ROLL ON: Stop Optimizing Your Life & Start Living It, Seeking Depth Over Algorithms, The Future of Podcasting, Artemis II, Media Diet & More

26:21Adam Skolnick:Still has it. 100%. It feels more relevant. Maybe this is just through my own personal biased experience or lens, but it does feel more culturally relevant than it has in the past, at least with respect to film, for example. Like the Sundance Film Festival, that was always like the big thing. And I don't know if that feels like it's maybe on the wane a little bit. And the film side of South by Southwest feels definitely more important than it has in the past. Is that right? Yeah, just, I don't know, it was cool. And Austin's great. You're just in this place where you're riding bikes around, everything's five minutes away, and there's just so much going on.

27:03You can't even begin to tap into 2 % of what's happening during that festival because there's so much going on.

27:11Adam Skolnick:I mean, you were on that stage with Ed. like when you do those bigger events those bigger venues do you get nervous i always get nervous how do you calm yourself down you know just deep breaths you know it's it's sort but it's it's not a bad nerve bad bad nerves it's it's excitement because i want it to go well right now i want to make sure that i'm delivering for the audience and then i'm serving you know the person i'm speaking to and respecting them by being prepared and all that kind of stuff yeah is he touring the the record around so the album comes out in may i think so it's not coming out yet but that um conversation uh then like coincided with the release of a rolling stone article on ed um that announced also that radiohead is going to be touring again yeah it's pretty cool and you were saying to me like that people don't realize that ed is foundational to the sound itself like Like he like kind of like John Fruscianti without him that Chili Peppers wouldn't have become what they became.

28:15Adam Skolnick:Like like like all their best stuff came after that. Like when you listen to his solo album. You really understand his contribution to Radiohead. Like he's the guy who's creating the entire kind of like sonic vibe of the of the band sound. Like he's he's the sound designer behind the scenes. And he's somebody who has always been comfortable, kind of receded into the background. And if you watch concert footage or see performances of them, you know, he'll be like leaning down, like turning knobs and like, you know, playing with wires and stuff like that, but less comfortable being forward facing.

28:57um and this second solo album is the first time he's actually attached his name to his album like his first solo album was just eob like he didn't even put his whole name to it so he's sort of coming out and standing on his own two feet and like owning his his talent and his relationship to music and it's kind of beautiful to watch because in radiohead and he said this many times like his job is to like serve the band and to like support Tom York's, you know, beautiful lyricism and that extraordinary voice. And it's scary to step outside of that and say, well, this is me, you know, outside of Radiohead.

29:41And I don't think any of us could imagine, like, can you imagine being in a band that is that huge? But because he is sort of somebody who has always been more in the background, he can still enjoy anonymity. Like we were walking around South by Southwest and yes, some people recognize him, but a lot of people don't. And I'm like, that dude's in Radiohead.

30:05Adam Skolnick:You know, it's crazy. You don't even know. Right. Well, especially in this era where we all have different famous people anyway, like nobody has the same famous people. But I will pick one bone with you in saying Radiohead's the most iconic band of our lifetime. I disagree. well you're wearing a nirvana t-shirt yeah i mean come on is it really a debate is there really a debate i mean not to me like to me i think uh the greatest rock star since this you know in the modern in the modern day since since the 60s 70s it depends upon your metrics yeah because it was such a short-lived band yes yes yes you know and uh and radiohead has this greater canon of work and they're still going you know they're still doing stuff yeah yeah no you yeah but if you're our if you're our age i mean it's like i love radio it's like it's you're wearing an iconic like gen x t-shirt right like you just you're repping gen x you know i'm repping the gen and i'm a proud member of gen x like i'm down with nirvana you know hardcore and similarly i'm wearing a mike d t-shirt you are d5d you are and the reason i'm wearing this and this relates to music i guess we can kind of segue yeah is mike d from the beastie boys uh proud citizen of malibu sort of an icon in malibu i never even knew he lived here oh you didn't i don't know dude he he's the man about town is he really yeah all right surfer lifestyle icon like he moved to malibu and he's really all about like healthy lifestyle when did he move here not not forever Oh, okay.

31:42Oh, forever. He's lived here forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But hasn't put out new music in a very long time.

31:48Adam Skolnick:Really? And he has an album coming out soon, Mike D5D. And he did a live performance in Malibu last Thursday. Where? Trankus? At that place? No. On PCH, there's a surf shop called Brothers Marshall. Okay. You know where the general hardware store is, like right by Las Flores? Yes. They took over that whole parking lot and he performed, uh, kind of like an unpublicized, if you live in Malibu, you know, kind of thing. Like all point doom showed up for this. It was probably like 300 people. Does he live at point doom? Yeah, it was in point doom. But it was all the way over there. But it was down at, like brothers Marshall was sort of behind it and the city of Malibu, like, you know, permitted this whole thing to happen.

32:32Adam Skolnick:And it was super cool. Like it was a community event. like all of Malibu was there Rick Rubin was there you know it was like a whole thing but it was super cool Rick Rubin didn't do Check Your Head I think you're right we might have to check the internet for which records he produced was it Check Your Head? the second and third Paul's Boutique I think did he do Paul's Boutique? did he not? I'm not sure about that somebody can look Logan can look and double check Yeah, Rick Rubin was there. And the opening act was a band called Very Nice Person. Okay. A Very Nice Person. Look this up too. Very Nice People, Very Nice Person, which is Mike D's son's band.

33:20Okay. Skylar and Davis. All right. And it's a cool band. They performed at South by Southwest. Right on. They're young kids, but they're kind of coming up. And then they played with Mike D also. which was really cool. That's awesome. Like he's playing with his kids. And just to see Mike D like do his thing. It's like LeBron and Brani, baby. Mike D is a very quiet kind of introverted person. He's the Buddhist, right?

33:43Adam Skolnick:He's the Buddhist. Wasn't he like a Buddhist? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He did a record. He did a Kirtan record many years ago with Bhagavan Das. Okay. Who's the guy who married Julie and I. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so yeah. Yeah. With Bhagavan Das or Krishna Das? With Bhagavan Das. With Bhagavan Das. But Mike D, I don't know him well, but I've met him a bunch of times. He's a very, you know, he's a very quiet, like introverted person. Okay. But then you see him on stage doing his thing and you're like, this guy is a natural born performer, you know, and he's up there and he's like doing the thing that he was born to do.

34:18And everyone was so happy to see him do it. That's awesome. And he's got these new songs and I don't know, it was like, it was super cool. So I'm, I'm rocking, I'm rocking the merch.

34:27Adam Skolnick:that's awesome from that experience mike d you know when i was a million years ago when i was going door to door to people's houses to get them to care about uh the ancient forests and try to save the the ancient forests i was laurel canyon was like prime territory because liberals and they had money and i went up there and i knocked on the door and i'm like right out of college and there's a beautiful woman sitting on like in the kitchen you can see all the way through the house and um there's two two women and they're looking at i'm like hey because i'm like you know hey come on i gotta sign my petition give money and um it turned out it was ioni sky and then all of a sudden adam horowitz comes out and sees me there and there's a like a production trucks out front it's like this whole weird thing going on and i'm just trying to get in there and get and he comes and he takes me he moves me away like he puts his hand on my ear but he moves me out of like view of his home and he's like what's going on here and i'm like oh we're just doing this thing man and uh he gave a hundred bucks he said get out of here he gives me a hundred bucks and he goes away and then as i'm coming back down later doing all the territory one of the production guys comes up and says hey man um you know we're doing a party here tonight it's gonna be kind of a music video party thing it's frying you sky's record or whatever you're welcome to come by bring some friends come over and come to the party but i was so afraid of adam that i didn't go dude how could you not go i don't know i don't know man i don't know why did you go you didn't have a friend to like talk some sense into you a friend of mine in the group was like dude we gotta go you have to take me there i can't go with that i'm like you go just tell him it was you you could have gone yeah you blew that one i blew it yeah i blew it um what is your relationship to music these days my spotify age is 110 is that good um no i i listen to i'll tell you what i listen to i listen to on the weekends alma del barrio that's kxlu 89.9 um it's a college radio station from loyala marymount here in town and on the weekends they play old salsa and cumbia all the old latin music so it's it's a it's been running for 50 plus years it's the best latin music show in the world if you like bad bunny this is the shit you should be listening to it's unbelievable and so if you're not familiar with it but you like the beats it's it this is the place to go so it's 89.9 all day long um so i do that and then i do henry rollins show every week he's KCRW and you can get both these can stream anywhere in the world and so I do that and KCRW is like a pod you can listen to it anytime Almond El Barrio you have to be streaming while it's going on and then otherwise it's kind of like Spotify and whatever I hear from these other places I save on Shazam I Shazam a lot of stuff um the only new band I know we talked about this before the only new bands I'm new bands is where I'm kind of like a little lost sometimes Henry Rollins will put some bands on great Australian band called TV Colors.

37:30Adam Skolnick:That's new that I, that I'm into. Geese is really cool. I got that from, I think from tiny desk and then wet leg. I like wet leg, but like my new stuff is like occasionally new stuff gets in there, but I'm a lot of times listening to old music, old jazz, old salsa, old rock and roll. Yeah. I'm obsessed with Geese. I love Geese. And Cameron Winter's burgeoning solo career. Unbelievable. That guy is off the charts talented i i can't stop listening to him i know he's been sort of likened to his generation's bob dylan is that right time will tell but you know he he's so young and the fact that he's playing solo concerts at carnegie hall and then touring with the hottest rock band you know right now it's it's pretty cool to see what he's doing yeah i didn't realize that he he it was soloing at Carnegie Hall.

38:25Adam Skolnick:Yeah. I missed that. And like Paul Thomas Anderson is, there's like videos of Paul Thomas Anderson filming him on stage when he was at Carnegie Hall. Is that right? Like this guy is like, you know. And who is he touring with? Cameron Winter? Yeah. He's the lead singer in Geese. No, I know, but who are they touring with right now? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. You mean who's their opening act? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they just played Coachella the other day. But they're not the biggest band. You said the biggest band. They're like, well, they're not the biggest band in the world, but they're the band that's getting the most energy energy right now in terms of like new bands that are coming up they're not that new they've been around for a while to me they sound super young i know to me they sound a lot like the strokes to be honest with you like they remind me of early strokes they're really iterating on on that like they're doing a lot of really interesting new stuff okay and it's just cool to see yeah it's cool because there was a period of time where i thought like is rocking is rock over like are we done with it and then you know sure enough like a band like geese comes along and you realize oh there's more to say here you know because edm edm well that's why i say like bad bunny edm like all this it all comes from musicianship and you can tell with cameron winter you can tell with yeast the musicianship is just top notch and so like to me like it all starts there so um that's why i like the old stuff because that's when musicianship really mattered more and so the more we get i I think the more things advance technologically, I used to really like EDM when it was like more underground and stuff.

39:49Adam Skolnick:And now I don't really listen to it ever. And so maybe I'm just this guy that doesn't like things once they get popular. It's very possible. That's true. I am that. But I like the grit. I like it to come from the earth. You know what I mean? I like it. I mean, rock and roll, what's cool about it is it's a mix of the two. Like you're saying with Radiohead, kind of creating that mood with electronic enhancement. That's cool.

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43:13At Coachella right now, Radiohead has this underground bunker. Really? Have you seen this? No. Yeah. And it's like going down into, I didn't see this personally. I've just watched videos online. You're going into some kind of fallout shelter underground. Did you see Tenet, the movie Tenet? Yes. So, you know, at the end when they're kind of, they're doing the reverse pincher movement or whatever, and they have to go underground to the place to get the whatever. Yeah. It's kind of like that. You go in this tunnel and you go underground And it is this massive art installation, which I think is really cool, this merging of music and art, because there's so much interesting art associated, like iconography associated with Radiohead.

44:01And at the same time, we have Gorillaz, speaking of like semi-EDM, right? That is having this kind of retrospective moment right now. They were on Saturday Night Live. They had this installation in downtown Los Angeles in the arts district called House of Kong. Did you know about this?

44:22Adam Skolnick:No, I didn't know about this. Similarly, this was like a temporary museum piece where you would go in to this seemingly dilapidated building from the outside called House of Kong. and inside aligning all the walls like you kind of walk through this experience of the band with all of the um all of the iconography like all of the the character drawings starting from the first iterations of them and how it evolved over time and this so it's this merging of visual art with music that i think is really cool well i mean that that goes back to burning man right i mean burning man and then it wasn't coachella kind of iterating on burning man and making it a more commercial like mainstream music experience with art it always had instant art installations yeah yeah i suppose yeah coach always had that i remember when coachella i don't know how much it costs to go to coachella these days but like early days was like 100 bucks and you can get one day passes a lot now now yeah now you need a certain number of instagram followers to even be able to buy a ticket i guess are you going uh no i've never gone you've never gone the boys have gone many times julie's gone yeah so it's a bit much for me honestly but i like watching i like watching i like watching videos of it i could tell a derelict coachella story right now but i'm not sure yeah no sure but i would say this i i've been stuck in my gen x music bubble forever yeah and i realized like i need to break out of this like it's just becoming like too repetitive and i need to like in the same way i'm exploring a different relationship with the podcast like i want to explore a different relationship with music and one thing you'll discover like zoom is too young you're at the age where you're trying to impress upon him your musical taste yeah i'm sure right yes but when they become teenagers they commandeer uh the the the music selection in the car.

46:19Right. And then you have this opportunity to start to listen to what they like. And so I've been leaning into that. And what you realize is like, oh, your kids are the portal to like what's actually happening and what's cool and like what they're interested in. And I've really expanded my, my like kind of musical interests as a result of that. And when I go into the gym on those early mornings, sometimes I'm preparing for a podcast. And so I'll watch videos on the TV of, you know, some person who I'm gonna be speaking to later that day. But if I don't have that, I've been more and more just exploring music and like, oh, Jaya likes this band.

46:59Like, let's see what's on YouTube with this band or like watching, you know, live geese concerts or Tiny Desk concerts or -

47:09Adam Skolnick:I like Tiny Desk. KEXP has a series of amazing, like music live performances. I should check them out. which is really cool i love that i love the local stations and then my guy jack coin who hosts this show called track star in new york city he has um videos of like live performances in his studio and i've just it's opened my world to all these cool bands like geese and cameron winter are just one like turnstile like this super cool band that i'm i'm gotten really into that is kind of punk kind of rock and roll. They just had a huge show at Coachella too. And I think they're just so exciting and so energetic.

47:50And what I love about Turnstyle is in this age in which artists, creative people, musicians are being fed this story that the only way to be successful is to be just constantly releasing stuff, like putting music out, like every week a new song a new music video a new this a new tick tock these are guys this band went in the other direction and whatever money they made from their live performances or whatever you know their their music they reinvested in the band and they have made these extraordinary like music video documentaries that are executed at just the highest level like their art pieces in and of themselves that have just put them at a different kind of tier of craftsmanship okay and their live performances are just you know so energetic like and i just think it's really turn style they're they're like taking this punk rock genre and then they're adding this high level of like visual art um this visual art like aspect to it cool that i think is super interesting um and then And in terms of like other bands that I've gotten into, have you heard of Angine de Poitrine?

49:05No. So this is this Quebecois, like French Canadian band. Yep. It's just two people and they dress up in these, I don't even know what you would call these costumes, but you don't see their faces. Like they're wearing these elaborate costumes and it's just instrumental. And it's the most interesting musicianship that I've heard in a long time. So they're having like this moment right now where they're breaking through. That's really cool. Montreal, great city. So yeah, and Wetleg. I love Wetleg.

49:35Adam Skolnick:I love Wetleg. But there's a lot of bands I've noticed also, like in this Angine de Poitrine vein, where they're obscuring themselves. So they're anonymous. You don't know who these people are. Mass singer. Which maybe was started with Gorillaz. Yes. Right, like being anonymous. Or Daft Punk. Creating characters. Daft Punk used to do that. Daft Punk, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or Marshmallow, I guess now. Yeah, yeah. Daft Punk. There's another band called Karangbin. Yeah, I love Karangbin. I'm super into it. They've been around a while now. They've been around. Yeah, but I'm discovering this. Zuma loves Karangbin.

50:08So there you go. So Zuma already. But you introduced Zuma. But Zuma's very intentional.

50:13Adam Skolnick:He already dictates the playlist, but it's cool stuff right now. But I think to your point is he's going to start hearing stuff we have no idea about. And he's going to bring it to you. And that's cool. So it's been fun. What about this new band, Manger? Big fan. Big fan. Well, this is the most happening band. The most happening band. Manger is my wife, Julie Pyatt's band. She just put out her first song and music video this past week. If you follow me on social media, you've enjoyed that. Yeah. She's got more to come. And it's been great to see her step into this really authentic creative expression.

50:52Yeah. And she's so happy doing it. You know, like this is what she should have been doing a long time ago. And she's rocking it. It's just great. She rocks, man. Like owning it. She knows it, dude. It's pretty cool.

51:02Adam Skolnick:It's like Patti Smith, Sheryl Crow, Julie Pyatt. It's in that name. And you wrote that beautiful bio for her. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, it's all real. It's true. And then to have your, you know, you guys, your family involved. It's amazing. Her son's involved. It's super cool. Yeah. It's super cool. And she said something the other day that's so true. Like, so we went and saw Mike D and he's playing with his two boys. Right. And then you have, um, Jeff Tweedy, who's like touring with his kids right now. Julie's playing with her boys. It's a thing. It is a thing. Musicians playing with their kids.

51:35Yeah. It's cool.

51:36Adam Skolnick:That's how it goes, man. That shows you how old rock and roll is. I know. But it's exciting to see, uh, you know, Julie flourishing creatively and the kind of happiness that, that, and the sense of satisfaction that comes with feeling like you're fully expressing yourself authentically yeah and then also just the idea of music you know it's like it's interesting like i've been learning guitar last few years and just like but i i i did like i was a choir boy i sang i sang all the way up to like to college and i with the bells i didn't do the bells no i didn't do the bells but like but then having music not really be my expression after that became more writing and then finding it again there's something about like the music itself just having the music in you and around you and you're making it is like it just like it just uplifts your energy i think unless you're like doing it out of pathos if you're doing it just purely out of love which is easy when you're new um and and and she's made it new again essentially you know like and her whole story amazing like that her brother is a serious musician her uncle is a serious musician right like so she's got it in the blood yeah yeah what have you been watching okay so media diet media diet most recent thing i watched all the way through is something called the dark wizard which is an hbo documentary series it's coming on online on tuesday so by the time this airs it'll be out um it's all about dean potter the great climber free soloist base jumper wingsuit um pilot and it's his whole story so dean was one of the you know one of the after the stone monkeys one of the like the punk rock guy that came in and just blew up the yosemite valley and right away was like free soloing stuff nobody would even think of doing and he was before alex it was dean but what you don't realize is that dean was 6 '6 i never knew that 6 '6 so there's advantages to being tall on a face i guess but like there's also serious disadvantages it's kind of like a small person's game like you know this kind of it's like gymnastics so like there's there's a scene of him um at the like soloing a route on the top of lcap that route that alex has to wedge his body in and kind of shimmy up that crack he's 6 '6 doing that wow like i mean he's wedged and you can see the pain and so you know it's it's a very this guy is a beautiful soul an artistic vision a really amazing person his journals, they have access to his journals.

54:15Adam Skolnick:So his journals are just incredible. And so you get a sense of his psychology and kind of, you know, he's one of those guys that had mood swings. And so he was depressed a lot, but he also was a groundbreaking athlete. So it's amazing to watch. I think it's four episodes. Yeah. Four episodes. Each one's about an hour and you go deep into it. And of course it's a tragic end. He died when he was 43 in a wingsuit base jump accident. in Yosemite Valley. Um, you know, when it was an outlaw sport, he's like one of the great outlaw athletes. Um, and Alex is cast as the antagonist, which is, I think refreshing for Alex also, but also kind of cool.

54:55How is he the antagonist?

54:57Adam Skolnick:So basically when Dean is the, he's, he's the king of the Valley, he's the man. Right. And then Alex shows up and he's a teenager living out of his van and he just starts free soloing stuff that Dean he's heard Dean wants to do. And he does it he does it before and so and then and then the cutaway conversations with alex you get a sense of the killer instinct that created this amazing athlete that is alex honnold you get a sense of it you don't really understand why he's that way like was there something did he show up was he treated obnoxiously by the cool crowd is is it not but one thing that comes across is like dean is climbing from a lot of pathos even in his early climbs when he does this amazing route he's up there like you know howling like a monkey and and making it very very much a uh kind of there's rage involved there's pathos there's passion and love too but there's also this other stuff and just being around alex and watching him climb and seeing it at the end of of um free solo he climbs from a place of joy he just loves it so even though he's the engineer he's not the artist like like dean is the artist dean is like the he has this amazing artistic vision alex is more the kind of engineer guy that sees how to do something and then goes out and does it.

56:13Adam Skolnick:But it's interesting to watch them both climb and see the difference. You know, it's funny that you think of the engineer guys, the guy climbing from love and this guy climbing from pain. But it does seem that way. And of course the dark, you know, Dean at the end, you know, he has this, this relationship with Ravens comes into play. There's just like an incredible, it's just an incredible film. and he's just one of those iconic athletes that was gone too soon. Four-part series. Four-part series. And he died in a wingsuit? Died in a wingsuit, base jump, with his friend, Graham. I forget his...

56:52Adam Skolnick:I'm spacing on it. They call him Grambo. So it's Dean and Grambo who die. They both are going for this notch from a place called Taft Peak, I think it is, or Taft Exits. It's an exit off Taft Mountain in Yosemite, and they're going for this notch. And Graham had done it before. Dean had not. There's a competitive aspect of Dean that comes into play. And it's there with Alex. And Alex does outdo him. You know, Alex is the new athlete on the block that does take his place. And I think towards the end, he was the boss of the wingsuit guys. Like he revitalized base jumping in Yosemite, Dean did, and he had a whole crew.

57:29Adam Skolnick:A guy that I'm writing about named Jeff Shapiro was on the inner circle with Dean at the last couple of years of his life. And it was this amazing elite group of phenomenal climbers and phenomenal base jumpers and wingsuit pilots. And they were just raging across the valley doing this amazing stuff. And at first, Dean was against flying terrain. He wanted to fly long, high flights. But then he gradually got, as more people started doing these terrain lines, which is where you're closer to the edge because you can feel the speed more, but it's also much more dangerous. He started to do that, and he started to do these insane terrain flights.

58:09Adam Skolnick:I mean, he was an amazing wingsuit base jumper, but then Graham, a younger guy who was his protege, started to do these incredible jumps, and that kind of perked Dean's competitive nature up again. And Jeff told me that that confirms that. The one thing, this is amazing. The one thing that doesn't come across that I think they show the video, but they don't talk about it is the athleticism at one point alex references kind of free basing which was free selling with a base rig so that you have some safety net he you know they use some out of context quote of alex kind of dismissing that i'm not sure how much he really dismissed that but they use that nice quote to make it seem that way but dean being able to fall off a face and then position your body where you're tracking away from the mountain um talking to jeff the athleticism involved in that is just next level you see the the footage of it it's incredible to see him do it uh but to actually perform that it's very rare so you were talking about a you know iconic athlete in his own right so you're working on this uh writing project uh interviewing lots of these uh wingsuit guys right yeah what have you learned like what is the common uh you know strain across that ecosystem of athlete that is different from you know i don't know the endurance athlete or the tennis player like what's unique about that subculture and that personality type that you've discovered i'm not sure i i have figured out figured that out yet that's a good question um i hope next time when we're actually talking about a book that's out I'll have that down.

59:50But like, I'm still very much in the reporting phase.

59:54Adam Skolnick:What I will say is there's something about being close to death like that, that makes you appreciate life, I think. And some, you know, talking to Jeff, I can tell you from Jeff's perspective, it being close to that, it does bring into focus these moments that we talked about before and how rare and precious they are and that's jeff though he's a thinking man you know some of them are just chasing the chasing the fun you know there's definitely people who are just like this is fucking awesome i'm gonna rage you know like that kind of adrenaline rush but then there's others that are a little bit of a mix i think dean was an artist you know there's an amazing um shot in this thing where he is doing a slack line he's also one of the early slack liners and so he was he walked solo to slack line in front of the rising full moon in yosemite valley cathedral peak he strung the sack line between the two kind of peaks of this mountain and and he's he's doing it and mikey shaffer who is part of the crew in taipei he shot it for dean it's one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see in your life this video footage it's just incredible to see the silhouetted dean in front of this massive moon yeah wow yeah so that's what i've been watching yeah that's the main thing that's cool i'll check that out yeah uh on the on the subject of like athlete non-fiction streaming content yes uh i did watch the mariah wilson uh documentary on netflix okay that story is one we've covered we covered here on roll on the story of the gravel racer uh mariah wilson who was very much on the come up and was going to be you know like this just you know phenom in that sport being murdered in cold blood by the girlfriend of colin strickland this woman kristen armstrong uh it's an insane story it's like kind of perfect for netflix because it's like true crime you know yeah i wouldn't call it a cinematic masterpiece but if you're interested in that story in that world i think it's worth watching what i took away from it was a just the the premeditation of Kristen Armstrong going into this murder, like they track like all of her movements in the car and all this sort of stuff, like it's really bone chilling.

1:02:09And then second to that, and perhaps more importantly, the impact that it has had, not just on like Mariah's loved ones and family, but also on Colin Strickland, like this guy will never be the same. Of course not. I see him interviewed in the aftermath of it, and he will carry that to his grave.

1:02:34Adam Skolnick:How could you shed that? Other than that, what have I seen that's been good? Well, I saw my boy Dan McPherson's new movie, Beast, which opened this weekend. Do you know this movie? No, but I saw you post about it, so tell me about it. So, Dan McPherson is a friend of mine. We've been friends since like 2012. Aussie, former Ironman, half Ironman, endurance athlete. Well known in Australia, he was the host of Dancing with the Stars for a number of years back in the day. Moved to LA to become an actor. Things weren't going amazing. He moved back to Australia, and he's had some success since then.

1:03:19He's been in lots of stuff. He was in Foundation, HBO sci-fi show. He was on a TV show called Strike Back. He did a couple movies in supporting roles with Russell Crowe. But Beast, he's the lead. And he plays a mixed martial artist, like an MMA fighter. Yeah. And he kills it. And Russell Crowe plays a supporting role to Dan. which is super cool. Yeah. And Russell was a co-writer on this movie and I think a producer as well. And it's released by Lionsgate and it's, you know, in movie theaters. Phenomenal.

1:04:01Adam Skolnick:And so it's just like a very cool moment for him, for somebody who's been in his game for so long to finally be, you know, in a leading man role. So it's super fun. Congrats. He came over to the house this morning. We worked out. So it was great to see him and celebrate that. That is amazing. So I enjoyed that. He did a great job. And, you know, I know him as a guy. I used to ride bikes with and talk about triathlon. And then when he got this strike back show, he bulked up because he was playing like a special forces guy. So he got all like super jacked and bulky, but then he had to learn how to become a martial artist.

1:04:35And he spent three years like studying jujitsu and Muay Thai and all this sort of thing so that he could, you know, kind of really acquit himself well in this movie. And by all accounts, he has done an amazing job because all of these people in the fighting community are like that is the most realistic portrayal of our sport

1:04:54Adam Skolnick:that i've seen on screen so it's pretty cool you mean like people like mark zuckerberg yeah yes the the experts the martial arts experts the best the best guys um you know what i studied muay thai once did you i did i so when i i covered thailand for lonely planet i was living in phuket for periods of time and so whenever i was there i'd go there was a muay thai gym near and i would do it But they kept trying to get me to do the grappling stuff. But, you know, Rich, you know me. Do I look like a grappler to you? You really don't. I don't grapple. No. I do not grapple. You know. I don't grapple.

1:05:30You grapple with your emotions and your neuroses. That's what you, that's, you're a black belt grappler.

1:05:36Adam Skolnick:When I'm grappling, something's going wrong. I want to flow. That's where I want to be. But isn't that what a Muay Thai fighter does? Like, at the highest level, you're flowing. Yeah, yeah. the highest level grappling is flowing that's the thing that's what i haven't figured out flowing is grappling is flowing now we're in a we're like in a we're in a vortex going to nowhere in this conversation let's go to the moon yeah let's go to the moon let's go so what do you have to say about artemis adam um i loved it you know we made it a family moment to watch the launch um we watched the launch we watched the splashdown i didn't i did i wasn't fully listening to everything but there's a great podcast i was tuning into 13 minutes presents the bbc podcast that was a cool little it's a talkie show with with a british astronaut and then some science journalists and they talked about everything and so they kind of brought more perspective on a daily basis to what was happening i mean i just think it's a i think like the main takeaways for me are like i am a lunatic meaning i love the moon right this is the language of of these things lunatic sphere of influence is that the origin is that the etymology of the word lunatic yes people who love the moon is it that they love the moon or is it that like the full moon is like yeah it's like yeah it is yeah it's like yeah howling at the moon yeah yeah yeah moon howler so lunatic sphere of influence so at one point artemis uh crew went beyond the influence of the gravitational pull of earth and into the gravitational influence of of the moon so it was under the moon's sphere of influence.

1:07:15Adam Skolnick:I didn't know that that was the thing. Sphere of influence. What does that mean though? I don't understand. It means you're under the gravitational influence. Yeah, I understand that, but why is that? Well, you've heard of the phrase sphere of influence, like, you know, somebody like rich, we're in your sphere of influence. I see what you're saying. You're saying that is the etymology of that phrase. That's the etymology. It must have come from the Apollo times, I'm guessing. I mean, it comes from physics. And then free return, another cool phrase, because after they, so the crew went up, they were close to Earth, they got, they approached the moon then they did an interesting slingshot maneuver around to get on this path to go around the far side of the moon they're the furthest away in space of all time and they get the amazing eclipse shot and and and all of that and then they they get on this path to where they're on the path of free return which meant even if they'd run out of fuel everything went bad they were coming back to earth which is interesting to think about like how physics works like these smart people that all the math that's one thing that i got from that podcast all the math all the physics everything that you hear about what's it for it's for this kind of stuff you know it makes that possible to get back on that path of free return and to get back and so you know there's so many little moments uh the naming of the craters but for me like i love the apollo program i have earth rise in our dining room you know like i have a little print of that um so i love this stuff and And yeah, it was a cool moment.

1:08:37Adam Skolnick:I did think on the way back when they splashed down, I felt for them because they splashed down and all of a sudden they had to reboot their sat phone. Like they couldn't call anybody. And then it took forever in the mid Navy to do their thing. And it's like, it's like coming off of a transcontinental flight and then being stuck on the tarmac for like an hour and a half. Yeah. There's something so relatable about the very minor challenges that they faced in the context of just the grandest, you know, like most exquisitely executed mission ever. Like they landed in exactly where they said they would, like within seconds of what they predicted, right?

1:09:19Like everything was just nailed to such a precise, insane degree, but they did have like certain challenges. I saw a tweet.

1:09:28Adam Skolnick:But then they still couldn't get out for like a hour and a half. So I saw a really funny tweet about this. Hold on. this person, Leah Crane, who I don't even know, it just came up on my timeline. She says, deeply, deeply hilarious that everything on the Artemis II mission worked perfectly except Outlook, a conference call, and briefly the toilet. Which is just like any office workers experience, right? Like, oh, their issues are the same as mine. Yeah, that's brilliant. Outlook. That's brilliant. Yeah, that's brilliant. But I think there's just something, you know, beyond just how extraordinary the whole thing was.

1:10:08And you were more locked in on it than I was. Like, I watched the splashdown. I didn't watch the launch. And I wasn't following it that intensely. But here are a group of, like, middle-aged people who are just, like, good people who are smart, who are doing a cool thing. and there's a wholesomeness to it and a hopefulness and an optimism that is like exactly the prescription we need right now you know and like i just appreciate that and i'm grateful for that

1:10:39Adam Skolnick:like i just think it's i think it's super cool and they named they named uh crater after the crew chief reed what's reed's last name maybe hastings i forget but um his and then they named it for his wife who died of cancer like a couple years before colleen i think colleen yeah the two things i want to say is that they risked their lives it was a one in 20 chance that those heat shields wouldn't work on the way back because they were flawed heat shields and they'd had in the test flight and these got these this crew of four people still did it now why would they do it people would ask you know some former astronauts were saying they shouldn't have done it and that nasa was um was being unnecessarily risky but you know one thing i will say from interviewing these these wingsuit base jumpers and then um i think i just got pooped on by one of your birds but in a good way it's good luck yeah you know what you what you realize is these people will go for it because if if this didn't happen now it would happen two years from now and these astronauts might not get the chance again so this was their chance and it was a one they'd figured it out from the data one in 20 chance and that was enough that was good enough for them and so they risked their lives man it was not like i mean it's easy to they're back now and it's it was always working so it seemed fine but like they had just they had co2 scrubbers that were getting that you know it's like a rebreather it's like living in a rebreather like these diving rebreathers that don't have bubbles where you what you breathe out gets scrubbed and serve back to you as oxygen that's what they were breathing on so they had backup tanks and everything if they had to get back but they were they were living off these these co2 scrubbers and and they were risking their ass i I mean, it's very, very interesting.

1:12:16Adam Skolnick:And it's also cool, like you're saying, in this era of the United States where we're waging war right now, a needless war that is, you know, that is causing all this kind of repercussions from, and it seems like almost mindless the way it's been executed and lacking in humility and thoughtfulness. You know, if you're going to go to war, I would wish you were humble and thoughtful about how you're going to execute it versus rash and maybe stupid. And now this is the other thing the United States is executing this amazing, thoughtful, peerless experience, the deepest we've ever done. So it shows you the capability of this country in both ways.

1:12:55Adam Skolnick:And it's kind of encouraging, but also makes you kind of feel like, wow, we're very schizophrenic, like all countries are. Yeah. The polarity, the extreme polarity of what's happening politically and globally, in terms of global conflict and like this war that we're in and all the insanity that's happening right now and then this this just incredibly uplifting thing at the same time like it's a weird schizophrenic situation like it it's a yes and kind of deal i guess but here's where they tie together there's like this dominance this this this lust for dominance that is at the the core of our culture that has always existed in the United States.

1:13:38Adam Skolnick:And, and I think Trump is part of that and all of this is part of that, but also like NASA's part of that, like Artemis's goal is to get close to the moon so we can build a base on the fucking moon. I mean, it's crazy. Like, it's crazy. I don't want a base on the moon. Do you want a base on the moon? I'm into, uh, space exploration and, you know, ultimately long-term, like expanding the horizon for our species, but I'm not into just replicating the mistakes that we're making here elsewhere. You know what I mean? So if you watch that TV show, like for all mankind, like it really explores that idea.

1:14:20And what was the, um, that beautiful Brad Pitt movie that's about his relationship with his father, where he, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ad Astra. I I just rewatched Ad Astra like a month ago. And it's the same thing. They go to the moon and the moon is just fast food restaurants. And like, you know, it's just, they just, we just export like our culture. Like you think it's going to be different and the same, you know, turf wars and territorialism and we're just replicating our mistakes. Right. So this is, this is the point you're making.

1:14:55Adam Skolnick:That's the point I'm making. And like, by the way, not, not for nothing using a rich phrase, the moon does influence our tides. which is like the ocean and the weather and everything it's like let's be careful with the fucking moon you know what i mean like it's like it's it is part of this biological system so let's have humility you know it does take balls so you it's not like humility is always the best play it does take incredible guts and strength and focus and i appreciate those things too but like I think to be really strong you have to have humility like I think often force is mistake is mistaken for strength and strength is something totally different than that it's it includes includes humility and so you know that's my only concern my only note my only note for NASA is like make sure we're humble about this but that's not NASA's uh remit you know what I mean like their remit is to do the exploration like you know the rest of it is up to you know us in the government i suppose right but we haven't answered the most important question the whole purpose of this artemis 2 mission which was to put the test to the flat earthers have we put the nail in the coffin of the flat earth movement with this definitely not you know somewhere there's a flat earth what is the argument what is the flat earther argument now i'll tell you somewhere there's a flat earther listening to this being like i can't believe richard m are falling for this artemis bullshit like that didn't happen so it just didn't so so basically it's just it's saying like this was another stanley kubrick-esque like you know hollywood production and none of this happened do you know where stanley kubrick was the day of the launch is he still alive maybe he directed it oh right he directed it from beyond are we there yet is this where we're at i don't know i don't know um let's end on a hopeful note adam all right ending on a hopeful though yeah splash us down okay with our damaged heat shields take us well i think you know the takeaway from artemis from the astronauts perspective that i've seen is the same as the takeaway of almost every you know experience from all the astronauts it's that they when they're up there they fall in love in the with the beauty of the earth and the and everybody on earth and so So, you know, you see when you're out in the vacuum in the void, you see what we have so clearly.

1:17:20Adam Skolnick:And it's so beautiful. You know, it stands out so incredibly. And so, I mean, I think that's where I'm at. It's like, let's enjoy the beauty of what we have, because even though some terrible things are happening, terrible things have always happened, like we've said. And so I think that's the takeaway for me. It's the same thing I said at the beginning of this episode, which is I try to focus on the moments of beauty because they're sublime. It's not just one beautiful thing that doesn't matter. It's like everything. And so the more deep we can be in those moments of, you know, nirvana and Artemis was a moment of nirvana for all of us together that we could share in, then all the better.

1:18:00Adam Skolnick:So, you know, thank you to NASA and everyone for doing that because it's beautiful. Artemis II was a one-upper to Alex Honnold's Type A 101 climb. It definitely was. They really one-upped him with that, didn't they? They really did. But it is the consistent refrain of every astronaut who has had that experience when they come back. And they're like, when you have that perspective of the Earth from such a distance, you realize, oh, it's a spaceship. We're all on it together. It's so small. We have more in common than, you know, much more in common than our differences. And they repeat that. And we understand that intellectually, but there's something so experiential about that.

1:18:44Like, because it's so moving for them, like it changes them. And I wish we could be changed just by hearing them reflect that back to us.

1:18:54Adam Skolnick:Yeah. Like we get it. Right. But we don't get it like they get it. No. And if we did, maybe we would be better at resolving those differences and avoiding going into poorly conceived global conflicts and, you know, killing each other unnecessarily. You're bringing us down again. We're going to bring us back up, which is that there are moments like that. Life is for the person to experience. Life is to be experienced. To the tie, the wingsuit, to Alex, to this, to the astronauts, to everything we're talking about, to what we were talking about at the top of self-improvement. Life is an active sport, right?

1:19:33Adam Skolnick:It's a sport for the people in the game. And so I think that's the takeaway is you can find those moments of connectivity. They're available to you here on earth all the time. You have to seek them out though. They're not gonna necessarily bite you. Maybe a few times in your lifetime, something will smash you on the head, some realization. But you can decide that I'm gonna go sit by the sea, walk along the river walk walk through the farmland you could find a way to connect with the beauty of the earth every day of your life i encourage it i think there's nothing more empowering than just sitting down and watching the world go by sometimes you know like that's what i think is the most important thing and and uh i wish more people would do that and not just the world not just like in a cafe although everything's wildlife really we're all wildlife but like if you can get out to some place where nature is really showing itself, you can have those moments yourself.

1:20:30I love it. You did it. You splashed us down beautifully. Did I splash down? More evidence of Adam Skolnick ascending. I think we did it, man. Thanks for doing this. Thanks, man. I love this. Yeah, this is cool. We're out here. It's amazing.

1:20:44Adam Skolnick:I felt more present with you in this one. Me too, yeah. To be continued. All right. Thanks everybody for tuning in. Thank you. Till next time, peace.