Latest / The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois / Iceland, Travel & Puzzle Books Are Delicious w/ Katie Huang

Transcript

Iceland, Travel & Puzzle Books Are Delicious w/ Katie Huang · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

• 0:00
  Hey, John Francois here. So I was with a podcast
• 0:03
  hosting provider for six years. And my big beef
• 0:06
  with them was that it was becoming impossible
• 0:08
  to monetize with them anytime soon. I had to
• 0:11
  have a thousand monthly downloads. I had to have
• 0:14
  2000 consumption hours. And yeah, you know, you
• 0:17
  may be saying to yourself, John, you've been
• 0:18
  podcasting for over six years and have over 300
• 0:21
  episodes. What the hell? What gives? Why aren't
• 0:23
  you like there yet? And it's because there's
• 0:26
  a lot of God dang podcasts out there. that are
• 0:29
  taking up all the space. It's hard to, you know,
• 0:32
  stand out. Um, so you want to stand out, you
• 0:35
  know, it's going to take some work, but at the
• 0:36
  very least you want to be able to pay your bills
• 0:38
  in the present. And that's where rss .com makes
• 0:41
  a difference. I recently switched to them because
• 0:43
  I found out that all I needed was 10 downloads
• 0:48
  in the last 30 days, not a thousand, not 2000
• 0:52
  just 10 downloads in the last 30 days in order
• 0:56
  to qualify for their monetization program. How
• 0:59
  awesome is that? So if you break that down, assuming
• 1:01
  you do a podcast weekly and you should, because
• 1:04
  you really want to get out there, that's like
• 1:07
  what, maybe one to two downloads per episode
• 1:09
  in that tight month of time. I think you could
• 1:12
  do it. Just get one or two family or friends
• 1:15
  to listen to your new podcast if you're starting
• 1:18
  a new one with RSS .com and then boom. They'll
• 1:21
  celebrate with you and say, hey, you are qualified
• 1:23
  to monetize. Get paid because you and I know
• 1:27
  that podcasting takes a lot of hard work. We
• 1:29
  deserve to be compensated for it. Sign up using
• 1:32
  my link in the show notes to rss .com as your
• 1:35
  official podcast hosting provider. Go to My Delicious
• 1:38
  Culture with Jon François show notes and pay.
• 1:43
  Not going to lie for legal reasons. I got to
• 1:45
  tell you that I may earn a commission. If you
• 1:49
  sign up using my link because I'm an affiliate
• 1:51
  partner a proud one at that of rss .com You're
• 1:58
  calling me a cat that I like you I need treats
• 2:01
  you're saying I'm hairy you say I need to be
• 2:03
  petted and you say I smell like onions and cheese
• 2:05
  like what Is there anything that you like about
• 2:08
  me? Felicis, grab a plate and taste the delicious
• 2:17
  culture. I am your host, John Francois. We are
• 2:20
  feasting on food, pop culture and lifestyle with
• 2:22
  travel adventure puzzle game, indie author, Katie
• 2:26
  Huang. Katie, I'm in Vermont. Where are you?
• 2:28
  I am on the California side. Uh, it's a three
• 2:31
  hours away from you. You're on the California
• 2:33
  side. Wait, wait, what? Where are you in the
• 2:36
  state of California? Yes. You're in Vermont.
• 2:39
  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm on the West coast. So I
• 2:43
  thought when you said three hours apart, I thought
• 2:44
  you meant it only took three hours to drive from
• 2:46
  Vermont to California. Oh damn. You're talking
• 2:49
  about the time zone. Yeah. Sorry. No, no, no.
• 2:51
  You're good. You're good. So yeah, it's two 13
• 2:53
  in the afternoon here in Vermont in the East
• 2:55
  coast and then out there out West in California.
• 2:58
  It is I think 11 a .m. 11 13. Yep. 11, 13 a .m.
• 3:02
  What part of California are you in? I'm around
• 3:04
  the Bay Area. I'm like an hour away from San
• 3:06
  Francisco. Gotcha. How's that going for you?
• 3:09
  Expensive. Yeah, no different than Vermont. Those
• 3:15
  specific tourist destinations in the United States,
• 3:17
  it could be tricky to live there. And I hope
• 3:21
  you don't take this question the wrong way, but
• 3:22
  I do know or I have heard that there's quite
• 3:26
  a large Asian population in the Bay Area. Am
• 3:29
  I correct? Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's like tons
• 3:32
  of bubble tea, tons of like Asian food, Indian
• 3:36
  food. Like I'm, I'm in the mecca of Indian food.
• 3:40
  Yeah. You know, Indian food. Oh my God. Great.
• 3:43
  I mean, we have, you know, a good amount of Indian
• 3:44
  restaurants here in Vermont, more specifically
• 3:47
  in our, in our big city, which is Burlington
• 3:49
  and, uh, the Boba tea. Ooh, man. I remember tasting
• 3:55
  those at Old Orchard Beach in Maine when my wife
• 3:58
  and I went there maybe a couple of years ago
• 3:59
  for our wedding anniversary. And it's delicious,
• 4:02
  but also like the boba balls, you know, the feeling
• 4:05
  of the boba balls. Like, it's just like, I had
• 4:08
  to, I had to try to get used to drinking liquid
• 4:10
  with balls in it, you know? Yeah, I know. Well,
• 4:16
  I... have been used to that part, but I moved
• 4:19
  to California from Michigan and Arbor. And so
• 4:23
  like the first time, like I remember the first
• 4:27
  week I came here, I came for the job interview
• 4:29
  because I had to - First of all, what brought
• 4:33
  you out to California from Michigan and what
• 4:35
  job are you talking about? I graduated from University
• 4:42
  of Michigan and then I actually worked for the
• 4:45
  same university after I graduated. And then my
• 4:49
  partner, lo and behold, got a job in, you know,
• 4:53
  California. Silicon Valley. And I decided I'm
• 4:58
  interested in California. I figured there's like
• 5:02
  where the job opportunities at. And so I quit
• 5:04
  my job in Michigan and I came here for, you know,
• 5:08
  like the startup and tech scene. I became a data
• 5:11
  scientist. It's similar to what I was. doing.
• 5:15
  In Michigan, it was biostatistics. And then they
• 5:19
  are actually pretty similar. I'm analyzing data
• 5:22
  in a quantitative way. And then after I moved
• 5:25
  to California, it's more like tech, you have
• 5:27
  to learn how to code. But in essence, it's the
• 5:31
  same. You're summarizing data with, you know,
• 5:34
  statistics. So yeah. Uh, long story short, my,
• 5:37
  my job interview, they were like, Oh, so we'll
• 5:40
  bring you out to lunch. What, what are you interested
• 5:42
  in? And I was like, I heard that there's some
• 5:45
  Asian food here. And then, and then they were
• 5:51
  like, so confused. They were like, are you like,
• 5:54
  maybe tell us a category. Like they were like,
• 5:57
  Oh, so are you talking about Korean food, Vietnamese
• 5:59
  food, like Chinese food? I was like. I, whatever.
• 6:04
  Asian food is not one thing. It's not one thing.
• 6:08
  I mean, as the black guy talking to the Asian,
• 6:10
  that's, but, uh, yeah, like it is. Yeah. Vietnamese,
• 6:14
  Chinese, Japanese, Korean. There's all kinds.
• 6:17
  I know. Yeah. So what was, what ended up being
• 6:20
  your favorite type of Asian cuisine during your
• 6:22
  time there in California? Um, I got influenced
• 6:26
  by my ex coworkers. They, they really liked the
• 6:29
  Korean like tofu, so soft tofu soup. Yeah. And,
• 6:35
  and so I, I love that thing now. What's about
• 6:38
  a soft tofu soup? What are they? Can you, can
• 6:41
  you break that food down for me? Now, let me
• 6:43
  tell you they're, they're like million kinds
• 6:46
  of tofu. Um, so there's like firm tofu that,
• 6:51
  that is like kind of chewy. Um, there is soft
• 6:55
  tofu. Uh, the ones you put into Korean, like
• 6:58
  tofu soup is almost like you inhale it. You don't
• 7:04
  even need to bite it. It's, it's like soft, like
• 7:07
  flour fluff. I don't know how I put soup up my
• 7:09
  nose, Katie. What are you implying now? That,
• 7:13
  that, that, that seems very burning. That seems
• 7:15
  like, uh, it seems like a hot version of cocaine.
• 7:20
  The new way of ingesting food. Yeah. Your nose
• 7:25
  and it comes out through your eyes. How disgusting.
• 7:28
  Oh God. I can tell you're not into the gory humor.
• 7:33
  That's okay. I like it. Oh, you like, do you
• 7:36
  like horror movies? I like horror movies. I like
• 7:38
  gory movies, slashers, everything. What's your,
• 7:42
  what's your favorite one that you watched recently?
• 7:44
  Oh, was I talking to you on, on, you know, the
• 7:47
  DM in, in, uh, punt match. Anyways, I don't know
• 7:52
  if it counts as horror movie. I think it's more
• 7:55
  like a slasher or gore. It's called Sisu. So
• 7:59
  yes, it's a Finnish movie. It's it's like Chuck
• 8:04
  Norris, but a Finnish guy. Walker Texas Ranger,
• 8:11
  except a Finnish version of him. OK, OK. And
• 8:13
  he is killing Nazis, just like as you as you
• 8:17
  should. Yeah. Yeah. Him alone. is fighting the
• 8:20
  entire Nazi population. Wow. So it's kind of
• 8:24
  like Inglorious Basterds, but with Chuck Norris
• 8:28
  and it's a Finnish guy instead of Chuck Norris.
• 8:31
  Yeah. I would say, yeah, very much so. It's like
• 8:35
  one of those, you know, like action and then
• 8:38
  the main character never dies and he just like,
• 8:41
  yeah. Yeah. All right. So you're in California,
• 8:44
  you're in the data scientist Silicon Valley coding
• 8:47
  scene. And I think you had mentioned in your
• 8:50
  podcast, not your pod match bio. I think that
• 8:55
  you had mentioned that there was a very mundane
• 9:00
  nine to five -ness of it all. Can you tell me
• 9:03
  about that experience? Oh, why are you laughing?
• 9:05
  Am I, am I lying? No, no, okay. So can you tell
• 9:09
  me, I guess the pros and cons of that working
• 9:11
  environment and how in the hell did you write
• 9:14
  these awesome veg, what is it, veg out voyage
• 9:18
  travel adventure puzzle game books? Because that
• 9:21
  is quite a transition going from the Silicon
• 9:24
  Valley scene to what I just mentioned. Yeah,
• 9:26
  I would say it's a big change. You know, I came
• 9:30
  from a family where everyone has, you know, like
• 9:33
  stable jobs. They are pretty highly educated,
• 9:36
  you know, both my parents parents have PhDs.
• 9:38
  I'm the only one who doesn't. Which is fine.
• 9:41
  Yeah. What do your parents have PhDs in? What
• 9:44
  do they do? So they were classmates. They were
• 9:48
  in horticulture. What is that? Yeah, exactly.
• 9:54
  Everyone asked that. It's like... My dad's research
• 9:59
  is in plants, but he's not like a green finger
• 10:03
  that does gardening work. He is a lab guy, and
• 10:08
  so he used plants to look at genetic data. I
• 10:12
  think his focus before he retired was trying
• 10:16
  to put vaccine into bananas. So I could eat a
• 10:25
  banana ingested with a vaccine. What kind of
• 10:29
  vaccine is it? Does it make the banana taste
• 10:31
  different? I mean, I'm so curious now. I have
• 10:34
  no idea. I don't know what kind of vaccine they
• 10:37
  were doing, but I know that he talks about the
• 10:40
  goal is so that kids don't need to get jabbed.
• 10:44
  Some people are afraid of that, especially kids.
• 10:47
  cry. And then if you just like eat fruit like
• 10:52
  a banana or like a peach and then you can get
• 10:54
  the vaccination you need, that is like the best
• 10:57
  thing. I don't know where that research went,
• 10:59
  but my dad retired. It's like you're trying to
• 11:04
  figure out what your dad is doing in real time.
• 11:07
  No, no, that's okay. I mean, the fact that you
• 11:10
  said you could vaccinate a banana, that just
• 11:12
  really got my attention. So thank you for that.
• 11:17
  Okay. So what, yeah, yeah, let's get back to
• 11:21
  it. Like what, what about data science, Silicon
• 11:24
  Valley coding? Like what about that? was great
• 11:28
  and what about that was not so great? Tell me
• 11:29
  about it. Yeah. So the transition, long story
• 11:33
  short, the transition is really because I burned
• 11:36
  out during COVID. But before that, I really liked
• 11:39
  it. I mean, I switched from in Michigan, it was
• 11:44
  biostatistics to in the Silicon Valley working
• 11:49
  for all of the tech companies like social media
• 11:51
  platforms. It is not that big of a change, to
• 11:55
  be honest, because it's all quantitative analytics.
• 12:00
  All these big words I love, biostatistics, quantitative
• 12:04
  analytics. Can you break that down for me, both
• 12:07
  of them? Absolutely. I am an early millennial,
• 12:12
  so this is mostly pre -AI chatbot and all that.
• 12:17
  When you say early millennial, what do you mean?
• 12:19
  What year were you born? 1985. Oh, you're an
• 12:22
  elder millennial. That's what you meant. Okay,
• 12:24
  okay. But you probably don't like the term elder.
• 12:27
  You like the early millennial term better. The
• 12:29
  senile. Oh, stop it, stop it. Yeah, I think,
• 12:33
  yeah, I think it seems to be like anybody that
• 12:36
  was born in the 80s is considered an elder millennial
• 12:39
  and people born in the 90s like me, I was born
• 12:42
  in 91. Baby. I mean, baby, no, no, no, baby millennial
• 12:48
  is the ones that were born like in 1996. So how
• 12:50
  dare you? I'm like a medium, like sort of youngish
• 12:55
  millennial. But definitely not an elder, because
• 12:57
  I think elders are all like early to mid eighties.
• 13:01
  So go ahead, grandma. Tell me what you want to
• 13:05
  tell me. I still use Facebook. Don't use Facebook.
• 13:10
  That is a very elder millennial thing. Anyway,
• 13:13
  so sorry, we're getting sidetracked. Yeah. We
• 13:16
  were talking about what we were saying, um, statistics.
• 13:19
  Yeah, go ahead. Talk about it. That's a biostatistics
• 13:22
  and quantitative analysis. Yeah. Like I'll strip
• 13:25
  away all of the buzzwords. It's really that you
• 13:29
  have data and you're trying to summarize it in
• 13:33
  like a reasonable and systematic way. Um, when
• 13:37
  I was, yeah, when I was in Michigan and doing
• 13:40
  my grad school studies, it's mostly trying to
• 13:46
  come up with like a mathematic model that assumes
• 13:50
  some kind of distribution. And you can like estimate
• 13:55
  what is the most likely conclusion to things.
• 14:00
  But after I moved to Silicon Valley, I started
• 14:05
  to get into, you know, like the engineer crowd.
• 14:08
  They have a different mindset. I mean, we're
• 14:11
  trying to do the same thing. We're trying to
• 14:13
  summarize data and like explain, you know, the
• 14:17
  society or whatnot. But because of the computing
• 14:21
  power is like so great nowadays, the mindset
• 14:25
  of, you know, like the computer scientists, engineers,
• 14:28
  they are like... They enjoy iterating. So like
• 14:31
  for, for the math side of things, we hope to
• 14:35
  come up with like almost perfect math model to
• 14:37
  explain the distribution of a population. But
• 14:40
  like in Silicon Valley, I have noticed people
• 14:43
  love the iterative process. You know, they start
• 14:46
  with like a random whatever point, and then they
• 14:49
  start thinking about, okay, so from here, like
• 14:53
  Am I making any errors? Does that look incorrect?
• 14:57
  And then they like slightly adjust it and then
• 14:59
  run things again. That's the iterative process
• 15:01
  for large computing power. That is kind of killing
• 15:07
  the glaciers right now. But yeah, it is a very
• 15:10
  useful tool. Um, and then you, you just do like
• 15:14
  the iterative process and eventually you kind
• 15:16
  of like slowly decrease your errors and then
• 15:20
  reach a conclusion. That's usually pretty good.
• 15:23
  So yeah, it's just, it's different ways of thinking
• 15:26
  about how, how you summarize the world. Uh, I,
• 15:29
  I like both. I actually had to like learn how
• 15:34
  to code after I moved to California. Uh, but,
• 15:37
  but it was rewarding. I mean, like. kind of everyone
• 15:40
  was doing the same thing back then. Like everyone
• 15:42
  was trying to get into the tech scene, learn
• 15:44
  how to code in Python and things like that. And
• 15:47
  I was one of them. And then I got a job and worked
• 15:50
  for a while. Pretty good. I mean, it's fulfilling.
• 15:54
  It's much busier than Michigan, but it's fulfilling.
• 15:58
  And then after COVID, kind of gotten too busy.
• 16:04
  The Delicious Culture with Jean -Francois is
• 16:07
  hosted by RSS .com. Now, as someone who had my
• 16:12
  podcast hosted by another provider for most of
• 16:15
  the past six years, I was nervous because I have
• 16:17
  over 300 episodes. I'm wondering like, oh my
• 16:20
  God, is everything going to convert to RSS .com
• 16:22
  very easily? Am I still going to get the same
• 16:25
  subscribers, followers? Is everything going to
• 16:27
  be maintained? And with the help of RSS fabulous
• 16:30
  support team, it has been. If you are a new podcaster,
• 16:34
  let Let me tell you, you host your podcast on
• 16:36
  RSS .com. It'll be up there and running in less
• 16:40
  than five minutes. Join them. They'll get your
• 16:43
  podcasts up and running very quickly, very easily
• 16:45
  to all the platforms like Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
• 16:48
  et cetera. Join by clicking on the link that
• 16:52
  I've provided to you in my show notes. And just
• 16:56
  so I don't go to jail, I'm an affiliate of RSS
• 16:59
  .com and may earn a commission if you sign up
• 17:02
  using my link. Yeah, yeah, you described being
• 17:06
  burned out during COVID. What does that mean?
• 17:08
  Like what what what during COVID made you guys
• 17:11
  like really overworked? Yeah, so I think it's
• 17:14
  different for different people. But like for
• 17:17
  me, I am a very slow like reader, typer, and
• 17:21
  then what happened was we started using this
• 17:25
  thing called Slack. It's instant messaging basically
• 17:28
  for the workplace. Yeah, it's very popular. It's
• 17:34
  still very popular and like nothing wrong with
• 17:36
  it, but like me personally, I am a little bit
• 17:39
  dyslexic and so like those things take a very
• 17:43
  long time for me. Um, and then, and then like
• 17:47
  meeting frequencies also kind of increase a lot
• 17:50
  because people are just like worried that, you
• 17:52
  know, everyone's sitting at home isolated. Like
• 17:55
  they are worried that they're FOMO not getting
• 17:58
  any updates about the project, how things are
• 18:01
  going. And like there's so many meetings. I just
• 18:05
  couldn't handle it. Like. It was boring. There's
• 18:08
  literally, ironically, even though like you're
• 18:12
  working from home, it's harder to keep work -life
• 18:17
  balance because like you said, like you're just
• 18:20
  inundated with messages and since everybody's
• 18:23
  at home, you know, the bosses are thinking like,
• 18:26
  oh yeah, like you're at home. You don't have
• 18:27
  much going on. You're not going anywhere. So
• 18:29
  let's schedule maybe like 5 ,000 meetings a day
• 18:32
  and It just all blends together. I feel like
• 18:36
  you could be doing laundry or watching something
• 18:38
  on the television and still responding to work
• 18:41
  emails and going to a meeting all at the same
• 18:43
  time. So yeah, I could imagine that with all
• 18:46
  of the work and the life blended together like
• 18:48
  that, that you would not have a chance to breathe.
• 18:52
  Yeah, like and maybe it's because I didn't know
• 18:55
  how to set boundaries But it was exactly the
• 18:58
  chaos you were describing like I was trying to
• 19:00
  do laundry and then do like zoom meetings at
• 19:03
  the same time Finally when the meetings are over
• 19:06
  It's like probably 5 p .m And then like the cat
• 19:09
  is coming in asking for dinner and then I have
• 19:12
  to figure out like what we're eating for dinner
• 19:14
  for the humans and yeah, it's it doesn't stop
• 19:18
  like I I couldn't yeah, I just couldn't do it
• 19:21
  so So, did you leave that world during COVID
• 19:24
  or right after COVID? When did you leave your
• 19:28
  Silicon Valley working position? Yeah, I actually
• 19:32
  left in 2014, so I made up my mind. That's right
• 19:37
  before COVID. Wait, sorry, 2024. Sorry, sorry.
• 19:41
  Oh, I was like, wait, what? You left because
• 19:43
  of COVID six years before COVID? Gosh. Anyway,
• 19:48
  so you left in 2024. Okay, so like four years
• 19:50
  after the pandemic started. Gotcha. Yeah, I think
• 19:54
  I have made up my mind to leave like a year after
• 19:57
  COVID, but like, you know, the living expenses,
• 20:00
  we have mortgage and stuff like that. I decided
• 20:02
  to say... three more years, save up a little
• 20:05
  bit and kind of figure out what I wanted to do.
• 20:08
  So it wasn't all for nothing. And what did you
• 20:11
  want to do? Transition? Yeah, it was a nice transition.
• 20:19
  I'm becoming a podcast now. It's amazing. You're
• 20:23
  a good host. Yeah. Stop it. You're a great guest.
• 20:27
  Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, but
• 20:29
  anyways, so what I'm doing now, I am self -publishing
• 20:33
  my puzzle game books that talks about traveling
• 20:36
  to different countries. How did you get into
• 20:40
  that? Because that seems so different from the
• 20:43
  Silicon Valley tech world that you're describing.
• 20:46
  So the series is called Veg Out Voyage? Yes.
• 20:50
  Okay, so can you tell me, first of all, where
• 20:52
  does that fantastic title come from? and break
• 20:56
  down the books for me. Like, what are they about?
• 20:58
  Yeah. So it's really, I am trying to take you
• 21:01
  on a virtual voyage, but you literally read my
• 21:05
  book and, you know, do the, solve the brain teasers
• 21:08
  and like puzzle games. So it's vegging out. Okay.
• 21:13
  Yeah. Wait, vegging out. I thought vegging out
• 21:16
  meant like you were lazy. Like you wanted to
• 21:18
  have like a lazy, do nothing day on the couch.
• 21:20
  Yeah, you're right. But like I needed two V's
• 21:23
  to have it rhyme. You wanted the sort of like
• 21:27
  alliteration, wordplay, whatever the fuck. Yeah,
• 21:29
  yeah, yeah. OK, OK. Yeah. I mean, it's catchy,
• 21:32
  right? I mean, it is catchy. It doesn't make
• 21:35
  sense, but it is catchy. No, no, it's great.
• 21:39
  It's great. I mean, you are, you are, yeah, yeah.
• 21:42
  Yeah, it's a stimulating veg out. voyage. Yes.
• 21:47
  Yes. Yeah. But anyway, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go
• 21:51
  ahead. No, no, no. That's actually a really good
• 21:54
  thing to point out. It's not like super laid
• 21:57
  back. You know, some people probably would have
• 22:00
  the expectation of they're just like sitting
• 22:03
  on their bed doing coloring pages. Unfortunately,
• 22:06
  like for my book, you have to have internet access.
• 22:09
  So that is the one thing that throws people off.
• 22:12
  And I'm trying to like. I'm trying to correct
• 22:15
  that. Yeah. No. Well, why? Well, okay. Well,
• 22:19
  first of all, why are you correct? It's 2026.
• 22:22
  Anybody who doesn't have internet access. I think
• 22:24
  they're Amish, you know, like I think everybody
• 22:26
  should have internet access at this point. Dude,
• 22:28
  I get like one star or two star reviews on Amazon
• 22:32
  complaining about they have to like turn on their
• 22:35
  smartphone to look up things. So is this a, so
• 22:38
  this is a smartphone only thing to access your
• 22:41
  books or, or you have physical books. So, um,
• 22:45
  I have physical books. That's another story.
• 22:48
  Amazon doesn't let me publish Kindle because
• 22:51
  they said it's interactive and which makes sense.
• 22:56
  I guess if it's like Kindle version, people cannot
• 22:59
  like write answers, circle the trivia answers,
• 23:02
  stuff like that. Unfortunately, they banned my
• 23:05
  Kindle digital version. So why would they do
• 23:09
  this? That's so, that's so ridiculous. It's like,
• 23:11
  it's not like you're putting out, you know, pro
• 23:14
  Nazi propaganda or porn, like a travel adventure
• 23:18
  puzzle game book. It just seems like a fun experience
• 23:21
  that everybody should have access to on their
• 23:22
  Kindle. Yeah. To be fair to them, I think Amazon.
• 23:28
  Yeah. Okay, I take it back, I guess. I think
• 23:31
  Amazon has had more than a share of fairness,
• 23:34
  but go ahead, fine. Be fair to Amazon, go ahead,
• 23:37
  tell me. I hate them too. But we still use them,
• 23:41
  you know what I mean? We can't deny that, you
• 23:43
  know, to get prime in two days, it's pretty beneficial.
• 23:46
  Yeah. That's, that's the problem. Um, but yeah,
• 23:50
  anyways, um, what happened was that in recent
• 23:53
  years, Oh, it's zooming. Yeah. Your thing is
• 23:56
  randomly zooming again. Oh my God. If you guys
• 23:58
  are watching on Spotify and YouTube, like Katie's
• 24:01
  camera just keeps like randomly zooming in to
• 24:04
  like a side of her face and to her wall behind
• 24:06
  her. It's a, but, but, but, but it seems fine
• 24:08
  now. Wait, do you have some kind of AI companion
• 24:12
  thing to your Zoom right now? Because maybe that's
• 24:14
  what it is. Maybe AI is like, this is a moment
• 24:16
  where we need to dramatically close up on Katie's
• 24:18
  face. I mean, I just keep the default setting.
• 24:23
  They probably added random things. Who knows?
• 24:26
  I know. Who knows? Yeah. Anyway, so I want to
• 24:29
  go back to your story. It's a very short story.
• 24:35
  Basically, they are seeing such an influx. of
• 24:40
  all of the low content books by low content I
• 24:43
  just mean like if you if you open the book it's
• 24:46
  probably like blank journal pages or like inspiration
• 24:50
  quotes and then three more blank pages something
• 24:53
  like that there's a lot of people publishing
• 24:56
  those kind of things right now. Amazon got fed
• 25:00
  up they're like you guys suck the quality is
• 25:03
  bad I'm just gonna ban all of you unfortunately
• 25:06
  like me officially I'm in that category So I'm
• 25:12
  getting the tailwind of this. I just like the
• 25:15
  idea of Amazon as a dictator saying, Hey, you
• 25:17
  guys suck. We're going to ban all of you. Even
• 25:20
  if you're nice people, just trying to make a
• 25:22
  buck and trying to get your creativity out there
• 25:24
  to the widest possible audience. I want to know,
• 25:29
  be specific with me. Give me an example of what
• 25:32
  a veg out voyage puzzle is. Like just, you know,
• 25:35
  I don't know. Just give me something from one
• 25:37
  of the books. Yeah. So thank you for also having
• 25:40
  video. Yeah, of course. Um, so for example, my
• 25:45
  last release is on Iceland and basically you're
• 25:50
  showing up. You're showing one of your, uh, puzzle
• 25:52
  examples right now. Yes. So basically I'm flipping
• 25:55
  the pages of my paperback. Literally. Um, you
• 25:59
  can see that I enjoy variety puzzles, which means
• 26:04
  that every page is like different things. So
• 26:07
  you have very simple like walking the maze. But
• 26:10
  like for me, the maze kind of leads to like real
• 26:14
  world buildings in Reykjavik, stuff like that.
• 26:17
  And then like another page, you probably see
• 26:21
  like trivia questions. Come on zoom work for
• 26:24
  me. I was going to say there's a, there's a big
• 26:27
  shadow over the book you're trying to tell me,
• 26:29
  but that's okay. I can see most of it. Literally
• 26:32
  and metaphorically. Wait, wait, do you have like
• 26:38
  a, do you have a, are you putting like a shadow
• 26:41
  effect in your background to like not make it
• 26:43
  like visible? Is that what you're doing? I don't
• 26:45
  think I did. I enjoy my background. Your background
• 26:50
  looks great. Your background does look a little
• 26:51
  bit blurry as if you intentionally put an effect
• 26:53
  on there to put the focus more on your face.
• 26:58
  Now we can't see your background whatsoever.
• 27:01
  Okay, there you go. We can see it now, but it's
• 27:03
  still a little bit blurry. So I don't know, is
• 27:06
  there like a normal clear setting where you might
• 27:08
  be able to change it or not? If not, then don't
• 27:11
  worry about it. Yeah. Sorry. I think this is
• 27:13
  the best like blur. No, that's okay. How about,
• 27:16
  yeah. How about just, how about, how about just
• 27:18
  tell me, um, uh, one of the, uh, vexar voyage,
• 27:21
  uh, travel puzzle games that you created. Of
• 27:24
  course. Yeah. So like different pages is different,
• 27:27
  um, puzzle game types. Uh, I know that a lot
• 27:32
  of people are interested in word search, crosswords.
• 27:35
  So there is definitely that in there. For example,
• 27:38
  one of my pages of word search is I will give
• 27:43
  you hints to search for Icelandic athletes names.
• 27:49
  Very specific. Okay. Give an example of an Icelandic
• 27:52
  athlete name that I might find in your game.
• 27:55
  Oh my gosh. How do I pronounce them? Reykjavik
• 28:02
  Robinson? Yeah. So I was talking about male and
• 28:08
  female. Oh, the Icelandic flag bearer at the
• 28:12
  2024 Summer Olympics. What are you reading? Are
• 28:15
  you reading one of your books? Yes, I am. Okay,
• 28:17
  okay, okay. I am trying to look up the answer.
• 28:23
  Wow. You created the game. You don't even know
• 28:24
  the answer off the top of your head? Nope. That's
• 28:28
  okay. That's okay. I mean, you've probably created
• 28:30
  a lot of books. Like how many books have you
• 28:32
  created for Vagabwage? No, I'm pretty new. This
• 28:34
  is my second one only. Oh, okay. Nice. Yeah,
• 28:37
  yeah. Your sophomore sensation as they like to
• 28:40
  call it. Ah, okay. So her name is called Gulank
• 28:45
  Eddahana's daughter. What the hell kind of a
• 28:51
  name is that? I know, right? Um, but in the book,
• 28:53
  I kind of explained just a little bit. Um, they,
• 28:57
  their last name is actually like whose daughter
• 28:59
  or whose son they are. Like Iceland in the past,
• 29:04
  they have so few people, they don't even use
• 29:07
  last names. Like it literally is they have a
• 29:10
  first name and then they have a second, quote
• 29:13
  unquote. What's the population of Iceland? Oh.
• 29:16
  I already know you don't know this, so that's
• 29:19
  why I'm looking it up right now. As of 2025,
• 29:25
  the entire country has 367 ,000 people. Compare
• 29:29
  that to Vermont. What's the relative? So actually,
• 29:34
  I think Vermont is bigger than Iceland, and Vermont
• 29:36
  is a pretty small state. So hold on, Vermont
• 29:39
  population. Because I think Vermont is like half
• 29:41
  a million people. Oh, wow. I would never, no,
• 29:45
  that can't be true. Like the day that, yeah,
• 29:47
  holy crap, Vermont is bigger than the entire
• 29:49
  country of Iceland. That's insane. So Vermont's
• 29:51
  population this year, approximately 645 ,254.
• 29:56
  And obviously California, very small population.
• 29:59
  California is not a big state at all. No, God.
• 30:02
  All people are moving out. Who knows? They're
• 30:04
  moving out because California is expensive and
• 30:06
  the crime and the homelessness is out of control.
• 30:08
  Is that what it is? Yeah, unfortunately, it's
• 30:10
  getting pretty bad. Yeah. I've heard that. So
• 30:13
  are you thinking of moving out or are you going
• 30:15
  to stay put because you are California's best
• 30:17
  citizen? I would love to move out, but my partner
• 30:22
  has to go into the office. He looks at microscopes.
• 30:26
  That's like one person tall. So there is no way
• 30:29
  he can work from home. I think we're staying
• 30:32
  put for a while. worldpopulationreview .com it
• 30:37
  says about a tiny number of 39 million people.
• 30:41
  So yeah, very tiny state, very tiny. Nothing
• 30:45
  like Iceland and just the state of Vermont. But
• 30:50
  yeah, no, okay. Iceland is a lot smaller than
• 30:52
  I thought. So that's wonderful. And I guess maybe
• 30:56
  there's a intimacy to it that people love, but
• 30:59
  I would imagine that, you know, it's one big
• 31:01
  small town where everybody's in your business
• 31:03
  all the time. Oh my God. Yeah. So when I was
• 31:06
  doing Research. Okay, quote unquote research.
• 31:09
  I went on reddit and Oh, yes, I've been there.
• 31:14
  Yeah, there are people on Iceland forums, like
• 31:19
  English speaking Iceland forums, that's the one
• 31:21
  I usually read. They talk about how much people
• 31:26
  get into your business because you know everybody,
• 31:29
  literally. Your cousin is married to your classmate,
• 31:32
  your uncle lives downstairs. Your cousin is married
• 31:37
  to your cousin, hello. It's so small that your
• 31:42
  cousin ends up married to your cousin. I mean,
• 31:45
  I don't know. Yeah, probably. Hey, there's another
• 31:49
  title for your book, Icelandic incest. That would
• 31:52
  be a great title for a book. Obviously, if you
• 31:57
  want your podcast hosted by a provider, you want
• 32:00
  the provider to know what the heck it is they're
• 32:02
  doing to make sure that your podcast gets streamed
• 32:05
  all over the universe. And that's why RSS .com
• 32:09
  is the great place to be. I personally host with
• 32:12
  them for the Delicious Culture with Jon Francois.
• 32:14
  It is known as one of the world's best and largest
• 32:18
  podcast hosting companies by total. number of
• 32:20
  episodes published. Did you know that if you
• 32:23
  attempted to listen to every single episode published
• 32:26
  through rss .com, it would take you 118 years.
• 32:31
  If you don't have that kind of time, I understand
• 32:34
  we all have lives. We all have jobs. It's very
• 32:36
  expensive out in these streets, but if you do
• 32:38
  have that kind of time, well, you must have $5
• 32:41
  million a day that you're making good for you.
• 32:45
  RSS .com is the best way to be spending your
• 32:48
  time listening to every single episode known
• 32:51
  to mankind. And by the way, This is not like
• 32:55
  118 years and 118 episodes. No, that would be
• 32:59
  mathematically impossible. RSS .com has only
• 33:02
  been running since 2018. Since 2018 already,
• 33:06
  it'll take you 118 years of time to go through
• 33:09
  every episode of RSS .com. They'll get you on
• 33:12
  Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your
• 33:14
  podcasts. They're very reliable. Go join them.
• 33:17
  And by the way, if you want to join them, there's
• 33:20
  a link in my show notes. Ha! I got that covered
• 33:22
  for you. And because I don't want to be arrested,
• 33:25
  I should let you know that I am an affiliate
• 33:27
  of RSS .com and may earn a commission with you
• 33:31
  using my link. Didn't someone say something about
• 33:38
  there was an alleged app of Icelanders can look
• 33:44
  up whether they are related before they start
• 33:47
  dating that person? That's a good question. Again,
• 33:49
  let me look this up. There's so much fake news
• 33:53
  nowadays. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're telling me
• 33:56
  there's fake news and yet you're also encouraging
• 33:58
  me to look up this thing that might be fake news.
• 34:00
  What app does Iceland have that lets you check
• 34:06
  to see if you're related to somebody before you
• 34:12
  date them? That's the longest search engine title
• 34:15
  ever. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they do. Iceland has
• 34:19
  a mobile app, Icelandia app. I S L E N D I N
• 34:25
  G A app that lets users check if they are related
• 34:28
  to a potential date to prevent accidental incest.
• 34:34
  Oh, God. Yeah, yeah. Iceland's small population
• 34:37
  of around 320 ,000 means that many people are
• 34:39
  distantly related, making accidental dating of
• 34:42
  relatives a real concern. To address this, three
• 34:46
  University of Iceland students developed Icelandia
• 34:49
  app, a mobile version of the Icelandia book,
• 34:52
  which is Icelandic for Book of Icelanders, a
• 34:55
  comprehensive genealogical database that tracks
• 34:59
  nearly every Icelander. and their family's connections
• 35:02
  for centuries. The idea that Iceland is so small
• 35:05
  that there's an app that's like, hey, we know
• 35:08
  that you might be dating your grandfather or
• 35:10
  your niece. So let's make sure that doesn't happen.
• 35:15
  That's so funny. Oh my God. Now I want to go
• 35:17
  to Iceland and just, uh, uh, and, and Carouse
• 35:21
  that app. I mean, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a black guy
• 35:24
  with Haitian American roots. So I probably don't
• 35:26
  have any relatives there, but. Yeah, bring some
• 35:29
  variety into it. Oh, I love you so much, Katie
• 35:33
  Huang. You're making me laugh today. Oh, God.
• 35:38
  Anyway, we were... Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I'm
• 35:41
  sorry. I think we were sidetracking from the...
• 35:44
  What are the awesome puzzle games that you have
• 35:45
  in your Veg Ja Voyage books? Oh, I... I mean,
• 35:49
  these kind of like gossip is what I enjoy. But
• 35:52
  yeah, the thing I wanted to do is really using
• 35:58
  like puzzle as a more accessible format to tell
• 36:02
  people the things we're discussing. It's not
• 36:05
  just, you know, like a travel guide, even though
• 36:08
  like if you want travel information, it is in
• 36:10
  there. But I kind of want to just like bring
• 36:13
  people closer to other people. in you know like
• 36:18
  in different corners of the world like we are
• 36:22
  all living our lives in different ways but we
• 36:25
  all have same human emotions and I kind of want
• 36:27
  to bring that out so I talk about you know Icelandic
• 36:31
  athletes talk about youtubers that's living in
• 36:35
  Iceland doing makeup so yeah I Everyday people.
• 36:40
  That's one thing to have in common with America
• 36:42
  is the YouTube makeup tutorial content creators.
• 36:45
  Why not? What's your favorite Icelandic makeup
• 36:49
  tutorial YouTuber? Oh my God. Her name is called
• 36:53
  Hufna. I'm butchering it. I'm butchering it.
• 36:56
  Sounds like me coughing up phlegm. Oh god, I
• 37:04
  had a big piece of cheese and a milkshake. Hufna.
• 37:11
  Oh man. Yeah. Okay. So Hufna is... Hufna? I have
• 37:20
  no idea, man. I'm gonna look this up right now.
• 37:24
  Oh man, this is so funny. Hufna Icelandic. Makeup
• 37:28
  tutorial. Yeah, the internet searching is my
• 37:31
  best friend today. Hufna Icelandic. She's like
• 37:36
  probably sneezing right now. Fake news. I don't
• 37:38
  even see anything about Hufna. I think you're
• 37:40
  making this up right now just to make me laugh.
• 37:45
  You see, you're about to cough up something.
• 37:47
  Oh my God. Do you need the Heimlich maneuver
• 37:49
  done? I can't, I can't, I can't drive three hours
• 37:52
  from Vermont to California as you alleged. You
• 37:55
  can call 911 from there. Oh my God. Oh my gosh.
• 38:00
  She's pregnant. Wait, wait, wait. Well, spell
• 38:01
  Hufna for me. So I, so I know where it is because
• 38:04
  you're, you're, you're talking about someone
• 38:06
  that doesn't exist in my mind. Ah, sorry. There's
• 38:09
  an R H R A. F -N -A. Oh, I think I would have
• 38:14
  said the H was silent and said Raphna, but your
• 38:20
  pronunciation is much more better. I hear her
• 38:24
  talk about it. Oh, she's a beautiful woman. Yeah.
• 38:31
  She's a woman, right? She's not a teenager. I
• 38:33
  started following her when she was a teenager,
• 38:35
  I think, but she's pregnant. Oh, my God. Yeah,
• 38:40
  she's a Gen Z -er, born in 97, so she's like
• 38:43
  29 right now. Also, she's mysterious, like me,
• 38:48
  yay! Where are you sleuthing from? I don't see
• 38:52
  the... So one of the Google search engine results
• 38:56
  was FamousBirthdays .com and Hufna came up and
• 39:01
  it says she was born on December 15th, 1997.
• 39:03
  She's a Sagittarius, she's 28 and birthplace
• 39:06
  Iceland. So that must be the YouTube personality
• 39:09
  that you're talking about, Hufna. You're very
• 39:11
  savvy. Because I typed in something on Google?
• 39:14
  No, that's called being a person. Millennial.
• 39:19
  Yeah. Actually, no, technically not Google. I
• 39:21
  searched Bing because I have an HP laptop. So
• 39:25
  sort of the default search engine is Bing because
• 39:28
  it's all Microsoft shit. Oh my God, you're the
• 39:30
  only person I know that uses Bing. No, no, sometimes
• 39:34
  I literally go to Google because it just seems
• 39:36
  better. But yeah, no, Bing is it likes to default
• 39:41
  to Bing as the search engine when I type in something
• 39:43
  on the on the little browser box there on top.
• 39:46
  And it's fine. It's fine. I'm not going to go
• 39:47
  there for images. I go to Google for images.
• 39:49
  but like for search engine stuff, it's fine.
• 39:51
  It works the same. Do you know what Bing stands
• 39:54
  for? No, I don't. Because it's not Google. Oh
• 39:56
  my God, for real? Yeah, that's what I've been
• 39:59
  told, yeah. Wow. That's Microsoft's dig at Google.
• 40:04
  But anyway, you're happy that... Hufna is pregnant
• 40:08
  because you are probably in a parasocial relationship
• 40:11
  with her. I feel like you're following her everywhere
• 40:15
  about on YouTube. So now that you know that she's
• 40:17
  going to be preggers, you're over the moon. Tell
• 40:21
  me what she should name her child. Oh, what she
• 40:26
  should name her child. I remember she had like
• 40:30
  a... Hufna Jr. It will probably be something
• 40:35
  like... Hufna Daughter, right? Because that...
• 40:39
  Okay, so if it's a girl, that would only make
• 40:41
  sense if it's a girl. It's going to be called
• 40:44
  Hufna Daughter. So Daughter is the last name
• 40:46
  or is Daughter a part of the first name? I think
• 40:48
  Hufna Daughter, the whole thing will be the second
• 40:51
  first name. What? Because they don't have last
• 40:53
  names. Oh, they don't. Wait, why don't they have
• 40:57
  last names? I guess they didn't feel like they
• 40:59
  needed in the past, but like they are... there
• 41:02
  are people electing to have last names nowadays
• 41:06
  world's changing but but yeah they didn't they
• 41:11
  didn't have last names so like if she had a son
• 41:14
  i my guess my best guess is going to be like
• 41:17
  something like that How creative. I'm looking
• 41:26
  this up right now. I apologize. Every question
• 41:28
  I'm asking you, I can just ask the internet.
• 41:30
  No, this is fun. I just like these kinds of gossips
• 41:34
  about... around the world, so I'm trying to push
• 41:37
  that onto other people with my puzzles. Yeah,
• 41:40
  let's gossip about Hufna. Does Hufna have a partner?
• 41:43
  Does Hufna has a husband or a girlfriend or a
• 41:46
  boyfriend or a father husband? I don't know.
• 41:50
  What partner does Hufna have? Hufna probably
• 41:53
  does have a father husband because she's more
• 41:55
  likely to date someone related to her if she's
• 41:57
  not using that app. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that app
• 42:00
  is very crucial right now. But yeah, I'm looking
• 42:03
  at her Instagram. right now, and she is posing
• 42:06
  with her partner, it looks like, with an ultrasound
• 42:09
  picture that they are holding. So I'm assuming
• 42:13
  - It's a man partner? Yes. It seems like a man.
• 42:16
  God damn. I was hoping that I would get a brief
• 42:20
  Google search explanation, but I got forwarded
• 42:23
  to like culturetrip .com and it has like an essay
• 42:25
  of why Iceland became a nation with - Oh God.
• 42:28
  The law states specifically that the name must
• 42:30
  not conflict with the linguistic structure of
• 42:32
  Icelandic meaning the way the name is declined
• 42:34
  as there are no last names Icelanders often go
• 42:37
  by The suspense. As there are no last names,
• 42:40
  Icelanders often go by first names with a middle
• 42:42
  name for clarification. While this may seem strict
• 42:44
  to outsiders, it is for good reason. And that
• 42:47
  is to protect Iceland's cultural heritage, they
• 42:49
  say, which is a huge part of the Icelandic language
• 42:51
  and identity. With such a unique language, a
• 42:53
  purism has infiltrated the maintenance of the
• 42:55
  structure of the language as it is based on heavy
• 42:57
  declinations. That's very wordy. So basically,
• 43:00
  you are tainting the Icelandic language. By adding
• 43:04
  last name. Yes, that's what we've learned. So
• 43:08
  Hufna, we will never give you a last name. But
• 43:11
  if we did, it would be Hufnapuff. That's what
• 43:15
  I would call your last name. P -U -F -F. Because
• 43:18
  it reminds me of... Powerpuff, like the Powerpuff
• 43:21
  Girls. Oh, the Powerpuff. I was thinking of all
• 43:24
  the Pokemons. You were thinking of all the Powerpuff.
• 43:27
  Sure, Hufna Pokemon. How about Pokemon as a last
• 43:30
  name? You see, just because you're a grandma
• 43:33
  millennial doesn't mean that we don't have cartoons
• 43:35
  in common. We have Pokemon and Powerpuff Girls.
• 43:38
  We watched some of the same stuff growing up.
• 43:40
  Totally. All right. This is a crazy conversation.
• 43:44
  I love it. So here's another part of your background
• 43:47
  that I was fascinated by. Actually two parts.
• 43:50
  So my wife and I here in Vermont, we have five
• 43:52
  dogs and two cats. I know, right? Yeah, she's
• 43:56
  a veterinary technician. She's president of a
• 43:58
  dog rescue. So when I met her, I only had one
• 44:01
  dog named Buddy. And it just became a natural
• 44:04
  thing to get integrated into her world of having
• 44:08
  way more than one animal in the house. I love
• 44:11
  it. Hence why we have five dogs and two cats.
• 44:14
  Now, you mentioned that you have a dog -like
• 44:16
  cat and a cat -like partner. What in the hell
• 44:21
  does that mean, Katie Huang? of our cat. So right
• 44:27
  now we have two, but our first cat, he is like
• 44:30
  five and a half now. He is a Siberian forest
• 44:34
  breed. For some reason, my partner thinks that
• 44:40
  he has cat allergy. And so we looked for a really
• 44:46
  long time. Your partner, the partner you cohabitate
• 44:50
  with, thinks that he is allergic to cats? that
• 44:52
  yes the human thinks that he was allergic to
• 44:56
  cats um after five years of living with this
• 44:59
  one hypoallergenic cat we kind of decided he
• 45:03
  doesn't have any symptoms so our second cat is
• 45:06
  a rescue that we just don't know where from and
• 45:09
  he hasn't have any uh allergic symptoms so we
• 45:14
  think it was a hoax that he was told he had allergy
• 45:19
  before Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will say, okay,
• 45:24
  so maybe that specifically is a hoax, but cat
• 45:26
  allergies in general are not a hoax. Case in
• 45:28
  point, me, the big reason why I take Allegra
• 45:32
  every day is because if I don't, between the
• 45:35
  cat fur that's around the house and the dust
• 45:37
  and the whole changing of the seasons, I would
• 45:40
  be a snotty runny nose mess. Um, so I know. Yeah.
• 45:47
  I remember I went to a cat shelter in Iowa when
• 45:49
  I used to live there and I would be considering
• 45:52
  cats to take with me to the move to here in Vermont.
• 45:56
  And there was a cat that just always wanted to
• 45:59
  be on my lap every time. But I was sneezing like
• 46:02
  crazy. I was like sneezing and, and, and, and
• 46:05
  burping and like crazy like Burping and farting
• 46:10
  are not a part of allergies, but you know what
• 46:11
  I mean? My nose was basically doing a bunch of
• 46:14
  burping and farting. That's what I meant to say.
• 46:17
  And, you know, I would have to take Claritin
• 46:20
  to visit and be with the cat as it was on my
• 46:23
  lap. But yeah. Allegra every day takes care of
• 46:27
  everything. And now our two cats here that we
• 46:29
  have, Theo and Frank, I could cuddle with them
• 46:32
  and it'll be great. So your partner basically
• 46:36
  is being dramatic and said that he's allergic
• 46:39
  to cats, but he's not, is what you're saying.
• 46:41
  That your partner is a dramatic liar. Oh yeah.
• 46:47
  Um, but yeah, after extensive research, I can
• 46:50
  now recommend to you. Like if, if you want to
• 46:53
  not take Claritin every day, uh, Siberian forest
• 46:58
  cat, it really works. Like it really, really
• 47:01
  works. Um, basically. Are you asking me to give
• 47:03
  up my cats and get a Siberian forest cat instead?
• 47:06
  Oh gosh. No, no, no. Just throw away the current
• 47:11
  cats you have and get a Siberian forest cat as
• 47:13
  a replacement. John, it'll take care of your
• 47:15
  allergies. Just throw them in the trash. That's
• 47:18
  fine. You know, trash pickup is every Friday.
• 47:21
  Your trash man will accept a couple of alive
• 47:24
  cats in the trash. No. I love cats. Don't throw
• 47:27
  them away. Do you? Okay, but if you love them
• 47:30
  enough, but if you're allergic to them, you'll
• 47:32
  be like, eh. I'm telling you, you're not the
• 47:36
  worst case I know about. I've heard that people
• 47:38
  who have to go to like hospitals to do injections
• 47:42
  periodically so that they don't get allergic
• 47:44
  to their house cat. Yeah. No, don't get rid of
• 47:47
  your cats there. No, no, no, no, no, definitely
• 47:49
  not that bad. No. Allegra every day takes care
• 47:52
  of the, it takes care of the job, but yeah. Go
• 47:56
  ahead. Tell him, go ahead and continue to tell
• 47:58
  me how I should dump my cats in the trash can.
• 48:00
  See, you can get a third cat to like a diluted,
• 48:05
  get a third cat and then explain to my two other
• 48:09
  cats like, Hey, be surprised if The next day,
• 48:15
  you're not living here anymore, and this one
• 48:17
  is our star cat. You are not as loved, but it's
• 48:20
  only because I have allergy. It's not you. Oh
• 48:27
  my God. You are crazy. You are a crazy cat trash
• 48:30
  woman. That's what you are. So at the age of
• 48:36
  AI, oh my goodness, isn't it hard to find reliable
• 48:40
  customer service? I think so. That's where RSS
• 48:43
  .com, the hosting provider for The Delicious
• 48:45
  Culture with John Francois, comes in handy. They
• 48:48
  are the best in the biz for my money. Why? Because
• 48:51
  you can send an email and within minutes to days,
• 48:56
  anywhere in that timeframe, you'll get a very
• 48:59
  helpful, detailed human response. I love that,
• 49:04
  and I think you would too. For example, I tried
• 49:06
  to get one of my subscription plans changed.
• 49:09
  I had a hard time figuring out how to do that
• 49:11
  online. And I was like, you know what? Instead
• 49:14
  of like, you know, having this very quiet temper
• 49:17
  tantrum in my office, let me just contact one
• 49:20
  of the reliable human customer support representatives
• 49:22
  at rss .com. And guess what? Within a matter
• 49:25
  of moments, a wonderful person emailed me back
• 49:28
  and said, oh, hey, John. Thanks for letting us
• 49:31
  know. We'll change that subscription plan for
• 49:33
  you. And on top of that, the money that you were
• 49:36
  paying for your former subscription plan will
• 49:38
  refund that to you as a way to say thank you
• 49:41
  for deciding to commit and stick with RSS .com.
• 49:44
  That's the kind of people that I want to work
• 49:46
  with. That's the kind of people that I trust
• 49:47
  to host my podcast globally to Apple, Spotify,
• 49:51
  YouTube, wherever really you get podcasts. Go
• 49:54
  to the link in my show notes. If you're either
• 49:56
  starting a new podcast or you want to convert
• 49:59
  your podcasts, redirect it, if you will, from
• 50:01
  some not so great hosting provider, rss .com
• 50:04
  is the place. Go to the link in my show notes
• 50:06
  to sign up to rss .com. And well, I would love
• 50:11
  to stay out of jail. So. I gotta let you know,
• 50:14
  for legal reasons, that I'm an affiliate of RSS
• 50:17
  .com and that you may earn, or I actually may
• 50:21
  earn, well, you're gonna earn the great experience
• 50:23
  of being a customer for RSS .com just like I
• 50:26
  am, but I may enter a commission by you signing
• 50:29
  up using my link. Hope you do it. Yeah, I talk
• 50:36
  to my cats. They seem to know a few things. I
• 50:40
  never know because they don't listen. That's
• 50:44
  why I like that. So wait, wait, wait. Go back
• 50:46
  to how your cat is like a dog. How's your cat
• 50:48
  like a dog? Oh, it's just that breed. I don't
• 50:52
  know why, but like that breed is very dog -like.
• 50:55
  He is leash trained. We walk him every day. He
• 50:59
  needs to run around, exercise. You walk your
• 51:01
  cat on a leash every day? Oh, hell yeah. Well,
• 51:04
  not every day. That seems to be a very culty
• 51:06
  thing. Anytime I see people like walking around
• 51:09
  with their cat on a leash. And granted, there
• 51:12
  was a time where I had a ferret and I did walk
• 51:15
  my ferret on a leash. Oh my God! So yes, I was
• 51:20
  that weirdo. I mean, I would imagine you've gotten
• 51:25
  strange or amusing looks from people who saw
• 51:28
  you walking your cat on a leash, because it's
• 51:29
  not a common thing. It is not a common thing.
• 51:32
  People usually get like pretty curious and they
• 51:35
  come over and was like, so they either ask whether
• 51:42
  they walk well, like in a straight line, which
• 51:46
  They don't or like do they hate the harness?
• 51:50
  Do you have to like special train them? The answer
• 51:54
  to the training part is just get them started
• 51:57
  early. It usually helps, but it also depends
• 52:00
  on their personality. Not every cat likes it,
• 52:03
  so don't force it. Cats don't walk in a straight
• 52:06
  line. They love. So for humans, we are very heavy
• 52:11
  on visual things. This is our like main organ
• 52:14
  that observes the world for cats and probably
• 52:17
  dogs. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're just
• 52:19
  saying this is our main organ. What main organ
• 52:21
  are you talking about? I'm talking about the
• 52:23
  eyes. Like we use the eyes a lot. I thought you're
• 52:26
  talking about the brain. I would like you got
• 52:29
  to clarify because organ can mean anything. Oh,
• 52:32
  damn. Yeah. OK. So like. This thing Now you're
• 52:38
  you're excluding our audio listeners the people
• 52:41
  on video have to see what you're talking about.
• 52:43
  Oh, no Another thing toward your eye to reference
• 52:46
  the organ your eye as the organ. Oh my god I'm
• 52:50
  like, yeah, but all of my phrases are jumbo But
• 52:53
  what I'm trying to say is that we are very visual
• 52:55
  based creatures humans Uh, cats and dogs, they
• 53:01
  rely on their like smell a lot. They, the, the
• 53:04
  way of smelling, uh, I was told by like some
• 53:07
  kind of, uh, nature nonfiction author once that,
• 53:11
  uh, they create some kind of vortex around their
• 53:15
  like nostrils so that they, uh, inhale different
• 53:19
  scents, even when they are exhaling, something
• 53:22
  like that. Sure. It doesn't make sense to me,
• 53:26
  but it definitely makes sense to the dogs and
• 53:28
  cats and I guess to you as well. Hopefully. Yeah,
• 53:31
  hopefully to the listener. Anyways, they sniff
• 53:38
  the bushes. That's what they like to do. It stimulates
• 53:42
  their brain when they just sniff around while
• 53:45
  their owners are just standing around holding
• 53:48
  the leash like an idiot. How dare you. You've
• 53:52
  insulted every dog and cat owner. You've insulted
• 53:55
  all the dog owners and like the five cat owners,
• 53:57
  including yourself that walk their cats on leashes.
• 53:59
  I'm going to get canceled. Yeah. You've already
• 54:04
  been canceled. I'm just being nice talking to
• 54:07
  you right now. You were canceled five or 10 minutes
• 54:09
  ago. Oh my gosh. Let me ask you this. If you
• 54:13
  walk your cat outside on a leash, does, so the
• 54:16
  cat is able to go potty outside or does it still
• 54:19
  have to go potty in the litter box inside? Um,
• 54:21
  so our cat, uh, uses both. He potties outside
• 54:25
  in the backyard as well as inside. We have like
• 54:29
  a little robot thing. Why are you shaking your
• 54:32
  head? What's, what's the reason? So this is a
• 54:34
  boy? Yeah. Yeah. Another reason why cats are
• 54:39
  put up on a pedestal. Only with cats are you
• 54:43
  like, you know what? You have an option. You
• 54:44
  can go outside. You can go inside. The world
• 54:47
  is your oyster. But with dogs, it's like, no,
• 54:49
  you got to go outside. And if you go inside,
• 54:51
  you're a bad boy and girl. I never know why.
• 54:55
  Is it because the dookie is bigger? Like you
• 54:57
  can't stand it? You're asking why dogs are not
• 55:03
  allowed to go inside? Yeah, yeah, that's my question.
• 55:07
  The greatest guess ever. Is it because the dookie
• 55:09
  is big? First of all, I haven't heard anybody
• 55:16
  call it a dookie since like fifth grade. Why?
• 55:20
  Why? My God, this is like my 10 ,000 internet
• 55:23
  search this recording. Why do dogs have to go
• 55:29
  potty outside? Dogs need to relieve themselves
• 55:32
  outdoors mainly because of how their urinary
• 55:33
  system works and how their bodies are designed
• 55:35
  to function. Number one, biological necessity.
• 55:38
  A dog's kidneys filter waste and excess fluids
• 55:40
  from the blood, producing urine that is stored
• 55:42
  in the bladder until the dog is ready to release
• 55:44
  it. The bladder has a stretch mechanism. When
• 55:46
  it's full, the bladder wall stretches and signals
• 55:48
  the dog to go. If the dog cannot relieve itself,
• 55:50
  the bladder continues to fill, which can cause
• 55:51
  discomfort over stretching. Well, that's that
• 55:54
  doesn't answer my question. While dogs can be
• 55:57
  house trained to use indoor areas, because yeah,
• 55:59
  there are some like you could get like one of
• 56:02
  those like P mats or whatever for your dog to
• 56:05
  like have them go inside the house. But while
• 56:07
  dogs can be house trained to use indoor areas,
• 56:10
  many owners choose to let them go outside because
• 56:11
  hygiene and cleanliness, outdoor potties keep
• 56:14
  the home clean and reduce odor indoors. So that's
• 56:16
  obvious behavioral training. Dogs respond well
• 56:18
  to consistent outdoor potty routines, which helped
• 56:20
  them learn where and when to eliminate health
• 56:22
  monitoring. owners can watch for changes in urination
• 56:25
  patterns that may indicate illness, exercise,
• 56:27
  and stimulation. A potty break often coincides
• 56:29
  with a walk, giving the dog physical activity
• 56:30
  and mental stimulation. Okay, so in short, dogs
• 56:33
  need to go potty outside because their bodies
• 56:35
  require regular bladder emptying to stay healthy,
• 56:38
  and outdoor potties are a practical, hygienic,
• 56:40
  and training -friendly way to meet that need.
• 56:43
  So, the dookie could stay inside. It's going
• 56:47
  to really smell. It's going to be really inconvenient.
• 56:50
  And trust me, I had a diarrhea incident with
• 56:52
  one of our dogs when I came home. Oh no. But
• 56:56
  yeah, so I think it's mostly for bladder reasons.
• 57:00
  This makes sense to me now, because with cats,
• 57:03
  I feel like it feels like a special occasion
• 57:06
  whenever I see my cats, Frank and Theo, go to,
• 57:09
  well, Theo's a shy cat. I never see him go to
• 57:12
  the bathroom. But Frank, occasionally every now
• 57:15
  and then, if I'm waking up in the morning, doing
• 57:17
  my thing in the bathroom, getting ready for work,
• 57:19
  I will see Frank come in, because we have cat
• 57:22
  litter boxes in the bathroom. uh, and, and he
• 57:24
  will just pee while I'm doing my getting ready
• 57:27
  to go stuff. But that's not common. That's like
• 57:29
  there, there's a lot of mornings where I don't
• 57:31
  see Frank do that. So, um, I think what this,
• 57:34
  uh, internet information is saying that dogs
• 57:37
  have to go a lot more often than cats. So basically
• 57:41
  if you don't want to your house to smell like
• 57:44
  bad dog dookie and pee pee all the time. Uh,
• 57:49
  then yeah, just let them go outside, leave it
• 57:50
  out there. Uh, whereas cats, they barely go that
• 57:54
  much. So it's, could he be easily more contained
• 57:56
  in a litter box? So I, yeah, I just, I don't
• 57:59
  think that the amount of time dogs have to go,
• 58:01
  it could be contained in a litter box. You would
• 58:02
  have to be changing that litter box like every
• 58:05
  two hours. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dogs
• 58:09
  can really, really go. Um, so that's, does that,
• 58:13
  does that make sense? Does that sound hoaxy or
• 58:15
  fake newsy or? I believe you. What I was thinking
• 58:18
  right now is that you have five dogs. How often
• 58:21
  do you have to like walk them every day? Oh,
• 58:23
  no, no, no. We don't walk them. So we have a
• 58:25
  front yard. We have a front yard and we just
• 58:28
  have a fence surrounding it so that obviously
• 58:30
  they don't escape. And we just let them out.
• 58:34
  We just open the door and boom. So that's how
• 58:37
  fortunate we are. If we lived in an apartment
• 58:39
  or a yard that was like owned by somebody else,
• 58:43
  then yeah, we would have to... literally scheduled
• 58:46
  morning walks with all those dogs. But thankfully
• 58:49
  we have a house here in Vermont where we have
• 58:51
  a front yard and the dogs just go out and do
• 58:54
  their business. And it's especially great when
• 58:56
  there are other things to be done around the
• 58:57
  house because I could like do laundry, I could
• 59:00
  catch up on a podcast editing, I could take a
• 59:02
  shower and just let the dogs roam around outside.
• 59:04
  To go back to this internet information, like
• 59:07
  you get the best of both worlds because it's
• 59:08
  like, oh yeah, dogs can go potty for as long
• 59:11
  as they need to. And also they're getting some
• 59:13
  exercise. simulation by being outside. So there
• 59:16
  you go. Yeah. Yeah. I really like that we have
• 59:19
  a backyard that our cat can go as well, especially
• 59:21
  now that we're training our new cat, our second
• 59:23
  one, we have to like kind of isolate the two
• 59:26
  a little bit in the beginning. Training your
• 59:28
  cat to go potty outside. Oh, no, no. So if you
• 59:32
  introduce a new cat to your resident cat, it
• 59:35
  usually takes a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 59:38
  That's what I meant by training. We're not really
• 59:41
  asking them to do anything. Um, yeah, yeah, but,
• 59:45
  uh, because we just got our second cat and then,
• 59:48
  uh, they're like trying to get used to each other.
• 59:51
  And sometimes our older one, the five -year -old
• 59:53
  gets fed up. He has the outdoor to go, go to
• 59:57
  decompress. It's, yeah, we are lucky. That cat
• 1:00:01
  decompression just like, Oh God. These fucking
• 1:00:06
  humans, these fucking fellow cats, just everybody,
• 1:00:08
  the fucking world, I need to decompress. I know,
• 1:00:11
  the little kitten is eating my food now. Yep,
• 1:00:15
  yep, yep. Yeah. Oh god, this dog thinking that
• 1:00:19
  it could do a big dookie in my litter box, what
• 1:00:21
  the fuck? Oh god. We don't have, I don't think
• 1:00:24
  we have dogs that can... come into our fence,
• 1:00:27
  but we have possums. Possum? Yeah. Our cat is
• 1:00:32
  friends with a possum family that lives nearby.
• 1:00:35
  How big is this possum family? We've seen the
• 1:00:41
  adult possums a few times, and then they have
• 1:00:45
  a baby. Their baby is so cute. It's literally
• 1:00:48
  like a third of my palm big. and the baby. What
• 1:00:53
  are you doing to attract possums? Are you just
• 1:00:55
  like leaving your trash out on your front lawn?
• 1:00:58
  Wait, wait, do you guys have a house or an apartment
• 1:00:59
  over there in California? We have a house. With
• 1:01:03
  a decent sized yard and everything? I mean, it's
• 1:01:06
  a pea -sized yard, but I mean, it's California
• 1:01:08
  Bay area, so we are grateful. OK, all right,
• 1:01:12
  so what do you do? Like, you guys are just eating
• 1:01:14
  slices of bread and you're leaving the crumbs
• 1:01:16
  out for the possums to eat? Like, how are you
• 1:01:18
  attracting a family of possums? I have no idea.
• 1:01:21
  We are clean people. I have no idea. Sure. I'll
• 1:01:26
  believe that when I see it. Talking about big
• 1:01:28
  dookies and whatever. You guys are probably,
• 1:01:30
  you're probably doing big dookies out in the
• 1:01:32
  yard with a possum stick. Oh my God. Oh, you
• 1:01:38
  know what? We do have a barbecue grill in the
• 1:01:41
  backyard. Now I wonder if that's the problem.
• 1:01:43
  That's why the possums are there, because you're
• 1:01:45
  like, hey, possums come by, like have a plate
• 1:01:47
  of a potato salad and chicken. I know, block
• 1:01:51
  party every day. A possum party. That's what
• 1:01:55
  you call it. A possum party. I love it. I love
• 1:01:59
  it. Come on. PP has taken a new meaning now.
• 1:02:06
  So now you go up to someone and be like, oh my
• 1:02:08
  God, you want to see my pee pee? And then they're
• 1:02:10
  like, that's sexual harassment. No, my possum
• 1:02:14
  party. That's what I mean. What would YouTube
• 1:02:17
  say? It might get demonetized on this one. Nah.
• 1:02:30
  But yeah, we have a possum. That's what we have
• 1:02:33
  in common. I got canceled by referring to a possum
• 1:02:35
  party as a pee pee. Oh man, this is fun. So why
• 1:02:43
  is your partner, why is your male partner, your
• 1:02:46
  male human partner like a cat? Tell me why. I
• 1:02:50
  just when we first met I just knew that he's
• 1:02:53
  an introvert and that's what I was looking for
• 1:02:56
  because I didn't want like a super high energy
• 1:02:59
  person all the time. I also need to decompress.
• 1:03:03
  So I thought he was great. Turned out he kind
• 1:03:07
  of like just sometimes hides into his own world
• 1:03:11
  like a cat. You have to go figure out what he's
• 1:03:15
  thinking kind of like pet and cuddle him a little
• 1:03:18
  bit to figure out if he's like feeling about
• 1:03:22
  your, your human male partner or Oh yeah. All
• 1:03:27
  right. Does, does he shed? Does he shed? Oh yeah.
• 1:03:30
  Oh, he sheds too. Yeah. Yeah. He's a hairy guy
• 1:03:34
  that he I like it. I thought it's like touching,
• 1:03:38
  you know, Persian carpet. He doesn't like it
• 1:03:41
  that much. He doesn't like it when he touches
• 1:03:43
  everybody and say, oh, my Persian carpet, sweetie.
• 1:03:47
  Oh, God. Thank God. I've never said something
• 1:03:50
  like that, but yeah. Oh, my little cute area
• 1:03:53
  rug. Oh. Oh my god, what is he gonna say after
• 1:03:58
  this? Can I put my feet on you after I take a
• 1:04:00
  shower, my little rug? Oh, yeah. I'm telling
• 1:04:03
  you, it feels so good. Oh my god, can I put my
• 1:04:07
  soft, non -hairy face on your hairy back and
• 1:04:12
  feel like I'm, I don't know, sleeping in the
• 1:04:15
  forest? Oh my god, he's gonna kill me. Well,
• 1:04:20
  as he should, because you know why you're describing
• 1:04:22
  him as a cat. And I've said that some cats are
• 1:04:25
  silent murderers. Oh, no. Yeah. Have you ever
• 1:04:29
  seen some cats and how they react? Like either
• 1:04:31
  they get moody or they get mean toward your dog
• 1:04:35
  that you might have in the house. Yeah. Some
• 1:04:36
  cats like you, you look at them and they have
• 1:04:38
  that look like they could kill somebody. Have
• 1:04:41
  you, do you know Jackson Galaxy and his TV show?
• 1:04:45
  I do not know Jackson Galaxy, no. Okay. So like
• 1:04:48
  his nickname is Cat Daddy. Like look him up,
• 1:04:51
  like you might like him. But he does a lot of
• 1:04:56
  like educational, but fun, like cat training
• 1:04:59
  videos. So he is like a cat behavioralist. He
• 1:05:02
  will go into like problematic cats. houses and
• 1:05:06
  figure out what the problems are and try to solve
• 1:05:10
  it. It's very entertaining. You see a lot of
• 1:05:12
  crazy cats or mentally not ill cats. So just
• 1:05:21
  mentally ill cats? Is that what you meant to
• 1:05:23
  say? Yeah. It's so difficult. Mentally not ill.
• 1:05:29
  Just so mentally ill. I have no idea why I said
• 1:05:34
  that. That's okay. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Dairy
• 1:05:42
  cream that's often in a refrigerator with ice.
• 1:05:44
  Oh, no, no. You mean ice cream? Oh, gosh. Yeah.
• 1:05:52
  No, no, no. That's all I wanted to say. Like
• 1:05:54
  a lot of the times it's because their behavior
• 1:05:58
  was misunderstood by the human that caused the
• 1:06:00
  problem. And then once the like misunderstanding
• 1:06:03
  is cleared up, they know how to get along. Then
• 1:06:05
  they get along. So it's mentally not ill. Okay.
• 1:06:09
  I'm going to stop fixating on that. All right,
• 1:06:16
  so I'm in New York City. I just wrapped up all
• 1:06:19
  the wonderful sessions at the Podcast Movement
• 1:06:21
  Conference, and I have some time on my hands
• 1:06:23
  to kill in my hotel room, and I think to myself,
• 1:06:26
  hmm, my podcast episodes are not being discovered
• 1:06:29
  enough. So how can I do that more and more? That's
• 1:06:33
  where my fabulous hosting provider, RSS .com,
• 1:06:36
  comes in handy for The Delicious Culture with
• 1:06:37
  Jon François. Generating automatic transcripts.
• 1:06:41
  Yes. Now, if you want to make a transcript of
• 1:06:45
  your episode, manually yourself if you have that
• 1:06:48
  kind of time and energy and patience feel free
• 1:06:50
  but in the age of AI thankfully rss .com easily
• 1:06:54
  generates AI transcripts for you and you know
• 1:06:56
  what you can do with that AI transcript you can
• 1:06:59
  easily copy and paste it it literally only takes
• 1:07:02
  seconds to minutes to generate I mean though
• 1:07:04
  rss .com will tell you that oh it may take some
• 1:07:06
  time but no no no I've tried it I've I've I've
• 1:07:10
  generated automatic AI transcripts for five six
• 1:07:13
  episodes at a time it did it took less than 10
• 1:07:15
  minutes. It is so insane how fast it works on
• 1:07:18
  RSS .com. You just copy and paste the transcript,
• 1:07:21
  you put it to whatever AI platform you wanted
• 1:07:23
  to, and then you go to work. You ask AI, hey,
• 1:07:26
  what is a great episode title and keywords that
• 1:07:31
  I can use? based on the RSS .com transcript that
• 1:07:35
  I provided to you. And AI, as always, it'll come
• 1:07:38
  through with a search optimization friendly,
• 1:07:42
  search engine friendly, you know, podcast speak
• 1:07:45
  for, hey, we're going to give you an episode
• 1:07:47
  title and keywords that will maximize the audience
• 1:07:49
  reach for your particular episode. It all starts
• 1:07:51
  with the wonderful automated AI transcripts provided
• 1:07:55
  by RSS .com. If you are thinking of starting
• 1:07:58
  a new podcast or if you have an existing podcast
• 1:08:02
  like I did, and you want to convert to a much
• 1:08:04
  more quality hosting provider that has your back
• 1:08:08
  and wants to have you have a successful podcast
• 1:08:12
  thanks to them, RSS .com, you can't get any better.
• 1:08:15
  Use the link in my show notes to join RSS .com.
• 1:08:20
  And because, well, I don't want to go to jail,
• 1:08:23
  I got to tell you legally that I am an affiliate
• 1:08:25
  of RSS .com and may earn a commission if you
• 1:08:28
  sign up using my link. Does your partner like
• 1:08:34
  to play with cat toys does your partner's nails
• 1:08:37
  need to be trimmed does Does does your partner
• 1:08:42
  enjoy Catching a bird and and giving it as a
• 1:08:47
  gift on the floor of the kitchen like my Cats
• 1:08:52
  used to do. Oh my god. He's gonna kill me after
• 1:08:55
  you see this episode No, but he likes video games
• 1:09:00
  You need to, like, give him his own space, give
• 1:09:04
  him some treats on the table, and then he will
• 1:09:06
  play video games by himself. Your partner...
• 1:09:10
  Look, you're doing a lot of the work describing
• 1:09:12
  your partner like he's a fucking domestic animal.
• 1:09:14
  I'm not doing anything. You're like, oh, he needs
• 1:09:16
  treats, he needs to be cuddled, and... It's like,
• 1:09:21
  I'm not doing anything. I'm trying to bring a
• 1:09:23
  humanity to your partner. And you're just like,
• 1:09:26
  oh, yes, my little pussy daddy. I mean, if you
• 1:09:31
  put it that way. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm
• 1:09:33
  kidding. Are you still in the metal band? Yes,
• 1:09:36
  we are. Yeah. Oh, it's you and your partner.
• 1:09:39
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's mostly his thing.
• 1:09:41
  I'm just his singer. He, yeah. Tell me what kind
• 1:09:45
  of, so how did this all begin? You being in a
• 1:09:48
  metal band because you have a... You have such
• 1:09:50
  a wonderful, genuine, delicate, joyful spirit
• 1:09:55
  that doesn't seem to match the aggressiveness
• 1:09:58
  in metal music. Are you an angry person inside?
• 1:10:02
  We are not aggressive and I don't even know how
• 1:10:06
  to scream. My singing is lyrically. I don't do
• 1:10:11
  the growling, those kind of stuff. Nightwish.
• 1:10:18
  I do not. OK. I don't listen to metal music,
• 1:10:21
  by the way. I think the last time I really dived
• 1:10:23
  into metal was preparing for a high school theater
• 1:10:26
  production in which I played a school shooter.
• 1:10:29
  Oh, no. So I had to like, well, yeah, yeah. Oh,
• 1:10:33
  no. To him shooting up the school. Yeah. Oh,
• 1:10:35
  no. About the character. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:10:38
  yeah. But like to like sort of get into a method
• 1:10:41
  acting preparation, if you will. I was like,
• 1:10:44
  I was listening to heavy metal music and isolating
• 1:10:47
  myself like your husband does when he's a cat.
• 1:10:50
  And, you know, getting ready to just, you know,
• 1:10:52
  be angry and have a chip on my shoulder and shout
• 1:10:54
  at people. So you're not shouting. You are doing
• 1:10:59
  what? Can you give me a sample of the metal singing
• 1:11:01
  that you do? OK, let me guess what you have listened
• 1:11:03
  to. Do you know like corn? Slipknot. I've heard
• 1:11:09
  of these bands and I probably haven't seen them.
• 1:11:12
  So the rest of the band sounds kind of like that,
• 1:11:16
  you know, heavy backing tracks and heavy drums,
• 1:11:21
  distortions on the guitar shredding. For me,
• 1:11:25
  like you can think of, I mean, just any, I'm
• 1:11:28
  like random female singer voice. And so it's
• 1:11:32
  like a lyrical on top of the heaviness. Sing
• 1:11:36
  for me. Oh, God. No, no, no. Just like a lyric
• 1:11:41
  or two. Just give me a sample of one of your
• 1:11:43
  favorite songs. That's all. Shy person. Damn.
• 1:11:47
  No, no, you're not a shy person if you're doing
• 1:11:50
  metal. Don't cop out with that. I see you and
• 1:11:57
  me. projecting onto you, but I want you to be
• 1:12:04
  is an reflection of my own insecurities, my thinnesses
• 1:12:13
  and flaws. I'm forgetting the lyrics, but this
• 1:12:17
  is one of the songs in our album. I completely
• 1:12:21
  forgot the lyrics. Oh my God. Yay. Bravo. That's
• 1:12:23
  fantastic. What I was really drawn to was that
• 1:12:26
  you have like a A nice breathy alto. Like you
• 1:12:30
  were getting all like, sensual with it. Like,
• 1:12:33
  I see you in the corner of the tree looking at
• 1:12:38
  that bush that I love so much. Like you had that
• 1:12:40
  vibe. That I have to work on. Like, because funny
• 1:12:45
  story, you said that. Like my natural, my natural
• 1:12:51
  voice. Funny story. It's like, okay, well, the
• 1:12:52
  pressure's on. It better be funny. Oh, God. What
• 1:12:55
  if it's not funny? Then you will be canceled
• 1:12:57
  from this chat. I will delete the Zoom. This
• 1:13:00
  episode will have never existed. Your episode
• 1:13:02
  will never air. Oh, God. Go ahead. Anyway. This
• 1:13:06
  better make me laugh or else I'm going to cut
• 1:13:08
  off the conversation abruptly right now. Well,
• 1:13:10
  cut to a clip that you laugh after this. An AI
• 1:13:15
  clip that I made up of me laughing. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:13:18
  But no, my voice wasn't like this. I was a very,
• 1:13:22
  you know, like Enya type of voice naturally.
• 1:13:26
  And I was trained in choir. Can you send me some
• 1:13:29
  Enya right now? Yeah, where has she gone? It's
• 1:13:35
  going to be a choir session today. Yeah, anyways,
• 1:13:47
  yeah. I love that. That's beautiful falsetto
• 1:13:50
  there. That's great. Thank you. Yeah, I enjoy
• 1:13:53
  singing high notes because like, yeah, I guess
• 1:13:56
  my vocal core works for that, but like for the
• 1:13:58
  low notes, I have to get trained on that. Hours,
• 1:14:03
  hours. Um, yeah. Like, oh, I have a chicken casserole
• 1:14:08
  and I'm trying to give it to you today. Like
• 1:14:12
  that kind of thing is where you're talking about
• 1:14:13
  the low notes. I'm in the metal band. Yeah. Exactly.
• 1:14:18
  You can do anything with that, with that breathy
• 1:14:20
  tone. I love it. I have a rash on my ass and
• 1:14:23
  I need to cream for it. My boyfriend is a cat.
• 1:14:29
  I was gonna say the same thing! Yes! He's a furry
• 1:14:33
  daddy and he smells like onions and cheese. Only
• 1:14:39
  sometimes. Wow. Yeah, your partner is either
• 1:14:47
  going to love this or he's going to break up
• 1:14:48
  with you by the end of this episode. You don't
• 1:14:51
  know which way we'll go. Watch this episode and
• 1:14:55
  just be like, honey, wait a minute. You're calling
• 1:14:58
  me a cat that I need treats. You're saying I'm
• 1:15:02
  hairy. You say I need to be petted and you say
• 1:15:04
  I smell like onions and cheese. Like what? Is
• 1:15:07
  there anything that you like about me? He does
• 1:15:11
  music. So what's the name of your metal band
• 1:15:17
  that you and your boyfriend do? Yeah. Um, it's
• 1:15:19
  called the wave and the particle. You can find
• 1:15:22
  us on Spotify, Apple music or YouTube. And where
• 1:15:26
  did that title come from? Cause I always love
• 1:15:28
  these very unique titles that like rock metal.
• 1:15:32
  all the all these kind of bands do like alternative
• 1:15:34
  like you always you always know that it's going
• 1:15:36
  to be like a rock metal alternative whatever
• 1:15:38
  the fuck thing when uh the title of the band
• 1:15:41
  is like the cup that floweth satan's vagina playing
• 1:15:48
  at the orpheum theater yeah i think we played
• 1:15:53
  with a band called like dead cat black hat something
• 1:15:58
  like that And you ask how it makes sense and
• 1:16:02
  they're just like, you know what? It's whatever
• 1:16:03
  you want it to mean, man. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:16:06
  So tell me, tell me what's the wave in the particle?
• 1:16:08
  What is it about? So it's not that special really.
• 1:16:12
  I felt like I had a part in this thing. We wanted
• 1:16:18
  something like a duality. So like every person
• 1:16:21
  can have multiple facets. And so you can be both
• 1:16:25
  a wave and a particle at the same time. That's
• 1:16:28
  kind of like the core idea. What do you mean
• 1:16:32
  by wave and particle? Because I think of a wave
• 1:16:35
  like an ocean wave or maybe like a wave that
• 1:16:38
  you find at the hospital room to know on that
• 1:16:42
  machine to let you know that someone's alive.
• 1:16:45
  I think of a particle like a lint on someone's
• 1:16:49
  clothing. So are you saying your boyfriend is
• 1:16:51
  the particle? He's a lint on your clothing. Oh,
• 1:16:55
  my God. I love that lint on my clothing. Oh my
• 1:17:00
  gosh. Change the name of your band to a lint
• 1:17:02
  on my clothing. That would be great. You would
• 1:17:04
  sell a lot of tickets. Onion smelling lint on
• 1:17:09
  my clothing. Onion and she's smelling lint on
• 1:17:13
  my clothing. I know. My boyfriend. But no, it
• 1:17:20
  came from, it's super nerdy. It came from, you
• 1:17:22
  know, like the light, the lights quality. Light
• 1:17:27
  can be both a wave, life can also be a particle.
• 1:17:32
  So yeah, the physics thing. So, wait, wait, wait,
• 1:17:36
  wait, wait, wait. So life can be a wave, like
• 1:17:37
  life can like flow? Light, light, like sunlight,
• 1:17:41
  light. Oh, oh. Sunlight can be like a beautiful
• 1:17:44
  flowing wave or it could just be a stale particle.
• 1:17:48
  Yeah, it could be. On someone's jeans butt. And
• 1:17:54
  the bag of your underwear. Yeah, but yeah. Exactly.
• 1:18:00
  Okay. So it's very sciency is what you're saying.
• 1:18:03
  It's very nerdy. They actually, I remember we
• 1:18:07
  had like a few other names. They wanted to do
• 1:18:10
  something that sounds very exotic. That's not
• 1:18:13
  English. And then... You know, like some bands
• 1:18:15
  like that, I also feel it fancy. But then one
• 1:18:19
  of the choices I remember was Italian. And I
• 1:18:24
  happened to have an Italian classmate in grad
• 1:18:28
  school. So I ran it by him. He was like, this
• 1:18:31
  is stupid. It doesn't make sense. I think it
• 1:18:35
  sounds kindergarten -ish. And so I was like,
• 1:18:38
  you know what, we're gonna stick to English that
• 1:18:41
  we know. So it turned out to be an English name.
• 1:18:45
  So what was the Italian name that you were thinking
• 1:18:47
  of that got rejected by the Italian person that
• 1:18:50
  is mean? I don't know what the Italian version
• 1:18:55
  is, but I remember the meaning of that thing
• 1:18:59
  was like chanting together, something like that,
• 1:19:03
  singing together, chanting together. But it sounds
• 1:19:05
  super metal, like to English speakers. It doesn't
• 1:19:10
  sound metal to me right now, but okay. I'm trying
• 1:19:11
  to chanting together. Like in, in an Italian
• 1:19:18
  voice and an accent. Spaghetti chanting together.
• 1:19:31
  Risotto chanting together. Spaghetti. Something
• 1:19:36
  like that. Yeah. Like, yeah. Change the name.
• 1:19:41
  Come on. Another name for your band. Spaghetti
• 1:19:44
  Together. We're eating spaghetti together. I
• 1:19:46
  hope you like spaghetti. I love it. I think we'll
• 1:19:49
  get canceled by like Italian population, but
• 1:19:52
  yeah. Oh, please, whatever. They're just a bunch
• 1:19:56
  of mob gangsters who kill people. They deserve
• 1:19:58
  to be canceled. Oh, no. I would love to visit
• 1:20:03
  Italy someday. I love their food, at least the
• 1:20:06
  Americanized version of it, because I've never
• 1:20:08
  been to Italy. So I don't know what authentic
• 1:20:09
  Italian food tastes like, but I've always wanted
• 1:20:12
  to go there. Yeah. Just go up to a waiter and
• 1:20:15
  be like, Oh my God. All my like Italian understanding
• 1:20:23
  is from, from that one classmate that I told
• 1:20:26
  you about. And then, um, he said there's no Alfredo
• 1:20:30
  sauce in, in Italy. Like that is a American invention.
• 1:20:35
  Chopino soup also American invention. Uh, thick
• 1:20:40
  crust. I've never heard of Chopino soup. What
• 1:20:42
  is that? Um, did I pronounce it right? Oh, no.
• 1:20:48
  No, no, you're like the main source of fake news.
• 1:20:50
  So of course I know. This is terrible. You cannot
• 1:20:53
  be relied for any source of information. I'm
• 1:20:55
  like, oh, this interesting source of information
• 1:20:58
  about envelopes, they're made from plastic cups.
• 1:21:02
  And you're like, maybe. I don't know. I've heard
• 1:21:06
  of it from someone that I used to go to high
• 1:21:09
  school with. All right. Chopino soup. It is a
• 1:21:14
  seafood. It's like a medley of seafood in like
• 1:21:18
  a stew. Yeah, I like it. Soup, stew. I love it.
• 1:21:23
  It's one of my favorite food. It's so good. Go
• 1:21:26
  to, like, if you come to San Francisco, you have
• 1:21:28
  to try it. Yeah. For once, you're not lying about
• 1:21:31
  this. I know my food. I'm Asian. All right. All
• 1:21:35
  right. All right. What about the fact that you're
• 1:21:37
  Asian? What did you say? Asians love food. Okay.
• 1:21:40
  That's a stereotype, but like also we do need
• 1:21:45
  food to survive. So I would like to think all
• 1:21:46
  humans love food. That's true. Um, yeah, but
• 1:21:51
  Asians really care about food. It's part of like
• 1:21:53
  culture, hanging out, gathering and all that.
• 1:21:57
  Probably like Italians a little bit. Yeah. Anyways.
• 1:22:01
  So shrimp clams, mussels, meaty white fish, scallops,
• 1:22:04
  crab, lobster, calamari or squid, shucked oysters,
• 1:22:08
  olive oil, fennel, yellow onion, garlic, fennel
• 1:22:10
  seeds, red pepper flakes, crushed tomatoes, seafood
• 1:22:11
  stock. I'm just reading all the ingredients that
• 1:22:13
  you - Doesn't that sound amazing? No, it sounds
• 1:22:15
  like trash. Oh! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm
• 1:22:19
  sure it sounds like a delight once it's all put
• 1:22:21
  together into a fine stew. All right. Believe
• 1:22:27
  it or not, I do have to appear on someone else's
• 1:22:31
  podcast in a half hour. Oh, fine. So we probably
• 1:22:34
  should get to the three delicious questions before
• 1:22:36
  I lose my voice from laughing and canoodling
• 1:22:38
  with you so much. That's a long word to use.
• 1:22:42
  I'm sorry. Laughing and cavorting, I think is
• 1:22:44
  what I meant to say. Laughing and... Knaiving?
• 1:22:48
  Knaiving, yeah. Because canoodling would be cuddling
• 1:22:51
  and that's... Yeah. That's very hard to do with
• 1:22:55
  the far distance and the fact that we're both
• 1:22:57
  in relationships. Oh my God. Say it with me,
• 1:23:04
  RSS .com actually knows what it means to be a
• 1:23:07
  podcaster in 2026. No, it's not just that people
• 1:23:11
  want to listen to podcasts. They basically want
• 1:23:13
  to consume podcasts as if it's a TV show or movie
• 1:23:16
  on Netflix. And guess who has podcasts now? Also
• 1:23:19
  Netflix, RSS .com. They know video podcasting.
• 1:23:23
  That's what it's all about. So when you sign
• 1:23:25
  up with them to either host your new podcast
• 1:23:27
  or existing podcasts, well, you can easily convert
• 1:23:31
  from audio to video. at the snap of a finger.
• 1:23:33
  And even better, because we know YouTube, that's
• 1:23:36
  like the top of the game in how people consume
• 1:23:39
  podcasts. RSS .com is like, all right, you don't
• 1:23:41
  even have to go to the youtube .com separately.
• 1:23:45
  We literally have a feature on your dashboard
• 1:23:48
  that will allow you to easily upload, schedule,
• 1:23:52
  publish your video to YouTube straight from RSS
• 1:23:55
  .com. How about them apples for convenience?
• 1:23:59
  I know I worded that weirdly, but you get the
• 1:24:01
  point. The Delicious Culture with Jon François,
• 1:24:04
  a proud, proud, proud, proud customer of RSS
• 1:24:07
  .com. Please sign up using the link in my show
• 1:24:10
  notes. I may get a commission using the link
• 1:24:15
  that you use on my show notes because I gotta
• 1:24:19
  pay my bills. So why not do that? RSS .com. What's
• 1:24:28
  a delicious meal that you've had lately, Katie?
• 1:24:31
  Oh my God. Now all I can think of is Chopino
• 1:24:33
  soup. Oh my gosh. Don't, don't cheat. Wait, is
• 1:24:37
  that, is that literally what you had recently?
• 1:24:39
  No. What did you have recently that you say that
• 1:24:42
  you love that is delicious? That is wonderful.
• 1:24:45
  you know like recently i feel like i cannot escape
• 1:24:48
  uh dubai chocolate i've had like at least three
• 1:24:51
  different versions from three different restaurants
• 1:24:54
  there's like milk chocolate uh dubai chocolate
• 1:24:58
  drizzle on waffles there's dubai chocolate strawberry
• 1:25:04
  cup if you don't know what that is I love it.
• 1:25:08
  So it literally is a fruit cup, but they drizzle
• 1:25:11
  it with Dubai chocolate, which means that they
• 1:25:14
  drizzle it with like chocolate syrup plus crushed
• 1:25:18
  up pistachio. And what's that thing called? The
• 1:25:24
  kataifa. Kataifa is like If you don't know, it's
• 1:25:28
  like a little stringy thing that's made from
• 1:25:32
  starch. It's like a Middle Eastern thing. I'm
• 1:25:35
  not explaining this. No, no, no. I'm looking
• 1:25:36
  at a picture of Dubai chocolate and I'm concerned
• 1:25:39
  because it looks like someone said, okay, let's
• 1:25:43
  make a Reese's cup, but instead of peanut butter,
• 1:25:46
  we're going to put maybe like some kind of a
• 1:25:49
  green spinach pesto looking thing inside. Yeah.
• 1:25:53
  Oh, is that what it is? Pistachio? I think you
• 1:25:55
  are looking at the crushed up pistachio. Yeah.
• 1:25:58
  It's, it's so good, man. You have to try it.
• 1:26:00
  Dubai chocolate chocolate bar filled with chopped
• 1:26:03
  Kadayif spun filo pastry and a pistachio tahini
• 1:26:06
  cream. And it's actually a pretty young chocolate.
• 1:26:09
  It was created in 2021 by Noel Catiz Omamalen,
• 1:26:13
  a Filipino chef, and Sarah Hamuda, an Egyptian
• 1:26:16
  -British engineer after she asked him to prepare
• 1:26:18
  a chocolate recipe similar to nafe, which her
• 1:26:21
  mother used to make during her childhood. Hamuda
• 1:26:23
  and her husband are the co -owners of Fixed Dessert
• 1:26:25
  Chocolatier, a chocolatier in Dubai. Dubai chocolate
• 1:26:29
  popularized in 2024 by influencers on social
• 1:26:32
  media. Maybe Hufna was sipping that Dubai, especially
• 1:26:39
  those on TikTok and has since been imitated by
• 1:26:41
  vendors worldwide. So let me guess. You got this
• 1:26:43
  from TikTok, this Dubai chocolate, and you...
• 1:26:45
  Yeah. Well, I don't use TikTok, but I think I
• 1:26:48
  got it from Instagram or something. It's the
• 1:26:50
  same thing. People are just chomping on big...
• 1:26:54
  bars of Dubai chocolate. And yeah, I just had
• 1:26:58
  to. I fall for those things. So you don't have
• 1:27:00
  to go to Dubai. You have to go to like maybe
• 1:27:02
  some specialty chocolate shop anywhere in the
• 1:27:04
  US and they'll probably have it. You go to Kroger.
• 1:27:06
  Kroger? Safeway? I'm not in California. We don't
• 1:27:11
  have a Kroger here. What are you talking about?
• 1:27:15
  Publix? We don't have a Publix. You guys don't
• 1:27:17
  have Publix? What do you have? Are you just talking
• 1:27:19
  about a grocery store chain? Is that what you're
• 1:27:21
  saying? Yes, I'm just talking about a grocery
• 1:27:23
  chain. Okay. So we have a chain called Hannaford.
• 1:27:27
  We have a chain. We have Shaw's. I think you
• 1:27:29
  have Shaw's out there in California now, maybe.
• 1:27:32
  I don't know. I've never been to Shaw's. No,
• 1:27:34
  no, no. Shaw's may be a New England thing, but
• 1:27:36
  that's another grocery store chain. Maybe at
• 1:27:39
  Walmart we might find Dubai chocolate. Ah, Walmart.
• 1:27:42
  Probably. Dubai chocolate seems too classy for
• 1:27:45
  Walmart. Are you sure it's there? If everything
• 1:27:47
  fails, it's on Amazon. That's your answer for
• 1:27:51
  everything. Yeah. That's your answer for everything.
• 1:27:54
  Dubai chocolate. Where can I buy Dubai chocolate?
• 1:27:59
  Dude, you cannot escape this thing. Like, it's
• 1:28:02
  everywhere. On social media, in grocery stores,
• 1:28:05
  like everywhere. Amazon. That's the first thing
• 1:28:07
  that comes up. You can purchase it online via
• 1:28:08
  Amazon. But there are alternatives. FNP .AE,
• 1:28:15
  Deliveroo, Talaba, Instashop, or in physical
• 1:28:18
  stores like Carrefour, Lulu Chocolala, and Patchy.
• 1:28:23
  Oh my god. Have you heard of those stores? No,
• 1:28:26
  not at all. I'm learning so much today. You are,
• 1:28:30
  you are. And even stuff that you claim to know,
• 1:28:32
  but then I have to correct you by looking it
• 1:28:34
  up on the internet myself. But Lulu and Chocolala
• 1:28:37
  are two different stores. I made it sound like
• 1:28:39
  it was all one store together, but... How dare
• 1:28:42
  you. I know. Well, how dare you for not knowing
• 1:28:45
  anything and having me do all the work for you.
• 1:28:48
  But actually, you know what? I have to make it
• 1:28:49
  clear. Amazon .ae, not the US Amazon. It looks
• 1:28:53
  like it's Amazon .ae. Oh, man. Man, that's the
• 1:28:58
  authentic ones. Did you go out of, like way out
• 1:29:02
  of the country to get Dubai chocolate or did
• 1:29:04
  you go to your, you already told me you went
• 1:29:07
  to your local Kroger's in fucking California.
• 1:29:09
  And very exotic Las Vegas. Ah, where the sin
• 1:29:16
  keeps happening, where you could. uh, uh, uh,
• 1:29:21
  gamble and, and get a prostitute and get some
• 1:29:23
  Dubai chocolate to go. Exactly. Dubai chocolate
• 1:29:25
  on the side. Well, they, they have like, you
• 1:29:28
  know, the, the bulk, uh, candy stores. What?
• 1:29:33
  Wait, wait, wait. Did I just hear you say that?
• 1:29:35
  Did I hear you just open up a conversation with,
• 1:29:37
  do you know that they have the old R. Kelly stores?
• 1:29:39
  What? No, no, no. The, the bulk, bulk, um, you
• 1:29:43
  can buy candies, different kinds of candies in
• 1:29:46
  bulk. It's, it's like, I think one of the branches
• 1:29:49
  is called sugar. It's sugar, something like that.
• 1:29:52
  We're still talking about Vegas? Yeah, we're
• 1:29:54
  talking about Vegas where you can get Dubai chocolate.
• 1:29:57
  I'm like invested in this topic. Clearly, clearly.
• 1:30:01
  You're like, oh, hey, you know, get a hooker
• 1:30:03
  at a Dubai chocolate on the side and you're good
• 1:30:04
  to go. Oh, God. OK, let's wrap it up. No, it's
• 1:30:11
  candy stores. You can find it at candy stores.
• 1:30:13
  Don't worry. Without the hooker. Well, even with
• 1:30:19
  the hooker, that's okay. As long as it's being
• 1:30:20
  done legally and morally, that's fine. I don't
• 1:30:24
  judge people who like to have their, you know,
• 1:30:27
  hookers with their chocolate. Um, what is your
• 1:30:30
  delicious pop culture obsession this moment?
• 1:30:35
  I don't even know. Did we, did we get into your
• 1:30:36
  meal? Was your meal Dubai chocolate? Yeah, it
• 1:30:38
  can be Dubai chocolate. I've had like so many
• 1:30:41
  Dubai chocolate, like variations, waffles, strawberries,
• 1:30:45
  you know, just chocolate bars, uh, dark milk,
• 1:30:48
  everything. Talk about a big doogie experience.
• 1:30:51
  Oh, you. I don't know if that's considered a
• 1:30:55
  meal, but hey, if you want to have the. most
• 1:30:57
  memorable dookie of your life, then there you
• 1:30:59
  go. What is delicious pop culture obsession?
• 1:31:03
  What is something that you're watching or listening
• 1:31:04
  to that you want to share with us? I want to
• 1:31:07
  say something that maybe not a lot of people
• 1:31:09
  knows, but because I sing, I follow something
• 1:31:12
  called Eurovision. It's Like the trashiest. You
• 1:31:17
  had a whole thing about Iceland and the makeup
• 1:31:19
  tutorial person from Iceland. So trust me, I'm
• 1:31:21
  very familiar with the fact that you're saying
• 1:31:23
  stuff that not a lot of people know. Tell me
• 1:31:26
  your next unknown pop culture obsession that
• 1:31:29
  nobody knows about. The unknown pop sensation
• 1:31:32
  is in Europe. People are like watching this show
• 1:31:36
  called Eurovision. It's like, um, if you know,
• 1:31:41
  like the voice or like America's top next top
• 1:31:44
  talent. Wait. America's got talent. Thank you.
• 1:31:49
  I think you were trying to combine America's
• 1:31:50
  Next Top Model and America's Got Talent. Yeah,
• 1:31:54
  it's like, let's have a fusion. America's Next
• 1:31:57
  Top Talent, where we put models on display for
• 1:32:00
  the family to enjoy. I don't know. And get taxes
• 1:32:02
  and checks and. All right. Go ahead. Go ahead.
• 1:32:06
  Tyra Banks has corrupted me. But yeah, so. I
• 1:32:10
  used to like her and then now I'm like seeing
• 1:32:13
  all of these gossip about she's kind of a mean
• 1:32:16
  person. Have you seen the America's Next Top
• 1:32:17
  Model doc? It doesn't make Tyra look good at
• 1:32:20
  all. Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about.
• 1:32:24
  Yeah. And search in America's Next Top Model.
• 1:32:26
  They'll be searching in America's Next Top Talent
• 1:32:29
  in the scenes documentary. Like that doesn't
• 1:32:31
  even exist. I have learned. I have learned. Yeah.
• 1:32:34
  But anyways. Yeah. So it's kind of like that.
• 1:32:38
  Like just lay people competing on like a super
• 1:32:41
  high production, you know, talent show. It's
• 1:32:45
  a little bit like that. But it's all about singing.
• 1:32:48
  And the Competitors are from different countries
• 1:32:52
  in Europe, and they happen once a year. And then
• 1:32:57
  in the end, you get a winning country. I mean,
• 1:33:00
  you get a winning singer, but that singer always
• 1:33:03
  represents a country. So it's like the proud
• 1:33:07
  of the country that year. That's Eurovision.
• 1:33:10
  It happens annually. Now, what I'm very excited
• 1:33:13
  about is that this year, 2026, they are going
• 1:33:16
  to have an Asian version of Eurovision. So yeah,
• 1:33:22
  it's the very first time and I think it might
• 1:33:25
  crash and burn or it might be great. I don't
• 1:33:28
  know. Yeah. Most new things are like that. Yeah.
• 1:33:35
  I'm reminded of that because I remember Will
• 1:33:37
  Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, they did a Eurovision
• 1:33:42
  comedy. You know what I'm talking about? That's
• 1:33:44
  exactly it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was released
• 1:33:47
  during the pandemic. It was like one of the first
• 1:33:48
  movies me and my wife saw together when we were
• 1:33:50
  first dating. Um, yeah, that's what I'm thinking
• 1:33:53
  of. That's, that's, that's awesome. So they're
• 1:33:55
  going to have an Asian version of that, even
• 1:33:56
  though Asia is Asia in Europe. Nope. And the
• 1:34:00
  funny thing is that they are not calling it Asia
• 1:34:04
  vision. They are calling it Eurovision Asia.
• 1:34:08
  They should just call it Asia vision. Isn't it?
• 1:34:10
  I don't know why they didn't call it that. I
• 1:34:12
  guess, I guess you're the Eurovision people will
• 1:34:14
  want to be like, we own this content. We created
• 1:34:16
  it. We're influenced. We're influencing you.
• 1:34:19
  So we're going to still leave our title in there,
• 1:34:21
  even though Asia and Europe are two separate
• 1:34:24
  continents. Yeah. Yeah, it's probably trademark.
• 1:34:29
  You're probably right. It's trademark or something.
• 1:34:33
  I am probably right because you've been wrong
• 1:34:35
  like 95 % of the time with your fake news information.
• 1:34:40
  So much fake news. Uh, yeah, I know. Right. Yeah.
• 1:34:43
  Well, let me, let me look this up right now.
• 1:34:45
  Is the Eurovision name trademarked? Oh God. And
• 1:34:51
  then, and then in the end of the year, we'll
• 1:34:53
  realize it's actually called Asia vision. I'll
• 1:34:57
  be canceled. Yes. Eurovision is trademarked.
• 1:35:00
  Uh, uh, the name Eurovision. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:35:03
  The name Eurovision is registered as a wordmark
• 1:35:05
  and in its logo form owned by the European Broadcasting
• 1:35:09
  Union. Which country is that? The European Broadcasting
• 1:35:12
  Union? Oh, maybe it's a cross country. What are
• 1:35:16
  you talking about? I'm talking about a broadcasting
• 1:35:18
  corporation in Europe. Europe is a continent
• 1:35:21
  filled with many countries. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:35:24
  OK, OK. I wasn't sure who's running the show.
• 1:35:28
  Oh, I don't know. Is it like a UN situation or
• 1:35:30
  is it? Yeah. It's Europe, Katie. That's all you
• 1:35:34
  need to know. Oh, damn. Yeah. I don't know. Don't
• 1:35:38
  ask me. Let me not know any information for once.
• 1:35:43
  Oh, boy. All right. So Eurovision Asia. I'm so
• 1:35:47
  excited. That's going to be coming out this year.
• 1:35:49
  I cannot wait to see that. What is a delicious
• 1:35:51
  thing that's happened in your life lately? Oh,
• 1:35:54
  let's see. I mean. Armchair Iceland has been
• 1:35:59
  getting pretty good reviews. I'm learning how
• 1:36:03
  to do like marketing and so that that's I don't
• 1:36:06
  know if it's delicious, but it's it's interesting
• 1:36:09
  to learn how to do marketing for yourself. It's
• 1:36:12
  The first time I had to do this in my life because
• 1:36:14
  I used to be employed by other people and now
• 1:36:17
  I get to run whatever ads and feed you whatever
• 1:36:21
  fake information I want to put on my assets.
• 1:36:26
  Nah, I'll try to make things right. But learning
• 1:36:31
  marketing was interesting. Uh, yeah. Yeah. I
• 1:36:34
  don't know how people do it. Um, I, I've certainly,
• 1:36:37
  you know, have tried to learn effective marketing
• 1:36:40
  for this podcast, but, um, yeah, it's a lot.
• 1:36:43
  It's a lot to, uh, try to figure out promotional
• 1:36:45
  strategy while also creating content at the same
• 1:36:47
  time. So what, um, what have you learned that
• 1:36:52
  you haven't learned before that piqued your interest,
• 1:36:55
  if I may ask? Simpler is better for some reason.
• 1:36:58
  Like in the very beginning, I tried to do like
• 1:37:01
  very fancy like short reels. Those don't really
• 1:37:05
  work that well. You would think, why do they
• 1:37:10
  not work well? Yeah, you would think it works
• 1:37:12
  pretty well. I don't know why, but like that's
• 1:37:15
  what the data says. It just doesn't get clicked
• 1:37:18
  or like people scroll away before the video finishes.
• 1:37:23
  Right, right. Yeah. And then sometimes it's tied
• 1:37:27
  to - You got false data. Ms. former data engineer,
• 1:37:32
  you got some false data. Oh, man. Probably got
• 1:37:36
  tampered with. But yeah, it kind of makes sense
• 1:37:41
  that if people just keep scrolling, they're not
• 1:37:43
  going to get to the juicy part of a 15 -second
• 1:37:48
  video. So yeah, I don't do those anymore. So
• 1:37:53
  maybe you're the juicy part in the beginning.
• 1:37:55
  ah that yeah that's the trick open with a shot
• 1:37:59
  of your boyfriend's hairy back and be like hey
• 1:38:02
  if you want more of this buy my book about iceland
• 1:38:06
  oh my god yeah or you know what was interesting
• 1:38:12
  like i was just like telling my friends this
• 1:38:15
  i saw this trashy ad on instagram it's like a
• 1:38:20
  carousel of of two So like two dots, you know,
• 1:38:24
  and then the first one is like a very cute panda,
• 1:38:27
  like sneezing or rolling on the grass and whatnot.
• 1:38:31
  And then you scroll. The second one is a t -shirt
• 1:38:34
  that you can buy. That's like a panda. Smart
• 1:38:38
  people. Well, is it trashy though? Because they're
• 1:38:42
  sucking you in with the adorable panda. And then
• 1:38:44
  they're like, hey, if you want that adorableness
• 1:38:47
  on you on a regular basis, have it on your shirt.
• 1:38:50
  Buy this shirt for $30. I fell for it, yeah.
• 1:38:55
  And was it $30? No, it was like $27 -ish. That's
• 1:39:01
  basically rounded up to $30. Yeah, things these
• 1:39:04
  days are expensive. You don't have to tell me.
• 1:39:08
  Well, this was fun, Katie. This is fun. Thanks
• 1:39:11
  to you, I don't even know if I have the energy
• 1:39:13
  for my next recording in 14 minutes. Oh no, get
• 1:39:17
  coffee. I already had coffee today. If I have
• 1:39:21
  more than one cup of coffee, I will have the
• 1:39:24
  jittery shits and I don't want to that. Or as
• 1:39:27
  you like to say, the shaky dookies. Oh my God,
• 1:39:31
  the shaky dookies. I should make a t -shirt of
• 1:39:34
  that. Oh, the shaky dookies and then just have
• 1:39:37
  a big picture of a... dog dookie that's like
• 1:39:39
  15 feet long. That would be funny. That would
• 1:39:42
  be funny, but also gross. That would be gross
• 1:39:44
  to look at. What are you talking about? I mean,
• 1:39:46
  maybe I'll have like the poop emoji, but like,
• 1:39:48
  if I took an actual picture of like the biggest
• 1:39:50
  dookie that one of my dogs took and put it on
• 1:39:52
  a t -shirt, I would get reported for visual harassment.
• 1:39:58
  Yes, you are. Oh, and then you'll get banned
• 1:40:00
  from the like... platform. From life. I would
• 1:40:03
  get banned from walking on the streets with a
• 1:40:05
  shirt on. But the most scary thing is getting
• 1:40:07
  yelled at by your wife. Or not. Well, she's not
• 1:40:12
  a yeller, but like, sure, if she did yell at
• 1:40:16
  me, then sure, I might poop my pants, actually.
• 1:40:20
  Oh, no. That would get another dookie coming
• 1:40:23
  out from all the yelling that makes me nervous.
• 1:40:26
  So it would just be a cycle of dookieing, a cycle
• 1:40:29
  of dookieing. Oh, gosh. All right, Katie, we
• 1:40:33
  got to get out of here. How can people find you?
• 1:40:37
  Plug your website, socials, books, like where
• 1:40:39
  can they find everything? Yeah, so all of my
• 1:40:41
  stuff is on my website. It's vegoutvoyage .com.
• 1:40:45
  You can find everything from, you know, like
• 1:40:48
  my book has a gift box version that's only on
• 1:40:52
  my website. You can sign up for the newsletter.
• 1:40:56
  I do one free puzzle a month, which is Yeah,
• 1:41:01
  I like doing it. It's fine. And then also merch.
• 1:41:06
  Great marketing so far. I like doing it. It's
• 1:41:09
  fine. It's whatever. You got the point. In the
• 1:41:13
  past, I sell it even worse. I'm like, I try to
• 1:41:16
  make it not as spam. But yeah. This thing that
• 1:41:23
  I made and hopefully it doesn't come up in your
• 1:41:25
  spam folder. So yeah, buy it, whatever. Yeah,
• 1:41:29
  and I have legit merch that you can personalize
• 1:41:32
  cuz I mean, cause I used to work in tech and
• 1:41:36
  I enjoy integrating like apps and stuff like
• 1:41:39
  that. And so there's a lot of personalization
• 1:41:41
  that I put into my other merchant whatnots. I
• 1:41:46
  don't believe a word of what you're saying, but
• 1:41:49
  sure. No, no, I do. I do. I do. I'm sure you
• 1:41:53
  have all the talents in the world as a techie.
• 1:41:56
  I mean, yeah. And now you're a veg out voyager
• 1:42:00
  as we like to call them. I know I'm a failed
• 1:42:03
  techie. That's why I'm doing visual voyage, but
• 1:42:06
  buy my stuff. I failed at this other thing. So
• 1:42:13
  buy this thing now. That's what you think. Yep.
• 1:42:17
  All right. All right. Well, no, no, no, there's
• 1:42:19
  no such thing as failure when you learn from
• 1:42:21
  your failures. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I made
• 1:42:24
  that up. All right, The Delicious Culture or
• 1:42:30
  Wigjofare as well. Find it wherever you get your
• 1:42:31
  podcasts. Apple, Spotify, SiriusXM, iHeart, Amazon,
• 1:42:34
  da -da -da -da -da -da. If you like the podcast,
• 1:42:36
  please rate and review on Apple and Spotify.
• 1:42:38
  Email with any questions, concerns, comments,
• 1:42:40
  feedback. Please don't send pictures of Dog Dookie.
• 1:42:42
  That's disgusting. The Delicious Culture at gmail
• 1:42:45
  .com. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at The
• 1:42:48
  Delicious Culture. Please any mail. guys, any
• 1:42:53
  guys who are in relationships with people don't
• 1:42:55
  have your girlfriend send us pictures of your
• 1:42:56
  hairy back. Like Katie does with her boyfriend
• 1:42:59
  all the time and she puts it on books. Fake news.
• 1:43:02
  What's that? Fake news. I didn't send any pictures.
• 1:43:06
  Don't believe him. Yeah. So you speak. Subscribe
• 1:43:10
  on YouTube at the delicious culture. John Francois,
• 1:43:14
  John Francois spelled J O N F R A N C O I S Katie
• 1:43:18
  Huang. We got to do this again. This was so much
• 1:43:21
  fun. I had a lot of fun. Thank you so much for
• 1:43:24
  having me. All righty. And all the delishies
• 1:43:27
  out there, you know what? Because of this episode,
• 1:43:29
  I'm going to call you all dookies. All the dookies
• 1:43:31
  out there, let's let deliciousness slash dookie
• 1:43:39
  ring. So when you're either starting a new podcast
• 1:43:47
  or trying to move your existing podcast over
• 1:43:50
  to a reliable hosting provider, you're probably
• 1:43:52
  thinking, oh, I definitely don't want people
• 1:43:54
  to only access my podcast on these like very
• 1:43:57
  small, obscure apps like Gemini Mater, Chord
• 1:44:01
  Plug, Listener app. Like, no, you want the big
• 1:44:05
  boys to have your podcasts. Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
• 1:44:09
  Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. That's where RSS .com
• 1:44:13
  comes in. They are a proud partner with a delicious
• 1:44:17
  culture with John Francois. Hopefully I worded
• 1:44:19
  that correctly. I think I did. Either way, I
• 1:44:22
  recently switched over to RSS .com as my podcast
• 1:44:25
  distribution hosting provider, and I've been
• 1:44:27
  nothing short of happy. I was worried. I was
• 1:44:30
  like, oh my goodness, because I was with this
• 1:44:31
  previous hosting provider and they got me to,
• 1:44:33
  you know, Apple, Spotify, Sirius, Amazon, all
• 1:44:35
  these big players. Will RSS .com seamlessly do
• 1:44:38
  the same thing? And I was paranoid. like my first
• 1:44:42
  episode released from rss .com is everything
• 1:44:44
  okay and luckily it was apple spotify serious
• 1:44:47
  it's like i'd never changed hosting providers
• 1:44:50
  it's like my followers subscribers listeners
• 1:44:53
  never left because they really never did thanks
• 1:44:56
  to say it with me again rss .com please sign
• 1:45:00
  up with them using the link in my show notes
• 1:45:03
  because well, your boy has a house to pay bills
• 1:45:07
  for. So he would like to earn a little commission
• 1:45:09
  or two from the link that you use in my show
• 1:45:11
  notes. Why not? RSS .com.