have things that they don't like
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  and basically have an experience, you know, be sentient like have that there's something that it's
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  like to be a pig just as there's something that it's like to be a dog. And I think we all instinctively
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  understand that it would be wrong to just needlessly torture a dog for because we like it because
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  we enjoy torturing dogs. I don't see how the rationale is that different to torture a pig because
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  we'd like the taste of bacon. Well, I just like it. Well, okay, but there are lots of other things
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  you could eat that aren't cheap bacon or you could pay twice the price for farm raised, you know,
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  bacon and not bacon pigs that have been kept in these tiny little stores. I mean, I think if people
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  actually look at the way that the majority of industrially-farmed animals are treated,
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  they'd be they are horrified. Anytime there's footage that's leaked, people are horrified. The
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  reason there isn't more footage leaked is because the big agricultural companies lobby Congress
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  and parliament in most countries to make it a crime to leak anything about what goes on inside.
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  It's one of the only industries that has these ag gag laws where there's a gag on anything that
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  goes on ordinarily whistleblowers are applauded in that particular industry. They're prosecuted.
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  We all sort of instinctively know all of this, but I feel like it's a bit like when we think
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  back to the times of slavery and go like how are people complicit in that system and why
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  do more people object? I think people during slavery, you know, not the brutal slave owners,
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  not the actual people who are running the agricultural companies or who are brutalising these
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  animals, but the people who are like us on the periphery of it. Just thought, I mean, it's a
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  tough world. This is the system that we live in. You know, I'm only one person. I mean, ideally,
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  I'd like to do the right thing, but it's all a bit hard and inconvenient to extricate myself
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  from a financial and cultural system that I'm woven into. So yeah, I'm not saying that in the future
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  we'll be horrified by the idea of an independent hunter, you know, who's rugged and going into the
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  wilderness on their own and killing an animal to use the hide for things in every bit of the animal
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  that's necessary. That's not my objection, and I continue to eat meat. So I'm part of this
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  vast impact, but it's all because of it.