Transcript
Speaker: I think people here remind me of shelter cats because they are very skittish and they often equate gentleness and someone being kind as a transaction and as if they're looking for something.
Speaker: Well, hey there, sweet peas. Welcome back to Friendless. I'm your host, James Avromenko. This week, I'm joined by one of my newer friends, Leandra Guillet. We ADHD ping pong between exploring human insecurity and the cyclical nature of history to the joyful benefits of whimsy maxing and K-pop dance choreography.
Speaker: It was an absolute treat to chat with Leandra and you're going to love this one. So it is time to lean back, get comfy, set your volume at a reasonable level and enjoy my interview with the one and only Leandra Guillet here on Friendless.
Speaker: All right. So this week on Friendless, I am joined by someone who is a newer friend and someone who I met through this sort of the magic world of pro wrestling, I think. I've been really excited to talk to you because I've realized this is actually our first chance to have an actual one-on-one conversation that isn't with like...
Speaker: screaming people behind you. So welcome to the show, Leandra Guillet. How are you today? Oh, we went with the French one. I'm well, thank you.
Speaker: Just hanging out. It's another beautiful day in the city. Every day when I'm going into the office, I'm like, another day in paradise. Vancouver's tricky. You said you're almost going on about 10 years, hey?
Speaker: Yeah, 10 years in August, which is pretty bananas. I had lived here and then moved away, and I thought I had escaped, because there is at times, there's this feeling of like... this city's so expensive, you can't even afford to leave it.
Speaker: You know, you get sort of like trapped to the vortex. But since coming back, I've been really trying to lean into the like, no, I'm here for a reason. This is a good thing. And it is days like today where you're like, oh yeah, okay. I could put up with February being just 28 days of gray we' for this, right? but But I don't know. How do you reconcile the highs and lows of being a Vancouverite?
Speaker: Yeah. I think I probably should clarify when I said another day in paradise, I was mildly being like a little facetious, but again, the hot and cold, it's very odd. And it's just like a very weird way that it affects everyone. We're, we're all very,
Speaker: moody and it feels like someone has hurt all of us to the point where we can't trust and I wonder if part of that trust comes from we don't know how to dress when we leave especially in like the interim months like the transitional ones it's like I need a sweater and a jacket in the morning maybe but by like midday I'm sweating and in a tank top but then once the sun sets around like whenever depending on fall or spring like I need a jacket again it's cold and I need sunglasses and an umbrella. And so there's definitely like, I feel like I never can travel light ever whenever I'm like leaving the house, but yeah, I would be just like the correlation between the general mood and the atmosphere.
Speaker: I mean, I think you're tapping into a few different things that I that i really agree with. One being, i think the city's motto is, who hurt you? You know, that should be like the city slogan. But... for But, i you know, that I think of one reason I respond in the positive direction, we'll say, is, that you know, before we hit record, we were talking about wisdoms that our fathers have imparted on us. And and one of them, i what I...
Speaker: I think I could directly link to like baby's first anxiety worries was my dad used to always love to say, it's better to have a layer you don't need than to not have one that you do.
Speaker: And so I'm still to this day, I'm always layering because even if it's like plus 30 and I'm like, yeah, but you never know, you never know. The weather might change, you know, those clouds, they're not looking too clear, you know? So I'm constantly,
Speaker: going through that emotional algebra no matter what? My correlation to that is I'm pretty sure my dad would always say, if I'm remembering correctly, he's like, you never know where you're going have another meal. Always eat And now I'm like, was that a threat this whole time?
Speaker: That's like something they say in war movies. They're always like, ah, yeah, never say no to a meal. And if you could sit, always do and lay down and always try to sleep. But it's like, yeah was your dad a soldier? Not at all. He worked in telecom.
Speaker: He's the sweetest little guy. I love him. um ah Yeah, no, I think it's just, he's just's got some funny little quirks that he likes to say, but yeah. Or he's like, I'm always thinking of my next meal. on And it's just like, yeah, very food oriented.
Speaker: For like a very fit man. It's very funny. I like the idea of being very food-oriented. I feel like I could relate with that. But my personal relationship with food has changed quite a bit this year. I went first vegetarian, then vegan about a year ago.
Speaker: and And thank you. um um Not meant as a brag. In fact, i kind of dread telling people it because more often than not, that for some reason instigates a fight. They they start telling me I look for fights. And I'm like, I just...
Speaker: you got I don't, i love you know. It's a commitment. and It's hard. So, like, yeah. I mean, it's a commitment you're making to yourself and stuff. So, I think, yeah. Sorry. basic I didn't i didn't mean do that on your balance. No, no, no, no, no. Sorry. I just, I was meaning more, like, i guess the the thing that's changed my relationship to food has changed in that I'm, like, it's not that I don't look forward to eating anymore so much as I'm, like, I know...
Speaker: How do I say? I know I'm not going to be satisfied. Well, it's very exciting, actually. I appreciate that. You're like, this is a choreo. I'm still going to be cooled, you know? Exactly. Just what it's tofu. Yep.
Speaker: And it's delicious. It's not a marifat. Right? Yeah. But it's not cheese. And that's, like, one of the things. It's, like, I'm very dairy sensitive. So it's, like, cutting cheese out. And I've been, like, on and off, like, vegan or vegetarian, just depending on the face of my life as well. But, like,
Speaker: There is no good substitute for cheese, whether it be cashew or coconut or soy or like probably mildly plastic. Like none of it's going on. Yep. It's devastating. I almost wish we never like befriended cows the way befriended. Sorry. I don't think that's a friendly thing we're doing. We're not like a friend. Anyways.
Speaker: and was No, but you're supposed to, you know, my my sister and I were talking about it. She was sending me videos of her daughter who's about a year and a half going on almost, you know, 18 months, to give or take. and um And the the way her face lights up when she is given cheese.
Speaker: Like, the world is just perfect in that moment when that slice of cheese is given to that child, you know? We've realized just, like, what a chokehold, like, big cheese has on the Avramaco clan, you know?
Speaker: Well, it's like, no, I'm just like pondering about it. If I may wax poetically. Please, that's what a podcast is for. When I was in post-secondary, we had a class where our assignment was. We just had to like pick whatever our favorite or what we think was the most important invention in history. And at the time I was like, the printing press. It was Burke, is that his last name? Or was it Johan? I don't remember. I used to know his name off the top of my head. Wait, wasn't i isn't it?
Speaker: It's not Gutenberg? Oh, it isn't Gutenberg, but his name. Oh, is that his name? Johan Gutenberg? Am I making Johan up? I might just be saying that. I feel like it's a name that used to be used a lot. And it's like one of my coworkers first names, but it's, he doesn't go by it. But I just, for some reason, just like knowing it's there makes me think about the name a lot. And it's one of those weird, just like it for fixations. Or I just like, anyways, I don't know if that ever happened. That's just like things like also swag. I can't stop saying swag in its ah response to anything good or bad. Swag. Yeah.
Speaker: Literally someone's like, are you good? I'm like, yeah, swag.
Speaker: Why? ah There's a word for that in the neurodivergent world, and I can't place it right now, but it's something along the lines of, it's ah it's a vocal stim, basically. Yes, I'm going with echolocation, although I do... Not echolalia. It is echolalia.
Speaker: It's a form of echolalia. I know the first part of the word, and I was just going to move through the... Let's see if we got there. You know what? We were both right, by the way. As you were talking, Johannes Gutenberg was... we were... You know what? Look at that.
Speaker: We're both right. Look at that. yeah We did it. Look at us. look Against all laws, we did it. amazing. I do hit a point when I have these thoughts when I'm like, oh, whose name was that? Was that like, I often default to like, and it's amazing to think that we'll never know.
Speaker: And we have no way of ever knowing that information. and You know, like my brain immediately doesn't go, hey, Google that. It's just like, oh, I guess,
Speaker: Sure will we ever know. It's impossible to say. It's impossible. Exactly. yeah I was camping in the woods and I lost service and we just kept sitting around being like, we literally would say things and be like, who knows?
Speaker: And I was like, this isn't where parents just had to live. They just had to like guess and just take things at face value. are they going do? Carry an encyclopedia brown around with them and just be like,
Speaker: No. and Anyway, sorry, I brought up the printing dress literally to say I was going to say maybe cheese is humanity's best invention. And that's... I realize I never finished that thread. And now that I'm mitigated for ADHD... Anyways, back to what you're saying. We're going to do this ADHD ping-pong here, though, because you raised a really good point about, like, you were out in the wilderness.
Speaker: You didn't have... Google. You just had to like ah believe a thing. And there's a part of me that like, you know, I hate to be one of those people who's like, God, kids these days don't know how good they, we you know, like they'll never have it as good as we had it kind of thing.
Speaker: But like there was something really magic about like being out with a couple of people and having an argument about like, whether it was history, a really easy example is like sports statistics.
Speaker: And and they you would just like, one of your friends would be undiagnosed autistic because no one was autistic in the early 2000s, you know? and But they would just know all those stats. They'd be like, yeah, you know, Gordie Howell,
Speaker: elbowed seven people in on May 19th in Chicago or whatever. Like, you would just know these things and you would just go, yeah, I believe it. Thanks, buddy. You know? and yeah Or you would fight him. That would be the other side is you would debate him and that would be your whole evening would be debating how many times some guy, you know,
Speaker: scored a point in hockey, you know? I will say there is a thing where I don't know why, but I've given an impression to a lot of people in my life that I know a lot of things.
Speaker: And I know a little bit about a lot. I don't know a lot about a lot. I know a little bit about a lot, but it's fun because every now and then people ask me something and I'll use context clues to give an answer. And I would say oftentimes I'm right.
Speaker: But I will just say things without context and then I like to be like, but you should fact check me. I never fact check myself. So you should fact check me. So this could be allegedly. I'm like, um I think rain happens allegedly because blah, blah, blah. i was about to like do that and i was like, wait, I don't, I'm like, I do know how rain works. I just don't want to prove it to you right now. Wait, how does rain work? I know I learned this in one of the first few grades.
Speaker: It's like water water gets... but but It goes up in the sky. not Sun hot. Sun makes... Molecule move faster. When faster move, turn to gas. Gas go up.
Speaker: When gas gets cold, gas gets hard. When hard water, hard snow. whens no When snow... When snow moves faster, turn water.
Speaker: Iconic. This is why... Eight years of podcasting has led me here. is this but but this is it. is it, people. Soak it in.
Speaker: You know, for a long time, i thought maybe I would become a teacher. And then I tried teaching kids French in the summer. And let me tell you, I'm never going to teach again in my life. But sometimes I'm wondering, am I depriving our youth of just like the pure entertainment of just like imagine a history class.
Speaker: I make everyone dress up. I'm like, you all will come with a bed sheet tomorrow. We are going to pretend we're a consulate. Behold. You're going to learn all the different ways to tie your togas depending on what class you live in or are representing. Okay, so you're patricians. You get three stones for this. fill o You're just a foundation family that's paid to get in. One stone.
Speaker: One stone. Actually, that's for the whole... It's actually one stone for the entire population. You just get that one. All 17 of you, you get one stone. Okay. works first and then you get three. What's changed? What's changed? i'm lyn What's changed?
Speaker: Nothing. The past. They really are just like us. kidding.
Speaker: Leandra, I'm going to try to steer us back somehow. No, no, this is nothing to apologize for. um We're going to do these digressions again. ah But ah but um to circle us back, I think we should maybe lay some context for for for any listener listen who might not be familiar with you or or or who you are what you're about. I was like i was trying to open a conversation with, with who the hell are you?
Speaker: That's a great question. Wait a minute. Hi! you vines god i love him who am i i don't know i am just saying i'm just a guy about town i have had a a very wild weird jobs and that's introduced me to many many people and that's been really cool and fun and yeah i'd like to say i'm very rich in the connections i have that doesn't really tell you about me though it tells you about other people in yikes okay what is there to say grew up dancing i grew up grew up in a little suburb called canada lakes
Speaker: I have been realizing recently there's a lot of my childhood that I've been sitting pondering and being like, oh, maybe I'll write a book. Maybe I'll write a memoir. I'll think about it and be like, oh, shit.
Speaker: What do I even remember about my past? And like, know because remember being that age and I remember like how I felt but then I'll be like okay but what happened what happened at that party why do we not remember intriguing intriguing so yeah so i'm now I'm just like drawing a blank I really love history I love art I'm still dancing to this day i do like fun little like music video covers specifically from like, I get so embarrassed about it cause i don't know how to own my shit. Like K-pop dance covers, they're really fun. and I love it so much. It has brought so much joy into my life.
Speaker: And like, it's also by proxy brought so much joy into my parents' life. They love to watch me dance. It's so sweet. So when you say you do covers, like you learn the choreography and you recreate it? Yes, yes, yes. It's amazing. cool. do not speak Korean. I do not learn the songs. We're not singing. We're just doing the body dancing and covering like performance videos or if they don't have like set choreography, like choreography they would use on like a performance stage or something, which would have been really fun.
Speaker: I feel like anything anything that gets you moving like that, you know, anything that's bringing you joy. Like, I'm, i'm you know, you know but my partner, they're a big advocate for what they're calling whimsy maxing lately. love be whimsy!
Speaker: And it's just like, it's just such a powerful tool. And I feel so inspired by them to just be like, whimsy max it, let's go, you know? And just like, but you know, because like, yes, the world...
Speaker: is real rough right now when we're like we're like a half hour away from a nuclear apocalypse basically at any time but like trick here and you that's just it like yeah but look at this little bubble you know like look at this little silly guy you know yeah oh yeah i do like to them because nothing's new nothing's ever an original thought i do often feel as though they're like I don't know. I feel a weird gatekeeping-ness around, and we can unpack that too, because that's like one weird thing. it' i can be inclusive. I don't know what taught me to be so competitive in my youth that I'm like, I can't share this interest. but we can talk we can discuss that. Maybe my need to feel and like an individual, to feel important, who knows?
Speaker: I'm like, I send this to my therapist later, mayhaps? Blah, blah, blah. Oh God, what was even gonna say? Oh, does whimsy, this like weird resurgence of like focusing and wanting whimsy, it just reminds me so much of the like response to the Baroque, which was for Coco, which also is like the response to like clean girl aesthetic, which was like the original manic pixie dream girl.
Speaker: Cause like whimsiness and people being like, I like trinkets and toys. And I'm like, oh yeah, same. And I love it, but I'm like, that is just a complete complete rebrand of like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is fine. I'm so happy to know we're alive and well.
Speaker: We've always been here. What's fun about the current iteration is like, have you seen Obsession yet? No, I really want to. Okay, it's really good. I was halfway through the movie and i was like, I think this might be my favorite movie of like the last decade, like before it was even over.
Speaker: But there was there's this beautiful kind of perversion of the manic pixie dream girl aesthetic. It's definitely a throwback, but in a very fun and very horrific haunting way. I don't want to spoil too much because you haven't seen it yet. But the idea of the cycles is something that when I was in theater school, my my one of my favorite props would always talk about that. She would say like,
Speaker: all of fashion is just it goes big and then it goes small that's it and just and it always you know we're in a period where it's big and then we're in a period where it's small it's always a response yeah because whatever's popular the next thing is going to be a response to that of like oh are you tired of this big thing have a Like we just had the clean girl aesthetic after mob but mob wife aesthetic and now we're heading back to the resurgence of indie sleaze. Which is just, it's so fun to like watch them go back and forth and like what trends say about us. Mark Twain famously said, history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Speaker: And that's one that I look cool to. Because it's not always the exact same thing. It's not copy paste, but you're like, oh, the themes are here. The general overture is here. Like the... You know, like the and the courage doesn't change often. Where do you think those rhymes kind of come into play?
Speaker: Because I often see it as this idea of like, we see patterns repeat due to lack of awareness, you know, like we, we you know, and and so when we are running on instinct, you know, the human instinct, the the little monkey brain that is just like, ah we'll have sort of common reactions that we can kind of base on. And maybe sometimes that reaction has a sword in its hand and sometimes it has a gun in its hand and sometimes it has a I don't know, you know, but but a corset. I don't know. Whatever, right? But yeah I'm curious, from your perspective, where does that repetition come into play?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, i agree with the sentiment that like, we often are not focused on longevity. And I think at humanity's core, like the whole, like miracle of consciousness, which is so unique to us, and unique to each person, I think sometimes there are people who I always say like when they're called to awaken they're called to awareness when they're awakened like they can see kind of outside of their own like individuality and take a step back and like kind of look at the problem as a whole or maybe I'm just dipping into socialism and communism too much but I like to think of it you can like take a step back from yourself and be like for the longevity of the community what should I be focusing on and instead of just like really digging into your own
Speaker: goals and wants or like short-term greed focusing on just, yeah, like how to keep things together. And I think humanity has always been grappling with how they're seen and how they want to be seen. And I think, I mean, a big part of what I said was always art. And some of the most amazing monuments were built during times of civil unrest and war because they wanted to see be seen as doing well. They wanted to be seen as like flashy and nonchalant. And it's like, even look at how people handle like a media PR
Speaker: nightmare they you those like shearing books on how to handle like something that does on a grand scheme of things isn't a big deal like hashtag getting canceled for something silly like whatever say you said something inappropriate a few years ago absolutely educate yourself be better move forward like take accountability for yourself but like oh i've lost my train of thought of why i brought that up but like i think it's just like yes i bought it back just like yeah our fear dan where was I going? Every now and then this little i think just at its core, I i think of what I'm circling around is like
Speaker: We're very insecure as a people and we want to be seen as worthy and we want to feel part of the community regardless of how strong differently you feel. It's like ah how we fit into the community it is always a peace of mind. Whether you're like, I'm over the community. i don't want to be a part of it. That is still a thought of the community.
Speaker: And that's such an underlying current for me as just how we want to be seen. because some people are so flashy, you know? And it touches every single culture, it touches every country, it touches every age.
Speaker: How do you want to be seen? Egypt wanted to be seen so stylized and there are different like pharaohs and periods where they use different art but so much of it has been like scratched from history because like you know, this very hyper stylized type of art and like our bill picks that we see from the majority of like mainstream mainstream Egypt is a big Egypt.
Speaker: So like one way, but it creates this like timelessness. Yes. Where it's like, it yeah, it's just, i don't know. Art is just learning more about art is just learning how people have wanted to be seen. It's all just an expression on like, and I think you literally said it like before we started when we touched on like pronouns, you know like it's kids saying, see me, see me. Like, yeah this is who I am.
Speaker: See it. And it's like our attempt to be like, because I don't, I'll never know if what I'm saying is reaching you the way that I meant it to. Yes. I think so much of the way that we've tried to You know, and so people pick fear and they their fear manifests in violence because i think it' it is scary. And sometimes people are like, I'll hit before I'm hit because I don't want to get hurt because someone has shown you that if you don't strike first, you'll get hurt.
Speaker: You know, as a lot of these things I think are top behaviors and then it's like nature versus nurture. If it is ah humanity's nature to be evil, then how do we ever learn to be good? yeah Goodness must have come from something. So if that's inner nature, then how do you nurture something that you can't have?
Speaker: Well, and I think I'm really struck by this idea of like the baseline of of insecurity and validation. And I think that it's, I think that that is way more on point than most people would probably want to even admit. You know, I remember a couple of years ago, I had, um and was, that this is such a silly example, but a couple years ago, I put out a TikTok. That was actually a reply TikTok to a different thing I'd put out. I put out something, someone had made a comment and I'd made a little reply video saying, yeah, you know, the funny thing is, as a friend of mine likes to say, most of history is just men not knowing how to deal with their emotional dysregulation.
Speaker: um and and this TikTok went banana town because so many men were like, what are he you talking about? right They all went fucking ape shit. And they started doing things like, they so because they basically took it to be like, oh, you're telling me men are bad leaders, which is like, yeah whatever, that's not what I said, but also, yeah. But they started to try to make counterpoints. They started trying to raise examples of female leaders and, and they kept on coming back to Boudicca. Yeah.
Speaker: That was their big gotcha example was Boudicca. Every one of my videos, I would reply to the comments just cackling because I'd just be like, this is your one, this is your big like, ho gotcha. I mean, I'll stop my head. I'm like, okay, well, I can give you a few really like crummy. But I'm like, I'll hold my tongue for you do not need to know their names. But that's just it.
Speaker: that but But to me, even that like comparison of like the male female, who like whatever, it's more about like, you know The vast majority of conflicts are due to the insecurities and the dysregulations that leaders aren't willing to deal with within themselves. Look at what is going on in our world right now. you know like And it's not just one guy's fucking it up. It's a system is fucking up collectively. And so many people are too insecure and too afraid of their own personal social standing and their perceived...
Speaker: power and control yeah and why is power and control important to them like what why does it matter to them to have control you know like what is what is that stemming from exactly sorry i was yeah it's just like apparently chaotic like exactly even like we don't know why we're here and so throughout knowing communication, like, we've given ourselves reasons as to why we're here, whether that be modern day religion, whether that be, like, you know, creation myths and mythology from different generations and different cultures, like, you know, be at Turtle Island all the way to, like, making the Big Bang, know, is also, like, a mildly a creation myth. Like, we have an idea. I think there's, like, an echo of it, but, like,
Speaker: I'm also like, this is my parents always get so mad at me. And I'm literally my whole family was like, so you don't believe in science. And I'm like, I never said that. All I say is i am there. I like to just be a little bit more skeptical about everything because everything we know is taught to us by people. And maybe this is too much. Like i've I'm like, I'm too lost in the sauce. But like, I just, I feel like also a lot of things that we know now aren't fact in like 10 or 15 years. So I'm like, Okay, like this could be true. i try not to, which is also huge, which is crazy that it's also like the only thing that I'm like trying to be like cautious about extremes is science with everything else. i'm I sweep generalizations. I was like, shake amen suck.
Speaker: like Okay, shake the amen. But what about the big bang? There's gotta be nuanced about the Big Bang here. I just don't think we should put all of our... I mean, not every Big Bang is the same.
Speaker: I just read a horrifying book that scared the living shit out of me called the End of Everything Physically Speaking or something like that. And it was all about like the heat death of the universe and where does existence come from and all this shit. And and and it was talking about the concept of the Big Bang and it was talking about how seeing stars is like seeing time. I don't know. It fucked me up. But it even even it was like, look,
Speaker: The Big Bang, as it is understood by the layman, isn't actually what the Big Bang is, you know? And and the concept of, like, there was just this big ba-ding, you know? Like, that's not actually what it what it was.
Speaker: But those those concepts, the one that always fucks me up and that I know, like, at its baseline, I believe about evolution. Like, I get it. I'm not like, no, some guy came and...
Speaker: you know, made cows out of dirt or whatever the the the the Bible story is. But nothing for for me, evolution just baffles my mind because of the scale that it has to exist on to think that it's like there were wolves and those wolves had black fur and then they were in a place where there was snow and they were like, okay, in a million years, just because we thought about it we now have white fur.
Speaker: And that just like, that fucks me up. And I know, i get it. I know smarter people than me can explain and understand how it works because it's like, well, they die if they don't have it. And the ones who do have it, but it's like, how the fuck does that happen? It's all gambling and luck.
Speaker: Yeah. How do photos work? I studied the history of photography. I understand like the chemical process of like capturing an image. Actually, say i don't understand how digital work. I do not understand how digital work and one day I'll learn, but right now brain too small. brain just To me, it's aliens. It's just that we had alien contact in the nineteen fifty s They gave us technology and they, you know. you know what It's like, I don't know. I think sometimes people are like, there's no magic. And i'm like, bird fly. Yeah.
Speaker: fact that like and I'm also talking to you from across the city rock in real time. walks It's crazy. like The fact that like instead of sprouting a hair, Bird was like, I shall take this thing to protect body and make a stick and on that stick these tiny little fethums you know like bananas i'm trying to stop saying that's crazy because i do know i need to stop using that word so like that's just the hardest one that has been the hardest freaking one yeah it's been so hard to take out i've been trying really hard to replace it with banana town but it that
Speaker: Oh, what? That's been my go-to. Anytime I hear myself saying it, I try to be like, that's Cuckoo Town Banana Pants or something. Like, I just try to make it really, like...
Speaker: But, but, cause then it's a bit of a game for me cause then I get to say a funny, silly thing, but it's like, yeah. Cause I do clock myself using a lot of like, that's nuts. That's crazy. That's this. And I'm like, oh, but I'm those things. I need to, I need to be nice to me. And know I'm like, at what point is it just reclaiming the word?
Speaker: You know, there was a private argument that I don't make in public about the hard R word because according to the Canadian government, I am that word. It's a field of the app square, man. Like every now and then i'm just like, or using like gay to mean know a bad thing. Only in the context of there is nothing.
Speaker: To me, what that word meant like in relation to so like what they were referring and what they would use it for, there's nothing that fits that more to me than traditional straight male behavior. Exactly. And there's nothing that's like, what are you so afraid of? Relax. Literally. not going to fight you. like yeah It's okay. Take a deep breath.
Speaker: Release it. it's ah And I think this comes back again to like insecurity. And I think it's just because like... I'll ever know what's going on in your brain. Say you've decided to just tell me, oh, I know everything. I'm good.
Speaker: Like, and I'm like, oh, i I don't, I don't know that. And you seem so assured of yourself. Even if inside you're like, don't fucking know anything. But, you know, that's, you know, it's just, that's how leaders. That's how we get cult leaders. They literally just smoked and mirrored their way and like show ponied like,
Speaker: Divine right of birth is bullshit. It's literally like family just was opportunistic, which truly is also a cornerstone of humanity, I think. Humanity. Especially when you, I mean, God, if you want to get, you could give direct examples of that, of like bloodlines.
Speaker: rarely, if ever, actually continue intact the way that they claim them. You know, like, i mean, the the the the first, what is it? The first 10 Caesars? No, not 10, but like the first like eight Caesars are supposed to all be Julio-Claudian and not a single one are blood relations. So many of them are like also like, this was my, I think Nero was a nephew, and Augustus was, no, I think I'm making i a cesarean. Yeah, Caesar adopted him after his death, but he was, i think he was his nephew. I think it was his sister's son, I think.
Speaker: I'm gonna tell you what, gonna pick up my book on great great past history and I'm gonna study later. I i don't know why that had to happen. I always make my partner laugh because I'm always like,
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I'm back on my Greek history greek history kick. I just listened to three three books about the same topic. You know, it's like, there' they'll be like, why? It's like, well, because, you know, you got to get like different perspectives and you got to, you know, have the information reiterated a few times. Like it doesn't stick. It's not like you read it once and you're like, oh, I remember all that, you know.
Speaker: I also just want to acknowledge we're talking about Roman history. know I keep saying Greek. I do the same. I know. I'm like, ooh, just in case someone's like a mid-Idle-Idle-Idle-Idle. Um, actually. don't know if a little scared of like, um, actuallys, but like, um, m'lady. you have no right now?
Speaker: This is Roman history. We know. but still, there's so much to love about Greek and Roman history. They're so silly and similar because how Rome took a lot and copy pasted.
Speaker: I want to circle i mean to the idea of we keep on bippin' and boppin' around our shared love of history. And I'm curious, Another element, something that I'm always kind of scratching at is the idea of, you know, I kind of hate when people are like, oh, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Like, I don't think that that's actually true. I think it's people who are unwilling to share history because it's like if you know something about how it's happened, like it's your duty to share that.
Speaker: And I'm curious, how have you found your engagement with history to affect, your sort of connections or like or a community that you've built around that or or have you found that i think it's made me very interested in like where my place is in the world in relation to others but i think it's also so interesting because like
Speaker: I see history so much as just like learning stories about people and learning about their lives and things. So i i mean, also, i am so guilty of like needing to try something or check something for myself in order to believe it.
Speaker: And I think that's just also a huge human flaw where it's like someone can tell you like, hey, this is how it's gonna work and we're still gonna wanna know. yeah Because I think at the end of the day, we're all a little too proud maybe. Can I ask you a question? I don't actually, history never informs my life actually is what I'm learning.
Speaker: ah whoops You raised something earlier that i that I wanted to follow up, this idea of the that the the singular conscious and the sort of the unique perspective that we don't recognize. And it something that really kind of twigged my brain years ago was this idea that consciousness actually isn't a renewable resource.
Speaker: The way that we... believe it is, you know, because we see, you know, we see movies, we see media of all kinds where people are just endlessly dying. We know, you know, up to this point, everybody's died up until now, you know, yeah you know, history books are full of dead people, right? You know, and yet we still trick ourselves into believing that it's like this perpetual, continual, connected flow. And it's not because like the the singular experience of being Alexander the Great
Speaker: has never happened again. you know The singular experience of being James Avramenko will not happen again. you know and And so this this idea of like consciousness not being a renewable resource in the same way that that we treat life, I don't know where i'm going with that. there's I don't know if there's a question in there, but it's just the same like. I think what you're saying is, you're since we know how it will end, why are we not using our time more preciously, perhaps? Yeah, and it's not so much like, you know, I'm i'm endlessly bored by people who are like, seize the day, carpe diem, all that stuff. But it's like, it's more about like an appreciation and an understanding of what, you know, of of what we've got.
Speaker: And that not necessarily meaning you have to make every day count for something big, but just sort of like recognizing that it's like, this is, as far as we know, this is your one kick at the can, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, I think, um I mean, depending how lost in the sauce we're going to get, I have like some pretty like banana town ideas about some things.
Speaker: so i Okay, let's go. I deeply believed in like,
Speaker: the circularity of time and with that, the circularity of just human energy. i think like individuality, yes, there will never be another person who's just like you. That might be a brain.
Speaker: But I think at its core, that energy that goes into powering the spirit, that is something that continues. I've always felt, this is so silly. I feel like I get so like weirdly meta about it, but there's been so many things in life where it'll be a situation where I'll have to do something and I'll just know how to do it. I'm like, this feels, this whole thing feels so familiar. Like I must've experienced it or like certain scenarios. Like how am I able to like conjure that outcome and like prep for it?
Speaker: Maybe it's anxiety. Who knows? It's like remembering. It's not, it's, it's, it's not that you're learning it. It's you're, you don't learn it. You remember it. It feels like, oh, I feel like I've done this before. a lot of my life has felt very familiar. And like, take that as it will. Perhaps that's just like my own brain's like need for control. And so I'm finding patterns in everything to create some sort of like a comfort for myself.
Speaker: But I mean, like, I think there's also just right now, we don't did get too deep into politics, but there's been a lot of loss of human life ah like an obscene amount in the last like couple years. And I do think that that affects people energetically. Like I've noticed a very, it was people who are sensitive to like the feelings of others because some people are are not. And that's so fun. I think that's so fucking powerful. yeah But to us softies, like um it's just like, I think we've all been really feeling it because like that amount of grief and that amount of like energetic
Speaker: imbalance I think it's also something that's like really, really felt. And I think it's like also kind of like when you can see outside of yourself, And you can put your needs to the side and think about it's like, you know, or some people are like, are you a hero or are you like the antihero? Because it's like if you had to pick the world or like your mom, who would you save? and you know, like it's so easy to be like, well, I'd save the world. But for a lot of my life, I'd save my mom. Fuck the world. Be d damned. So it's interesting like getting to that point where it's like if I'm able to like turn off my feelings and look at things objectively then I you know like I've come to to a weird place sorry mom where I think I could choose the world genuinely. i don't know if that makes sense but it it does yeah yeah like I think it takes time and I do think all people are capable of it. It just depends if your cycle of whatever we are doing
Speaker: calls for it. I think some people are newer energies because I think time is happening all at the same time, all on top of each other. That was something that really messed me up about this astrophysical, astrophysics book that I read because it was basically talking about how you can see time and, you know, like just by looking up at the stars, like you're actually observing time and and if you had a powerful full enough so telescope, you could observe the past, you know? um And, and um yeah, I think that there is a deeper cycle within these things. It's a bit morbid, but it's like, it's this idea of like, you know, within the last hundred years, the earth witnessed the single worst
Speaker: massacre of human life that has ever occurred in a contained period, ever, of any recorded history, of any any wars, any yada yadas, any skirmishes, anything, and you know, between 1939 and 1945, the world lost more human life than had ever before. But it only topped what had just been the worst massacre between 1914 and 1918. Like a year's war, a hundred years war. So there's these constant escalations. And there was this feeling of like,
Speaker: You know, obviously was a very skewed perception of peace afterwards, and there was a very small sliver of people who got to prosper out of it. But there was this kind of, you know, at least Western world peace that came out of it.
Speaker: Now, obviously, it only lasted a couple days until they started invading Korea and yada, yada, yada. But there was this feeling of appeasement for the blood god.
Speaker: You know, blood god went to bed for a little bit. And, you know, the blood god still needed it feeding consistently, but it didn't need the big gorging meal.
Speaker: And it feels like we're in a period now where the reserves have run dry and blood for the blood god is back on the menu, you know, and. and
Speaker: it's not a good thing, it's not a bad thing. I don't think good and good and evil exist. I think that it's it's it's all about impact and interpretation, but it's more about like, What does that mean for us with the scale of potential massacre that we can that we are already enacting and can potentially escalate to? yeah And what does that mean for like the value in perpetuating human life?
Speaker: you know Not to go real dark and not to go real cynical, but it's sort of like we've hit a point where... You know i read this book earlier this year about nuclear war. It's sort of a it was literally called nuclear war scenario.
Speaker: And it basically went through minute by minute what would happen if a nuclear bomb went off in the States. and And without fail, every single time anywhere in the world, once one nuclear bomb goes off, within about an hour and a half, the world is over.
Speaker: There's just no scenario where that's not what happens. And it's not just like, oh, one bomb went off and that's terrible and we feel bad. Like the cascading domino effect that will happen if one nuclear bomb goes off anywhere in the world, within an hour and a half, the world is over and it doesn't recover for about 20 to 30,000 years, you know? And so it's like we've gotten ourselves to a technological point where we've made ourselves irrelevant, you know? And we're not doing anything about it. We're just saying like, oh yeah, cool. Let's give the most unhinged, deranged, pantshitting, narcissistic loser the codes to the fuck to that, you know? And like, yeah, but don't worry because God's on our side, you know?
Speaker: It's all just like how just I think human life has never been more or less important. I think all life should be valued the same. It's all just, you know, unfortunately, some people have more access to being selfish.
Speaker: And when you when you give a mouse a cookie, they're going to ask for a glass of milk. you And, you know, like, I think there's also... and just so just the context of that book in relation to what we're talking about is fucking iconic. No, Richard Nass is orange. It's really small hands. Wow. Wow. think Yeah, I think it's all just, like, people... i think what we need to genuinely do is be a lot more comfortable with...
Speaker: being more uncomfortable. We've got to stop
Speaker: wanting and following through on the want. It's okay to want stuff. It's okay to want to be fancy. It's okay to want a lot of beautiful things, but it's like by you having that, that means someone else doesn't get to like have something a lot of the time. yes By you making a billion dollars, that means like other people can't make a hundred thousand dollars, you know? It's a physicalization of a zero sum game is what all this is. And it doesn't have to be like capitalism is a zero sum game and we don't as humans have to exist in that. There's another way. Money is literally something that we've just, I sell precious gemstones and it's like,
Speaker: Also, please don't stop buying them. i need a job because of the world we live in. But like, they're just beautiful. I mean, they're beautiful things from the earth, but it's like, they're only important because we've decided that.
Speaker: yes You know, like money only has value because as ah society, we've all, put our faith into it. And like, Hobbes wrote a book called Leviathan, which is all basically about how like, to have the best form of government, you need one thing above, or one person, I think is what he argues, that is aware that they're above everyone else and above law. And everyone who's below them has to agree that that's the one person that gets to make the rules. And yeah, instead of that being a person, that's literally like through capitalism, that's money. Money is the thing that controls us.
Speaker: And money isn't sentient. It doesn't have feelings. It is a cold and harsh dictator. And it sucks because it's like... It doesn't have to be like this.
Speaker: Sure, i understand wanting to be rewarded for doing a good job. course. It sucks that the validation of knowing that you're helping or like providing or, you know, doing something that is beneficial to the whole isn't enough.
Speaker: It's like the fruits, the fruits of your labor are not... You know, if I teach you something that I know, the fruits of that labor is not, and now I get to be a billionaire in a mansion, you know, it's like the ratio, you know, like some loser figured out a way to cut out bookstores.
Speaker: That's all he did. And now society is ruined because of this fucking asshole, you know, and it's like the fruits of that labor do not equate the labor itself, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. And because it's like, i and I don't know if it's just maybe like, I don't know what it is, but I can genuinely like, I empathize.
Speaker: I can empathize with the Jeffrey Bezos's of the world. You know, they saw an opportunity, they were opportunistic. They took a risk and it paid all off. And why shouldn't they make money? Why shouldn't they be successful?
Speaker: yeah Because by the one having the sum, the whole has none that intentionally rhymed. Mm. Mm. Quick.
Speaker: Kendrick, I am available for any theater. I'm just kidding. Swag. yeah Swag. Oh, fuck. it Sorry, with sir. I will wear her. I'm sorry. i I will wear the space I'm taking up. Let me bring that back in. Alrighty. I'm just going to hydrate. Oh, my God.
Speaker: Oh, fuck. um Okay. we got We just went down a rabbit hole. We it. a little grim. Got a little grim. Yeah. I love this shit, don't get me wrong. I'm clocking the time and I don't wanna just like be like, okay, well, bye, but I do want to, yeah. I wanna try and bring the energy up a little bit before we do begin the wrap up. This is a little bit of a left turn.
Speaker: I'm gonna smash a few different kind of questions together. We opened the conversation talking a little bit about Vancouver and talking about the community within it or lack thereof.
Speaker: Something that I've been encountering a lot recently is these the idea of like the circles within circles within circles within circles of Vancouver, which is already, even its broadest circle is a very small circle. In in your in your response me, in your email to me, you you described your your you know you're dating and your your sexuality as what you called a ah coffee order.
Speaker: And I thought that was one of the best pieces of language I had heard in a long time. i i often to refer to my mental health as as my ransom note. Because I'm like collecting letters. I'm like collecting letters to like make my demands to the chief of police, you know? And it's like, okay, I got to be a B, a B, a P, and a D. Now I can start spelling something else out, you know? But but but I thought coffee order was a beautiful piece of language. And and I'm curious.
Speaker: how do you engage with the sort of like the circles and the overlaps of, of neurodiversions of, of queerness, of, of activism, of being fucking burnt out in Vancouver, where it's like the rain starts. And even though everybody knows it rains here, the moment the rain starts, it's like everyone disappears. And then the sun comes out and they're like Oh, right. Oh yeah. I'm, ah I'm still alive. You know, how do you,
Speaker: engage with that for yourself to kind of keep yourself like joyful and not feeling like how do you keep yourself joyful in those realms?
Speaker: I feel like I just didn't really have community as a kid and I didn't really fit in in Ottawa and that's fine. And then I didn't really feel like I fit in super well at university. Like I had friends and stuff, but I wasn't like, I don't know i didn't really feel like myself. I didn't feel like myself until I was here.
Speaker: and it's just, there's something that's like very interesting about this Vancouver. Cause when I first got here, it was really hard. to make friends for about like
Speaker: four or five months and then something just switched and it's like,
Speaker: I don't know what, but then it was really easy. And i would just start taking classes on my own of stuff that was interesting to me, like a pottery class. And like, there'd be someone my age or like around there and we'd just like sit next to each other. And then, you know, I would just start like talking with them and like, you know, being like, well, we're doing this together. And like some of those things like led to like really beautiful friendships same thing with like some dance classes and stuff and like I met all of the girls i like i do my dance my dance crew I met all through like studying through unique dance whoop whoop shout out but like it's just like I don't know I feel like the way to wrestle with the flakiness of the city and just
Speaker: how closed off it could be is to just like Find something that's interesting and, you know, like it sucks to do things alone. So go with the intention of meeting someone. It's scary to talk to people in real life, but I think that there are a lot of environments where that is encouraged and it can be fostered.
Speaker: I'm not saying like come and talk to me in a nightclub and assume that that means you could touch me. I'm saying like if we're taking a pottery class and we're just like trying to decide what glaze we want to use, we can give each other feedback and we can talk to each other about it. You know, we're like,
Speaker: i start I also got into Vancouver and i started climbing and I bouldered for like five years. was Like the majority of folks here, you know, everyone climbs. It's sweet. Like, you know, I literally befriended a ah girl climbing there because I asked her to like, if I could watch her climb a thing. i was like, do you mind? Like it's called like baiting. If you show someone how to do a climb, it's you're so you're showing them, you're modeling how...
Speaker: they use their body to answer this puzzle. so give me some ideas, like a hint. And so I was just like chatting with this gal about it. then I was like, okay, cool, I'm done. is she like chased me into the change room and was like, please can I have your number? Blah, blah, blah. And I feel like a lot of the people I've met, it's been such a weird mix of like people who are from Vancouver and people who are not.
Speaker: And sometimes I wonder if people just have needed
Speaker: someone compassionate in their life. Yeah. But I feel like a lot of the time people also feel the need to like, I think do something. I'm very much a friend who is like, oh my God, let's just hang out on my couch and like play on our phones. And like, we can do this thing together. I love to give people the space to come as they are. And like, yeah, let's figure out where, what that looks like.
Speaker: I've really worked on releasing expectations surrounding folks and what they're capable of. And that's not slight. It's just like sometimes I can't go out after work. I just can't. Like I, you know.
Speaker: I'm done. And the same way i would want someone in my life to honor me when I say that I honor folks who say that to me, you know, and it's also like giving people space to just be like, it's okay if we're not vibrating at the same frequency right now. It's okay. Maybe we will in the future, but like, yeah you know, just like you bridges don't always have to be burned. Sometimes you can take a step back and it's just like the acknowledgement around like,
Speaker: I don't know. I guess it's like everything is that deep, but it's also not that deep. I think it's like, and I mean, I also will acknowledge like a lot of the things that I've but to literally just mentioned require like money and maybe I definitely like am an approachable looking person.
Speaker: have a nice face. Like to I'm like a kind face person. Like I can acknowledge that these things definitely do help in like getting to know people and stuff. But like, I don't know. I just, I think like,
Speaker: Why be sour when you can be sweet? That's something I say to myself a lot. Don't get me wrong. i can be a huge f freaking sour person. I'm sitting here being like, I'm so much better. Like, I've, let people burn bridges. I've burned my own bridges. And like, literally to this day, I'm still heating my hands by that fire. Like, I'm a penny bitch. But like, at the end of the day, too, it's like, you know, sometimes you just, you just got to take a risk. I think so much of life is taking a risk.
Speaker: yeah And I'm like, committing this to memory about work. Because it like, work is one place I'm so scared of taking risks. I'm like, oh God, please don't fire me. I need income to serve. Literally. yeah I also genuinely enjoy my job, but it's also that like resource scarcity mindset where I'm just like, fucking gym. We started here. We're ending here. like You never know when you're going to have your next meal. ah Literally.
Speaker: Dad, you've sworn me. I think that you really, you're tapping into something that I've been really trying to internalize and and behave this way myself. And I've also been trying to really trumpet it to anybody who will listen. But it's this idea of like, community is your responsibility.
Speaker: And like the things that you want, are your responsibility to do. If you want friends, you have to go be a friend. you and it Yeah, it's exhausting and it's a pain in the ass and it is inconvenient. But if that's what you want, you have to stop saying other people suck because they're not calling me. Other people suck because they're not texting me, because they're not making plans, because da-da-da-da-da.
Speaker: Tough shit. If that's a thing that is important to you, you have to be the one who goes and does it. And I believe that in my bones and I hate it and I fight it all the time and I reject it all the time. But inevitably, whenever it's like, oh, yeah, this is actually a fundamental value of mine that I need in my life that other people aren't doing.
Speaker: but that I want to do with other people. So I, you know, when I make it happen, inevitably it always feels good. You know, it always feels like, yeah, that's how it should have happened. Right. And I just think taking that responsibility for yourself is actually kind of a really helpful first step. It's not that it's hard to make friends in Vancouver.
Speaker: It's that. people don't take the first step. It's like, it's like people are waiting to see who blinks first, you know? And yeah, that is uncommon in other cities, but it's like, okay, then live somewhere else if you can't deal with that.
Speaker: you know I think a lot of people here and I literally, my algorithm is just serving me like shelter kittens who are really scared and really standoffish. yeah And it's like something hurts you. yeah and You know, like it could be ah visually there are some things in Vancouver that are really hard to sit with and see every day. And I, you know, like there's a lot of civil unrest and there's a lot of things that are wrong fundamentally in the city.
Speaker: And being a young person too, I think that that's got to feel really isolating what everyone who's you know, like able to vote before you is just making all these calls for you that just don't reflect your nature. I think it's like also I think why so many young people are so disenfranchised when it comes to like wanting to vote because it it almost feels like what's the point, you know? and But it's like that's the point.
Speaker: That's the fucking point. That's why you vote. like Enfranchise yourself. You know, that's what I always try to push is like enfranchise yourself then. Go fucking... piss them off by going and voting you know like like be a pain in the ass go vote yeah like do something about it what am i even trying to say i often don't know what i'm saying until i'm halfway through my sentence and even then i'm like yeah we'll see you know sometimes they're like really sometimes i'm really good at holding on to my threads and then sometimes they're gone yeah i'm
Speaker: Yeah, I think people here remind me of shelter cats because they are very skittish and they often equate gentleness and someone being kind as a transaction and as if they're looking for something.
Speaker: but I don't know what's taught them as a whole, but I do feel as though there's there's a very, and it could also be like a generational thing, like maybe, our whole like millennial gen z like you know maybe everything this post-capitalistic society has or and our landscape has colored how we view interpersonal things and now we don't know what someone wants from us it's like what why do what do you want from me like it's unsafe do you can are you asking for something that's more than i can give but also we have a fear around saying no So by putting up this cold front and by pushing away first, you are protecting yourself.
Speaker: And I think sometimes you just got to like... Wear that down a little bit. Not in the like, no means yes. In the like, sometimes you've just got let someone bail on you a couple times and meet them where they're at. If someone can't get out of the house, just be like, do you want to just like watch a movie at your house? Like I can come to you or like, oh, I don't know. Like I love to just like treat my friends to dinner. and So it's just like, what are those like little things are around my...
Speaker: things are so expensive here. And some of my friends, like, I just, I'm like, God damn, like, let me let's like take this first pyramid level off of your needs so that you can focus on things that are more important because like that first level should be a baseline of human necessity and decency. Not necessity, but like, I think that it should be human rights. I think you should be allowed Shelter, nutrition, food, and warmth.
Speaker: Or, yes, is that Maslow's first thing? I know it's like food, sleep, and shelter, and warmth. i think that's the first one. Yeah. Clothes, I think, is part of shelter. Is the next one? Oh, okay, okay. I think that's all like that one. And then you move towards like being able to an individual.
Speaker: Yeah. It's like beating in esteem. That's like the third one. I think like first it's like like friendships and like relationships. I don't think romance Maybe it's not. Maybe you are right. Maybe I'm just telling you you're wrong out of nothing. These are cycles that I haven't studied in years. I'm drawing from the, there's cobwebs on that memory, you know? I'm like sifting through the piling calendar in my mind. i just I'm picturing like an attic, you know, and there's like, it's in the back corner, you know, like it's like, I don't know. For some reason I might, might yeah, exactly. My mind and met immediately went to the scene in in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, where he's he finds a present stuck behind the the chimney.
Speaker: And he sees it. it's and It's a Christmas present that he's hidden from years before. funny. Yeah, anyway. You are... Amazing. You're fascinating. Thank you so much. I feel like this is one of the things that I am so grateful in doing this show that I didn't realize. it was like I was giving myself a little bit of a gift in creating this show was was creating the opportunity to to meet to meet people and chat with them and and to get to hear this other side because it's like, you know, we've known each other.
Speaker: God, going on over a year, you know, you've been, you came to my birthday. yeah I did come to your birthday and I did win the prize. Right. And like that, I mean, that immediately puts anybody who comes to my birthday is already like in a, in a tier up, but it's like,
Speaker: Yeah, two years, something like that. And yet we've never actually had a chance to like have a one-on-one conversation. you know and and And I do much better in... you know As a friend of mine once said years ago, I'm exhausting in crowds.
Speaker: you know like i'm just i but i'm not I'm much better at this. and what like just and You want people to have a good time. And I can appreciate that. But see, people who are like born to host and entertain, they get spread so thin at social things. Exactly.
Speaker: dive into them because they are so concerned about everyone else having a good time that yeah it's like hard to dig in yeah so i just yeah it's it taking the time to chat with me means a lot and i really appreciate it and i just like this has been such an amazing conversation and like yeah i i really feel like you know we were making the joke before hit record but it's like i genuinely feel like we could do one of those awful joe rogan pons and still have really cool, cool stuff to talk about. So oh yeah if you ever want to come back on again, I would love to have you again, because I feel like we could keep keep unpacking some of this stuff, you know, and I'll bring notes next time on like yeahll breastttma one a period of history and be like, well, according to research. Yes, you got to teach. Okay, that's what we'll do. We'll do a follow up where you will have to teach each other something.
Speaker: Yeah, there will be PowerPoints or I guess they call them slide decks now. G Suite. Before we wrap up though, two things.
Speaker: Where would you like to point listeners if they would like to find you g do you? Do you want to guide them somewhere? Do you want to stay mysterious? What's what's your preference? I have a public Instagram. It's just my full name. So at Leandra Gallette, if you want to hang out, I just, I think my meme game is pretty strong. i just post those in stories. yeah i do a like a photo dump a quarter, but like, I don't know, like,
Speaker: Yeah. but You know, you can find me there should you so choose. Or if it's spring, summer season, look for me in any park. I'll be sitting there playing a Sudoku, probably smoking a joint.
Speaker: ah Fantastic. He's the one. Last thing. What I love to do, always try to leave listeners with like an actionable thing. You know, and I i was saying that in in our message. Like, i I always like to try and get a little bit. Because I'm somebody who can get really stuck in theory. I love talking theory. I'm very much, I can, what do they call it? You know, i can i can I can understand it. I can't necessarily embody it. Conceptualize, yeah. like And so I love leaving listeners on an actionable thing. And I'm curious, what's one thing you would recommend people do if they wanted to be a little bit more of an effective community member, either to themselves or or to the people around them?
Speaker: I think... Just not being afraid of where your community comes from, you know, like maybe approach things less
Speaker: I mean, this is the for me too. I'm working on it actively, like try to approach people with curiosity instead of already deciding how the conversation is going to go or who they are already. That would be my like action step for like fostering community is just like people aren't always out to get you. Yeah.
Speaker: Goddamn. There it is right there. Well, one more time, Leandra, Leandra Gillette or Gia, we'll find out who knows. Thank you so much. and And I, I got every time i have the same dumb, I always hit the end of the internet, the interview and I'm always like, Oh fuck. I still haven't thought of like a sign off. So I always just built, I'm like, okay, well, thanks.
Speaker: And, or, or how everyone finished their like ah public speaking in grade school. um And yeah, um done yeah That is why apples grow on trees. yeah
Speaker: And that's it. Thank you one more time to Liandra for joining me on the show. It's always a pleasure to chat with someone who can indulge both my history, nerdiocity and my existential dread. And thank you for making it all the way to the end of the episode. If you want more friendless content, why not sign up for my weekly sub stack?
Speaker: That's where you're going to weekly recommendations for books, music, movies, all kinds of fun stuff that I have found throughout the week, as well as a brand new piece of experimental writing from me.
Speaker: I've been having an absolute blast writing them. And I think you will have an absolute best reading them. So if that interests you, sign up in the links in the show notes.
Speaker: But that's going to do it for me. So let's wrap things up here. Thank you so much for listening. And I hope I will catch you back here next week for another brand new episode. But hey, as always, I'm not going to worry about that right now. And neither should you, because that is then.
Speaker: This is now. So for now, I'll just say I love you and I wish you well. Fun and safety, sweet peas.
