Travel Support Thursday

Travel Support Thursday, we're back.

It's Thursday.

Number 17.

Come back to Travel Thursday.

Travel Thursday.

I still hate this jingle.

Josh is wearing a button-up shirt.

Well, look at all, just, yeah,

it is Christmas time around here

and I'm looking full on Wisconsin today for sure.

I will say, thank you so much to everybody

who loves the jingle as cringy and awkward as it is

because, yeah, that's why I love it too.

I mean, I know it's not good.

No one's claiming that it's Grammy worthy.

It's just, it's just, it's just Lisa and Josh.

I don't know.

We've been playing around with the idea of just like,

maybe I'll go home and keyboard it

and see, maybe if it's just a humming sound.

I've paid some guys on Fiverr to make some options of it

and no matter how hard they try, it still sounds so stupid.

I think it's just, just the concept of it.

It's not their fault either.

It's just the concept of it is just, okay.

All right, anyway.

Here we go.

Anyway, today I think we've got a lot of,

we've got a lot of really interesting stuff to talk about.

Today we've also got some deep stuff

that honestly we're terrified a little bit to talk about

but I think that makes it a good subject.

But anyway, yeah, why don't you give them the rundown?

So today we're gonna talk about travel across Europe,

how we get local and I guess not local but country news

like when you're traveling and how that impacts our travels.

We're gonna talk about our plans for future trips

if any of them include other continents.

We're also gonna talk about the idea of country counting

and if there are any destinations

that are on the top of our bucket list.

Yeah, like competitive travel, the absurdity of it.

And finally, we're gonna be talking about the,

I don't even know how to talk about this.

We're gonna talk about sustainability

as it relates to travel.

Because yeah, we know travel has a huge impact

on our environment and our carbon footprint.

We'll talk about, yeah, what it means to us

and what we think about it

because it is a really important concept.

Okay, let's get into it.

So our first question comes from Michael

who says we're in Europe right now

with a train strike for the next couple of days.

It was a surprise but with no local news available

it started making me think,

how in the world do you get local and country news

as you travel or do you just play it by ear?

Man, that's become an almost annual thing by now.

I mean, I remember last year when we were there,

I think there were two different train strikes

happening while we were there,

one in France and then one happening in Germany

at the same time, like overlapping.

I feel like every time we go to Europe

there's a train strike.

But in that, that's good in some ways

because hopefully the workers are getting

what they deserve but also they have trains.

So that's also an awesome thing

and we're not used to trains in the US.

That seems cool.

I am all for paying train operators

and the people who upkeep all of that awesome stuff

as much as they deserve probably even more than that

because I don't know.

I can't imagine Europe without them.

I can't imagine traveling without going on trains really.

So I think in short, we don't.

We just, we don't, this is an intentional thing that we do.

I mean, it's not that we avoid it,

it's just that it doesn't, I don't know,

like you said, it's always a little bit challenging

to get news about a strike when you're a tourist

or you're visiting unless it's like someone like your hotel

or you happen to be at the train station

getting your tickets and they alert you.

I think, I actually think the only reason we knew

about the train strikes last year.

Because we were riding the trains every day.

Well, and our friends who are German

when we were traveling in Germany on the nine euro ticket,

they told us about it.

Right, that's true.

They're like, oh, aren't you worried

about the train strikes or like the what?

I think the way that we got alerted

was actually through like our friends

and also using some of the train apps actually.

We started noticing that like all the local trains,

for example, were super jam packed

and all the local trains were like mega delayed.

And then we're like, huh, what's going on?

And then we looked up the news.

Yeah, I mean, usually if it's important enough

for it affects a lot of people in some way,

we'll find out from the hotel we're staying at

or otherwise, but the short of it is is that we don't.

No.

We just, we don't.

And some of that is that we just,

we want to like maintain at least a small amount

of either ignorance or innocence about the news

that's happening in there

because we just don't want to get caught up in it.

We just want to like take the place

for what it actually is

and the thing that we're actually experiencing

like in that moment instead of trying to like getting caught

up in the problems of a country as a whole

that will probably like color our experience

in some negative way.

In general, I would say that we don't proactively reach out

and read the news when we're traveling in a local place.

But when we're out walking about,

when we're at the train station,

we notice something peculiar.

We notice something that catches our attention

that will prompt us to look something up later.

Sure.

And sometimes that can give us insight.

Like when we were in Seoul, for example,

we would, we left the palace one day

and we saw tons of protestors

and we just had no idea what the protests were about.

And that to me was like an interesting thing.

And I just wanted to know what the protests were about.

So I looked it up.

I don't remember what it was about.

I think it was about the president.

We generally like to play it by ear

because we want to just see what happens as we travel.

I know there's a lot of planning

that goes into these trips,

but sometimes we find that the more that we read,

the more it takes us away

from the actual place that we're in.

Yeah, like have you ever been to a subreddit

for a country or a city?

Like just go and look at any subreddit

for any city on planet Earth.

And all that you'll find is just like

endless negativity and complaining.

And I think it's really easy to get caught up in that.

And you enter this like state of fear

before you even arrive at a place.

And I think we intentionally try to avoid that in some ways

because I just don't want it to like change our perspective

of a place before we get there.

I just want to take it as it comes.

If you are the kind of person that wants to know everything

and wants to know information,

I actually find that not looking at the like local news

to be very helpful, actually find Reddit and YouTube

to be the most helpful or social media.

Those that are like live on the ground reporting

actual anecdotal stories about what's happening

is actually really helpful.

Yeah, okay, what do we got next?

What's the next question?

So our next question comes from Rachel Lenahan.

Hey, Rachel, who asks,

do you guys count your countries visited?

If so, what are your numbers?

Would you ever consider setting the goal

of going to every country in the world

or does traveling to checkboxes make you cringe?

Also, what countries at the top of your bucket list?

So as an elder millennial,

could you just define the word cringe for me?

Because from like the way I understand it,

it just means anything

that makes you feel like slightly uncomfortable.

So, you know, like it just,

it seems like this one dimensional thing,

like things are either cringe or not cringe

and everything that's cringe

should just be thrown away and burned

and everything that isn't cringe is like acceptable,

but things that aren't cringe are like 2% of humanity.

Are cringe worthy things, things that get you canceled?

Yeah, I don't know.

Cause there's nothing really in this world

that makes me go, ugh.

Really?

Whoa, there has to be, what about too much time on the beach?

I mean, no, but that just makes me uncomfortable,

but it doesn't make me go, ugh.

So maybe that's the definition of cringe.

Or is it more about like things

that you think other people will think badly about you

if you do?

I think it's more that cringe, I think of as when,

no, let's just look it up, let's just look it up.

I feel like that's gonna be less helpful than cringe.

I mean, I, well, and we have to look up

the like urban dictionary.

Like I understand the idea of cringing.

So the actual definition of cringe is

bend one's head and body in a fear of apprehension

or in a servile manner, which is what you were just doing.

We're looking at Merriam-Webster for this,

there's nothing more millennial than that.

Oh, this one, have an inward feeling

of acute embarrassment or awkwardness.

I feel like that's what it is.

I just don't ever really, I mean, not never,

but very infrequently do I get embarrassed.

So I'm probably being cringe.

Most of the time, but I just don't care.

So therefore I'm not cringe.

I don't, I don't know.

It's such a, it seems like such a catch-all, you know?

It's like something being cool or not cool.

Like there's some judge group out there

that decides if things are cringe or not cringe.

And then that decides if you're allowed

to be on the internet or not.

I think the difference between cringe and like,

how do we get caught on this?

Being embarrassed is like, cringe seems like the term

that someone has for somebody else.

Or like, I'm embarrassed for you.

Which is like kind of sad.

Yeah, but why?

I know.

But why would you, why would you care so much?

Like, if somebody else is doing something that's cringy,

just let them do it?

Like it just, that doesn't affect me at all

if they're doing something weird.

Like it just, I look at it, I go, well, I was kind of weird.

And then you just move on with your life.

I don't go, ugh, ugh, ugh and make a whole thing.

I just, I don't understand this.

Well, and there's also probably certain levels.

I've never felt more old.

When does it, what's the different levels of cringe?

Like there has to be like, slightly cringe and then.

Omega cringe.

Omega cringe or is it, anyway.

Right.

Back to the original question.

Sorry for detracting Rachel.

Please enlighten us on this because it just,

it feels like such a catch-all nebulous term

that if somebody out there, if maybe just me asking

for a definition of this is cringe,

but to be honest, I just wanna know.

I just wanna be enlightened.

I would say that our jingle makes you cringe.

Yeah, but is it good cringe?

Cause I'm hearing from people out there that they like it.

So it might be like positive cringe.

Is that possible?

I don't know.

This is too philosophical.

I have never felt more old in my life

than I do right now trying to understand this.

Let's get back to the original question.

So, Rachel asks, do you guys count your countries visited

and if so, what are your numbers?

So I would say.

I mean, it's like 70 something.

I know off of like the top of my head

because I think this number used to be really important

to my ego and I think that as time has gone on

that it's, I've cared less and less about it over time.

Got it.

I would say I don't know the number.

I know it's probably not more than 30,

but I do keep a list of all the places that we've gone

just so that for memory's sake, in general, I don't,

I mean, I think to your question,

would you, you know, does traveling to check boxes

make you cringe?

Okay, so do I?

We're not.

Never mind, I'm not gonna use that word anymore.

Outside of the word cringe, like,

do I think that other people being proud

of how many countries they've gone to

or how many cool things they've seen,

do I think that that's somehow like weird or bad for them?

No, I think that that's, I don't know,

like be into whatever you're into.

Some might say that making YouTube videos

and documenting our travels is cringe worthy, but.

Lots of people seem to think that, maybe you right now.

I just, well, not only if we sing the jingle.

Travel thirst.

I guess to get back to your original questions,

no, we don't really count our numbers,

but I don't really feel like to me,

I know there are a lot of people that have that goal

of like reaching a certain number of countries

by a certain age or there's like that Guinness world record

of how many countries you've visited by a certain age.

That to me has never really been a goal of mine,

but I think it's cool that other people do.

Yeah, I think I can tell you for sure something

that I do think is cringe is that people like thinking

that because they've been to more countries

and other people like, I've been to 70

and you've only been to 30, like thinking that for some reason

that makes me like better or more experienced

or more anything is so vehemently incorrect

in like every possible term.

And I think this like that competitive travel instinct

that I think, I don't know, it seems to exist

around the internet kind of prevalent leave

like I've seen more of the world than you.

Therefore, my opinion matters more is that is,

that is super omega cringe for me to see that.

I like that you straighten yourself up and like stand up

and look at the camera when you say omega cringe.

No, I'm just doing it because my back hurts around here.

I think that that idea to me is a,

and I think the reason that I cringe about it

is that it used to be me is that I remember myself

after that first trip around the world of feeling like

I had done this like big thing

but I was proud of it for the wrong reasons.

I was proud of it because of like how much I had done

and how much I had learned instead of it

kind of the way that I think about more now

is that I'm way more proud of the amount of things

that I can go and learn and then go and share

with a bunch of other people who may not have the opportunity

to go and do it.

I do understand the impetus of like counting up

all these countries and checking off all these boxes

and being proud of that because of like the sacrifices

you had to make and the things that you had to do

to be able to travel to all these cool places

but I will never back anybody who thinks that

that somehow makes them a better person than anyone else.

It's not about that, but I think being proud

of an accomplishment of a goal that you set for yourself

and then you did, that's really cool.

I think that's more, yeah, I think that's interesting

because I think coming from a place of 10 years ago

I was not remotely into traveling

and I was not remotely interested in visiting new countries

and I remember a lot of friends would come back

from their summer vacations and they would talk

about their time in Spain.

They would talk about their time in, you know,

Budapest and all these different places

that I had never been and I could never relate.

And I remember at the time feeling inferior

because of those conversations when I look back

and maybe they were just trying to share an experience

and like share something cool that they learned

about the place, but it was not something

that I could relate with at all.

So in my head I thought, oh, I think they're just better

than me and so it is interesting.

I think this question makes us,

I don't know, it makes me want to think about too

how we talk about the places that we visited

and I think maybe that's why we don't always talk

about like how many places we've gone

and where, you know, the goal of trying

to reach so many countries by a certain age.

I think because our goal really isn't to,

well, my goal isn't really to like see every country

in the world actually, it's more just to be able

to experience new places and new people and learn new things.

Whether it's all of the countries or not, that'd be awesome

but I think the larger goal it feels like

is to be able to like get people on board with the idea

that traveling introduces you to new things

that you would not have known otherwise.

Yeah, and I think that's exactly what drives me as well now

is less of like, it used to be, I'm gonna be the guy

that's gone to every country in the world

by the time I'm 30 or 40 or 50 or however long

it would have taken that like, that's my ego,

that's my personality talking there.

Is that like, that'll be me and I'll be able to use that

to say that I'm cool forever and then like, you know,

I went to 194 countries and I did and like,

just that number, I mean, that is an accomplishment

but I think now I think a lot more about depth

of connection to a place and I think about width

of like how many places that I went to

versus like how many like really deep,

unique, cool experiences that I had

and I think with this YouTube thing,

it's now a lot more about how many other people

can we get in on that party to come

and have these other really cool, deep experiences

in the same places that we've gone.

And that to me is everything now,

like when I see these comments sometimes

and they've been happening more and more frequently,

which makes me really excited of these people saying like,

okay, so we saw your video and bam,

we booked a flight to Singapore

because now we know we can afford it

and that like makes me so happy, so much happier

than having gone to 100 countries

by the time I was 30 or whatever.

Whatever that goal was being able to actually

be able to like share this thing that I know

changed my life for the better in so many ways

and to be able to get someone else who might not

have been able to do it or like,

thought it was prohibitively expensive

or thought there was only one way to make it happen

and that that would never be accessible to them

and to actually be able to bring them into this party

that we're all having together and say like,

you're invited and you can do it, you can do it,

however you want and here's how when we accomplish that,

that feels so good.

That feels so good way better than saying

I went to the Eiffel Tower 73 times.

Well, it's just funny, I think when we look back

at a lot of our travels, YouTube and non-YouTube era,

we visit countries multiple times.

We go back a lot to a lot of places

and I know some people will say,

go somewhere new, try and be more spontaneous,

be more adventurous, but new countries obviously

are really visiting new places obviously a huge reason

of ours that we want to travel,

but there's something special about going back

and I think it goes back to the idea of depth versus width.

Going back to a country or place that we've been for

allows us to revisit and relearn some things

that we know a little bit about.

That's not to say that we don't have interest

in visiting newer places, we do,

but it's not necessarily I think our goal

to check off those places.

Yeah, and perfect example that here in Japan,

probably my 12th time being here or something like that,

but a new thing that I learned about this time

was just how deep and awesome the vintage thrifting

slash flea market scene is here

and how incredible the stuff we're wearing

literally right now and just how incredibly focused

it seems like the people of Tokyo at least

and probably around the rest of Japan are on this idea

of like taking the old and then turning it

into something really cool and really new

and making sure that nothing gets wasted

and making sure that things are reused.

What's the word for?

Multinye. Multinye, yes.

I mean, this is, yeah.

Multinye is actually a term that our Hawaii mom taught us.

It's this Japanese term that essentially translates

to like no waste or reusing and bringing back to life

something that had a previous life

or not just no waste and coming here

and staying in this random,

we're like on the outskirts of Tokyo.

We were not visiting like the popular spots

like Shibuya and Asakusa.

We're just staying on the outskirts

and it's incredible to see it come to life in action here.

And to see it every single day

and it's just this idea of Multinye

is something that I think from both of our families

was just like this principle

that we didn't have a word for forever.

It was like this idea that I think connected us together

as two people that were shared values between us

but we didn't have a way to really codify it.

And then-

Well, we were cheap too.

Also cheap, yes.

Frugal.

Yes, cheap mega frugal, however you want to say it.

But it was that of like coming to Japan

and this was like, this was one of the things

that I know that we wanted to both go really deep on

and see exactly what the scene was like here

and we had so much fun doing it.

We spent like a couple of days

just going from flea market to other flea market

to other vintage shop and it was so much fun

and this is something that is so niche

and so like wonderful for the two of us

but also like not something that we would have done

on our first trip to Tokyo

because we would have been going really wide.

We would have been trying to get like a sampler platter

of like everything that Tokyo has to offer.

But I think this style of travel now

where we have the opportunity and the time

which we're lucky to have to be able to go really deep

on these very specific things that just we love

I think that's amazing.

And it's something that makes me really, really happy

that I would have, I don't know,

I just would have never expected myself

to want to get into when I first started this

because I would have been so focused

on just seeing everything.

That being said, there are countries on our list

that we definitely still want to see and visit.

Rachel asks, what country is at the top of your bucket list?

Oh, I think.

That's top.

Nepal, for me feels like right now

cause there's so much cool stuff to do there.

I've always wanted to go to Antarctica,

not a country, a continent.

I've always wanted to go there just to see it.

I don't know what I'd do there.

I've always wanted to go to Peru.

I know a lot of people have been there.

There's actually quite a bit and we've heard

from a lot of you, there's so many places

we've yet to visit in this world

and so many countries in South America, Central America

that I'd love to visit and spend a lot of time there.

I haven't been to Costa Rica before, Ecuador, Guatemala.

I'd love to go to the police.

We haven't made a video in Canada

besides getting on a cruise ship.

That's true.

A lot to cover there.

So many beautiful places.

It's hard cause I don't really know that I have like a,

these are the must do's.

Do you have like a, I must do this before I die

regarding traveling?

I have the world's longest bucket list

and it's hidden somewhere on our website.

I haven't published it yet, but it's like 700 things

that I've heard about from other people.

I've read about in books or whatever

and I just keep adding to this list.

Interative over time and just keeps getting bigger and bigger

but I don't know if I die without completing all of them.

Will I be mad?

I mean like 25 year old me would have been upset.

I would have been like, oh, I blew it.

But I think as, I don't know,

as we're doing this more and more and traveling more and more

I think it's about finding those really specific,

really awesome things

that are what get me really pumped up about traveling.

Like a couple of days ago, spent an entire day

just trying to figure out how this very complex

Japanese arcade game works.

It's only available like in arcades in Japan.

And I went and bought all these like crazy specific cards

for it and then I translated all the menus

and everything like that.

And that was like the most fun day.

And you made a friend.

Yeah, and I made a friend while I was there

who taught me how to play the game

and gave me some cards.

It was just, it was such a fun day

and such a specific thing that I knew that I would love.

And the only way that I know that I would enjoy it

is by turning off the FOMO of thinking,

oh, but I need to, I need to go see all this thing

and that thing and that thing.

And meanwhile, while he was playing video games,

I was visiting all the thrift stores.

She got me this.

And I gotta say guys, thrift shopping in Japan

is really, really cool.

I just, I think it's incredible and it makes me realize

that no matter what country you go to,

there's something that you can connect with

even if you don't speak the language.

Okay, but I think this idea of multini,

which is like making sure that everything gets used

and making sure that there's no waste

kind of perfectly runs into our next question if you can.

Yeah, so we got a really great question

and kind of just like concept to cover with

from Sirius Born 394 who in summary,

who talks a little bit about the idea of travel

and the impact of travel on our environment, right?

We know that airplane travel specifically, for example,

leaves a carbon footprint.

And the more you travel, the more carbon is emitted.

So specifically they say they would love to know

our thoughts on how we balance the cost

of the carbon footprint caused by travel.

For example, last week, we talked about

so many different flights that we had taken

in the last couple of months.

So yeah, what's our, you know, thoughts on?

Sustainable travel. Yeah, traveling sustainably.

I am terrified to talk about this subject in so many,

I mean, cause it seems like whenever

this idea of like climate change or sustainability comes up,

it feels like there's just two extremes.

And it just feels like it's such a contentious topic

and that like it just inevitably leads to people

kind of shouting at each other about stuff on the internet.

And that's not what I want to have happen.

We won't shout at each other.

It's really, it's, it feels like a really scary subject,

but I will say that this is a thing

that we think about a lot.

This is definitely a topic.

And especially after we read this question,

this is kind of all we've been talking about

for the past like two or three days,

which I guess was the point of the question.

Yeah, I think we recognize and we know that,

yes, traveling and traveling in certain methods,

airplane, cars, they're all bad for the environment.

They're all, I don't want to make sweeping generalizations,

but yes, it contributes to a carbon footprint.

And it led us to do a lot more research

because while we do generally know that travel

and a lot of things that we do in our daily lives

impacts our climate in a negative way,

we didn't know how much.

So it turns out, yeah, we were, we found this pie chart

and it turns out there are a couple of things

that like are big players.

So transport makes up like 16%, you know,

road transport, aviation, shipping.

And what I was surprised by,

so aviation makes up 2% of the entire pie.

Road transport makes up 12%, which I,

I mean, I guess maybe just by sheer number of cars

there are and motorbikes there are in the road.

They're also super inefficient like generally,

it's like one person in one car,

one person on one motorbike driving.

So it's just, it's way less efficient than, you know,

than most other things.

Like rail down here is like 0.4% of the total.

Which still emits, you know, yeah.

I don't know about you,

but I feel like this overwhelming hopelessness,

growing over time of like,

I'm trying my best over time to not give in

to this like learned hopelessness

that I feel like no matter what I do,

it's never gonna have like an effect on this

because when I see that like all these things

that I have zero control over are like 80 plus percent

of the pie, I just look at that.

I'm like, oh God, does any of it,

is there any real way to change the track that we're on?

I don't know, it's just been feeling hopeless.

And I'm trying really hard to not give into that,

into that hopelessness.

Yeah, I do think that was one of the like biggest things

that came from our conversation.

And then the biggest difference is like,

I think your question is a very valid one,

especially because we do this now for our jobs, right?

We travel for work and we travel for fun too.

Part of that, unfortunately part of that means

that we are traveling frequently.

We wish we had unlimited time to travel at a slower pace,

stay in places for a longer time.

We wish we had unlimited budget,

but also how do we do it in a better way?

We know like specifically our last trip, yes,

was indeed very fast and we recognize the benefits

of slow travel, not just on the environment,

but on our like personally, you know,

it's a good idea to take things slower

and to be able to really like we talk about,

get into the depths of a place versus with them

versus checking things off our list.

And I think certainly one of the things

that we could do better is traveling slowly or slower.

We do try to as much as possible to take trains or buses.

We try not to rent a car like in Vietnam, you know,

the way to get around is certainly motorbike,

but they have plenty of motorbikes on the road.

And I think-

It's definitely had some negative effects

on their environment as well that we felt very,

you know, tangibly while we were in Hanoi and Saigon,

where like air quality was like 240

and it was hard to breathe and you couldn't see the sun

and it was just-

Like when we were talking with this friend

that we met about, you know,

his decision to not take planes anywhere,

we were talking about, you know,

just general things that we try to do and, you know,

one of the things that like is really important to me,

for example, that may not be important

for a lot of other people is we try as much as possible

to shop secondhand.

And I was telling him this, but then it feels like sometimes

when you look at, you know,

I don't even know why I used this example,

but like I just saw in the news

that they were talking about the Met Gala

and how much they spent on throwing the Met Gala,

but then all of the cost of designing, you know,

all the clothes that all these celebrities were wearing

and it was millions of dollars.

And I, and then I thought to myself,

why do I thrift shop?

Why do I even bother?

Why do I buy $2 clothes, you know, and those moments.

And it's so easy to feel that way

and it takes so much energy to combat that hopelessness.

It's tough.

And I think there's so many different ways

that someone can travel more sustainably

and more responsibly,

but I feel like the thing that we left that conversation

with our friend with was, you know,

find the thing that you feel like you can do,

I don't mean to make a pun, but sustainably

that you can keep doing that feels right for you,

that feels good for you and feels like you're helping.

I don't know, I'm such a pragmatic person

and I feel like that's really unhelpful

when it comes to trying to think about

this like environmental problem.

Cause like the logical part of my brain,

when I look at this like global greenhouse gas emissions

overall in the world and I see that the other like 90 plus

percent of it is stuff that I have absolutely no control over.

So therefore I should do nothing.

And that's like the logical part of my brain

thinks about that, but then the other part of my brain

that's also like kind of logical,

but also just doesn't just want to like give up

on this entirely starts to think maybe a little more

optimistically about this problem that says like,

okay, if just I do the stuff that's in my control

as good as I can, and if I can just like recycle

the stuff that I can recycle and if I can take care

and like take trains whenever I possibly can

and avoid taking unnecessary flights whenever I can

or take more direct flights.

Or not rent a car.

Not rent a car, walk whenever I can.

You guys know how much we love walking on this channel.

We did it across the Camino twice.

Like if just I can do the things that are in my control

and just kind of ignore the bigger part of the noise

and ignore all this other stuff that's outside of my control

and just take care of the things of myself,

then I won't become hopeless and I won't give up.

And there's so many variables and how people travel

and how people like to travel.

And because of all the different variabilities

and all the different ways that we think about this,

there's so many different ways

that we can travel more sustainable.

I don't know if that answers your question.

I think something you said two days ago

was I think the key to unlocking it in my head

of how to not look at this pessimistically

but how to look at it optimistically.

And it was your analogy to voting.

In the US.

Yes, where it feels like voting in the US,

it can be really easy to look at just like,

oh, there's like 70 million people are voting,

so therefore my vote will not matter.

Well, and also if you count the electoral college,

which for those of you that don't live in the US,

maybe don't worry about it.

But the electoral college is just like, what?

It can be so easy to feel disenfranchised.

But also when you look at the results of these elections,

they like come down to a difference

of like a couple of thousand votes so frequently

that really each individual vote does count.

But when you're like casting it,

you're just like, whatever,

like none of this is gonna matter.

Maybe I shouldn't even vote at all.

But these like greenhouse gas emissions,

and I think everything like that is gonna come down

to each individual person just trying their best

to just do as good as they can in a realistic way

without getting too overwhelmed and without going too far

and without becoming like too, I don't know,

without having too much of like a gap being put

between like what's good or bad

and just having people try their best

over a long period of time.

And that'll tilt it over to maybe us,

maybe us doing the right thing.

Look at you coming back around and feeling optimistic.

Maybe just maybe we'll be able to make it there,

but it'll all come down to people not becoming hopeless

and people not giving up over a long period of time

and just a whole bunch of people trying their best

and maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe things will turn out okay.

And it can feel so easy to get hopeless.

Believe me, I oscillate between that

and then optimism of seeing like maybe we'll be able

to science ourselves out of this problem

and solve greenhouse gases

with all these cool things we've been seeing lately,

like these electric ferries that are about to,

I think in the United States and Sweden.

We also saw some electric tuc tucs in Bangkok,

which is really cool.

And these like cool, sustainable,

I think they run on cooking oil, airplanes,

like the first ever one just won a couple of weeks ago.

And I start, and I see all these things

and I start to become a little more optimistic over time

where I'm like maybe we'll be able to science ourselves

out of this problem.

And then the other thing that I see on here is travel

as maybe another way for us to reduce

these total greenhouse gas emissions,

because I think travel kind of helps people

change their mindset towards these things.

See like, oh, that's where this is going.

Now I understand it, that maybe just maybe travel

will have a chance at helping us all

kind of change our mindset on this.

That gives me a little bit of optimism

and reduces that hopelessness that I've been feeling.

That being said, I wanna share two pieces

of good information.

Okay, all right.

We need some optimism.

I feel like optimism.

In the first one, did you know that the US,

in the US now, we are going to have

our first ever high speed rail

from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which is very big news.

That's so exciting.

See, and like the skeptical part of me is like,

I've heard this story before, I'm not gonna fall for it again.

But I really, I hope we do.

They think before the 2020 Los Angeles Olympics,

but the thing that caught my eye was the US Secretary

of Transportation, PDB.

PDB specifically said that it was the,

he quoted going to Hiroshima for the G7 summit.

And he said, you come home thinking,

why can't we have something like that?

I have thought this so many times,

just riding one train here and you're like,

this is awesome and this is how I wanna get around forever.

So, we know we've got to change that.

That's what we're doing.

I love seeing that.

That makes me so.

I saw that and that was a shocker.

Having high speed rail, especially between Los Angeles

and Las Vegas, like people go between those

and it's like a four hour drive

and nobody should have to make that drive

because it's awful and boring

and it'd be a perfect place for a train.

It's just like desert in the middle there.

Second piece of good news.

There is a 2024 calendar that is free

featuring adorable TSA dogs.

Oh yeah.

And you can get a copy in the link in the description below.

No matter how you feel about the TSA,

you've got to be able to get behind

and the super cute good dog goes.

Hello, doing their great little jobs.

Your face is all right.

There they are.

So, you can download that and it's completely free.

Thanks TSA.

Yep, so when you get too overwhelmed

or sad about the state of the world,

just go look at cute pictures of dogs.

I'm pretty sure everyone does that.

Pretty sure that's a universal experience.

I wanna say thank you very much for this question

because it started a lot of conversations between us

and we went back and forth on it in a lot of different ways

and hopefully it'll start more conversations out there

of the people who are watching this.

Tell us what you do.

What your favorite way of being sustainable

while traveling looks like.

Thanks for tuning in.

Leave us some questions in the comments below

and let us know your thoughts.

Yep, all right.

Bye.

See you then.

Thanks so much, bye.