Latest / That Car Show / John Chuldenko. State Secrets and Backseat Driving.

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John Chuldenko. State Secrets and Backseat Driving. · That Car Show

• 0:05
  It's engineered for perfection, every contour sculpted for
• 0:12
  uninterrupted motion, wider, smoother, more refined, and
• 0:20
  drives like a dream. Introducing the 2026 E 470
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  experience. The difference?
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  It's not about compression ratios, you know, and spring
• 0:33
  rate rebounds and things like that.
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  It's, it's, it's what are the, what experiences do they unlock?
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  What emotions do they conjure? John Chaldenko is one of those
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  automotive journalists that, and I'll just say it, I want to be
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  more like he's seemingly done at all.
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  And we cover a lot of ground in this one, from what it was like
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  producing a car show for kids, it's a secret enthusiast dog
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  whistles and Porsche owner's manuals to a run in with a
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  Hollywood diva and the secret collection of LP records in the
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  attic of the White House. Yes, he writes about cars, but
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  the story, as often as it should be about everything else.
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  When people ask who needs another car podcast, it's for
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  conversations like this one with our pal John Schaldenko.
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  It's that car show. Welcome back to this week's
• 1:21
  episode of that car show. I'm Lindsay and I'm here with
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  Ryan, and we have a guest that I'm really excited to share with
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  everybody. My friend John Childenko is with
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  us this week. John and I met originally
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  through Instagram, and then we got to meet in real life at the
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  Griffith Park Cars and Coffee, which is kind of a little like,
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  if you know, you know, hidden Secret, even though it's an
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  amazing show. So we met there.
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  And then I actually got to see he and his amazing wife Mira at
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  the Slate launch, which was about almost exactly a year ago.
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  And yeah, it's hard. Time flies when you're having
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  fun, right, kid? So I'm really excited to have
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  him join us on the show this week.
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  He's got some amazing stories and I'm excited to share them
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  with our listeners. A little background on John.
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  He has been thinking up big ideas and bringing them to life
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  for decades. He grew up in advertising, and
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  he learned to write by pouring over stacks of car brochures he
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  collected at the auto show every year.
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  He is currently the senior editor at Dossier, a luxury
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  travel, lifestyle and culture publication, and he also
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  contributes to Porsche, Panorama, Christoforous, Craft
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  and Tailored R&T Crew, and many more outlets that we've heard
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  of. He created Backseat Drivers,
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  which was the first car show for kids, which I love that he
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  produced the indie cult classic Dave Made a Maze, which is quite
• 2:42
  possibly the only film shot inside a cardboard Fort.
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  It's safe to say John is a multi hyphenate.
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  He is a two time Emmy nominee, a Clio winner and a Sundance,
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  Tribeca and South by Southwest alum.
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  And probably one of the things I'm most interested in hearing
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  more about in depth is he has been featured on NPR because he
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  uncovered the secret vinyl collection at the White House
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  and then wrote about it to share it with the rest of us.
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  John serves on the DGAPAC Leadership Council and also on
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  the board of counselors at the Carter Center.
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  You'll likely find him at a record store in LA, driving
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  through the Malibu canyons or spending time with his wife and
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  two daughters, who are mildly impressed that he's also
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  directed The Muppets. So welcome to that car show,
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  John. Oh my goodness, what an intro.
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  I know. I was like, whoa, this is your,
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  this is your life. You're like this guy sounds kind
• 3:38
  of interesting. I want to know that guy.
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  I know I'm like not to start out not on cars, but The Muppets
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  like what was. That, my goodness, yeah.
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  So they brought they brought me out to New York and it was like
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  a little thing when I think when ABC had just gotten the rights
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  or something like that, it was a while ago.
• 3:57
  And so they wanted to do like a little kind of short film thing
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  to to promote it. And it, it was Miss Piggy, it
• 4:04
  was Animal and Victor Garber, like the Broadway actor who was
• 4:08
  an alias. Like, like, like, like, like
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  real, like classically like real actor, Right.
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  So, yeah, I had written a couple like little skits, you know, for
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  Victor Garber to do with Miss Piggy and stuff.
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  And she would do her like, yeah. And we were like karate chops
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  and stuff like that. And Victor Garber would go that.
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  And. But yeah, it was funny.
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  I remember like, you know, it's like I've got a whole day to do
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  this shoot. Like I've got like a full like
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  10 hour day, right? But those puppet people, they
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  work fast. They like to work fast.
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  And I guess if I like stood around all day with my arm like
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  up in the air, I'd probably want to move this, you know, move
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  this shoot along too. But I'm like, I'm not editing
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  it, so I'm just getting covered. I'm just shooting every angle.
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  So whoever can edit it can do it however they want, right?
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  Right. And Miss Piggy turns to me and
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  she goes, this is comedy people. We have to move much faster than
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  this and so I'm asking myself. From a Muppet.
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  Yeah, yeah, but I don't know who to respond to.
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  Ohh. Do I?
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  And so like, I guess I, I guess I talked to Miss Piggy.
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  Like the respectful approach to speak directly to Miss Piggy?
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  I think so. I think that's what it was,
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  yeah, yeah. Well, she should be a diva.
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  She's earned it. That's her thing.
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  Exactly, totally, totally. Oftentimes I feel like her, you
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  know, Kermit, he was just trying to hold it together and he's
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  just like the producer and he's got he's like literally with
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  this like zoo full of like wild characters.
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  He's. Like, Oh my good.
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  People like this just like, gotta keep this together man
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  and. Then he goes talking.
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  To someone who grew up with that stuff, I mean, you I'm sure grew
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  up watching Sesame Street in them.
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  Oh, that was like a big deal. Sunday nights.
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  I think it was on CBS, you know, and.
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  Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, yeah.
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  That was my. That was my the impression for
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  those just listening. I knew it immediately, it was
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  spot on. Yeah, I mean, like, absolutely.
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  Like meeting your heroes. It's, it's that, you know, both
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  properties, it's a national treasure.
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  Like it's one of those things that are so deeply ingrained and
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  something that everybody's got. I mean, nobody's like, I'm not a
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  big Sesame Street fan. Like everybody's like, like a
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  beloved, you know? And so, so, so properties like
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  that, like The Muppets, it's, it holds a special place and, and
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  it's certainly my heart and, and, and even like my kid, you
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  know, it's fun to see like sort of that how that translates
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  through generations and you know, all that and.
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  Well, when you look at how long they've been around, you know, I
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  mean, to have that kind of staying power, it's like, it's
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  like when you talk about bands that have been successful for
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  decades, like that doesn't happen.
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  It's not a guarantee. You know, I mean, I grew up on
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  the Muppet movies. I think we all did in some
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  fashion. And I've started introducing
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  those to my daughter. And it's so funny when we were
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  talking before, we started about the things that when you have
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  children and then the things that that reminds you of from
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  your own childhood. And it's so fun to go back and
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  watch the Muppet movies and remember.
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  I mean, that was just magic as a kid.
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  Absolutely. I, I like my sister and I will
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  quote Muppets Take Manhattan like all the time.
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  Like I'm Phil, this is Phil and this is girl.
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  Yeah. Like, like there was when I got
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  married, when we got married, like the recessional walking
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  back up the aisle was somebody's getting married from Muppets
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  Take Manhattan. That's fantastic.
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  Which I don't think the sheet music is anywhere.
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  So we had like a little like string section that was playing
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  live and I think we had to sort of figure out how to play it
• 7:10
  like they had to, you know? You have to handwritten music
• 7:12
  for him. You're like.
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  Just go with it. Something like that.
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  You guys know the song? It's fine.
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  That's really held up well, you know, I tried to introduce my
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  daughter to the three to one contact.
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  That's not held up quite the same, you know, no, is this
• 7:23
  shit, you know the computer, you know the Apple 2C that.
• 7:26
  We were talking about totally. Yeah, but that's.
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  The one with the water droplet in the intro.
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  Yeah, and like. Right song.
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  Was Oh my gosh, yeah, is the face.
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  And yeah, yeah, they're, they show the recording.
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  Oh, man. Yeah, yeah.
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  Good times. That's that's that's so cool.
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  So you've had such a diverse career.
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  I mean, where did? I know.
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  How did you? Yeah, give us, give us the full
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  career. And it was weird, like when I,
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  you know, when, when you had called and asked, I was like,
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  oh, wait, like how at one point, yes, it's, it's a weird,
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  bonkers, crazy, like detour of a life, you know, that's really,
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  really strange. And the other, on the other
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  hand, like I'd step back and like, oh, it's, I've seen it all
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  along, you know, like my sister told me the other day, she's
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  like, how did you land this job that like 6 year old you would
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  be totally proud of, you know, and it's kind of true.
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  Like, hey, like, you know, like, oh, like, we get to, like, go,
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  you know, RIP super cars around every night.
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  Yeah. It's like, it's pretty awesome.
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  Yeah. And then give them back before
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  you have to buy brakes. Yeah.
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  Well, and I feel like I'm seeing that a lot in like my family's
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  life, but also in friends where you go, like if you look back,
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  the threads were there the whole time and it was just the next
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  right step and all of that, but you didn't know it in the moment
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  necessarily. So like, how did you get into
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  automotive journalism and journalism and where you are and
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  doing all the amazing things you've done?
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  Yeah, it's like, well, it's like you mentioned before.
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  Like I honestly learned to write from reading car brochures.
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  Like back in the day to those younger listeners, they went
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  before things were online. Like you'd go to the auto show
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  and they would give you like usually a sponsor would have
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  like a tote bag, like a plastic tote bag.
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  And you'd walk around to the booth and they would just have
• 8:57
  like, they'd have literally like 8 by 10, like brochures, like
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  beautifully photographed and like airbrushed.
• 9:02
  Like, were you touching? Because before Photoshop, right?
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  And I would just collect all of the ones that I thought were
• 9:06
  cool, you know, the new like Celica Supra or what, you know,
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  whatever was was going on. And I would bring them home.
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  And I remember sitting on my bed, just reading every single
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  word. Just.
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  Like reading the right because the, the language was, was so
• 9:21
  beautifully floral. Like there was just such like
• 9:23
  wonderful adjectives in the way they'd craft.
• 9:24
  Like people cared. Like you look at those old ads,
• 9:26
  like those old DDB ads from Volkswagen.
• 9:28
  It was like image and then like 3 columns of like body
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  copyrights and right text and people were expected to read you
• 9:36
  know and I was looking I had bought a 9/24/1982 Porsche 924
• 9:43
  and I was looking through the owners that came with the owners
• 9:45
  man was looking at the owners manual on the first paragraph
• 9:47
  there which is actually also lifted in my 993 owners manual
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  too. It's like, I don't remember
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  exactly what's like judging from the car you just purchased,
• 9:55
  you're clearly like not a novice driver and you know what you're
• 9:59
  doing. And like, I'm like, man, like
• 10:01
  they should get people. They should get like our friends
• 10:02
  to write like intros to owners manuals, like just write it
• 10:05
  really beautifully, you know, because now they have to tell
• 10:07
  you, you know, don't drink the antifreeze, you know, but back
• 10:10
  then it was like real right about I think I read that some.
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  Different times. For different times where we are
• 10:14
  20. 26 That's yeah, that's how I learned to write.
• 10:17
  And I think that language sort of led me into a career in
• 10:20
  advertising. So I would, you know, through
• 10:25
  design and then through directing commercials and things
• 10:27
  like that. And then we would, I was a
• 10:30
  partner in an agency that did a lot of toy commercials.
• 10:32
  So I like of Speaking of like retro stuff, like I made, our
• 10:36
  agency made a large percentage of the toy commercials in the
• 10:38
  90s. So like the Tonka bubble fire
• 10:40
  truck, like all like those bubble toys.
• 10:42
  And then like the Nerf, all those like Nerf, like ring guns
• 10:45
  that would, and those were all shot in a very specific way.
• 10:47
  And we shot those in Vancouver a lot, sometimes in Los Angeles.
• 10:51
  And one day, like we were on a shoot I had built, we had built
• 10:54
  some like custom vehicles back when they had like money for
• 10:56
  commercials, some custom vehicle.
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  And we were like driving it down like like like Venice Beach or
• 11:01
  something. And it's like, I like it here.
• 11:04
  And I grew up in like in a little adorable little town
• 11:06
  called Chagrin Falls, OH, which is like a beautiful Norman
• 11:08
  Rockwell town. Yeah, well, I love the name
• 11:10
  because it's so like. It's, it's great.
• 11:12
  It's definitely. Contrast of like chagrin, but
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  like, no, it's lovely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
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  So, so I'm there and I'm, I was, I think it was like winter time
• 11:20
  back home. And I'm like, I kind of like it
• 11:22
  here. And so I asked one of the
• 11:23
  producers, I'm like, what's it like?
• 11:25
  How do we get an apartment? How do I stay?
• 11:27
  And that just started the ball rolling.
• 11:28
  And I ended up like finding a little apartment and like
• 11:30
  building my little life here and then, yeah, like stating
• 11:33
  commercials and stuff. And that led into like film and
• 11:35
  television for a little bit. And then that led to I've always
• 11:39
  been a car fan. Like, that's always stuck with
• 11:40
  me, right? Made friends with a guy in
• 11:45
  children's television. I'm like, I've always wanted to
• 11:46
  do a car show for kids, like almost like Top Gear for 10 year
• 11:49
  olds. Like, is that is there a way to
• 11:50
  do? And he had just gotten a job as
• 11:52
  like a programming executive for like a little kid streamer
• 11:56
  platform. And he's like, let's go do it.
• 11:58
  And so I called in a bunch of favors.
• 12:00
  Former get. My first call was former guest
• 12:02
  Derek Powell, because Derek knows everybody and is the
• 12:04
  nicest human being ever, of course.
• 12:06
  No question. You have a you really have a
• 12:08
  greatest hits of like nice people on your podcast, right?
• 12:10
  I mean, it's really it's really stellar.
• 12:12
  I mean, like Bassam Lynn, like everybody who's just like just
• 12:15
  so near and. Dear all the favourites I know
• 12:17
  well. Everybody we've been totally.
• 12:18
  We've been very lucky to, you know, have everybody be so
• 12:22
  generous with their time, including you.
• 12:23
  I mean, it's just like, my goodness, you know, every now
• 12:26
  and it's like I'll step back and be like, the fact that I'm like
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  friends with all these people now is just, if you had told me
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  even like 6 years ago, it's just amazing.
• 12:35
  I love it so much. It totally is.
• 12:37
  So. So we make backseat drivers and
• 12:39
  it was so fun coming up with these episodes.
• 12:41
  It's like, all right, what if we get an AR Julia Quadrifolio and
• 12:45
  turn it into like a pizza delivery car?
• 12:46
  So I got like, we call the stunt driver Sarah, Sarah Fairfield,
• 12:52
  who's a precision driver. And yeah, so she's like, she's
• 12:56
  I've got the, I've got our three like, kid hosts in the car and
• 12:59
  she's like whipping it around Irwindale and they're throwing
• 13:02
  like frozen pizzas out the windows trying to like land them
• 13:04
  into like those toy like Little Tikes playhouses.
• 13:06
  Like it's just bonkers. It was just like, you know,
• 13:08
  yeah. It's like, have another sip of
• 13:09
  reposado and try to think of these crazy ideas, Right.
• 13:12
  Well, you know. That those child actors look
• 13:14
  back and they're like, that was still my favorite job ever.
• 13:17
  I know, right. It was it was like it was just
• 13:19
  like low enough steaks that like nobody is like the grown-ups
• 13:22
  weren't around. So I could really do whatever I
• 13:23
  wanted, you know, and it was so, so we did that.
• 13:25
  We did not save. Sure, yeah, sure.
• 13:28
  It's like we're we got a we got a guy with a fire.
• 13:30
  It's fine. And then we did it was back when
• 13:34
  like the Model X had like Tesla had like a self parking and I
• 13:36
  wanted to find out, well, OK, could it really do it?
• 13:38
  And like who's a better Parker? The Tesla and autopilot or like
• 13:41
  an 8 year old girl? And so we had the Tesla do it by
• 13:44
  itself. And then the 8 year old was in a
• 13:46
  Fiat 500 with Sarah in the passenger seat, like on the E
• 13:49
  brake just in case something went nuts.
• 13:51
  But like, she could totally do it.
• 13:52
  And I remember like the actor, you know, she like her dad, you
• 13:55
  know, parents have to be on set. Her dad's like, man, I thought
• 13:57
  I'd be the one teacher to drive, but turns out she does it on
• 13:59
  camera, you know, And we did like.
• 14:02
  That trade-offs go if it wasn't going to be me, yeah, I'm fine
• 14:04
  with this being the story. Right, right.
• 14:07
  We did like a grocery store like a grocery shopping cart slalom.
• 14:10
  So like shopping carts put like in a parking lot and like and
• 14:13
  ripped A Cayenne E hybrid sort of through there and they have
• 14:16
  like load groceries and then do it backwards.
• 14:18
  And it was just like it was just fun.
• 14:19
  It was like super fun, like Top Gear style ideas, but but with
• 14:22
  that kid kind of that kid energy, right, Which adds like a
• 14:25
  certain kind of spontaneity to it, I think, which was super.
• 14:29
  Fun and makes it engaging for the kids too, and gets them
• 14:32
  interesting in a topic that isn't usually covered in a lot
• 14:35
  of children's programming. 100% and I've always well and and
• 14:39
  yes, and, and, and to, you know, you know, on the other hand,
• 14:42
  like when I think about what we do in our industry and our
• 14:46
  passion for cars and this and everything, like if we don't get
• 14:48
  kids into this, like it goes away, you know what I mean?
• 14:51
  So just stoke that, just stoke those fires, you know, in the in
• 14:55
  the next generation, right, That was what that was, you know,
• 14:57
  certainly part of the idea. And then COVID hit.
• 15:01
  So if we'd finished shooting and like everything locked down it
• 15:04
  like while we were in post production, right.
• 15:06
  And industry dries up. And when I realized was that
• 15:10
  when things started to open up again, like it's like, like
• 15:13
  filming was horrible. Because like what I loved, I
• 15:16
  realized what I loved about it is like, it feels like summer
• 15:18
  camp, like everybody gets together and like, oh, you're
• 15:20
  building the sets and the actors are here, we're rehearsing and
• 15:22
  then somebody's doing the thing and it's like, it's all
• 15:24
  together. And it's, it's a wonderful,
• 15:26
  wonderful energy. Well, with, with all the
• 15:29
  restrictions, it was like, Oh no, like the set people build
• 15:31
  this thing here, then everybody goes away.
• 15:33
  And then the dressing people come here and everybody goes
• 15:35
  away and the camera blocks it. And then like the actors and
• 15:37
  everybody was so separated. It was no fun anymore.
• 15:39
  Because what I loved was the non verbal communication.
• 15:41
  I love like looking over at my my director of photography and
• 15:44
  they and they just like, Oh yeah.
• 15:46
  So whenever he's mass like you don't know, right.
• 15:48
  So it was really, it was just no fun.
• 15:50
  And I was like, well, you know, maybe it's time for a pivot.
• 15:52
  And at exactly the same time, I was in the kindergarten class
• 15:57
  for my daughter and one of the dads had bought a well, I had
• 16:02
  bought. I had gotten this Ocean Blue
• 16:04
  Metallic 993 right. I thought I spent all the money
• 16:08
  in the world on it. I was clearly wrong.
• 16:10
  Back in like 20/20/19, So I don't know what happened there,
• 16:14
  but he had just gotten, he was purchased it online 991.2911 in
• 16:22
  like Boston or something. He was flying out to get that.
• 16:23
  Turns out it's in like night blue, like what very similar
• 16:26
  color. And then another dad from school
• 16:29
  orders 992 in Genting Blue Metallic.
• 16:32
  So all like all sort of three similar shades and his must have
• 16:35
  been like the last one before they shut down because he
• 16:37
  actually got delivered. So he only delivered.
• 16:39
  Become best friends, all three. Of them, well, it was exactly
• 16:41
  what the yeah. So, yeah, hold that.
• 16:43
  Yeah, yes, yes, hold that thought.
• 16:45
  And so I'm like, oh, maybe there'd be like a cool like
• 16:48
  story here. Like maybe there'll be a cool
• 16:50
  photograph here, right. You know, so, so I call a friend
• 16:54
  and, and I'm like, hey, let's just go, let's go shoot pictures
• 16:58
  of our cars. And it'll be like to, to
• 17:00
  commemorate the occasion or whatever.
• 17:01
  And I send them to I send the photos to Rob Sass, who was the
• 17:04
  editor in chief at at Porsche Panorama, the PCA magazine.
• 17:08
  Yeah, I love him. And he, oh, my gosh.
• 17:10
  And he's like, why don't you write the story?
• 17:12
  And I'm like, what do you mean? So, oh, I had his e-mail.
• 17:15
  I I knew Rob just because I used a copy of the magazine in the
• 17:18
  show in backseat driver as a prop.
• 17:20
  Cool. In the title series.
• 17:21
  So that's the only reason I knew him.
• 17:22
  Like, I was just like, hey, man, can I use your magazine?
• 17:24
  He's like, heck yeah, no problem.
• 17:25
  Like, done. So I called and he said, why
• 17:27
  don't you write the story? I'm like, really.
• 17:28
  Like, I've never done that before.
• 17:30
  And so I'm like, all right, let's let's try it.
• 17:33
  And so I did it. And like, you know, you know,
• 17:35
  but you know, a couple 1000 words or whatever it was, but it
• 17:38
  wasn't about the forces. It was about the friendship is
• 17:40
  exactly what you said, Lindsay. It was like, it was about like
• 17:42
  how during a time when everything is so dark and
• 17:45
  everything is so locked down, like these machines, these like,
• 17:49
  you know, these, these cars can be a Safeway to, you know, cuz
• 17:52
  everybody's sealed in their little car.
• 17:54
  And then we would like ripped up to the Malibu canyons and
• 17:56
  through like Angela's Crest and stuff and how that could really
• 17:59
  foster a sense of connection, you know, and like, we really
• 18:02
  like like we were had known each other before, but now we're
• 18:04
  friends, you know, and, and so that's what the story was about.
• 18:07
  And turns out people really liked it.
• 18:09
  And So what that is, that's like, what that is kind of
• 18:13
  turned into is like, that's, that's what I write about.
• 18:16
  You know, I, I like to say, like I write about cars for people
• 18:18
  who don't necessarily like cars, you know, so they're like
• 18:20
  outlets that are not necessarily car outlets.
• 18:23
  And it's like, to me, it's always about, it's not about
• 18:26
  compression ratios, you know, and spring rate rebounds and
• 18:29
  things like that. It's like, it's, it's, it's what
• 18:31
  are the, what experiences do they unlock?
• 18:33
  What emotions do they conjure? Like, you know, why do we really
• 18:36
  have these things, you know, and then how do in the community
• 18:39
  involved and like all those kind of stories?
• 18:41
  So it's been wild. Like it's, it's, it's kind of
• 18:44
  like a, a, a, a specific niche, I guess.
• 18:48
  But you know, the the people that I meet and the stories that
• 18:51
  I unpack through those have been fascinated like though, you
• 18:54
  know, and he published my first story.
• 18:56
  So like when he calls for that night, I'll be like, yes, I'll
• 18:58
  do whatever. And you know, he's called with
• 19:00
  these stories that like at first I'm like, it takes me to be.
• 19:04
  Then I'm like, I know why you called me.
• 19:05
  You know, like there's really been like things that are really
• 19:07
  moving, you know, like I'm he called me once he's like, would
• 19:11
  you talk to this guy? He was in he's in Palm Springs
• 19:15
  and it's Easter Sunday and he's driving us 356 and driving
• 19:20
  through this like this, this beautiful Rd. sort of near near
• 19:22
  I think he lived in Palestine, but he was in San Diego and gets
• 19:24
  in the car like horrible car accident, fiance dies.
• 19:27
  He is gravely like like not gonna like maybe not gonna make
• 19:32
  it, you know, coma ventilator, all this kind of stuff wakes up.
• 19:36
  He's still in horrible shape and he was on like he was featuring
• 19:39
  like petrolicious and stuff. He was like a car guy, right?
• 19:42
  Oh, wow. He wakes up and starts his
• 19:45
  recovery process, right? And, you know, months and months
• 19:49
  go by, he's like, I'm going to teach myself to drive again
• 19:51
  through his dad. His dad helped to inspire him.
• 19:53
  See, I'm going to teach myself to drive him right.
• 19:55
  And goes through the whole process.
• 19:56
  This guy used to be able to like, you know, really discern,
• 19:59
  you know, shifter feel and pedal bit.
• 20:01
  And now he's going to learn how to use a turn signal, you know,
• 20:04
  cuz like, like the whole side of his butt, right Scratch.
• 20:06
  Yeah, yeah. And what I thought was
• 20:09
  interesting. So he does that.
• 20:10
  He works, he does the whole process.
• 20:12
  He works his way back. And he gets, you know, he enough
• 20:15
  mobility in his body to get to get enough get his license and
• 20:18
  get another car. So he gets he finds a slate
• 20:22
  Gray, I think 964 in Tiptronic. Now.
• 20:27
  How many times have you talked with your friends and be like,
• 20:29
  oh, man, I saw this car in auction.
• 20:30
  It's like, oh, it's an auto. No, for that guy, an automatic
• 20:35
  that Tiptronic is the key to him being able to enjoy what we
• 20:38
  enjoy. You know, so there's stories
• 20:40
  like that that I'm like yes, like like like that to me is
• 20:43
  like something like that we'd normally just disregard as like
• 20:46
  a Tiptronic 964. No, like like for him, that's
• 20:49
  everything, you know, and for me, like when I hear those
• 20:51
  stories, when I unlock those stories, but I talk to these
• 20:52
  people like yes, like that's what we're doing here, right?
• 20:55
  The inclusion of everything, the community of everything, like
• 20:57
  how these how these how these cars can really make our lives
• 21:01
  better, you know, and that's kind of like a cliche thing to
• 21:03
  say, but like, when I think about it, like it's unlike
• 21:06
  friendships for me, you know, it has nothing to do with this like
• 21:08
  hunk of like metal and rubber and glass, like, you know, the.
• 21:11
  Door opener, I mean, it's like with these dads from school,
• 21:14
  like it's and I don't like this term because it's has so much,
• 21:17
  you know, people go like, oh God, but that's the icebreaker
• 21:20
  of like, it's the conversation starter.
• 21:22
  And I think Batsam sums it up, you know, and I quote him all
• 21:24
  the time where he says, yeah, cars shortcut, all of the small
• 21:30
  talk. And you just jump into a
• 21:32
  friendship. And I'm like, it's the most
• 21:33
  concise description because I'll have like, female friends will
• 21:37
  say to me like, I don't get it. I'm I don't connect with cars.
• 21:40
  But like, if you're this excited about it, there's something here
• 21:43
  about like, how do you describe it?
• 21:44
  And it's what you've been saying with kind of the focus of your
• 21:47
  stories. It's the people.
• 21:48
  And we talk about that all the time here, too.
• 21:51
  And it's funny because like, you know, you know, Dossier, my
• 21:54
  magazine is we're headquartered in, in, in Paris, in New York.
• 21:58
  So not driving cities. Right, so when I talk to.
• 22:00
  People, right, when I talk, well, when I talk to people like
• 22:02
  these are not car people, you know, like, whereas in Southern
• 22:04
  California, like everybody's got a car.
• 22:05
  That's sort of what we do, right?
• 22:06
  Yeah. And what's kind of fun is like
• 22:09
  to, to frame that, to frame my mentality, you know, through to
• 22:12
  see it through that lens. And it's like, well, OK, but
• 22:14
  like, what do you have? Like, you know, they have the
• 22:17
  same materials and workmanship as your favorite handbag.
• 22:19
  You know, the same, like design elements are in a hotel room,
• 22:23
  you know, architectural, you know, all those elements are
• 22:26
  there, plus they move and each one moves a little bit
• 22:29
  differently, you know, and like, so there's an extra element of
• 22:32
  like, kind of like, oh, like once you can unpack that thing,
• 22:34
  you know, that, that, that that side to it, too.
• 22:36
  It's just, yeah, it's fascinating, you know, but it's
• 22:39
  been. Like Jay Leno is the one, he
• 22:41
  says. Like they're works of art and if
• 22:42
  you want them to, they can roll down the road.
• 22:45
  That's a great that's yeah, that's great.
• 22:47
  Yeah, totally, totally. So it's fun to go, I mean, and
• 22:50
  what I because people do, I mean, you know, people can talk
• 22:53
  about performance character. Like there are people that we
• 22:55
  all know who are so good at that, right.
• 22:57
  So like. Encyclopedic.
• 22:59
  Yeah, Oh my gosh, totally. And like really can really
• 23:01
  discern that, that, you know, those, those qualities and those
• 23:03
  kind of things. So, yeah, I just, I, you know,
• 23:05
  I've sort of gravitated towards the, you know, the, the, the
• 23:08
  stories and experiences are, are connecting a car with a
• 23:11
  destination, you know, or a car with a specific trip and why
• 23:13
  they're connected. And like how this car can add to
• 23:16
  this experience for you, you know, and that kind of stuff is,
• 23:20
  is, is really important to me, which is fun to be on the same
• 23:23
  because I get to see it illustrated when I'm on the same
• 23:26
  trip with a more traditional auto journalist, right.
• 23:28
  And they, you know, they'll do, they'll, they'll take one route
• 23:31
  and I'll take another route. You know, from a narrative point
• 23:34
  of view, I. Remember being it's the same
• 23:36
  like you said it's. The same car, same route, same
• 23:39
  route, same drop, Yeah. But.
• 23:41
  Completely different story. Like, I mean, we were maybe
• 23:44
  maybe about a year ago with Lamborghini from Bologna to
• 23:48
  Florence, like a beautiful drive from Bologna to Florence, like
• 23:51
  up over the mountains and through the lakes and everything
• 23:53
  like that. Gorgeous.
• 23:55
  And we stopped for like a plan, like little coffee stop, you
• 23:58
  know, And we walk into this place, it's like a little tiny
• 24:00
  Cafe. It's called Paso de la Futa de
• 24:04
  la de la Futa or something like that.
• 24:05
  It's like right up at the top. And I just happened to like, I
• 24:08
  just got a vibe from like this guy that was working there.
• 24:11
  And it turns out I just sort of, I don't know, like something
• 24:13
  just like sort of clicked. And I'm like, who is this guy?
• 24:15
  And I introduced myself. He's the owner of the place.
• 24:17
  His family's owned it for six generations.
• 24:20
  And like, you start talking to somebody, you start asking
• 24:22
  questions and you're like, hey, like, what's your, what's your
• 24:24
  story, man? He's gonna connect with like,
• 24:25
  human to human. He's like, come on back.
• 24:27
  And he, like, brings me back to the kitchen with this, like,
• 24:30
  stone, like fire hearth that he still cooks on, you know, that
• 24:34
  his great grandparents cooked on.
• 24:35
  You know, he's like, come, let me show you this, like, mantle
• 24:38
  with my family pictures on it. And like the, I want to say it
• 24:41
  was like a little like a cross or a rosary that was on there.
• 24:43
  And he shows me a picture of him, like being held as a baby.
• 24:46
  And the cross is in the same place.
• 24:47
  Like everything is like, it like, hasn't been touched,
• 24:49
  Right. And like, to me that that was my
• 24:51
  story, you know, that's it. Like, you know, like we're on
• 24:53
  this drive and those are the people that you meet.
• 24:55
  And those are the things that they get unlocked, you know?
• 24:57
  Yeah. I love that stuff so much.
• 25:00
  I mean, it's, that's, that's what makes it so rich.
• 25:02
  And it's like, you know, you're, you never know when you're going
• 25:06
  to run across something like that.
• 25:08
  It's always worth saying hi to people because I mean, that's
• 25:11
  amazing. I mean the the amount of history
• 25:13
  in that hearth or the stone of it.
• 25:16
  Like 6 generations, you know, it's like who owns a place?
• 25:19
  Like, you know, that keeps like running and it's like it snows
• 25:21
  in the winter time. He's up at the, it's on the,
• 25:23
  it's on like the Mila Mila route.
• 25:24
  I think it is. And it's like, OK, it's snow.
• 25:26
  Like it's like, but like people get to.
• 25:27
  And so he's telling me these stories about like all these
• 25:29
  test drivers that he'd see just like ripping it up there in like
• 25:32
  the 70s and 80s, you know, like when he was a little kid.
• 25:35
  He's got like, it's, it's just incredible, right?
• 25:37
  And to me, like that's the, that's the story.
• 25:39
  And honestly, I believe from a manufacturer point of view, from
• 25:42
  a brand point of view, that's what people really want.
• 25:45
  Yeah, that's that's what's interesting.
• 25:46
  It's like, oh, maybe I could get that vehicle and maybe I could
• 25:49
  have that same experience or a similar experience.
• 25:51
  Where would I take it? You know, if I got it, what
• 25:52
  would I do with it? Who who could I meet?
• 25:55
  And that's where value comes in. And that's what you know, and
• 25:57
  you know, living in, you know, or working in this, in this
• 26:00
  luxury space, like that's the value, it's meaning and it's
• 26:03
  connection like that is that that's the truth.
• 26:05
  It's not about the thing. It's never about the thing, you
• 26:08
  know. John, I was gonna ask you what
• 26:09
  luxury means anymore, Right? And and and.
• 26:12
  Yeah, it's, that's it. No, 100%.
• 26:16
  It's really drifting away from the thing, you know, because
• 26:19
  it's so, I mean that, yeah, it's not.
• 26:22
  It's like people and people, you know, people said for forever,
• 26:25
  it's like, oh, it's never really, you can't take it with
• 26:27
  you. And it's never, it's not about
• 26:28
  that. And it doesn't, it doesn't
• 26:29
  fulfill that, that dopamine hit, you know, eventually.
• 26:32
  But what does is connection with people.
• 26:34
  And really, and so we're seeing it certainly in the travel
• 26:37
  spaces that people are gravitating towards and they
• 26:39
  have been for a while more experiences and who are you
• 26:42
  going to meet? What kind of thing you're going
• 26:44
  to do? Yes.
• 26:45
  But now I'm seeing things like how are you connected to the
• 26:48
  culture? You know, when when we launched
• 26:51
  dossier editor and she said something that that's still
• 26:53
  stuck with me. It's like we don't necessarily
• 26:55
  write about what we did. We write about how we feel, you
• 26:57
  know, So when you go to a place, instead of asking like, oh,
• 26:59
  what'd you see? No, it's like, you know, how did
• 27:01
  you feel? You know, like, what was that
• 27:03
  connection? Yeah, it's like, and how, how
• 27:05
  does it, you know, and you have to keep, you have to approach it
• 27:09
  from a place of vulnerability and approach it from a place of
• 27:11
  openness. And that's why I like to write
• 27:15
  on airplanes, like either on the way, like on the way back or on
• 27:18
  like the next trip because years ago it seems like an NPR story.
• 27:22
  But like, you know, I don't know if you guys do you guys cry on
• 27:24
  airplanes? Like I'll hear like a I'll hear
• 27:26
  like racing in the street from Bruce Springs.
• 27:28
  I'll hear like a like watch a ROM com or hear a song.
• 27:30
  And I am like weeping in like 23 B, you know, And it's like and
• 27:34
  it's. Fine, everything's fine.
• 27:36
  Yeah, and. People have unpacked that.
• 27:38
  The story I want to say was NPR. They've unpacked it, and it's a
• 27:40
  combination. You're either going to see
• 27:42
  someone you love, or you're leaving someone you love.
• 27:44
  You're leaving home or you're going back.
• 27:45
  You know, emotions are heightened anyway.
• 27:49
  Plus you're in a place of, you know, high altitude that's not
• 27:51
  pressurized like you normally be, right?
• 27:53
  You know, you're sort of confined.
• 27:55
  And levels are off a little bit anyway.
• 27:56
  Yeah, you're in a place of vulnerability.
• 27:58
  Yeah. No, it's like a like a CIA black
• 28:00
  site stress position for like, you know, it's like those you'll
• 28:03
  tell them anything you want. You're like you're.
• 28:04
  Upside down? No, John, that doesn't happen to
• 28:06
  everybody. On every phone?
• 28:08
  Well, no, but that's really interesting to me.
• 28:10
  So my husband's a flight attendant and he's been doing it
• 28:12
  for 24 years. And he the other day he was
• 28:15
  thinking about that. He's like, you know, it's a job
• 28:18
  for me. And obviously it's routine on
• 28:20
  and off the airplane. But when you stop and think
• 28:22
  about the people that the flight crews are shuttling, he's like,
• 28:25
  it's related to a lot of big life moments, like you said,
• 28:28
  like they're going to see someone maybe for the last time,
• 28:31
  they're going to meet a new baby, they're going on the
• 28:34
  vacation of lifetime, a honeymoon.
• 28:35
  It's it is tied to so many big life things that we all take,
• 28:41
  you know, we don't really take the time to stop and think
• 28:42
  about. But yeah, they're pretty
• 28:43
  momentous. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:45
  So I've found that like if I can start a story, or at least I
• 28:48
  take some notes, like during that time, it's a, it's a place
• 28:52
  where I'm much more real, you know, it hasn't, it hasn't gone
• 28:54
  through like a filter or anything.
• 28:55
  It's like, oh, here's how we really feel about a, about a
• 28:57
  place. So yeah, yeah, that's that's
• 28:59
  how. You gonna tap into it?
• 29:00
  That's your process. I think so, yeah, it's just sort
• 29:03
  of get yourself in that place where it's like, oh, what does
• 29:05
  the place really feel like? Or what was like real on it, you
• 29:08
  know? And I think I think like a
• 29:09
  little bit of age helps. Like I don't have to be cool
• 29:12
  anymore, you know, like I can be like you get to the you get to a
• 29:14
  point in your life where you're like, Nope, this is who I am.
• 29:17
  There you go. They can.
• 29:18
  Believe it. It's a beautiful feeling of
• 29:21
  freedom, right? It's like, here we go.
• 29:23
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:25
  Let me tell you what I really think.
• 29:27
  Yeah. Yeah, I released myself from all
• 29:29
  these. Like, no, but I got to look
• 29:30
  cool, Nicknep. Yeah, yeah, I.
• 29:34
  I want to circle back to something you said, though,
• 29:35
  because it's I, I find it fascinating that that luxury is,
• 29:42
  is, how did you phrase it? Luxury is now human connection.
• 29:45
  And that is really a wild thought, right?
• 29:47
  Oh, absolutely, that is. With a place, with a property,
• 29:50
  with a, you know, like what, what is this on?
• 29:52
  How does this experience, this hotel, this destination, this
• 29:55
  car, whatever it is like, how does it unlock?
• 29:57
  How does it unlock that in me? I think in in our world, in the
• 30:01
  car world, and I say this a lot, is that I, I truly believe that
• 30:06
  the automobile that driving is the perfect pace with which you
• 30:10
  see the world. You know what I mean?
• 30:11
  Like you can stop and you can go experience, get back in and then
• 30:14
  keep going. You know, it's, it's there's
• 30:16
  such a beauty to that, you know, there's such a romance to the
• 30:18
  road trip, you know, yeah, that I think it's I've had just some
• 30:24
  fantastic experiences. So it's fun to like come up with
• 30:27
  these ideas and then be like, hey, how about I write about
• 30:30
  this? And they're like, yeah, let's do
• 30:31
  it like we before we were before we were dusty, we made the
• 30:34
  magazine for American Express. We made a magazine called
• 30:36
  Departures, which is for Amex Platinum card members.
• 30:39
  Yeah, same team. So one of our like, what I'm
• 30:44
  gonna like maybe one of my first stories there, I was like, you
• 30:47
  know, there's so many misconceptions about the
• 30:48
  Michelin Guide, you know, the restaurant guide.
• 30:50
  You know, there's some people, people are like, nobody knows.
• 30:53
  Oh, is it just like a brother that started this restaurant
• 30:55
  thing? Is it just a money investment?
• 30:57
  It's like, no, no, no, That was a book from a tire company to
• 31:00
  get you out driving and through that process you would burn
• 31:04
  through tires and buy more tire like it was exactly what it was,
• 31:07
  right? There's no like, oh, how funny.
• 31:09
  They both have the same name. Like no, no, no.
• 31:12
  Go drive burn through tires we need.
• 31:14
  You to consume our product, and here's how we're going to help
• 31:16
  you do that. So oh, good.
• 31:17
  Really. Yeah.
• 31:18
  Yeah. Totally right.
• 31:20
  And so I was like, oh, let's like, let's unpack that.
• 31:22
  And so I did a trip from we started Southern California,
• 31:28
  ended up in Hailtsburg up north and and it was like just stop in
• 31:32
  Michelin rated places. And I think what a lot of people
• 31:34
  didn't understand at the time, and hopefully they do now, is
• 31:36
  that it's not all 12 course chef tasting menus like you've got
• 31:41
  now BBQ joints and Taco carts and everything that's listed in
• 31:44
  the guide. You know, you can really have
• 31:46
  you believe it's a much more holistic kind of wide-ranging,
• 31:49
  you know, travel guide. So yeah, it was like the fried
• 31:54
  chicken sandwich at Son of a Gun in LA, which is just and then up
• 31:59
  to, you know, Santa Barbara, Alyssa, leave us with a place
• 32:01
  called Maddie's Tavern, you know, and then you keep going
• 32:04
  out and Sorrell had opened in San Francisco and like this, you
• 32:07
  know, so it's like in stopping all these places and talking
• 32:09
  with the chefs and I was with a a photographer and, you know,
• 32:14
  just stopping and having these experiences and ending up in
• 32:16
  Hillsborough at single threat, you know, which is a three star
• 32:18
  place. And again, it's like the people
• 32:20
  you meet, right? So, so I stopped and I'm talking
• 32:24
  with chef Kyle and you know, he's like he's an Audi guy and
• 32:27
  like we're talking about cars and that he's like, he said, no,
• 32:29
  I saw the car. Oh, and I did it in the Ferrari
• 32:31
  Roma, which is I, I think I wrote, it's like it's a car I
• 32:36
  can crush on. Like I the the emotions I had in
• 32:39
  the Roma, it was, it was like a, it was, it was like a crush
• 32:43
  feeling. It wasn't like, Oh, I love this
• 32:44
  car so much, but it was like it like it was really like inside
• 32:46
  like, Oh, I like really like have a crush on this car.
• 32:48
  Like it was really similar experiences to some emotions.
• 32:51
  It impacts so much so that I think it was the night in San
• 32:54
  Francisco. I like I like sprung out of the
• 32:56
  valet and like went like ripping around at night time to find
• 32:58
  some take out Chinese. You know, that was also in the
• 33:00
  guide, you know, and so I was like, I just want to like like
• 33:04
  drive this. I would spend more time with
• 33:06
  this. You're.
• 33:06
  Hard. You and me, baby.
• 33:07
  Literally. It was everything.
• 33:09
  I just felt like it was like, like the like the playful, like
• 33:12
  little sibling, you know, to some of the more serious
• 33:14
  Ferraris. But like, it was everything I
• 33:16
  wanted. Like it was.
• 33:17
  And I did. How far is that?
• 33:18
  Hundreds and hundreds of miles. Like I was totally fine.
• 33:21
  Like getting in and out like was not, it was not painful.
• 33:23
  It was, you know, you. Could do noises or anything.
• 33:26
  No, totally fine. Yeah.
• 33:29
  But I like unpacking things like that, you know, people what they
• 33:31
  think they know about, but like, Oh no, like here's like, here's
• 33:34
  the real story and here's why it's beautiful.
• 33:35
  And then I think the the guide is as relevant as it's ever
• 33:38
  been, you know, and now with the hotel component to it, to the
• 33:41
  keys and everything, like, yeah, there's the, there's a lot
• 33:44
  there. It really helps to be in a
• 33:45
  Ferrari too, which is? That certainly sweetens the
• 33:48
  trip. But yeah, I didn't realize that
• 33:51
  it's not just sort of like what we typically think of as an
• 33:54
  official star restaurant. And so for it to be so
• 33:57
  approachable, it's like you think about the adventures that
• 34:00
  that would unlock. That's amazing.
• 34:03
  And then, yeah. You can even do one where it's
• 34:04
  like, hey, let's do like the low end stuff.
• 34:05
  Like, let's get like just the, you know, like the BBQ joints
• 34:08
  and Taco places. Yeah, yeah.
• 34:10
  I think that's important to add because human connection, but
• 34:13
  also we're all yearning for adventure.
• 34:15
  Yeah. We just don't get that anymore,
• 34:17
  right? You know, we all live such safe
• 34:19
  lives, you know? I know I wanted to ask you.
• 34:22
  You drive everything and we talk about, you know, everything's
• 34:25
  fast, everything's capable. Everything's got the same tech
• 34:28
  anymore. How are you seeing different
• 34:30
  manufacturers I guess distinguish their cars in 2026?
• 34:37
  With is it the story when the baseline is?
• 34:39
  When the baseline's so good, is. Generally so good, right?
• 34:43
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, hopefully you can sometimes you can see I
• 34:47
  don't know if you all agree, but you can sort of feel the brand
• 34:49
  character kind of come out in in materials and workmanship and
• 34:52
  design choices and things like that, right.
• 34:54
  Like you can get in a car that feels like oh, like you, you're
• 34:56
  in a Continental. Oh, this feels like a family,
• 34:58
  you know, which feels very different than a Lamborghini or,
• 35:01
  you know, whatever, that's a good deal.
• 35:04
  The the. Textiles even indicate to you
• 35:07
  that you're in a different thing.
• 35:09
  And I, I don't think that's a given.
• 35:11
  I think like it's there has to be a conscious decision from the
• 35:14
  design teams, right? Who are like, no, this, this
• 35:16
  needs to drive like a Ferrari or this needs to feel like a Rolls
• 35:19
  Royce. Like, like, absolutely.
• 35:21
  You know, yeah, you have that, you know, from supercar to
• 35:23
  supercar. Yeah.
• 35:25
  I mean, I, I, I think you're right, Ryan.
• 35:26
  Like that the there is like sort of a the tributaries are coming
• 35:32
  into the river, right? And it's like, yeah, yeah,
• 35:34
  definitely. So I think you have to maintain
• 35:36
  character. I did a story for, I think for
• 35:38
  our last print issue, I went down to to Ferrari, to Marinello
• 35:43
  and met with their vehicle dynamics engineer and then
• 35:46
  Rafael, the their test driver. And I wanted to unpack that,
• 35:49
  like, how do you guys work together?
• 35:51
  You know, and I mean, like, don't tell me about the specs.
• 35:53
  Don't tell me things like how like, what is your personal
• 35:55
  relationship to one another? Like how does it work back and
• 35:57
  forth? Like, you know, test driver, you
• 35:59
  know, he wants to like, oh, it's got to be like this, this.
• 36:01
  And then he comes back, you know, to the engineer.
• 36:03
  And it's like, well, how do we tweak that?
• 36:04
  And how do you do it in a digital age where there are by
• 36:07
  wire, you know, drive by wire, you know, pedal by wire and, and
• 36:10
  breaking by wire and those kind of things like how can you do
• 36:12
  that? And what was interesting was
• 36:13
  like to understand that like, it's about setting baselines.
• 36:16
  Like he can, because it's digital, he can set a baseline
• 36:19
  where he knows it's going to be good, good.
• 36:20
  And then everything else is just the, you know, just making it.
• 36:22
  Fatter. From yeah, good, but it was like
• 36:25
  once you get them and there's a little bit of a language barrier
• 36:27
  but like once you get them talking like once you really
• 36:29
  connect it's like, Oh no we have like animal noise codes for like
• 36:32
  different things and we like I'm like, alright that's what I want
• 36:35
  to talk about guys like they're. Like now we're where I needed to
• 36:37
  be, yeah. It's like a bird of the north
• 36:40
  kind of sail that's coming out. Yeah, but isn't that interesting
• 36:44
  that like great cars of the past were sort of happy accidents,
• 36:48
  right. And now that's all engineered
• 36:50
  in, right. Yeah, It's a, it's a, it's a
• 36:53
  funny. I've been thinking a lot about,
• 36:54
  yeah, like I know that people talk about the modern cars.
• 36:57
  I mean, like, you know, as far as cars for me to own, like, I
• 37:00
  love older cars. You know, I feel like I mean
• 37:03
  this, you know, the 93 is, is much more suited to my like,
• 37:06
  quite frankly, like my abilities.
• 37:08
  I am not gonna drive a new supercar at its limits.
• 37:11
  I'm just not yet that kind of a driver, you know what I mean?
• 37:15
  But I can get this pretty darn close on a public Rd. that's
• 37:19
  still safe. And I get the same feeling.
• 37:21
  I get exactly the same. I guarantee you that you know
• 37:25
  what's totally unlocked for me like last week is that my my
• 37:28
  daughter is just got her permit and so we were thinking like
• 37:32
  first cars, right, which is a whole nother conversation that.
• 37:35
  I know I would love to hear because I was thinking like Ryan
• 37:37
  and I are not that far behind you to have a new driver in the
• 37:41
  house and I'm like, what? Yeah.
• 37:42
  What's? That it was not intentional.
• 37:43
  It's not like dude permit car right away, but it was like, you
• 37:46
  know, we guys know, you guys have bought plenty of cars.
• 37:47
  It's like you find the right one and then you're like, I could
• 37:50
  wait and find a less right one, you know, or like the right car,
• 37:53
  the right time at the right thing.
• 37:55
  I'm like how, how you, you don't have a crystal ball, right?
• 37:58
  So found a what is it? 2014 GTI mark 6/20/13 GTI.
• 38:06
  Great. First car.
• 38:08
  I hadn't been in the GTI in probably 20 years.
• 38:11
  I get behind the wheel. I put a set of PS4 S Michelins
• 38:14
  on it. I get behind this wheel, guys,
• 38:17
  like I'm like, oh, they got this right.
• 38:19
  I mean, I was like for what? For bang for your buck?
• 38:22
  It was like 13 grand and I'm like.
• 38:24
  Dude, yes please. Yes, please.
• 38:27
  I was like, wow. And of course you can't you
• 38:30
  know, I still get to drive it until she actually has a lot so
• 38:33
  and I'm like, yeah, good for me guys like it's I mean like it's
• 38:36
  just yeah, they're really they're joyful cars again, like
• 38:40
  because it's light what's what 3000 lbs or something?
• 38:43
  You know, I think when people in like going back to the, you
• 38:46
  know, sort of writing about cars went on car people when, when I
• 38:49
  asked them, almost everybody has like, Oh, that's that fun car I
• 38:51
  had when I was young or that was that fun car I had in college.
• 38:54
  You could almost always equate that to weight.
• 38:56
  You know, it was all it was Often times it was under, I bet
• 39:00
  it was under £3000, you know and like, oh, and that's why it
• 39:03
  feels fun, you know, cuz you're not, you're not hauling around
• 39:06
  you're. Not lumbering, you know, and I
• 39:09
  love a a truck and an SUV probably more than the average
• 39:11
  person, but it's a different feeling.
• 39:14
  It's a very different physical experience, like, and I'm always
• 39:17
  reminded of that when I'm in something not my truck for a
• 39:21
  period of time and then I get back in, it always catches my
• 39:24
  attention. Like I'm so surprised how
• 39:26
  physically aware I am of the size and weight of the truck.
• 39:30
  It's like, Oh yeah, we are, we are making a conscious decision
• 39:34
  to go down the road, you know, as opposed to like just gliding.
• 39:39
  We're making a conscious decision to go down the road.
• 39:41
  I love that. We are collectively all of the
• 39:43
  parts. I'm like, yeah, I totally.
• 39:46
  I, I still, like, honestly, it's weird.
• 39:47
  Like we so take it for granted, just just in society in general,
• 39:50
  Like I still feel the novelty of motion.
• 39:53
  Like, I still feel like, oh, cool, I'm driving around, you
• 39:55
  know, like you get going, like, oh, this is like I, it's like,
• 39:57
  you know, it's still sort of fun.
• 39:59
  I I, my wife hates it. I got a motorcycle not too long
• 40:03
  ago. Whole another, whole another
• 40:05
  conversation. Yeah.
• 40:07
  Oh God. Like I didn't tell her until it
• 40:09
  was in the garage. Yeah.
• 40:12
  Lindsey yeah, it was pretty much, yeah.
• 40:14
  We're working through it. We're working through it.
• 40:17
  But it's those things when you, you feel like everyone has their
• 40:21
  limits though. But when you're out in the
• 40:24
  world, right, it's like, Oh, I'm moving, you know, and I see the
• 40:27
  world going by and it sounds it's, I don't know, I don't get
• 40:29
  too philosophical, but but it's like, but I really do still feel
• 40:31
  that novelty emotion. And I think it's still a wonder,
• 40:34
  you know, and to drive all these cars like talking before, like,
• 40:36
  and each one moves a little bit differently, you know, old ones
• 40:38
  and new ones and big ones and small ones.
• 40:40
  And it's just like, I don't know, I just try to man, you
• 40:43
  know, I just really try to see the world like through like
• 40:45
  child like eyes as much as I can because again, like, I don't
• 40:48
  have to be cool, you know, It's like I could just try to like
• 40:50
  really open myself up and be like, oh, what's special about
• 40:52
  this experience, you know? So that's the secret.
• 40:55
  Yeah, just it's my, it's what I do.
• 40:57
  Cool. I'm not, you know, like it's
• 40:58
  what I do. So it's OK for me. 50 years of
• 41:01
  trying to be cool and you just need to strip that away.
• 41:04
  Right. Turns out six months ago.
• 41:07
  Boom. Yeah.
• 41:07
  I love that I'm learning a lot today.
• 41:09
  This is This is. Your, this is your philosophy
• 41:12
  lesson and, you know, using the meditations.
• 41:15
  And, but I think you make a really good point because I was
• 41:18
  thinking about like, I remember when I first got my license and
• 41:22
  I couldn't have articulated it at the time.
• 41:24
  But when I look back on like getting to be able to drive by
• 41:28
  myself, being, being able to drive period.
• 41:30
  I mean, I was ready to get my license when I was 12.
• 41:32
  So, you know, 16 could not come soon enough.
• 41:35
  And when it finally did, and I think back to that time and that
• 41:38
  feeling and it was freedom, it was like, but so it goes back to
• 41:42
  like, what's the feeling? And I love, I think the fact
• 41:46
  that you are like bringing non car people into the car world or
• 41:50
  sharing that experience with them.
• 41:52
  I love that because we always say like the beautiful thing
• 41:55
  about the car world is there's a place for literally everybody.
• 41:58
  There's an enthusiast for every car and vice versa, you know,
• 42:02
  And I think if you can retain a little bit of the magic of when
• 42:04
  you first got your license, which I think we all the fact
• 42:07
  that we all love to drive for fun, we've all got to it a
• 42:09
  little bit. Yeah, Like, absolutely.
• 42:11
  It's a real gift and it's such a joy for all of.
• 42:15
  Us totally maybe you guys would be interested in this if you're
• 42:18
  ever with the family overseas. The force the the her driving
• 42:22
  instructor said well have you driven before and I was like be
• 42:24
  careful because like I I will take her out you know when she
• 42:26
  was younger but she did get to drive in at at Land Rover
• 42:33
  headquarters in Solihull. So they've got a program,
• 42:36
  they've got a program called the young off roader program and
• 42:39
  Land Rover will let children as young as 11 years old drive
• 42:42
  freaking cars. Yes, like through their like off
• 42:46
  road course, right, which is like it's a basic off road
• 42:48
  course. But for people who are haven't
• 42:50
  done it at none, it's challenging.
• 42:52
  Like you're on three wheels and you do the style, the climbs
• 42:54
  that you do the whole thing and it's like wildly, it's just
• 42:57
  wonderful. So I'm so she's there.
• 43:00
  It was, you know, it's it's right hand drive, right, So,
• 43:03
  right, so instructors here and there's like an extra little
• 43:05
  brake pedal just in case, you know, and she's like creeping
• 43:08
  through like the woods in solid hall England, you know, with
• 43:10
  this like, you know, nerves of steel instructor, you know, and
• 43:14
  I'm in the backseat like, oh, don't crap, don't smash up the
• 43:18
  Range Rover of a war that you're driving, you know, but she got
• 43:22
  out like what y'all were just saying, like she got out and I
• 43:24
  looked at the elation on her face, you know, and you get out
• 43:28
  and they do these big, you know, these like sort of tip over
• 43:30
  ramps and stuff. And it's it's fun for it was fun
• 43:32
  for me in the back seat, right. So for her to have those kind of
• 43:36
  feelings, right, and those sensory experiences like, oh, I
• 43:38
  am in control of this thing. Not on the street.
• 43:41
  I mean, she'd been her experience in cars, have been
• 43:43
  back and forth to school and now she's driving herself through
• 43:46
  the woods and it's a different, right?
• 43:49
  It's like anybody's like First off road experience or ICE
• 43:51
  driving experience, right? It's like this doesn't behave
• 43:54
  the way it does on Melrose Ave. Well, and those are the kind of
• 43:57
  accomplishment of when you, like you said, when you get out of
• 44:00
  the car and you're like, I just did that in a car.
• 44:03
  This is unbelievable like. You've got a Land Rover fan for
• 44:06
  life now. And that's probably why they do
• 44:09
  it. I mean, it's, it's absolutely
• 44:11
  why they do it. They they won't do it.
• 44:12
  I don't think they do it as 11 years old in the States.
• 44:14
  I don't know, probably some kind of.
• 44:15
  Legal thing. Why not like you're with it?
• 44:18
  I mean as long as you could reach the pedals like you know.
• 44:21
  I mean. Well, I mean, I think Ryan,
• 44:24
  obviously we have to take our girls to England.
• 44:26
  That's what I'm. That's what I'm taking, what it
• 44:28
  takes. I love it.
• 44:31
  I love it. Yeah.
• 44:32
  We try to get Yeah. Every once in a while I get a
• 44:33
  good plus one. Yeah, plus one for her, for the
• 44:36
  fam or those kind of things. So it's always yeah.
• 44:38
  It's always, yeah. You may not need to be cool, but
• 44:41
  definitely got the coolest. Right.
• 44:44
  Yeah, yeah. So the coolest guy in the world
• 44:46
  says the secret is to not be cool, right?
• 44:49
  I love this and you mentioned. It yeah, he's like really gonna
• 44:52
  pick up on. He's like, but I don't know if
• 44:54
  they know how cool I really AM. Well, amongst the other, you
• 44:57
  know, thousand cool things that were part of your intro, one of
• 45:01
  the things I am just fascinated about is this secret White House
• 45:05
  vinyl collection. And I guess we should probably
• 45:07
  preface this a little bit because you have a connection to
• 45:10
  the White House that and I sure don't I don't think Lindsay
• 45:14
  does. Can you?
• 45:16
  Can you? I mean, I can you talk about
• 45:19
  this A. Little bit, yeah, sure I wanna
• 45:20
  know. What's in the Secret collection?
• 45:22
  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I mean, for instance, today I like
• 45:24
  briefly, it's not typically something I lead with, but I am,
• 45:27
  I'm a grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.
• 45:31
  But I should preface it by saying like, it actually didn't.
• 45:33
  I got one, I got 1 e-mail address.
• 45:35
  And it was not like, Hey, call up the White House and just like
• 45:38
  they, they throw open the doors. Like, So what happened was we,
• 45:43
  we did every year we, my grandparents would take us on
• 45:45
  these family trips, right. And I want to also like curb
• 45:48
  expectations here because like this is not like Kennebunk Court
• 45:52
  or like, you know, fancy Texas. This is like, I mean, often
• 45:55
  times like fishing trips in like, you know, like, like,
• 45:57
  like, you know, sort of Central Florida, like swamp, like
• 46:00
  walking through swamps and things like that.
• 46:02
  Like we do, some were awesome. Like there have been some that
• 46:04
  were like, like we get an invite to like the Dominican Republic
• 46:07
  and we're like, dude, that was awesome.
• 46:08
  But you never knew what you were getting, right?
• 46:09
  So you'd always say yes, just always, always say yes because
• 46:12
  you never know. And that that was something, I
• 46:13
  mean, I've like been on like like nuclear submarines when I
• 46:16
  just said yeah, just get in the van.
• 46:17
  You know, it's like just like just get in the van.
• 46:19
  You never know what it's going to be.
• 46:21
  Well, and. I love that they like, I think
• 46:23
  that's like they've definitely made a point to like, you know,
• 46:30
  furnish or further the family relationships and like make a
• 46:33
  point of spending time together 100%.
• 46:35
  That's not easy to do, especially as people grow up and
• 46:38
  have kids. And so the fact that they
• 46:39
  prioritize that is really beautiful.
• 46:42
  Absolutely right. It was wonderful to find out
• 46:44
  like, you know, over a year, like whatever he's doing or
• 46:46
  whatever. So right, one like one night,
• 46:49
  like after dinner, I'm talking with my Uncle Jeff and he was
• 46:51
  talking about having a party in the White House, right.
• 46:53
  And he's like, man, I'm up there and there's like upstairs is
• 46:56
  like the residence, right? And there's bedrooms and stuff
• 46:58
  up there and there's like a solarium, which is like a like a
• 47:01
  big sort of family room where a lot of people would, would hang
• 47:04
  out. And so I got my friends up
• 47:06
  there. We're smoking and we're blasting
• 47:08
  the stones like downstairs. Like there's like some state
• 47:10
  dinner or something going on downstairs.
• 47:12
  But he and his butt is a separate access to get up there.
• 47:15
  And, and he and his buddies are, are hanging out up there and all
• 47:18
  of a sudden like they don't hear the knock at the door.
• 47:20
  And he's like the, I don't know, you guys are familiar with The
• 47:24
  Rolling Stones. They've got a song that on the
• 47:26
  on the album is called Star Star.
• 47:28
  The chorus is is, is not it is it is a profanity.
• 47:31
  Are we are we swearing? No.
• 47:33
  Yeah, absolutely. OK, the chorus is, is Mick
• 47:35
  Jagger repeating star fucker, star fucker star like over and
• 47:38
  over again. Yeah, yeah.
• 47:40
  Door opens up and he goes and it's Mom and Mrs. Mondale walk
• 47:43
  it just as Mick Jagger is, like belting out that chorus, right?
• 47:47
  And I'm like, Jeff, what happened?
• 47:48
  And he's like, man, they didn't stay very long and, like, all
• 47:51
  right, all right. So then I asked him like, well,
• 47:53
  where'd you get these records? He's like, well, like, if
• 47:55
  something was new, you could just ask somebody that would go
• 47:57
  out and and get it for you. But there was records there.
• 48:00
  And I was like, what do you mean there were records there?
• 48:02
  He's like, yeah, I remember, like a shelf with a bunch of
• 48:04
  records. And I'm like, yeah.
• 48:06
  And it's like a lifelong music fan.
• 48:07
  I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 48:08
  So I start doing a little bit of digging and they had published
• 48:13
  like 2 like reference books of like a catalog.
• 48:15
  So what happened was there's a book library, a fantastic book
• 48:18
  library up there. And the recording Academy, which
• 48:21
  is like a lobbying group for the, for the recording industry
• 48:23
  was like, if you guys got books, you should also have records,
• 48:26
  right? So like, let's put together a
• 48:28
  panel of like the best and brightest minds and like music
• 48:31
  producers and journalists and and, and composers to curate a
• 48:34
  record collection for the White House.
• 48:37
  Great. This is the tail end of like
• 48:38
  Nixon's administration. Right.
• 48:39
  OK, OK. When you look at that first
• 48:42
  edition, it's sort of reflective of Nixon.
• 48:44
  It's like, I mean, Don Ho big band.
• 48:48
  It's like really? That's what you get.
• 48:50
  There's like, yeah, it's. Like.
• 48:53
  Dylan. Such a Dylan guy.
• 48:54
  Nixon. There's like 1 like Dylan
• 48:56
  compilation like by that time, The Beatles had done their
• 48:58
  entire catalog, you know what I mean?
• 49:00
  And it's like there's not a lot, you know, it's really Yeah,
• 49:03
  yeah, yeah. So what happened?
• 49:06
  So that's edition one, right? And then when my grandpa took
• 49:09
  office, the they came back like, oh, now we've got somebody who
• 49:13
  really likes music. And because like, he was the, he
• 49:15
  was the 1st president. Grandpa was the 1st president to
• 49:18
  sort of activate the young vote through music, to have like The
• 49:20
  Allman Brothers Band and Willie Nelson, all these people who
• 49:22
  come and like play shows that never happened before.
• 49:25
  That didn't, that didn't. That was not.
• 49:26
  It was the music and politics were were were separate.
• 49:29
  So he's the one that kicked that off.
• 49:31
  So they're like, yeah. So yes.
• 49:33
  So they get a new group of curators together and now it's,
• 49:37
  you know, a bunch of country stuff.
• 49:38
  There's like southern rock, there's the cars, there's the
• 49:42
  class, the first class record is in there.
• 49:44
  Ramones rocket to Russia is in there.
• 49:47
  Elton John. I mean, it's like, it is
• 49:48
  incredible. And these are all like copies
• 49:50
  like as if you'd walked into a record store in like 1978, like
• 49:55
  these ABS. And they're all in these in
• 49:56
  these like sort of vinyl binders that hold maybe like 7 records
• 50:00
  in Boston, the presidential seal and like gold foils is like the
• 50:03
  White House record library. How cool is that?
• 50:05
  So I tracked this down. I like, I like, I, I hear about
• 50:07
  this. I'm like, I called one person at
• 50:10
  like at my grandpa's library. He's like maybe this e-mail.
• 50:13
  And then just like just pounded the pavement.
• 50:15
  I'm like, no, no, no, like I get the e-mail, I find out who the
• 50:17
  curator is, I call and they're like, no, like we'll call you
• 50:20
  back. And I'm like, fine.
• 50:22
  And I thought it was going to be at like like 3 days later I get
• 50:24
  an e-mail. It's like, yeah, turns out we
• 50:26
  have a record collection. It's in a secure, undisclosed
• 50:28
  storage facility. So in my head it's like the last
• 50:31
  scene in the Raiders lot of 80s references.
• 50:33
  You know, he's like wheel in the thing.
• 50:34
  It's like the raid, like the arc and like the UFO parts and like
• 50:37
  this record collection, right? And so I'm like, well, let me
• 50:40
  come see it. They're like, what?
• 50:42
  Yeah, let me come see it. It's a people's house, right?
• 50:45
  And they're like, yeah, I'm inviting myself.
• 50:47
  Over Yeah, monster, it's OK. And they're like, OK.
• 50:51
  And they're like, right. And so it was like it was like
• 50:54
  around like the holidays. So like the I mean, it's like
• 50:56
  the way I I'd always experienced the white it's, it's a
• 50:58
  government building. Like people go to work there.
• 51:00
  Like like before they had redid like the press room and all that
• 51:03
  stuff. Like it was kind of like
• 51:04
  linoleum floor and kind of like modest, you know?
• 51:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. People went to work, you know.
• 51:08
  And so they're like, where are we going to do it?
• 51:11
  I don't know, like it's like, so people were kind of gone like on
• 51:14
  vacation and stuff. This is during Obama's
• 51:15
  administration and like, well, we could move into the tea room,
• 51:18
  but I think that was getting decorated.
• 51:20
  So like an emails like we're going to put it down in the
• 51:22
  movie theater in the East wing. So in the East wing there's
• 51:24
  like, there's a movie theater and there's like the bowling
• 51:28
  alley and stuff. You may have heard about that
• 51:30
  stuff. So they, so I walk in there and
• 51:32
  I brought like 2 of the curators that were most of everybody's
• 51:35
  dead, but the two curious that were still alive and, and walked
• 51:39
  down there and it's like a tiny like little movie theater.
• 51:41
  And then there they are. They're seeing moving cardboard,
• 51:43
  moving boxes, you know, like like couple 1000 records just
• 51:46
  stacked. No pretense, I love it.
• 51:49
  Nope. And so, you know, there's that
• 51:50
  phrase like permission, forgive. Better to ask permission than
• 51:53
  forgiveness than permission. I got all these records here,
• 51:56
  right? I'm like, man, I should probably
• 52:00
  bring a record player, right? So like when I got I call up
• 52:02
  like a like a hi-fi like turntable dealer in DC and I'm
• 52:05
  like, you got something I could borrow.
• 52:07
  So he's like, yeah, man, like what are you doing?
• 52:08
  I'm like, don't worry about it. Like no.
• 52:10
  So I get like a turntable and like some speakers and stuff and
• 52:14
  put in my like roll away and just like carry it through
• 52:16
  security. And I mean, it's not Dan, it's a
• 52:18
  record player, you know, And so I'm like set up the record
• 52:21
  player and the things like no one had ever played these
• 52:23
  before. So what happened, like when by
• 52:26
  the time they during my grandpa's sort of edition of
• 52:29
  this, by the time they curated, it was like 1980.
• 52:31
  It was they were delivered days before the Reagan's moved in.
• 52:35
  So these never got installed. These were like just, you know,
• 52:39
  sort of present, not even presented formally.
• 52:41
  It was like they were just like, here you go, my guess.
• 52:43
  And then the Reagan's didn't want them.
• 52:45
  Yeah. Yeah, but not yeah.
• 52:48
  Totally. So it's so you can redecorate
• 52:50
  when you take off and you can, you know, redecorate.
• 52:52
  And so I don't know if like Nancy didn't want them or
• 52:54
  whatever. They just been in, they've been
• 52:56
  in yeah, they've been in storage.
• 52:58
  So I'm the first people, that first person that ever played
• 52:59
  these things. So we're dusting these off of
• 53:01
  these guys and dropping the needle on like the first class
• 53:04
  record in Astral weeks and like, you know, who's next?
• 53:08
  And I mean, I mean, it was just, it was absolutely incredible
• 53:11
  afternoon, right. And yeah, so like a like a tiny
• 53:15
  little sliver of like American history, like, again, like a
• 53:18
  very niche kind of like expertise in that kind of, you
• 53:21
  know, obviously, you know, big, big ocean of stuff.
• 53:24
  But it was like, I remember they came to the curator came down
• 53:27
  and she was like, you done? And I'm like, what do you mean?
• 53:30
  Like there's like records everywhere.
• 53:31
  I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 53:34
  And I'm like, I guess these guys and overalls came and put them
• 53:39
  all back and I guess they took them away.
• 53:40
  So like, I would love to, you know, I wrote about that for
• 53:44
  like White House History Quarterly and NPR and a couple
• 53:47
  of other things. And I would like, so that's
• 53:49
  1980, right? So there's nothing after that in
• 53:52
  this official White House record library.
• 53:53
  So no electronic music, no hip hop or rap, no boy bands, no
• 53:57
  Madonna or electronic music. Anything else?
• 54:01
  Anything else? Any of the icons, Yeah.
• 54:03
  Oh my gosh, you think about all the stuff that's happened.
• 54:05
  Again, it's not about the access of of course you'd get anything
• 54:07
  on your phone, but like it's about sort of that curation of
• 54:10
  like, oh, what's really important, you know, and what
• 54:12
  kind of like music can act as a communicator, right?
• 54:15
  It could be a message from the people to the people in power,
• 54:18
  you know, I mean, like, how could you do it?
• 54:20
  How could you do that? How could you update it now
• 54:22
  without N.W.A, You know, And like he's like, he's brought it
• 54:25
  without Rage Against the Machine with all this stuff like you'd
• 54:27
  have to. You would absolutely.
• 54:29
  That's in my notes, I said. What surprised you most?
• 54:32
  Was there any N.W.A in the collection of obviousness?
• 54:34
  Ended in 1980, but we're on the same.
• 54:36
  Way. Yeah, totally.
• 54:37
  Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, I
• 54:38
  mean, that first Clash record I think starts with I'm so bored
• 54:41
  with the USA, right. So like, what an interesting,
• 54:43
  like, message that we could send to the people you know, who were
• 54:45
  there. You know how?
• 54:46
  Curated was that stuff that got sent over to the White House,
• 54:49
  you think? Oh, incredibly, everything was
• 54:51
  they would meet. They would meet monthly in New
• 54:54
  York and, and, and hash it out and you could like, you could
• 54:57
  make a thing and then you could make a case for it.
• 54:59
  And they would because you had a, you can't just put everything
• 55:01
  in there. Like especially back then with
• 55:02
  physical media, right? Yeah.
• 55:04
  And so they would have to like, yeah, yeah.
• 55:06
  So they'd have to make your make their case, you know, so
• 55:08
  there's. A versive.
• 55:09
  I love it. Totally.
• 55:10
  And then there's like spoken word and comedy albums like it's
• 55:12
  everything. It's, you know, there's like
• 55:14
  plays and stuff in there too. So in classical.
• 55:16
  Richard Pryor records and that. Is there, Richard, I should
• 55:19
  look, I should look and get back to you so I have the like the
• 55:21
  two printed? Copies of the.
• 55:22
  When was that? I guess that would have.
• 55:24
  That would have been pre 80s, yeah.
• 55:26
  Yeah, it might have been. Those so many years.
• 55:29
  Ago, could you imagine, like, oh, here you go.
• 55:32
  Yeah, yeah. So it's been yeah, it's been
• 55:35
  definitely an unusual life, but yeah, yeah, it's funny.
• 55:39
  There was one of the one of the last things that we talked about
• 55:43
  was he would go to Sebring, they would go watch the races drive
• 55:47
  up from Georgia to or drive down to Florida and watch the races
• 55:51
  and he. Would talk.
• 55:52
  Carter was a car guy. Well, let's just say, I mean, he
• 55:54
  would won, yeah. I mean, we watched the races at
• 55:56
  Sebring and be super into it. Yeah.
• 55:58
  He would take the boys down and and they would go to races and
• 56:00
  they would watch the, you know, the the endurance races at
• 56:03
  Sebring's and and be able to tell like what engine was what.
• 56:06
  They used to have those. They used to have those albums
• 56:08
  that they would sell back then of like the sounds of Sebring,
• 56:11
  The sounds of Sebring. I have one and it's, it was my
• 56:14
  husband's, but it's from Lamont in I think 66.
• 56:17
  And it's the literal recording of the sounds of the race.
• 56:20
  Wow. Yeah, I didn't.
• 56:21
  Think we didn't have Netflix back then, guy?
• 56:23
  Like you just put on the race, Like, let's listen to it.
• 56:26
  This was the we had personal connection.
• 56:28
  We had adventure. We.
• 56:30
  Had yeah, it was the original rerun.
• 56:32
  Like if you missed the race, you put the record on and go yeah,
• 56:37
  yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 56:40
  Well, obviously we've only barely scratched the surface, so
• 56:45
  we'd love to have you come back and we can continue to listen to
• 56:47
  all your stories. But what is next for you?
• 56:49
  Because you always have new adventures, you know, on the
• 56:52
  docket. So what's coming up for you?
• 56:55
  Tomorrow at 6:30 in the morning, it's wheels up for an, an
• 57:00
  owner's drive. I'm not an owner, but I'm, I'm
• 57:01
  joining an owner's drive with the Ineos Grenadier up in Moab.
• 57:05
  So I have not been to Moab yet. And I'm looking forward to that.
• 57:09
  Again, like looking forward to meeting the owners, you know,
• 57:11
  like, and seeing like, why are they here?
• 57:12
  And like, what do they do and who's new and who's experienced
• 57:14
  and how does this work? And I'm, I mean, such a
• 57:16
  beautiful setting. So I'm so looking forward to
• 57:19
  that. Well, you're right.
• 57:20
  Like who is the Ineos Grenadier? Owner.
• 57:22
  I'm curious, you know? Yeah.
• 57:24
  And I've never took him one before.
• 57:26
  I see him in the school drop off line, you know, but I've never
• 57:29
  been behind the wheel yet. So I'm.
• 57:30
  Well, so I just saw they just named Gabrielle Reese and Laird
• 57:34
  Hamilton as Ineos Grenadier or as Ineos ambassadors.
• 57:38
  So you'll have to see maybe if they're there.
• 57:40
  OK. I'll let you know, OK?
• 57:43
  They were saying they were owners, so they qualify.
• 57:47
  Yeah, OK, there you go. After that I've got a Sail GP
• 57:51
  sailing race in Bermuda, going to check that out.
• 57:54
  And then I got the, I got an invite to Monaco.
• 57:58
  So that's gonna be. Pretty incredible.
• 58:01
  Gosh, that's yeah, total bucket list.
• 58:03
  Yeah, it's a total bucket list and it's the long way.
• 58:05
  So it's, it's with a where we're taking about taking a taking a
• 58:10
  ship from like on the West Coast of Italy, stopping like through
• 58:13
  Corsica and then ending in Monaco and then on to Barcelona
• 58:15
  and leading from there. That's overseas.
• 58:17
  So it's, I know. I mean, it sounds awful.
• 58:20
  Sore from having pin? It's insane.
• 58:23
  It was, yeah. And it was, it was one of those
• 58:25
  plus ones where where my wife had to work.
• 58:28
  It's like 11 days and I was like, I can't do 11 days.
• 58:30
  My daughter's like, yeah, I'm out of, I'm out of school.
• 58:33
  Listen, I will take one for the family team and I love it.
• 58:37
  Happy just. Life is good, life is.
• 58:39
  Good. That's a good thing.
• 58:40
  Well, you'll have to come back and fill us in on.
• 58:43
  I mean even just those 3 I feel like could be another full job.
• 58:46
  Yeah, please do come back, I feel.
• 58:48
  Yeah, you know, no pun intended, just scratching the surface.
• 58:51
  Oh, you guys, it's so much fun and I hope we can hang out when
• 58:53
  you guys are in Los Angeles or something.
• 58:55
  I know meet up on the cross and go do all the car week or
• 58:58
  something. You guys going to car week?
• 58:59
  Yeah. Of course.
• 58:59
  Yeah, he's there. So there we.
• 59:01
  Go. I know it hit you the other day
• 59:02
  of it, like that's going to be here before we know it.
• 59:05
  It is, right. It's one of those things where I
• 59:06
  feel like every time I'm driving, I used to, I almost
• 59:09
  always drive and then every time I'm coming home, like I'd turn,
• 59:11
  I would make AU turn and go right back and do it all over
• 59:13
  again. Like it's such a magical
• 59:15
  experience. And against the people, it's the
• 59:17
  people you run into and like, big hugs.
• 59:19
  And like, you know, it's just, yeah, it's fantastic.
• 59:22
  Yeah. Well, because it is.
• 59:23
  I mean, we talk about that because we're all obviously
• 59:25
  we're all in different cities, like all of us being in the same
• 59:28
  place at the same time is rare if you know, ever.
• 59:31
  And so to have like, in a lot of ways, it's all of your friends
• 59:35
  in the same place for a week, that's pretty remarkable.
• 59:38
  And then you also get to see these incredible cars and have
• 59:41
  these amazing experiences. It's, you know, we all say every
• 59:44
  year we're like, well, that was life changing.
• 59:46
  And then the next year it's the same thing, like it's even more
• 59:49
  life changing and it just keeps building.
• 59:52
  Yeah, it really is. And it feels like summer camp.
• 59:54
  You're right. It's like.
• 59:55
  Exactly. That's exactly cool.
• 59:56
  Here we are again. Yeah, we should do songs.
• 59:58
  We should do like songs and s'mores this year and figure
• 1:00:01
  that out. Maybe one of the sand?
• 1:00:02
  Traps. Already.
• 1:00:03
  Yeah, see. And it sounds like you know how
• 1:00:06
  to get a record player that's portable.
• 1:00:07
  So I think we have two, we have two of the ingredients already
• 1:00:11
  sorted that will make it often. And I feel like at the lodge, if
• 1:00:16
  you just went in and you're like, hey, we just need S'mores
• 1:00:18
  stuff, it would magically appear outside before too long.
• 1:00:22
  Yeah, exactly. So that's our side mission for
• 1:00:25
  this year is S'mores at the fire pits.
• 1:00:27
  Yeah. Yeah, I look forward to it.
• 1:00:29
  Yeah, me too. So on that note, tell people
• 1:00:31
  where they can find you on social media.
• 1:00:34
  So should be the what's my answer here?
• 1:00:36
  It's just my name. It's just like at John dot
• 1:00:38
  Schilbenco. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:00:40
  And then the magazine is, is Dossier Magazine.
• 1:00:44
  Yeah. And is there, is there a website
• 1:00:45
  too for dossier? Dossiermagazine.com, Yeah.
• 1:00:48
  OK, perfect. Well, this has been so much fun.
• 1:00:52
  It has flown by, which is always a good sign.
• 1:00:55
  But we really appreciate you hanging out and sharing all your
• 1:00:59
  stories and we hope you'll come back.
• 1:01:01
  And to our listeners, thank you so much for joining us for this
• 1:01:04
  week's episode. We really appreciate you being
• 1:01:06
  here and for liking, subscribing and sharing the show with your
• 1:01:09
  enthusiast friends. Remember, always be driving.
• 1:01:12
  We're that car show and we'll see you next week.