Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers

Temple Mishaps, Rafting with Mr. Darcy & A Sacre Bleu Moment: Listener Episode #21

54 min
Feb 26, 2026about 2 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

This listener episode features Hillary Myers (the hosts' mother) as guest host, sharing family travel stories including a mishap on a French canal boat and listener submissions about temple visits in Seoul, whitewater rafting disasters, and cross-country road trips. The episode celebrates listener engagement through stories, questions, and a poem about the podcast itself.

Insights
  • Family travel stories often reveal character through crisis management—how people respond to unexpected challenges defines relationships more than the trip itself
  • Humor and perspective transform potentially traumatic experiences into cherished memories; the ability to laugh about mishaps strengthens family bonds
  • Listener engagement through storytelling creates community and validates the podcast's core mission of celebrating family experiences across diverse audiences
  • Consistency in small details (naming all dogs 'Albert,' all chipmunks 'Rufus Fabi') creates meaningful continuity and comfort in family traditions
  • Authentic, handcrafted content (original songs, personal stories) resonates more deeply than AI-generated alternatives, even when more time-consuming
Trends
Podcast listener loyalty driving user-generated content submissions and creative engagement (poems, questions, detailed story narratives)Family travel content appealing to audiences seeking emotional authenticity and relatable multi-generational narrativesPreference for human-created, signature creative elements over AI efficiency in entertainment and podcast productionGrowing interest in intergenerational family bonding experiences and adventure travel among diverse demographicsListener communities forming parasocial relationships with podcast hosts, seeking validation and connection through shared family values
Topics
Family travel mishaps and crisis managementIntergenerational family bonding through adventureWhitewater rafting safety and risk assessmentCultural tourism and religious site etiquettePodcast listener engagement and community buildingOriginal music composition for podcast episodesParenting and family communication stylesRoad trip safety and vehicle emergenciesAdoption and family reunion travelHandcrafted content vs. AI-generated alternativesMulti-generational travel experiencesHumor as coping mechanism in stressful situationsFamily traditions and naming conventionsPodcast guest recognition and awardsListener story submissions and community participation
Companies
Cheers
Alcohol recovery supplement brand sponsoring the episode with 20% off promo code TRIPS
Warby Parker
Eyewear retailer offering 15% off prescription glasses with code TRIPS for listeners
Airbnb
Travel accommodation platform featured in host's personal skiing trip story to Mammoth Mountain
Kachava
Nutritional supplement brand providing protein and energy support with code TRIPS discount
Superpower
Health biomarker testing service offering $20 off with code TRIPS for comprehensive blood analysis
HexClad
Hybrid cookware brand combining stainless steel and nonstick technology with 10% off via exclusive link
People
Hillary Myers
Guest host and mother of Josh and Seth; shared family travel stories and French canal boat mishap
Josh Myers
Podcast co-host who composes original songs for each episode and discussed music creation process
Seth Myers
Podcast co-host and SNL cast member; co-hosts with brother Josh and manages guest interviews
Albert
Old English Sheepdog featured in family stories; namesake for all family dogs in Myers household
Craig (Mr. Darcy)
Listener's husband who deceived family about whitewater rapids difficulty, leading to injuries
Jean
Listener from Manchester, NH who shared temple mishap story from Seoul trip with adopted uncle
Eileen
Listener who shared 33-year marriage story beginning with disastrous whitewater rafting trip
Andrea
Listener from Spokane who shared childhood Nebraska road trip story with gas tank puncture
Whitney
Listener from Washington who befriends red squirrels and names them Tum Tum; praised family values
Jen
Boston listener who wrote original poem about the podcast for submission
Bob Odenkirk
Actor mentioned by listener Whitney as alumnus of her children's future high school
Timothy Oliphant
Actor guest mentioned in listener poem about podcast episodes
Paul Dano
Actor guest mentioned in listener poem about podcast episodes
Aya Cash
Actress guest mentioned in listener poem about podcast episodes
Josh Hommel
Guest mentioned in listener poem about podcast episodes
Jimmy Kimmel
Late-night host who mentioned Family Trips podcast on Strike Force Five, driving listener discovery
Boyz II Men
Musical group whose song 'It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday' inspired Josh's Strike Force Five song
Quotes
"I can't do everything here. So I said, well, I'll tie it up. Well, apparently not."
Hillary MyersCanal boat story
"It's as if the river were saving up all its rage just for the Darcy family."
Eileen (listener)Whitewater rafting story
"I'm sure we'll all laugh about this someday. Dead silence."
Eileen (listener)Whitewater rafting aftermath
"Children, put your shoes on in case we need to jump."
Andrea's fatherNebraska road trip story
"There's something I feel like that would be lost in that. But it does take sometimes a lot of time."
Josh MyersDiscussion of AI song composition
Full Transcript
Family trips with the Miles brothers, family trips with the Miles brothers, here we go. Hey, tripsters. We've got a listener episode for you today. And this is a very special listener episode because Sufi is once again, he's out on the road. He's traveling. He didn't have time for you. He didn't have time for me. So we are joined by none other than my mother, Hillary Myers, also known as Mommy Girl, but most often known as Hurry. Hi, Hurry. How are you? Hi. Good morning. This is very exciting. I know. Thank you for stepping in. I got to say the listener episodes of all the episodes we do, they're sort of they're the most relaxed for us. So I think this is a good entree for you. How are you? All good. All good. Living in a winter wonderland here in Bedford, New Hampshire. Yeah. You guys are getting slammed, aren't you? Well, since Christmas, the snow's been on the ground. Great big piles of it. It's so beautiful. I just love it. No melting taking place yet. Yeah. And you like to go out and play in the snow, right? Make the odd snow angel. Yeah. um you do have a dog that is like perfectly suited to the weather with albert the old english sheepdog he he just loves it yeah he loves the romping yes yes yes any kind of uh he's camouflaged in the snow so it's tricky to find him sometimes yeah he's predominantly white whitish grayish yes so he is one of the things i love when i'm home is uh daddy will tend to get up before you and Albert certainly gets up as soon as dad gets up and wants to go outside. But then Albert will come up and just join you in bed and sleep with you until you decide to get up. Well, he comes up around quarter to seven because he knows he gets his father up at seven. So he lays between us facing his father because I don't like to get slubered on in the morning. That would be a slobbery, slubbery. Yeah. But when his father wakes up at seven, the two of them leave and then Albert will come back and get me at eight. He knows that is my wake up time. And that's when the bedroom is awash in what I call posh rainbows. The little prism that you gave me that goes in my window and covers my ceilings on a sunny day with beautiful rainbows. So it's a nice way to wake up a big sheepdog, rainbows. It's a good way to start your day. It's a great way to start your day. And I really like the prism that I got you is not, you know, it's not an expensive thing, but it sort of it really delivers in terms of bang for your buck. If you're looking for a gift, if you know of someone who has a window that gets some sun in it, they're so nice. We have one hanging in our window. And when, you know, when the living room gets all rainbowy, it's there's something that's just magical about it. Yeah, I bought them for a bunch of my friends. And yeah, they're like five or six dollars each. I mean, it's nothing. You put a little wire string on them, heavy string. And yeah, they're fabulous. Yeah. Just talking about trips real quickly, you mentioned that you maybe had a trip story that you wanted to tell. So I want to give you the floor. Yeah, I'd only told ones about our immediate family, but my sisters, I'm one of four sisters, and my mother, we started an annual reunion about 25, 30 years ago, and we went on a trip every year for a week. we went all over the world uh bermuda quebec amsterdam all over the united states we would be a week we do have two brothers they were never invited the husbands were never invited it was strictly the girls yeah and one year a friend of mine at school said we just took a penny shut down a canal in france and i thought wait a minute what is a penny shut and what's the deal Yeah, I think everyone listening also had the question, what's a penny shed? And we're all glad that you swung back around to it. So it's like a little mini houseboat slash barge because it goes down canals. So you go through locks and stop in all kinds of little towns where there's wineries, get free wine, walk in the little towns. And it's very little traffic on the canal. So it's kind of ideal. But this friend of mine had gone with her husband. And of course, we have no men in our group. And you think of a skipper of a ship as being a man, at least I do. But then my sister, Alex, famously learned to be quite the sailor in Marblehead, Massachusetts growing up and taught sailing in North Carolina when she lived there. So I thought, well, she can maneuver this boat. How hard can it be? And of course, she could maneuver. It was no problem. They showed her the maps and she said, I got it. So we just floated down these canals for a week. And at night, you would tie up to a pier. And usually there would maybe be two other boats at the most. And you'd go into the town and have dinner or do whatever you wanted to walk about. So one night we all got dressed up and went into the town and we came back. And there's a Frenchman at the end of the pier saying, mesdames, mesdames, sacré bleu, mon dieu, mon dieu, that must be your boat. So our boat is floating down the canal. And somebody had not fastened it tightly. I believe I was put in charge of that job. Why were you put in charge of that? Because she can't do everything. She threw up her hands and said, I can't do everything here. So I said, well, I'll tie it up. Well, apparently not. Well, so we're watching the boat go away with all of our belongings. and I think, you know, what do we do? So my sister Alex, no problem, takes her dress off, pulls it off over her head and is wearing, of course, a very attractive set of black lace bra and panties, dives off the boat and swims to the boat. It was not close. Swims to the boat, jumps up on it and brings it back to the pier, at which point the Frenchmen that are standing there clap and clap And yes, a big hats off to my sister, Alex, who saved the day. Yeah. Who also I mean, not to I guess it's strange to talk about your aunt's breasts, but she would have had no trouble with buoyancy. She was what is known in our family and around the world, I think, as a va va va boom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's yeah. She's something else. I also love how stereotypical that Frenchman is, unless maybe that is what they all say. They would all say sacre bleu. Americans, we like to think that. You also you were shooting video on like a camcorder, I believe, on that trip, because at the time you were still a French teacher at the junior high school. You were my French teacher. You were Seth's French teacher. And you sort of you made a video to show in class where you're speaking French. And I found that tape a few years ago. Oh, no way. I didn't remember that. Oh, yeah. And I have it converted. I mean, it was one of those gigantic ones and I'm all shaky. Yeah, I don't think it was a great teaching aid. The video that you eventually brought to those people. But but it really sort of shows what your days were like. And yeah, it was great. Yeah. So, Sam, I think we've got some stories, I believe. Yeah, we do. We have a few stories. We have a question. We have a poem. So we have a lot of fun stuff. Oh, boy. Very good. Well, let's let's hear our first story. Hi, Seth and Josh. My name is Jean from Manchester, New Hampshire. Huge fan of the podcast. been listening since week one. This family trip includes myself and my uncle. A bit of a backstory. My uncle was adopted at the age of 10 from South Korea in the 1970s. I'm now in my 40s and as I have grown into an adult, my uncle and I have been very close. We both love traveling. He's the most well-traveled person I have ever met, from safaris to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro a few years back. I've also done my fair share of traveling, including being a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador and gallivanting around South America. My uncle and I had talked for years about how cool it would be if I went back with him to Seoul to meet his biological siblings and see where he grew up. It finally happened in April of 2025. So many emotions, so many memories. I wanted to fully engage in the South Korean culture, so we tried all the food. 10 out of 10 recommend any and all seafood you can get your hands on. Took a bus tour across the country and learned about historical places and people, went to so many open-air markets and explored multiple Buddhist temples. This is the backdrop for our family trip mishap. We arrived at the temple and entered without our shoes, which is customary. We sat on pillows in silence. I was enamored with the ornate statues of Buddha, the aroma of incense, and the passion of those worshiping and praying. Unbeknownst to us, there was a service beginning in a few moments. People began showing up, picking their pillows, kneeling and praying. I was truly transported to a spiritual place as an observer to this part of the Korean culture. Suddenly, two monks walked in and took their places toward the altar. My uncle and I made eyes. We realized we were now in a service and we had no idea what to do. We telepathically spoke to each other. How long will this last and what should we do? As the service began, people started kneeling. Some were bowing. We were definitely fish out of water. I should also mention that I'm five foot nine. There's no way around looking completely out of place. I continued to savor the moment when the kind man next to us began to motion when we should stand or sit or kneel. He would knock on the floor if we needed to change our positions to meet that of the crowd. Our embarrassment turned to semi-comfort. That was until I looked at my clock and realized that we were supposed to be meeting up with my uncle's friend for lunch and a tour of downtown Seoul. We again spoke telepathically that we should walk out of the temple as respectfully as possible. We stood and bowed toward the altar and the rest of the people toward the door, which was not the door that we had entered through. Once through the door, we thought we were good. We would simply walk out the door, gather our shoes back at the entrance. Boy, were we wrong. We were staying in an electrical closet that also posed as an emergency exit. The doors to the outside had a big red X on them. We panicked. The only way out was back through the entire temple. So we took a deep breath and walked back through, bowing again toward the crowd and the altar to the entrance door. We were sweating bullets and laughing together as only my uncle and I can. Oh, that's great. That's a great one. Boy, she could sure paint a picture, our Jean. Nice job. Yeah, exactly. Those situations where you have to get up and walk out of somewhere and you know every eye is going to be on you, it's just the worst. um we saw i don't know if you remember the musician suzanne vega but uh mckenzie and i saw her earlier in the week at largo this great little venue in los angeles and i was in the front row on the left hand side and i just had to go to the bathroom and i was like she's so cool and i knew that if i got up she was gonna see me and i told mckenzie i was like i have to go but i don't want to go because i don't want suzanne vega to think that i'm like dissing her because she's so good right um yeah but a religious uh ceremony as well as a different level of something to have to walk out of yeah and i thought for sure when you went out that other door i was thinking oh their shoes aren't going to be there yeah i thought like well they certainly weren't where the shoes were but i with that red x on the door i thought that they were maybe going to set off a fire alarm and have the whole place oh my gosh i didn't even think of that yeah fire alarm would have been the worst yeah well the good thing to know is that if uh i think buddhists are pretty uh forgiving yes they're zen there's a they can deal with distraction uh they can handle it better than uh better than daddy i would say better than most of us better than most of us what a great uh What a great uncle to have. Great experiences. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like that's the kind of trip that you just have to say, we have to do this. Yeah. And yeah I mean particularly I mean going somewhere where someone from when they have real history they can be such good tour guides And then if you have old friends old family that you can meet up with those trips are amazing Yeah, yeah. Great story, Gene. Great story. Thank you, Gene. And you've got some cousins in England that came on that trip when you and your sisters and your mom came to Amsterdam. Yes. Jane and – The two Janes. The two Janes. Jane and friend Jane. Yeah. Yeah. No. And it's just like it's so nice to have people that you are connected to that you don't really know that well. But there's there's something that there is a glue there. There is. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of cases they call it family. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much, Gene. Thank you, Gene. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Cheers. After the age of 30, even responsibly drinking alcohol will make you feel less than 100% the next day. Obviously, there are more negative effects from alcohol than just dehydration. It has a depressant effect on specific receptors in your brain, and it's toxic to your liver. And that's why I'm obsessed with Cheers Restore. Cheers Restore is a dual action after alcohol aid. Its ingredients support both your brain and your liver after consuming alcohol. Cheers was originally invented by a student at Princeton, so a smarty pants, based on research into a novel compound called DHM. DHM demonstrated powerful alcohol-related properties in the brain and liver. So Cheers was designed for how alcohol actually affects your body, not just dehydration. You'll feel about 50% better the next day or your money back. Basically, two drinks feels like one drink the next morning. All you do is take three capsules after your last drink or before bed. This is not for college binge drinking. If you have 12 tequila shots, you're probably still going to feel pretty rough in the morning. So be smart about it. Same night out, way better morning with Cheers. For a limited time, our listeners are getting 20% off their entire order by using code TRIPS at CheersHealth.com. Just head to cheershealth.com and use code TRIPS for 20% off. After your purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know our show sent you. And cheers! Support comes from Warby Parker. You know, a few years ago, after putting up a pretty good fight, I finally admitted that I needed some glasses. My optometrist had some good options for me, but I got uncomfortable when the salesperson said every pair I put on looked great on me. Because that wasn't true. I was also shocked to find out how expensive glasses are. It's nuts. It's a real kick in the teeth. Or I guess more accurately, it's a real kick in the eyeballs. But then I checked out Warby Parker, and I've never looked back. Seriously, nothing comes close on quality, price, selection, and customer service. Once you buy from Warby Parker, you realize how much easier they've made the entire process. Their virtual try-on is a total game-changer. You can literally try on glasses from your phone before you buy. It's wild how well it actually works. When it comes to quality for the price, Warby Parker is the best. Honestly, it's not even close. You used to have to choose between flimsy, outdated styles or spending half your paycheck. Warby Parker completely changed that. Their prescription glasses start at $95, so you can actually get quality and stylish frames at an affordable price. And Warby Parker doesn't just offer incredible prescription glasses. They have everything you need for happier eyes. That includes contacts, online eye exams, and sunglasses. Warby Parker gives you quality and better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price. Our listeners get 15% off plus free shipping when they buy two or more pairs of prescription glasses at warbyparker.com slash trips. That's 15% off when you buy two pairs of glasses at warbyparker.com slash trips. After you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. In partnership with Airbnb, I'd like to share a travel story. Is that okay with you, Suf? Yeah, I would love that, buddy. Last minute this year, before my birthday, I really wanted to go skiing. There was a lot of snow up at Mammoth Mountain. And I looked at some of the places that I usually stay, some hotels in the area, and they were all so expensive. They were so, I don't know why the prices were so expensive. So I look up Airbnb and I found a perfect little two-bedroom spot, condo, private hot tub, drove up. My host, Charlotte, couldn't have been nicer. I told her that I was skiing. She was like, if you need to get in early, you know, that's fine as well. You don't have to ski until four. I was like, I'm probably going to ski until four. But she made that available to me. She was so friendly, so responsive. I got back to the spot. I had a great kitchen, so I didn't have to be going out to dinner every night. I asked her, I was like, hey, I've walked around the property. I don't see this hot tub. And she said it's right out the door from the main bedroom. So I pulled the curtain back and ta-da, hot tub. That was just for me. You love a hot tub. I love a hot tub. And it was great. It was my little home away from home. A perfect spot for me to spend a couple days while I was getting up on the mountain. perfect location to any of the three sort of base lodges. It was great. And I would stay there again and heartbeat. That's wonderful. I'm so glad you booked on Airbnb, my friend. Yeah. Well, booking a trip on Airbnb makes for a better trip. You could be traveling with family or looking to discover authentic and local experiences. Airbnb. Sam, we got another story. that in three months time, he invited me to go on a trip with his parents to a camp and go whitewater rafting near West Virginia at a place with the unfortunate name of Ohio Pile, a town in the middle of nowhere. Fun fact, it's the location of a little film called Silence of the Lambs. Because I was in this stage of relationship where I wanted to sound cool, I said, that sounds great, even though it did not sound great. But this guy, let's call him Mr. Darcy, was a rugged outdoorsman, loved nature, thought nothing of throwing a backpack on and hiking the Allegheny Trail for a week with his dad. On the drive down with his parents, Mr. Darcy was explaining that there are three levels of whitewater rafting. The 1-2 rapids were for people who didn't know what they were doing. The 3-4 rapids were for people who could navigate their way through a river. And the 5-6 rapids were for people who basically had a death wish. He told us, I signed the four of us up for the 3-4 Rapids because Dad and I know what we're doing. But as we were walking up to the riverbank the morning of, Mr. Darcy led us over to the line of the 5-6 Rapids. When we all looked at him confused, he said, oh, they were out of room in the 3-4 Rapid group. So I decided we'd just push ourselves and do the 5-6. It'll be fine. Well, Mrs. Darcy is in her early 50s and Darcy Sr. was in his late 60s, but you know, I'm here for the ride. So our guide told us that this three-hour tour would culminate in this incredible rapid that they call the double hydraulic, which is as awful as it sounds. It's like one wave hits you, then another one just smacks you back again. We watched as other boats got through the rapids unscathed, and then it was our turn. It's as if the river were saving up all its rage just for the Darcy family. And when we started going into the first hydraulic, the first wave hit our boat up halfway. Then the second wave knocked us all the way over. Darcy Sr. was tossed out of the boat, flew through the air and landed in the boat behind us with his glasses broken on top of his head. Mr. Darcy, the cute guy, fell under the boat and couldn't come up for air, which was fine with me at this point. Mrs. Darcy hit her ankle on a rock. I heard the crunching sound from the fetal position that I was in where I was questioning my life choices at this point. So on the way to the campground, when we're all asking, why were we on a five, six river that we had no business going on? Mr. Darcy chuckled and said, funny story. There really was a room on the three, four rapids, but I thought it would be good for us to challenge ourselves. I'm sure we'll all laugh about this someday. Dead silence. His dad turned around from the front seat and said, are you kidding me? His mom holding her ankle just glared at him. And I, I'll be damned if I'm not in the back seat with him. And I think, nope, he's still cute. So the next day, Mrs. Darcy goes to the doctor and finds out her ankle is broken. But you know what's not broken the spell this guy has cast on me because 33 years and two kids later mr darcy my husband craig continues to take me down adventurous paths but knows i will never go whitewater rafting with him again oh wow oh my god i mean if you were already married that's grounds for divorce yes yeah i thought for sure you were gonna say you cut him loose yeah of course of course um that's like uh my old man we'd go on ski trips and he always i used to nickname him mr map because he always had to get out the pictures of the slopes and which which runs of go where what with which one shall we choose and i always said do not be going near those black diamonds and say, oh, I made a little miscalculation, a black diamond. I don't want to risk life and limb ever. Yeah, ever. Yeah. That's a crazy story for the Darcy senior to be launched from one boat to another boat. And his mom to break an ankle. I mean, I wonder if if Eileen's in-laws, you know, still hold that against their son, Craig, for doing that to him. I love that you call him Mr. Darcy. What a great addition to the story. Yeah. I mean, that's young love, I fear. That is. That is. That held on. You're in that Austin phase. Wow. Well, some people say they don't want to go through life straight. They want to have ups and downs and ups. So you had a great big up, up in the air. Yeah. Yeah. ohio pile was that the name of the town that's silence of the lambs i thought she was going to say deliverance that would have been scarier yeah yeah yeah i mean they're both pretty scary when it boils down to it oh great story oh my gosh i can't even imagine also just the double hydraulic is that you're like oh this is our route um that's such an intimidating name i remember we used to before we lived in new hampshire we would um go visit new hampshire and we would drive around and do sort of all the touristy things up in the north of the state and there were what were those caves called the polar caves the polar caves yeah and uh you know some of those were i know there was like a lemon squeezer i was gonna say the lemon squeezer you had to be thin enough to get through there yeah um but they sort of there would be some names that would be like hey do you really want to do this one uh the lemon squeezer because i was a very skinny awkward little boy i could get through there but i don't think i don't know if anyone else any of the rest of you could but um but yeah double hydraulic is not something i would have any interest in going down um yeah yeah what that was a scary scary story my heart was in my mouth thank goodness i wasn't on that boat yeah no i think we're all we're all glad you weren't on that boat um thank you so much eileen and uh yeah i mean there is there is also something to be said for you know going through something with someone does make you closer yes um yeah and the memory you'll always have that memory certainly yeah yeah uh great story i glad you guys made it through that made it through two kids i bet the two kids seemed like a cakewalk after yeah start like that Yeah childbirth was nothing after that Nothing Yeah not after the double hydraulic No. Thank you so much, Eileen. Sam, I think we've got another story. Hi, Josh and Seth. My name is Andrea. I live in Spokane, Washington, and I really enjoy listening to your listener story episodes. and I thought I would share one from my own childhood. I am the youngest of five. I have four older brothers, and my parents were a real country-mouthed, city-mouthed marriage. My mother, who was from rural farming country in Nebraska, and my father, an immigrant kid from Brooklyn, New York. We grew up in a western suburb of Chicago and spent a lot of time in the car going between these two parts of the country. We spent many summers on our grandparents' farm in Nebraska. One summer, when it was just my next older brother and I, we were driving from one side of Nebraska to the other side to see relatives. As you can imagine, there are long stretches in Nebraska that are very desolate. That is where we were when our father, who was driving, ran over a piece of tire and it punctured the gas tank. I can remember looking out the back window of the Pontiac sedan. and we were driving in and seeing gas pouring out onto the highway. Even as a 10-year-old, I knew that was not a good sign. Our father, who was not a very mechanically minded man, also knew this was not a good sign. In his wisdom, we kept driving at speed down the highway, and what made a big impression on me was when our father said, Children, put your shoes on in case we need to jump. We didn't jump. There were no explosions that day. I don't really remember how this story ended, except I have a vague memory of riding in a tow truck cab with my mother. I love the show, and I love remembering my own family adventures. Thanks. Oh, my gosh. Just be ready to jump. Jump out of a moving car? Is that what the implication is? I think the implication is, what if this thing catches fire? And if it catches fire, then there could be an explosion right on the heels. And if that's the case, we're going to have to jump. You need your shoes on for this. You need. Yeah, it's a good idea to have your shoes on. It's a it's actually it's a great idea to have your shoes on. Oh, my gosh. Dripping gas. I thought she was going to say the tire blew out, which is bad enough. But dripping. Oh, my God. Yeah. Disaster averted. Yeah. Thank goodness. Yeah, driving across a highway when something goes wrong with your car on a long, desolate drive is a very uncomfortable place to be in. Yeah, I remember when we went to Vegas from California. Yeah. And that drive, and I thought, for so long you don't see another car, and you think, geez, if we run out of gas here, what happens? It's kind of terrifying. And I'm sure that road in Nebraska was similar. Yeah. There's in Iceland, I believe it's like a law that says if you see a car on the side of the road, you have to stop because there are so few cars in some of these roads. So if you're, you know, if you're broken down or no, no one has to know what your situation is. They just have to check and see, hey, are you OK? They need to check on you. That's a great good neighbor rule. Yeah. Well, also, they're all related over there. That's true. That's true. Sven is brothers with Finn. And yeah. Yeah. To keep it on the family trips thing. Every trip is a family trip in Iceland. That's true. That's true. No matter where you go. Great story. Great story. Thank you, Andrea. All right, Sam, what's next? We have another story. Yes, we do. I'm going to play that right now. Hi, Josh and Seth. My name is Whitney. A fun fact about my family is that my children will go to the same high school as Bob Hodenkirk. And I only learned that fact because I listened to your conversation with him. I've listened to every conversation of this podcast on the day of release because I adore you two. I respect your parents and how they raised you. I'm thankful for your emotional intelligence and communication with each other. I didn't grow up with a family like yours, but I wish I had. And your family gives me hope that my family can grow to be like your family when my kids are grown. I feel like I'm already a lot like Hillary because I talk a lot. Je ne peux pas en force un peu. And I drink gin and tonics if I'm not drinking old fashioned. Getting to the point, my comment today is about the Alberts. Your dad calls every dog Albert, and I call every female red squirrel I befriend, Tum Tum. I've lived in my house for 12 years now. The original Tum Tum would cool off by spreading out her tummy and cool objects like a shaded stone or a tree limb. I did my best to befriend her, but she's passed on and I continue my attempts to befriend all her children. I assume I'm on my third tum-tum. My daughter and I are now determined to befriend any squirrels possible. And I figured Josh, being a nature lover, would appreciate this story. I appreciate his nature stories, even ones about helping slugs. In another timeline, I'd like to think we'd be friends. Thank you for giving me so much joy week after week. Thank you for every smile, giggle, and laugh-out-loud moment. oh whitney that's oh my gosh that just warmed my heart another gin and tonic fan that's french speaking oh my god i was gonna say what warmed my heart is that she liked our family but uh yeah i guess gin and tonics yeah um oh that's uh yeah we've it's albert is not the first animal that we've had the same name for i think it all started with our frogs yep they were all jimmies They were all Jimmy because we we would catch a frog out in the woods and we would make a little box for it. And then I don't know if the frogs would die. I'm guessing that would be what would happen. Or maybe you guys would just be you guys don't need a frog anymore and it would be released. They had another life to live. Yeah. So we would always say Jimmy ran away. And then any frog we found moving forward, regardless of size, color, whatever, maybe it was a toad. We weren't that particular, but we always said Jimmy came home. He came home. Yeah, it was always a good story. And then also all of our the chipmunks all have the same name. We Seth had a name. Seth wanted to call them Rufus. And I said we should call a chipmunk Fabie because they are babies. So all of the chipmunks were Rufus Fabi, which is a which really disappointed Seth. But it sort of sticks in our mind. And it does. It does. There's something to a consistency of a name of of a single kind of animal. Yes. Yeah. That's comforting. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Because a lot of times with these animals, you can't build a long relationship. But if you just keep stringing them together, it can be your whole life. That's right. That's right. Oh, yeah. Well, I hope one day maybe you and a tum-tum can really connect, Whitney. I'm sure you will. Just keep at it. Keep at it. 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What else do we have, Sam? a couple questions maybe yeah we got a question and a poem so i'll play this question next all right hi wondering if you guys ever considered doing some awards called the joshies uh the songs are so great i thought guests could nominate their song um and maybe listeners could vote on the top three feel like josh puts a ton of work into them and uh maybe doesn't get all the recognition he deserves and curious how they received by the guests So thanks And thanks for great listening Uh really it Go Steelers Oh go Steelers Yeah The songs are unbelievable Just from a mom point of view They are so great Look forward to them Yep Yeah, we I will say, you know, in this world of AI, I imagine there's a way that I could use AI to make this all easier on me. I still have not. And I don't I really don't want to. You know, there's there's something I feel like that would be lost in that. But it does take sometimes a lot of time. And as I get busier, you know, I have like a second podcast now, this California Now podcast. And then I have life and I have, you know, other jobs that crop up. Sometimes these songs really, really are a challenge for me. But I do enjoy it. And we do send the songs to the guests in a thank you email afterwards. They don't have my email address. I'm not connected to everyone that we we talk to. And we sort of I think we communicate through our people, as you say. But, you know, occasionally someone will reach out and say, oh, that was really something else. So they're like your signature songs. They have your signature on them. And it wouldn't be the same if you did a A.I. thing. yeah like uh your father when i did a uh book review on the pod seth's late night lit uh podcast and i always run them by him and he'll edit them and whatever put commas in i say i'm reading this i don't need a comma well you need to know when to pause maybe but anyhow um i type this one and then he brings it back to me and it's totally different and he said i think this one's better so i read it i said well it's totally different what is it he said it's ai i just put it in there and it's much better than yours and i said uh no it's not in my voice it's not it's pretend i'm not buying the other and the late night lit people said uh no we're not hillary has a certain style and it's staying there so your songs are your songs they're yeah signature poshie yeah um so yeah i mean maybe maybe we'll come up with something uh where people can vote for their faves of the year um that's a great idea great idea i love it yeah um i also another thing you know another thing i was thinking of doing which would just take some time because we've done i don't know we must be coming up on a couple hundred episodes but i kind of want to put together just a public spotify playlist of all the songs that inspire the songs yeah um i feel like that would be a good thing to have because sometimes people are like i don't know that song but if you could just go check on Spotify or something. Did you start from the very beginning? Was there a song in the very first one? I can't remember. Yeah. Yeah. Because I did these songs. I do these songs for our for fantasy football. That's right. And, you know, it also it started because, you know, Seth's friends who are also my friends, but guys and Seth's here, they would do original songs for weekends when they would get together. um hot dog the weekend is a classic uh you know just sort of silly songs that hit for a very very targeted demographic which is this group of 12 guys right and then uh and then i started working with our friend doug stradley and jake miller to sort of do songs and then at some point i just sort of um yeah i would do one every year and then seth said once we were starting this podcast that I should maybe do a song for each episode. Not, I guess, realizing that we would be doing hundreds of these. So, yeah, we will. Yeah, we will take that under advisement to have the Joshies or maybe the Poshies, I guess makes more sense. But great suggestion. Thank you for that. Sam, do we have anything else? Yeah, we have one more thing to go ahead and write for you. Hi Josh and Seth, this is Jen from Boston. I love your podcast and I was trying to think of a family trip story that I could share but I didn't have any funny ones. So I decided to do something that I don't think any other listener has done which is to write a poem about the podcast. So here it is. I have to give credit to Jimmy Kimmel on Strike Force 5 for talking about family trips, although he didn't talk about the podcast for long. He did mention that Seth's brother at the end of each episode would sing an original song. Seth Meyers has a brother and they have a podcast? I thought, that's fun. So I set out to listen to them one by one. At first I was confused as to who was Josh and who was Seth. I almost thought it was a game. Because when you first listen, you will hear that these brothers sound exactly the same. They chat before the guest comes on and catch up on each other's lives. Seth talks a lot about his kids, but there's not as much talk about their lovely wives. They talk about their parents, Larry and Hillary. and even though they are all super close, Seth jokes that their parents, without a doubt, like Josh the most. They've had so many guests in the podcast, some I didn't even know. Timothy Oliphant, Aya Cash, Josh Homi, and Paul Dano. Some guests talk about family trips and others will say, we never went anywhere and I don't have any stories to tell. This makes Larry furious. This is called family trips. No vacations, no trips. What the hell? Seth is very quick with the jokes and great at chatting with guests old and new. But sometimes it's hard to tell. Is this a podcast about family trips or the old SNL crew? Occasionally they have listener stories where some read from the page and others ad lib if they're able. One of my faves is the mother who got carried into the house on a picnic table No matter what kind of episode they have Josh writes a song for each and they are all amazing to hear I'm not sure how he continues to come up with great songs year after year Thanks Josh and Seth for making a podcast that's interesting and super fun I love it so much and my book your podcast is number one And I hope it is Larry Myers approved. Thanks. Bye. I'm sure it will be. Bravo, Jen. Thank you. And that is that has not been done before. So we really appreciate that. Also, I think of all of us, Harry, you are our most literate, not literate in terms of you can read and write, but you're the most literary minded. Probably. Yes. So for a poem to come in here on an episode. When I'm the guest host, it's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful job. Very flattering. I love that the listeners are such loyal listeners. Yeah. Yeah, we do, too. Yeah. Yeah. That Strike Force Five song, I do think that was a very good song. But I, you know, Jimmy asked if I would do one. And I did one to It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men. And then Seth was like, I don't think this is the right vibe. So I had to do two songs for that one. The soup was like, yeah, that one's and it was really good, but it was just like slower. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And yeah. So there is there's a hidden track out there. everybody um yeah but maybe we'll throw that up someday maybe if there's another strike and strike force five comes back there we go cool very cool give it on that um well hurry this has been so lovely to host a podcast with you and it's been nice uh sufi hasn't been here to talk about snl uh yeah or stand up i appreciate the invite and i appreciate being on my own so i can i don't have to, yes, out-talk your father, which is difficult. It is very difficult. Yeah. Yeah, that's why you can just go take a nap. Well, you have your chair up in your room where you go to read a book. You call it Grey Gardens. That's right. You can always just sort of pull the ripcord and float up to Grey Gardens with a book. I do. I spend a lot of time there, A lot of quiet time, reflecting time. Yeah. All right. Well, I enjoyed myself. This was so much fun. Yeah. Yeah. You were wonderful, Harry. Thank you so much. And thanks to all the listeners with your stories and your questions and your poem. Yeah. Really brought it home. We love you, listeners. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Time for more these listener stories Time for more these listener stories Sneak your uncle out the temple Trying to find an exit Sneak your uncle out the temple Find a closet Jean and her uncle went to Seoul to explore Meet some people from his past Then they wandered in to wait Temple service started Didn't know how long it would last So they tiptoed out of there Went the wrong way There were no shoes, no, no They both had to just double back No choice and tried to Try to sleep back through Scheming plotter on whitewater I would have been pissed Scheming plotter on whitewater Mr. Darcy lied about the list Classics Rapids, that's what they did Was a real cute guy, but he He took a four right The double hydrology got pretty chaotic The boat went upside, the boat went upside down, down And Andrea in Nebraska Dad drove over tire, it was just a little bump Window peeking, you could see the gas leaking Said children, put on your shoes in case we all need to jump Tire cutter led to a fire I mean, what you gonna do? Tire cutter led to a fire Whole thing could've bloomed Jen wrote a poem, Whitney told us about Tum Tum Oh yeah Tum Tum's a red squirrel Jen wrote a poem Whitney told us about Tom Tom Oh yeah Tom Tom's a red squirrel girl Bird Thoughts