Ben Relles & Andy Bernstein

Hey everyone, welcome to At Home.

It is a wonderful day, uh, and Linda has been sitting on her phone on social media ignoring me for the last 2 hours.

What? I wish we had a video of this right now because that is totally not—

that's not true.

I don't know why you said that.

No, I'm just joking, but you were on your phone doodling, so I was trying to get her attention and she was making little doodles to send to— I don't know if it was family or friends.

Okay, first off, that was not social media. Secondly, it was to Caleb, Cameron, Haley, and Annalee, and I was drawing them a cat.

A cat.

That's very important.

This is the thing. Linda and I will be trying to have a conversation and she's fully distracted.

No, I—

I thought it was social media. I thought it was like just scrolling down your Instagram feed, but it was not. I guess it's doodles. So that is your social media distraction is actually your doodle distraction because we'll be on a conference call or something. And at the end of the day, Or at the end of the call, you have an entire page full of doodles.

But that's what I do when I'm like, when I'm listening. Yeah. When I'm listening. Yeah.

But then when we're trying to have a conversation and make decisions, you're not listening because you're doodling.

Right. But you interrupted my doodling.

Did I?

So think about that.

Really?

So we're in the middle of recording these interviews today and I had to get back to some messages. With a doodle.

You don't use words in your text messages, you use pictures of doodles.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It's very true. Actually, so that's interesting to me though, on if you think social media, how, you know, it is a distraction for people. It's something that's meant to bring people closer together, but it actually ends up almost like isolating people more. But you don't fall into that, actually. You just, you isolate with your you're doodling and you're sketching. You get into your own little world, which is cool.

Yeah, I, I've been pretty fatigued with social media lately. Yeah, I mean, I, I love it. I think, um, a lot of people share very beautiful things. I'm just tired right now.

I think it's— you gotta watch how much energy you spend out there. I, I like using social media as a way to connect with our fans and our audience, um, and posting about things that are important to us.

Yeah.

Like the upcoming vote, which is what our two guests are talking to us about today. Andy Bernstein, the founder of Headcount, and Ben Relles, the head of innovation for YouTube Originals. They're talking to us about a campaign that they kicked off called Good to Vote, and they have pulled together a lot of voters.

Okay.

Yeah.

When, when people use social media in ways that can inspire change and make actual change, that stuff gets me excited.

It is exciting.

So, so yeah, social media is a great place, can be a great place. It's a great tool. Um, but yeah, I love what Ben and Andy have been doing, and we can't wait to talk to them.

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Yeah, it feels like home.</LYRICS> So Ben, maybe dig in for us a little bit, just what was the initiative for you to come up with the Good to Vote idea?

Yeah, so I work at YouTube, but this was an idea that I had that I actually took some time off from YouTube to make it happen. And the general idea was, had seen a lot of messaging on social platforms reminding people to vote and felt like there might be a way to make the process of getting people to register to vote and to be prepared to vote more fun and gamify it a little bit. And so the core idea, which I took to Andy a few months ago now, was what if we had talent, whether it's influencers, actors, athletes say to their fans, I'm gonna set a target for you guys. If you guys get to 1,000 voter registrations, here's what I'll do for you guys. And that could be shave their beard, release some old TV footage, do a reunion, and that that would maybe get more action from the voters. And it turned out to really work well.

Well, 300,000+ voters registering right now and participating, which is absolutely phenomenal. And so, Andy, when you got the call from Ben, I mean, with Headcount, you've, for so many years, you've already been exciting people and getting people active and using music as well, your passion. Can you tell us a little bit about what that conversation was like with Ben and your experience?

You know, with Ben, I mean, first, I, you know, I'm Googling Ben and I see he's accomplished some great things. So it starts there. I'm going to take it pretty seriously. And I like the concept. But what really stood out to me was the idea of working with kind of native YouTubers, people who made their mark in the YouTube world. And what I told them right away is years ago, we did something with a YouTube channel called SourceFed. And they did a video about our National Voter Registration Day campaign. That was, this was 2012. And we were just starting this campaign where celebrities and musicians hold up clipboards that say register to vote and then put them on social media. And so SourceFed does a video about the campaign and they have their own link where you can register to vote through SourceFed. And SourceFed ends up registering more voters than anybody else in the entire campaign. There were 200 major musicians and comics in the campaign and SourceFed like doubles all of them.

Oh wow.

And I told Ben this, I said, you know, we've never been able to capture that lightning again. We were not— we're not native YouTubers, we're from the music world. And we've always wanted to find ways to work with more of these content creators. So for that reason, I was, I, you know, he kind of had me at YouTube. And Ben is also a pretty convincing guy. So we were excited really from the get-go. And then we started seeing, I mean, long before we did our most successful one, which I'm sure we'll talk about with David Dobrik, right out of the gate, Jack Douglas, Vsauce, like these were really successful. Putting up numbers at the same level that the very, very top musicians were, uh, like a Camila Cabello, who's one of our top partners. So we were seeing out of the gate the stuff that Ben had brought to us was performing as well as the very, very top arena and stadium level musicians.

And I actually love that, that you— your campaign and everything that you guys are doing, it's reaching such a diverse group of influencers. And I mean That's everyone in this country. It's such a diverse group of people, and to be able to speak to them in different ways that relate to them. I'm very impressed with David Dobrik and the campaign you guys have done, you know, giving a Tesla. He brought in over 100,000 voter registers. That's amazing. What's your favorite so far out of the different, Ben, out of all of the campaigns that you've done? I mean, personally, Samuel L. Jackson teaching people to swear in, What is it, a dozen languages or something, is hilarious.

I mean, it's tough to not say David Dobrik is the favorite one. He got, I mean, 100,000 people to register to vote is really staggering. Andy can put that in context, but those numbers were just insane. And also it was a lot of fun.

He can't even vote himself. That's actually something I find the most amazing is that he lives in this country, but he is not a citizen that can vote. And so he is using his platform and voice to do what he can't do himself, to spread that word.

Totally, but interestingly, actually, I would say probably my favorite one was Florence Pugh, who is also not originally American, and she just loved the idea. She put up a post saying that she would do a cooking tutorial with her fans if she got her target of, I think it was 250 people. And then she put up a video the next day, just so excited because she had gotten 1,700 people to either register to vote or verify that they were registered. And so since then, I think she's put up like 6 or 7 posts about it, continued to kind of like raise the bar each time. And I think what we found interestingly is there's been some really creative ones, like the Samuel L. Jackson one did great, where he said he would teach people to curse, but also the ones where people give like a very sincere, authentic video about why this is important to them. Have really driven a lot of results. And so, yeah, the Florence one, because she was just infectious with her excitement over it, was kind of our, you know, team favorite for a while.

When we heard about what you guys were doing, we were just so astonished and excited, because when there is a marriage of, like, art and entertainment and music tied to a good message, like, that is just the dream. How, how have you guys— I mean, everything you guys have done in your career seems to have done that in the past, but can you speak to the role of art and entertainment in this landscape now?

Yeah, I mean, Headcount, one thing to know about us is while we work in the political space, we are culturally a music organization. If you came by our office, we share office space with 5 grassroots music companies, and our board chair is a guy named Peter Shapiro, who is a concert promoter, and we have several musicians on our board. And so we come, we don't come at this from a, political viewpoint. We come at it from a music-driven, live music-driven viewpoint. And when we started in 2004, the social media didn't exist. I think YouTube maybe was just starting, but certainly the concert business was going strong and the festival business was starting to take off. So we were running around with clipboards and paper registering voters. And had it not been for the pandemic, we'd still be running around with clipboards and paper registering voters. It's still something we do and believe in and are really good at. But one of the ways we're doing it is that fans of Ariana Grande text other fans of Ariana Grande, fans of the Grateful Dead and Dead Company text other Deadheads. And we find that when we use that method, we get triple the engagement, triple the responses, as in when it's just a blind, uh, text to a voter. So we can see really everywhere that the affinity people have toward particularly musicians A lot of it can be really, it gets down to your identity, it gets down to your soul as a person. And when you can tap into that and then drive political participation through it, it's much more powerful than anything like a campaign can do.

Oh, 100%. I mean, when I look at, you know, other aspects of entertainment or even what we do with our shows, we have a really strong audience and a very passionate audience, but there's something else about music. It just, like you said, it speaks to the soul. And I think using that as a catalyst for getting people to register to vote is amazing. And also, I love that idea too, you message them to encourage them to message their friends in their, in their community.

That's how I basically got started on YouTube in the first place. I was working at an ad agency and I had an idea in 2007 when Barack Obama was running for president, trailing Hillary Clinton, that if you did a music video about Barack Obama in 2007, YouTube had just started, this would be the type of thing that would do really well. And so I came up with a YouTube video called I Got a Crush on Obama. It was an actress that I found combined with a friend of mine who wrote the song, combined with directors I found on Craigslist that morning. And this I Got a Crush on Obama video I did on YouTube got like 10 million views in the first week. And in a year when everybody was trying to figure out what would be the impact of YouTube on the election, it became part of that story that suddenly individuals would get a voice in the election that maybe wasn't possible when everything was done through TV. And so for me, yeah, from the beginning, similar to this campaign, felt like sometimes there's ways to combine politics with humor and music, and that ultimately that makes the message travel further, right? Like, part of the success of this campaign is not only are potential voters more likely to register to vote, if they see like, you know, we announced a Mean Girls reunion this morning, and they might register to vote in part because they wanna see that group get back together. But also that post from Tina Fey or Amy Poehler is shared a lot more because they're talking about Mean Girls and not just talking about it's so important to vote. Not that it's not so important to vote, that's the whole reason to do this. But I think that combining it is what has made this more viewed, more shared, more actionable, you know?

100%, you're dipping into something that's already a passion for people or an excitement for people. And just for the record, I still have a crush on Obama, just pointing that out. But so what was, when you guys growing up though, maybe Andy backing up to how you were raised, what were some of the table, you know, around the dining table conversations that you had or some of the influence from your family that turned you into the person you are today? Because you've had so many initiatives All Surrounding Music, um, from national registration to, uh, headcount, that is all about getting people up and getting people activating, getting people moving, getting people voicing their opinion. What, what was that influence as a, as a young kid?

You know, I, I think, um, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a Jewish kid from Brooklyn, and, and I think that there's something about our culture where you did talk, like, you, you had, like, serious conversations at the dinner table. It wasn't considered an adult or kids thing. And I remember my elementary school class, there were liberal kids, there were conservative kids, we had political debates all the time. And eventually I got to a point, like, I was working as a journalist, I had nothing to do with politics at all in my professional life, and I was covering sports. And, um, but in 2003 when the world was kind of blowing up, um, literally it was the height of the Iraq War and I was getting really angry, I finally had a moment where I said, you know, I got to stop yelling at the television and do something. And, and then I had the idea for Headcount. And, um, you know, it was, it was one of those things where just being raised in a way where we were expected to have opinions, expected to voice our opinions, got me to a point where as a young adult I kind of had the agency to say, hey, let's get something started. I think my friends and I can make a difference. I think we have to make a difference.

And how does, how does that work for you, Ben? Um, from how you were raised to now, you have 3, 3 kids?

Yes. Yeah.

What are the age ranges? And do you find it's very different how you can have those conversations around the dinner table with your kids as opposed to how you had those conversations when you were a kid?

Definitely. My kids are 12, 12, and 8, especially the twins that are 12. They have like a, you know, CNN 10-minute report they get every morning. So They are completely aware, obviously through a different filter than we get the news, but woke up this morning and they knew that Donald Trump had COVID because they heard it on CNN. And so they are way more tuned in than I was when I was 12. I think when I was 12, a lot of it came from maybe Saturday Night Live sketches because I love Saturday Night Live and then had to like try to figure out what was happening when Phil Hartman did Reagan or Clinton or whatever. I was not someone who at the age of 12 looked at that stuff at all. And then yeah, the two of them are definitely more curious, definitely wanted to see the first debate, all of that. And so that's fine. And also I think they recognized, especially this summer, that I put a lot of time into this Good to Vote campaign. And so, now they're curious, who am I booking? Can I get this YouTuber? Why haven't I gotten this person? So they're also helpful. And honestly, they know more about you know, a lot of these guys than I do.

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You said that very professionally.

I try.

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It's incredible to see how dialed in youth are today about everything that is going on— politics, climate change, everything. How do you— how does that give you guys hope for the future knowing that kids these days are, you know, are paying attention and they do care?

Yeah, I mean, I can answer, you know, a lot of it for me is through the lens of YouTube because I've worked at YouTube for 10 years and I've seen the things that creators have done, creators who are, you know, 18, 19, 20, that are really pretty remarkable. Like one example, Jimmy, the MrBeast channel, he raised over $20 million to plant trees from his YouTube channel. And, you know, it was the most successful thing I had ever seen on YouTube in terms of that kind of social impact campaign. But what was also cool is like the whole community got behind him and wanted to do it also. So, you know, in my house I have younger kids. A lot of what I'm following in terms of Gen Z is through the lens of YouTube and they are, you know, very active. And then this campaign has reinforced that a lot where You know, none of the YouTubers we're working with are paid to do this. They're all taking a risk putting something, even if it's nonpartisan, on their own channels. And we've had, you know, just such great support from YouTube creators that basically want to use their platform to do good. I find that that generation is just so committed to the causes that they believe in.

How do you find with what you guys have been doing, encouraging people to vote? I mean, on my social media, we've posted quite a few times, and I've actually been very happy that We're not being attacked by one side or the other trying to say that, you know, keep your political views to yourself. People are actually enjoying that we're encouraging everyone to vote. This isn't trying to say, you know, this is for Republicans or this is for Democrats. We're trying to encourage everybody to use their voice. Are you getting any negativity or, you know, angry tweets or anything like that from what you guys are doing? Or do you find it's actually opening up a lot of people to having conversations?

You know, we're not getting a lot of, or any noticeable level of angry tweets from humans, but bots we're getting it from. And some of the artists and participants have gotten them, and, and they're, um, it's, it's a real thing. What we also get from time to time is people who accuse us of being partisan, and Headcount is, is truly a nonpartisan organization. Like, we work with musicians who are generally left-leaning but the way we like run the organization is not. Then we'll seek out country acts and it's not like we're deciding where to go register voters based on what the political leanings are. So sometimes we find ourselves defending that, but usually we can defend it pretty well, 'cause I think if anybody goes on Headcount social media or at headcount.org, they'll see like it's very much down the middle.

To be able to put out, you know, this kind of messaging to, you know, 2, 3, sometimes 10, 20 million people, and know that, you know, everybody is going to respond within seconds. I do feel like I am very just like appreciative of the people who have participated, that they are willing to do that. They don't have to. And so, yeah, it's been cool to see how many have stepped up to do it.

Andy, with the campaigns and how you guys put out your messaging, how do you have to tailor— do you find you have to tailor based on different audiences or where you're marketing to push? I mean, obviously influencers have their different audiences, but if, you know, if you're speaking to immigrants or if you're speaking to students, what kind of way do you have to flex your message?

The youngest people who have the most valuable knowledge and cultural insights right now, because it's their peers we're trying to reach. So when working with someone like David Dobrik, we found that, you know, what David achieved through the Tesla giveaway is totally unprecedented. Nothing like that has ever happened. Nobody has ever registered 100,000 voters through one promotion. The other, the big, big stars we work with are doing such a tiny fraction of that, that it's weird to even say what the comparison is. And this is somebody, I mean, I think it really shows something that whether you're, I've learned a lot in the last week in terms of who knows David Dobrik and who doesn't. And every teenager in America, every young college student seems to know who he is, and maybe their parents know who he is. But if you don't have kids, you don't have teenage kids, David Dobrik's probably not on your radar. And it just really, it really just shows one, how I think the media landscape has changed a lot in the last couple decades. It's much more based on demographics and people consume what they wanna consume rather than having it fed to them by network television. And for us as an organization in the culture space and the media space, it's, a lot of it is about keeping up and also knowing what you don't know. Me knowing that my intern knows more than I do about what culturally matters right now, that humility is really important to get things like this done.

Yeah, I would add real quick though, just another example, like Corinne Li, she has, you know, 300,000 Instagram followers that she went out to and said, if I can get 200 of you guys to register to vote, I'm gonna adopt a cat, you know, it's happening, help me get a cat. And she actually registered 700 people to vote with that. And she's awesome, she has a huge channel ThreadBanger, she's posted a few times now. But, you know, that's kind of the interesting thing about YouTube, of course, is that there's so many channels that, you know, is there a way to do this that we can say, here's the idea, but make it your own. We're not saying, can you send us something and be part of a montage of YouTubers and we're gonna give you a line. It was more, you come up with the challenge, we'll give you a page and you can kind of take care of it.

Yeah, which is great. I mean, that sort of collective of people coming together with their own individual voices and passions is what makes it so unique. So Ben, with your kids as they're getting older, so voting aside, what do you think are some values that are most important for them? What's something that you feel needs to change with the overall landscape right now to make sure that the future for your kids is what you hope it'll be?

I think that, you know, there's, there's so many ways now to, to take action, and there's all kinds of websites with all different ways to volunteer. I think for us, a lot of it is trying to find things that they actually enjoy doing, and it never becomes a chore of, you know what, today is, today is Saturday, that means it's volunteer day, and they all sort of, you know, aren't, aren't excited about it. It's trying to figure out like for each different kid, what is something that they can kind of take ownership of and enjoy doing? And that can mean experimenting with a lot of different ways to be involved.

So for you, Andy, what do you see, all the years that you've been putting energy into your passion and using music as a catalyst for social change, what's your dream 10 years from now, 15 years from now?

Oh, wow. Well, you know, I certainly hope that, we kind of get over the hump as a country where we're participating at much higher levels. I mean, where last election was about 58% turnout, which is really mind— for young people, it was less than 50%. So it's still mind-blowing to me that, you know, about half of Americans are choosing not to participate in our democracy. And, you know, it's going to take a large cultural shift What the kind of work that we do is we're sort of moving the margins, we're moving it by tiny percentage points, percentage of a percentage, and that can determine an election. I mean, the last election was determined by less than 100,000 votes out of over 100 million. Yeah. But what we really wanna get to, at least from a participation standpoint, is that it just looks really different. And I think that like, YouTube and YouTube creators, if anybody is gonna change that culture, it's them. I mean, it's so clear to us that this is who kids are listening to. And one thing we know is that kids and young people today are very amped on public service, very amped on volunteering, as Ben was talking about, but less amped on participating at the voting booth. So I certainly hope that that changes over time. I mean, it still is mostly the same as it was back in 2004. But a lot better than it was in 2000. 2000 was the bottoming out point where I think it was 36% of young people participated. So we got up to the high 40s in every election since pretty much. So there's, you know, things change does happen in negative ways and positive ways. And I certainly hope that, you know, through changes in media, we can see changes in culture that lead to changes in participation.

I agree. I 100% agree. And where should people go, Ben, for, uh, for registering?

I mean, headcount.org has all the tools you need. The way that we built this is, you know, if there's a certain thing that you want to help unlock, all of that is also at goodtovote.com. So, you know, all the resources are at Headcount. If you go to Good to Vote, we have the list of all the celebrities, influencers, musicians that are participating, and you can click on the one you want to see. So like, Today, Jeff Goldblum just put a video up reenacting a scene from Jurassic Park. When you go to our website, you can click on him, and then you can unlock, when he gets to 2,000 actions, another scene from Jurassic Park.

Thank you so much for everything that you guys are doing and inspiring all generations, everybody, to get out there and register and vote.

Yeah, thanks for just bringing community together for something that matters.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, thanks for participating.

We will keep putting our voice out through social media as well to all of our fans, but— Let's see the difference that this makes in a month.

There you go.

Thanks so much for joining us, guys.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

That was great. Chatting with Andy and Ben is motivating me to think of how else we can spread the word to get people to register to vote.

Yeah, I love that it's a little game and you can learn how to swear in 15 languages.

I mean, no one's better than Samuel L. Jackson to teach you that.

Yeah, we'll post the link on our website, and they mentioned the links at the end of the podcast as well.

Well, this is always a journey for Linda and me. Everything that we do, this podcast is all about us wanting to learn and grow.

And we just like that we can work like this from home, from the home, from on the sofa. Almost didn't wear pants today because I usually just have a blanket anyway, but I put on pants.

It's nice. Oh, I mean, I like it when you don't wear pants, but it's a nice blanket that you have there. Uh, yeah, what's something else that you're passionate about continuing to learn about and grow your outlook?

Um, geez, so many things. Are you interviewing me now?

Yes.

Okay, I want to learn more about— I know this sounds like so vague, but how to make home the healthiest it can be. Because we've spent so many years— you more so than me, obviously— like, we spent so many years thinking about the design, and which is amazing, and design can affect your health in so many ways, um, and your mentality. But yeah, we want to learn how home can make your life healthier and happier.

Yeah, and I think it's— that's for us, it'll be, you know, our guests that we bring on as experts, or just people and their experiences in their home there's so much we can learn from so many different people. Yeah, really, that is what's exciting about this podcast is the fact that it is— there's no limit to what we can learn. There's no limit to people we can talk to and their life experiences.

Who's someone that you want to— or maybe not someone, but like, what's a topic that you want to dive into?

Okay. Speaking of diving, I want to chat with Wim Hof. So if you guys don't know, Wim Hof is all about mind over matter. His idea and philosophy that, you know, like he'll literally, I think he holds the world record for being in—

Holding his breath underwater?

Yeah, well, holding breath underwater, but also just being in Arctic cold water, but his body temperature doesn't change. Do you know him? No, hopefully I could, but what I wanna understand is I wanna pick his brain about like what that mental strength is for him, what he does. Is it almost like an internal switch that he switches off so he doesn't feel the freezing cold toes? Toes. Yeah, I just— I'm so fascinated by that, that idea of mind over body.

I, I guess the closest I've gotten to that, not with breath, but when we go camping, it's like I tell my body I don't need to go number 2 for 3 or 4 days, and you don't, and I don't. Like, I literally don't. I don't understand how you don't have the need to go because I'm like, I'm not going in the outhouse.

And then there's me who who gets mosquito bites on my butt because I'm like, I have to go. And I honestly don't understand how you can shut your body off. Like, I can go for a long period without peeing, but I can't. When I need to number two, get out of my way.

I have the tiniest bladder.

Yeah, I think chipmunks have bigger bladders than you.

What else? I also want to learn about zero waste living and how we can you know, try a bit of that, try a little bit more.

I mean, we do put a lot of effort into composting, recycling, reducing, reusing.

We could do so much better though, because like, especially over, you know, during quarantine time, we were ordering so many things online and I just felt so guilty with all the packaging.

And well, see, that's the thing that's interesting to me, is to dig in and understand more about, you know, people want to reduce, reuse, recycle, whatever they can do to not waste. However, a part of society, a part of civilization, if you're ordering things, something new, there's going to be waste. Or even if what you have, you're using, there could be a ton of waste or pollution from the manufacturing side of things. So where is that balance? And then also just culturally, I actually, I want to learn more from different cultures and sort of different ways that families raise their kids and It's so interesting to me to think that we're in a country full of so much diversity, and there's so much that we don't know about the lifestyles of so many different people. And so I think that would be really cool. That would open our horizons as to how we're going to raise our kids in the future.

Yeah.

But what we need to do right now though is we need to go to the cookie jar.

Are there actual cookies in there?

I hope so. So we have a cookie jar that's full of questions. Things look— little kickoff points for us to converse.

Maybe some cookies. Did you put any cookies in here?

If I didn't, I'm disappointed in myself.

No cookies in there. Oh, did you hear that?

You know, you, you were disappointed by no cookie, and then your stomach definitely, uh, oh no, vocalized its disappointment.

It was the T-Rex. Okay, very serious question. What do you think about in the shower? Oh.

Okay, this is super nerdy. Um, I like trying— I'm not very good at it, but I like trying to do impressions in the shower, and I practice some of them in the shower instead of singing. Sometimes I sing because the vocals are great in there, and sometimes— why just talk like this all the time?

I like how you have to move your body.

He's so physical. You got to be physical. It's like Jeffrey Goldblum. You can't be Jeffrey Goldblum without moving.

Jeffrey Goldblum.

Isn't it Jeff Goldblum? You know, we're so— Jeffrey, you know, I call him by his full formal name.

That's so weird.

Was in his yearbook, you know. How about you? What do you do in the shower?

Um, I don't know. I, I usually just let my mind wander, and I hope to get really good ideas in the shower, but I don't think I have lately because I don't shower.

Wait, you should have a notepad next to the shower or your phone close by to put in a note.

I saw someone that did that, or does that. I think it was on, um, like on Instagram, great big story or something. There was this inventor who's come up with, I don't know, hundreds or thousands of inventions, and he has a waterproof notebook and he takes it with him into the pool because that's where he gets—

that's interesting—

ideas. Maybe in the shower. Maybe I made that up.

Very interesting. Anyway, I'm gonna go for another one from the jar. All right, ready? You can always tell which of these were written by Linda and which were written by me. Her handwriting is so much better than mine. All right. This is, this is interesting. People want to know this. How is Linda/Drew different than someone you dated in the past?

Oh my gosh.

So how am I different than somebody you dated in the past?

Hmm, uh, tell me. Just like a world of a difference. I don't—

come on, give me some detail. Um, hold on, let me use the voice for my impersonations in the shower. Hi Linda, I'm your ex. How do I differ from Drew? Did you have Barry White as an ex? I don't know.

No, I mean, we dated at one point. I mean, Barry, um, you are just the most thoughtful and considerate and genuine person I've ever met. Um, and also genuinely interested in other people for reasons that aren't, um, yeah, that are just authentic. And you just want to talk to people and hear their stories. And you're always helpful.

Am I? Am I always? I didn't put cookies in that jar, so not too helpful, right?

I take it back, I take it back. Not helpful at all. But Dad just, your dad just told us a story of when you guys used to go camping. And he said, "You know, I will always remember as soon as we got to the campsite, Jonathan and JD would just run off and go play. And Andrew would always be there to ask, 'Can I help you, Dad?'" Hey, Dad.

And most of the time I just got in the way, but I got pretty good at putting tents up. I'd say for me, how you differ from any exes.

Did I write that question?

No, I wrote that question.

Oh, okay. I was like, I wouldn't ask that question because I don't like comparing people.

Yeah, I know you don't like comparing people, but I sometimes will purposely do a question because I know it'll throw you off your game. Um, for me though, I mean, not just comparing— okay, it's comparing, but, um, I like— I just like how open and loving you are of everyone. You just want to see everyone happy. You want to learn from everybody, and there's that fun positive energy you bring to a room. So let's have a cry session.

Give me my cookies.

All right, one more.

What is the hardest part of being with each other? Drew wrote this one.

Man, I'm really trying to— all right, these were all supposed to be centric around us and our relationship and stuff too, right? I think Anyway, sure. Uh, hardest part about being with each other? Every single day she tries to get away with leaving the bathroom door open when she pees. So hard. It's hard on me. I don't like that. I want to leave a little romance.

I like to challenge you.

By challenging me? By listening to you let bodily fluids leave your body?

Yeah, I think it's a beautiful thing.

I just don't. I don't at all. I think that's a beautiful thing you can keep to yourself. That can be one of those things that's just for you. A special moment just for yourself.

Yeah, because it's important to have alone time. One day.

What's difficult about being with me?

Oh, nothing. He's just an angel.

I knew it. All right, we're done.

So perfect. And I never get frustrated with him.

I can see the lies.

Okay, so before this chat started, she was like, are we just gonna talk about food again?

Actually, I said, are we gonna be talking about food and farts? Because that seems to That's gonna be what Linda always brings up. But, um, you know—

What else is there?

It's a big part of life. This has been a lot of fun. We'll see you guys again next week. Thank you to our producer, Brandon Angelino, and our researcher, Annalie Bell, as well to Victoria Shaw and Chad Carlson for our song, our music, "Feels Like Home." And thanks to you guys. Yeah, hit us up on social media. We want to hear from you guys. If you're enjoying At Home, please spread the word, tell your friends, Be sure to comment and rate. Rating is always a nice thing.

Oh, and text if you have any questions.

310-496-8667. That's my cell number. I want to hear from you guys. We want to know what you'd like us to talk about. I mean, any important topics to you are important topics to us. And I love you. I love you. Oh gosh, we'll work on this. See you guys.

Yeah, it feels like home.