Ep.312 – Neural Nostalgia

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This is the widow tale music speaks.

Podcast with Blake Moseley, James Tux, and Amanda Dolan.

Hey, it's me.

It's me.

It's ac. And welcome back to Wurtsville Music speaks podcast where we fight depression with Japan music. I am neither Tony Romo nor Scooter from the Muppets. I am your professional handicapped host, James Cox. Hey.

I am commonly. Hey. That. It flowed, didn't it? It flowed. It flowed. Okay, so, mister.

Well, I'm.

Yeah, I did my thing. I did my thing. I am commonly referred to as the loudest guy in the room, but only when I am playing the drums. I am your endless source of useless music knowledge. My name is Blake Mosley, aka Brosely, aka emo Bmo. And who else is with us today?

There's me, Amanda Dolan. I may not know the name of the song, the artist, or the album like the other guys here, but chances are it will sing along loudly, proudly, and poorly. Just ask my kids. They'll also tell you I'm not a regular mom. I am a nineties mom.

Heck, yes, mom girl.

Noticed that I wore my reptar hat today. The recording of this.

Since we're talking all about nostalgia.

Yeah, man. Hopefully there's no really upsetting stories behind the Rugrats and Nickelodeon, unlike some other shows. But, yeah, we'll save that for a rainy day, bro.

I feel like you're more than emo. Be more in Brooklyn, because mister Jeff row, we gotta give him a big shout out, guys. You know? Oh, us or back. He turned you into a few celebrities, so I think you're broke, bros. Lee Cyrus now. Or Blake Cyrus.

Rosalie Cyrus.

Yeah, it could be one of those.

I don't know, Rosalie Ray Cyrus.

Rose Iris. That's a good one. That's the next shirt.

Okay.

That's the next shirt.

And I. I apologize because Jeff and I were texting. He was, you know, working on those, and I was like, we need Billy Ray Cyrus and Blake.

Yeah.

Together. So. And he came through.

Yeah. Nice. We have a new shop for y'all to investigate and buy our awesome stuff. We had more. We got more stuff now than we ever did before. Um, we have tumblers, got shirts, we got hats. Got brand new hats. We got everything under the sun that you could want. And we have.

True that.

A thing that Jeff made us return that into a shirt. I think it's a Blake linen is the first shirt of the Blake Enterprise. I don't know.

We can have a Blake series.

Yes. We are going to have Blake series.

Our Blake line. Yeah.

If it sounds pretty good, we're gonna release the next one, you know? So everybody go to www. Six. Click on your shop link. And I made it so easy. It's all right here in front of your face, so you don't have to go to any of the websites.

A caveman could do it.

And who doesn't want a picture?

I'm sorry?

Who doesn't want a picture of Blake and John Lennon mush together?

Does it?

I said we had a love child. Yes. I love it.

I think.

I think it's beautiful. I'm so excited.

It really is.

You gotta order one, right? Are you gonna order one?

I'm gonna order one.

Heck, come on now.

I'm gonna give everybody. I'm gonna give everyone Blake linen shirts for Christmas. Yes, exactly.

Valentine's Day gift. I don't know if you want to buy. Yeah.

What a great Valentine's day.

We might come up.

Happy Valentine's Day. Wear my face.

Yes. Right where my face, maybe. All right, so what have you all been up to? Because I know today is the. Was the total eclipse and the.

Yeah, it. Well, it came right through where I live.

Texas.

Yeah, I was just. Yeah, I was just outside of that hundred percent, like, full eclipse. It was weird, y'all. Like, really? Oh, yeah. I mean, the birds started making noises like it was, you know, dusk or dawn. It got dark. I sent the guys a picture of my street, like, from 140 this afternoon. And it was. I mean, all the streetlights were on, everyone's automatic porch lights came on. It was wild. And I'm convinced that, like, people's energy is wonky. Like, just everything has been weird.

Yeah. Cuz today. Today I text you all something I'm not sure if I wanted to get that out to the group, but, um. Yeah, but it was weird, you know, I. I don't know if I was off today or this morning or. But y'all calmed me down, and thank you for that. But. But I think it's thirsty. It's in the energy that's putting out.

There, and, you know, and Mercury's in retrograde.

Just saying there's two energies, and I'm not aware. Okay. Yeah, I know.

I know I sound all woo woo, but that's okay.

We're all, you know, I had a.

I had a surprisingly okay day, and I was very productive at work, so I guess it didn't, like, affect me in that manner. But, you know, like, I feel. Feel free, guys. It's been a rough one. By the way, could y'all hear music playing just a few seconds ago, like, coming? Dang it. Okay, I've got to figure out how to fix that because I totally had total eclipse of the heart playing in.

The background because I came so close to being like, I'm an eclipse mom. I'm a bright eyes mom. I'm gonna turn around. Like, I had all these. Like, I was trying to figure out which one I was gonna do, and then I. I mean, I could sing.

Like I was trying.

Man, what a missed opportunity. I had it ready to go, and.

It did every now and then.

Yeah, just like my tacos. Um, but yes, uh, I was. Still loves tacos. So even if you fall apart, you're still here.

That they made it. The, um, home and cinnamon cross country shells. Taco shells.

I don't know what.

No way. Tell me more.

You can buy them at the store. I don't know what else to tell you.

That's it? Okay. That's all I get? That's fine. I'm all for it.

Here is a pro tip for those of you listening. When you eat tacos, eat your tacos over another tortilla, and then anything that falls out, you get another taco.

Beautiful. I love that. I love that. Good idea.

Thank you.

That's your mental health minute for today.

There you go.

Properly.

How to make more tacos.

Yeah.

How to make your tacos last.

Because if you are a fan of.

The office, but no, I am a Kevin house.

You don't make. Make a new hamburger. Take one ingredient at the end of the week. Yeah, that's kind of a nasty. Don't. Don't do that, y'all.

That's a little gross.

Yeah.

See, I feel like we're all.

Like, we're all, like, kind of weird. I don't know what it is. We all bone.

It's the eclipse. It's mercury and retrograde. It is?

Yeah.

Let's just blame the eclipse. It's fine.

It's gotta be.

Just don't. Don't blame Bonnie Tyler. It has nothing to do with her. She is innocent. She didn't do anything. There we go.

Right?

Eyes.

It's not our fault, y'all. Every now and then, every now and then, she comes through. But, you know, whatever.

Yeah. Well, speaking of nostalgia, right? Like, what a good, like, segue, right? Like, we're talking about. Well, you know, the premise of this entire show that we have is all about the connection between music and your mental health. And I stumbled across some things on TikTok the other day discussing this topic that we're going to dissect today. So here it is, the curious case of neural nostalgia. Now, Amanda, I must ask you, because you are the mental health professional of the bunch, is this something that you are already, like, familiar with?

Well, so there is, especially, and I'm going to speak from an ADHD brain, and, like, what I do with that is, it is a comfort thing. Like, it hits your dopamine receptors when you listen to something you are really familiar with. It can be, like, super comforting, kind of like, you know, interrupts you in a warm blanket. You know, the words, you know what to expect. So, like, it's easy to listen to. Um, and especially if it brings you back to, like, a good time in your life that can be really, really, like, healthy for your brain.

So.

Yeah, sure. Okay. So I'm going to ask both of you kind of, before we get into this topic today, and this is kind of springing it on you a little bit. Um, but, like, if you could, um. If you could say, like, there was a certain era in your life where you felt like music just absolutely, absolutely peaked, um, what. What would you. What era would you say that was? Like, high school? Like, was it like, uh. Um, you know, like a certain spring break during, you know what I mean?

Okay, so not this specific year.

Not specific year. Just, like, for you, specifically, what was that?

I mean, your life.

Okay, right.

See, I would say that. Yeah, it was definitely high school. I would say that it was from 95 to 90, summer of 95 to summer of 97, I think when the Lilith fairs were, like, going on, and I was, you know, going with my friends and we were driving. My friend's stepmom had a convertible, so we would drive the convertible to all the concerts and sing. And so that. That was like, that time for me where music was just.

Yeah, so I live in high school for 97 through. Nope. 96 or 99. Right. That's four years. 96. 99.

Yeah, nineties.

That I can't. Yeah. Numbers are stupid. Nineties, but, yeah, me and my friends always, always dim to, like, program and live and the minor, especially the rana.

Right.

So, yeah, I would say 96 to 99. Really? My, you know. Okay, how about you?

I got you. So I think mine is very similar to y'all's. Like, high school was like, this very. It can. It can be a very stressful time. It can be a very sad time. But it always seems like there's some. There's music that we connect to during our high school years, like our adolescence, our angst are, you know, our woes, our grief, whatever. It is. Like, it seems like high school era for anyone is like, when it feels like music just as a whole was. Was at its peak. But for me, it's a little. It's a little different. It's a little different, I think, as far as the type of music that I was really, really into of, like, new music coming out. So for that era, it would be like your typical emo era of stuff. Right? My chemical romance, whatever. That was just perfect. Right? Like, blink 182 had put out a lot of really good stuff at that time, too. Like, my favorite album had already come out. Whatever. But I think if we're going by eras of music and a decade specifically, I think that everything that was done in the nineties, to me, was just perfect. Whether that's punk, metal, hip hop, pop, country, all of the above, just in the nineties felt like it was just right.

Well, yes. And. Oh, my. So much. Yes. The nineties was the best music. So, you know, Sasha. Yeah, Sasha who we interviewed, what, a week ago or so, a week and a half ago. I don't remember. It's been a minute. She was talking about how the music that you start listening to when you were, like, twelve or 13 was like, your music because that was the first decision that you got to make, like, on your own. Right? Like, that was the music that was your pick. It wasn't your parents, it wasn't the adults you were around. Like, you got to start listening to it on your own. And I hadn't really thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense that that's like that, you know, time shift where it starts to become your choice versus your parents choice.

Right.

Hey, yo, somebody's there. Blake, who's there?

Uh, there. So my buddy just, who owns all above all above land, lawn and landscape and that we do the ads for. I helped him out Saturday and. Yeah, he came. He came by. I helped him out Saturday, and we did a big sod job. And it was my back and my legs are killing me, but he just. He just dropped by and dropped something off on my car, so that's all. Well, I was just waving to him.

I don't have anybody to worry about. You don't break in your mouth or anything to.

At this. In this current juncture? No.

Okay. I don't want to, you know, so.

I'm living l I v e n, man.

Yeah. But. But I honestly think that Sasha was right when. When me and Amanda interviewed her, because I had choice whether or not to listen to my own music. And my mom accepted it. She didn't really like it.

Right.

You know, but, yeah. But then again, if you're told not to do something, what do you do? Turn around and do it. You do it anyway, right?

Natural response. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna rebel. I'm gonna listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. Well, I think. I think that. I think we. What's so funny? And we'll talk about this as we go on. But it was, you know, what we're gonna find is, like, whatever generation you were a part of, your response most. Most of the time is gonna be, yeah, when I was in high school, that was when, like, music was the best, and there's a reason behind that. So that is what we're going to dive into a little bit today. I found this great article here off of slate.com, and it was written by Mark Joseph Stern. If you guys want to go check that out for resources or whatever, go. By all means, go do that. I didn't write this. I'm not smart enough to write this, but I'll kind of skip around a few points because it's very first person. But, yeah. So, you guys ready? Let's dive into it. All right. So why do the songs that I heard when I was a teenager sound sweeter than anything I listened to as an adult? I'm happy to report that my own failures of discernment as a music critic may not. May not be entirely to blame. In recent years, psychologist. Psychologists. Psychologists. Psychologists and neuroscientists have. You can tell I didn't write this. And neuroscientists have confirmed that these songs hold disproportionate power over our emotions and researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests that our brains bind us to the music we heard as teenagers more tightly than anything we'll hear as adults, a connection that doesn't weaken, that doesn't weaken as we age. Musical nostalgia, in other words, isn't just a cultural phenomenon. It's a neuronic command. And no matter how sophisticated our tastes might over, our taste might otherwise grow to be, our brains may stay jammed on those songs we obsessed over during the high school drama of adolescence. Right? So right off the bat, like, high school, man, it's. It's different for everyone. Therefore, everyone's music tastes are different. There's something you connect to whenever you're in high school, whether, and let's face it, like, a lot of us had a very tough high school experience, right? It seems like there's a. There's only a very small amount of people who were like, yeah, high school was great. I loved it. It was awesome. Never had a bad lion.

They're not telling you.

They're lying.

They're lying exactly. Like, they.

They just.

They maybe weren't as open about it.

Unless they're, like, the third football captain of the team or they got every girl that they were. You know, it's weird, but 99%.

No.

Even high school.

Even. Even those guys had tough days.

Well, yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. It's just maybe in a different way. Yeah. So to understand why. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

I would say a lot of our brain development, like, almost as much brain development happens in our teens as does in our, like, very young toddler years. So it makes sense that, like, as our brain to me and that you may come up, like, this may come up because I haven't read the article all the way, but you know that your brain's growing, and so it, like, imprints, like, as it's developing, it becomes part of your pathways in your brain, right?

Yep. Yeah.

Makes so much sense.

Yeah. Well, to understand why we grow attached to certain songs, it helps to start with the brain's relationship with music in general. When we first hear a song, it stimulates our auditory cortex, and we convert the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies into a coherent whole. From there, our reaction to music depends on how we react with it. Sing along to a song in your head, and you'll activate the premotor cortex, which helps plan and coordinate movements. Dance along, and your. Your neurons will synchronize with the beat of the music. Pay close attention to the lyrics and the instrumentation, and you'll activate the parietal, parietal, parietal. Parietal.

Parietal.

Parietal. Hey.

Okay, I had it. I had it. At some point, I was.

You did. And then you second guessed yourself.

I second guess myself. And that is my problem. Um, so your parietal cortex, which helps you shift and maintain attention to different stimuli, listen to a song that triggers personal memories, and your prefrontal cortex, which maintains information relevant to your personal life and relationships, will spring into action. So we have all these different ways that our brain functions when we hear certain types of music, right? We have dance music, like, oh, oh, I'm gonna get up. I'm gonna. I'm gonna shake my shoulders a little bit. Might, uh, do the twist. Um, and then you got some things that just make you flat out angry. Um, you hear brick stuff and you're like, I am going to pull a Kyle. I'm going to chug this monster, and I'm going to punch a hole in the drywall because Fred Durst told me to break stuff. Um, and then there's something. That's how it works, right? It's science, is what it is. We're. We're talking all about the eclipse and the sun, the moon, whatever. No, not necessarily. You don't know about kyle.

Have you.

Have you never. Have you ever heard of Kyle? Of Kyle's?

No.

Quote unquote Kyle's. They're basically like, you know how we have Karen's? Um, well, Kyle's okay.

Yeah.

Or Chad's okay.

Yeah, Chad's.

Or Kai. I like Kyle's. I like to say Kyle's okay, but.

Yes, like a chad or whatever you got.

No, I just. There was, um. So there's coming up, um, in May, in Kyle, Texas. They are trying to get the largest group of kyles together. World record.

Sorry.

I just read an article about it, and then you said Kyle's and it.

That's great.

That is amazing.

No, no, no.

That is, by the way, before, the largest group was, I think, um, Ivan's. Ivan Romania. But we're going for Kyle's now in Kyle, Texas.

All right, so for those of you.

Interested, it's 01:00 p.m., Saturday, May 18. All the Kyle's are gathering in Kyle, Texas.

Well, I mean, it's all.

Man, they fell short last year. Oh, they fell short.

All right.

This year you gotta Kyle's. We need you to gather up. We cannot fail Kyle, Texas, yet again. We cannot do it in the name of science. Please don't break stuff. Tiles don't break stuff. Yeah, this is Woodstock 99. We're not there. By the way, that wasn't Fred Durst fault. It was the red hot chili peppers fault, and I will die on that hill.

Actually, you know, what are we really gonna blame?

It's the. It's.

Blame it on the rain. Okay, okay. You said, blame it, and then immediately my brain goes, blame it on the rain. And Millie vanilli. Blame it on the really singing. But they did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Promoters fault again, promoters fault management.

Promoters.

Everybody burn stuff down. So it's really their fault.

Okay. All right, I will. I will change my statement. I will say that it was the people who put on Woodstock. It was most definitely their fault. But the red hot chili peppers did not help matters whenever they started playing.

Jimmy Hendrix.

Yeah, yeah. And, like, was like, oh, yeah, let's do a song about setting things on fire while people are setting things on fire. That's a great idea. So, anyway, don't blame Fred Durst. Live, laugh, lit biscuit is what I have to say.

Oh, that's a good. Yeah.

Do they make signs like that?

No, but we.

See, that's enough. That's a shred idea for us to make.

Yes. All right.

I.

My face.

Lemon biscuit. I'm gonna make that right. Yeah.

We need you and Fred Durst, and then my hat down backwards. Limp biscuit.

Yes.

Over there.

All right. All right.

Boom. Coming out with idea for sure.

We got it.

That's right.

Cha ching. All right. Don't sue us. All right, so let's continue here.

So.

But memories are meaningless without emotion. Aside from love and drugs, nothing spurs an emotional reaction like music. Brain imaging studies. Brain imaging studies, excuse me, show that our favorite songs stimulate the brain's pleasure circuit, which releases an influx of dopamine, as Amanda said earlier. Serotonin. Oxytocin. Oxy. Oxytocin does that.

Right? No, no, that's nothing.

And other neurochemicals that make us feel good. The more we like a song, the more we get. We get treated to neurochemical bliss, flooding our brains with some of the same neurotransmitters that cocaine chases after. Wow. So when they say music is like a drug, literally, it is like a drug.

It is like a drug. It's cocaine, really.

It is just like doing a line of cocaine. You're exactly right.

Healthier.

A little bit healthier for you. Sure.

Yeah, yeah. I would suggest.

Yes, I would suggest that over the.

Course of music, skip the. Yeah. Oxycontin and cocaine. Stick with, like, you know, music.

Yeah. There you go.

We don't want to talk about people moving weight, right?

Yeah. PSA from. From this podcast. Music is better than cocaine. Science is science.

There we go. Science.

Another shirt. Music is better than science, or it is better than cocaine. It's science. Um, there you go. Net. Then you can have my face with, like, a white lab coat. Jeff, are you ever Einstein?

Yes. We need Jeff. We need Blake.

Oh, wait, no, not. No, no. It needs to be Bill Nye the science guy.

Yes. With my face.

Yes.

Perfect.

Did he already sit? No, I was trying to remember which. What all these sent. There were a lot.

He sent.

There was a lot of. He's really good at AI generated imagery. So thank you, Jeff, for your contributions to science.

I can. I can go back to the thing and. Hold on. Go ahead.

Like, yeah. While you're doing that, we'll revisit all of Jeff's creativity here. So music lights these sparks of neural activity in everybody, but in young people, the spark turns into a fireworks show. Between the ages of twelve and 22, our brains undergo rapid neurological development, and the music we love during that decade seems to get wired into our lobes for good. When we make neural connections to a song, we also create a strong memory that trace. Excuse me, a strong memory trace that becomes laden with heightened emotion, thanks partly to a surface, sure, of pubertal growth hormones. So many big words in here. These hormones tell our brains that everything is incredibly important, especially the songs that form the soundtrack to our teenage dreams and embarrassments. Right. Plenty of those.

Oh, yeah.

I was about to sing teenage dreams, and then I decided I would.

Yeah. Okay, so here's the thing. This article was written in 2013, so there's a lot of, like. Yes. Like, wordplay. Tie in, right?

Oh, my God. I just saw this spark turns into fireworks. I just saw that.

That was a right, exactly there. So very clever. You got to give it to this. This author here. Thank you for your contributions. So, on its own, these neurological pyrotechnics would be enough to imprint certain songs into our brain. But there are other elements at work that lock the last song played at your 8th grade dance into your memory pretty much for forever. Daniel Levitan, the author of this is your brain on music. The science of a human obsession, notes that the music of our teenage years is fundamentally intertwined with our social lives. He says, quote, we are discovering music on our own for the first time whenever we're young, often through our friends, we listen to the music they listen to as a badge, as a way of belonging to a certain social group that melds the music to our sense of identity, unquote. So, yeah, like, if you had a click when you were in high school, like you were the skater kid, you listened to certain type of music. If you were a jock, you listened to a certain type of music. If you were a theater nerd, you listen to a certain type of whatever. Like, everybody had a clique that you felt you belonged to. And then the music that was associated with that just became, like, your anthem in certain ways. Right?

And sometimes if you were, you know, a girl in the nineties and you liked a boy that you thought was way cooler than you, you listen to the music he liked with the hope that he would like you. If you listen to the same things.

I can say personally, I never had a girden. Did that work? Yeah. Amanda, tell us, did that work for you? Because it never worked for me. I have never. Besides ally, I have ever had someone who actually, like, took the time to appreciate the music that I enjoyed, and I never forced it on anybody because it was always all over the place. I listened to a lot of things that people did not enjoy. Um, and it's okay. I never had a girl say, oh, yeah, you know what? I love the misfits.

I'm not going to say, like, this person's name. He is like, I haven't talked to him in. Since 1999, I think. Been a minute. But what I will tell you is that he really loved Led Zeppelin. And I had never listened to Led Zeppelin before, so quality music, sure. But, um, yeah, I think that music also, even with other relationships and friendships, like, it definitely, like, brings us together, right?

Yeah, yeah. You find other people that you can connect with in that sense, even if it's just one other person. And you guys, like, just share a bond. Now, for me, I went to a very, very small. A very small school, so it was hard to find other people who did enjoy the same types of music that I did. But once you did, you really did connect in a certain way that you just. It was a different type of relationship than you had with other people. And it was through that bond of, like, oh, like, you really like Linkin park? Like, more than just, like, the radio songs. That's great. Let's be friends. That. That was me. But I had a hard time finding anyone who enjoyed the misfits whenever I was in high school. That was. That was the very obscure one.

That band was your main band that you surrounded yourself in.

Blink was my main. Was my main band. Everybody liked a blink 182 song at least, right? Like, it was. It was common, but, like, the misfits were a little bit. It was a little more like, underground. Like, not as popular, like, takes a little bit more getting into, you know, kind of thing. But, um. Anyway, um.

So.

Yeah. Peter Genotta, a psychologist at the University of California, Davis, agrees with the sociality theory, explaining that our favorite music quote gets consolidated into the especially emotional memories from our formative years, unquote. He adds that there may be another factor in play. The reminisce bump. The reminisce. Reminisce bump. Excuse me? A name for the phenomenon that we remember so much of our younger adult lives more vividly than other years. And these memories last well into our senescence. Or senescence. Dude, there's so many words. I'm struggling, but it looks right according to the. Is that right? Anyway, according to the reminiscence bump theory, we all have a culturally conditioned life script that serves in our memory as the narrative of our lives. When we look back on our past, the memories that dominate this narrative have two things in common. They're happy, and they cluster around our teens and early twenties. So why are our memories. Go ahead. Sorry.

Oh, no, I was just thinking there is. So Brandy Clark is one of my favorite artists, and she has an amazing song. That is, if your life is a record. And actually, I don't. Maybe. But. But it's. There'll be sad songs, there'll be, you know, happy songs, there'll be slow songs and fast songs. Moving forward, moving back songs. But, like, at least we had a song together. And I think that that's, you know, like that. Yeah. Like so much of our. Our own personal soundtrack or narrative.

Yeah.

Is created. Then I'm gonna have to. Sorry, ADHD brain. I have to look up the lyrics now. Sorry. Hang on. Keep going, though.

So why are our memories from these years so vibrant and enduring? Researchers at the University of Leeds proposed one enticing explanation in 2008. The years highlighted by the reminiscence bump coincide with the emergence of a stable and enduring self. The period between twelve and 22, in other words, is the time when you become you. It takes sense then that the memory, or, excuse me. It makes sense then that the memories that contribute to this process become uncommonly important throughout the rest of your life. They didn't just contribute to the development of your self image, they became part of your self image, an integral part of your sense of self. So music plays two roles in this process. First, some songs become memories in and of themselves. So forcefully do they worm their way and so, excuse me, so forcefully do they worm their way into memory. Many of us can vividly remember the first time we heard that. That one Beatles or backstreet boys song that, decades later, we will sing at every single karaoke night. Second, these songs form the soundtrack to what. To what we feel at the time like the most vital and momentous years of our lives. The music that plays during our first kiss, our first prom, our first toke. Um, drugs. Drugs are bad. Um, gets attached to that memory. Drugs are bad.

Okay.

Music is attached. Music is better than drugs. It's better than cocaine. That's for sure.

Wait, sorry.

Oh, no. I got Canada.

Okay. Sorry.

I'm so sorry about this.

That came out when I was 19, I think that movie, the South park movie. And then I heard the drugs are bad music being part of, like, the memory is from that age, and immediately I. You know, South park, and then blame Canada.

It's all.

Well, it all just comes back to Canada. So you're. You're safe. You're safe there.

And Katy Perry, you know?

Yeah. Or Katy Perry. You know, the. The best thing that ever came out of Canada was some 41. And I will. I will die on that hill. Okay.

All right.

I guess I do need to circle back. There's probably a lot of Roman. Avril Lavigne.

Yeah.

Chad Kroger. Yeah. Sorry, everyone. I take back what I said about Canada. Don't put that on a t shirt, Jeff.

Or just take back what I said.

You.

Yeah, you can put that on. We stand with Canada. So we may recognize, in retrospect, that prom wasn't really all that.

Yeah.

Well, both of you, right away. No, we didn't. We cannot, you know, canceled.

Yeah.

Yeah, cancel. Court drawer. Yeah.

Let's talk about prom real quick. So we. We may reckon. So we may recognize, in retrospect, that prom wasn't really all that profound. But even as the most importance. But even as the importance of memory itself fades, the emotional afterglow tagged to the music lingers. I didn't really have a problem. We had, like, a banquet. So it's a little bit different for me.

I didn't really go to prom.

Oh, my prom. There's some stories from that night.

Do we get to hear one of them or.

Well, I don't want to. I'm just going to say it this way. So, growing up, we all wore fancy white dresses to our graduation, and then immediately after graduation was prom, and our senior year was the last year that they had prom, after we received our diplomas, because some people that I went to school with made some decisions where? At the location that prom was held at. They raided the fridge and there was some wine there, and they drank. Said wine. And then there were no consequences for those of us that had already graduated like this, you know, because. So, yeah, sorry. Future classes at my high school. Wolf, you did not have that same experience.

What was your class song? Do you remember? I know we talked about this before, but I don't remember what. What y'all said. Do you remember your link?

Well, we didn't have one.

You didn't have one?

My school didn't do that. Vitamin C. I went to a very, like, straight graduation.

Yeah, vitamin C. Yeah, yeah.

So we. Yeah, our senior song was. Y'all. God, I sound so. But we had, like, a first graders. Like, you had a first grade buddy and your first graders sang you a song and. And I believe that the song that they sang was imagine.

It's.

Wow. So it all comes full circle. Right?

And when there's, like, you, John Lennon. Yes. So, yeah, that was. That was the song that was sung to us. I don't know that we had, like, a song, but. Yeah, that was. That was a song that a bunch of precious small children sang to me the day I graduated high school.

There you go.

So. Yeah, and it makes me feel so old now because, like, these kids that I always thought of were so little, like, one of them, like. Yeah, you know, they're both married because we. Like, I had two. I had Jeremy and Allie, and Jeremy is married with a beautiful little baby, and Allie just got married and she is an equine vet. Like, these kids are like. I think of them as, like, tiny little humans still. I forget that they are well into their thirties now, but, you know, like, it doesn't feel like that when you think of them as being six and you are 18, right? Like, it's.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

But, yeah. Shout out Jeremy and Allie. Love you guys. You're awesome. Still.

Jeremy and Allie.

Yeah, yeah. Still in touch with them, so, yeah. Awesome kids. Young adults.

Not even young. Well, we didn't. We didn't have a graduation song. I went to a very small, strict christian school, so that wasn't a thing. Which is also why we didn't have a prom. We had a banquet. So we tried to make the best of it and still have, like, very.

Loose esque, like, no dancing.

It was just.

Well, yeah, no dancing on. Now what we did. Yeah. Not. Not quite. Like footloose. We. We had a get together, like, at my house. Afterwards, um, where I had some music and, and, you know, we had some dancing and things like that, but we just had a banquet. Um, you know, we dressed, we dressed up fancy. Like, we still did the whole thing. Like, we wore tuxes and had dates and things like that. Um, so it was, it was, it was like, still somewhat a prom experience, just not your typical prom experience that other people have. So.

So let me ask you this, but what would you want to have as a graduation song, if you could pick it? Because.

So I want. I would want something that was not like, played out like a lot of other graduation songs. There's a great song by a band called Head Automatic called Graduation Day that I always thought would be a great graduation song. So. And what's funny is the singer of head Automatica is also the, is the same singer as the. From the hardcore band Glass draw, but he did like a pop side project. So, like, listen to glass draw and then listen to head Automatica. And you're like, all right, well, there you go.

Here we go.

Yeah, I'll have to send that to you guys later so you can do your comparisons. It's pretty funny, but, yeah, so that, that's what I would pick as a graduation song.

Okay.

If I could. Yeah. Well, we've come to the end of this article here, so let's, let's wrap this part up. As fun as these theories may be, their logical conclusion, you'll never love another song the way that you love the music of your youth. It's a little depressing. It's not all bad news, of course. Our adult tastes aren't really weaker, they're just more mature, allowing us to appreciate complex aesthetic beauty on an intellectual level. No matter how adult we may become, however, music remains an escape hatch from our adult brains back into the raw, un. Unalloyed. Unalloyed, yeah, unalloyed passion of our youths. The nostalgia that accompanies our favorite songs isn't just a fleeting recollection of earlier times. It is a neurological wormhole that gives us a glimpse into the years when our brains leapt with joy at the music that's come to define us. Those muse. Those years may have passed, but each time we hear the songs we loved, the joy they once brought surges anew. What a great way. Like, just summarize it. All right? Like, in short, like, the way that our brains develop when you hit that period between twelve and 22, the very, very formative years. That's why so many, like, big things happen, like, in your life, like during those times right. Like, the transition from teenager to adult happens during that decade. You're getting driver's licenses, you're going on dates, you're graduating high school. All these big things happen during that time, and unfortunately, that's not always, like, a good thing. Like, my experience with that was really hard because my dad died when I was 16 years old. So it's like smack dab in the middle of very, like, formative years, and I. I had so many different ways of trying to cope with that, and music was one of the ways that helped me cope with that. So there's a lot of songs that I can go back and listen to, and I'm like, this. This album helped me during that time, and, um, I'll never be able to, like, I mean, and it happens with. With all of us now. Like, we all say, like, man, whatever these kids are listening to these days, music's just crap now. But to them, that is their. This is their, like, music era, right?

Like, said the same things about our music choices.

Yes.

You know, but I will say that. That there have been. Oh, there are a few songs that have come around very. Either important times in my life or, like, with important people that still hit in a different way, even than some older songs. But, yes, but, yeah, I think I just. Music. I don't know. I always. I know that the title of the podcast, too. Right. But there's so many ways that I use music to tell people things when I can't figure out how to say the thing. I'm like, here. Here's the song. It's how I feel.

Right.

There you go.

Yeah, yeah. So I agree. I also think that. And I was talking with Allie about this other day, I think one of the reasons that we tend to latch on to artists that we really loved whenever we were teenagers and, like, why we're willing to, like, give their new music a chance is because there's. There's an emotional bond and a connection that you have, because it was during that time when you discovered Taylor Swift, when you discovered blink 182, when you discovered whoever. And even though, like, some of those bands kind of fall out after a couple years and, like, that's not as good as it used to be, you're still willing to give it a chance because, like, this is your favorite band. This band helped me get through a very tough time. I've been a very big fan of their music for so long. They were like. They shaped my. My adolescence. Like, they were the soundtrack to my high school years, and I'm willing to give them a chance and. And try to appreciate this new music that they put out. And it doesn't happen with every. With everybody. It's just. It seems like there's only, like, a few bands that were willing to. To give that to because our brains are done. Like, our brains have formed. Like, this is us. This is. This is. This is Blake. Right. Um, so, like, new music, to me, doesn't appeal because I'm like, it's not as good as what I listen to, dude. Sorry. I just don't like it. Whatever. So it's crazy how the brain works.

It is.

Yeah, it is.

Oh, yeah. There it is.

I did find. I did find our Jeff row crazy. Yeah.

Brosley Ray. There we go. Rosalie Ray Cyrus.

I love it.

You made two of these. Okay, so this is beautiful.

Look at the jawline.

And there's the other one.

Goodness Lord.

This is one that Amanda told him to.

Don't tell my heart. My achieve break. Oh, my gosh. Look at me knowing lyrics. I'm so sorry that those are lyrics. I know.

I'm so proud of you right now.

Yep. Stick with us and you'll. You'll be unstoppable.

Of course.

Blake McCartney right here.

Yeah.

And then I feel like I've actually.

Met that person before.

Yeah.

And I have to say that this, like, John Mosley and I don't know how. What?

Lake Lennon.

It's a very handsome man.

Yes.

You know, hair blowing. Like. I mean, he's got some, like, that jawline and that.

Yeah.

I'm just saying.

Yeah.

I mean. Oh.

Oh, no. I'm not sure how I feel about Ozzy.

That's okay. That's not that bad. But, you know, I mean, I don't think that a gorgeous.

But there's more.

My favorite thing ever made is Blake.

Blake roll. Yeah. Blake roll. Blaise blaive girl. There you go. Blaise girl.

That's my favorite one of them all. And then I love it. Yeah.

And then there's me.

And then you, actually. Me. Which is the better?

Yes. A fine, handsome musician, gentleman. All the things. Yeah. There we go.

Scholar, scientist.

Even the dog. Even the dog.

I'm telling you. Like, I don't know what is happening. It's. No, I don't know. It's only one dog barking. It's the little jerky Chihuahua. I love him, but. Oh, my goodness. So maybe. All right, maybe that should be my mental health.

I love how it was muted for a split second while you yelled at the dog. It was great, right? I was good.

That's great.

What you all didn't hear was, like, the full on mom voice that just came out.

She got out. Right.

I'm gonna away from the microphone a little bit. But it was flat.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, like a straw. Okay. Okay. Get that bomb voice in there. Right. Yeah.

And then, you know.

Full name.

That's right. Yeah.

I will full name you Fletcher, Thomas and Harvey Hippo. Do not make me come out there.

There you go. Fletcher. Okay.

All the dogs have four names.

Great name.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, by the way, for those of you that have not heard this before, Fletcher is named after Jessica Fletcher from murder, she wrote.

Oh, yeah.

Angela Lansbury's character. Because that is a show that came out when I was in kind of this age range. Maybe a little younger, but there you go. One that, like, nostalgia. I have great fond memories of, um.

True that.

Yeah.

I was about to be, like, maybe I should do, like, the mental health minute about, like, how animals can lower your blood pressure and. And then I just yelled it. I'm not sure that's always true.

But, um, he's raising it there.

Yeah. I mean, but animals are great for mental health. They really are. Until they're not. Until they are annoying things for no reason. Like, listen to. He's like, yeah, I dare you to talk bad about me. He just did a little. Man, I was trying to think, though, like, mental health. Like, what? My mental health has not been great. These last telling you, y'all, I'm gonna. I don't know what I'm gonna do with this dog. Like, I've been struggling with. With my. My mental well being. There's been a number of different things happen, including. Sure, a friend of mine's son committed suicide a little over a week ago. And that man that hit, you know, 16 year old boy.

Jeez.

Just.

It. So, yeah, I've been struggling with, like, what to, you know, talk about. And I think that, you know, I. There's always. There's a million different things, but finding your people, like. Like, leaning on people, asking for help. And sometimes, because this is where I was gonna go, this dog, y'all, I'm gonna. I don't know what I'm gonna do with him. Hold on, y'all. I'm gonna mute myself and yell one more time so you don't have to hear it.

We need to put, like, expletive, like, the beeping sound effects.

No, it should be like. Yeah, but. But one of the things that I think that a lot of us don't do is we don't tell people, like, no, I can't do that right now, or, no, I don't have the ability to show up. And I know that I did that with, like, with y'all this last week. I just said, like, I gotta take a step back. I need to take care of myself. Not feeling like I can do much for anyone else. And saying no doesn't mean that, like, I don't care about y'all. Like, if I say I can't record, it's not. Cause I don't love y'all. That's not it at all.

Right?

And I think, so, yeah. Like, that is my mental health reminder for everyone. Is it? Saying no to things and to people doesn't mean that you are bad or you're letting anyone down. In fact, quite often, it can be the opposite. It actually gives someone else a chance to step up and fill that spot and give someone else, you know, an opportunity to take on a new role or, you know, but also, like, take care of your brain. Sometimes it's okay to just say no. Remember? Yeah, that's right.

Cocaine.

But say yes to music.

Yes.

So, yes, just say no. There we go. Science.

And it seemed like science.

I love that. I love that. You're absolutely right. Yeah. So you're coming from someone who doesn't tell people no. Yes. I wholeheartedly agree. That is something that I have been trying to do a lot more of lately, and I'm getting there.

So here is why I think sometimes we struggle and how I can make it easier for you to say no. Okay. This is what I talked to clients about, is we feel like when we say no, like, we're letting someone down. But if you can figure out why saying no aligns with what you believe in and what matters the most to you. So, like, if you value your family and that's what's really important to you, and saying no to something means you get to spend more time with your family, then you can let go of the guilt of saying no, because you are standing in your values and taking care of your family. So saying no is not a bad thing. Now, like, you know, there are things that you shouldn't say no to. Like, I don't know, eating. You need to eat.

Sure.

Sleep most what you eat. I don't like pickles. Yeah, I say no to pickles all the time.

Well, that's true. Like, I mean, if you're allergic to peanuts, don't eat peanuts.

Please say no to peanuts. If you have a peanut allergy, please.

God, like, say no. Sometimes, hey, there are very, very few things in this world that you have to do. Truly.

Yeah.

And so if it's not making you feel good, then say no. And know that the people that really love you and care about you are not going to be angry or run away or, you know, if they love you, they'll get it. So if you say, like, I've got a lot on my plate, and I just can't do whatever that thing is, and the other. The other thing that I will remind people is no is a complete sentence. You don't owe anyone an explanation either.

That's something I got to relearn, you know?

Yeah.

And if you say no to someone and they keep. Why? But why? Hmm. Do you. Are they someone you really want to, like, I don't know.

Go in their fridge? I was gonna say the other word, but no. Go in the fridge, and that was a good save.

Yeah. Yes, exactly. Go find the pickles. Yeah.

Do you really don't like pickles?

I don't, no. I like fried pickles, which is weird. I get it. I like ketchup, but I don't like tomatoes, sir. Interesting berry.

I like. I like pickles. I like fried pickles. I like pickles on a sandwich, but I don't. I would never eat a pickle to.

Spice on where the fried pickles come from, though. You know, not. Not everybody makes good fried, you know? Yeah.

I. I don't know. I. I don't. I ate lots of pickles. And you know what's really good? Pickled okra.

Okra is good now.

Okra is spectacular.

Heck, yeah.

I also have some pickled asparagus, some pickled corn. But no, you like. I mean, I have, like, the. A jar of pickles if you. Most of you all can't see me, but I think it's a gallon sized jar of pickles. I love pickles.

I just can't imagine anybody like.

I mean, they're. They're sour, vinegary, sugary cucumbers. Like, how do you not like that?

You like cucumbers?

Love cucumbers.

Oh, my God.

I don't. I don't.

Yeah.

But. Okay, English.

English cucumbers, I'm okay with. Like, they taste different to me, but, like, regular cucumbers. Not a fan.

So, growing up in Louisville, there's. In Kentucky, there's this thing called a spread called benedictine spread, kind of like the monks, but it's not. So it's basically just cucumbers, but you, like, have to blend the cucumbers up and then, like, squeeze all the water out so you're just left with, like, the flavor of the cucumber. And you mix that with cream cheese. That's basically it. And then you make sandwiches with the spread. So it's essentially a cucumber sandwich, but you just don't have the. As much.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Basically. Yeah. And most of it that you would buy in the grocery store, they would die. Green. And I'm like. When I say green, I mean, it was like, green.

Like the color of this bad boy right here.

Yeah. Yes, exactly. It was not. It's not pretty. But my aunt, who lived a few hours away, whenever she would come visit, she would bring a cooler and she would go to the store and she would buy as much of it as she could and took it home with her. It was wild. So. Yeah. Cucumbers. We love cucumbers around here.

Well, and that's.

Anybody who likes cucumbers, you can like them and listen to music. And there you go. Anymore. Is he okay? Is he better?

I think he went outside. I'm hoping anyway, because I was gonna.

Say, if he doesn't like high pitched voices, you can always go, hey, Fletcher, stop that.

Stop it, stop it.

The frequencies. Yes. Because it's science. The frequencies mess with anyway.

Yes. That. Science, science.

Science, science. I'm gonna. I'm gonna love this. Hello.

That's great.

But. Yeah, you know what it is? I got a little. Cool. Yeah.

It's got all kind of experimental things over there.

Yeah. And we need to keep.

Y'all hear him? He was like, one more time.

Yeah. You were talking about me, huh?

Right? I'll show you guys.

Yes. That is exactly what it is. Okay. Besides science and music, do y'all have anything else?

I think that's it. Thank you, Amanda, for such great minute.

I've been ordering a lot of music, and I've gotten too much, too much, too many vinyls. I need to chill out.

Oh, you can never have too many.

I actually have a friend that has over a thousand, close to a thousand vinyls right now. I'm like, where do you put them all? He's like, I don't know.

I mean, they're only, you know.

Yeah. But, I mean, this can overflow the house really, really quickly if you. If you're not careful.

I have been decluttering our home. And so I love books. And so I have let go of a lot of books recently, and by a lot. I think that between myself and my children, I think that. Well, since COVID hit and today I think we've probably removed about a thousand books from our home.

Oh, geez.

Like, it's. Like, it's a problem.

Wow.

The thing is, is that I don't read a book a second time, typically, but I, like.

You need a kindle.

Yeah, same as a book.

It's not the same. She's right.

Listen, Ali said that, Alice. Ali said that. She was like, I don't know if I'll enjoy that now. She, like, reads, like. Yeah, she uses it all the time.

I give up.

I have moved to audiobooks because I know y'all. I feel like I'm always, like, my ADHD, but my ADHd. And, like, the way my brain works, I'm figuring this out that I enjoy books more and I can pay attention to them without having to reread the same page 87 times. If I do it, and it's always.

More interesting it being read to you, then you would read it by yourself, and. Yeah, you know, with me, I like to somebody have it read to me instead of, you know, reading it myself.

Oh, yeah.

Over and over and over.

So, yeah, I am. The other thing that's great about audiobooks is that you can speed them up, and my. My brain needs things faster. So this is the book that I'm reading right now. It's called the fiance. It's by Kate White, but here, four. Oh, darn it. I think I just switched to my head. Yeah.

Okay, four.

It was like, yeah, four. That happens.

Here we go. Here we go. Trying to focus on my play any longer, I decide to head outside now and come back to it later in the day when my mind is clear. I collect my hiking boots and lace them up, then leave the cot.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know that, like, yeah, that's only a one and a half speed. Usually I listen at one and three.

Quarters, you know, for anybody who writes audiobooks, like a man, on me. Um, there's a great musician book called Heavy Metal Memoirs by Dave Mustaine. Very great book. Everybody should tell us about his metallica days up to now. We're not now because it been written years ago, but that's enough. That great. That's a great musician audiobook that you'll get. Heavy metal memoirs by Dave Mustaine. So.

Yeah, but. But books and. And music. I like to listen to things when I'm doing other things because it keeps my brain from thinking about things that I don't always want to think about.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

So, you know, it can quiet things.

Yes.

Yeah.

Anything else? Are we done here?

Yeah, I'm good. I feel like I have tapped back into my childhood, and I am. I got that dopamine hit, and I'm gonna go listen to some backstreet boys whenever we're done.

Backstreet's back.

All right, but why not nsync with some jayz shazay?

Because listen, listen, man. Nsync's okay. Like, we just watched, like, the new trolls movie where they had the sync reunion. It was cool. But BSB. So the day I die.

But you know what? In a few weeks, it's gonna be may, you know, that still make me giggle. All right. With my ramen noodle here. Let's not go back to that goddamn well with that. Thanks for listening to the show today. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast or wherever you can.

Heck, yeah. And if you'd like to follow the show on the social medias, because that's the thing, you know, because of the day and age we live in and not whenever we were in high school. MySpace, take that back. MySpace was big when I was in high school.

Oh, no, no. I had.

We're not on MySpace. Maybe one day, but we are on Facebook X or formerly known as Twitter, Instagram and the tick tocks. Just search for when words fail music speaks podcast and give us a follow.

And would you like to be interviewed on the show? If you're musician, please reach out to us at James winwordshare music.com. Amanda Dolan Dash Olin, wordsfailmusicspeaks.com or [email protected] or you can message us on any of the social plates mentioned before.

And please subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch interviews, music video reactions, vinyl showcases, and more. You can find [email protected] when words fail music speaks, be sure to turn on the notification bell so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. And if you are currently watching this on YouTube, Blake, I'm disappointed that you have not updated this belly flop on that one.

I was supposed to do like a sound effect or something. I don't know. Just imagine a large man climbing to the top of a. Like, he said, the big swimming pools. Yeah. Like he's going to do the diving thing. Just large. The biggest guy you can think of, and he just belly.

And then it just around the pool.

Monsoon, right? Just everyone's drenched, right? Kids are screaming anyway.

And then that's no water left in the pool.

None gone. And then Tony Hawk shows up. And then he starts skateboarding in the pool. And he's doing. Yes, he's doing the 900. And then. And then Goldfinger shows up and they're like. And they start singing the Superman song and everybody's doing thing. All right, Jeff, I need you to recreate that in an AI image going on. We can also, um, that I need.

Jeff.

Jeff. So once again, it. So that way you don't have to back it up. I need you to create an image of a man, large man, belly flopping into a pool. He then, uh, the water gets out of the pool. Kids are screaming. Uh, the pool is empty. Tony Hawk comes in. Goldfinger shows up. They start playing. He can, because he's amazing. Thank you, Jeff.

He could do anything. That man is a miracle.

Right, exactly. He can do it.

He can do it.

Like, maybe.

I have full faith in Jeff. Jeff. I'm counting on you, buddy. Um, anyway, sorry, where were we? Oh.

Until. Yeah. Be restored for life.

You're welcome.

Follow these links to find out more about us or to buy some merchandise on our brand new shop zone. Just go to tap on the little shop tab at the top of the screen, and it's all right there for you to buy. You got the hat.

You got that hat. Show them the hat. Show them the hat.

Orange.

That's cool, man.

And pink. Those are the only three.

Yeah.

That's awkward right now, but yes.

Heck yeah. If you don't mind out, my other podcast, it is called South Carolina Spook show. It's all about true crime and paranormal stories from the state of South Carolina. Got a new episode in the works. Hopefully this week we'll have that up. Um, and I finally did it. I managed to sit down and interview my brother in law about his Ouija board experience, and it is so eerie and creepy, and I can't wait for you guys to hear that. So go check it out, give it a follow, and stay tuned.

I have a new episode of the immense society coming out. It's all about me talking about, guess what, my ADHD. But it's actually great because it will help you understand the way my brain works little bit more. It's just me. Some rambling. My friend was laughing when I sent it to her because she was like, this is great, because you're like, I don't know how to wrap this up. My brain just keep going. And it's hilarious, quite frankly. And I'm about to also finish up one about the Adderall medication shortage that has been happening since October of 2022, which is a problem for people like me that need that. But you'll also reach out to me if you want to share your mental health story. I would love to just have a chit chat with you and learn more about our listeners, too, here and how your mental health impacts your everyday life. So, yeah, you can check that out. Easiest way is just to go to thementalsociety.com, and you can find all the links for everything. There's nice.

There's no spooky stuff over there as like.

Like, no, no, no. Come to me for the spooky stuff. You go to her for all the nice pleasantries. I will tell you about murder and aliens and ghosts, and I will tell you about brain.

You're right. Yeah, your brain.

I tell you about brains, like being by zombies. You tell us how the brain works so that the zombies understand what they are consuming. Because you have to know your food.

Yes, exactly. Yeah. Make sure it's healthy.

Wait a minute. You gotta know your food? Is that what you said?

Know your food, man. That's what you got to do, buddy.

Know where it came from.

Know what you're putting into your body.

Yeah, man. I don't like pickles, so.

James knows. He hates pickles.

Darn right. So, uh, thanks again to our sponsors for this episode, bonscoffee and bearhelp.com. Remember to use our discount code. Music speaks at checkout for 10% off your [email protected]. They got great flavors, Blake, and I love it. Not sure if Amanda is, uh, invited yet to have you.

No, yeah, I have. But I also saw that they have. Now they have stuff like lattes at Walmart.

Yes.

Don't go. Don't get them from there. Like, I don't know if they have them on the website.

I haven't looked, but they do, right? Oh, yeah.

I saw a commercial, and I was like, they have, like, pre made lattes. All you have to do is, like, throw it in the fridge, make it cold, and then, bam, you've got it, like, an ice latte ready to go.

So why is my screen giving you the thumbs up, y'all? I don't understand.

I just figured it was. It was you telling us that we're doing such a great job.

Maybe it's a ghost in my house. I don't.

Want it.

All right. And also, always go to betterhelp.com music to get 10% off your first month in therapy. That and get matched with a therapist. That's perfect. For you.

So there it is. All right. Boom.

Anything else? No, I'm good. Good. All right, so thanks again, everybody, for listening. And always remember, when words fail, music speaks. Bye, guys.

Backstreet's back.

Bye. All right, all right, I.