Transcript
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Welcome back. We took a few months off, but we didn't tell you that. It's going to be a little rusty around here. It's going to be a little rusty around here. ah We got on the horn about an hour ago, and we are just recording now.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's how rusty it is.
Barstool Conclusions: We're doing great. We're doing great.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Welcome. to another episode of Woodworking is Bullshit, your favorite podcast where the two co-hosts take three months off at a time, like today's episode. I'm your host, Paul Jasper of Copper Pig, woodworking scientist by day, woodworker by night, and my boy is in the chair, Eric Curtis, fine furniture maker and content creator.
Barstool Conclusions: What's
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I love when you do that.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I was hoping you were going to do that.
Barstool Conclusions: crackalacking, baby boy? How you doing?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I love it. I love when you do that, honestly. It's fantastic. Buddy, buddy, buddy. We have, I know, i feel I feel out of sorts.
Barstool Conclusions: It's been a hot minute.
Barstool Conclusions: i can tell
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's been, so I know, it's been three months since we've recorded. Now, everyone's saying, what are you talking about? You had episodes every two weeks. Yeah, because in November, we had like a recording bonanza.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, we stockpiled them.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It was just that there were so many people available and we were like hitting on all cylinders and we had so many ideas and everything was just happening. So we take it when we can get it, you know, when the opportunity presents itself.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, also, it's's it's good to take creative breaks from things. you know like we We had a bunch of hot guests lined up, and we we we hopped on them when when they were available.
Barstool Conclusions: But also, just like, it's then good to sit back and a breath and have time to think about what you want to bring to the table in the future. Think about what the future of the pod's going to be, all those things.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'll be honest, I missed recording. I felt, let's talk about, let's talk about this winter, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Sure.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Because the last time we recorded was November and it is now March or no, sorry, December.
Barstool Conclusions: December, early December.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And and yeah, and it is now March. How was the winter for you, Eric?
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, buddy. A lot of things happened this winter. I got a pup, you know, so we were kind of breaking him in and figuring each other out, figuring out life together.
Barstool Conclusions: delightful thing. Teddy, um you know, Theodore Oswald, Cornelius Roosevelt, the third Esquire, a real, real distinguished gentleman um and ah spent a lot of time in the shop.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Tennessee?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Tennessee?
Barstool Conclusions: And while I really like I'm umm a cold weather boy at heart, you know, that Latvian blood runs thick in my veins. um By by the time the weather broke this week and it started to get warm and the sun came out, I was like, oh, I didn't I didn't realize like I was I was in the winter blues.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: how How much you were missing it?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, man. Like just being out in the sunshine and like seeing other people smiling feels like it's been seven fucking lifetimes since I've like, you know, just had a pleasant interaction with another human being on the street.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. So can I step off from that sentiment? So um look, the In this podcast, we pride ourselves on our authenticity and just being real with each other and with our listeners.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'm going to be honest. I had a hard winter.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I was frequently feeling lonely, even though I'm married to a wonderful woman and she's, um you know, she's around me all the time.
Barstool Conclusions: this is
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's great. And I have a daughter.
Barstool Conclusions: Happy birthday, by the way, Vicky.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Thank you.
Barstool Conclusions: Hell fucking yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Thank you. I'll tell her that her birthday's this week. Even with my wonderful family, something, and I think it's seasonal affective disorder, SAD, right, sad.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Something about the lack of sunlight, the lack of interaction had me feeling really blue this winter. And I was, like, I would go into my shop most days if I could, if it wasn't too fucking cold out there.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I i know a lot of people probably relate to this feeling, but when you're in the shop,
Barstool Conclusions: Mm-hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: With the doors closed, you're alone for hours and hours and hours, right? And I'm an extrovert. i I get so much energy from talking and interacting with others.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Just seeing your face across the camera right now, Eric, it like gives me like a little warm like feeling like, hey, there's my there's my bud. like One of my best friends on the earth is like with me right now.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And so it was just a long, cold winter. And I feel like I suffered unnecessarily a little bit.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But, um you know, we're back. And I realized how much I missed the podcast because recording the podcast is an opportunity. And I think like the listeners probably feel this way. It's an opportunity to commune with friends.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Even if you, whether you're the listener or whether you're the host, you're communing with friends. One's a more active version and one's a more passive version. Oh, I i don't know. The listeners might, they say it's passive, but I know a lot of listeners write to me that they yell at the, they yell at the podcast.
Barstool Conclusions: I was about to say, i know that they are conversing with us. We just can't hear them.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: They yell at the podcast. I know so many people have told me that. If you yell at this podcast when we're recording it, drop a comment, okay? Because i bet we're going to have a lot of comments. But anyway, it was a rough winter, and I'm happy to be recording again.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'm happy to see some semblance of sunlight again because I feel so much better. i just feel inspired again, warm and fuzzy again, full of gratitude again.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Like it just, what a difference the the winter versus yeah spring makes.
Barstool Conclusions: Hell yeah, buddy. um I'm glad we're back on the horse. I'm glad to be back here. I'm glad you're feeling better. it's it's It's coming up aces all around the last couple of days.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, it's been good. All right, so today, We'd like to get back into it with an episode of Barstool Confessions, your favorite format. This is our fifth time doing this.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Now, as you might recall, Barstool Confessions happened quite organically through a ah recommendation of Eric's, which is, look, this whole thing started with us just talking, probably drinking a little too much at the bar together.
Barstool Conclusions: I don't know what you're talking about.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Even though Eric's rolling sober tonight. Good for you, Eric.
Barstool Conclusions: I know.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm not. i have a little whiskey.
Barstool Conclusions: Might be the first step.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: and the whole Barstool Confession thing started with just kind of reflecting back to how the podcast started, which is we just talk about things that are on our mind. Usually they're they're fairly difficult to parse out. And so we like to hear each other's thoughts on it, ah often philosophical in nature, often emotional in nature, not not sort of the slam dunks, you know, sort of multi multifaceted questions. So today,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah Eric and I are both coming to each other with questions that we don't know ahead of time. I have four. Eric's got seven. We'll see how many we get to. Some are are our own thoughts and some are from our patrons this time.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's what's new. We asked our patrons, hey, do you have any yeah interesting questions for Barstool Confessions? Let's go. Eric, why don't you lead off this time?
Barstool Conclusions: let's Let's see how it rides, baby. I'll lead off, which is great because I think this question actually stemming from ah you know an honest introduction about the emotional toll the last few months has taken and the value of relationships and the value of of creating together, creating content together. This is what I've been sitting with. And I tried to come up with, in full disclosure, ah some different styles of questions because I feel like
Barstool Conclusions: Often when I approach Barstool Confessions, and maybe this is just who I am as a human being, the questions are about me, and then I'm just talking to you about them. Which, I mean, in fairness, like that's friendship, but that's not necessarily good podcasting, right?
Barstool Conclusions: So I say that with the caveat of like this first question is about me.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: ah So...
Barstool Conclusions: ah so Here is what I've been sitting with the last couple of days. And I think I've been sitting with it for a little bit longer than the last few days, but I've been trying to put it into a question form.
Barstool Conclusions: And so the question is, what value does the social part of social media hold for you? And by you, I mean you specifically, Paul Jasper, PhD.
Barstool Conclusions: And do you think that it influences your creative decision making?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Can you read that again?
Barstool Conclusions: Sure, share share sure, sure.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: that's multifaceted.
Barstool Conclusions: What value does the social part of social media hold for you? And do you think that it influences your creative decision making?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: The social part of social media holds tremendous value to me in that it connects me to both other makers who have become best friends of mine, you, for example,
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But it also connects me to a group of customers who buy things and I very much want to know them. And I'm happy to invite, you know, invite them in as part of like the experience of working with me or working together on a project and just members of the community. um I am someone who has the the time and the space in my life to work.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: open, I'm open to new relationships. I'm open to new people. ah i have met some fantastic people in this community.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And it has been, um it has been a absolute value add to my life. So that is what social media has. The social part of social media.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Has it affected my work? A hundred percent it's affected my work. And I don't know if that means I'm soft core. Like, you know, there's this like, there's this like, you know, like Cinemax versus like, right.
Barstool Conclusions: why
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: i Like, saw was it like Cinemax?
Barstool Conclusions: I'm so excited to hear where you're going with this, buddy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I was like, sorry. Anytime I hear like soft core, like the the word Cinemax like pops into my head for some reason.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Barstool Conclusions: OK. All right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah get
Barstool Conclusions: All right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But um so when I say that the the social media affects my art, part of me thinks about those hardcore artists with a monocle and a fucking long ass cigarette holder who are like, darling, my art is only affected by me.
Barstool Conclusions: sure share Sure. Sure. Sure. All
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: you should never let anyone affect you You know, that kind of thing.
Barstool Conclusions: right. Right. Major ego. Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, like you're some piece of shit if you're amenable to the thoughts of others. You have to be such so locked in on your own ideas that you're totally um you know bulletproof to other people's ideas.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That is not who I am. I have had ideas of the community or ideas I've seen or or ideas i've seen or ideas that people have so given to me affect me greatly.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I think for the better, because to think that I'm enough of an artist to have a rich enough career that I think of literally everything myself unaided, think is a fallacy.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I welcome the ideas of others. I still infuse a ton of myself into it. But their ideas push me into new places that I otherwise would not go.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And so I very much welcome their influence.
Barstool Conclusions: Interesting. See, well, the reason that I wanted to ask you that question on this episode is because I knew that you would have a different answer than I did.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: How about you?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right.
Barstool Conclusions: And um that's not to say I disagree with your answer. You know, like obviously you're one of my closest friends and we met through Instagram, you know, ah so many, so many of my closest friends I met through Instagram.
Barstool Conclusions: The woman I'm currently dating, we first met through Instagram, you know? So there's there's there's a huge amount of social value to it, okay?
Barstool Conclusions: But when... the noise gets loud enough, it becomes difficult to discern good information from bad.
Barstool Conclusions: And, you know, we as humans have a negativity bias. And I know, um though I think I have developed a decently thick hide, that, you know, it gets under my skin from time to time. And it can be hard to really like
Barstool Conclusions: The visual I was thinking about it ah in this in relation to this is like, if you're a performer in like a local theater, you know, you it might be a lot of people that you already have relationships coming to see your work and supporting you. Might be people like there's a really supportive small a community around that that is willing to embrace you and and you meet new people and everybody thrives and that's really, really wonderful. And as...
Barstool Conclusions: as that grows larger and larger and you get into regional theater, you get into like off Broadway, Broadway, the critique becomes louder and louder.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right, because there's more people.
Barstool Conclusions: And well, there's more eyeballs on it. Right. And that's not to say that everybody has to love your work until you're a wonderful special flower and you've never done anything wrong.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: But if you listen to enough of the critique, because we have that inherent negativity bias, it it it becomes a lot.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right.
Barstool Conclusions: So
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: sorry can can i can i Sorry, can I clarify what you mean by negativity bias? So for every 10 comments, you might receive nine are amazing and one's negative.
Barstool Conclusions: Please.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're only going to really hear the negative one. Is that is that what you mean?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's it's you latch on to the the negative thing, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And and all of us all of us are like that, I feel like.
Barstool Conclusions: um
Barstool Conclusions: All of us, yeah. oh Well, I mean, it's a human instinct, right? like you
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You could have 99 brilliant comments in one stinker and you'll just be thinking about the stinker.
Barstool Conclusions: Well, I mean, even just going all the way back to basic instinct, like you can be in a field of flowers and the one thing you'll see is the snake, you know, like it's the thing that keeps you alive.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right. Well, it's survival.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, exactly.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. It's survival.
Barstool Conclusions: But so um all that to say, while I understand and appreciate and acknowledge the very positive social aspects, I feel like my social circle
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: is is butting up against its capacity. And so any new information um is not necessarily positive information. Obviously, there are like people on my Patreon, people on our Patreon who I really enjoy interacting with.
Barstool Conclusions: But those people are, again, they're like like people who paid for a ticket to come see you in a theater versus like being an actor on a street and people on YouTube just like throwing tomatoes at you for no reason.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I see.
Barstool Conclusions: And so... All of that to say, i was sitting with the idea of turning off comments on YouTube completely and just tell them to go fuck themselves.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, wow.
Barstool Conclusions: And the more I thought about it, but like, and I asked my patrons today, i was like, do you like, how do you guys feel about comment sections on YouTube videos? Like, do you enjoy commenting?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: Do you find value in the communal aspect of, of that? Or are you just in every one of them to the, to I think there's 15, 18 responses right now after a couple hours, every single one of them is like the comment section is a cesspool.
Barstool Conclusions: I never go in there. If I go in there, it's just to simply say something kind because I like your videos and then dip out because algorithms. That's it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So, wow. Okay. I'm a bit shocked that it, that it, it that you, you thought about it that, that far.
Barstool Conclusions: Well, then i made the decision to turn them off and I did it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Huh?
Barstool Conclusions: And you know what's interesting? I watched, oh, whatever, 150 videos I have on YouTube or something. I hit bulk edit, it remove comments, shut them down. And I just watched each video go from like 300 comments to zero, 500 comments to zero, 100 comments to zero.
Barstool Conclusions: And as I watched it happen, I was just like, yeah, that was the right decision. Like it was like immediately.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Holy shit.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Really?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. There was not not even like a modicum of regret. It was just like...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But are are you throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Like, are you letting the few negative comments like ah dictate the behavior as opposed to the overwhelming number of positive comments?
Barstool Conclusions: That's ah potentially, potentially. um And here's, as I've thought through this, the people who want to engage and ask questions um are generally people who are on my Patreon.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And if you're not, if you're not, like if you can't afford to pay for Patreon, I get that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay. Okay. I get you.
Barstool Conclusions: Like there is a group chat that is accessible to all free members as well. You can go in there. And what that does is it just, it makes an extra step for you to go and converse.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's select. Yes. Yes.
Barstool Conclusions: And so.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's an effort selection bar.
Barstool Conclusions: Right, right, right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right.
Barstool Conclusions: And so all the clowns who are like, this guy's a fucking tool bag. It's like, well, now you're going have to go out of your way to go sign up for a Patreon to go into the group chat to comment the thing, which like some of them might do.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Wow, Eric.
Barstool Conclusions: That's fine. Like, and and and again, I'm not saying that I am right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I doubt it.
Barstool Conclusions: I'm not saying that I am ah above critique. There's like if I am unlikable on camera, that's information worth having, you know? But what I think ultimately it is doing is it is altering the way that I think about approaching my videos. And that, I think, is a net creative negative for me.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Wow.
Barstool Conclusions: And I think it's a disservice to the people who actually want to watch my videos and want to watch me put interesting objects out into the world.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm a bit stunned.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I applaud it Look, look i mean at feet looking down, what i see you doing is like, I, you know I put myself out there in this way.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: There are reactions primarily good 95% of the comments are good. Some are bad. I found that the bad ones are affecting me emotionally and changing the way I operate within my head or with my within my creative bounds. And I want to try eliminating that interference for a time and see how it feels.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Is that is that right?
Barstool Conclusions: I mean, for for sure. Like, it's it's an experiment. I'm not saying it's a forever thing. I might do it and find that it's not helpful, you know? And and then I have to assess something else. Maybe YouTube is not a thing that I want to do.
Barstool Conclusions: But I i do think the creative process, like creating the object, then creating the video and sharing the video with people, I find a lot of joy and value in that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: But, you know, like...
Barstool Conclusions: I don't let clients dictate a commissioned piece because ah you are trusting me to make you the best piece I can in the time that I'm making it.
Barstool Conclusions: Similarly, i don't think if it is just a random passerby on YouTube, I don't think that I can let that person dictate the type, the quality, the style of video that I put out.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay.
Barstool Conclusions: If my patrons are curious to see me go in a different direction, that's a conversation. That's not a shouting match.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Got it.
Barstool Conclusions: You know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Got it. I think this is fascinating that you're trying this experiment.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm all about experimenting with things. So I think this is great. A note about my answer in retrospect. It sounded so rosy and simple, whereas yours sounded like difficult and complex. Mine is rosy and simple because I don't, so i for some reason, I don't get trolls.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I haven't had a negative comment in years on any form of social media.
Barstool Conclusions: Well, that's...
Barstool Conclusions: That's...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So it's easy if everyone's just like, this is awesome.
Barstool Conclusions: Right. If everybody's nice. Yeah. But again, i I think that's why I was trying to use i was trying to use the analogy of like a community theater.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, everyone's been nice to me, but I'm not on YouTube.
Barstool Conclusions: right like it's a small It's a curated group of people that want to support the local theater.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Yeah. I'm in community theater. Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And like you're there and you've been there and it's it's fancy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm not on Broadway. Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And that's not I'm not trying to say, like oh, I'm bigger than you. But there
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: No, no, I get it. No, you're, you're on the line on YouTube.
Barstool Conclusions: but but there is
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're in the lion's den.
Barstool Conclusions: it's Right, exactly.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: You're just out there for for a bunch of angry old white dudes to complain about how you know their grandpappy didn't do it that way, so this fucking idiot doesn't know what he's doing.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Well, I'll stay in community theater. Thank you.
Barstool Conclusions: I mean, there's so much value in doing that, though, you know? Anyway. All right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: All right. the ah Eric, that was that was a good one.
Barstool Conclusions: what's it Hit me with the next one, buddy boy. Yeah, I wanted i wanted to open with that one because I knew that would be the one we take the longest on, and then by the end of the episode, we're going be like yes or no questions, just lightning rounding it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's good.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's good. That's really good.
Barstool Conclusions: Okay.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: No, I like that.
Barstool Conclusions: Hit me, buddy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay. Okay. And I'll ask you this question and I'll give you my answer first so you can kind of so cogitate on a little bit.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: What's something that you've seen recently that's inspired you to change either how you see the world or how you approach and live your life?
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm. Read that for me one more time before you give the answer.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'll say, what's something that you've seen recently that has inspired you to change how you see the world or how you live your life?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay, i have I've got two small anecdotes to share with you about my answer. so As I was kind of suffering through this winter, feeling very, very down and very lonely, despite having a great life by all by all measurable means.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Emotions are not measurable, or I guess don't respond to measures. Anyway, I i stumbled across this musical artist named Ray, R-A-Y-E.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So she's a a female singer from London. She was beat down by the recording industry for a long time and eventually was so desperate to get out from this contract that they promised her, hey, we're going to we're going to show your art to the world. They promised her four albums or something in her contract over five years. She spent five years. They didn't you know how many albums they put out? zero They didn't think she was good enough or would have the audience. And eventually she put out a plea on social media being like, I can't do this anymore. I work so hard. I want i want to get my art out there.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: i'm I'm becoming like, you know, I've suffered through addiction and and I'm at my wit's end. I don't know what to do. And they released her from her contract and then she blossomed into this incredible artist.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah She won six equivalent of a Grammy of of britaint Brit awards, which are the Britons version of the Grammys. She won six the next year. or is that not a fuck you?
Barstool Conclusions: Shows you what those fucking business assholes know.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: yeah I think they're pretty sad that they they slept on that.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: that they They didn't realize what they had, the value. And anyway, she decided that. and I'm getting to what inspired me so much. She decided as part of like, now that she's an independent artist, not under the thumb of any stupid record label, she put out this concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'm going to London in a few months. I'm going to stop at the Royal Albert Hall because of this. I saw it. she She's like, I've always wanted to, my dream is to perform here.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So this is what she did.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: She put out her first album. She won six Brit Awards with it, which is amazing, phenomenal. And then she ponied up all her savings, an entire year's worth of money, all her money from an entire year, all of it, to hire an orchestra and a writer and a choir.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So it's the Heritage Orchestra, which plays all kinds of music. They're an orchestra, a classical orchestra that is not afraid to try different types of music. And they're not afraid to use like amplification. So the violins have amps attached to them. So like, it's, it's highly like forward thinking.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And she hired the flames collective, which is a, a choir based in the London area. And, She put all her money on the line for this dream. I want to perform my album at the Royal Albert Theater. And as part of that, this album that she put out that won all these awards, she had to reimagine it in the context of a choir and an orchestra. So she worked with a composer and herself to recompose every song for orchestra.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Her family's in the audience, her mom and dad, her sisters, every her grandmother. It's her dream come true. And I just stumbled on this somehow. I don't even know how I stumbled on this.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But what I saw was truly, truly magical. I saw someone who wanted art, who who loves art so dearly and had paid such a price under the thumb of corporate art.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: that when she got out, she just blossomed right artistically and put everything on the line, all her own money. And this concert is beyond. It is so beyond in so many ways. and it doesn't I'm not talking about the type of music it is.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I don't even know what kind of music it is. Some of it's rap, some of it's classical, some of it's jazz, some of it's It almost defies genre. But what I saw was beyond inspiring.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I saw an orchestra who is forward thinking and the best players at the top of their game. I saw a conductor who arranged and composed all the music. And absolutely, he and I contacted him on Instagram not that long ago. He said it was the work of a lifetime. He he said it was his name's Tom.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Tom said it was it was a dream come true. was the work of a lifetime. And Ray is now touring Europe in stadiums. like She's internationally famous now. like She has blown up. And the Flames Collective, the the the choir, which I think has ah some basis in like underprivileed like trying to provide opportunities for amazing singers who maybe were down on the luck or underprivileged. And like the whole thing came together in the most amazing concert And what was truly humbling about this is I saw a group of musicians so at the top of their game. They were so good, all of them.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I couldn't imagine better. Like it it couldn't have been better. And Ray sang her ass off. She put it all on the line. And I mean, total authenticity, total, complete vulnerability.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: the utmost talent and and professionalism, but with without any of it affecting her being like human to human, low level, hey, I see you, thank you for coming, thank you. And like, you could hear it in her voice. She gets choked up all throughout the show. It's just, the whole thing was so meaningful and it had provided me such a huge,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: tsunami of inspiration at a time that I was in my shop feeling so sad and uninspired.
Barstool Conclusions: Mmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah
Barstool Conclusions: Mmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I was just so down from the winter. And to see all of this come together, to see an artist take such a big risk and succeed in such a huge way with the help of others, it was such, is is it moving beyond. I was in tears, tears.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Tears streaming down my face, Eric, for probably two weeks. Every time I'd listen to it, tears. And I'm like, do I need therapy? Like, what's wrong with me? Like, seriously, like something might be emotionally wrong with me because I am break.
Barstool Conclusions: i think I think you just have emotions, buddy, and music moves you.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But but there's Eric, they're too like it's so big.
Barstool Conclusions: I think that's okay.
Barstool Conclusions: See, if anybody if anybody listening ever wonders why I love Paul, it's because...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And so I.
Barstool Conclusions: What was that? Like a seven, eight-minute monologue?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm sorry.
Barstool Conclusions: that No, no, no, no, no.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Barstool Conclusions: don't apologize Don't apologize.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It just came out of me like a spigot.
Barstool Conclusions: I just sat back and let you cook. I know. I know. And that's the thing, that... that That joy is genuine and deep. And and while like it is your experience, but it also has nothing to do with you, you're just taking deep joy and profound insight in just the pure existence of a beautiful thing.
Barstool Conclusions: That's a beautiful thing in and of itself.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: eight Well, thank you.
Barstool Conclusions: You know? Like you're getting choked up right now.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: but
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I am a little bit. am little bit. But Eric, you know, the question then became two two things. Like, why am I so deeply moved by this story and this and this moment in time? Why is it affecting me so severely? And number two, how do I channel more of this feeling that I must be craving for? I must be just absolutely parched for. Like, how do have more of this in my own life?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And that is so, well, right.
Barstool Conclusions: Well, that's an entirely different question from the question you asked, buddy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So there's, so, so the original question, sorry, everyone has been 10 minutes since the original question.
Barstool Conclusions: nope no, let let the boy cook.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: What's something you've seen lately that, that has changed how you see the world or see your life or operate. And this has changed. that I want to, I want more of whatever this thing you call it is that I've described over the last 10 minutes.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I want more of that in my life. And how do you do it?
Barstool Conclusions: Okay. Goddamn. I'm going to answer that second question first. Because i think I think the reason it's so impactful and so beautiful and so moving is because it's rare.
Barstool Conclusions: I don't think that it can be that powerful in abundance. You know, like when you, when you stumble upon the thing and like, I like music does it to me as well, you know, and there, there are certain performances that you just like, you watch a person,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's a great point.
Barstool Conclusions: either it all comes together just right or or it's or it's so deeply honest or it's both.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Yes. That's it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yes.
Barstool Conclusions: like it's you know like There's something about it that just like that just hits you square in the soul.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And it,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right. And you you realize that in that moment, you might be seeing the artist at the pin, perhaps at the pinnacle of their entire career.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that's a profoundly moving thing because the pinnacle only happens once. like You might have different peaks, you know but but like the rarity of that thing, like a beautiful flower is a beautiful flower because it only lasts for a few days.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. You have a great point. You have a great point.
Barstool Conclusions: you know um So yes, I do think that we should seek that and be profoundly grateful when we get to experience it. But it's it's only that moving because it's fleeting, you know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: God damn it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I know you're right.
Barstool Conclusions: hey Hate to break it to you, buddy, boy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So fuck off.
Barstool Conclusions: All right. Now to the first question. um I will give, I will give ah two answers.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: What have you seen lately?
Barstool Conclusions: The first one is not as profound, but, but it is in relation to music as well. um I have always been somebody who latches on to albums and, and to some extent, like concept albums, if you will, like a collection of songs can be great, but like if, if an album has an overarching theme that drives towards something, yes, yes.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's what this concert has. it's It's a story arc over an hour.
Barstool Conclusions: Yes, that's a that's a moving thing, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And it's like, you're so moved.
Barstool Conclusions: You get you get invested in whatever this thing is that's trying to develop.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: So anyway, Gorillaz released a new album last Friday called The Mountain, and it's you can really sense. I can't even I can't remember who the the lead songwriter and vocalist is, but you can sense him.
Barstool Conclusions: contending with, sometimes very blatantly, sometimes subtly, ah loss, presumably the loss of of somebody very close to him.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And kind of going through this arc of like, trying to seek like like the wisdom of the sage on the mountain. Right. Like that's the concept of the album.
Barstool Conclusions: and And it's just really fascinating. And as I've been working ceaselessly over the last couple of weeks, that album's just been on repeat. And it just like every time I listen to it, there's like a new thing in a new song where I'm like, fuck, that's just like it's a deeply profound thing to chew on the cud of, you know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So it provides you food for thought while you're working?
Barstool Conclusions: um but yeah Yeah, and not necessarily about my work, just about life. you know There are bigger things in life than work.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: um but So that's that's the that's the short answer to the question. I think the longer answer and the truer answer and the first thing that popped in my head when you asked that question is just Teddy.
Barstool Conclusions: you know
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, really?
Barstool Conclusions: and and and here's i don't mean to be like overly simplistic and sappy about it, but I think as you started to tell your story, what what I heard was this person who was...
Barstool Conclusions: forced to be quiet. right she was She was shut down. She was not allowed to to be public, to express. And ah that kind of bubbled up.
Barstool Conclusions: And by the time she got out from under the the thumb, she was ready to explode loudly. right There was this big crescendo into this moment of like, here's what I am capable of giving the world.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And that's ah that's a fantastic thing, but it stands in stark contrast to the forced quietude.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And it's, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And I think what Teddy has done is the exact reverse.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Did Teddy blossom?
Barstool Conclusions: Right. Like, so my life has been chaos for for the last five years. Right. The show ah running the business full time again, social media, all of the things. And um What Teddy has done is forced me to slow down and forced me to um contend with just like the quieter things and appreciate like just like going to the park with them today.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Mm. Mm-mm.
Barstool Conclusions: Like it's it's it was 70 something degrees today and I take him to this big park across the river. It's like several acres, wooded, all fenced in. And we're just running.
Barstool Conclusions: Like he's just, just fucking. And we're working on like off leash recall and everything else. So there's, there's intellectual engagement and there's training, but just like, just having the fucking time of his life chasing squirrels.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: Like that's it, you know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: And then like, then he gets winded and some other dog comes up and he's getting really good.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: Like his, his socialization is going really well. And this other dog comes up and kind of gets in his face and he just kind of like walks away and like lies down next to me, just like contented, but also just fucking exhausted.
Barstool Conclusions: And I'm like, dude, like that's living. That's all it is, man. Just fucking chasing squirrels and hanging out with your bud. And like he's back here just fucking conked out on his bed.
Barstool Conclusions: you know
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: i didn't even see him there. I see.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah he's just He's just providing the counterweight to the last few years of my life, I suppose.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Wow. So when you said that's living, chasing squirrels, immediately what I thought of is you're living in the present and you're appreciating the small things, which is not a small thing to do.
Barstool Conclusions: Mm-hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: often Often we are addicted to more, more, more, bigger, faster, more, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I think those are human instincts that have served us well in times of famine. More is always better when you're starving. But in times of plenty, more, more, more steals from you the quality of your life.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And we try to shut that down and we try to think in terms of gratitude and appreciation for what we have, wanting what you have rather than wanting for more.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But it's a daily practice because I think we're fighting our biology to some extent.
Barstool Conclusions: For sure.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And what I heard you say is Teddy enjoying the simple things of life is really a daily reminder of the beauty that resides in the simple things.
Barstool Conclusions: For sure.
Barstool Conclusions: And it can be anywhere in any like we were. I was sitting in the back patio ah just a couple hours ago, kind of thinking about things for for the show. And he's out there. It's like this is the first time it's been warm enough since I've had him to chill outside. and He's just fucking loving it. But, you know, my patio is the size of this fucking room. It's not big. And, uh, I was sitting there with my notebook and i'm just jotting a couple of things down and he just comes up and he just like jumps up, puts his, his paws on top of me and then jumps all the way up on top of me. And he's 70 pounds. He's not a like a lap dog, but he's a lap dog. And he just like puts this out on my shoulder.
Barstool Conclusions: And he's just like, I'm here now, you know, just, and I was like, you know what?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: He loves you so much.
Barstool Conclusions: You're fucking here now, bud. You know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, that's that's a great moment.
Barstool Conclusions: That's it. You know? And you just, you gotta, you gotta take those.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Did you feel? Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: You gotta take those.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I love that Eric.
Barstool Conclusions: That's all.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's good.
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, all right. We're 40 minutes in. and We've done two questions. ah What it is, man.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hey, whatever, whatever. You're up.
Barstool Conclusions: All right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're up.
Barstool Conclusions: Um, Hmm. Okay. So i I've got two. They're both science-based because I wanted to ask you science questions.
Barstool Conclusions: Um,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh boy.
Barstool Conclusions: One, i think is just an interesting thing that I've always wondered about that I'm hoping maybe you can explain scientifically to me. The other is a little like podcast bro-y self-important, but I think it could be an interesting question. You pick.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: but' Let's do the science one. Okay.
Barstool Conclusions: Okay. All right. All right. All right. So this is a phenomenon. I've thought about this for years. It's a phenomenon that I like to call the wooden spoon paradox. Okay. So we all, as woodworkers, we've all carved wooden spoons, wooden spatulas. You know, we use them in the kitchen.
Barstool Conclusions: um And it's always... It's always confused me why, like if you're making whatever you're making in the kitchen, let's say you're making fucking chili and doesn't matter. and And you're pounding up the ground beef with a wooden spoon and then you add the seasoning and then you do yada, yada, yada. And then as after cooking all of the raw meat, you go and you scoop the cooked meat with the same spoon, but you don't get sick.
Barstool Conclusions: What, why?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So you're suggesting, if I understand correctly, that the bacteria on the uncooked meat is cross-contaminating the cooked meat because you use the same spoon.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, that's the assumption, right? So like this evening for dinner, I made some chicken and rice and broccoli and I use the wooden spatula to to cook up the chicken. And then I scooped the chicken out of the wok into the bowl with the same spatula.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Using the same spatula that you touched the raw chicken.
Barstool Conclusions: And it's never in my entire adult life. It's never been an issue. Why is that?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I think the answer is twofold. Number one, you're probably you probably don't have huge, huge amounts of bacteria on your food to begin with because you probably throw them out when they get questionable.
Barstool Conclusions: Sure.
Barstool Conclusions: Sure. Sure.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So to begin with, your raw meat is probably not severely contaminated. Therefore, whether you touch it or don't touch it with a spatula, right?
Barstool Conclusions: It's really hard not to make a dick joke there. Ha ha ha ha
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Sorry, i didn't even hear that until you said that. And then I'm like, Oh my God, what did I just say? Of course you.
Barstool Conclusions: No, carry on, carry on, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah So
Barstool Conclusions: Some of my raw meat's not contaminated. That's good news. okay I'm stone cold sober too.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Eric, I know that's the sad part. Okay. So my guess is the starting material doesn't have a ton of bacteria on it in the first place. Second of all,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: if you were if it did, let's say the chicken the raw chicken had bacteria on the surface, like say some form of E. coli that would make you ill, and you touch the spatula to it, and you touch it the whole time you're cooking, and let's say some of the bacteria got on the spatula, and then you touch that to the cooked chicken, my guess is the transfer of that amount isn't a sufficient dose to make you sick.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Because everything about...
Barstool Conclusions: Okay.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: sickness and toxicity and carcinogen, it's all about dose.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's not binary. It's not like, did I get any coli or did I not? It's like how many colony forming units of nasty E. coli did you get? Did you get a million? Did you get 10 million? Did you get a thousand? Did you get a hundred? Did you get 10?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That has everything to do with it. So my guess is your your cooking behaviors with your with your raw meat, Eric, your cooking behaviors, not your bedtime behaviors, um are sufficient
Barstool Conclusions: I didn't say it, Paul.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: are sufficiently, um let's say, safe enough that you've never experienced food poisoning.
Barstool Conclusions: In fairness, I would argue that my bedtime behaviors are also sufficiently safe, but that's for another podcast, buddy.
Barstool Conclusions: That's for another show. Thanks for answering my question. You're up, cowboy. ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: There's so many things I want to say right now
Barstool Conclusions: that's that's for That's for the Patreon exclusive.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: that can't say. Okay. All right. On that note. um Yeah. All right. Is that is that your question?
Barstool Conclusions: that That was, you answered it beautifully. I assumed it was a numbers game, but I'm not a smart, smart boy, so.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, it is. it is. Okay. Okay. All right, um here's my next question for you, Eric. Name something you're excited about. Now, when we typically ask this, we say, hey, what are you excited about in the future?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: right Which gets us like thinking about the future.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, everyone ideates about what could be, what you know what's coming in the future, of future, future. Right. But I'm sort of not into that lately. I'm more into the present. I'm more into like being present, appreciating what's in the present, what's in front of us now.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So I'm going to ask this question in a sort of different way. I'm going to say, what's something you're excited about that you've already started?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Because that forces it to be partly in in the present, not entirely future focused.
Barstool Conclusions: What is something you're excited about that you've already started? God, I got so many fires in the iron. I feel like I could cheat that question.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Fires in the iron? You just said fires in the iron.
Barstool Conclusions: That's what so what I said.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You just said that.
Barstool Conclusions: I stand by it. ah I feel like I could cheat that question, but I don't want to. um
Barstool Conclusions: okay i i feel like this is partially due to the nature of the cold, cold winter that we just had and are just coming out of.
Barstool Conclusions: But a thing that has been happening in my house over the last couple of months and and will continue is like things are just getting cozier in an interesting way.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, okay.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. So like I, i well, I got ah some area rugs for downstairs, which, you know, I, I got in like, they're lovely.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Do tell.
Barstool Conclusions: They feel nice underfoot, but like, it was a real moment of like, does it, I feel like it looks like i was actually, so I texted Mary and I was like, ah I was like, it feels like a woman lives here.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Does this look like Paul's house?
Barstool Conclusions: And then she zooms in on the photo to my bar where it's just like exposed whiskey bottles. She was like, no, it doesn't.
Barstool Conclusions: So i was like, okay, touche, touche. But um yeah, like there's just, there's, there's things happening in the house that are, um I don't know, softer is the word that's coming to mind though.
Barstool Conclusions: I don't know that that's necessarily the right one, but it's, it's, I'm getting soft in my old age for sure.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay. Are you getting soft?
Barstool Conclusions: For sure.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I love that. I love it.
Barstool Conclusions: I can feel it in my bones, you know? ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: But yeah, I know it, man.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Join the fucking club. I'm the guy crying in his workshop because he heard a concert.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: My wife comes in. She's like, are you listening to Ray again?
Barstool Conclusions: She's like, why are you weeping?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm like, do you see the tears?
Barstool Conclusions: That tracks. That feels right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, wow, Eric.
Barstool Conclusions: um Okay, yeah, that that'll be my answer. i'm trying I was also trying to think of things outside of work. um So I'm going to stick with that. I feel like the house is...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: the cozification.
Barstool Conclusions: The cosification of the house has been, you know, a really and also like ah we had some friends over recently because Mary's birthday was recently. So everybody came to town for for her birthday dinner.
Barstool Conclusions: And then we all ended up back in my house drinking whiskey because my house is the place where everybody invites everybody to. um And Pete Caspar's was over and even he was like, your house is just really like warm and cozy. And I was like, man,
Barstool Conclusions: You know what? I'll take that. I'll take that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, that's a huge compliment. I very much feel like that's important um in my life. You you know that you know that the cosification
Barstool Conclusions: The cosification is pretty. That's a good word.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, can we just zoom out? Like, you know, you're on a podcast, you're talking to like thousands of people and you're like, yeah, I'm excited that I got an area rug.
Barstool Conclusions: Dad, I got fucking rugs.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And everyone, right.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And people are probably like scratching their head like, you know, what what the fuck are you guys talking about? But if I could extrapolate, which I like to do, like zoom out, abstract out. It's what you're talking about is I feel excited about making the place I live more, feel more like a home. than a simple transactional residence.
Barstool Conclusions: Sure. Yeah. I mean, i listen, i did my my house is partially a gallery of my work. Sure. um I think it's it's tiny enough where it's kind of bursting at the seams at this point.
Barstool Conclusions: But so I have a lot of interesting objects and warm objects and and I like the way my house looks, but that like wood is not the only fucking material on the planet.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah Dude, this is not about material. This is about you feeling excited about building a place you feel even better about residing.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. And those, by the way, now I'm just defending what I said. The, the, the choices of those things are creative choices, right? That's interior design. That's a skill.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Mm-hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: That's a, that's color theory.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Mm-hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: It's all of those things.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Bah, bah, bah.
Barstool Conclusions: I just wanted fucking rugs. All right, Paul. but
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Ha, ha. I, Eric, I applaud it. And honestly, um that brings up a ah thought that I've had about my house and my wife. So my wife is, she has this gift of always seeing potential in the house, even though she's lived in this house for, I don't know, 15 years or something.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: um She can still see it with new eyes. Like what's capable. I don't know if those of you with the video feed, you notice that the wall's not the same color behind me. um She has this ability to see potential in the house.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Whereas... I just become used to it the way it is and I don't see the potential anymore. Like when you first go into a space, Eric, did you think I can knock this wall out?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: We could change that. We can do this.
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, of course.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: i can do that.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right. But once you live there long enough, you those things stop occurring to me. And I just see it as that's my house. That's the way it is. But for some reason, Vicky has this like vision, like she can always see what's possible. And I give her a lot of credit for that. So recently she's been asking for a wallpaper, a change of paint in a couple of rooms, like at this, that, and the other. And I keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. Why am I putting it off?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: because I don't feel ready or I have other projects that are I'm thinking about, or I just feel overwhelmed by things. And I, I sort of had a moment where I got real with myself and I said, why am I continuing to put this off?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Because I'm being a fucking bitch. That's why you're being Paul.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're being a bitch. You're being F yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, stop being a little bitch, man.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're being a bitch. You're like, Oh, I don't.
Barstool Conclusions: Stop crying in the shop being a little bitch.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: Just get out there and do the fucking work, okay?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I know, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Christ!
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I know. Total bitch mode.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And it's like, oh, I don't feel ready ah you know to take on a new project. That's all just anxiety noise in my own head. And so I recognize that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I've been doing a ton of reading, like philosophical existential reading. And I realized that I'm just putting this off for no good reason. And I was like, enough's enough. We're going to paint the office this weekend.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And guess what we did? We pinned the office.
Barstool Conclusions: It's amazing how when you just do the fucking thing, it gets done.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, stop. Thinking about it. So it's like the cosification, Eric, it's back to that idea of making the home even more reflect you and your values and how you see yourself in the world, but not letting anxiety get in the way of it.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's kind of what I'm talking to. And so I've been on a campaign that when I see myself being a bitch, you cut that the fuck out and you just do the damn thing and stop being a little bitch.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: that's That's our t-shirt for this episode.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Stop being a little bitch.
Barstool Conclusions: Stop being a little bitch.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, that's that's today's t-shirt.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: all right, I got the next one for everybody.
Barstool Conclusions: All right, hit me.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: This one's from a patron from Scott. Scott said, I'd love to hear how you both narrowed down the many avenues of woodworking that you're known for.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Did you love boxes? So you started making them? Or did you explore furniture or turning first? So... how How and why, i guess, why, Tim, why is the more interesting question. Why do you make the things you make?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: What itch does that scratch for you and how did you get there?
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm. That's an interesting question. i don't know. No,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Do you want a minute to think and I'll answer?
Barstool Conclusions: no no, no, no. I i think really...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay.
Barstool Conclusions: It's just been a series of questions of, like can I do that?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Ah. Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: That's all it In the beginning, it was like, can I cut a dovetail? OK, now I can cut a dovetail. How do I make a piece around the fact that I can cut dovetails?
Barstool Conclusions: So I made the blanket chest. right Then it was, can I make something in the federal style where like most of it is done with hand tools?
Barstool Conclusions: and So the Demi Loon table came out. And then like once I left the you know schooling system, then it became questions of like, I don't know, can I build a a desk?
Barstool Conclusions: Can I like whatever the thing was that was always just like just beyond my reach?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Mm-hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: And then once I started to collect enough skills and and have some basic understanding of like the engineering principles of certain pieces of furniture, then it became a question of like, can I.
Barstool Conclusions: Can I get a certain reaction from the viewer slash a person interacting with the object? I've told this story on the podcast before ah but of like the spiral table and how somebody, the goal was to get somebody to engage with a piece 360 degrees.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right around it.
Barstool Conclusions: right, right, right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yep.
Barstool Conclusions: right So um that would that all stemmed from a simple question of like, can I invite somebody to walk a circle around an object?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yep.
Barstool Conclusions: And then they did that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: When you, we sorry, question. When you ask, can i can I do this? Are you measuring yourself? Like, am I good enough?
Barstool Conclusions: How do you mean?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Like, are you asking, are you sort of proving to yourself that you're good enough by asking that and answering it repeatedly?
Barstool Conclusions: i I've never looked at it that way. It's really, I've always, so i've I've long said that I think my mind is more scientific than it is artistic. And I think it stems out of like a scientific curiosity of, is it possible?
Barstool Conclusions: And i'm I'm working from the assumption that it is possible because other people have done it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay.
Barstool Conclusions: But is it possible for me?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay. So it's not, it's, it's not like, am I good enough?
Barstool Conclusions: Right, right, right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's like, is this pod? It's like a curiosity driven thing.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, it's it's a like, what happens if X?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: I want to see what happens. And then if that doesn't work, well, then how do I get to Y?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, Eric. but i have a little science boner from that.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. I know all got to do is give you algorithmic variables and then, oh, I know it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: If X, then Y. oh my God. I'm getting hot under the collar.
Barstool Conclusions: I can see it. um But yeah, that's so that's how I ended up doing so many of those things. So like I did boxes for a while because they're great vehicles for exploration.
Barstool Conclusions: Like if I wanted to to explore a texture or a material, you can slap a box together in an afternoon and see what it looks like with a soapstone lid or see what it looks like with a carved lid or see what it looks like if the whole box is carved.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Got
Barstool Conclusions: And then eventually that once I kind of had a baseline understanding of some of those techniques and the effects that they created, then it was, well, what happens if I apply this to a cabinet?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Got it. got it
Barstool Conclusions: What happens if I apply this to a table? So it's just a series of of questions.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So, so curiosity driven, great answer.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, for sure. And I think that's I think that's still where I make my best work is just like, is it possible to do X? I don't know. Let's fucking find out.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Dude, there's that is a great, great answer.
Barstool Conclusions: You know, ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I feel you. Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: Okay, what about you?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And this is where we're aligned. where You and I are aligned.
Barstool Conclusions: Yep.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Like I make boxes not because I think boxes are the most compelling form ever. But like when you don't know what you like or who you are as an artist or what design elements you really gravitate towards, you're How do you figure that out?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You figure it out through repetition.
Barstool Conclusions: yep
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's how you figure it out. Thus, if repetition is the means by which you'll identify what you like and grow as an artist, what items will give you the most number of repetitions quickly?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Boxes are a great answer to that question.
Barstool Conclusions: Guys, boxes are just sketches. That's all they are. And sketches can be beautiful.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: There's...
Barstool Conclusions: Sketches can be in museums, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yes, there's, they're so useful.
Barstool Conclusions: But they are just sketches.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: They're so functional. They have a million functions. People love them.
Barstool Conclusions: Yep.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's an easy form. It's a versatile canvas for design ideas. That's why I've done so many boxes because it's the perfect canvas to try out design ideas.
Barstool Conclusions: Yep.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, that's a good answer.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Great questions.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, great question too.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Great question, Scott. Great question and great answers. Go ahead, Eric.
Barstool Conclusions: All right, i got I got a good one from one of our patrons, Ben Coffey. And he says, Paul always comes off as an empath and yet he seems to nearly always be joyful.
Barstool Conclusions: Is there a life lesson? i know that's in stark contrast to what we were talking about, but like you do, you, you exude a lot of joy for a lot of things in life. So is there a life lesson or a philosophy that has helped him to maintain that demeanor while the world is as crazy as it is?
Barstool Conclusions: That's a banger.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, what a question. Oh my God, that is like the best Ben. Holy shit, Ben.
Barstool Conclusions: as a bangger
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I'm gonna have to think about that question. What? How do you? I guess. ah All right. So to me, the question, if I could restate is, how do you feel joyful in a world that feels very overwhelming and very full of maybe things that aren't joyful?
Barstool Conclusions: I think that's the heart of the question, but I also think that is to the story earlier about ah Ray.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Is that a fair way to put it?
Barstool Conclusions: He he labeled you as an empath, which I think is is is not unfair, but. um I would say. How do you maintain like hope and joy when you are capable of empathizing so deeply with others at all stages?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay. Great, great question. I love it so much because I contend with this issue constantly. So I'm not I'm not ignorant to what's going on in the world.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: At the same time, i think it was Voltaire, it stuck in my head. he said, i don't know, centuries ago, that at a time when there wasn't global news, all right? There was like town to town news, like by someone who happened to ride into your town on a horse or something.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: He said, there are times when you have to learn to tend your own garden. And what he meant by that is shrink the scope down because the larger scope is too overwhelming to us as humans.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: We did not evolve to consume and contend with the amount of information that is available to us right now. Our brains are capable of it, but I'm not sure emotionally we are
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: adequately armed to deal with the amount of strife when you globalize the news, right? It's global.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah there's always something terrible happening
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: There's something terrible happening at every minute of every day somewhere.
Barstool Conclusions: mm-hmm
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: There's also something amazing happening at every minute of every day. But because of our negativity bias and the news trying to steal our attention using fear tactics,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: We're only fed the negative side of that equation, unfortunately. So for me, what I do is recognizing that we're not really wired for this neurologically.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I sometimes like I check what's going on and then I shut it the fuck down in my brain.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I try like I feel that empathy. I feel that pain for a small period of time in the morning, let's say let's say in the morning. And then I say, i wish it weren't that way, but I personally, me alone, cannot control that directly.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'm going to just focus on the things around me that I can control for the rest of the day.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And so it's it's it's it's a scope it's a scope question. It's like, I allow myself to hear to to feel the full scope for a small period of time to stay on top of what is happening.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And then I shut down that scope to preserve my own feelings of worth and joy and happiness. So I think it's scope control.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: How what how do you handle it?
Barstool Conclusions: That's fair. That's fair. um I do much the same thing, but I think I zoom out before I zoom in um my
Barstool Conclusions: this is This is a little tricky to articulate because I don't want it to come off in any way as ignorant to the suffering of anybody at any given moment.
Barstool Conclusions: Right. But I am very aware that we are not changed as a species than we were 100 years ago, 1000 years ago, 5000 years ago.
Barstool Conclusions: like this is This is the human condition.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, agreed.
Barstool Conclusions: and it's And it's awful. right like it's to to To suffer through those circumstances is truly a terrible thing.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Agreed.
Barstool Conclusions: um But to your point, like once you zoom out and you go like, OK, well, there's there's there's nothing I can do about this for that person in this moment, because A, they're halfway across the world and B, this is just fucking who we are and this is who we're going to be tomorrow and this is who we're going to be 100 years ago.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's who he's always it's who we've always been.
Barstool Conclusions: Yes. And so once once I see that, then the only logical conclusion I can come to is, well, then the only thing I can do is to do the thing that's in front of me, which is like, I can't help a person suffering in Iran, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Correct.
Barstool Conclusions: What I can do is there's the homeless guy on the corner and there's a grocery store across the street that I walk to.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yes. Yes. and Yes.
Barstool Conclusions: Like I can, I just bring them a fucking bag of chips on the walk home.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And that's worthwhile.
Barstool Conclusions: You know? And he ain't a bad dude.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yep.
Barstool Conclusions: I talk to him. There's a few of them out there. I know. him Like, they're all, they're they're fine folk. They're just, for whatever reason, they're there.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. That's it.
Barstool Conclusions: And i I can't do anything else, but I can bring him a fucking sandwich. You know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: That's it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's a great point. It basically it's it's a similar answer. It's like scope, like you zoom out to understand and appreciate what might be happening. And you zoom into what you can where you can move the needle.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, and in in the overwhelming feelings come from the fact, ah like the feeling that that's not enough. It's not doing anything. and And you know what?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: In the grand scheme of things, it's not doing anything. You know what it is doing?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, I don't know.
Barstool Conclusions: It's fucking helping that person in that moment. It's like when.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, don't say that's doing nothing. it's It's, you know, it is something, Eric. It may not be huge, but it is something.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I'm not trying to say it's doing nothing, but it can it it feels like it's not enough. But like this is this might sound pie in the sky, fucking Rosie ignorance.
Barstool Conclusions: But like if everybody just did something, the world would be a lot fucking better a place than it is right now.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I agree.
Barstool Conclusions: If you just did like one one small thing tomorrow, you know.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Just small acts of kindness. Yes. Yes, I agree. Yep, I agree.
Barstool Conclusions: That's it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And
Barstool Conclusions: And you know what else? Shut the fuck up about it. Like, you don't have to tell anybody that you did it. Just fucking do it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: you just told a lot of people that you did it.
Barstool Conclusions: That's all. You know? Just do the thing. Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: No, I get your point, though.
Barstool Conclusions: you know
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: No, no, I totally get your point.
Barstool Conclusions: just just do the thing
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I I do. I also, i also, another thought that gives me some comfort these days, um often, I think you can find clips of Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about this, is like in the history of humankind, which probably started arguably maybe half a million years ago, let's say 500,000 years ago, you know, Homo sapiens kind of butted off as a species. Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: This today, right now, this minute today is probably the least violent, least horrible moment ever in human history because many eons ago, like thousands of years ago, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, people were slaughtered indiscriminately.
Barstool Conclusions: Mm-hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: Constantly.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: people were starving from famine. and And I mean, most people didn't live past 30, many you know centuries and and millennia ago. that was a So today, the number of people who are dying in horrific ways may actually be much, much lower than the human race has experienced in its history. We are in a time of, in general, in a general sense, food plenty, safety is ah hot the the highest it it may have ever been. I'm not saying everywhere, but I'm just saying as a race across the globe, as ah compared to thousands of years ago, things are far, far better for the human race. But yet we feel like it's never been worse.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: well So it's a bit of a, it's a bit of a,
Barstool Conclusions: yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: what do you call that a bit of a paradox in that the data suggests that we're better off than we've ever been as a rate as a species yet we feel like it's never been worse and is that a is that a perception issue or is that an information issue what you know
Barstool Conclusions: Well...
Barstool Conclusions: So, i I yeah, I think it's a perception issue. My my own personal thing. And this is just like dog shit. Crackpot. Eric has a theory about life kind of thing. But um I think about this thing that I've deemed generational amnesia, which is like.
Barstool Conclusions: odd generation experience is a thing. The next generation hears the stories of that trauma.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, but they didn't live it Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: The following, right, right, right. And then the following generation, by the time their grandparents are expressing that trauma, you're like, yeah, but that happened a long time ago.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: see.
Barstool Conclusions: And the fourth generation never hears about it because their grandparents don't want to talk about how their parents were shitty to them because they had all this trauma from whatever at this point.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I see. i see
Barstool Conclusions: So we're these these things happen in rhythms, right? these These broad movements happen in rhythms and we might just be at a point, and again, I don't mean to be glib or diminish anybody suffering in this, but like we might be at a point where we're far enough away from some of the most horrendous things that have happened in ah modernmer or modern human history that we just have forgotten how actually fucking terrible they are.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And it's just like the only way to remember is for it to happen again, unfortunately.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And I'm not, I'm not, that's not, I'm not trying to say that it's like predestined or anything like that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: do.
Barstool Conclusions: Like it's inevitable, but you know what I'm getting at? Like we don't, we don't remember how fucking awful some of those things are.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I do. i do
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Because we didn't live it. So it's only through word spoken word or reading, which doesn't really confer the magnitude.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: And so it doesn't quite do the thing.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Can I add a footnote to this? I think staying positive in in a time when you don't feel that positive or having appreciation for what you do have rather than longing for what you think you need to be happy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: The idea of This is enough as opposed to, i need more to be happy. This concept to me goes against our instincts as humans because more has evolutionarily been favored as better.
Barstool Conclusions: Mm-hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: People who collected more lived probably in times of famine. But I do think that this idea of i have enough gratitude for what you do have is a daily practice. That's kind of what I've learned this year. It's like, you might think it, but unless you practice it daily, it doesn't stick. And it requires constant refreshing because I think our innate instinct is to want more, is to only see from our point of view,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But so to that to to to Ben, who wrote that comment, I think it's like a daily practice of trying to get in the heads of other people, think about what they might be experiencing, trying to realize what I have is more than enough. And I should feel intense joy at where I am. And some days i do it better than others. Some days I'm shit at it.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: and I'm pretty lame. And other days I feel super joyful and super appreciative and it overwhelms me. And it's it's a daily struggle in practice.
Barstool Conclusions: Interesting. um I will add to that because as usual, we agree on on the bigger things in life. I will simply say from personal experience, I know when I am in that headspace of feeling overwhelmed and I'm looking for a thing to like ground me and feel appreciative of, um I can block things out of my vision really easily. Like I can get like hyper fixated in my head.
Barstool Conclusions: Sound for whatever reason pulls me back into the world.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It, yeah. I know.
Barstool Conclusions: I don't know what it is, man. You know? And so like, maybe, maybe that's music, but like, maybe it's also like pausing and like listening to the birds chirping.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I know.
Barstool Conclusions: And then it's just like, Oh, right. No, I'm actually here now. And the sun is shining and it's 70 degrees, you know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Eric.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: The fact that you use that as an example, I just slow down and I have the silence and the birds chirping.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You are in your brain, you're switching to what's called the default mode network. Okay.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm. Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That's the term for a series of brain structures that turn on when you're bored, essentially. When you're not occupied, like let's let's say you're watching a video on YouTube, you're occupied, right? So parts of your brain are just comprehending, trying to make sense out of what you're seeing, you know eating up the content. But when that's off, when you turn that fucking phone off and you listen to the birds chirping, your brain goes back to the default mode network. You can Google it. It's ah it's a best series of like five or six brain structures.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And it's basically your brain off of stimulation. And that part of your brain is is responsible for a host of things like problem solving in the background, creativity, reju like rejuvenating thoughts. You're like mulling over things that have been on that back burner. You know what I'm talking about, right? Those back burner thoughts. But the key is you're giving yourself the silence to get there.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're allowing yourself the time. I'm going to listen to the birds chirping and you're thinking about your life. You're thinking about meaning and you're thinking about what does your life mean? Who am I? Why am I on this planet? What does any of it mean? Like these bigger philosophical questions that actually are very important.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But the only reason you're considering them is because you shut down the noise of everything else for a moment.
Barstool Conclusions: Well, and and sometimes those questions can feel really overwhelming as well. Right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: They can, they're not, they're not easy.
Barstool Conclusions: And yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I guess that's that's the side that I'm coming from of like, when there's already silence, and I'm deeply lost in those thoughts in contending with those difficult things.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: They're not easy. Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: it's it's often the noise, the sound, i don't I don't want to use the word noise, the sounds of the world around me that draw me back out of those thoughts and into the now.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Ah, I see.
Barstool Conclusions: you know It's just like, oh, right, there's just a squirrel carrying a fucking acorn. And like he dropped it in the gutter.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Or Teddy, fucking Teddy, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, dead Teddy out here trying to fucking hunt a squirrel.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yep.
Barstool Conclusions: you know like Whatever the thing is that's just like...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: so
Barstool Conclusions: It's not like those things happen and those things are real and those things are important things to contend with. But it's also important to remember to just like look up and be like, oh, yeah, like there's there's just a kid playing with her fucking mom, drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.
Barstool Conclusions: Like that's a beautiful thing to just walk by and appreciate.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You're observing, you're just an observer, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Now, when when when a bus pulls up in in Philly, right, and the people get off the bus, let's say five or six people get off the bus and they start walking. are they Do they they pick up their phones?
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, every one of them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the world we live in.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: That is exactly the opposite of what you described.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: they are They are occupying their mind with some form of stimulation so that they can't, that they don't use the default mode network and they're not really looking around and observing and and being bored and having a moment to reflect on things.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: They're constantly occupied. And I think this is a pattern I see that is just rife in our, in, I am too.
Barstool Conclusions: Sure. And and and look, i'm I'm guilty of it too. You know, there's certainly, know, you just walk around, you're texting people, you're doing whatever the fuck it is, checking your emails.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: i am totally guilty of this, but,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But now that I know more about the neurological side of like what's going on and kind of what you said, that beauty is in these moments when you're not occupied.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Now that I know that i put, I intentionally put that dumb device away.
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, sure. i mean, listen, i I have long been a proponent for, and some people have accused me of a male privilege on this one, of leaving my phone at home when I go for a walk.
Barstool Conclusions: Right. I'll just leave it in the house.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I think that's great.
Barstool Conclusions: And like now now, listen, you can say, well, now I got a dog. So whatever, ah you know, he'll he'll protect me. He won't. He'll fucking lick anybody to death. He ain't protecting shit about shit.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I think you're, I think that's great.
Barstool Conclusions: um But but like, I think that's really because if it's there, you are more apt to reach for it. And guys, I know like we can say whatever we want about feeling safe and I don't want anybody to feel unsafe and traverse the world however you need to in order to feel safe in your own body and space. But we also navigated the world for millions of years or 500,000 years at least without phones in our pockets.
Barstool Conclusions: You know, like we were all kids in the fucking 90s.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's true.
Barstool Conclusions: We just rode bikes seven miles down the road and we were just like, bye, Mal, see in five hours. Like we didn't know where the fuck we were going.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: We are uniquely positioned as the only generation that had it before phones and after phones, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And so we know the difference.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. Just leave it at home. Just go fuck off in the shop for a few hours without your phone and see how much more work you get done.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's good.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's good. A cleanse is good. All right. Do you have any, ah you have any more ah burners?
Barstool Conclusions: All right.
Barstool Conclusions: There's a few more. ah let's do Let's do one more.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Let's do one more and we'll keep it brief.
Barstool Conclusions: Okay. All right. um Which one should we go with? Okay. This one's from Jerry. He said, how has your scientific mindset influenced the way you approach joinery, tool selection, and problem solving in the shop?
Barstool Conclusions: And have you ever found yourself running an experiment to justify or validate a build?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Ooh.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: How has your scientific background affected joinery tool selection or what?
Barstool Conclusions: and problem solving in the shop. Let's start with that one.
Barstool Conclusions: Have you ever scienced your way into like picking the right plane or saw or ergonomics or no?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: No. No, you know why? Because experience has already told us the answer.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: we have a hundred we have a so We have centuries of woodworking experience telling us what works and what doesn't. Why am I going to reinvent the wheel?
Barstool Conclusions: that That is proof that you're not an engineer.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: what's the What's the benefit?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: yeah ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: like Look, we all have ah just a finite amount of time on this earth. Are you really going to reinvent the wheel just to reinvent it?
Barstool Conclusions: Yep. Okay. All right. Okay. So the second part of that question then, have you ever found yourself running an experiment to justify or validate a build?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yes, i ah I was like, why does dyed veneer cost so damn much? OK, fuck this. Like, how hard is it to get a black dye to permeate wood? Like this can't be that fucking difficult. Where's the mystery here, Scooby Doo? So, yeah, I got all worked up about that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I was like, I'm going to figure this out. So I was like, this can't be that hard. Famous last words.
Barstool Conclusions: Go, go science boy.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: just a good, good science boy.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I like to make things out of wood. Um, so I took black dye and I just poured it on wood and I left it for a week and I, I looked how far that penetrated.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm. Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Not at all. Terrible fucking horrible results. And I'm like, okay, why didn't the dye go into the wood? Oh, cause there's already like air and, and liquid or whatever, or like the cells are closed. Like there's some, there's some barrier there, whether it's air bubbles or other water.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: or um or the cells are sealed and it just can't, but capillary reaction is not drawing it in. Okay, so fine. So I figured that was the case. Okay, so it needs some pressure. All right, all right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So there's two ways you can think about pressure, vacuum or pushing. You either suck or you push. You suck or you blow, Eric. Back to your raw meat discussion.
Barstool Conclusions: ah You said it on me, carry on.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Back to Eric. Back to Eric's raw meat. You either suck or you blow. so please don't use that as a clip for Instagram.
Barstool Conclusions: That, you know 100%, that's be the clip I pull for this one.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Please, please, please do not use that as a clip.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So I thought, okay, um vacuum is easier than than pressure. And it's safer because a vacuum doesn't kill you. Pressure does. So I bought a vacuum.
Barstool Conclusions: Hold on, that can't be true.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, like if a vessel implodes as opposed to explodes, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Sure, but if you get sucked out into space, you're dead.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah, but in terms of a vacuum of a vessel in your shop, which one's going to kill you with with shrapnel?
Barstool Conclusions: Okay, alright, alright, alright, alright.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: it's It's the explosion, not the implosion.
Barstool Conclusions: Fair, fair, fair.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But thank you for, thank you, interstellar.
Barstool Conclusions: Let me explain to you how fucking space works, okay, science boy?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Thank you, thank you, Mr. Fucking...
Barstool Conclusions: You're going to create a black hole in the middle of your shop, okay?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: and Okay, interstellar Eric. um So I tried a vacuum. I hooked a vacuum up to a PVC made vessel and i put I put the wood in a solution of black dye and I pulled the vacuum thinking it's gonna draw the the the air out of the wood and the dye will go in and it'll be colored throughout its thickness.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Guess what? Didn't fucking work.
Barstool Conclusions: Just sucked up the ink.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'm like, that's great. No, it didn't suck up the ink, but I'm like, okay, that didn't work either. So either I didn't pull up i didn't pull ah a good enough vacuum or the solvent is wrong.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Maybe water is like there's surface tension inside the cell so the water doesn't want to enter.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So I changed the solvent to like acetone or xylene or some other like some nasty solvent that has no surface tension. And it worked much better. So surface tension has something to do with this.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay. So it's not simply... the amount of suction. It's definitely suction as it relates to surface tension or the solvent that's carrying the dye. So I figured that out. And I'm like, okay, but what about pressure? Because when we say we use pressure treated wood, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Why is it pressure treated? And why isn't it like vacuum treated? So obviously pressure must be, and if you think about what pressure does, if if you have a wood, like a cell, like a plant cell, and let's say it has air inside it,
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm. Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, in in theory, vacuum sucks the air out, but pressure reduces the size of the bubble of air as the pressure increases, right? Like as pressure increases, bubbles get smaller. That's why when you're scuba diving or snorkeling, the bubbles are real little at the bottom of the ocean and they get bigger as they go to the top because the pressures, right?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So I thought, okay, so that's what must be happening. So as you apply pressure to the wood cells, the the air inside is shrinking and that allows dye to come into the the the space now because the the air bubble has shrunk to like a tenth of its size.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So I made a pressure vessel and that's scary as shit.
Barstool Conclusions: You made
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So I made a PV. I checked the pressure ratings of schedule eight PVC. I made a I made a pressure vessel. Do not do this at home.
Barstool Conclusions: you made you made a bomb, is what you made.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Kids. I basically made a bomb.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Do not do this at home kids. i I screwed the ends on this schedule eight PVC vessel. I flooded it with black dye. I put the wood in. I i pressurized it to 125 using my my compressor Now, I was not in the shop when I did this.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I put the pressure vessel underneath a series of of ah hu concrete stone, like concrete blocks. I made like a bunch of concrete blocks and I put the pressure vessel in the middle of all the concrete blocks And the the little tube that is rated for the 500 PSI is only you know carrying 100 and going to my my pressure, my compressor.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: and i turn And I'm around the corner from it. So not only is it covered in concrete blocks, i'm I'm in a different location entirely. I'm in the shop. This thing's outside around the corner.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: There's no way it can hit me, even if it explodes.
Barstool Conclusions: Amazing.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I turn the pressure on slowly, 20, 30, 50, 80.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I'm listening for the bang.
Barstool Conclusions: Yep. Yep. Yep.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: No bang. I was because like because this the the PVC schedule eight I used or whatever it was, was rated for way more pressure than that. I was careful. I got up to one hundred and twenty five PSI and I left it for about an hour, let's say.
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And then I depressurized it slowly. And I, you know, I changed my underwear and I went and I looked and it did pretty good.
Barstool Conclusions: Did it?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It did real good.
Barstool Conclusions: Okay.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But then I got to the point like, Paul, you dumbass, was all this worth it?
Barstool Conclusions: It's not fucking worth it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And I just bought the black veneer. but I had a good time testing the shit out of it and I determined it's not worth my time unless I'm doing, unless I need it like in vast quantities all the time.
Barstool Conclusions: That's fair. That's...
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: This is not worth my time and effort.
Barstool Conclusions: Sure. Sure, sure, sure. Okay. All right. That's a proper science experiment.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Have you had any?
Barstool Conclusions: I don't know that I would qualify them as science experiments. I can't think of any off the top my head.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Have you ever tested the strength of joinery?
Barstool Conclusions: ah yeah I mean, technically, yes, but it was very like backwards bullshit science. You know, like I I cut a mortise and tenon and I cut.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Bye.
Barstool Conclusions: OK, in fairness, this was a something of ah a scientific experiment. My theory, my theory thesis statement, if you will, would have been that glue surface with contemporary glues is more important than leverage in traditional joinery to hold a joint together.
Barstool Conclusions: So what what that would look like is a let's you know take a two by four right two inch by four inch uh rail and style and saying that a single tenon going into that um is not is arguably less structurally sound than if I were to take simple dominoes, you know standard dominoes, and have like eight of them in there with contemporary adhesives.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: Because theoretically, I'm increasing the glue surface area.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Mm-hmm.
Barstool Conclusions: That was the theory. So I made both of them. I clamped them to one of the verticals in my shop and I marked every six inches and I climbed up on it and I stood on it and I just like bounced on it a little bit. think they were like a foot off the ground. And if it held, I moved slightly further out and I bounced on it in and the next six inches and the next six inches until it broke.
Barstool Conclusions: And then I did the same thing with the domino pieces. And it turns out I was wrong.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Okay.
Barstool Conclusions: that
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: The domino broke earlier.
Barstool Conclusions: My mechanical leverage is way stronger than we give it credit for, or at least that I give it credit for in that moment.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, wow.
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah. So I, I still think I would like to run the test again now that I have a Domino XL.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Wait, Eric, wait, let me, look look sorry, let me just make sure I understand. It's like eight dominoes versus like a big chunky mortise and tenon.
Barstool Conclusions: Just this big single tenon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: um and And I would like to run the experiment again to see now that I have a Domino XL, if that changes things. Because the I used epoxy for both and you know the dominoes broke first, um but they they blew out the bottom of the the style because I think there was just so much leverage on those bottom dominoes and not enough length in there.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. They were too close to the edge too, I bet.
Barstool Conclusions: Right, right, right, right.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Right.
Barstool Conclusions: So I think that might've been what happened with the XL. Now you're getting increased glue surface and leverage because they're much longer.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But see, I feel in that experiment, you weren't really testing glue versus mechanical advantage. You were actually testing mechanical advantage versus mechanical advantage.
Barstool Conclusions: sure. Well, this is because I'm not a fucking, I'm not smart. You know, like I don't know.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You know what i mean? No, you are. You are very smart.
Barstool Conclusions: I, I think I, I, I agree with you.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Don't fucking do that. Don't do that. Don't do that.
Barstool Conclusions: I can see what you're saying.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Don't do that. Yeah, it's it's the dominoes were too close.
Barstool Conclusions: Um,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Like their mechanical advantage being so close to the edge was inferior to like a chunky thing. Right.
Barstool Conclusions: Well, really really where this really where this stemmed from was one of the guys who who taught me the trade, Rob Hare, made these big giant theater doors like 30 years ago or something like that.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: And that glue aside.
Barstool Conclusions: And they're mahogany doors like eight feet by four feet, a pair of them. And he was a sculptor by trade, not a woodworker or a joiner. So he just biscuited the doors together and And whatever, 15, 20 years later, that theater closed down and they moved locations.
Barstool Conclusions: So they asked him to to move the doors. And he said, sure, no problem. And in moving the doors, one of them slipped off the truck and fell onto the highway and the mahogany door just fucking exploded.
Barstool Conclusions: And ah all four of the corner joints where the biscuits had been epoxied together stayed together perfectly. So it was like,
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Because it wasn't the biscuits holding it, right?
Barstool Conclusions: Yeah, he was like, well, then it's perfect.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: It's strong enough, you know?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Barstool Conclusions: So that's the closest, I think, to a proper science experiment I've done in the shop.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Well, for for science experiments, I would just say like, if if the answer is unclear to you or unclear from the the the the hundreds of years of knowledge we have, absolutely run the experiment.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: But like, why are we going to reinvent the wheel here?
Barstool Conclusions: Hmm.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Like people saying like, oh, you know, hollow grind weakens the blade. of Fuck off.
Barstool Conclusions: Who gives a shit?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It doesn't. It does not. Your hollow grind blades are just fine. Just get it done. You know, make a thing like make a thing like Eric says.
Barstool Conclusions: Just get it did. Just get it did. Yeah. Yeah. Just make a thing. Well, that was a, that was a weird episode, buddy. We went all over the place.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah.
Barstool Conclusions: We didn't even talk about fucking creativity all that much.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I was all over the place, but it's we've had a lot to catch up on.
Barstool Conclusions: We have. It's been a long three months. I miss you, bud. I like this this five o'clock shadow you got coming in.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I missed you.
Barstool Conclusions: Sexy as hell.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Yeah. Thanks, bud. ah
Barstool Conclusions: All right. Where can the people find us for the after show?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah If you would like the after show or the video feed, ah all you have to do to get it is subscribe to our Patreon. And our Patreon also has a nice community that going on inside it where people share their projects, ask questions. I asked like some of the questions that I had today were from our Patreon chat. So all you have to do for the after show and the video feed is subscribe to our Patreon and we would appreciate that.
Barstool Conclusions: And Paul, um before we go, i got I got one more question for you, buddy. um When's the last time you prayed?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I was waiting for this. and know and about three villagey spiritusan
Barstool Conclusions: how How is your standing with our Lord and Savior right now?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: William T. Burkle.
Barstool Conclusions: yeah William Teresa Burkle, yes.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Teresa. Has he gotten tired of us calling him Teresa?
Barstool Conclusions: No, he fucking loves it. I talk to him all the time. He's like, your fucking ad rates are the dumbest shit ever.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: What is his middle name? What do do we know?
Barstool Conclusions: ah i don't remember. he told me at one point, I don't remember what it is.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You couldn't even bother to remember you bitch.
Barstool Conclusions: He did. He did. He did. He did one time tell me this is 100% true. He was like, I find it hilarious that you guys call me Lord and Savior because my parents almost named me Jesus.
Barstool Conclusions: but
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: What?
Barstool Conclusions: He was like, my middle name was almost Jesus.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Are you kidding?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Are you kidding?
Barstool Conclusions: I swear to Christ.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I swear to Jesus.
Barstool Conclusions: i i swear to billy mt burkle oh well for the people who are wondering if you're new here and you haven't heard of wtb woodworking uh it is it is something of a mecca for woodworking um which i understand is mixing religions but just ride with me located down at 390 pike road in huntington valley pennsylvania
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh my God, Eric, that's hilarious.
Barstool Conclusions: it's It's effectively a mom and pop shop that has everything you need for all of your woodworking supplies. And if you're in the area and can stop by, ah Bill is offering 50% off all slabs in store, 10% off all boards in store, and 10% off all woodwork turning blanks in store as well. Because, you know, he's he's a giver.
Barstool Conclusions: He's a giver. He said said, I'm going to take these three loaves and five fish and make it 50% off all slabs in store. That's how I ride, baby.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: You did-
Barstool Conclusions: So, you know, go check them out. Check them out. Billy T's a good boy. He's a good, good boy. ah and And he's now also carrying Total Boat and Rikon products. So you can get all those. Guys, also, I will say this in 100% genuineness. um Bill's a great dude. he and his wife are run the store. it's a writ like i don't know I don't know if he will like me saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway. But like if you...
Barstool Conclusions: it's It's kind of like a woodcraft, but like mom and pop style, you know? Like in that, they have a bunch of woodworking stuff and you can buy it online, support local business, go do the thing.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: um I know this is true because the only way I would say yes to an ad read is if it there was like some reasonable degree of authenticity to it, which I'm all about mom and pop places helping the community.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: So.
Barstool Conclusions: And honestly, like if you just want to if you just want to get into heaven after you die, then just go fucking buy shit from what WCB Woodworking, okay?
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: Oh, okay. Well, guarantees on getting into heaven withstanding or not withstanding, I should say.
Barstool Conclusions: ah
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah Thank you, Eric. That was that was illuminating.
Barstool Conclusions: Thank you, buddy boy. i got you. I'm here for you.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: i feel like ah I feel like I see a halo above your head right now. All right, y'all. Well, I hope you enjoyed ah episode five now of Barstool Confessions.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: It's about as real as it gets with the two of us. Again, I forgot we were recording halfway through the the recording.
Barstool Conclusions: Oh, yeah.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: I think Eric did too.
Barstool Conclusions: good
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: ah um I hope you enjoyed that.
Barstool Conclusions: I mean, i always enjoy talking about my dirty meat, so I guess we'll see you guys in the after show. Okay, bye.
Woodworking is Bullsh*t: All right, y'all. See you in the after show. Bye.
